A warpriest can enhance his sacred weapon with various effects for a number of rounds per day. The weapon damage also is modified as such:
"Whenever the warpriest hits with his sacred weapon, the weapon damage is based on his level and not the weapon type."
If the sacred weapon is a ranged, bludgeoning weapon does that limit what enhancements you can apply, or does the divine blessing supercede that typical enhancement restriction?
Here are the enhancements:
Brilliant Energy (+4, can't use until very late game)
Defending (melee only)
Disrupting (melee only)
Flaming (this one is fine)
Frost (also fine)
Keen (Piercing/Slashing only)
Shock (also fine)
My warpriest has good alignment, so he can also add:
Ghost touch (melee only)
Holy (can't use until level 8)
So from level 4-7, my warpriest would be able to use: flaming, frost, or shock. That seems very... limited. Is this intended?
That is what the rules say. Or you could add raw enhancement bonuses. My Runelords campaign just hit level 16 (in book 6), by far the greatest damage output in the party is a warpriest archer, you'll be just fine.
Given that you can choose which one to apply when you need it most is not what I call limited. Sure, you can't put Keen in a club, or Defending on a bow... but nobody can, you are no more, or less, limited in that regard. Just adding flat bonuses is better than the garbage additional BS, anyways.
Plus, you can spend all your money on the much more important flat bonuses to the weapon, itself. That, alone, is a much bigger plus, in my opinion.
It's free... what did you expect?
I EXPECT EQUAL TREATMENT UNDER THE LAW
/s :P
I say limited compared to picking a greatsword or falchion or falcata as my sacred weapon. Same class, just more options, also for free.
if in a different context I randomly asked 'can't I just swap my 1d4 for a 1d8 damage die?' there would be so much righteous outrage, but it's written into the sacred weapon rule that the damage die magically changes. What I'm asking is if the sacred weapon boon, since it already magically enhances damage (breaking the RAW through magic!), also magically lets you apply the enhancement it says you can apply, regardless of base weapon properties... just like the damage aspect.
This limitation is basically saying a melee warpriest > ranged warpriest. A lucerne hammer could apply every enhancement on the list, but there isn't a single enhancement that can only be applied to a ranged weapon only. Offering equivalent enhancement alternatives for ranged weapons would be balanced. Swords can get keen, slings can get seeking, etc.
I mean, at the end of the day I'll just talk to the GM, but my internet search did not turn up any other results of people asking this question, which is why I asked it here.
So over 500 simulated rounds using a some pareto frontier weapons with standard attack roll (for crit, hit, or miss) and a confirm roll (>10 with weapon enhancement) and strength +4 melee attack, dex +4 ranged attack (and strength to dam +2), damage/round would look like:
Keen +1 Falcata: 10.6
+2 Falcata: 7.7
Keen +1 Estoc: 7.2
+2 Estoc: 7.4
+2 Composite longbow (+2 str): 5.4
+1 Composite longbow (+2str) + keen arrows: 4.9
+2 Dwarven pelletbow (1d8 as sacred weapon, but no strength): 4.6
'keen' +1 pelletbow: 4.2
+2 Sling (1d8, +2 str): 5.4
'keen' +1 sling: 4.5
(I will say the Estocs vary widely because of the 2 damage die adding some entropy. I saw as low as 6.8 and as high as 8.4 as the average over 500 rounds with no significant trend between the two cases)
So this conclusively proves I have too much time on my hands.
Also, the answer to, 'is +1 better than keen?' is, 'it depends', but a high strength mod (or any Ability to damage) and multiplier makes it definitely better. You are right for most ranged attacks though, the added +1 Weapon enhancement is superior. other bonuses to damage that are multiplied like 'bloodthirsty' or weapon specialization would shift this toward keen being more beneficial.
I guess the moral of the story is, if the GM wants to say, 'sure, you can shoot keen sling bullets' it's not going to break anything and we can thank our deity for the boon.
Sacred weapon can be used with more than just your deities favored weapon. Any weapon you have weapon focus with can be a sacred weapon. So if your characters wants to use something that does not apply to your deities favored weapon he just need to pick up weapon focus with that weapon. Considering that also allows you to increase the die of the weapon as well as adding enchantments to it, it is well worth spending a feat.
Also remember that the reason ranged weapons can't get some of these is that the ammunition gets it, and often at a much much cheaper price than their melee counterparts.
Sure you can't get Ghost Touch using Sacred Weapon, and sure that seems like a bummer (it'd save you at least 6,000gp on enchantments), but what you can do instead is use a GHOST SALT WEAPON BLANCH to coat 10 pieces of ammunition for the low low cost of 200gp. That's 20gp per shot for something that you'll definitely want, but won't want all the time. I'd do 20 or 30 pieces of ammunition (for 400-600gp) and come back to it when that runs low. You should be fine.
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