[3.5] Best arrangements for (non-epic) magic weapon/armor enhancements

[Extra Anchovies]

Preface: for the entirety of this post, I'm ignoring weapons with total enhancement bonuses (including special qualities) greater than +10, as well as those with enhancement bonuses (ignoring special qualities) greater than +5.

1. With magical armor, is it best to have the full +5 enhancement bonus to AC and be limited to 5 points' worth of special qualities, or is it sometimes worth sacrificing a point or two of AC in favor of adding on another potentially useful quality? A lot of mileage can be gotten out of the qualities that only add to the gp cost (energy resistance, easy landing, that sort of thing), but some of the really, really useful qualities cost a +5 bonus. Are there abilities that take up a +1 bonus that are worth tossing on next to one of the big protectors like Proof Against Transmutation or Freedom? Ghost Ward springs to mind, but I don't know of any others.

2. Same question with weapons. Is it worth giving up +1 attack/damage to add, say, Ghost Touch to a weapon that's already decked out with 5 points of special qualities?

3. Do any of you have suggestions for pairs or groups of special abilities that function well together? One such pairing that I recently came across is Seeking and Blood Seeking on a ranged weapon; between the two of them, you can fire at opponents with total cover and/or concealment (e.g. around corners, invisible, etc) and they get neither a miss chance nor a bonus to AC.

[Fax Celestis]

In almost every instance, it is better to get a new ability than a new plus. The "optimal" distribution is then +9 abilities, +1 enhancement.

Why, you say? Because there are myriad numbers of ways to get additional damage and attack, but a limited number of ways to get special abilities. Plus, magic weapon and magic vestment can overlap and overwrite the item's intrinsic enhancement bonus, so you can effectively end up with a +9/+5.

[Phelix-Mu]

Also keep in mind that multiple weapons is often a more efficient (if less flavorful or more cumbrous) way of doing things. Magic weapons get expensive very fast; the math is quite aggressive, and if the [probably mundane] character is able to shell out big-time for the effective +10 weapon, it's a fair bet that they'd be better off spending at least some of that wealth elsewhere.

So, a couple things to consider:

1.) A couple WSAs are really good, but only work when the weapon is in-hand/being wielded. Thus, if you want that ability, you have to put it on the primary weapon.

2.) DR-mitigation: Any mundane engaged significantly in combat with the intent of inflicting hp-damage will need to consider this foremost among their concerns. Aside from spells that solve the problem (there are many that grant specific metal/alignment traits to a weapon temporarily), the various alignment WSAs, the metalline ability, the transmuting ability, and the ToM version of the shadowstriking ability are the primary ways to handle this. Each has pros and cons, but, unless there is some other reason to need everything on a specific weapon, it is way cheaper to use multiple weapons (like carrying a magic adamantine weapon and a magic silver weapon instead of getting metalline).

3.) Elemental Effects: Some of the other effects follow this format, but many of the basic +1 equivalent WSAs take a standard action to activate. This is very problematic from a combat action economy perspective (especially for mundanes, already hard-strapped for ways to milk action economy). Beware that you aren't saddling your weapon with multiple effects that you will never have time to activate. In the same vein, avoid situational WSAs or those that are useful, but which conflict with each other (like using flaming and frost on the same weapon...each is most useful when the other isn't...there are a couple better examples, but I can't think of them off the top of my head).