One of my players wishes to have a blade similar to a sunblade. Where in it does the light weapon short sword trick but without the other sunblade powers. What would you see this item costing and why.
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Yar!
Whenever I do this, I treat "sunblade" as a +3 equivalent property.
I provided a breakdown of why HERE. Others have given other ideas in that thread as well, but (obviously) I like my pricing the best (as both a player and a GM).
~P
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I'd rate "treat it as a lighter weapon" as a +1 ability. Think about it this way: the sunblade is basically a short sword that has been magicked to do 1d10 damage rather than 1d6. That's an increase of roughly 1d4 (untyped) damage, with a few other bennies (can still be used two-handed for greater damage, damage gets even better if you're big) added in. I'd say all that's about equal to getting +1d6 energy damage from frost or flaming.
pirates pricing is the best one could come up with, as the sunblade itself is treated as a +2 bastard sword, but is priced as a +5 weapon, leaving the sun-bladeness as the leftover +3
if you wanted to argue the other sunblade powers (such as the daylight power and the doubling agaisnt evil) are worth one of the +3 i guess i cant logically tell you that it's wrong, but it would be a perfect example of pricing being lowered to accommodate a specific alignment
and tribeof1: no, no no no no no
the Impact Weapon Enchantment that ups the damage dice by one step is worth a +2 RAW, so i would not allow 2 steps up at +1
being treated as a light weapon is so much more powerful than frost or flaming its not even funny, not even a little
with that sort of nonsense going on i could purchase a large falcata with that on it as well as impact and do 3d6 damage with a X3 crit multiplier, but thats just one example
overall, i feel the usability enchantment needs to be specific only, otherwise every player will want it every time, and that is the first sign of something that is over powered and broken
pricing it at +3 is a little better, but for the sake of fairness, and not having a specific alignment requirement i might even make it more than that
Super Genius Games has something on that in The Vile Magic of Argonax the Mad in its enchantmment section. Pretty much you pick a 1-size smaller equivalent to the base weapon, that it also counts as for all intents and purposes.
A sun blade is a Bastard Sword and a Short Sword, for an known example. But others are also useable like a Great Axe and a Battle axe; Katana and wakizashi; etc.
…Its also pretty useful if you want to use Dervish Dance and Piranha Strike together since you can make a scimitar count as a kurki knife (which is a finesse-able weapon).
SKR did a breakdown of it for 3.5.
Basically, a Sunblade works out to a +5 weapon, with the whole 'glowing light' thing paid off by the Good alignment req.
+2 enhancement
+1 for Short Sword to Bastard
+1 for evil scourge (+2/+2 against evil)
+1 for Undead Bane (double damage against undead)
Note the last is stronger at high levels then a Bane, but there's that Good alingment req on there.
Nothing beats a Sun Sword for smashing undead. However, the best ability is actually the Evil Scourge...getting +2/+2 against Evil for your first enhancement is probably the best gold you will ever spend on a weapon.
==Aelryinth
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@master-marshmallow:
Impact also gives a significant boost to bull rush and is meant for larger weapons and increases the overall damage possible - ie, you use it to boost a two-handed weapon up to 2d8. Even then, I think it's over-priced. Putting impact on a light weapon (even if it was allowed) would be a complete waste.
Your Large falcata example doesn't make any sense, as the falcata would still be Large (so, you'd be taking a -2 to attack rolls) even if you could treat as a light weapon. And at that point, you're talking about a minimum +4 weapon, just to do 3d6 base damage. Um, ok, go for it.
As a counterpoint, consider the agile property. At +1, it lets you use Weapon Finesse and apply Dex to damage. The "minor sunblade" ability lets you use Weapon Finesse with a one-handed weapon and (rather than getting Dex to damage) reduce the penalties for TWF by 2. Seems about even to me.
So again, I think +1 is perfectly fine, as long as you don't (as you appear to imply) make it more powerful than what the sunblade does, ie., you should definitely limit it allowing a one-handed weapon to be wielded as a specific light weapon.
EDIT: And what the other guys just said. Note, SKR is pretty conservative when it comes to magic item design, so if he says it's +1, it definitely shouldn't cost more than that.
The character in question is a dex based magus and I'm fairly certain he intends to add agile to it so it would be a one hand bastard sword that uses dex for damage and attack rolls (as his character has weapon finesse).
Thank you to everyone for the quick replies.