The Best Mundane Sword

[Alistaroc]

How could one create the absolute best sword in Pathfinder, without magic? I know of course you can have a +5 sword, but barring that, I know of Masterwork for +1 attack, and the Spheres of Might Blacksmith has a maintenance ability that's almost what I'm looking for but not quite. Material-wise there's pretty much only Elysian Bronze or True Crystal for really awesome materials.

Is there something I'm missing, or is a True Crystal/Elysian Bronze Masterwork sword the best one can get without magic?

[Florian]

That actually depends on your class and whether you're using VMC or not, even before we take archetypes into account.

I think a Fighter (Weapon Master) VMC Magus with Warrior Spirit clocks in at around +16 with a regular weapon.

[Alistaroc]

I guess I wasn't really clear, I was just citing the SoM Blacksmith as someone that can improve mundane weapons, but it's not what I want as it's not permanent, it's the character rather than the sword. I'm looking for ways to permanently and nommagically improve it.

[Crake]

3.5 has a lot of resources for mundanely improving weapons, along with a wide slew of awesome special materials. Pathfinder seems to sorely lack anything truly interesting in that department unfortunately.

[Yanisa]

If you delve a bit deeper in pathfinder sources there are a lot of materials... but most of them are only situational useful.

I did find Horacalcum, which adds a +1 circumstance bonus on attack rolls, which stacks with the +1 enchantment bonus from being masterwork. Making it one of the most useful all around weapons.

Another interesting one is Siccatite, which either deals 1 fire or 1 cold damage to you and your target. The one damage to yourself can be handled in multiple ways, but it requires investment besides the weapon to be fully useful. (And also some enemies might be immune to it...)

Inubrix is another one that doesn't work all around, and even hurts with less damage and attack penalties. But the ability to fully ignore iron and steel armor can be a huge boosts in numbers.

All three btw come from the same adventure path: Shards of Sin... So maybe it's just that adventure that added useful material and maybe there is more in the setting that makes it more annoying to use. I just looked trough this list (http://aonprd.com/SpecialMaterials.aspx).

[Lotheb]

You could add a weapon modification http://aonprd.com/EquipmentWeapons.aspx?Proficiency=Mod
All of them are expensive for what they do, and they change the proffieciencies required for the weapon, and you can only apply one to a weapon, but they are permanent, mundane, and make a weapon slightly stronger

[Ninjaxenomorph]

The materials Yanisa mentioned are all skymetals, so they're also in the Technology Guide. But aside from special materials, the equipment modifications from AA2 is the only way to modify a weapon nonmagically. You can take feats to not make it exotic, however.

[Cyrocloud]

Technology can be used to improve weapons to a certain extent, like a gravity clip (I think there was a super glue thing too, or maybe an alchemical super glue that could probably be applied to the weapon for some shenanigans).

3.5 introduced wand chambers to be added to weapons, so you can use a wand with the same hand as a weapon, I guess that is a pretty big improvement, but I don't think that is what you are looking for.

[Florian]

@Alistaroc:

That was just showcasing how far you can take a standard weapon without using Spheres.

@Yanisa:

That AP features a setting-specific article about so-called "Skymetalls",materials that are not commonly found on Golarion but rathe exist either in meteors, are off-world imports or happen in Numeria. Neither Mitra nor Adamantine are Elf and Dwarf specific in this setting, thus very rare.

[upho]

As mentioned, weapon mods are the only things outside special materials which may improve weapons. Note also that while most of them are overpriced garbage from an optimization POV, some can grant very significant advantages to specific builds. For example, a Versatile Weapon (monk group) can be used with Ascetic Style, which in turn can enable tons of effective/interesting/odd combos. Such as casting strong jaw on a butchering axe wielded by an enlarged combatant with the Vital Strike feat chain, increasing the maximum weapon damage die size with an additional +2d6, or +8d6 with Greater Vital Strike.

Also, note that the EWP requirement resulting from modifying martial weapons can often be made a non-issue by taking a leak COWPIS (cracked opalescent white pyramid ioun stone (https://www.aonprd.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Ioun%20Stone%2 0Opalescent%20White%20Pyramid), 1,500 gp), preferably in a Wayfinder for cheap Weapon Focus (500 gp), as usual. Just remember to never open that wayfinder near people you want to be friends with, as the smell tends to make the attitudes of those nearby to plunge. That is of course unless your nearby friends happen to be minotaurs and the mood and season happen to be right, although in such a case the smell may instead cause dramatic attitude changes in the opposite direction, which can be at least as problematic but for very different reasons...


All three btw come from the same adventure path: Shards of Sin... So maybe it's just that adventure that added useful material and maybe there is more in the setting that makes it more annoying to use. I just looked trough this list (http://aonprd.com/SpecialMaterials.aspx).There are also a few less costly, mechanically clunky and/or Golarion-specific materials, such as Liquid Glass granting the weapon a slow self-reparation and +1 damage when at full hp (+800 gp), or Voidglass slashing or piercing weapons also gaining +1 damage (+1,000 gp).


That AP features a setting-specific article about so-called "Skymetalls",materials that are not commonly found on Golarion but rathe exist either in meteors, are off-world imports or happen in Numeria. Neither Mitra nor Adamantine are Elf and Dwarf specific in this setting, thus very rare.Huh? Is there some kind of "generic D&D fantasy setting" standard which says mithral and/or adamantine are "elf and dwarf specific" (whatever that means)?

And regardless, why would these metals be more rare in a setting which doesn't follow this standard, such as Golarion? If the existence of such elven/dwarven ties/monopolies has any impact on rarity at all, it seems to me the opposite is much more likely to be true. Meaning mithral and adamantine should be less rare in Golarion than in other generic fantasy settings where these elven/dwarven ties/monopolies exist, at least from the perspective of races other than elves or dwarves.

[grarrrg]

For example, a Versatile Weapon (monk group) can be used with Ascetic Style, which in turn can enable tons of effective/interesting/odd combos. Such as casting strong jaw on a butchering axe wielded by an enlarged combatant with the Vital Strike feat chain, increasing the maximum weapon damage die size with an additional +2d6, or +8d6 with Greater Vital Strike.

I'm not 100% that that actually works, but I do like big numbers (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?245496-PF-We-re-gonna-need-a-bigger-boat), and it sounds fun, so I'll allow it.

[Roadie]

For the actual type of sword, before you get to any of the material or customization stuff, you'll want either a falcata if your goal is total damage (there's some mathematical analyses out there that show that 19-20/x3 does the most average damage out of anything against CR-appropriate enemies), or any 18-20/x2 sword if your goal is maximum number of criticals (for critical feats or similar).