Magic weapon scenario

[Luceon]

Your high level fighter escapes from captivity. Finds an armory with a non magic weapon, due to the scaling, he won’t be able to defeat any level appropriate challenge, but if he finds his +4 weapon, he’s a god again.

Elephant in the room: get Starfinder out of Pathfinder 2. Starfinder wow’d a lot of people not my group, we made characters, played one session, and all said “NOPE.”

[Zman0]

Yeah, that is how they decided to balance damage vs HP in the game since they removed the multiple attacks as you leveled.

It would have been better that if at 4th level you dealt an additional weapon dice, same thing at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th. Magic weapons would have just been the +X to hit and whatever other enhancements they had.

It was definitely a balance consideration that could be problematic.

Now, that fighter likely has a 20Str, so the longsword is d8+5, vs 5d8+5. The actual damage dealt is 9.5 vs 23.5. The Fighter will definitely feel gimped for quite a while until he gets a replacement.

Personally I'd have been ok if they removed that balancing mechanic from magic weapons and added it inherently based upon your level.

[Luceon]

Zman0 wrote:

Now, that fighter likely has a 20Str, so the longsword is d8+5, vs 5d8+5. The actual damage dealt is 9.5 vs 23.5. The Fighter will definitely feel gimped for quite a while until he gets a replacement.

Your math is off, because you are not factoring critical hit damage increase, and critical hit chance increase. Also factor that it’s. A d12 weapon like a great sword. The fighter would most likely choose a heavier weapon from an armory. Your example with STR 20, A +4 greatsword crit = 10d12+18, and the crit chance is increased by 20%. And factor in multi attack.

[Zman0]

Luceon wrote:

Zman0 wrote:

Now, that fighter likely has a 20Str, so the longsword is d8+5, vs 5d8+5. The actual damage dealt is 9.5 vs 23.5. The Fighter will definitely feel gimped for quite a while until he gets a replacement.

Your math is off, because you are not factoring critical hit damage increase, and critical hit chance increase.

Of course it is! I wasn't going for exact math and used the average of the dice. Doing all the legwork was completely unnecessary for the point, the fighter sucks until he gets a replacement, and will be gimped from the system's damage assumptions until he once again has the highest level magic item he has access to for his level.

This is why I now strongly suggest making the additional weapon dice a factor of level getting an additional one at 4/8/12/16/20. Magic weapons will still give a good bonus to hit and awesome other effects, but it will be a big investment to go for a +4 or +5 over a Legendary +1 etc.

That simple change completely addresses your original problem. Fighter's damage would be the same, he'd just lose out on some very important to hit bonuses and whatever additional effects his weapon had.

[brad2411]

I kinda think the extra dmg dice should be tied to the proficiency.