Altered Weapon Creation Rules


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


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I've always had an issue with the weapon creation rules for pathfinder because when using that system as it is, it isn't possible to recreate weapons that already exist within Pathfinder. Weapons like the Kukri that have enhanced crit ranges become impossible to duplicate and in other cases existing weapons like the Scizore can't exist within the rules at all, in this case having a higher damage dice than is allowed for one-handed weapons. When creating weapons using this system it never felt right that anything you created would be inherently weaker than a base weapon, for example if you wanted a two-handed exotic weapon with an 18-20 crit (10DP) range the maximum damage dice you could produce would be 1d6 (2DP) before you used all 12 of the maximum potential DP for weapons in that category. Laughable when compared to the Fauchard with 1d10 damage (4DP) dice and both the trip and reach qualities (4DP) at 18-20 crit range (10DP).

I altered the weapon creation system in a way that *nearly* all of the weapons you can find on the Weapons page are capable of being reproduced. I believe that this way if players/DMs allow this altered system they will be able to create weapons that are balanced with other weapons that already exist in pathfinder.
I also added in a few extra sections that make allowances for weapons like the Orc Butchering axe, Scizore, and Whip enabling them to exist in the system in a balanced way.

If using this altered system it is up to the DM's to place limitations and decide if a weapon created by one of their players is too powerful in comparison to other weapons in that category. Just as it would be up to a DM to say that a player created spear shouldn't have a certain weapon damage type simply because they paid the DP cost to give it bludgeoning and slashing. This is here so that players have the option to create weapons on par with weapons that already exist. The greatest pull towards pathfinder for me has been how customizable characters are and how specialized you can be but the weapon system has always fallen short in my opinion.

If anyone can think of a better way to alter this system to be more balanced while allowing ample creativity feel free to say so.

FYI the Rapier, Waveblade, and Scorpion Whip still cost more DP than they are allowed even in this altered system but I didn't feel comfortable compromising on the system or its costs any more than I already had.

This is essentially work shown where I apply allowed and required DP amounts for each weapon, I left off ranged weapons to lighten the load when making adjustments: [/urlhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iF4aXTnqWcF4nN65Hl0JpQL-NGJYqXJvjp7ND7I0b30/edit?usp=sharing]

This is the altered rule set, I highlighted the areas I specifically altered or added in red and put in bold the areas that mention how much DP is allowed by weapon category and handedness before the Weapon Qualities sections: [/urlhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1aLrFusRVW6x8qftV0zhZvo7Ml6tfiDH5pKs7Yl7SSL8/edit?usp=sharing]


I didn't know how to properly add links until 2 hours later when I tried again so here they are.

Pathfinder Weapon DP cost under altered system

Altered Weapon Creation Pathfinder

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