Special Enchantment Requirements? (3.5)

[Frog Dragon]

I've never noticed this until recently (when it was pointed out in a PbP recruitment), but apparently a weapon must have a +1 enhancement bonus, of magical nature to have any sort of special abilities. This means no magic weapons that cost less than 8300 gp can have special qualities.
It seems to me that before level 7 or so, you're limited to the boring weapons with no special or flavorful abilities. Does this rule have balance value (I can certainly see why a Flaming Greatsword would be better than a +1 Greatsword)? How many people actually follow this?

So yeah, big wad of questions about a rule.

[Diarmuid]

My groups stand by those rules for the most part.

With the advent of the Magic Item compendium and Weapon Crystals, I think a lot of the "+1 weapons are boring" has been tossed aside.

That being said, I dont see a huge issue with a weapon that has nothing but a Flaming property but havent seen enough of a need to step outside the box to implement something like that.

[bokodasu]

We play by these rules, but I don't like them. Before a certain level, it means you can't use any of the fun enchantments, and after a certain level, it means all your good weapons have a useless yet pricey +1 to hit/damage.

Once I tried making the first +1 cost 1/2 price, but act as the full price for later enchantments. It was kind of more math than my players wanted to do, so since then I've just started everyone with a +1 weapon or armor of their choice. (But I like relatively high-magic campaigns, so YMMV.)

[ericgrau]

Ya there's one huge balance issue: a +1 weapon is pretty suck b/c you already get most of the benefit from it being masterwork, i.e. +1 AB. Allow a flaming greatsword and not only does the enchantment deal way more damage on average (1d6 vs. +1, same AB), it overcomes almost the only thing a +1 weapon has going for it: DR / magic.

Before level 7 you boost ability scores and AC while using level 1-2 potions. There are also a lot of cool minor magic items for around 2,000 gp. As said MIC adds even more. They're all surprisingly useful, but not as nuts as the spells and magic items that'll appear at higher levels. That's where the low level interesting gear comes from. Enjoy it while you can before you hit the damage fest. Carry over what you can into higher levels; you'll have a more fun and interesting game for your efforts.

[Frog Dragon]

Would it work better if you made DR/Magic require a magical enhancement bonus? That sounds like the best of both worlds to me. Making +1 have some use, yet give the lower level magic weapons a chance to be cool.

[true_shinken]

I think this rule is fine as is.

[Darrin]

I've never noticed this until recently (when it was pointed out in a PbP recruitment), but apparently a weapon must have a +1 enhancement bonus, of magical nature to have any sort of special abilities. This means no magic weapons that cost less than 8300 gp can have special qualities.

Augment crystals can help somewhat. Cheaper to buy a lesser crystal of energy assault than, say, add the frost property to a +1 weapon.

Using a special material or adding a templates can also help, and are genereally cheaper than another enhancement. For example, adding Pitspawned (DMGII) costs +1000 GP, and you get +2 to confirm criticals on that weapon. The DMGII also has several "Surge" type abilities that can be added for a fixed cost, usually +2000 GP.

Another option is to add some minor 1st or 2nd level spell effects. For example, a sword that grants a continuous longstrider effect costs +2000 GP per the DMG guidelines (duration is in hours, so no cost multiplier). A sword that casts faerie fire 1/day only costs +360 GP. Lesser restoration 1/day (as cast by a paladin) cost +720 GP. Glitterdust 1/day costs +2160 GP.

And if you can, always always always add a wand chamber (+100 GP, Dungeonscape). There are a bunch of low-level swift-action and immediate-action spells you can slip in as a wand.