Custom Weapons

Not all weapons are created equal in Pathfinder. This leads to an unfortunate consequence of limiting the variety of weapons seen at play. When a character can use a longsword, there's little reason to use a light flail mechanically. So the following rules are to unify the different weapon options a character has.

When building a character, select a weapon profile below and fluff the weapon to fit the character's fighting style. You may chose for the weapon to be named (and thus work with feats and fighter weapon groups) of any other weapon that has the same or worse proficiency, the same handedness, and at least the same damage type (although the Extra Damage Type trait can add more damage types). The weapon's name must also match the original melee or ranged aspect (e.g. you cannot chose a ranged weapon profile and then call it a longsword). For instance, a character can chose any of the exotic one handed melee weapon profiles and call it the Aldori Dueling Sword, then use it with feats that reference the Aldori Dueling Sword. Racial weapon familiarity (such as Elven Weapon Familiarity) applies only to weapon names that already exist. Creating a new weapon and calling it an Elven Hammer does not make it a traditional elven weapon.

All characters start play with their chosen weapon. This weapon cannot be sold, but can be upgraded to masterwork quality by paying 300 gp (or having the appropriate company venture dedicate time and 100 gp to upgrade it). Characters can acquire more copies of their chosen weapon, or gain new weapon profiles for new weapons by spending a day of downtime.

Much of this system is derived from the Weapon Creation rules found in the Weapon Master's Handbook.

Light Melee (2 lbs)
Basic: Dmg (M) 1d6; Critical ×2; Type any one (B, P, S); 1 Trait

High Crit: Dmg (M) 1d4; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); 1 Trait

One-Handed Melee (3 lbs)
Basic: Dmg (M) 1d8; Critical ×2; Type any one (B, P, S); 1 Trait

High Crit: Dmg (M) 1d6; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); 1 Trait

Two-Handed Melee (4 lbs)
Basic: Dmg (M) 1d10; Critical ×2; Type any one (B, P, S); 1 Trait

High Crit: Dmg (M) 1d8; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); 1 Trait

Reach: Dmg (M) 1d8; Critical ×2; Type any one (B, P, S); Reach, 1 Trait

Ranged (4 lbs)
Ranged weapon profiles require 2 hands to fire and reload.

Slow: Dmg (M) 1d10; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Full-round; Range 120 ft; 1 Trait

Fast: Dmg (M) 1d8; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Move; Range 80 ft; 1 Trait

Light Melee (2 lbs)
Basic: Dmg (M) 1d8 or 2d4; Critical ×2; Type any one (B, P, S); 2 Traits

Medium Crit: Dmg (M) 1d6; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); 2 Traits

High Crit: Dmg (M) 1d4; Critical 18-20/x2 or ×4; Type any one (B, P, S); 2 Traits

One-Handed Melee (3 lbs)
Basic: Dmg (M) 1d10; Critical ×2; Type any one (B, P, S); 2 Traits

Medium Crit: Dmg (M) 1d8 or 2d4; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); 2 Traits

High Crit: Dmg (M) 1d6; Critical 18-20/×2 or x4; Type any one (B, P, S); 2 Traits

Two-Handed Melee (4 lbs)
Basic: Dmg (M) 1d12 or 2d6; Critical ×2; Type any one (B, P, S); 3 Traits

Medium Crit: Dmg (M) 1d12 or 2d6; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); 2 Traits

High Crit: Dmg (M) 1d8 or 2d4; Critical 18-20/×2 or x4; Type any one (B, P, S); 2 Traits

Reach: Dmg (M) 1d10; Critical 19-20/x2 or ×3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reach, 2 Traits

Ranged (4 lbs)
Ranged weapon profiles require 2 hands to fire and reload.

Slow: Dmg (M) 1d12 or 2d6; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Full-round; Range 120 ft; 2 Traits

Fast: Dmg (M) 1d10; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Move; Range 80 ft; 2 Traits

No-Reload: Dmg (M) 1d8; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Free; Range 120 ft; 2 Traits

Light Melee (2 lbs)
Medium Crit: Dmg (M) 1d8 or 2d4; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); 3 Traits

High Crit: Dmg (M) 1d6; Critical 18-20/x2 or ×4; Type any one (B, P, S); 3 Traits

Reach: Dmg (M) 1d6; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reach, 3 Traits

One-Handed Melee (3 lbs)
Basic: Dmg (M) 1d12 or 2d6; Critical ×2; Type any one (B, P, S); 3 Traits

Medium Crit: Dmg (M) 1d10; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); 3 Traits

High Crit: Dmg (M) 1d8 or 2d4; Critical 18-20/×2 or x4; Type any one (B, P, S); 3 Traits

Reach: Dmg (M) 1d8 or 2d4; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reach, 3 Traits

Two-Handed Melee (4 lbs)
Medium Crit: Dmg (M) 1d12 or 2d6; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); 3 Traits

High Crit: Dmg (M) 1d10; Critical 18-20/×2 or x4; Type any one (B, P, S); 3 Traits

Reach: Dmg (M) 1d12 or 2d6; Critical 19-20/x2 or ×3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reach, 3 Traits

Ranged (4 lbs)
Ranged weapon profiles require 2 hands to fire and reload.

Slow (Medium Crit): Dmg (M) 1d12 or 2d6; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Full-round; Range 120 ft; 3 Traits

Fast (Medium Crit): Dmg (M) 1d10; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Move; Range 80 ft; 3 Traits

No-Reload (Medium Crit): Dmg (M) 1d8 or 2d4; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Free; Range 80 ft; 3 Traits

Slow (High Crit): Dmg (M) 1d10; Critical 18-20/×2 or x4; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Full-Round; Range 120 ft; 3 Traits

Fast (High Crit): Dmg (M) 1d8 or 2d4; Critical 18-20/×2 or x4; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Move; Range 80 ft; 3 Traits

No-Reload (High Crit): Dmg (M) 1d6; Critical 19-20/×2 or x3; Type any one (B, P, S); Reload Free; Range 80 ft; 3 Traits

Traits
Each weapon profile comes with a number of floating traits that can be selected from the following list.

Attached
The weapon is attached to the wielder’s arm and cannot be disarmed. The wielder can wield or carry items in the hand to which this weapon is attached, but she takes a –2 penalty on all precision-based tasks involving that hand (such as opening locks). This penalty can be removed by spending a second trait.

Concealed
The weapon is easy to hide, granting the wielder a +2 bonus on Sleight of Hand checks to conceal it. Only light and one-handed melee weapons can have this trait. Ranged weapons with the One-Handed trait may also have this trait.

Double
This trait can be applied to a One-Handed melee weapon profile. Doing so turns the weapon into a two-handed weapon with the double quality. Select a light weapon profile to act as the second end of the double weapon. If you take this trait twice, you can instead have the base one-handed melee weapon profile to be both ends of the double weapon. The proficiency requirement of the weapon is the higher of the two weapon profiles that make up the double weapon.

Extra Damage Type
Normally a weapon deals 1 type of damage (B, P, or S). This trait adds an additional damage type. When you select this trait, chose whether the additional damage type is in addition (such as B and P) or optionally instead of (such as B or P). You can select this trait a second time to add the third damage type.

Feature
The following features can be selected with a trait: blocking, brace, deadly, disarm, distracting, grapple, monk, nonlethal, performance, or trip.

Finesse
The weapon can be used with Weapon Finesse as if it were a light weapon. Only one-handed and exotic melee weapons can have this quality.

Firearm
This trait can be applied only to exotic ranged weapons. The weapon counts as a firearm with a misfire chance of 2. Taking this trait a second time reduces the misfire chance by 1.

One-Handed
Ranged weapons with this trait can be fired with one hand. The ranged weapon must be a slow or fast weapon (it cannot be a No-Reload weapon profile). This trait reduces the damage of the weapon by 1 step. This trait can be taken multiple times. Taking this trait again allows the weapon to count as a light weapon for the purposes of two weapon fighting and reduces the damage by one step again. Taking this trait can instead (or in addition if taken 3 times) allows the weapon to be reloaded with one hand.

Shield
The weapon counts as a light shield in addition to being a weapon. This trait can be added to one-handed weapons only.

Spring Loaded
The weapon’s wielder can activate or suspend its reach as a swift action. This quality can be added only to one-handed or two-handed exotic melee weapons with the reach special feature.

Thrown
The weapon gains the thrown weapon quality, and has a range increment of 10 ft and can be thrown up to 5 range increments. This trait can only be applied to light melee weapons or exotic one-handed weapons.

Drawbacks
Weapon drawbacks can be added to any weapon profile to give it additional traits.

Fragile
The weapon gains the fragile quality.

Reduced Damage
The weapon deals damage 1 die step smaller (1d12 or 2d6 > 1d10 > 1d8 or 2d4 > 1d6 > 1d4 > 1d3). This is a negative trait