So my Barbarian now has a masterwork Falchion and will be looking to upgrade it further in the next couple of levelups.
I was thinking of making it a Flaming Falchion +1 (for the extra d6 dmg) but is there any upgrade that is smarter or any thing that can be added later on?
cheers
Keen is mighty nice on a Falchion. 15-20 crit range means you will be critting roughly 1 out of every 3 swings.
+1 for Keen - Barbs are short on feats so Improved Critical is a long way off. Although saving up 8000gp for +1,Keen is tough too.
Flaming is nice, especially for things like Golems that are hard to hurt, but rarely will a Barbarian not be able to do any damage at all.
Definately Keen for its +1 bonus, for a Falchion
+1 Keen Falchion is like code for; Meat grinder mode enabled
+1 keen or +2; the higher the enhancement bonus, the easier overcoming damage reduction and hitting your opponents.
I'd go with vicious myself for the money you deal 2d6 more to your foes sure weaker folks may freak out about you taking a d6 but your a barbarian you can take it.
But keen is a good "safe" option.
So Keen and flaming do sound like what I want on my Falchion.
So what order should I go Flaming and then Keen or Keen and then Flaming.
Love critical hits but extra damage is always fun too
If you really want both equally, Flaming then Keen would be the optimal way (since the value of Keen goes up over time, as you do more and more base damage).
Cool,
So getting Flaming will cost me 8000 gp (since my Falchion is already masterwork) So adding Keen to it will be another 10K right?
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Keen and flaming? Don't do that to yourself.
If you're a barbarian and you're not jumping on furious the first chance you get, you're doing it wrong. In order to get the highest average damage possible you want to get to +5 as soon as you can. That doesn't even take into consideration all the damage reduction you bypass with a +5 weapon. That's just icing.
Don't waste your money on keen for a barbarian. You have more than enough feats to fit in improved critical at level 9. You're just making it harder to increase the bonus on your weapon in the future.
If you want math instead of just useless opinions like those found in this thread, look at the BARBARIAN AM SMASH guide or one of the DPR Olympics threads. They prove beyond a doubt that flaming, keen, and vicious are inferior. It's up in the air about courageous, because there are questions as to whether the morale bonus is intended to apply to non-fear morale.
@Demoyn Oh wait the +5 is that to dmg? I thought that the +5 was to attack roll. Or is that just for masterwork?
As for furious:
A furious weapon serves as a focus for its wielder's anger. When the wielder is raging or under the effect of a rage spell, the weapon's enhancement bonus is +2 better than normal.
Does this mean that it is that if I have the +5 version it becomes +7 when raging?
Yes, Furious is basically a free +2 more than usual for most barbarians who rage whenever they fight.
Yeah found the explanation for that one. It does sound like a good thing to pic up.
One thing that confuses me (first character)
When taking Furious is it also possible to take flaming or is that a real waist of money?
Keen is a dead end, and delays the onset of your ultimate goal of +4 Furious Courageous. Just get a scabbard of keen edges, which is cheaper in the long run and gives you 3 hours a day of keen in one hour increments.
Flaming is not that great for a falchion. Mostly because the cool part about falchions is their crit range, and the bonus damage from flaming doesn't get multiplied by a crit.
I will advise furious too, since it lets you just instantly ignore DR/silver or cold iron while raging. After that, I personally like keen or courageous.
The end goal is a +3 furious courageous keen falchion. Everything after that is just gravy.
If you're a barbarian and you're not jumping on furious the first chance you get, you're doing it wrong.
Someone is doing something wrong CB.
Yanick - if you want to have a blast playing, I suggest Keen and Flaming (or Icy, or Shock). The energy damage is a nice boost and bypasses DR. Keen adds very significant damage on average for Barbarians because your base damage is so high, but more importantly it gives you very consistent bursts of high damage that completely overwhelms DR.
If you want to dig for every stacking bonus you can find, furious + courageous is the Big Cheese, so to speak.
/side note/: Furious in general pushes you to rage *all the time*. If you already tend to do that, using up all your rage about as fast as you can, it's a solid benefit. If you tend to save your rage for the more dangerous moments so you can't be caught by it ending early, it's not so good.
Thanks for all the advice guys,I will indeed prob drop flame since it is more an aesthetic choice lol. but now for the math part.
When enhancing a weapon you pay +1= 2k +2= 8K +3=18K +4=32K +5=50K
Furious Price +1 bonus
Keen Price +1 bonus
So since my falchion is already master-work would it be
+ 2K for the +1 and + 2K for Furious
Making it 4K to get a +1 Furious master-work Falchion.
and then +6K for +2 and +2K for Keen
For a +2 Furious, Keen master-work Falchion?
Thanks for all the advice guys,I will indeed prob drop flame since it is more an aesthetic choice lol. but now for the math part.
When enhancing a weapon you pay +1= 2k +2= 8K +3=18K +4=32K +5=50K
Furious Price +1 bonus
Keen Price +1 bonusSo since my falchion is already master-work would it be
+ 2K for the +1 and + 2K for FuriousMaking it 4K to get a +1 Furious master-work Falchion.
and then +6K for +2 and +2K for Keen
For a +2 Furious, Keen master-work Falchion?
Unfotrunately, the total effective bonus, and the resulting price, are cumulative; you don't get to buy them all as if the weapon doesn't already have anything. In other words, the better a weapon already is, the more it costs to give it the exact same upgrade. In your case:
Ah okay i see where I messed up I thought the Furious or the Keen also gave you a +1. But they just add to the cost. Thanks for the visual explanation @Kirth I will then prob just take Furious and leave keen for the scabbar of keen edge or something like that along the line/
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Ah okay i see where I messed up I thought the Furious or the Keen also gave you a +1. But they just add to the cost. Thanks for the visual explanation @Kirth I will then prob just take Furious and leave keen for the scabbar of keen edge or something like that along the line/
Sounds like a plan! Don't be surpised if the awesomeness of furious isn't really noticeable at first. An extra +2 to hit and damage may not seem like a very big deal compared to +1d6 fire damage, but in the long run they're doing a LOT more for you.
haha well that's why you have first builds right, to see how things go. Just important for me to get these things right since I am GM for a group of total RPG rookies. (Not new to rpg's but never had a build before as it was mostly stand alone adventures)
I personally dislike any energy-based weapon enhancements, as they're so easily mitigated by even paltry elemental resistance.
In case it isn't immediately obvious, Courageous is strong because of the fact it increases morale bonuses, which includes the Strength/Con bonuses from raging, as well as stuff like a lot of divine and bardic buffs.
Depending on the campaign, Holy can be a great boost to damage.
wait a second
A courageous weapon fortifies the wielder's courage and morale in battle. The wielder gains a morale bonus on saving throws against fear equal to the weapon's enhancement bonus. In addition, any morale bonus the wielder gains from any other source is increased by half the weapon's enhancement bonus
How does that affect my STr/Con during raging?
"While in rage, a barbarian gains a +4 morale bonus to her Strength and Constitution, as well as a +2 morale bonus on Will saves."
Rage is a morale effect, which means that it's affected by Courageous. So a +2 Furious Courageous weapon would become a +4 while raging, while also boosting the bonuses of rage by +2 Str, +2 Con, and +2 Will.
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Put my vote on furious. That's an actual enhancement bonus it adds, meaning you can say sianara to damage reduction from cold iron and silver now rather than at +3.
Well courageous and furious do seem like a great combo
I am planning on getting a scabbar of keen edge, since 3 times a day seems enough to me.
Just wondering now if I should take furious our couragious first.
Furious, since it gives a more direct bonus to damage, and because courageous relies upon enhancement bonus (which furious improves). Courageous will only give you a +1 until your weapon has an effective +4 enhancement bonus (so +2 furious).
Admittedly, that +1 will also go to con and will saves and other stuff, but you already have those down pat already
Plus, again, furious increases enhancement bonus, which lets you get past DR. Always useful.