(3.5) Fixing magic weapons and armor.

[Agrippa]

Looking at all the threads about the Christmas Tree Effect and how just +x bonuses are boring wastes of space, I've decided to do something about it. First all magical weapons, ammunition included, have special abilities. But magical items base their special abilities off of their enhancement bonus.

For example, a +5 flaming burst returning warhammer under the old rules would have an effective weapon bonus of +10, +5 for the attack and damage bonus and +5 for all the special abilities. Under this system the +5 covers both the attack and damage as well as the special abilities. The same of course is true of magic armor.

As a little bonus, ghost touch no longer exists as a seperate enhancement. Instead all magic weapons and armor treated as ghost touch items. Now this only covers weapons and armor, I'll have to tackle other magical item later.

[phaedrusxy]

SirPercival has been using the first part as a house rule in his games for a while now, I think, and Quillwraith is also using it here. I've noticed that it is a significant power-up in terms of what equipment you can afford, especially at the low-mid levels. For example, normally a weapon with the Warning or Smoking enhancement would be quite expensive, but with these rules, you can afford both (on separate weapons, like armor spikes + guisarme) fairly early on. My level 6 for High Arcana has both, for example, plus a Magebane weapon that he'll actually fight with. Just those three items would be above his total wealth in a standard game. So yeah, it's more fun, but it will be a noticable bump in power, and not necessarily just for the people who need it. Everyone can benefit from Warning and Smoking, for example.