Can we kill off the +1 Sword?


Prerelease Discussion


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My great hope for PF2E is the retirement of generic magic items such as +1 swords and +1 armor. These items are boring as hell and just create an arms race where you need to have a certain bonus level to keep up. I would prefer more interesting items, and remove the stacking of bonus abilities such as having a vorpal firey human bane sword. If you want multiple effects you have to carry multiple swords and change weapons to adapt to the situation. I think this would make the game much more dynamic and interesting. And don't get me wrong, I love having those things, but I think it's bad for the game. Magic items should feel rare, powerful, and unique, rather than a commodity. I'd still be fine with, say, a weaker version of weapon types, such as a Greater Firey sword and a Lesser Firey sword.


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That ship may have sailed. To be fair a +1 weapon is now +1 to hit and an extra set of base weapon damage dice.


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I'm hoping they go with the amount of resonace investment corresponding to the enhancement bonus of the weapon or armor, rather than needing to upgrade every few levels.


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Star Dragon Caith wrote:
My great hope for PF2E is the retirement of generic magic items such as +1 swords and +1 armor.

SO, I can keep my +2 sword?

As has been shown, magic plus weapons are in the game and integral to the math as base damage is multiplied by the plus.


omniplex wrote:
I'm hoping they go with the amount of resonace investment corresponding to the enhancement bonus of the weapon or armor, rather than needing to upgrade every few levels.

Swords (and possibly armor) don’t use resonance except to fuel limited-use abilities.


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I was hoping that Paizo was serious about killing the big six, but seems they boiled it down to the essential two or three. Eh, I can live with it.


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As long as they get rid of 'must have a magic weapon to damage creatures' I'd go for it?


I don't see what the big deal about "Magic Weapon" is. But my groups don't get above 10 so we tend to use 1-2 weapons in our games.


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A +1 weapon is now a far bigger deal than in the past, since it doesn't do just +1 damage but gets an extra die of dammage. A +2 weapon gets two extra dice. That's huge! A +1 two-handed weapon of any stripe will do wads of damage with every hit, even without a critical.

I'm sure many of the special weapon properties will still exist, and they will be further icing on the magic cake.


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Star Dragon Caith wrote:
My great hope for PF2E is the retirement of generic magic items such as +1 swords and +1 armor. These items are boring as hell and just create an arms race where you need to have a certain bonus level to keep up. I would prefer more interesting items, and remove the stacking of bonus abilities such as having a vorpal firey human bane sword.

As a GM, the boredom of +1 on a hostile NPC's weapon is useful since I don't have to make tactical decisions for a character I never played before and will never play again. But that means that PCs will loot +1 swords from the bodies of enemies. I would prefer more difficult wepons for NPCs if they made the PCs have to think, too.

QuidEst wrote:
omniplex wrote:
I'm hoping they go with the amount of resonace investment corresponding to the enhancement bonus of the weapon or armor, rather than needing to upgrade every few levels.
Swords (and possibly armor) don’t use resonance except to fuel limited-use abilities.

I heard that, too, and I am bewildered that an item worn on the body, such as boots, amulet, ring, and maybe armor needs attunement that costs resonance, but an item swung around in the wielder's hand does not. +1 on a weapon means that it helps the wielder hit, so shouldn't it be attuned to the wielder so that sword and warrior can work together for better aim?

I look forward to the Paizo Blog on resonance and attunement so I can learn the designers' reasoning.

Varying resonance costs for different abilities on weapons would make sense if weapons used resonance. A high-level martial character has more resonance, so he can afford 5 resonance to attune a +3 flaming keen blade, while a low-level character will be happy with a simply flaming sword costing 1 resonance to attune, because he wants to save his resonance for his magic armor and boots.


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Mathmuse wrote:

+1 on a weapon means that it helps the wielder hit, so shouldn't it be attuned to the wielder so that sword and warrior can work together for better aim?

Doesn't really change your arguement much, but I want to point out that it seems +1/2/3 whatever doesn't add to hit, just damage dice. The bonuses to hit come independently from the weapons quality. So you can a Legendary non magical sword giving +4 to hit or you can have a shoddy goblin dogslicer with -1 to hit that the local shaman enchanted to give extra damage.

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Wheldrake wrote:

A +1 weapon is now a far bigger deal than in the past, since it doesn't do just +1 damage but gets an extra die of dammage. A +2 weapon gets two extra dice. That's huge! A +1 two-handed weapon of any stripe will do wads of damage with every hit, even without a critical.

I'm sure many of the special weapon properties will still exist, and they will be further icing on the magic cake.

And I am hoping the power of the monsters scales as well, because otherwise, the already way too easy combats will be even less challenging.

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I want to retain +1 weapons and armor. There needs to be a way to represent weapons that are better at being accurate and hurtful. Sometimes you just want a weapon that's better at being, well, a weapon.

I wouldn't be sad to see the requirement for a +1 before you can add special abilities go away.


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I don't have an opinion on +1s specifically, but:

New player: "I'd like to enchant/upgrade my weapon! How do I do that?"

Me: "Okay, so... <thirty minute exposition> ...and that's how you do it, and that's how flat bonus enchants work differently than effect enchants."

The upgrade, enchant, and so on rules need to fit into two paragraphs or preferably a bulleted list, max.


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I believe the intent is to change from the pf1 model of low base weapon damage and high static modifiers, to a new model of high base weapon damage and low static multipliers. It might still be the same amount of expected DPR, just changing how its distributed.

I like the idea -- weapon damage dice/qualities matter a lot more than they used to.

The multiple damage dice is similar to SF's approach, however the PF2 approach I think is vastly better. Instead of having to make ~6+ different named versions of each weapon chassis to add the higher dice to it (and you can't upgrade your original X to the higher tier since they are different), we have the usual +1/+5 version of basic weapons. Normal upgrading enchantments potentially still works.


Wheldrake wrote:

A +1 weapon is now a far bigger deal than in the past, since it doesn't do just +1 damage but gets an extra die of dammage. A +2 weapon gets two extra dice. That's huge! A +1 two-handed weapon of any stripe will do wads of damage with every hit, even without a critical.

I'm sure many of the special weapon properties will still exist, and they will be further icing on the magic cake.

Problem with this is if you ever lose that +x weapon your martial just got gimped. I dont mind weapons having magical effects thats fun and cool, but when they become necessary to function its a potential disaster.


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As long as there is no opportunity cost between +X and special abilities, I'll be happy. I believe the devs have said you won't have to make that decision anymore.


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Planpanther wrote:


Problem with this is if you ever lose that +x weapon your martial just got gimped. I dont mind weapons having magical effects thats fun and cool, but when they become necessary to function its a potential disaster.

I had a GM who was obsessed with rust monsters/demons/mephits/horses. Every couple of sessions he was trying to churn magic items. It was truly obnoxious.


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Star Dragon Caith wrote:
Planpanther wrote:


Problem with this is if you ever lose that +x weapon your martial just got gimped. I dont mind weapons having magical effects thats fun and cool, but when they become necessary to function its a potential disaster.
I had a GM who was obsessed with rust monsters/demons/mephits/horses. Every couple of sessions he was trying to churn magic items. It was truly obnoxious.

Yeap. I want a story to occasionally eat a magic item or weapon. I also want the martial to still be able to function without it when that happens. Though moderation is key in any GMing element. Still, many GMs like to keep adventuring parties dirt poor and often lack any understanding how the system relies on the PCs having magic equipment. If Paizo just designed it into class nobody would have to worry.


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MuddyVolcano wrote:

I don't have an opinion on +1s specifically, but:

New player: "I'd like to enchant/upgrade my weapon! How do I do that?"

Me: "Okay, so... <thirty minute exposition> ...and that's how you do it, and that's how flat bonus enchants work differently than effect enchants."

The upgrade, enchant, and so on rules need to fit into two paragraphs or preferably a bulleted list, max.

My groups might have homebrewed it but;

Have a weapon/Gear you want to upgrade. Find a Mage(Or high level smith) that can do the work. Pay X gold, with X increasing based off what + level you are adding to it. Hand over gold and wait Y days so hopefully this takes place during down time. After Y days have passed, pick up Upgraded weapon and enjoy, also please don't try to cheat the person you just paid, it will never end well.


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omniplex wrote:
I'm hoping they go with the amount of resonace investment corresponding to the enhancement bonus of the weapon or armor, rather than needing to upgrade every few levels.

Anything which increases the involvement of resonance is not a good thing, really. So no, I hope they don’t.


Personally I would prefer that no magic weapon or armor is just a +1, in other words that even the most "common" or "mundane" magic item should have a special power regardless of how minor. Maybe they have the ability to use a cantrip effect at will, can change color(s), come to your hand when called, smell like strawberries, etc.


Dragon78 wrote:
Personally I would prefer that no magic weapon or armor is just a +1, in other words that even the most "common" or "mundane" magic item should have a special power regardless of how minor. Maybe they have the ability to use a cantrip effect at will, can change color(s), come to your hand when called, smell like strawberries, etc.

With Cantrips being a lot stronger now than they used to be this could be way too powerful for a flavorful ability, as these seem to be going for.


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Kill off one +1 sword and another shall rise to take its place.


I think Expert, Master, and Legendary weapons may take the place of +X magic weapons to hit, so the magic +1 is additional damage dice?

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