[3.x] New feats: Magic weapons and armor

[Chronos]

Enhance Weapon [General]
Prerequisites: BAB +4, Craft (Weaponsmithing) 4 ranks

Benefit: All weapons you wield with which you are proficient (including unarmed strikes, if you have Improved Unarmed Strike, and natural weapons, if you have any) have their enhancement bonus increased by +1 for as long as you wield them.

Example: A fighter with this feat wields a nonmagical club. In his hands, it is treated as a club +1. If anyone else wields it, it remains nonmagical. Later, he finds a longsword +2 in a treasure trove. In his hands, it is treated as a longsword +3.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. The effects stack.
A weapon's total enhancement bonus cannot be increased to greater than +6 by this feat.
A fighter may select Enhance Weapon as a bonus feat.


Enable Weapon [General]
Prerequisites: BAB +4, Craft (Weaponsmithing) 4 ranks, Enhance Weapon

Benefit: Choose a +1 equivalent weapon special ability, such as Flaming or Defending. Each day, you may spend 15 minutes attuning yourself to a single weapon (meditating over it, practicing moves with it, or the like). That weapon is treated as having that special ability for the next 24 hours, as long as you wield it.

Special: If a weapon already has the selected special ability, it gains no further benefit.
A fighter may select Enable Weapon as a bonus feat.


Greater Enable Weapon [General]
Prerequisites: BAB +4, Craft (Weaponsmithing) 4 ranks, Enhance Weapon, Enable Weapon

Benefit: Each day when you attune yourself to your weapon, you may select a different special ability for it. In addition, the special ability you choose may be equivalent to a +1 or +2 bonus.

Special: A fighter may select Greater Enable Weapon as a bonus feat.


Enhance Armor [General]
Prerequisites: BAB +4, Craft (Armorsmithing) 4 ranks

Benefit: Any armor you wear (not shields) with which you are proficient has its enhancement bonus increased by +1 for as long as you wear it.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. The effects stack.
An armor's total enhancement bonus cannot be increased to greater than +6 by this feat.
A fighter may select Enhance Armor as a bonus feat.


Enable Armor [General]
Prerequisites: BAB +4, Craft (Armorsmithing) 4 ranks, Enhance Armor

Benefit: Choose a +1 equivalent armor special ability, such as Light Fortification. Each day, you may spend 15 minutes attuning yourself to a single suit of armor (meditating over it, exercising in it, or the like). That armor is treated as having that special ability for the next 24 hours, as long as you wear it.

Special: If an armor already has the selected special ability, it gains no further benefit.
A fighter may select Enable Armor as a bonus feat.


Greater Enable Armor [General]
Prerequisites: BAB +4, Craft (Armorsmithing) 4 ranks, Enhance Armor, Enable Armor

Benefit: Each day when you attune yourself to your armor, you may select a different special ability for it. In addition, the special ability you choose may be equivalent to a +1 or +2 bonus.

Special: A fighter may select Greater Enable Armor as a bonus feat.

[Clawhound]

I generally approve of the direction that you are going. I think that this was a considerably under-explored area during the 3.x era.

You are proposing six feats to do what a spellcaster can do in one feat. Reconsider the feat cost. The melee is already using a huge number of his meager skill points.

I suggest scaling the bonuses, same as magic weapon/magic armor spells. Since like bonuses don't stack, a +3 enhancement bonus to a +1 sword yields the same result as a +3 enhancement to a +2 sword. The numbers come out approximately right for your level. It's less to remember. This method more closely matches how spellcasters only need to take one feat to do anything that they want to all weapons and armor.

I thought about going the "+" route with a few abilities that I wrote, but discarded it. There's too much cool stuff that costs GP. I wound up converting enhancements into a GP equivalent. That way, everything comes into play.

[Chronos]

I honestly don't expect very many people to take the enhancement bonus one more than once; I just wanted to leave the option open. Also note that, as written, it would stack with Greater Magic Weapon (it doesn't add a separate enhancement bonus, it increases the existing one), and would allow a character to have a weapon that counts as epic (+6) pre-epic.

These feats do also scale in a way, in that the more you pile onto a weapon, the more each additional plus costs. Adding a +1 to a nonmagical weapon is adding 2000 GP of value, but adding +1 to a +5-equivalent weapon is adding 22000 GP of value. I'm not certain that it's enough scaling, though.

And I was considering making the first special ability one changeable each day, but I suspect that if I did that, the best choice would always be Bane (the creature type we expect to meet today). By making it changeable at the same time as opening up +2 options, it gives Bane some competition, and makes the choices more interesting.