I don't like how martials need a golfbag of weapons to be effective. I like how Pit can split his bow into two light blades.
Thus:
Versatile (1000 gp): When a weapon is enchanted with the Versatile property, it gains another set weapon form. Changing between weapon forms is a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. A weapon keeps all magical properties in this new form (unless they would not apply to the weapon, such as Keen on a bludgeoning weapon). This enchantment may be applied to a weapon multiple times, choosing a new form each time, up to a maximum amount of times equal to the effective enhancement bonus of the weapon.
Special: If applied to a light weapon, you may choose the same form as the light weapon already is. If so, as a swift action you can generate a second copy of the weapon, but this second copy disappears if the Versatile property is used again, or if it leaves the possession of the owner of the actual weapon for more than one round.
So it's also a TWF pricing fix as well. Apologies for the hasty wording, hopefully the intent is clear. I'd be happy to clarify.
I'm confused. I thought the problem with Pathfinder weapons was that the game encourages you to specialize in a single, specific weapon and weapons lack enough unique features to justify doing otherwise. Thus, it punishes "arms master" character concepts, cripples TWF and thrown weapon builds, and creates other problems like the Christmas Tree Effect.
This feels like a lesser, severely underpriced version of the transformative property. The ability to conjure a duplicate should be a property in of itself. Its price should be considered very carefully, likely should be priced as a +1 or +2 bonus since the property essentially doubles the "wealth" of your weapon.
Speaking of Pit, I personally asked my GM if I could modify my double sword into a bifurcated weapon.
The blandness of weapons and "specializing" in specific weapons is indeed a problem of Pathfinder, but not the one I'm setting forth to resolve.
To state clearly: You need a melee weapon because you want to smash stuff, you need a ranged weapon because sometimes stuff is too far away to smash and you can't get to it, you need different types of damage because otherwise you'll do no damage to some of your foes. Martials need trust funds to have the tools they need.
"Arms Masters" (everyone needs a golf bag unless they accept that they'll be terrible at their job sometimes) are punished because WBL expects a single magic weapon, when in reality you need several.
Transformative is crazy expensive and addresses the problem poorly. Duplicating light weapons for TWFers should not be expensive, the double fine is not justified in the first place.
My pricing was guided by the Adaptive property. Do you think Transformative is a good option and should be considered the baseline? I consider it grossly overpriced.
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Changing a bow into a sword as a swift action would make life VERY easy for switch-hitters.
It's a cool ability, and on that grounds it should exist.
But it's also a very good ability: you get to make full attacks every round, regardless of range/melee, and don't have to worry about dropping weapons to draw others. It needs to be expensive enough to be balanced.