Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Magic Weapon works on Everburn Blade

Not sure if intended behavior but Magic Weapon is not supposed to work on already magic weapons. Although it occurs that the spell description - in game - doesn't list that as a limitation.




Magic Weapon
2 transmutation
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Touch
Target: A nonmagical weapon
Components: V S
Duration: Concentration, Up to 1 hour
Classes: Paladin, Wizard
You touch a nonmagical weapon. Until the spell ends, that weapon becomes a magic weapon with a +1 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the bonus increases to +2. When you use a spell slot of 6th level or higher, the bonus increases to +3.

Interesting. I wonder if Larian have interpreted “magic” weapons in this context as ones that have +n to hit and damage. I think I checked and magic weapon doesn’t affect those but I’m less sure I tested this the more I try to remember for certain.

I don’t think that interpretation would be RAW if so, but I can see an argument for it in that it would keep the spell relevant even once you start finding some better weapons. (Well, for those who haven’t already grabbed the Everburn Blade at the start, anyway.)

Looks like it just adds to existing enchantments. Tested, it increases the damage and to hit by +1. have not tried an upcast yet but we can probably guess the result.

Also I am betting we can stack the enchantment on a single weapon. So upcast x 2 magic weapon on a +1 weapon would give you a +5 weapon - I look forward to getting my +5 Sussar Greatsword.

Huh, you’re quite right of course. And that the Magic Weapon tooltip, while saying that the affected weapon “becomes” magical, implying that the weapon previously wasn’t, it doesn’t explicitly say it applies to non-magical weapons, and only gives the effects as +1 to attack and damage.

I wonder if this is indeed per design, though clearly not RAW. I’m not sure I’d have huge objections if so. It would clearly make the spell more useful, but given that it’s concentration based it doesn’t feel too useful, given keeping it up would preclude use of other spells that the paladin might prefer to use such as command, compelled duel, searing smite, wrathful smite and branding smite.

I think I could be persuaded either way as to whether this bug/feature was desirable.

It looks like its a bug, as Upcasting Magic Weapon doesn't provide a +2 bonus. Also you cannot cast Magic weapon twice from two sources on one person or one persons weapon, as it will cancel the first casters concentration - which doesn't make sense but it at least prevents someone from stacking +1 bonuses until they end up with a Susser Greatsword +5 :P

I totally wanted a Susser Greatsword +5 with GWM - oh well...

I never saw the Everburning Blade as magical one as it doesnt have a +1 intrinsic.
You could argue that this blade is by default burning because in the plane of Avernus those weapons might be standard because of other physical attributes of Material used etc.

So gamewise my opinion for casting Magic Weapon on those kind of weapons is fun to use and ok.

On the other Hand for allready +1, +2 etc enhanced/enchanted Weapons its obvious, that those are magically enhanced weapons.
So there should be a debate how to handle the spell(Enchantment "Magic weapon" in the Game.
Will it be viable to use on every weapon or is there enough items ingame to not even need to consider it.
So wheres this Enchantment fitting that it is in the game to use, if usage is restricted on absolutly non-magical item?
Where is the fun in having an enchantment which is allmost never used in game?

I would say that this is where we have to look, where does this spell fit in and does it really have anything of use in the game and how far can we go with this idea to make this enchantment usable on everything.
Magical or not.

A "magic weapon" includes any weapon that has an enhancement of any sort beyond the mundane - so the everburning blade would certainly count as one. Even a Weapon of Warning - which has no bonus to hit or damage at all, is still a magic weapon. It's not uncommon for extremely low level parties (1-5) to sometimes come across magic weapons that have a minor enchantment (often a cosmetic effect), which are functionally +0 magic weapons - no combat bonus, but magic for the purposes of getting through resistance.

Weapons that have potency by way of their material are an edge case, and different DMs will rule differently; if the material is magical in some way, or not natural or not native to the material plane, then the weapon will usually be considered magic as well, by virtue of being made out of that material - but in cases where your world space has powerful materials available in the mundane world, not classifying them as such is more understandable. In the Realms, Mithral and Adamantine are considered magical materials - items made from them are considered magic items, by virtue of being made from those materials.

Pure raw, one person could cast magic weapon on a mundane sword - after that, it would not be an applicable target for a second person to cast the spell on, because it would not be a nonmagical weapon at that time.

If we were to remove the non-magical weapon restriction, then the rules regarding effect stacking come into play - when multiple instances of the same effect are applied to a single target, they do not stack, and the strongest version is used - so if you cast an upcast magic weapon on a sword that had a base level magic weapon applied to it, the new spell would take effect, and the bonus would increase to the bonus provided by the stronger spell. If the weaker spell somehow had a longer duration (sorcerer extend spell, for example), then it would still be present on the item, just not in effect, and when the stronger spell wore off, the weaker spell would reassert itself and continue for the remainder of its duration.