Universal Energy Weapon Enhancement (+5 enhancement)

[gooddragon1]

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[Darth Ultron]

I think this is the wrong way to go.

The ''Half the damage from each of these energy types ignores resistance and immunity'' is not only wrong from the flavor point of view....like ok so the um fire on the weapon is so special it hurts fire elementals, but it encourages the counter of ''oh this ability alloys a creature to be resistant/immune to even things that would over come normal resistance and immunity...sigh, but maybe worst of all it's such a tiny bit of damage that it's annoying to keep track off.

The same is true with the critical hit thing...so again the hit is so ''critical'' that creatures immune to ''normal'' critical hits are effected. And you get the same not making sense for a lot of creatures and the counter ability of ''oh this creature is immune to even the special critical hit that can hit normal critical hit creatures'' (sigh).

Also it kind of makes no sense to say hit a fire giant with a [fire] effect....when you know that a [cold] effect will do more damage anyway....

I'd go more ''the weapon can sense the protections/immunities/resistances and will always change it's energy to the one the creature is least protected by or venerable too.

Also, just go for the 6d6 burst of energy on a ''critical hit'', like ''if this weapon strikes on a 20, a second roll is made and if that roll hits it discharges 6d6 energy.

[gooddragon1]

I think this is the wrong way to go.

The ''Half the damage from each of these energy types ignores resistance and immunity'' is not only wrong from the flavor point of view....like ok so the um fire on the weapon is so special it hurts fire elementals, but it encourages the counter of ''oh this ability alloys a creature to be resistant/immune to even things that would over come normal resistance and immunity...sigh, but maybe worst of all it's such a tiny bit of damage that it's annoying to keep track off.

The same is true with the critical hit thing...so again the hit is so ''critical'' that creatures immune to ''normal'' critical hits are effected. And you get the same not making sense for a lot of creatures and the counter ability of ''oh this creature is immune to even the special critical hit that can hit normal critical hit creatures'' (sigh).

Also it kind of makes no sense to say hit a fire giant with a [fire] effect....when you know that a [cold] effect will do more damage anyway....

I'd go more ''the weapon can sense the protections/immunities/resistances and will always change it's energy to the one the creature is least protected by or venerable too.

Also, just go for the 6d6 burst of energy on a ''critical hit'', like ''if this weapon strikes on a 20, a second roll is made and if that roll hits it discharges 6d6 energy.

How about it senses resistances and changes resisted energy to an energy type the target is vulnerable to favoring weaknesses first. If resistance is against all types, it deals 3d6 untyped energy instead. Extra 1d6 for each with shifting on natural 20 or 3d6 untyped if necessary.

[nonsi]

.
What you're suggesting would make things boring.
Just make it 5 damage dice with the option of using a full round action to re-assign how many dice go to which damage Type? (persistet for 24 hours or until re-assigned - whichever comes first).
On a crit - just roll another 5d6, using the same distibution.

The above would require players to remain alert.

[Lalliman]

The partial ignoring of damage resistance is definitely silly, not only because it's annoying to to keep track of, but also because the weapon already has a more intuitive way to be effective against resistant targets, simply from the fact that it deals multiple damage types. In theory, it should be at least somewhat effective against everything.

Emphasis on "in theory". The "1d6 damage of every type" gimmick would probably serve its intended purpose in 5e, but it doesn't go well with 3e's flat energy resistance. There are various high level creatures with ER 5 or so to all or most energy types. Against such a creature, this weapon does nothing.

So wouldn't the way to fix that be to just... let the player choose what type to deal? They can spread their d6s out across the elements or deal up to 5d6 of the same element.

That's basically Darth Ultron's suggestion, except the weapon doesn't do it by itself. Because why would it? Having a weapon that figures out the target's weaknesses on autopilot doesn't seem very fun. You'll never have to think about resistances again, because your DM will be forced to always tell you what the creature's weakest resistance is and automatically let the weapon deal damage of that type. It takes away your agency, in a way.

Edit: nonsi ninja'd me.

[gooddragon1]

Good points. Manual assignment of dice. But it's a +5 weapon enhancement. How about you can also have another option to shift into just +2 to damage instead of a 1d6? So you can pick between the 5 energy types or a +2 damage which would multiply on a critical by default.

[Darth Ultron]

How about it senses resistances and changes resisted energy to an energy type the target is vulnerable to favoring weaknesses first. If resistance is against all types, it deals 3d6 untyped energy instead. Extra 1d6 for each with shifting on natural 20 or 3d6 untyped if necessary.

Untyped energy is a bit broken, so I would not use that.

[Morphic tide]

Okay, the current version is still wonky. Here's a mechanically identical setup, with fewer clauses:

Universal Energy

Upon command, a universal energy weapon is sheathed in any combination of Fire, Acid, Ice, Electricity and Sonic energy. This energy deals a total of 5d6 damage, splitting d6s of damage between active energy types in any way desired, or be converted to 2 damage instead of 1d6 of an energy type. If a creature attacked by the weapon has resistance to one or more active energy type, then the damage of those energy type(s) is converted to any energy type(s) of the user's choice that is not resisted. On a successful critical hit, a universal energy weapon's additional damage is multiplied by 2. This enhancement's additional damage is also applied to projectiles fired from the weapon itself.

Strong evocation; CL 18th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, acid arrow, fireball, ice storm, lightning bolt, and shout; Price +5 bonus.

Special:
If the weapon has an enhancement bonus equivalent enhancement that adds one or more energy damage types able to be dealt by this enhancement, you may remove that enhancement to reduce the crafting price of this enhancement by the enhancement bonus equivalent. For instance, an enhancement that causes attacks to deal additional Fire damage that has a price of +2 bonus can be removed in the addition of this enhancement to make this enhancement's crafting cost equal to a +3 bonus.

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Not useful for crit-fishing, but few Enhancements are.

[gooddragon1]

Okay, the current version is still wonky. Here's a mechanically identical setup, with fewer clauses:

Universal Energy

Upon command, a universal energy weapon is sheathed in any combination of Fire, Acid, Ice, Electricity and Sonic energy. This energy deals a total of 5d6 damage, splitting d6s of damage between active energy types in any way desired, or be converted to 2 damage instead of 1d6 of an energy type. If a creature attacked by the weapon has resistance to one or more active energy type, then the damage of those energy type(s) is converted to any energy type(s) of the user's choice that is not resisted. On a successful critical hit, a universal energy weapon's additional damage is multiplied by 2. This enhancement's additional damage is also applied to projectiles fired from the weapon itself.

Strong evocation; CL 18th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, acid arrow, fireball, ice storm, lightning bolt, and shout; Price +5 bonus.

Special:
If the weapon has an enhancement bonus equivalent enhancement that adds one or more energy damage types able to be dealt by this enhancement, you may remove that enhancement to reduce the crafting price of this enhancement by the enhancement bonus equivalent. For instance, an enhancement that causes attacks to deal additional Fire damage that has a price of +2 bonus can be removed in the addition of this enhancement to make this enhancement's crafting cost equal to a +3 bonus.

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Not useful for crit-fishing, but few Enhancements are.

Shouldn't only the damage dice be multiplied by 2 on a critical hit since the bonus damage would already by multiplied by default? Also, is having automatic conversion of energy types when encountering resistance away from the resistance too strong?

Otherwise that does look better.