And the other "add 1d6 damage of an element" type enhancements. I like flaming/shocking/aciding/etc... weapons, but as it stands they are really weak choices for a few reasons:
1. They take a standard action to activate.
2. It only adds a piddling 1d6 damage, this doesn't even get multiplied on a critical, and is completely negated by 10 resistance to that element, which is actually fairly common.
3. For these meager benefits, you must spend at least 8,000 gp. That's the same price as Keen, Courageous, and a bunch of other, more useful options.
As such, I'd like to propose a few different changes, and I'd like to know what you all think. In addition to activating and deactivating as a free action:
1) It's a stretch to call the standard action activation a significant downside when it has an endless duration and does not harm you. Since your gear is considered part of you, it doesn't harm your stuff either. I'm not really keen on letting it be a free action. I think a command word is fine and flavorful.
2) Getting an extra 1d6 damage per hit is fairly significant, especially when normally you would only gain +1 damage that's negated by DR. Giving it scaling damage and burst is simply way too powerful.
3) Yes, it's 8000gp, but you can say that with any +1 ability. Nearly all +1 abilities are either obviously bad or situational. Even keen isn't that good as it's usually better to get the Improved Critical feat instead. Elemental abilities are usually the best +1 abilities simply because you can reliably get good returns on it.
The problem with magic weapon abilities stems from enhancement bonuses being too valuable due to increases your to-hit and the ability to overcome damage reduction. If I wanted to buff the flaming property, I'd change that and make "upgrade" enhancements more modular and appealing. For example, you can add ignition and burst properties to an existing flaming weapon instead of treating each as a separate ability.
1) It's a stretch to call the standard action activation a significant downside when it has an endless duration and does not harm you. Since your gear is considered part of you, it doesn't harm your stuff either. I'm not really keen on letting it be a free action. I think a command word is fine and flavorful.
2) Getting an extra 1d6 damage per hit is fairly significant, especially when normally you would only gain +1 damage that's negated by DR. Giving it scaling damage and burst is simply way too powerful.
3) Yes, it's 8000gp, but you can say that with any +1 ability. Nearly all +1 abilities are either obviously bad or situational. Even keen isn't that good as it's usually better to get the Improved Critical feat instead. Elemental abilities are usually the best +1 abilities simply because you can reliably get good returns on it.
The problem with magic weapon abilities stems from enhancement bonuses being too valuable due to increases your to-hit and the ability to overcome damage reduction. If I wanted to buff the flaming property, I'd change that and make "upgrade" enhancements more modular and appealing. For example, you can add ignition and burst properties to an existing flaming weapon instead of treating each as a separate ability.
I was under the impression that The standard action needed to be spent each time the weapon was wielded. Looking at the actual text though, The properties never mention that the effect turns off at any point on their own.
I do have to disagree that 1d6 extra damage is significant in the long run, by level 6-7 there are just going to be too many enemies that have too much HP for a measly d6 to matter much. Whereas Keen only gets more useful with each extra attack, and it saves you a feat.
I will agree that the flat bonus enhancements are a bigger problem, due to the way DR works, but that is a separate issue that is beyond the scope of this little idea.
The effects never turn off unless you say to.
Levels 6-8 are when classes get iterative attacks, so technically the enhancement does do more damage as you level up. Iterative attacks are where on-hit effects really shine.
The Improved Critical feat is still better than keen because it's not tied to a specific weapon.
I just let the damage double (or whatever) on a crit. No real reason why it shouldn't, after all. Same for sneak attack and other extra dice or whatever.
Just because something loses effectiveness at higher levels does not mean it is underpowered or broken. The game is full of choices. A flaming weapon is devastating at lower levels.
Looking at a scimitar, wielded by a BAB 5, with a +4 STR modifier:
+2 magic scimitar vs AC-20: 8.56 hp/atk
+1 Keen scimitar vs AC-20: 7.68 hp/atk
+1 flaming scimitar vs AC-20: 8.97 hp/atk
The flaming weapon is still superior to the other uses of the second enchantment point, and keen is a decidedly poor decision.
The other thing of note, is that while there are many creatures with resistance to a form of energy, there are also many with a vulnerability to a form of energy as well. That flaming sword is really impressive against a winter wolf, for instance.
Just about anything that does elemental damage is going to be hot or cold (excuse the pun - or don't). Its either going to be very powerful, or near useless. That's the nature of a specific power. Should a goblin bane sword be buffed because it is not very effective against ogres?
Using vicious as a guide, our group actually does 2d6 instead of 1d6 enchantment of elements, our reasoning for balance being with vicious you sacrifice hp, but the damage is universally relevant. With an elemental weapon, there is no sacrifice, but the damage is situational, as energy resistance is practically everywhere.
Even with elemental weapons as +2d6 damage that doesn't multiply on a crit, there is still no rush in our group to take them over the usual good enchantments like keen or vicious or heartseeker.
What does happen though, is that elemental weapons no longer get tossed firmly into the 'sell' pile every time they're dropped in loot.
Since your gear is considered part of you, it doesn't harm your stuff either.
I'm pretty sure that most DMs won't allow you to sheathe your flaming sword in a scabbard while it's still flaming.
OP, I made turning it on/off a swift action and scaling for extra 1d6 when enhancement bonus is +3 and again at +5. And burst property multiplies the dice on crit.
What I would really like is fixed cost pricing for most +x special abilities since most of them aren't worth it. Also, when on that tangent, linear progression of prices instead of arithmetical.
The Improved Critical feat is still better than keen because it's not tied to a specific weapon.
nope, applied to a single chosen weapon.
I scrapped the activation requirement long before Pf. It felt like an unnecessary hurdle from the start.
If you want to spice up elemental damage enchants, I'd say either include the burst effect, or have the damage scale either per hit in a round (maybe call it inferno, blizzard, or surge "+1d6 per hit you land against the same target"), or increase in tandem with BAB ("+1d6 at 8 and again at 16").
Since your gear is considered part of you, it doesn't harm your stuff either.I'm pretty sure that most DMs won't allow you to sheathe your flaming sword in a scabbard while it's still flaming.
I've never heard of a GM ever doing that. It makes no sense why it would when your sword's sheathe is built specifically for your sword and RAW says otherwise.
The Improved Critical feat is still better than keen because it's not tied to a specific weapon.nope, applied to a single chosen weapon.
No, the feat applies to a weapon type. However, many GMs, including myself, houserule feats to select weapon groups rather than weapon types. If I wanted to play the "nuh uh" game, I could say "nope, prices are quadratic, not arithmetic" even when technically quadratic is a type of arithmetic. Which, by the way, is probably a bad idea. Changing the prices to linear would mess up the entire weapon economy because the math of the game assumes prices increase quadratically.
I do propose an alternative idea: Give special abilities flat prices rather than cost an enhancement bonus. This would also make "upgrade" abilities like burst and ignition easier to price.