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If a bladebound magus took a level in the wizard class, could he use his black blade as his bonded object?
On one hand, RAW does say that the bonded object can be a magic weapon. On the other hand, it seems pretty clear that a black blade has a specific set of properties and no other enchantments can be applied to it. The weapon's ego might also get in the way; the weapon might resent such treatment.
Theres nothing preventing a wizard from using the black blade as a wizard for his bonded object. It only specifically rules out familiars.
RAW, nothing stopping you.
RAI, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to.
just my opinion.
It says you can never have a familiar. Doesn't say it can't be your bonded object.
Also, where does it say you can't enchant the blade? Seemed to me if you spent the feats or the money, you could make it a +5 Vorpal weapon if you wanted, then add your arcene pool stuff to it. If I'm wrong, please tell me where it says that a black blade cannot be enchanted or otherwise enhanced in any way beyond the magus class?
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It says you can never have a familiar. Doesn't say it can't be your bonded object.
Also, where does it say you can't enchant the blade? Seemed to me if you spent the feats or the money, you could make it a +5 Vorpal weapon if you wanted, then add your arcene pool stuff to it. If I'm wrong, please tell me where it says that a black blade cannot be enchanted or otherwise enhanced in any way beyond the magus class?
I don't recall offhand where the thread was, but the consensus seems to be that a black blade cannot be enchanted. I figure that if the magus took his weapon to Wendell the Wizard, Wendell would never see the blade as anything more than a masterwork weapon. Since Wendell would never see that he had a magic weapon, he would never be able to put any more enchantments on the weapon. Perhaps the magus himself could enchant the blade if the had the right feat, but the rules don't seem to suggest it.
Sagotel, one of my VLs and I had a pretty long conversation about this. I kind of "made up" in the rules that a BB Magus could not have an arcane bond, but we went over it a few times (gotta be sure!) and, to the best of our abilities, we could not find anything in the rules that prevented the BB from having an item-arcane bond (even the Black Blade!).
In PFS, your Black Blade cannot be enchanted outside of what is provided you by the class feature. For a homebrew game, the decision rests entirely with your GM, who, if he/she were to take my advice, would stick with PFS rules for that one (I have reasons, ask if you want, though there have been a great many threads on it [that I have not participated in]).
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Sagotel, one of my VLs and I had a pretty long conversation about this. I kind of "made up" in the rules that a BB Magus could not have an arcane bond, but we went over it a few times (gotta be sure!) and, to the best of our abilities, we could not find anything in the rules that prevented the BB from having an item-arcane bond (even the Black Blade!).
In PFS, your Black Blade cannot be enchanted outside of what is provided you by the class feature. For a homebrew game, the decision rests entirely with your GM, who, if he/she were to take my advice, would stick with PFS rules for that one (I have reasons, ask if you want, though there have been a great many threads on it [that I have not participated in]).
+1
I think you've got this exactly right.Whether a bladebound magus would want to take levels in wizard is another matter.
I'd like to hear your reasons for why not. It hasn't come up at my table but if it did I wouldn't see any particular reason why not (I wouldn't allow them to add enhancement bonuses to the weapon, which would allow them to bypass damage reduction too early, but adding the flaming quality seems fine to me)
I seem to recall someone on here having a concept of a Wizard sorting through objects and identifying the Black Blade as some sort of magical anomaly... only to become obsessed with it only to transition into Magus from then forth.
As for the case of Why you'd want to dip Wizard: the 1 spontaneous spell(good for utility), more 1st level spells(which if you're honest the Magus spams all day anyways), and scribe scroll. Sounds like not a bad combo to me.
I let a player do this in my Shattered Star campaign. It's pretty neat but the way I did it also makes it sort of a race against time. The blade's enhancement bonus automatically goes up which pushes that exponential curve up without the player's involvement. So, if the blade has a +1 enhancement and the player adds a +1 ability, then they level up pushing that enhancement to a +2 the next time they go to add an ability the entire thing is treated as a +3 item and they need to pay accordingly for upgrades.
So, that player needs to be a bit more choosey over their gold so they can afford the enhancements while they can before upgrading it simply becomes impractical in game-time terms.
I see nothing in RAW (nor any obvious RAI issues) against a Black Blade being a bonded object. As far as I know it's PFS legal, IIRC intelligent magic weapons always could be before (though I'm limited in my access to search materials at the moment), though how it works if for RP reasons the Blade resisted the idea... would it get a save? Most likely it would take control to resist the action, but if it failed, then what?... are beyond the scope of what I'd guess at.
It is illegal by RAW to further enchant a Black Blade, and thus illegal in PFS. The rules exist for enhancing intelligent weapon, they depend on an Ego chart the Black Blade cannot fit into and are thus precluded from being used with. That is not an error of omision, the devs knew said chart existed, knew the BB eventually hits +10 and is pretty sweet anyway, and left that as is, unable to be custom enchanted. Thus it is illegal in PFS-strict RAW/RAI games to further enchant a Black Blade.
In a home game, house ruling it is obviously an option no one can take from you. How balanced that is obviously depends on your game and what other house rules you run.
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I am the player that Buri mentioned allowing do this, I'm also a PFS-VL. RAW there is nothing stopping a character from doing this except Gold and time. The Bonded Item feature even grants the feats needed to upgrade the item so the character doesn't need to waste feats to do this. That said it's a lot of work to calculate the the Item's base value since it's intelligent etc.
I would never condone this to occur in PFS for two reasons. 1) Custom items are banned in general. 2) there isn't a good way to record/track the upgrades that is obvious for every GM that may run the character.
This is allowed in our home-game due to the fact that the GM approved it and that I vet every decision though my GM first. We both have a very good handle on what the character is capable of and how it effects my character, the party, and the game in general. Not to mention we have to keep track of the weapon's Hardness and HP etc. should a monster try to break it. So far I've only added "Called" to it, though I am in game adventure-crafting it up with "Impact".
For teh curious... my build is a lvl 4 Blade-bound Kensai Wordcaster Magus, lvl 1 Unaversalist Wizard, lvl 1 Cyphermage. My sword is an Aldori Dueling Sword who hates vampires. it is wielded by a Pesh addicted Azlanti(non-pureblood) Haunted-One who has ties to the Bloodstone-Swords and The Pathfinder/Sczarni. Feats are Weapon Finesse, Arcane Strike, Cypher Script, and Cypher Magic. Traits are Magical Knack(Wiz) and Sword Scion. Point Buy 20 but defiantly non PFS friendly.
for teh record... immensely fun to play but a nightmare to keep track of!
The reason to dip one level of Wizard is to be an Admixture Evoker. Then you take Preferred Spell and Spontaneous Metafocus, and the typical Magi metamagic feats (Rime, Intensify, Empower, Quicken). Now you prepare whatever spells you want that aren't Shocking Grasp, and instead spontaneously cast SG using whatever spell you feel like using up in whatever energy type your enemy isn't resistant to. For most enemies, you're going to use a Rimed Cold Shocking Grasp.
Also in pfs you get spell focus instead of scribe scroll.