Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ciryx2k 08-05-07, 02:38 PM	Here's a good question for everyone: I have a player that is interested in trying to creatively boost the power of a weapon for a temporary amount of time. He wants to have a weapon with the defender ability. For math's sake, let's say it's a Longsword of Defending +4. What he is wanting to do is move all 4 attack enhancement points to AC and then cast the Greater Magic Weapon spell on the sword to re-boost the weapons offensive bonus. His side is this: The weapons enhancment bonus is shifted to an untyped AC bonus, which leaves the enhancement bonus to attack and damage at 0. Therefore, when casting Greater Magic Weapon the spell can increase the now non-existant enhancement bonus to attack and damage by what the spell allows. My side is: The enhancement bonus of the weapon is still there, it is just being put in a different place. Therefore it still has an enhancement bonus of +4 and can not be increased unless the Greater Magic Weapon spell is cast by someone high enough to give it a +5, at which point the total would still be +5 because enhancment bonuses do not stack. What do you all think?
Pegasos989 08-05-07, 03:18 PM	thematically? I think you are right. English is not my first language so I might be wrong here but... "wielder chooses how to allocate the weapon’s enhancement bonus at the start of his turn" Then google definition of allocate "To assign." I think if I assign something somewhere, I remove it from the original place and assign it to next, not remove it completely. As such, enchantment bonus is not removed, it is still there even if it has diffrent effect. But yeah, not my first language... Thematics aside, I might allow it. It is creative (even if possibly creative abuse) and not that overpowered. 3rd or 4th level spell for what, +3 or +4 AC (even if untyped) is not that unusually (normally it is typed but there are so many types it can always be done, it is a matter of how many actions you want to use). He is in effect making his character less useful in combat (spends turn less in attacking) to make his character less interesting target (enemies see they won't hit him so they attack the fragile party members instead), really not gaining that much benefit. And if he does... Well, someone can just dispel it.
Someone 08-05-07, 03:55 PM	I agree, you are correct to say that the enhancement bonus hasn't disappeared, its just doing something other than help you hit and do damage. Now, I would probably let him get away with casting GMW on a +1 defending weapon and then transferring the GWM enhancement to AC... Maybe the player should look into a shield of faith spell or an arcane equivalent- most of those scale faster than GMW, and don't need the defending weapon.
Pegasos989 08-05-07, 04:25 PM	Actually, if we assume enchantment bonus really would vanish when you transfer it... A weapon needs atleast +1 enchantment bonus to have special abilities, right? So when we transfer the 4th point of four, the weapon loses the defending ability? (and without it, you can't move them back. They are gone. Forever. Nonmagical weapon.) So I believe it is safe to assume that enchantment bonus doesn't vanish when reallocated...
ciryx2k 08-05-07, 08:41 PM	Thank you all, these are very good points. While I agree that it might not be too overpowered, I like to try and keep my game as close to RAW as I can. It removes the, "Well, you did this for [other random party member] why won't you do this other thing for me?" situation. I didn't think to point out other spells that would work faster, but that is because I know the player and he already knows of these. This isn't a newbie trying to do something when he doesn't know how, this is a PRO trying to increase his AC that much higher. I do believe, in my game, I'm going to go with the enhancement bonus not disappearing, this the spell won't work that way rule. It just makes more balance sense to me.