Corrupt Weapon spell should be buffed.

[Spazzer]

As the title says, i believe Corrupt Weapon should be brought in line with it's counterpart, Bless Weapon, and made 2d6 negative damage.

Reasoning: It's meant to be the counterpart to Bless Weapon, yet it has less damage then it. Along with this, this would make Blackguard more appealing of a class for fallen paladins and other evil characters.

Edit: So people don't have to go looking around, these are Corrupt Weapon's stats: The touched weapon gains a +1 enhancement bonus and deals an additional 1d6 points of negative energy damage on each successful attack.

[myrddraal]

+1

[bloodless]

Makes sense to me.

[MrSmiley]

As someone with a blackguard, I am biased. But yes.

[Merry Munchkin]

Isn't the damage bonus of bless weapon only effective against undead, but corrupt weapon is a general negative energy damage bonus against everything?  I thinik the blackguard spell is probably already more powerful in a relative sense than bless weapon is, unless all you do is hunt undead all day.

[Skelni]

Seems balanced as stated, yes. Bless Weapon is for undead hunting. Corrupt hurts anything. So I'd say leave it as is.

[Favee]

Isn't the damage bonus of bless weapon only effective against undead, but corrupt weapon is a general negative energy damage bonus against everything?  I thinik the blackguard spell is probably already more powerful in a relative sense than bless weapon is, unless all you do is hunt undead all day.

This is correct.

The pen and paper version of Corrupt weapon also deals no additional damage, it just auto confirms crits against good aligned targets so long as the weapon does not have Keen, Vorpal or any other critical modifier.

That being said, it would be interesting for the Paladin Blackguard variant to have a version of Corrupt weapon which is the opposite of Bless.  Dealing 2d6 negative to living targets.  Though I think that would be difficult to create in NWN.

[Spazzer]

The pen and paper version of Corrupt weapon also deals no additional damage, it just auto confirms crits against good aligned targets so long as the weapon does not have Keen, Vorpal or any other critical modifier.

If we are going by PnP, Bless Weapon does the same effect, but against evil creatures. I do not think it's a fair argument to bring up PnP in this discussion.

Below are the PnP versions of the spells, it's clear why they haven't been added like how they are in PNP, onto POTM.

Spoiler: show

https://dnd.arkalseif.info/spells/players-handbook-v35--6/bless-weapon--2786/index.html

https://dndtools.net/spells/dungeon-masters-guide-v35--4/corrupt-weapon--3775/

[Spazzer]

Isn't the damage bonus of bless weapon only effective against undead, but corrupt weapon is a general negative energy damage bonus against everything?  I thinik the blackguard spell is probably already more powerful in a relative sense than bless weapon is, unless all you do is hunt undead all day.

Majority of the server's dungeon content is undead creatures, making bless weapon very potent. The Corrupt Weapon is also notably weaker then varnishes that can be created, that serve the same purpose, Bless Weapon never loses it's purpose for killing undead.

[Nemesis 24]

2D6 damage vs all targets makes that the most powerful lvl 1 weapon damage buff available.  It's especially powerful for PvP, which has been straight up ignored in terms of comparison.  It is just too high, and too much.  Definitely not balanced comparatively.

[Spazzer]

2D6 damage vs all targets makes that the most powerful lvl 1 weapon damage buff available.  It's especially powerful for PvP, which has been straight up ignored in terms of comparison.  It is just too high, and too much.  Definitely not balanced comparatively.

I presume the 2d6 would not work against undead (Unless that is also broken, like how negative varnishes work on undead), making it worse off in PvE.

Negative energy protection potions are stupidly common, people often having too many to know what to do with. These can easily be drank during PvP, along with this, players almost always enchant their armor with bodak lining, giving them 10/DR against negative energy. I do not see the it being buffed being a issue for PvP, unless it's lower level PvP encounters.

[Maiyannah]

The proliferation of undead does not invalidate the fact that bless weapon does not, in fact, work on constructs, acherrations, or shapechangers, also fairly common enemy types, to say nothing of other squishy mortals like players.

You are comparing apples and oranges.

[cheese tornado]

I'm all for this. Given Corrupt Weapon is also locked behind a PrC, it's not as common as one might think.

[Zyemeth]

I'm for a 2d6 damage corrupt weapon. 1d8 and 1d12 varnishes are already a thing for negative and as state most people end up with 5-10negative energy DR. Top it off with protection from negative energy and it would still be near useless in pvp excluding crit rolls.

[Nemesis 24]

2D6 damage vs all targets makes that the most powerful lvl 1 weapon damage buff available.  It's especially powerful for PvP, which has been straight up ignored in terms of comparison.  It is just too high, and too much.  Definitely not balanced comparatively.

I presume the 2d6 would not work against undead (Unless that is also broken, like how negative varnishes work on undead), making it worse off in PvE.

Negative energy protection potions are stupidly common, people often having too many to know what to do with. These can easily be drank during PvP, along with this, players almost always enchant their armor with bodak lining, giving them 10/DR against negative energy. I do not see the it being buffed being a issue for PvP, unless it's lower level PvP encounters.

It does work against and damages undead.  It is also a readily available scroll, found very commonly.  2D6 vs all enemy types puts it up there with Bane Bow in damage bonus.  It is simply not a lvl 1 spell slot at that damage category, and it outperforms all other spell damage buffs against a vast array of enemies.

As stated, this is comparing apples to oranges, and it is misconstruing a great deal in doing so to try and make it sound like the two spells are on even footing, when a change like this is a vast overcorrection.

[EarlofEtheria]

The point that the damage is universal and available through scrolls does lend issues to the suggested change of 2d6 damage. However I think it's still within reason to grant it a buff, as a PRC feature of THE evil class. So, I think it should look something like this:

+1 enhancement
1d6 negative
with
2d6 negative if the target is of Good alignment.

[Spazzer]

2D6 damage vs all targets makes that the most powerful lvl 1 weapon damage buff available.  It's especially powerful for PvP, which has been straight up ignored in terms of comparison.  It is just too high, and too much.  Definitely not balanced comparatively.

I presume the 2d6 would not work against undead (Unless that is also broken, like how negative varnishes work on undead), making it worse off in PvE.

Negative energy protection potions are stupidly common, people often having too many to know what to do with. These can easily be drank during PvP, along with this, players almost always enchant their armor with bodak lining, giving them 10/DR against negative energy. I do not see the it being buffed being a issue for PvP, unless it's lower level PvP encounters.

It does work against and damages undead.  It is also a readily available scroll, found very commonly.  2D6 vs all enemy types puts it up there with Bane Bow in damage bonus.  It is simply not a lvl 1 spell slot at that damage category, and it outperforms all other spell damage buffs against a vast array of enemies.

As stated, this is comparing apples to oranges, and it is misconstruing a great deal in doing so to try and make it sound like the two spells are on even footing, when a change like this is a vast overcorrection.

No, i am not misconstruing. Within the sourcebooks, Corrupt Weapon is legitimately referred as the counterpart of Bless Weapon, see pages 182 and 183 within Dungeon Master's Guide v.3.5, i am comparing apples to apples, and they should be on even footing.


The spell's power as a level 1 spell slot spell is a bit misconstrued, seeing how a Player would not be getting this early, the soonest a Player can become a Blackguard is around level 5+ at best, though usually it's higher then that. A paladin gains Bless Weapon at level 4 in comparison.

As for "It is also a readily available scroll, found very commonly", this is not my experience with most loot drops within Barovia; Raduta Keep used to drop Corrupt Weapon and Abyssal Might scrolls commonly, this isn't true anymore although. I rarely see them dropped and or sold at Petre.

+1 enhancement
1d6 negative
with
2d6 negative if the target is of Good alignment.

This would be a decent compromise if the Dev team would rather it not be 2d6.

[Sanguine]

If they went by their 3.5 ruling, bless/corrupt weapon would just do +1 EB vs their opposed alignment and auto-confirm crit rolls as previously stated. You could only reasonably represent the former part in NWN, which would make both abilities almost completely redundant.

I do agree that bless/corrupt weapon should be parallel, but unconditional 2d6 negative damage is pretty strong as a 1st-level buff, even if you have to jump some hoops to get there by becoming a Blackguard.

I would kind of like to see them become their respective counterparts i.e. Bless Weapon is 2d6 divine vs. evil, and Corrupt Weapon is 2d6 divine vs. good. As mentioned negative damage is a lot easier to resist than divine. But, this comes with the problem with indirectly buffing Paladin, which is a class that seriously doesn't need it imho.

I'm all for Blackguard buffs in some form or another though, ironically I don't think everything Blackguards do should just mirror what paladins do but bless/corrupt weapon seems to be an intentional contrast.

edit: also just to clarify, as someone who hoarded Blackguard/Paladin scrolls like candy, they seem to be exceptionally more rare (as they should be really, they're really good spells).

[Merry Munchkin]

If there is this desire to have bless weapon and corrupt weapon be the same, then I think reverting it to 3.5e rules is the most sensible, although it would be a resulting nerf to both spells.  Give it a +1 EB, and figure out a way to give it an automatic successful critical hit role (not sure how that is mechanically possible -- I think you might be able to mechanically give the critical hit role a bonus instead?  I dunno). 

These are first level spells -- conceptually I am not certain why they need to be more powerful than a combination of magic weapon and a low level elemental buff.  Lots of low level spells get overtaken in potency by craftable consumables in PoTM, so I don't see that as a justification for buffing the spells to stay relevant even at high levels.  If you want to make both spells have a damage buff instead, then make bless weapon have 1d6 bonus (divine) damage to evil and make corrupt weapon have 1d6 bonus (divine) damage to good.  Whether you follow a good god or an evil one, the (un)holy damage should be classified as "divine" simply because of the way NWN mechanics works.  This way, both spells continue to have moderate relevance throughout the character's progression.

[McNastea]

2D6 damage vs all targets makes that the most powerful lvl 1 weapon damage buff available.  It's especially powerful for PvP, which has been straight up ignored in terms of comparison.  It is just too high, and too much.  Definitely not balanced comparatively.

I presume the 2d6 would not work against undead (Unless that is also broken, like how negative varnishes work on undead), making it worse off in PvE.

Negative energy protection potions are stupidly common, people often having too many to know what to do with. These can easily be drank during PvP, along with this, players almost always enchant their armor with bodak lining, giving them 10/DR against negative energy. I do not see the it being buffed being a issue for PvP, unless it's lower level PvP encounters.

It does work against and damages undead.  It is also a readily available scroll, found very commonly.  2D6 vs all enemy types puts it up there with Bane Bow in damage bonus.  It is simply not a lvl 1 spell slot at that damage category, and it outperforms all other spell damage buffs against a vast array of enemies.

As stated, this is comparing apples to oranges, and it is misconstruing a great deal in doing so to try and make it sound like the two spells are on even footing, when a change like this is a vast overcorrection.

+1 this man is spitting facts

[bloodless]

It is also a readily available scroll, found very commonly.

This is not the case anymore, some months ago EO went and removed the Blackguard spell scrolls from the majority of treasuries. They are as a result quite rare to find nowadays.