Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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You should probably get spellstoring instead, because the bonus is relatively small, while spellstoring offers greater variety.
Spellstoring by itself is a pretty fun thing, and I often consider it for my characters (but since most of them lack serious spellcasting capabilities, I rarely do).
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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The weapon enhancement seems reasonable, but likely only really useful for characters that focus a bit on dispelling or play at a level where dispelling can make or break a fight.
From the limited number of high-level encounters I have experienced and run, it could be fun, but might only really have an appreciable effect every couple of scenarios.
It really depends on your class/build.
Spell storing in general is weird and requires some building around it. Figuring out how useful the ability is first requires determining how it will actually work at the tables you play at, which can make it a little iffy in organized play. It also probably isn't really strong until higher levels, which makes it less of a good fit.
As far as I can tell, there seems to be an open question about how spell storing items work. Spell storing weapons say the item casts the spell on the target; since items that cast spells do so at the item's caster level, that would allow for low level characters to effectively power up spells dependent on caster level in a significant way by putting them into a spell storing weapon, but messes with the save DCs since you don't use the original caster's stats.
The other interpretation is that the ability is not well written and really wants to say that when a spell is cast into a spell storing weapon, the effects are held until the weapon hits something and the spell takes effect like it had been cast on that target by the original caster who put the spell in the weapon. This feels much more like what people expect "spell storing" to mean, and will be a popular interpretation, but it isn't really what the ability says. I was expecting a FAQ clarifying this is the intended behavior when I searched, but instead just ran into a bunch of forum posts and reddit threads of people arguing.
Once you know how it works, there are some nifty tricks you can try with it. If it is operating on the "Weapon Casts Spell" model, you can buy NPC dispels or low level PC casts and get effectively CL 11+ dispels out of it, though you probably want generic spell storing for the higher CL here without additional effort (another hint, in my opinion, that this is likely not the intended way this works). If you instead are treating it as if the spell is cast by the caster, it opens up some different avenues of optimization. It lets you use temporary CL boosting effects to up the Dispel Magic CL for storage.
Best case scenario I could imagine in that case would be a team of a caster optimized for Greater Magic Weapon and Dispel Magic CLs using Karma beads, Allied Spellcaster with himself via Army Across Time, Death Knell etc, etc while a fighter friend runs with a pile of +1 spell storing weapons in a two weapon fighting build with quickdraw to burst a ton of spells in a short time window. Ironically, with the way PFS rules work, you would need to have the fighter own the beads and the caster own the weapons if you wanted to be able to store the dispels across scenarios, but could work if you always play together as a team.
This team would probably want to be running with mostly +1 spell storing weapons, but I could see working a few dispelling ones in there, combined with Greater Magic Weapon to get the dispel check into the mid 20's. You could lead with those against casters and start a cascade failure where getting hit strips their defenses that make it easier to hit them again.
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Dispelling burst is far more useful than Dispelling, because it can store greater dispel magic. A Spell-Storing weapon can only store spells up to 3rd level.
It’s expensive, but being able to attack, do damage, and also strip a bull’s strength or barkskin or any other buff off can be very efficient. As usual, it depends on your particular build.
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I understand that Greater dispelling weapon is a bargain if you simply considerate it an extra 5th level spell. But when you want to dispel multiple effects on a single target(the only way I believe it can be used) it seems likely that one of those things will be a spell effect that keeps you from hitting and/or damaging your target. I might be spending 18,000gp on something that may never be useful for its intended purpose, even throughout seeker levels of up to level 15.
I'm not sure about the above assumptions though, which is why I am asking for advice. What sort of situations do you see a Greater Dispelling weapon being effectively used?
When you say “Greater Dispelling” you mean “Dispelling Burst,” right? I don’t think there is a weapon quality called Greater Dispelling.
Assuming we’re talking about the same weapon quality, my answer is that it would be most effective when you are primarily a physical damage-dealer who also happens to be able to cast greater dispel magic. Like a battle cleric or something similar. When your first instinct is to get in there and swing. Yeah, you may miss because of defensive buffs, but that’s no different than a rogue going in swinging. When you do hit, then you trigger the greater dispel.
If you would rather strip off the buffs first before making any attacks then yeah, Dispelling Burst isn’t useful.
So who’s going to find it most useful? Maybe a 12th level Crusader Cleric of Gorum. Or a 13th level skald. Or a 16th level magus.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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Spellstoring armor is very, very good, but mostly with just a couple select spells. Namely, Frostbite or Frigid touch, for a no-save fatigue to interrupt a full attack routine from a creature that could otherwise kill you.
About the spellstoring interpretation - I think the (reasonable and logical) way to interpret is, that it literally "stores" the spell, and thus uses your CL and DC, instead of the weapons own. I fully admit that this isn't the only way to interpret it, and the wording "the weapon cast the spell" implies otherwise.
If the interpretation at your local table(s) is the one where the weapon uses your CL and DC, it becomes immensely more powerful, because you can pay for a dispel magic as a spellcasting service, from a high level caster.
As a 3rd level spell, you could pay 600gp to get a caster level 20 dispel magic placed into your weapon, practically ensuring that it will always succeed in the dispel magic check when you need it to. It persists between adventures too, so while the cost (600gp) may sound steep at lower levels, you'll know that when you need it, it will work.
Huh. For some reason, I was under the impression that you could only buy the minimum CL of a cast spell unless you needed a higher CL for it to succeed, but that looks like it isn't the case. That makes buying CL 20+ dispels pretty effective.
That's the thing though, we're not talking about a potion, scroll or wand but a purchased spell in spellcasting services. That doesn't seem to have a CL limit. I'm wondering if I accidentally crossed the two concepts myself when I was thinking back on it.