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So, one of my old axioms as a DM is 'Give the players what they need, not everything they want.' Before you yell at me, let me explain. By this axiom I mean, give the players all the magical items that they need at their level, but maybe not the exact magical item they want. This is actually easier in PF2 than in PF1. In PF1 there were many builds that required very specific weapons, but this is greatly reduced in PF2. So why not spice things up a bit? There are a bajillion weapons out there, why not throw something to the party other than that +1 striking longsword. So, without further ado, here are is a list of weapons you can hand out as treasure that can spice up your game while still giving the players the numbers they need.
1) Simple melee weapons, non-finesse
a)Frying Pan: This weapon from the treasure vault is not only funny, but is the only deadly simple melee weapon. The small d4 damage isn't great, sure, but the upside is you can walk into any kitchen and have a weapon without taking the improvised weapon penalty
b) Club: The most overlooked of all weapons, this is a D6 one handed simple weapon that you can throw. It's actually pretty good. A cleric who worships Halcamora or Shumunue can grab deadly simplicity and up it to a d8 throwing weapon. Vastly underrated IMHO
c) Longspear: D8, reach, AND it's simple? Your buff witch or sorcerer can stand behind the party tank and poke people from afar while still being relativly protected. Even early fighters can make good use of it as it vastly increases the range of their Reactionary Strike. And as soon as the fighter hits five and becomes master in swords or axes or whatever? Hand it off to the cleric or witch or whatever.
2)Simple melee Weapons-Finesse
a)Nightstick: Another d4 weapon, but this has parry and nonlethal, meaning you can use it in your off hand as a shield most of the time, and if you ever need to knock someone out instead of killing them (which comes up in several games) you have an option.
b)Forked Bipod: Not only can you use this weapon to stabalize your gun, as a single action, you can turn it into an emergency finesse weapon!
c) Throwing Knife: Another vastly underrated weapon, usable in melee or with a thrown range of 20 feet, it's really a solid useful backup weapon, especially if you put returning on it.
3)Simple Ranged Weapons:
a) Air Repeater: One of the best simple weapons in the game. D4 damage is bad, but you can fire it 6 times before needing to reload, and you don't have to spend actions moving to the next barrel. Great weapon.
b)Atlatl: d6 damage, double the range of a Javalin, but you only add half your strength bonus to damage. Great for those low-strength builds who want an emergency ranged weapon.
c) Flintlock Musket: d6 Fatal d10 and it has concussive, which is great because it automatically does bludgeoning or Piercing, whichever is worse for the monster . . . you don't have to choose!
4)Martial Melee Weapons-Not Finesse
a)Kusarigama: This is just a great weapon. Parry, reach, does a d8 . . . plus it has trip for all those trip builds out there. Pretty solid.
b)Leiomano This shark-toothed club is D6, but it is slashing/bludgeoning , one handed, and FATAL d10, which is great for fighter crit-seeking builds.
c)Griffion Cane: This weapon is two-handed d10 meaning you are only one die off from a greataxe or a greatsword using it, and it is a cane so you can usually bring it into fancy parties!
5)Martial melee Weapons-Finesse
a)Dancer's spear: Only does a d6, but it is finesse, reach, and versitile B for all those times you fight ocher jellies. Great for swashbucklers and rogues as soon as the remaster comes out.
b)Dueling Spear: Ditch the reach and upgrade to a d8 reach spear. Piercing/Versitile S gives you more options than the elven curved blade.
c)Flyssa: It's just a straight up improvement on the short sword. All the same stats, but it is in the knife group so crits cause bleed damage instead of . . . like maybe slowed for a single round.
6)Martial Ranged Weapons
a) Bow Staff: This combo weapon is essentially a shortbow that can be converted into a whipstaff (without agile) as a single action and back again. Fantastic! Two weapons and you only have to enchant one!
b)Boomerang: So, d6 damage, 60 ft range, and it returns to you regardless of the result of your attack role. Don't even need a returning Rune!
C) SukGung: So get this, stats of a light crossbow, except for the stupid high 200 ft range, except you can one-hand the sucker, or if you two-hand it, it becomes fatal d12. Congratulations, you can snipe peopel to death from across the battlefield.
Anyway, hope this helps when coming up with treasure to hand out to your party next time they need to find a weapon!
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Since rune transferring exists, I like giving bad guys more exotic weapons since they can grab the important bits anyway.
You can transfer runes between two items. This uses the Craft activity, and you must be able to craft magical items. You can either move one rune from one item to another or swap a rune on one item with a rune on the other item (which can be a runestone). To swap, the runes must both be fundamental runes or both be property runes.If an item can have two or more property runes, you decide which runes to swap and which to leave when transferring. If you attempt to transfer a rune to an item that can’t accept it, such as transferring a melee weapon rune to a ranged weapon, you get an automatic critical failure on your Crafting check. If you transfer a potency rune, you might end up with property runes on an item that can’t benefit from them. These property runes go dormant until transferred to an item with the necessary potency rune or until you etch the appropriate potency rune on the item bearing them.
The DC of the Crafting check to transfer a rune is determined by the item level of the rune being transferred, and the Price of the transfer is 10% of the rune’s Price, unless transferring from a runestone, which is free. If you’re swapping, use the higher level and higher Price between the two runes to determine these values. It takes 1 day (instead of the 4 days usually needed to Craft) to transfer a rune or swap a pair of runes, and you can continue to work over additional days to get a discount, as usual with Craft.
As you can see, you need the Magical Crafting Feat (Requiring you to be an expert in crafting and then have a free skill feat, so minimum level 4 unless you are a rogue or investigator) or the ability to find someone to pay to transfer the rune, which is not always possible. It also takes a day. There are some APs where you go long stretches without the ability to take a day rest to transfer the runes and/or no towns to go to buy that service.
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By the same token they did say that giving bad guys more exotic weapons was something that they enjoyed doing. That sounds like a thing that they would be doing in home games to me, so finding an N P C to transfer the runes would presumably not be a problem
I mean, that's essentially what this list is. Like, let's give that bad guy a +1 striking Griffion Cane. It's almost as good as a Greataxe, so your two-weapon barbarian can use it at least until they can get to town and transfer it to a greataxe.
Or how about a Dueling Spear? Your investigator or swashbuckler can use it pretty well until they get to the next weapon transfer guy.
Instead of a +2 striking crossbow, maybe they have a +2 striking AtlAtl, similar damage and reload, and it works well enough until you get back to town.
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Since rune transferring exists, I like giving bad guys more exotic weapons since they can grab the important bits anyway.As you can see, you need the Magical Crafting Feat (Requiring you to be an expert in crafting and then have a free skill feat, so minimum level 4 unless you are a rogue or investigator) or the ability to find someone to pay to transfer the rune, which is not always possible. It also takes a day. There are some APs where you go long stretches without the ability to take a day rest to transfer the...
You can transfer runes between two items. This uses the Craft activity, and you must be able to craft magical items. You can either move one rune from one item to another or swap a rune on one item with a rune on the other item (which can be a runestone). To swap, the runes must both be fundamental runes or both be property runes.If an item can have two or more property runes, you decide which runes to swap and which to leave when transferring. If you attempt to transfer a rune to an item that can’t accept it, such as transferring a melee weapon rune to a ranged weapon, you get an automatic critical failure on your Crafting check. If you transfer a potency rune, you might end up with property runes on an item that can’t benefit from them. These property runes go dormant until transferred to an item with the necessary potency rune or until you etch the appropriate potency rune on the item bearing them.
The DC of the Crafting check to transfer a rune is determined by the item level of the rune being transferred, and the Price of the transfer is 10% of the rune’s Price, unless transferring from a runestone, which is free. If you’re swapping, use the higher level and higher Price between the two runes to determine these values. It takes 1 day (instead of the 4 days usually needed to Craft) to transfer a rune or swap a pair of runes, and you can continue to work over additional days to get a discount, as usual with Craft.
All true. The tables I've been in/ran for generally find this to be somewhat more irksome than interesting, so practically all of our decently sized settlements have an NPC who can take care of this during down time.
(Honestly, I'm really hoping the one-day rune transferring time goes down in the remaster. Keep the feat requirement, but it'd be really nice if at least a single rune can be transferred while resting or during daily prep or something. A day is so long while actively adventuring)
