So a few different options have coalesced into something that has caught my interest lately.
Back in the 3.x days I had a build going that made a mundane weapon into a very powerful weapon in the hands of it's wielder. Some of these options no longer exist in Pathfinder. There was an Anointed Knight PrC from BoED that allowed you to anoint your weapon and add properties to it. There is the Ancestral Weapon (which still exists) that let non-caster classes enchant there weapon. I believe there was also some blacksmith like class that allowed the same sort of thing. 3.x also had Weapons of Legacy which is an interesting option for a weapon to grow in power with it's wielder...for a cost (too great a cost IMO).
Pathfinder has a lot of these options as well. To be fair, I'm not interested in limiting this to non-casters, either. While I do not find the Bloodrager generally appealing I do like the looks of Blooded Arcane Strike. Heck, Arcane Strike itself is good. There are also the abilities of the Bladebound Magus and Paladins. For that matter Paladins get the Holy Sword spell. Arcane Archers can imbue their ammo, but that isn't really the same. There are some Ninja tricks that make your Shuriken do magic damage ...again, not really what I'm looking for. As for spells we have things like Lead Blades, Greater Magic Weapon and Shillelagh.
I know I am missing a lot of things here. Basically I am looking for class abilities, racial abilities, feats, etc. that improve a weapon beyond just it's weapon enchantments. Preferably things that could make a mundane weapon better for the wielder but I am not opposed to including things that make existing magic weapons better as well. The more things that can stack, the better.
So whatcha got, Pathfinders? What can we stack up on a weapon to make it super crazy?
FYI - I at one point made a similar post to this regarding things you can do to ammunition. Maybe that can help us with inspiration. The older post can be found here.
Imbicatus: Good additions!
Eventually I am going to look at what kind of build can have as many of these things as possible. Several of them do not stack. For instance, you are not able to Shillelagh and Lead Blades the same weapon as none qualify. You also can't Shillelagh an already magic'd up weapon. Actually, not sure where that falls for temporary enhancements.
Paladins can enchant their weapon temporarily with their divine bond. So can Magi, but they use arcane pool points.
Master Craftsman is a feat that lets you use Craft instead of spellcraft.
The Dragon: Yep, got those two in my first post.
Master Craftsman does indeed help the non-casters enchant a weapon. However, I was interested in things that improve a weapon besides weapon enhancements.
Kindly note the limitations:
It's been FAQ'd and answered that class abilities still can't raise total enhancements above +10...at that point, existing enhancements get changed to whatever you're trying to do, instead.
Ammunition and weapons can stack to well above +10, however. With a +10 bow and +10 ammo, you can effectively get +19 onto a shot. That's a LOT of money you're sending on its way, however.
Ancestral Weapon/Relic is a great feat. Note that two AP's now have introduced weapons that grow with the wielder...the royal katana in Jade Regency, and the holy sword in Worldwound.
==Aelryinth
The Forgemaster cleric archetype may be of use to you.
Weapon blanches (alchemical stuff) aren't good, but they may be situationally useful.
There's a line of feats starting with Weapon of the Chosen in the ACG which do just what you describe too.
Bladebound Magus has the black blade,that can make any one handed slashing weapon very special.
Aelryinth: That is true and thank you for pointing it out. Many of the things we are talking about are more effects rather than enhancements, though. And those stack. For instance you can have a total bonus of +10 via the Bladebound Magus and a weapon that is already enhanced and then cast Lead Blades on it and it will still work.
avr: Forgemaster Cleric. Hm, I'll have to check it out. And Weapon of the Chosen... only works for divine casters and only on a single attack. This seems worse than Arcane Strike and uses up the same Swift Action so they can not be used in unison. Am I missing something here?
Dafydd: Do you mean to use all of those levels on one build? That is a really spread out build.
Lakespire: Bladebound Magus was mentioned in the first post, thank you.
Also, while they do not do anything specific to make the weapon itself better I suppose an honorable mention should go to Ranger's Favored Enemy bonus an Fighter's Weapon Training (and Gloves of Dueling). In a way they would both go towards the "Look how awesome this stick is!" and then when other people use it, "... um, this is just a crappy stick. How did you get it to do all that whacky shit?!" theme.
Oh, there are also those gloves... delicatessen, no... Deliquescent Gloves. They give the Corrosive enhancement to your weapon.
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And Weapon of the Chosen... only works for divine casters and only on a single attack. This seems worse than Arcane Strike and uses up the same Swift Action so they can not be used in unison. Am I missing something here?
Yes and no. Weapon of the Chosen only applies to one attack. Improved Weapon of the Chosen applies to all attacks you make until the start of your next turn and bypasses more types of DR. Greater Weapon of the chosen allows you to make two attack rolls on a single attack, which can be combined with vital strike to make a very accurate, very hard hit with a greatly enhanced crit chance.
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Brawler?
The archetype Winding Path Renegade
If you take the school focus:
Mystery of Untwisting Iron (Su) At 2nd level, metal weapons and armor in the winding path renegade's possession are treated as masterwork unless they have the broken condition. At 8th level, the winding path renegade gains a bonus equal to 1/2 her level on Craft checks involving metal, and she gains the benefits of the Master Craftsman and Craft Magic Arms and Armor feats when crafting items made of metal. At 14th level, any weapon the winding path renegade wields is treated as adamantine.
So while mundane it does offer some fun boosts of turning weapons you wield masterwork and later turning them adamantine. It also gives your mundane brawler the option to enchant your own weapons.
Inquisitor 5 gives you Bane on anything you declare as well as Judgments that can give bonuses to hit and damage, but I guess those aren't technically weapon augmentations.
The psionic class Aegis has armor customizations that specifically enhance the weapon like Crystallized Weapon which adds 2d6 and Enhanced Weapon which treats it as a size larger.
If your PC can be mythic, you can select Legendary Weapon and your weapon can eventually become a Greater Artifact gaining new powers at each mythic tier.
Imbicatus: Ah, I see. I was reading Greater incorrectly and didn't see Improved at all. That clears it up. Hm... so it still takes up the same Swift Action, though, right? It seems good for a Vital Strike build but not much else then as Arcane Strike would be better for multiple attacks.
Caws Rorec: Ah, good catch. Seems pretty spiff for a 2 level investment. 14 level seems awful deep, though.
CKorfmann: Psionics and Mythic tend to be disallowed at many tables. Otherwise, good suggestions.
So the way I see it the Weapon of the Chosen line is best for the One Big Hit builds that use Vital Strike and tend to stack as much onto one attack as possible. While Arcane Strike is better for the multiple attack builds that benefit from stacking as much as you can and hitting with several attacks. I'm not sure which one would be best for this build as that probably depends more on where all the weapon boni are coming from.
if you're a bloodrager (or take the ACG feat that grants a lesser bloodrage, which specifically counts as having bloodrage for prereqs), blooded arcane strike removes the need for the swift action--it's always on for every attack while bloodraging
Well, that is true. But you still have to be blood raging. But at least it is better in the sense that you could use it in conjunction with other things that require swift actions.
and the bloodraging (or lesser bloodrage) bonuses arent that horrible either, so it's also less painful.