Effect of changing bane enhancement?

[gooddragon1]

If a weapon with the bane enhancement instead did double damage (just roll the damage and multiply by 2) against a creature would that make it too powerful?

This would function only for damage that is multiplied normally by critical hits. The multiplier stacks with other multipliers using the normal additive method (x2+x2 = x3).

[tyckspoon]

It'd make sources of temporary/alterable Bane overpowered; Raptor Arrows and the Artificer's weapon enhancement infusion would both become even better (and they're already considered pretty good for their Bane: Whatever I'm Fighting abilities.) The actual Bane property itself, on the other hand, wouldn't be much better, because it still has the main problem of doing nothing at all for you if the Bane you have doesn't apply; it'd still only be something you pick up when you want a special weapon to off the BBEG or you have knowledge that like 60-70% of your enemies for a campaign are going to be of a certain type. (And on the third hand, if you *are* in that situation, making Bane be a cheap damage-doubler is back into being overpowered.)

[ericgrau]

Well bane is best on arrows so you can switch it; it's worse on melee where bane is usually a waste of an enchant. If you had arrows with colission, +10 composite and +5 that adds up to 1d8+20 on a longbow. The extra damage from doubling that equals 7d6 when regular bane is as good as 4d6. But it takes a lot of work to get a bow that good, so early on it would be worse than regular bane.

It adds a little more on melee, but not enough to make melee bane worth it. Maybe if over 1/8th your foes are the right type it could be worth it, but preferably it'd be 1/6th to 1/4th. On high optimization builds it adds a lot more, but then melee is one shotting foes anyway so it doesn't matter.

Overall it looks like a small increase in damage compared to the old bane.

[ksbsnowowl]

The one other consideration, corner-case as it may be, is that Bane is the only way inside Core to overcome DR X/Epic.

There are monsters that are ~ CR 20 - 22 that have DR/Epic. These kinds of monsters could routinely be used as Boss monsters at levels 18-20. Being prepared and researching your enemy, as well as investing a little cash in a +1 Bane greatsword, plus a GMW spell, allows you to overcome its DR.

Your alteration to Bane would eliminate this possibility.

[Diarmuid]

I definitely dont think it could remain a +1 enhancement.

Think about the ubercharger builds that are built around stacking multipliers for damage and you're looking to simply give them another one for free.

Double weapon damage vs +2 hit/dmg and +2d6 dmg. I'm not sure if where I'd place it as an enhancement bonus, but then again I dont think I'd even allow it at all.