Bane Blade Arcana = Breaking the +10 Limit of Weapons?

[VarisianViscount]

A magus can add 5 points worth of enhancement bonus or special abilities to his weapon with his arcane pool.
The Bane Blade arcana is worded such that when used the bane special ability is added to the weapon on top of that, rather than to the list magi can choose from like Ghost Blade does with brilliant energy and ghost touch.

That means a magus could enhance a +5 longsword into a +5 keen speed flaming X-bane longsword, effectively turning it into a weapon with 11 points worth of enhancements, one point above the usual limit.

Is this an instance of specific trumps general, or just an oversight due to the wording of the arcana?

[dragonhunterq]

No, the +10 bonus equivalent is a hard cap, no matter what class ability you have.

[VarisianViscount]

Ah, okay. So that means magi wanting to use Bane Blade must either 'waste' one of their enhancement points (can they even do that?) or simply stop at a +4 weapon, thus saving some money.

[Doomed Hero]

I read Bane Blade Arcana and thought "Magi get giant tanks now?"

Sometimes having overlapping Fandoms gets weird.

[VarisianViscount]

That would make for an interesting archetype: "Numerian Tanker". xD

[Jesper Roland Sørensen]

VarisianViscount wrote:

Ah, okay. So that means magi wanting to use Bane Blade must either 'waste' one of their enhancement points (can they even do that?) or simply stop at a +4 weapon, thus saving some money.

What do you mean waste? you can have a +5 weapon and add bane and some other bonuses that are not an enhancement bonus. You only have to add an enhancement bonus to the weapon if it doesn't have one already before adding special properties.

[VarisianViscount]

Maybe I worded that poorly. Basically magi can add 5 points worth of enhancements (i.e. literal enhancement bonus or weapon special abilities) to their weapon, in addition to any enhancements/abilities the weapon already has.
Since weapons apparently can never have more than an effective 10 points worth of enhancements, even through class abilites, and the Bane Blade arcana adds 1 point worth of enhancement (the bane special ability) for free, a magus that wants to get the most out of their arcane pool should carry a +4 weapon. Anything better would waste part of his ability to enhance the weapon.

[Jesper Roland Sørensen]

Ah I read the arcana wrong. So you effectively adds +6 worth of enhancements/special abilities for 2 points.