Newb Question about +1 magic armour and weapons. 3.5

[Paramour Punk]

My question is simply that, what do +1 to armour and weapons do? How much does it cost?

Yes I know that these are probably very simple questions but I have NOT been able to find an answer. I know I must be missing the section or chapter in the Player's Handbook that does explain it, because the best explaination I can find it things about Masterwork stuff. Help please.

[Keld Denar]

Its not in the PHB, its in the DMG. +1 anything gives you a +1 enhancement bonus to the effectiveness of the base item. So a +1 sword gives you a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage, and +1 armor gives a +1 enhancement bonus to armor.

Armor enhancements cost an additional amount of (Bonus^2) * 1000 gold, in addition to the base cost of the armor (which must be masterwork). Thus, +1 armor costs 1^2 * 1000 = 1000 gold on top of the base price of the masterwork armor.

Weapon enhancements cost an additional amount of (Bonus^2) * 2000 gold in addtion to the base cost of the weapon, which must be masterwork. Thus, +1 weapon costs 1^2 * 2000 = 2000 gold on top of hte base price of the masterwork weapon, and a +2 weapon would cost 2^2 * 2000 = 4 * 2000 = 8000 gold on top of the base price of the weapon.

It should also be noted that MW adds a +1 enhancement bonus to HIT only. Since this is the same type of bonus as the magic enchantment, it DOES NOT STACK, but rather overlaps. Thus, a MW weapon gives +1 to hit, and a +1 weapon gives a +1 to hit and +1 to damage, NOT a +2 hit and +1 damage.

[Kesnit]

My question is simply that, what do +1 to armour and weapons do?

+1 Weapons add 1 to attack rolls and damage rolls.
+1 Armor adds 1 to Armor Class

How much does it cost?

+1 armor is 1000 gold, plus the price of the weapon
+1 Weapons are 2000 gold, plus the price of the weapon

Yes I know that these are probably very simple questions but I have NOT been able to find an answer.

Here is a site that will help you a lot.

[Duke of URL]

+1 to armor increases the armor's AC by 1 -- it costs 1,000 GP and requires the armor to be masterwork quality (typically +150 GP, but special materials may alter this).

+1 to most weapons increase your AB and damage by 1 each when using that weapon, and may bypass certain types of damage resistance. It costs 2,000 GP and requires a masterwork weapon (typically +300 GP). Bows/slings and ammo are slightly different -- a "launcher" (bow, etc.) only gets the +1 to AB, not to damage, whereas ammunition (arrows, bolts, etc.) get +1 to both, but is enchanted in lots of 50.

See: http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/magicItems.htm for more information on magic items in general.

[Paramour Punk]

All of you, thank you very much. Those were both quick and just what I wanted.

[Serenity]

A Masterwork Weapon gives you +1 on attack rolls with that weapon. Further enchanting that weapon to a +1 weapon also gives it +1 to damage rolls. A +2 weapon has +2 to both attack and damage. Also, a weapon must be at least +1 before other enchantments can be added on--for example, you can't have a Flaming Longsword; it would have to be at least a +1 Flaming Longsword.

I believe Masterwork Armor reduces armor check penalties, and a +1 enchantment adds +1 to the granted armor class.

EDIT: Well, looks like I got ninja'd but good.

[Keld Denar]

+1 to most weapons increase your AB and damage by 1 each when using that weapon, and may bypass certain types of damage resistance. It costs 2,000 GP and requires a masterwork double (typically +300 GP). Bows/slings and ammo are slightly different -- a "launcher" (bow, etc.) only gets the +1 to AB, not to damage, whereas ammunition (arrows, bolts, etc.) get +1 to both, but are enchanted in lots of 50.

Pardon? A +1 bow gets +1 to hit and +1 to damage, just like a +1 sword, unless you can cite me proof otherwise. That said, enhancement bonuses to weapons and ammo do NOT stack anymore in 3.5 (they did in 3.0) so a +1 bow firing +1 arrows would still only result in +1 to hit and damage, and a lot of wasted gold.

Unless you can cite me something different?

[Duke of URL]

Pardon? A +1 bow gets +1 to hit and +1 to damage, just like a +1 sword, unless you can cite me proof otherwise. That said, enhancement bonuses to weapons and ammo do NOT stack anymore in 3.5 (they did in 3.0) so a +1 bow firing +1 arrows would still only result in +1 to hit and damage, and a lot of wasted gold.

Unless you can cite me something different?

I just looked it up... it appears I've been playing that wrong. I wonder how many innocent PCs have died as a result of that.

Oh yeah, probably none. But it's still annoying.

[InaVegt]

The idea of magic arrows is that you have a few for every occasion.

Like a few holy arrows when fighting evil. A few flaming arrows when fighting fire vulnerable people. Etcetera.

The advantage of this is that buying 50 enchanted arrows at base level for each circumstance (or buying those when you need them) is a lot cheaper than buying a bow with all those enhancements on top.

Let's say we have the following enchants: Flaming (+1), Holy (+2), and merciful (+1)

To buy these would cost as 3 sets of masterwork arrows, let's round that up to 1000 gp.

The first set then gets enchanted to +1 flaming, for 8000 gp.
The second set then gets enchanted to +1 holy, for 18000 gp.
The third set then gets enchanted to +1 merciful, for 8000 gp.

Final price: 35000 gp.

Now, if we were to but them as enchants for a bow would cost, say 1000 gp for the masterwork bow (rounded, composite bow), then we need to add the +1 flaming holy merciful enchantment, for a total effective enchantment bonus of +5, or 50000 gp. 51000 gp total.

Note that you can use those arrows with any bow, making their utility value much larger.

If you intend to make (near) continuous use of an enchant, it's usually more cost effective to put them on your bow. This starts to break down at high levels, when it's often cheaper to just buy packages of flaming (or another enchant with the same price) arrows than to further enchant the bow.

For the price of adding flaming to an already +9 value (thus, including enchants) bow you can buy 237.5 +1 flaming arrows.

Of course, if you're having a +9 value bow, you're pretty much screwed anyway.