Weapon crafting question

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by DanDavis, Mar 14, 2005.

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  1. DanDavis

    DanDavis Member

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    I plan to create a +3 holy axiomatic keen bastard sword for my paladin. I have a couple of questions about it:

    1. Does exotic weapon proficiency bastard sword work? Will I be able to wield it one-handed?
    2. Can crafted weapons hold this many abilities? I've crafted weapons before and it looks like the sword could, but I've found more than a few glitches in the program so I thought I would ask before I got my hopes up.
     
  2. dulsin

    dulsin Member

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    Yes and yes

    That would be a +7 weapon and is definatly possible but you will need a cleric and a wizard with craft weapon bot level 10 to make it.
     
  3. Allyx

    Allyx Master Crafter Global Moderator Supporter

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    I was under the impression that crafting a weapon with abilities that total +3 works fine, but more than +3 has no additional effect.
     
  4. dulsin

    dulsin Member

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    Sorry I was refering to the D&D enchanting rules where each extra ability adds to the effective rating of the item. The base plus can not be higher than 3 but additional effects add one or more effective levels for determining costs.

    In this case
    3 - +3 weapon
    2 - axiomatic
    2 - Holy
    1 - keen

    Total cost is as a +8 weapon is (8 x 8 x 2000 gp) = 128,000 gp and (128,000 / 25) = 5120 xp

    http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#axiomatic
     
  5. Lord Plothos

    Lord Plothos Established Member

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    In 3.5 there's also a limit of 10 for the effective level of a crafted item. I'm not sure if that has been impemented here, though, since I'm fairly sure I've had weapons with more than that. What I DON'T know if if the additional attributes I gave them were having any effect.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2005
  6. Kalshane

    Kalshane Local Rules Geek

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    I just tested it. With Atari 2, Co8 3.04 and temple.dll, anything I added beyond +3 didn't work. I added Flaming, Frost (each worth +1), then +2 and +3 to a weapon and it counted it as a +1 weapon of Flaming and Frost. So something is definitely screwy.

    I do know you can get away with adding stuff to premade weapons like the frostbrand and the flametongue. I've put holy on both of those many a time and they've worked fine.

    I know at one point the longsword you got for marrying Meleny functioned like +3 holy longsword instead of +1 like it was supposed to be. (It added the +2 cost of holy to hit and damage). I wonder if whatever fixed that might have broken the ability to have more than 3 total plusses actually function on a weapon. (Could this also be why Spell Resistance on armor is bugged, since armor automatically becomes +3 whenever you try to craft it? Has anyone tried adding the other armor enhancements?)
     
  7. DanDavis

    DanDavis Member

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    I made a longsword instead (wasn't sure I could ever find a masterwork bastard sword to enchant!). So far I've made it +1, holy, and axiomatic, and all of it works - I've checked the rolls when I hit.

    Next is keen, then up to +3, then mighty cleaving if I can.
     
  8. Sindegra

    Sindegra Member

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    Masterwork bastard sword on the body of guy who give the assasination quest's assitant. and if you have co8 patch 3.0.4 patch you can buy it at the smithy in hommlet.
     
  9. Lord Plothos

    Lord Plothos Established Member

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    I'm not sure but there may be some bug where you have to add the enhancement bonuses before adding things like fire and frost and such. I've always made them +3 before doing anything else, and have had no problems on that score.

    On another note, though, I believe that you only ever get 4 roll-based additions to your damage, whatever your weapon. My reasoning is this: I created weapons with holy, all three bursts, plus keen and fire. Attacking an evil creature, if all these were in effect (keen is), I should get an additional 2d6 plus 4 1d6s (because having fire and flaming burst alone results in two 1d6 additions, though it shouldn't) if I don't get a crit. On a crit it should be +2d6 +2d10 +2d10 +2d10 +1d6, but I get at most 4 of these (seems to be mostly random which). And here's the kicker: when I give the exact same weapon to my rogue, she gets only three of these (again random), because her sneak attack damage is taking up one of the added damage slots or something, I guess. That is, the weapon itself does less damage in the hands of the rogue BECAUSE she's doing sneak attack damage. (When she doesn't get a sneak, she gets four of the bonuses.) So, since what the descriptors and dice combinations are changes each time, it seems all the effects are still there in the weapon (again, though they shouldn't be, being WAY above the limit of 10 effective enhancement), but they just can't all do their thing every time.

    So, the best you can ever do from just a weapon without a crit or sneak (and ignoring axiomatic and such) would be:
    base damage
    +strength mod
    +enhancement bonus (i.e., 3)
    +any bonuses for weapon specialization or bardic/spell effects or favored enemy
    +2d6 holy
    +1d6 fire
    +1d6 cold
    +1d6 shock

    Best with a x3 crit:
    base x 3
    + 3(strength mod)
    + 3(enchancement bonus) (i.e., 9)
    + other misc. bonuses
    +2d6 holy
    +2d10 flaming burst
    +2d10 icy burst
    +2d10 shocking burst

    If you're sneaking with this last one, I guess you just have to hope the one that gets replaced by your sneak damage is the lesser +2d6 from holy. Weird, huh?

    BTW, the above is just with patch 2 and temple.zip. But I'm assuming this would be part of the engine, if it really is limited to 4 rolled damage additions, so I presume none of the mods can have changed this. Has anybody ever seen more than four?
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2005
  10. DanDavis

    DanDavis Member

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    I took the improved critical feat and made the longsword mighty cleaving instead of keen.

    The +3 enhancement works, as do both the axiomatic and holy qualities when I hit a chaotic evil opponent. The mighty cleaving is a different story. From what I've seen so far, it doesn't work at all. What a waste of gold.
     
  11. Martinius

    Martinius Member

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    +3 holy keen axiomatic frost burst greatsword in the hands of a fighter who has focused in this weapon is close to the only thing that really hits in-game. Unless you gave a greatclub with the same parametres to the hill giant. :)
     
  12. Kalshane

    Kalshane Local Rules Geek

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    Might Cleaving is a worthless enhancement. I don't know whether it works in the game or not, but just by the rules it's lame. If you have the cleave feat, it allows one extra cleave attempt per round. If you don't have the cleave feat, it does nothing. If you have the cleave and great cleave feats, it does nothing. So spend your money and XP on something else.
     
  13. Martinius

    Martinius Member

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    Let us sum up:

    Axiomatic - good against chaotic beings, like DEMONS.
    Holy - good against any evil (most enemies, so a must have).
    +3 - both damage-wise and on to-hit chance.
    Frost burst - excellent against fire beings like the pesky salamanders.

    The other enchancements are for me a "maybe".
     
  14. Allyx

    Allyx Master Crafter Global Moderator Supporter

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    Just so you know Icy burst and shocking burst are screwy, I think "shocking burst" does cold damage, and "shocking burst" does negative energy damage, save before adding this enhancement to test it because I know I changed it in one of my uploads so "icy burst" at least works ok, "shocking burst" still does negative energy damage though.
     
  15. Kespoosh

    Kespoosh Member

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    As far as I have been able to tell, so long as you upgrade to +3 enhancement, other mods will add just fine (though are subject to the 4 rolls max limitation pointed out by Plothos). There IS a limit to the number of enchantments you can add, but it's actually a bug. When you add something and the price becomes -9 million copper, you'll know you've hit the limit. You actually get the 9 million copper, but after that you can't add anything else onto it.
    Keen works in conjunction with Improved Crit (IIRC).
    Get the negative energy bonus first! Nothing is immune to negative energy ;) Get the alignment-based ones first if possible (but skip Evil and Chaotic), then get negative energy, then either keen + various bursts, or just lump some extra elemental damage on.
    Yes mighty cleaving is crap but it's great if you're going for the 9 million cp bug.
     
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