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View Full Version : Hunter's Focus weapon enchantment.



Aquillion
2008-07-09, 09:01 AM
Hunter's Focus
A weapon with this enchantment shows its power only in the hands of someone who has at least one Favored Enemy; for anyone else, Hunter's Focus does nothing.

When a hunter's focus weapon is made, its creator chooses one type of enemy that is potentially a valid Favored Enemy. Possession of that as a Favored Enemy at least once (or, more likely, the assistance of someone who has that as a favored enemy at least once) is necessary to create a Hunter's Focus weapon focused on that type of enemy.

Whenever someone with the Favored Enemy class feature wields a Hunter's Focus weapon, treat their basic Favored Enemy bonus to damage and skill checks as if they had selected the weapon's focused type of enemy at every opportunity. They lose their normal Favored Enemy bonus, gaining the new enemy instead for as long as they wield the weapon. (So, for instance, a 20th level ranger would get +10, as if they had selected the enemy five times, but would get no Favored Enemy bonus against anything else.)

If a character wields multiple Hunter's Focus weapons at once, they must choose one to take effect, but they can change this as a standard action.


...so, anyway, what plus do you people think this is equivilent to? Obviously, the +10 to damage and skill checks that a 20th level ranger gets seems like a lot, but you'd be buying the weapon just for dealing with one type of creature... One problem is that the weapon "scales", which is good on one hand but also makes it hard to price. I also like how it gives a Ranger with a limited/setting-specific favored enemy selection some sort of option when dealing with a new threat (say, if a game that was previously focused heavily on undead suddenly goes after aberrations for a while instead.)

Another possibility would be to have "lesser", "greater", and "true" hunter's focus weapons, each of which converts a differing amount of your Favored Enemy bonus (e.g. a Lesser one would make you lose all previous favored enemy bonus while wielded and convert up to +4 of that to the new target, Greater +6, and True all of it.)

erikun
2008-07-09, 06:50 PM
3.5e, correct? What is the +x equilivant to this?

A +5 Hunter's Focus Bane weapon sounds like it would do tremendous damage to a select group of creatures - to the tune of +7 to hit and +15+2d6 damage, if I recall correctly - but the ranger wouldn't bother bringing it out unless they need to. They'll just use their normal magical weapons against everything else.

That said, such a weapon would find extremely limited use. The only person who would actually care about the Hunter's Focus quality would be the party ranger, and even then, only if the Focus matched the creature type they selected at first level. That is a very, very narrow focus that would be designed specifically around one character.

If you would rather have Hunter's Bane be a bit more popular, perhaps make it equal to a +1 enchant, and gives the ranger a +2 damage to all favored enemies... or perhaps a +2 to hit on all favored enemies instead. Heck, you could make Hunter's Bane grant a bonus to hit equal to their favored enemy bonus, and make it equal to a +2 or +3 bonus.

DracoDei
2008-07-09, 10:05 PM
No, it doesn't have to match the Favored Enemy they took at first level... it doesn't even have to be a Favored Enemy the ranger had AT ALL... that is at least half the point!

And mechanically I gotta say go with the staged idea... but maybe split it up more...

Least up to +2 bonus equivalent to +1/2 enchantment bonus (hey, the weapon prices follow a formula... 2000*(total bonuses^2) so this can be calculated... since another plus would give you +1/+1 instead of +0/+2 (call that equal), but with no restrictions)
Lesser up to +4 bonus equivalent to +1 enchantment bonus
Improved up to +6 bonus equivalent to +2 enchantment bonus
Greater up to +8 bonus equivalent to +3 enchantment bonus
True up to +10 bonus equivalent to +4 enchantment bonus



Still not TOTALLY sure about the enchantment bonus equivalents, but their you go...


Bonus:
List of half enchantment bonuses
+1.5|4,500 gp
+2.5|12,500 gp
+3.5|24,500 gp
+4.5|40,500 gp
+5.5|60,500 gp
+6.5|84,500 gp
+7.5|112,500 gp
+8.5|144,500 gp
+9.5|180,500 gp
+.5|,500 gp