I can see where you confusion is
your point 3. is not quite right
flamming is worth +1
thus if you want to make a +3 Flamming sword it acutally costs +3 +1 = +4
so it costs the same price as a +4 sword even though its only +3
its also the reason the table of prices goes to +10 instead of only +5 even though you can only have a max of +5 enchant
So let's see if I can get it right:
1. Take the cost of the weapon
2. Add the +1-5 enchant cost (2000gp for +1 for example)
3. Add special 'effects' (for instance flaming)
4. Voila, you have the cost of the weaponIf that's correct, can someone explain to me the understanding behind having several 'effects' on one weapon? The idea of +3 being able to contain several of those? How that all even works? I tried reading it up but I'm completely confused on the matter.
OK, Here is a concrete example.
Tim the Terror, Barbarian Extraordinaire weilds a weapon called a Nodachi.
A Nodachi costs 60 GP base.
Now Tim wants more then a simple everyday Nodachi so he looks at what various things would cost.
A regular Nodachi costs 60 gp
A masterwork Nodachi costs 360 gp. (This is due to the fact that masterwork adds 300 gp to the cost of a weapon.)
Tim is still not satisfied with a masterwork Nodachi however and wants more.
So he looks at enchantments.
First Tim has to buy the Masterwork Nodachi as only Masterwork items can be enchanted.
Then he has to look at the cost of enchantments.
Well you must put a +1 enhancement on a weapon before any other special property can be applied.
The formula for weapon bonus is (Bonus * Bonus * 2,000 gp) so a +1 weapon enhancement costs (1 * 1 * 2,000 gp) or 2,000 gp.
This means to get a +1 Nodachi Tim must spend 2,000 gp for the +1 enhancement bonus + 360 gp for his masterwork Nodachi for a total of 2,360 gp.
If Tim is still not satisfied and has more money then he can have even more magic placed onto his new Nodachi.
Tim Decides he wants the "Keen" property on his Nodachi. Now "Keen" is a +1 property so we look at the current bonus of his Nodachi which is +1 and add the value of "Keen" which is +1 which makes a total of a +2 weapon.
Looking at the magic weapons tables we see that a +2 Weapon should cost 8,000 gp.
Adding the base cost of 360 gp to this we see that Tim spends a total of 8,360 gp for a +1 Keen Nodachi.
In short to get the cost to buy a Weapon/Armor simply look up the base cost of the Weapon/Armor add the cost of making it masterwork, which is 300 gp for weapons and 150 gp for armor, and then add together the values of all enchantments you wish the weapon to have via there respective + values. I.E. Keen is a +1, Vorpral is a +5, Speed is a +3.
Then look at the total + value of the weapon. I.E. +1 Enhancement and Keen is a +2 weapon. Compare this to the Weapon/Armor chart I.E. a +2 weapon is 8,000 gp. Then add the value of the enchantments to the value of the masterwork weapon.
So yet again a +1 Keen Weapon is 8,000 gp (Total of +2 Magic properties) + 300 gp (Masterwork) + X gp (X is the base cost of the weapon)
Now special materials such as Mithral and Adamantite replace the masterwork step.
For these special materials use the rules in the special materials section instead of adding the masterwork cost.
So a special material weapon/armor is: (Cost of Enchantments) + (Cost of Material) + (Base cost of weapon/armor)
I hope this helps and good luck.
Hey, thanks guys, that's perfect!
One of my players just recently got himself his first enchanted weapon at 2,000gp (I'll tell him to add 310gp to the cost of the magical lance) and I wanted to make sure I knew how the system was handled before they got onto the special enchantments. One of them wants a vorpal wakizashi as fast as possible, considering it'll cost him 200,335gp (+5 weapon, +5 enchantment for a total of +10), he's going to be saving gold for a looooong time (AND he wants to dual-wield them) :P
I'm also glad to know about the mithral armor thing, another player got himself a mithral chain shirt as well.
Thanks :)
you can have a +1 Vorpal wakizashi for a +6 cost which he could have sooner. vorpal isn't really worth the price , its more cool factor than anything else
Ah, so even if the enchantment is worth a +5 (like in the vorpal's case), there isn't a minimum +1-5 requirement other than at least +1. As in, you can even have a brilliant energy +1 weapon, right?
yerp
Ah, so even if the enchantment is worth a +5 (like in the vorpal's case), there isn't a minimum +1-5 requirement other than at least +1. As in, you can even have a brilliant energy +1 weapon, right?
Yes, you can.
All you'll need is a single +1 enchantment as a foundation. You can stack any number of additional enchantments on top of that.
However, in normal play, the upper limit of the sum of enchantments is +10, as anything higher will cause the weapon to go beyond the scope of 'normal' magical items.
Plus, no single enchantmaent can be higher than +5 (or +5 equivalent).