Weapon modifications

[Saw516]

My DM and I have been discussing the idea of being able to add an enchantment to weapons to allow them to cause additional elemental damage on top of the standard damage die.

We are thinking that the weapon would have to be magical in some way prior to being enchanted and that attempts to enchant non magical weapons damage or break them as they aren’t prepared properly for the magic.

The more difficult part is determining the cost of having such an enchantment added to a weapon. We were thinking of charging by the power of the enchantment, so the bigger the damage die added to the weapon the more it would cost, potentially thinking of only adding 1d6 or 2d6 to keep things simple but could include other die on a scale.

We have been trying to figure out how much it would cost to say bring you own +1 longsword and have it enchanted to deal 1d6 cold damage on top of the current 1d8, and how we’d compare that to walking into a shop and picking up a +1 longsword that’s damage was 1d8+1d6cold

Hopefully what I’m asking is clear here, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[MrStabby]

I think you also need to modify the aditional damage by the weapon type.

Compare a polearm to a rapier. A polearm is easy to get bonus action attacks from (pole arm mastery) as is something like a hand crossbow. You are opening up a gulf between PCs that chose the most powerful weapons, that then pull further ahead.

Some classes get relatively punished - look at rogues, who only get a single attack. Or monks - they get a lot of their damage unboosted by these effects (as unarmed strikes).


Cost, were you to do this, is hard to determine.

1) Should it be special, or sould everyone look to pick this up?
2) What level do you want it to come into play at?
3) How gnerous with gold is your DM?
4) What other competing opportunities are there for spending gold?
5) What types of quest do you tend to do?

[rel]

If the number of attacks a weapon can make is a concern you could limit the effect to once per round. Or introduce a charge mechanic of some sort.

[MrStabby]

If the number of attacks a weapon can make is a concern you could limit the effect to once per round. Or introduce a charge mechanic of some sort.

That's a good point. And if its use is when an attack is declared not when it hits then it deals with the number of attacks disparity pretty well.