[PF1e] Scaling Magic Item at level 1?

[EisenKreutzer]

One of my players wants to play a samurai. Like, a 3rd Ed. Rokugan samurai. I pointed him towards the Path of War bushi, and he seems fine with it, but he would really like the upgradeable katana feature of that class. Its thematically appropriate, a samurai would never trade his masterwork katana for a +1 falchion off an orc after all.
I’m thinking of making his katana a scaling magic item. But I’m at a loss for what abilities to give it at what levels.
At what levels would a +1, +2 etc. bonus be appropriate for such a weapon?
Should I have the weapon cost him anything at lvl 1? That seems excessive, since it will be just a masterwork weapon for the first few levels.

Are there any obvious pitfalls to this idea that I’m missing?

[Kurald Galain]

Have you tried the Bladebound Magus archetype? It comes with a free scaling weapon.

Otherwise, I'd go with something like this,

Level 4: +1
Level 7: menacing or dueling
Level 10: keen or heartseeker
Level 12: +2
Level 15: holy or axiomatic
Level 16: +3
Level 19: speed or vorpal


Pluses deliberately kept low because Greater Magic Weapon is a common spell. And either adjust his loot downwards, or give the rest of the party something nice to compensate.

[Quertus]

Weapons of Legacy? True Believer? Or even rake the samurai's soul bit literally, and let him use Sculpt Self? Maybe combine all of the above?

[Psyren]

At what levels would a +1, +2 etc. bonus be appropriate for such a weapon?

There's two potential answers to this question:

1) If you're expecting the player to not spend any wealth on his weapon, borrow the Soulknife progression since you're using DSP anyway.

2) If you're expecting the player to put wealth into his weapon, use the slower progression from the core Paladin's Divine Bond, which stacks with any bonuses the player buys.

[EisenKreutzer]

There's two potential answers to this question:

1) If you're expecting the player to not spend any wealth on his weapon, borrow the Soulknife progression since you're using DSP anyway.

2) If you're expecting the player to put wealth into his weapon, use the slower progression from the core Paladin's Divine Bond, which stacks with any bonuses the player buys.

As always, you are awesome. I didn’t even think to look at the Soulknife or the Paladin!

[StSword]

It's probably not worth buying for just one character, but Interjection Games produced a book for scaling magic items-
One Bling to Rule Them All: Scaling Magical Items.

You can check out the Endzeitgeist review here (http://endzeitgeist.com/ezg-reviews-bling-rule-all-scaling-magical-items/), if anyone is curious.