How to enchant a weapon? Not a Warden's sword!

[JediDresden]

My character picked up a Cival War Calvary Saber during an adventure, which would be a weapon 2.  Now my question is this - could he enchant it to be a more powerful sword?  He is just starting out as a wizard with a Lore of 4 and Thaumaturgy specialization of crafting with frequency +1.  Could he enchant it to be a weapon 6 2x day?  His Lore of 4 would be added to the weapon 2 - is that right?

[EdgeOfDreams]

There are no specific rules for this in the books at all.

The most definitely by-the-book thing to say is that an enchanted item can replicate an evocation attack with a number of shifts equal to your Lore, and that it's up to the player and GM to determine the skill used to target the attack.  So, with a Lore of 4, your sword could perform a 4-shift (i.e. equivalent to a Weapon:4 attack) evocation twice per session (note that DFRPG uses *sessions*, not *days*, to measure these things), targeted with the weapons skill.  By default, this wouldn't stack with the weapon rating the sword already has.

That said, feel free to work with your GM to come up with anything you like to handle this, so long as you agree it's balanced and can work together to tweak it if it becomes problematic.  Stacking the two damage ratings (the 4 from the enchanted item and the 2 from the weapon itself) is probably not horribly imbalanced.  However, it may set a bad precedent for abuse of the enchanted item rules later on.

[JediDresden]

I was wondering about that imbalance as well, but I was also thinking of the claws (weapon 2) and inhuman strength (+2 to damage) stacking for a weapon 4 attack, IIRC - I do not have books with me right now. 

My reasoning would be that he somehow strengthens the metal somehow in the blade with his magic ( the wizard is an earth magic specialist so I am sure I could work in something with the metal story-wise).

[Haru]

The easiest way to enhance a weapon is to give it aspects, magical or mundane, temporary or constant, whatever would fit your needs.

Give it a maneuver spell that is going to last for a scene (things like "brimming with power", "superheated" or "supernaturally sharp" for example), you can activate it before you go into a fight (or even during a fight, if need be) and you will have 1 free tag on it, and if you need, there will be more available by the use of fate points. And as an enchanted item, you can activate it again for 1 mental stress.
You could give it mundane aspects, too, if for example it was made by the worlds best bladesmith or something like that, a weapon can have a story as much as a character, if your GM is ok with it.

I would never let a weaponrating and a spell hit at the same time. You either unleash the spell on the item or do a weapon attack, even if the weapon needs to connect to let the spell hit. At least that is the way I see it.

[Morgan]

I'd agree with EdgeOfDreams take on this the enchantment wouldn't stack with the normal damage, look at the Warden Sword as an example it doesn't do a 3 or 9 power level counterspell so I'd say that the Weapon 6 damage enchantment only takes the spell into account not the sword's base damage. Now a Weapon 4 enchantment twice a session is still nothing to sneeze at.

As for the justification for a Wizard with a Crafting specialty being able to enchant a sword to be a better sword I don't think you need one, it's what the character does with his magic. The only problem would be if he just picked the sword up he couldn't instantly make it into an enchanted item, he has to get it back to the lab/forge put some time into it and make with the magic. If you want to pick up a sword on the battlefield and enchant it right there, then that's really more of a maneuver to place a magical aspect on the sword that can be tagged later, which is not making it into an enchanted item.

[InFerrumVeritas]

Weapon 4 2/session.

However, because of this, he'd be better off having it have an aspect like Haru said.

"Energy Blade" "Absurdly Sharp" "Deadlier" or anything else works.  Tag for free +2 (which would increase accuracy by two, thus also increasing potential damage).  Since your potential damage also goes up by 2, and you are more likely to hit, this is superior to simply having a Weapon 4 rating 2/session.

Other options include placing a "Poisoned" or "Rotting/Necrotic" aspect on the target, which they could then tag for effect.  This is pushing a Lawbreaker though.

[JediDresden]

So if my lore is 4 put an aspect on it like 'deadly sharp' for 3 shifts (because of the aspect), I could use 1 more to make it usable by others, and because of my crafting specialty have it useable 2 x a day instead of just once - right?

And when my crafting gets high enough could I place 2 aspects on it and choose which ones I want to invoke when I use the daily uses?

[sinker]

So if my lore is 4 put an aspect on it like 'deadly sharp' for 3 shifts (because of the aspect), I could use 1 more to make it usable by others, and because of my crafting specialty have it useable 2 x a day instead of just once - right?

And when my crafting gets high enough could I place 2 aspects on it and choose which ones I want to invoke when I use the daily uses?

Sounds right, except when you have the two aspects you'll get to tag both of them each time you activate the sword. The spell creates both at once.

[JediDresden]

Thanks for the help.

[Teron]

Another way to do it could be thaumaturgy to put a sticky aspect on it. 

Complexity would be 3 per aspect (standard for a maneuver), plus around 10 to move up the time chart to 'half a year, depending on how long the GM says the aspects last otherwise.

So, 13-15 shifts on a spell, and then you could just spend a fate point to boost the weapon roll by 2 at any time.  Depending on how many fights you get into and how many FP you have spare, this may be a better option.

[InFerrumVeritas]

Another way to do it could be thaumaturgy to put a sticky aspect on it. 

Complexity would be 3 per aspect (standard for a maneuver), plus around 10 to move up the time chart to 'half a year, depending on how long the GM says the aspects last otherwise.

So, 13-15 shifts on a spell, and then you could just spend a fate point to boost the weapon roll by 2 at any time.  Depending on how many fights you get into and how many FP you have spare, this may be a better option.

This seems wasteful.  I know at least every character I've made can probably invoke one of his aspects to give a bonus on an attack.  It would cost a fate point.  Thus, it's silly to spend effort to place aspects that I'm not getting free tags for.

[Tsunami]

One thing to keep in mind is.

When you enchant the sword to be given an aspect x times per session, then activating that aspect is an action by itself. That means that attacking with your enhanced sword takes two rounds. One round to activate the aspect (a maneuver), and another one to do the attack (for which you can now tag the aspect).

If you enchant a sword to act as Weapon:x for y times per session, then activating the enchantment is the attack.

[UmbraLux]

One thing to keep in mind is.

When you enchant the sword to be given an aspect x times per session, then activating that aspect is an action by itself. That means that attacking with your enhanced sword takes two rounds. One round to activate the aspect (a maneuver), and another one to do the attack (for which you can now tag the aspect).

Where do you get this from?  Tagging / invoking existing aspects should be part of the action they're giving a bonus.  Or are you talking about creating the aspect via maneuver and then tagging it?

[sinker]

Activating an enchanted item is an action, regardless of what it does. So what Tsunami is saying is that if your enchanted item is an attack then you activate it and attack in one action. If it maneuvers then you activate it to add aspects, and then on the next exchange you attack.

[benign]

Where do you get this from?  Tagging / invoking existing aspects should be part of the action they're giving a bonus.  Or are you talking about creating the aspect via maneuver and then tagging it?

There is also this little bit of information, from the definition of "Tag" on p98 of "Your Story":

Tag: On any aspect you create or discover in
a scene, get the first invocation for free (as in,
without spending any fate points).

Emphasis on the "you create or discover in a scene". If you created the aspect in a different scene, you don't get to tag it in this one.