Fixing Weapons and Armor [3.5]

[Baron Corm]

I've always been unsatisfied with the majority of armors and exotic weapons. The following is meant to boost weak armor types and exotic weapons, and delete ones that just don't need to be there. There should be a good reason to take any of the armor types, and all of the exotic armors and weapons should be worth a feat. Medium armors especially get the short end of the stick right now.

Shields also got an all-around boost, to make using a shield a more attractive idea. +2 to AC doesn't really compare to the increased damage from 2HF or 2WF, but +4 AC is starting to look attractive.

Light Armor

Armor	Cost	Armor Bonus	Max Dex Bonus	ACP	ASF	Speed Penalty	Weight
Padded	5 gp	+1	+8	-	5%	-	10 lb
Leather	10 gp	+2	+7	-1	10%	-	15 lb
Chain Shirt	100 gp	+4	+5	-2	20%	-	25 lb

Medium Armor

Armor	Cost	Armor Bonus	Max Dex Bonus	ACP	ASF	Speed Penalty	Weight
Chainmail	150 gp	+5	+4	-4	25%	-5 ft	30 lb
Breast Plate	250 gp	+6	+3	-5	25%	-5 ft	40 lb

Heavy Armor

Armor	Cost	Armor Bonus	Max Dex Bonus	ACP	ASF	Speed Penalty	Weight
Splint Mail	500 gp	+7	+2	-6	30%	-10 ft	40 lb
Full Plate	1,500 gp	+8	+1	-8	40%	-10 ft	50 lb

Shields

Shield	Cost	Shield Bonus	ACP	ASF	Speed Penalty*	Weight
Buckler	15 gp	+1	-	5%	-	5 lb
Light Wooden	3 gp	+1	-	5%	-	5 lb
Light Steel	9 gp	+2	-1	5%	-	6 lb
Heavy Wooden	7 gp	+3	-2	10%	-5 ft	10 lb
Heavy Steel	20 gp	+4	-3	15%	-5 ft	15 lb
Tower Wooden	15 gp	+5	-8	40%	-10 ft	30 lb
Tower Steel	30 gp	+6	-10	50%	-10 ft	45 lb

*If you combine a speed-lowering shield with a speed-lowering armor, you use the lower of the two modifications, rather than combining them.

Exotic Armor

Armor (Type)	Cost	Armor Bonus	Max Dex Bonus	ACP	ASF	Speed Penalty	Weight
Twist Cloth (Light)	15 gp	+1	-	-	-	-	5 lb
Leafweave Mail (Light)	250 gp	+4	+6	-1	10%	-0 ft	5 lb
Chitin (Medium)	200 gp	+5	+5	-2	20%	-	15 lb
Reinforced Leafweave Mail (Medium)	300 gp	+6	+4	-2	20%	-5 ft	15 lb
Dragonscale Armor (Heavy)	5,000 gp	+8	+2	-4	40%	-5 ft	45 lb
Stone Armor (Heavy)	2,500 gp	+10	+0	-10	50%	-10 ft	60 lb

Twist Cloth: You are treated as not wearing armor if you are proficient. Additionally, armor bonus (including enhancement bonuses) also applies to touch attacks, if you are proficient.
Leafweave Mail: Grants you the ranger's Camouflage ability. Changes color to match the surrounding flora. Does not function without plants in the surroundings.
Chitin: Grants you fast healing 1, if you are proficient and psionically focused.
Reinforced Leafweave Mail: Has the same properties as leafweave mail, but is reinforced with a wooden breastplate on the interior.
Dragonscale Armor: Grants energy resistance 20 to a certain type of energy, depending on the type of dragon scales used to make it.
Stone Armor: Grants you light fortification, if you are proficient.

Special Materials

You can skip this section if you just agree that any material can be made with any special material. Some justification follows.

Steeleaf - Can be applied to leafweave, having the same effects as mithral. Can be applied to leafweave differently, having the same effects as adamantine.

Great Wyrm Dragonscale - When scales are obtained from chromatic great wyrms, they function as adamantine. When obtained from metallic great wyrms, they function as mithral.

Mammoth Leather/Black Ironwood/Obsidian - Can be applied to leather/wood/stone, having the same effects as adamantine.

Light Leather/Yew/Sandstone - Can be applied to leather/wood/stone, having the same effects as mithral.

Exotic Weapons

Most of these already existed. I upgraded a few of them to be worth a feat. The last column is the type of proficiency you must already have in order to take the proficiency feat for that weapon. You must have proficiency in all weapons of that type.

Weapon	Hands	Cost	Dmg (M)	Critical	Range Increment	Weight	Dmg Type	Proficiency
Meteor Hammer	2H	25 gp	2d4	x2	-	10 lb	B/P	Martial
Shotput	2H/Thrown	60 gp	2d4	x3	20 ft	20 lb	B	Simple
Thinblade	1H	120 gp	1d6	18-20/x4	-	3 lb	S/P	Martial
Courtblade	2H	240 gp	2d6	19-20/x3	-	5 lb	S/P	Martial
Greathammer	2H	55 gp	2d10	x4	-	30 lb	B	Martial
Execution Axe	2H	105 gp	2d12	x3	-	25 lb	S	Martial
Double Flail	1H	60 gp	2d4	x2	-	10 lb	B/P	Simple
Heavy Double Flail	2H	90 gp	2d6	x2	-	20 lb	B/P	Martial
Waraxe	1H	30 gp	2d8	x3	-	8 lb	S	Martial
Sai	Light/Thrown	15 gp	1d6	x2	10 ft	2 lb	B/P	Simple
Shuriken	Light/Thrown	1 gp	1d2	18-20/x3	10 ft	1/2 lb	P	Simple
Bladebow	Ranged	250 gp	2d8	19-20/x4	90 ft	5 lb	P	Martial
Chakram	1H/Thrown	35 gp	1d8	x3	10 ft	3 lb	S	Martial
Whip	Light	1 gp	1d4	x2	-	2 lb	S	Simple
Dagger Whip	Light	16 gp	1d6	19-20/x2	-	3 lb	S	Simple

Meteor Hammer: Reach, but has no minimum range. Can be used to trip. +4 bonus to disarm. Treated as Light or 2H, whichever is more beneficial, if you are proficient. Non-spiked versions only deal bludgeoning damage.
Shotput: 1.5x Str to damage when thrown, 2x damage from Power Throw.
Thinblade: Treated as Light or 1H, whichever is more beneficial, if you are proficient.
Courtblade: Treated as Light, 1H, or 2H, whichever is most beneficial, if you are proficient.
Execution Axe: Critical hit multiplier is x4 if one damage die is the maximum roll, and x5 of both are.
Double Flail and Heavy Double Flail: Ignores 4 of the opponent's shield AC, if you are proficient. +2 bonus to disarm. Can be used to trip. Non-spiked versions only deal bludgeoning damage.
Waraxe: Deals 2d6 damage and can be wielded two-handed, if not proficient, as long as you are proficient with greataxes.
Sai: +8 bonus to disarm and sunder, doubled monk AC bonus (from class, not Wis).
Shuriken: In melee, critical is 19-20, x2.
Bladebow: Cannot be made into a composite bow.
Chakram: Treated as having the Returning property if you are proficient. Bounces to 1 creature within 10 feet of the original target before returning, at the same attack roll, if you are proficient.
Whip and Dagger Whip: Has a 15 foot reach, and no minimum range, but does not threaten an area and cannot be used to make attacks of opportunity. Can be used to trip. +6 bonus to disarm, and weapon size modifiers are not applied. Can be used to grab onto objects, if you are proficient. Putting a dagger on the end of the whip increases the damage and critical threat range, but removes the ability to grab onto objects.

Additional Homebrew and Houserules

Spoilered to save space and maintain focus on the new weapons and armor, these other options are also related to weapons and help create balance and realism.

Spoiler

Enchanted Weapon Quiver/Sheath/Holster/Pouch

A new item to help those with thrown weapons or arrows. It constantly produces a chosen type of thrown weapon or ammunition, with chosen enhancements. The weapon loses the enhancements the round after it leaves the quiver. The quiver costs twice as much as the enhancements it bestows, plus 2000 gp.

Redefining Masterwork

There is little reason to put more than a +1 enhancement bonus on an item, when you can get at least 1d6 damage for the same cost, and probably something better. That is why all enhancement bonuses are now considered to be nonmagical. You can apply them without being a spellcaster, though bestowing greater than the normal masterwork bonus requires the Craft Masterwork Arms and Armor feat, which has a prerequisite of Craft +6, and no caster level prerequisite. Your Craft skill must also be at least 3 times as large as the enhancement bonus you are applying.

To go along with this, a weapon can now have up to +10 worth of attack and damage enhancement.

This means, if you have a +10 sword and a +10 armor, and they get disjunctioned, you still have a +10 sword and a +10 armor. Most of the time, they will be less useful than magic ones, but you do get the attack bonus, and this allows for non-wizard-or-artificer crafting, which I quite like. Masterwork weapons function as mundane weapons against incorporeal creatures, and do not bypass damage reduction x/magic.

Related to this ruling is the idea that you can cast greater magic weapon on a +1 weapon with +9 abilities and get a +5 weapon with +9 abilities. I would put a stop to this practice by saying that anything greater than a +10 weapon is an epic weapon, which non-epic magic cannot create, no matter the method. A magic weapon spell will grant the most enhancement it can, up to a total +10 bonus for the weapon.

Fortification

Borrowing from Seerow's idea, fortification is now an AC bonus against attack rolls made for critical confirmation or precision damage. Light fortification is a +5 AC bonus, medium fortification is a +10 AC bonus, and heavy fortification is a +20 AC bonus.

Fortification from different sources may stack, up to a +20 maximum AC bonus. If your normal AC is hit, you are still dealt normal damage. A fortification bonus to AC functions in all other ways as an armor bonus to AC. It applies to flatfooted AC, but not touch AC, unless it is applied by something which applies to touch AC (such as having the Deflective Armor feat, with fortification on your armor).

Die Size Increases

To make them more intuitive, damage die size increases are modified. Whenever you increase your damage for any reason (including size increase) by either by one "size" or by one "step", go one step up on the following list. If a die size is not on this list, find the die size with the closest maximum damage to it, and go from there.

1	2d8	8d12
1d2	2d10	16d8
1d3	2d12	16d10
1d4	4d8	16d12
1d6	4d10	32d8
1d8	4d12	32d10
1d10	8d8	32d12
1d12	8d10	64d8

For die sizes above 64d8, follow the general rule of increasing the second number by 2, then going back to 8 and multiplying the first number by 2, when the second number reaches 12.

Animated Shields

Animated shields are extremely cheap for what they give, and contribute to sword-and-board fighters being highly underused. Therefore, the animated property is a +5 equivalent in this system, instead of a +2. If you want to use a shield as even an archer, it's only going to be half as good as a dedicated shieldbearer's.

[DragoonWraith]

Change "enhancement bonuses" from "enhancement" to "inherent". This goes well with the idea that they're not magical, and allows it to stack with Greater Magic Weapon. Make yourself a +5 Greatsword, and your Wizard buddy can cast GMW on it to make it +10. Probably still lackluster, but at least it's not still +5 and missing +4 worth of additional abilities.

I assume that despite being non-magical, the enhancement bonuses still count towards the +10 limit? Can you make a +10 weapon, just literally straight up +10?

Also, I'd suggest making the enhancement/inherent bonuses give +x to damage and attack. That makes them a lot more attractive.

[Baron Corm]

Originally Posted by DragoonWraith

Change "enhancement bonuses" from "enhancement" to "inherent". This goes well with the idea that they're not magical, and allows it to stack with Greater Magic Weapon. Make yourself a +5 Greatsword, and your Wizard buddy can cast GMW on it to make it +10. Probably still lackluster, but at least it's not still +5 and missing +4 worth of additional abilities.

I assume that despite being non-magical, the enhancement bonuses still count towards the +10 limit? Can you make a +10 weapon, just literally straight up +10?

Also, I'd suggest making the enhancement/inherent bonuses give +x to damage and attack. That makes them a lot more attractive.

I don't want it to stack with GMW. The new enhancement bonus is just like the old one, so it already gives + to attack and damage. The idea is that some people would now choose to make a +10 weapon, and some would stick with special weapon abilities. So yeah, you can make a +10 weapon now. I'll clarify that.

[Mark Hall]

The Mod Wonder: Reopened at creator request.

[bobthe6th]

as this was reopened I hope this won't be necromancy...

first, why kill spiked chain with a nerf bat? I was one of the actually worth it EWPs... and now I really don't see it. you spent a feat to add inclusive reach, and lose a bunch of damage on your glave. why?

additionaly I am sad to see a lack of a wip fix... so very sad.

and... what is with the exicutionars axe? I mean yes, it was a feat, but... 2-24, average 13 damage verses 2-12, average 7...

I would like to see more stuff added to EWs, rather then more flat damage. like adding a wip that has non inclusive reach out to 15ft, or somthing...

the armors look cool, but sort of limiting in what can be made. perhaps just make them more generic? It just feels odd in the massive D&D world their are only 7 kinds of armor.

the exotics are nice, I especially like the materials note.

with master working, it would be good to note that master work weapons don't help against ghosts... otherwise I like it.

[Baron Corm]

Originally Posted by bobthe6th

first, why kill spiked chain with a nerf bat? I was one of the actually worth it EWPs... and now I really don't see it. you spent a feat to add inclusive reach, and lose a bunch of damage on your glave. why?

Reinstated most of the other powers of the spiked chain. I probably left them out because it would mess up the table with all of the text. So I just moved the special qualities to a separate place.

Originally Posted by bobthe6th

additionaly I am sad to see a lack of a wip fix... so very sad.

Assuming you meant whip, I will work on one!

Originally Posted by bobthe6th

and... what is with the exicutionars axe? I mean yes, it was a feat, but... 2-24, average 13 damage verses 2-12, average 7...

6 damage is fair for a feat for sure. Possibly not even worth it if it didn't lead into other feats or ways to increase the damage, but the better crits should make it worth it.

Originally Posted by bobthe6th

I would like to see more stuff added to EWs, rather then more flat damage. like adding a wip that has non inclusive reach out to 15ft, or somthing...

Tried my best, would welcome some more ideas!

Originally Posted by bobthe6th

the armors look cool, but sort of limiting in what can be made. perhaps just make them more generic? It just feels odd in the massive D&D world their are only 7 kinds of armor.

I'm not qualified enough on the subject of medieval armor to know what else to put. It seems to me like the categories are pretty general, and would include a wide variety of armors. What other types did you have in mind?

Originally Posted by bobthe6th

the exotics are nice, I especially like the materials note.

Thank ya. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek but there you go.

Originally Posted by bobthe6th

with master working, it would be good to note that master work weapons don't help against ghosts... otherwise I like it.

Good idea! And thanks again for the critique .

[toapat]

Originally Posted by bobthe6th

*snip*

you outline a part of the iceberg, but miss alot:

the damage and critical ranges overall are abysmally balanced against other weapons. Why should i wield any other 1handed weapon when the Thinblade has a critical that makes the tarrasque squeal with joy, and is martial, thus being attained without problem.

Weapons in DnD were designed around a realistic depiction of a longsword, not storybook/fantasy depictions of weapons, such as shurikens, a prop commonly mistaken as a weapon

Armor:
the numerous sets of armor in the PHB/SRD account for all except Lamelar scale armor, a type of armor that could not accurately be judged because Lamelar was done in multiple ways that yielded varying levels of protection.
I think that Banded and Splint Mail were both badly balanced though

[Seerow]

I'm trying to figure out what this is supposed to fix.

[Baron Corm]

They each require a proficiency feat. You can't take the proficiency feat unless you already have proficiency with all weapons of the type in that column.

It fixes the fact that only a few types of armor or exotic weapons are ever chosen, in my experience. Those would be padded armor, mithral chain shirts, full plate mail, and spiked chains.

[toapat]

Originally Posted by Baron Corm

They each require a proficiency feat. You can't take the proficiency feat unless you already have proficiency with all weapons of the type in that column.

It fixes the fact that only a few types of armor or exotic weapons are ever chosen, in my experience. Those would be padded armor, mithral chain shirts, full plate mail, and spiked chains.

and there are reasons why those are the preferred armors and weapons.

The Spiked Chain has numerous benefits to being wielded, but itself requires alot of dedicated training to use

Characters who wear armor wear what their archtype wears because the classes were built to wear the archtypical armor. There are no Musketteer classes in DnD, so a breastplate will be more rare then a Paladin in fullplate or a Wizard in a Robe.

Mountain Plate, and the other Superheavyweight armors in Races of Stone, are more for flavor then for actual gameplay. The most useful armors from that expansion are Locking Full Plate (rarely) and the Gnomish Battle Cloak, a better version of the Animated Shield trick

[bobthe6th]

and the reason wasn't really fixed. spiked chain is used because it is THE BEST BFC for melee... I mean really, it dominates. but additional damage can be gotten for cheaper then a feat. at least 6 is nearly enough...

but the thin blade... um WTF? I missed that, skipping it thinking it was just another 18-20/x2.... but the crit is madness. keen you are dealing x4 3/10 swings, or about one out of three... TWF you swing like 6 a round...

[Seerow]

Personally I don't think that 18-20x4 crit is too outrageous for an exotic weapon. Yes it's something the game doesn't currently have, but it isn't going to totally destroy the game if it exists.

In my weapon/armor system, 1d6 18-20x4 would cost: 1 slot (damage) + 2 slots (crit range) + 4 slots (crit multiplier) + 1 slot (finessible) = 8 slots, which would be 1 slot overvalued for an exotic one handed weapon. But making it a normal one hander instead of finessible, or dropping the damage die down to a d4 would be fine.

[toapat]

Originally Posted by bobthe6th

and the reason wasn't really fixed. spiked chain is used because it is THE BEST BFC for melee... I mean really, it dominates. but additional damage can be gotten for cheaper then a feat. at least 6 is nearly enough...

but the thin blade... um WTF? I missed that, skipping it thinking it was just another 18-20/x2.... but the crit is madness. keen you are dealing x4 3/10 swings, or about one out of three... TWF you swing like 6 a round...

i know, DDO gives us the Falcata (incorrectly named a Khopesh) that has a 1d8 19-20x3 multiplier, it is the highest damage output 1handed weapon in the game, and when TWF as a Paladin, it outright curbstomps a Greataxe.

then they have the Sword of Shadow, a Greatsword which despite being released at launch, was able to hold its possition of Most Uber Ever by right of 2d6 18-20x3, then upping to 5d6 18-20x3

The chart of How to balance Weapons:

Critmultiplier\CritRange	18-20	19-20	20
x2	Scimitar, Rapier, Kukri, Great Crossbow, Falcion	Dagger, Shortsword, Longsword, Greatsword, Bastardsword, Crossbow, Hand, Light, Heavy	Who cares, all underpowered underflavored weapons
x3	(Crazyborked)	Falcata (OP)	Handaxe, Battle Axe, Dwarven War Axe, Greataxe, Shortbow, Longbow, Lance
x4	(NO)	-	Heavy Pick, Light Pick, Scythe

Originally Posted by Seerow

Personally I don't think that 18-20x4 crit is too outrageous for an exotic weapon. Yes it's something the game doesn't currently have, but it isn't going to totally destroy the game if it exists.

except that people dont typically get a good examination of how powerful some of the crit modifiers are, such as un/holy power. with just Improved Critical, that is a 28.5% chance of 4 Negative Levels without save, meaning in one attack action, you likely just shaved off +4 Attack bonus, AC, Saves, and a huge chunk of health from your opponent, if you do that on your first attack, then your opponent is less likely to dodge your third attack, get the 8% chance on the second attack to crit again, and your opponent wont survive your standard attack action

[Baron Corm]

I don't think a game where TWF paladins are the best meleers is an accurate judge for what would be good in PnP. I also don't think it's unbalanced compared to things spellcasters get, though playtesting might prove otherwise. I'm leaving it as-is for now.

Seerow, I looked at some of your weapons fixes, and liked your fortification change a lot. Makes more sense to me, given what AC is supposed to represent. I added it in, with some numbers changes. Hope that's alright.

[toapat]

Originally Posted by Baron Corm

I don't think a game where TWF paladins are the best meleers is an accurate judge for what would be good in PnP. I also don't think it's unbalanced compared to things spellcasters get, though playtesting might prove otherwise. I'm leaving it as-is for now.

Seerow, I looked at some of your weapons fixes, and liked your fortification change a lot. Makes more sense to me, given what AC is supposed to represent. I added it in, with some numbers changes. Hope that's alright.

except that paladin itself is supposed to be the highest single hit damage of all the core melee classes, hitting in the 1000s is within the possibility of core, paladins arent much better in DDO then rangers for average dps, they just spike really, really high., a greataxe in the same possition hits for a third less damage on average

[Quellian-dyrae]

Also have to agree that the thinblade is too much, and to a lesser extent the shuriken and bladebow. 18-20/X4 is basically +45% damage, shooting up to +90% with Improved Critical or Keen.

Although...I know I've heard about some Kaorti Resin or something that makes any weapon a X4, so I guess if that's in play it's fair enough...

The others all look good, although the glaive confuses me. Isn't a glaive a type of polearm?

[Baron Corm]

Originally Posted by toapat

except that paladin itself is supposed to be the highest single hit damage of all the core melee classes, hitting in the 1000s is within the possibility of core, paladins arent much better in DDO then rangers for average dps, they just spike really, really high., a greataxe in the same possition hits for a third less damage on average

You've gotta tell me what build you're referring to, otherwise I won't know. I know they can hit high damage charging on a mount with a lance, but I don't think that's what you're referring to. Something with Smite Evil maybe? And anyway, against a creature immune to critical hits, or even with just decent fortification, which is something an optimized character should certainly expect to face, the average damage could definitely swing in the favor of the greataxe (or execution axe). I don't know enough to compute the exact numbers.

Originally Posted by Quellian-dyrae

Also have to agree that the thinblade is too much, and to a lesser extent the shuriken and bladebow. 18-20/X4 is basically +45% damage, shooting up to +90% with Improved Critical or Keen.

Although...I know I've heard about some Kaorti Resin or something that makes any weapon a X4, so I guess if that's in play it's fair enough...

How much is a 19-20 weapon, and how would light or medium fortification affect this?

Originally Posted by Quellian-dyrae

The others all look good, although the glaive confuses me. Isn't a glaive a type of polearm?

Yeah, I think in the real world it means that, but I meant more of the type of weapon that Xena throws, a chakram I suppose? In Warcraft and some other places they call it a glaive, so that might have been on my mind. I'll change it to chakram to avoid confusion.

[toapat]

Originally Posted by Baron Corm

You've gotta tell me what build you're referring to, otherwise I won't know. I know they can hit high damage charging on a mount with a lance, but I don't think that's what you're referring to. Something with Smite Evil maybe? And anyway, against a creature immune to critical hits, or even with just decent fortification, which is something an optimized character should certainly expect to face, the average damage could definitely swing in the favor of the greataxe (or execution axe). I don't know enough to compute the exact numbers.

its not a build that PnP can replicate to the letter, but Smite Evil+Vow of Poverty (+8 Str)+Bull's Strength+2 STR tome+16 base +4 level strenght+GTWF+Overpowered weapon= Huge damage, and the reason it cant is because DDO doesnt follow 3.5 to the letter because 3.5 was not designed for an MMO, but it yields better, faster testing then in this game (just ask T.G.Oscar, he outright lifted his Radiant Servant of Pelor from DDO), such as how Smite evil damage is applied before critical multipliers. More specifically, the reason why anything better then a crit of 18-20x2 or 20x4 is overpowered is because it makes critical damage too effective.

The way I measured weapon effectiveness on the fly was using this formula: ((Crit Multiplier-1)*crit range)= Weapon Rating. A shuriken got a rating of 1, a Falcata gets a rating of 4, a great crossbow gets a rating of 3, a Heavy pick gets a rating of 3. Your Thinblade has a Weapon rating of 9.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Originally Posted by Baron Corm

How much is a 19-20 weapon, and how would light or medium fortification affect this?

19-20/X4 is +30% - about equal to a 20/X4 or an 18-20/X2 after getting Improved Critical. However, it stacks with Improved Critical, which would bring the total to +60%.

My advice would be to make it so exotic weapons whose main benefit is crit capability go to either 17-20/X2, 20/X5, or 19-20/X3. All of those are basically one crit step better than the normal 18-20/X2 or 20/X4. Of those, 19-20/X3 is probably the most balanced, since the 17-20 one is very attractive to people with on-crit abilities. The X5 one is not going to be too impressive most of the time...it's just that every so often, you'll utterly demolish whatever you're swinging at (but the thing is, that's often the case even with just X3 or X4).

Although your point about fortification reminds me, it's not really a flat damage boost due to the confirmation roll (so if you have a 50% chance to confirm, the percentage boost is halved). And then of course, fortification would reduce it more, once you're at a level where that becomes common.

Even so, there are effects (such as Bless Weapon or the less-limited Dolorous Blow) that can auto-confirm criticals, which would be very desirable with weapons with crit power that high (and which will, I suppose, ignore the effects of fortification with these modifications, since rather than being a percent immunity to crits, only makes them harder to confirm).

[Seerow]

Originally Posted by toapat

except that people dont typically get a good examination of how powerful some of the crit modifiers are, such as un/holy power. with just Improved Critical, that is a 28.5% chance of 4 Negative Levels without save, meaning in one attack action, you likely just shaved off +4 Attack bonus, AC, Saves, and a huge chunk of health from your opponent, if you do that on your first attack, then your opponent is less likely to dodge your third attack, get the 8% chance on the second attack to crit again, and your opponent wont survive your standard attack action

(Un)Holy Power is an Epic Enhancement that costs a massive +8 bonus and can only be put on an epic weapon. This means your absolute minimum cost for such a weapon is 2.4million gold pieces. Stuff from the ELH generally isn't worth even trying to balance against because so much of it is terrible and unbalanced. Also at the time any character has access to this, casters are using crazy metamagiced Enervation for more reliable and most likely heavier level drain anyway.

Provide an example of anything that becomes broken with an 18-20x4 crit that actually comes up in normal play, and I'll reconsider. But your example falls far short.



I mean just straight damage wise, assuming all of your damage is increased on a crit (not guaranteed by any means between weapon properties and special abilities giving bonus dice that don't improve on a crit), 18-20x4 is worth 38.1% increase in damage vs a 20x2 weapon. When compared to the more common 18-20x2 (what this would actually be an upgrade from, that you're spending a feat on), it is only a 22.43% increase.

If you want to argue Keen makes it worse, Keen makes the change between 18-20x2 and 18-20x4 up to a 46.15% increase in damage from the x2 to x4. (Note: All numbers are assuming a 95% crit confirm chance. Any lower amount will reduce the numbers and thus the percentage increases)

We're not talking break your game instantly kill everything ever like the damage multiplier charging feats, we're talking a pretty decent increase in average damage. Is it a fair bit of damage? Yes. That does not automatically make it broken. Especially when feats that say "Multiply your damage by 2" aren't exactly hard to come by, and can typically be used with weapons that are two handed and get better damage dice, reach, and other abilities. It's simply making a different style of fighter potentially viable.


Math in spoiler

Spoiler

18-20x4
15%: 4 (95%) 1 (5%)
80%: 1
5%: 0

Average: 1.3775

20x2
5%: 2 (95%) 1 (5%)
90%: 1
5%: 0

Average: .9975

18-20x2
15%: 2(95%) 1(5%)
80%: 1
5%: 0

Average: 1.0925


15-20x2
30%: 2(95%) 1(5%)
65%: 1
5%: 0

Average: 1.235

15-20x4
30%: 4(95%) 1(5%)
65%: 1
5%: 0

Average: 1.805

Edit: For what it's worth, I personally prefer Keen, Improved Crit, and similar effects, to be stackable, but only +1 each time rather than doubling each time.

Also for the above suggestion of 17-20x2 or 20x5, those come out to be (with keen) only a 7.69% increase above a 18-20x2 weapon. That's not worth a feat. I mean that's barely competitive with weapon specialization(a widely acknowledged bad feat) until you're managing 50 multipliable damage per hit (not as easy as you'd expect when dealing with a one handed weapon).



Edit2:

Originally Posted by Baron Corm

Seerow, I looked at some of your weapons fixes, and liked your fortification change a lot. Makes more sense to me, given what AC is supposed to represent. I added it in, with some numbers changes. Hope that's alright.

Yeah by all means, feel free to snag anything from there.

[Baron Corm]

Originally Posted by Quellian-dyrae

Even so, there are effects (such as Bless Weapon or the less-limited Dolorous Blow) that can auto-confirm criticals, which would be very desirable with weapons with crit power that high (and which will, I suppose, ignore the effects of fortification with these modifications, since rather than being a percent immunity to crits, only makes them harder to confirm).

I think using this method of fortification, these would give a bonus to overcome fortification AC instead. Or possibly just not exist, since I don't want rogues to be forced to UMD various spells, essentially making fortification useless if your enemy spends more gold than you. It's a vicious circle. But I'll keep thinking about this.

I've added some more 1-handers in, because I noticed that the only one I had was the thinblade, and added some extra properties to exotic armors to make them all more than just a +1 to AC. As they were just added, they're likely to be imbalanced, so I'd appreciate any feedback!

I'm also especially curious about what people think about having bludgeoning weapons ignore a portion of armor AC.