+5 Weapon Enhancement

[Nevrus]

A few years ago, +5 enhancement bonuses were exceedingly rare. There were only a few ways to acquire them:
-Greater Magic Weapon on a bronze weapon with nothing else on it
-Level 23/25 Fighter (depending on base weapon enhancement)
-Level 26 Paladin (Or 16 with Holy Sword for rounds/level)
-Level 26 Ranger
-Monk with 21 Wis and two feats
-Level 10 Arcane Archer

Since then, the list of means has expanded considerably:
-Level 30 Hexblade
-Level 30 Spellsword
-Monk with 16 Wis (Also includes damage bonuses)
-Rogue at 19/24 (depending on base weapon enhancement)
-If an anti-paladin/blackguard base class is added, will likely have a similar weapon buff

The consequence of this is that defensive DR spells (stoneskin, greater stoneskin, premonition) have been losing value in PVP as more and more classes gain ready access to the ability to overcome it.

I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, honestly. I just noted the trend and thought it was worth discussing as it's becoming an increasingly common mechanic. It also has side-effects on classes/combinations that don't get access to +5 as it seems like a mechanic that's going to be more and more common-place with new class additions going forward.

What are peoples' thoughts on this trend?

[Kalthariam]

Don't forget fighters that can get a +6/+7 Weapon Enchancement bonus!

[Skibbles]

IMO the long lasting big numbers crit meta, for many years now, has long made premonition and stoneskin basically irrelevant insofar as incoming damage from a PC is concerned.

30 DR is nothing when most characters are building for 150+ damage per hit.

However DR spells are still great for surviving against summons or chip damage from other sources. I think it generally remains useful in that area, and now that it's available to a wider selection of classes it probably doesn't need any buffs.

[Mattamue]

30 hex and new 30 SS come at the cost of a tumble class
Rogue has lower ab and damage generally, and requires rogue finesse weapon, so the only x3 are small or tiny
Monk ki strike requires 25 levels or two feats
And we don't know what changes are coming, so there isn't much to say there

Overall, these things require an investment that is different from those melee builds that don't pierce 5+ dr. To my mind, paying these feat and class selection taxes is a trade off from the time spent beaching to nullify premo anyway.

Otherwise, premo should have plenty of different weaknesses and counter play because 270+ (effectively) hp is very powerful.

[Morgy]

Anyone not breaching a caster is missing a trick anyway in most cases!

Keep in mind that making premonition stronger also helps a lot of melee classes who have access to scrolls.

[dominantdrowess]

This is kind of the real issue here that hurts a lot of wizards. Many of the wizard defensive spells.. don't function how say... Bark Skin does for druids.

This might be a thing that could bring wizards back.

[AstralUniverse]

The fact +5 weapons are more common than 10 years ago isnt a problem on it's own.

It would be a problem if we played Arelith of 10 years ago and every second character would dumpster mages (and it was not the case, even tho everyone were using mord scrolls with 15 umd, mages were pretty op back in the day).

Nowdays, mages are much stronger than they used to be, and all PCs are far stronger then they would be 10 years ago. Rods/wands of breaches are craftable or very common, and those DR spells are all on the breach list anyway. the +5 weapon now is very useful against 20cot builds with undispellable DR/+5, for example.

I also feel like, no one could play a build without UMD back a few years ago, and now there are other ways to bypass DR without being a cookie cutter pvp build. This helps casual players with no clue in building. Lock and load 30 hexblade and you can be competent.