Changing magical items

[Splendor]

Hello,

Is there any way to change a magical longsword into a magical short sword? I know fabricate doesn't work on magical items but is there another spell or something I don't know about?

I have a +1 Keen long sword and unfortunately I use finesse weapons, so I was hoping there was a way to transform it into something I can use.

[Yuki Akuma]

Get an Artificer. Have him destroy the word and absorb its yummy, yummy magic. Then get him to make you a +1 keen short sword.

Done and done.

Polymorph Any Object would work. Longsword-to-Shortsword (or rapier, which would be a better choice unless you have Weapon Focus in shortswords or something) would be a permanent change.

Although considering you're worried about a sword worth 8,000 gp I doubt you can afford an eighth-level spell.

Oh wait it doesn't affect magic items. Why the heck not?

Dispel magic first, then. >.>

[Grumman]

You could ask your DM if you can use a modified version of the Changeling weapon ability from the MIC, which applies to swords instead of spears (allowing you to change it into a shortsword, longsword or greatsword as a swift action).

[Kobold-Bard]

Chop a bit off the end? Maybe have someone with Craft (Swords), so they know what they're doing.

[Ianuagonde]

One of my players, the dwarven fighter, found a very good axe that was the wrong size. He went to the biggest temple of the dwarven god, and asked for the high priest to change the size. I looked up the cost of a Miracle spell, decided that changing a weapon is a minor use of the spell,and told the player the cost. He handed over a pile of cash, and that was that.

Seriously, buying a Miracle from a god with forging affinity can be a lot cheaper than trading in weapons.

[Runestar]

Underdark has this weapon property which lets you change it into any weapon of your choice. Morphing (+1)

[Darrin]

I have a +1 Keen long sword and unfortunately I use finesse weapons, so I was hoping there was a way to transform it into something I can use.

As someone else already pointed out, you can add the Morphing property, which allows it to change into any other melee weapon of the same size. It was reprinted in the Magic Item Compendium. It would probably be prohibitively expensive.

You can add the Sizing property for a flat +5000 GP to reduce the size by one category, which would give it the equivalent stats of a short sword. You'd incur a -2 size penalty, however (and this is one of the hardest penalties to get rid of in 3.5).

Polymorph Any Object would work, that's not too expensive, and the duration should be permanent (same shape, same material), but it could be dispelled. Paying a spellcaster to do this would be 1200 GP. Buying a scroll might be cheaper if you have a friendly spellcaster available.

You could also try buying some Strongarm Bracers, which allow you to use weapons one size larger... well, if you can use large-sized weapons without penalty, a medium-sized longsword would be considered a light weapon for a large creature. Unfortunately, I'm abusing RAW a bit here, so you'd need a friendly DM ruling, and you might still wind up with a -2 size penalty.

You could try to locate a local magic weaponsmith and ask him for a straight-up swap for a shortsword with identical abilities.

[Jack_Simth]

Polymorph Any Object would work, that's not too expensive, and the duration should be permanent (same shape, same material), but it could be dispelled. Paying a spellcaster to do this would be 1200 GP. Buying a scroll might be cheaper if you have a friendly spellcaster available.

Polymorph Any Object explicitly does not work on magical objects. You'll need to first render it a nonmagical object - (Greater) Dispel Magic will do the job, as it's temporary.

[Fitz10019]

Practical: buy five whetstones, PHB 2cp each, and sharpen that sucker until it loses 1/3 of it's length.

Dashing: throw the longsword up into the air 20ft to kill time while you get Enlarged without it

[Thurbane]

Isn't there a spell or item (Magic Siphon or somesuch) that sucks the enchantment out of one item and places it into another?

[Kobold-Bard]

Basically there are many options, but a straight trade or making a deal with a friendly Artificer seem to be your best options.