Guide to Temporary Enhancements to Manufactured Weapons

[Gisher]

I really enjoy being able to add enhancements to weapons using Spells, Magic Items, and Class Abilities. I've been keeping a list of methods for doing so, and I thought I would share it. This is my first attempt to publish a document using Google Docs, so please let me know if you experience and technical issues.

Temporary Enhancements to Manufactured Weapons

[Gilarius]

Interesting and probably useful every now and then.

Additional stuff: inquisitor class ability to add Bane effect; and the spellslinger (wizard archetype) gets to add all sorts of things to his gun, albeit with extra limitations which you'd need to discuss with your GM to decide how melee only enhancements applied to a gun barrel work.

[Avoron]

Don't forget the Monk of the Empty hand!

Their ability is great for two reasons:

1. It can add any weapon ability that has a bonus equivalent. This means you can use specifically tailored abilities like bane or holy.

2. It adds to "an improvised weapon," which is not limited to an improvised weapon that they are holding.

Sadly, it only lasts one round.

[Errant Mercenary]

Hey nice guide! A good use I see is to find ways to pump up that Courageous enchantment on the weapon.

Here's another one:

Sohei

Ki Weapon (Su)

At 4th level, as a swift action, a sohei may spend 1 point from his ki pool to grant any weapon he wields (including his unarmed strike) a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls, increasing by +1 per four levels after 4th to a maximum bonus of +5 at 20th level, until the end of his next turn.

This ability replaces slow fall and abundant step.

[Errant Mercenary]

For the Dancing section, the Artifice Domain of the cleric has the follwoing:

Dancing Weapons (Su): At 8th level, you can give a weapon touched the dancing special weapon quality for 4 rounds. You can use this ability once per day at 8th level, and an additional time per day for every four levels beyond 8th.

[Gisher]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll add them as soon as I can.

[JohnHawkins]

Antipaladins get a similar but different list to Paladins so they can get Unholy for instance

[avr]

Forgemaster archetype clerics get ways to temporarily enchant stuff including equivalents to spell storing, keen and returning.

[Gisher]

I made all of the suggested additions, including the Monk of the Empty Hand. That is a crazy ability. Theoretically they can apply any enhancement to an improvised weapon. I included them with all enhancements, although I think some would be impossible to apply in practice.

Thanks again for the help.

[Cevah]

Here's a bunch of spells to add:

Spells:

Align Weapon -- Weapon becomes good, evil, lawful, or chaotic.
Align Weapon, Communal -- As align weapon, but you can divide the duration among weapons touched.
Aroden's Magic Army -- Enhancement bonus +1/5L, max +4
Badger's Ferocity -- Weapons are keen while you concentrate.
Black Sword Of War -- Bleed 1/2L, max 5
Blade of Bright Victory -- Bonded weapon gains ghost touch.
Blade of Dark Triumph -- Bonded weapon gains ghost touch.
Bless Weapon -- Good aligned, count as +1; Weapon strikes true against evil foes.
Blightburn Weapon -- Brightburn/fire
Cauterizing Weapon -- Stop regeneration
Crusader's Edge -- Bane+
Disrupting Weapon -- Melee weapon destroys undead.
Emblem Of Greed -- +1 Flaming, more
Flames Of The Faithful -- Gives weapon flaming property.
Funereal Weapon -- Bypass some DR
Heart Of The Metal -- Enable weapons to overcome DR like adamantine, cold iron, or silver.
Hidden Blades -- Invisible weapon/ammo
Holy Sword -- Weapon becomes +5, deals +2d6 damage against evil.
Keen Edge -- Doubles normal weapon's threat range.
Magic Weapon -- Weapon gains +1 bonus.
Magic Weapon, Greater -- Weapon gains +1 bonus/four levels (max +5).
Named Bullet -- Imbues ammunition with accuracy against a specific creature type.
Named Bullet, Greater -- As named bullet, but deals 2 points of damage for every caster level.
Rags To Riches -- MW or add +1 to enhancement, more
Reaper's Coterie -- Scaling +1 Profane
Refine Improvised Weapon -- Transform improvised weapon into a masterwork simple or martial weapon.
Reinforce Armaments -- Mitigate fragile, make MW, or double Hardness/HP
Reinforce Armaments, Communal -- As reinforce armaments, but you may divide the duration among objects touched.
Reloading Hands -- Loads a single shot into your weapon every round. Ammo counts as magical
Returning Weapon -- Grants a weapon the returning special weapon quality.
Returning Weapon, Communal -- As returning weapon, but you may divide the duration among weapons touched.
Ricochet Shot -- Imbues a projectile weapon to give its ammunition the ability to ricochet.
Rune of Durability -- Double HP
Spirit-Bound Blade -- Give a weapon ghost touch and another ability tied to an emotion.
Splinter Spell Resistance -- Reduce SR
Sun Metal -- Weapon touched bursts into flames.
Umbral Weapon -- Miss gets reroll with cold damage
Unerring Weapon -- Grants a +2 bonus, +1 per four caster levels, on attack rolls to confirm a critical hit.
Unholy Sword -- Weapon becomes +5, deals +2d6 damage vs. good.
Versatile Weapon -- Weapon bypasses some DR.
Weapon of Awe -- Weapon gets +2 on damage rolls.
Weapons Against Evil -- Ignore some DR
Winged Sword -- throwing weapon special ability
Wrathful Weapon -- Aligned weapon

/cevah

[JoeElf]

Versatile Weapon (APG): Bypass some DR, AND also acts as Magic Weapon, Greater (Weapon gains +1 bonus/four levels (max +5)), though for 1 minute/level rather than 1 hour/level.

If you are a Bard, you have spell list access to Versatile Weapon as a level 2 spell at character level 4 (but neither Magic Weapon nor Magic Weapon, Greater).

[VRMH]

Thank you thank you thank you! (for using the word "enhancements")

[avr]

There's huge numbers of spells which enchant weapons. A few more which Cevah missed, or perhaps decided against including:

Banishing blade -- weapon gets 1 free bull rush/round, may banish extraplanar creatures
Brow gasher -- a slashing melee weapon does bleed damage once
Daybreak arrow -- 50 projectiles glow brightly & get +1d6 damage to undead
Dazzling blade -- weapon gets bonus to feint, disarm, discharge spell to blind adjacent enemy
Dazzling blade, mass -- 1 weapon/level gets bonus to feint, disarm, discharge spell on a weapon to blind adjacent enemy
Dimensional blade -- weapon makes attacks as touch for 1 round
Divine arrow -- loads a projectile with lay on hands used to damage undead
Fiery runes -- melee weapon gets one-use +1d4+1 fire damage (scales w/CL)
Flame arrow -- 50 projectiles get +1d6 fire damage
Venomous bolt -- loads a projectile with the poison spell

[VRMH]

Are Weapon Blanches outside the scope of your document?

[miscdebris]

Fighter Advanced Weapon Training Warrior Spirit. It pretty much grants all of them, and can go up to +7 (Weapon Master, Gloves of Dueling)

[Woodoodoo]

So what is the optimal improvised weapon build?

[Cevah]

I left off things that added to AC, CMD, etc., as they are not weapon enhancements. I also left off things that were essentially one shot. I figure any enhancement worth seeking will be one that is going to last more than a single hit.

I also did a quick look at hexes, ki, tricks, and talents, but did not notice anything. I could easily have missed something.

Still to look at would be grit, mutagens, and other class specific stuff. I haven't even looked at items, but I am sure there are some.

/cevah

[PhD. Okkam]

Vigilante Psychometrist is not specified in the guide.

[Red Griffyn]

Your missing the spiritualist (Phantom Blade):

Ectoplasmic Pool (Ex): At 5th level, the phantom blade gains a reservoir of excess ethereal energy and ectoplasm that she can draw upon to improve her phantom weapon. This pool has a number of ectoplasmic points equal to half her spiritualist level + her Wisdom modifier. The pool refreshes once per day when the spiritualist refreshes her daily spells.

The phantom blade can spend a number of ectoplasmic points to enhance or modify her phantom weapon. As a free action, she can spend 1 point to manifest or harbor her weapon. The spiritualist can also spend 2 ectoplasmic points as a free action to allow attacks made with her phantom weapon to resolve against touch AC for 1 round.

As a swift action, she can spend 2 ectoplasmic points to grant the weapon one of the following weapon special abilities for 1 minute: corrosiveUE, defending, flaming, frost, keen, mercifulUE, shock, or throwing. At 11th level, she can spend 3 ectoplasmic points to grant the weapon one of the following weapon special abilities for 1 minute: corrosive burstUE, disruption, flaming burst, holy, icy burst, shocking burst, or unholy. At 15th level, she can spend 5 ectoplasmic points to grant the weapon one of the following weapon special abilities for 1 minute: brilliant energy, dancing, or speed. A phantom blade can spend an appropriate number of points to grant the weapon multiple abilities as one action. A phantom weapon cannot have a modified bonus higher than +10.