I can’t speak for Paizo’s reasoning, but I know that WotC first added them in d&d to offer extra options for enchantments that offer little to no combat benefit. The idea was that enhancement bonuses and equivalents were meant to represent the weapons combat strength. Enchantments that stand outside that norm were given flat gold values to not devalue them as when forced to choose between a combat enchantment and a social enchantment, most would take the combat every time.
I can only presume that Paizo’s reasoning for having them as well is the same. Although there are certainly some in pathfinder that fall squarely within the bounds of combat enchantments and probably should have an enhancement equivalent cost instead.
Some things just aren't worth making your next weapon/armor enchantment more expensive. Seeing how most enchantments are considered strictly sub-par compared to numerical bonuses, making some enchantments cost GP instead offers much more flexibility to design them.
Even just the increase from +1 to +2 costs 6k, that's a higher cost than over half the monetary weapon enchantments cost.
Yeah, it's honestly a good thing (for variety) because almost no one uses the +1 equivalent (or more expensive) enhancements because they raise the cost of your weapon to get the next enhancement bonuses, which is generally speaking better than anything else you can buy.
Most of the flat cost abilities aren't really combat related, or at at least no where near the power of a +1.
Agreed. I would even say they didn't go far enough.
Distance, returning, throwing--I mean, come on. Throwing?--and then there's the abysmally awful Bursts.
Yeah, many of the + equivalent abilities get next to no use, and would be better off as flat cost items. Like returning doesn't even work for a throwing focused build (since it doesn't return till next turn), but if it were flat cost I might consider putting throwing returning and distance on my melee weapon. It's not going to increase my character's power, but will give me options.
Yeah, many of the + equivalent abilities get next to no use, and would be better off as flat cost items. Like returning doesn't even work for a throwing focused build (since it doesn't return till next turn), but if it were flat cost I might consider putting throwing returning and distance on my melee weapon. It's not going to increase my character's power, but will give me options.
Returning actually does work for a throwing weapon focused build... but only in the same capacity that a blinkback belt does... throwing multiple returning weapons only to reclaim them at the end of your turn... though the logistics of suddenly having a half dozen daggers in your hand at the end of the round is questionable...
As for increased power... it actually does grant that... just not in the usual sense. The options it grants actually translate directly into added power. If you go and full attack a guy who is in front of you, drop them on your 2nd hit and still have one more attack but no one is in melee range, having the option to throw your weapon and get it back at the end of your turn is invaluable, at that moment you go from being out of valid attacks to getting to use your last attack to possibly bring another for down from a distance. Tactical use of throwing can be very potent, even more so when there is no risk of losing your weapon, and getting increased distance makes it even more potent. Keep in mind, the distance enchantment is an equivalent to +2 ~10 to attack roles against any targets outside of your weapons original first range increment.
The blinkback belt returns the weapon to the belt when the attack is resolved. Returning gets you the weapon before start of your next turn.
One lets you make iterative attacks (with quickdraw) and one is useless.
Yeah the difference between a Blink-back Belt (5,000gp) and a single +1 weapon (2,000gp) vs enchanting 4 weapons with the Returning property (32,000gp) is pretty big.
Oh while we're on it, rather than either of those options I love the SHARDING weappon property.
A cost of +2 is definitely too high (that's 18,000gp for a +1 Sharding weapon, and another 14,000gp to upgrade it to +2), but it's possible that a +1 cost would actually be fair for this one.
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Oh while we're on it, rather than either of those options I love the SHARDING weappon property.
A cost of +2 is definitely too high (that's 18,000gp for a +1 Sharding weapon, and another 14,000gp to upgrade it to +2), but it's possible that a +1 cost would actually be fair for this one.
Against tripping builds with reach it can be a godsend. It is the usual problem: a power that is great in the right situation, but not so great unless the right situation is common.
It is like bane: a great power if it was chosen wisely and knowing what are the main enemies of the campaign, way less useful in an open campaign without a main theme.
Oh while we're on it, rather than either of those options I love the SHARDING weappon property.
A cost of +2 is definitely too high (that's 18,000gp for a +1 Sharding weapon, and another 14,000gp to upgrade it to +2), but it's possible that a +1 cost would actually be fair for this one.
I like the aesthetic of the sharding weapon property. If it was a +1 instead of +2, you might actually see people use it instead of a blink back belt.
Yeah +2 is too expensive. +1 might still be too expensive, but I think you'd see people take it. Also I wanted to give a Sharding weapon to a player in a game I was running but giving a character an 18,000gp item is just going to unbalance the party's wealth too much.
Oh here's another option: RICOCHET TOSS
The fact that you need weapon training makes ricochet toss not so great. Granted, you can grab a feat which substitutes for weapon training class feature, but now your just adding more feats to even make the play style work in the first place, which really sucks.
Has there been a statement from Paizo explaining why they included armor and weapon enhancements that cost a flat amount (Shadow, Dueling, etc) rather than a +x equivalent?
The shadow example is straight-forward: You pay 3,750 for +5 Stealth, that's 50% more than for a dedicated item with the same property, as cloak of elvenkind. So the pricing strictly follows the rules of magical item creation: If an item occupying a slot already has a magic property, the next, different one costs 150%. The item just happens to be an armor.
Dueling is more complex, you basically get a weaker version of Improved Initiative (would be like 5k with full benefits), of Improved Disarm (might be a bit more than 5k, since prerequisites) and of Improved Feint (same as Improved Disarm). While they might boost damage per round indirectly (especially with sneak attack or the like), they don't do it directly, hence no +x.