Are there any sources for non-magical weapon augmentations?

[aleucard]

As long as it is not just a different material and is applied to the weapon itself rather than being a different item attached to the weapon, I'm all ears. Any sources of this sort of thing that aren't official are alright, but official is preferred. I am willing to take 3e stuff if needed, but 3.5 is a priority. Thanks for the help!

[Darrin]

As long as it is not just a different material and is applied to the weapon itself rather than being a different item attached to the weapon, I'm all ears. Any sources of this sort of thing that aren't official are alright, but official is preferred. I am willing to take 3e stuff if needed, but 3.5 is a priority. Thanks for the help!

What exactly are you looking for? A weapon property, like Flaming or Frost? Or a +1 on something?

[Fouredged Sword]

I suggest you steal directly from AvatarD20. It is completely compatible with 3.5 without modification and allows for some really cool mundane weapon modification.

Your legendary sword of awesomeness is forged by someone who made it awesome, not forged by Joe the blacksmith then enchanted out the wazzoo by some random wizard with EXP to burn.

[Grinner]

Wasn't there something like this in one of the Dragon Magazines? It was the issue with the Chess monsters, I think. There were a number of non-magical upgrades, like special hilts, sharpening, fullers/blood grooves, etc.

Edit: Monte Cook made something similar. The exact sourcebook doesn't come to mind at the moment.

[Bronk]

Yeah, that was from Dragon 358... There was a bunch of stuff in there, like 'serrated' and 'razor sharp'. There are also 'mercurial' weapons from the Arms and Equipment Guide, and 'quicksilver and iron filled', although I forget where that's from. I think the idea for all of those is that they are properties of the base weapon that can be included while it's being made, not as add-ons later though. Maybe 'serrated' could be added later...?

[Bakkan]

Complete Scoundrel has alchemical vials of some kind that you can attach to your weapon and release as a swift action to deal +1d6 energy damage for a round.

Dungeon Master's Guide II has nonmagical weapon and armor templates, like feycrafted.

[Gavinfoxx]

There are toonnsss of ways to get weapons to be better without making them magical in 3.5e

I'm partial to a

Ornate, Oerthblood, Pure Ore, Razor Sharp, Folded Metal, Serrated, Perfect Balance, Acid Washed, Dwarvencraft, Gloryborn, Item of Legend, Baatorian Green Steel (with a Duskwood haft) Guisarme

It'd be expenive as all get-out, but REALLY awesome. And nonmagical, with no magic associated with it's creation.

[WebTiefling]

There are toonnsss of ways to get weapons to be better without making them magical in 3.5e

I'm partial to a

Ornate, Oerthblood, Pure Ore, Razor Sharp, Folded Metal, Serrated, Perfect Balance, Acid Washed, Dwarvencraft, Gloryborn, Item of Legend, Baatorian Green Steel (with a Duskwood haft) Guisarme

It'd be expenive as all get-out, but REALLY awesome. And nonmagical, with no magic associated with it's creation.

You do realize that some of those are mutually exclusive, don't you? Duskwood, for example, needs to takes the place of the blade to be effective, which means it can't also be folded metal, Acid-Washed, Pure Ore, Baatorian Green Steel, or Dwarvencraft.

[Gavinfoxx]

You do realize that some of those are mutually exclusive, don't you? Duskwood, for example, needs to takes the place of the blade to be effective, which means it can't also be folded metal, Acid-Washed, Pure Ore, Baatorian Green Steel, or Dwarvencraft.

Hence the word haft. Its the wooden pole part, that happens to be made of super-wood just because we can, not to have a game effect, but for the bling.

[Slipperychicken]

I recall that Dungeonscape contains a lot of non-magical weapon add-ons like secret compartments, and even modifications which allow a weapon to function as a holy symbol or automatically spray a weapon oil/poison onto the weapon.

[Gavinfoxx]

I recall that Dungeonscape contains a lot of non-magical weapon add-ons like secret compartments, and even modifications which allow a weapon to function as a holy symbol or automatically spray a weapon oil/poison onto the weapon.

There are a few of those, I think two sets, One in complete scoundrel as well I think.

[aleucard]

What exactly are you looking for? A weapon property, like Flaming or Frost? Or a +1 on something?

All of those are magical. I'm more thinking along the lines of things from Fouredged Sword's link (thanks for that, by the way).

Calling out Dragon #358 would be helpful if there was a place I could actually look at the material. Not so much without that, though.

The templates from DMG2 are interesting, though not quite what I was looking for.

Gavinfoxx, where are you getting all those modifiers from? A link would be nice, that sounds like it's precisely the sort of thing I'm looking for.

[Gavinfoxx]

Okay...

Oerthblood (Dragon 351 p45)
Pure Ore (Dragon 347 p47)
Aurorum (BoED, 38)
Dragonbone (Draco, p117)
Dragonfang (Draco, 117)
Hizagkur (MoF, p179)
Katori Resin (FF, p110)
Pandemic Silver (CW, p136)
Thinaun (CW, p136)
Adamantine (SRD)
Darksteel (MoF, 178)
Deep Crystal (SRD)
Fever Iron (MoF, p178)
Flametouched Iron (ECS, p127)
Pearlsteel (SW, p128)
Starmetal (CA)
Bronzewood (ECS, p127)
Gold (MoF, p179)
Livewood (ECS, p127)
Obdurium (SBG, p35)
Platinum (MoF, p180)
Riverine (SW 128)
Serren (BoED, 38)
Zalantar (MoF, p180)
Abyssal Bloodiron (PH, 69)
Darkwood (SRD)
Densewood (ECS, p127)
Dlarun (MoF, p178)
Duskwood (MoF, p178)
Frystalline (BoED, 38)
Gehennan Morghuth-Iron (A&E 14)
Living Metal (MoF, p180)
Solarian Truesteel (BoED, 38 A&E 12)
Elvencraft (RoW, p166)
Long Range (Dragon 358 p42)
Oil Chamber (DS, p33)
Razor Sharp (Dragon 358 p42)
Wand Champer (DS, p34)
Weapon Capsule Container, Triple (CA, 121)
Weapon Capsule Retainer (CA, p122)
Basket Hilt (Dragon 358 p39)
Disguised (Dragon 316, p40)
Ornate (Dragon 358 p42)
Quicksilver/Iron-Filled (Dragon Annual 5, p28)
Serrated (Dragon 358 p43)
Enhanced Bracing (Dragon 358 p40)
Folded Metal (Dragon 358 p40)
Folding (Dragon 316, p40)
Hollow Hilt (DS, p33)
Perfect Balance (Dragon 358 p42)
Acid Washed (Dragon 358 p39)
Blood Groove (Dragon 358 p39)
Deceptive (Dragon 358 p40)
Dwarvencraft (RoS, p159)
Resilient (Dragon 358 p42)
Feycraft (DMG II, p274)
Githcraft (DMG II, p276)
Gloryborn (DMG II, p277)
Hellforged (DMG II, p277)
Pitspawn (DMG II, p278)
Soulforged (DMG II, p279)
Item of Renown (DWotL, p23)
Item of Fame (DWotL, p23)
Item of Glory (DWotL, p23)
Item of Legend (DWotL, p23)

[SinsI]

One word:
Poison

[Skevvix]

Okay...

snip!

Holy cow, thank you for this! I'm saving this right meow.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Kaorti Resin changes the crit multiplier to x4, regardless of what it was before, and keeps the original threat range.

[aleucard]

One word:
Poison

Poison's a single-use-only application of a mediocre Fort Save debuff/SoD, and for most you don't even see half/the majority of the effect (how many people last 10 rounds in a fight unless your party has no business fighting them in the first place?). Unless you got something that embeds the poison into the weapon itself (and thus makes it treated as poisoned all the time), then that don't work.

[Slipperychicken]

Poison's a single-use-only application of a mediocre Fort Save debuff/SoD, and for most you don't even see half/the majority of the effect (how many people last 10 rounds in a fight unless your party has no business fighting them in the first place?). Unless you got something that embeds the poison into the weapon itself (and thus makes it treated as poisoned all the time), then that don't work.

Well, you could get an Oil Chamber from Dungeonscape. That lets you apply a weapon oil (or poison) you previously loaded into the chamber as a swift action. Automatically exposes the wielder to it, so you're best off using something you're immune to, injury poisons (not contact poisons: those would hurt you), or oils like Trollbane. A pretty decent deal at +1,000gp.

Actually, Drow knockout poison would be good for an oil chamber. It gives a lot of bang for your buck (for 75 gold, you could do worse than DC 13 Fort/Unconsciousness), and it's an injury poison, so getting it sprayed on your hands doesn't hurt you.

[aleucard]

Well, you could get an Oil Chamber from Dungeonscape. That lets you apply a weapon oil (or poison) you previously loaded into the chamber as a swift action. Automatically exposes the wielder to it, so you're best off using something you're immune to, injury poisons (not contact poisons: those would hurt you), or oils like Trollbane. A pretty decent deal at +1,000gp.

Actually, Drow knockout poison would be good for an oil chamber. It gives a lot of bang for your buck (for 75 gold, you could do worse than DC 13 Fort/Unconsciousness), and it's an injury poison, so getting it sprayed on your hands doesn't hurt you.

A DC that low means that it'll only be useful until around level 5 at latest; past that, I'd have to both use absurd amounts of doses and rely on the "Nat. 1 is Auto-Failure" ruling in order to have any chance of it setting off, and the cash thrown down the rathole for this adds up. If I save it for the really important fights, they're liable to have even higher fort saves than normal, too. Again, unless if there's something to permanently dose a weapon in the poison that would function in an AMF, then poisons aren't of interest to me. Nor are things that just let me apply it faster (granted, this does help if I ever have to use poisons, but the basic issues apply).

[Gavinfoxx]

So OP and people who used that list -- did you get anything useful from that?

[Slipperychicken]

A DC that low means that it'll only be useful until around level 5 at latest; past that, I'd have to both use absurd amounts of doses and rely on the "Nat. 1 is Auto-Failure" ruling in order to have any chance of it setting off, and the cash thrown down the rathole for this adds up. If I save it for the really important fights, they're liable to have even higher fort saves than normal, too. Again, unless if there's something to permanently dose a weapon in the poison that would function in an AMF, then poisons aren't of interest to me. Nor are things that just let me apply it faster (granted, this does help if I ever have to use poisons, but the basic issues apply).

The idea isn't to work all the time in every fight: just that you can get a save-or-lose effect really cheaply in addition to whatever else you were doing. It might only work 5-15% of the time, but that's still a good deal if you use it judiciously. Also, 75gp per strong opponent is a negligible sum after 3rd level or so, and you have full control over the amount you want to spend on poison.

[SinsI]

Poison's a single-use-only application of a mediocre Fort Save debuff/SoD, and for most you don't even see half/the majority of the effect (how many people last 10 rounds in a fight unless your party has no business fighting them in the first place?). Unless you got something that embeds the poison into the weapon itself (and thus makes it treated as poisoned all the time), then that don't work.

OP was asking for non-magical weapon augmentation, and this means the only known augmentation that exists in real life. And it is as lousy as you say; that's why people go for magical augmentation.
And let's look at it in another way: if poisons in D&D were any better, the players would have to face opponents that use them, too.

[Vizzerdrix]

So OP and people who used that list -- did you get anything useful from that?

I'm still looking it over, but you could get a mini handbook out of that I think.

[Slipperychicken]

And let's look at it in another way: if poisons in D&D were any better, the players would have to face opponents that use them, too.

I'm honestly starting to think poisons should deal hp damage-over-time, like they do in almost every other game which uses poisons. Maybe fortitude/half, but fortitude-negates is what really kills poisons (that, and WotC doling out poison immunity like it was candy on Halloween).

[deuxhero]

There's always psionic minor creation for poison use. Loads of poison for free and you can get the ability with a single feat (that qualifies you for other nifty stuff)

[PraxisVetli]

Capnq's not here, so I'll say it for him.
In his sig, he has this funky named Encyclopedia of stuffs, this included.

[One Step Two]

Okay...
Item of Renown (DWotL, p23)
Item of Fame (DWotL, p23)
Item of Glory (DWotL, p23)
Item of Legend (DWotL, p23)

I'm not familiar with the abbreviation here, could you elaborate which books this is?

[Gavinfoxx]

Dragonlance War of the Lance