+1d4 Weapons BG3 in TTRPG?

[Zardnaar]

In BG3 in Act 1 and 2 there are a lot of weapons dealing an extra 1d4 damage. Often with a spell attached 1/short rest or whatever.

In 3.5 terms most are weaker than the +1d6 elemental weapons.

Anyway I have ported a few to my campaign. Generally you can buy uncommon items and curated rare ones and I have included a few of them on my campaign. Or refluffed them eg rapier becomes a short sword.


Samples
Gold Wyrmling Staff - bg3.wiki

Cacophony - bg3.wiki

Cacophony is a rare +1 Quarterstaff that grants the wielder the Thunderous Smite spell.

bg3.wiki

And I added the sword of screams in dagger form.

Anyway I like them as an upgrade around level 4-6. Several WotC adventures add legendary weapons around level 7 as well.

Just experimenting atm with fairly low prices. At level 6 I'm handing out around 5000 gp. That's enough for 2 or 3 of these weapons from a curated list.

Anyway thoughts on the power level of them?

 

[Leatherhead]

The Magic Item Compendium from 3.5 has the Screaming weapon property (+1d4 sonic damage). It's the equivalent of a +1 bonus on a magic item, and has a Crafter Level of 7.

Power wise: +1d4 damage is basically +2.5 damage. Which would put it somewhere between a Masterwork Weapon from 3.5 and a true +1 weapon (but closer to the +1 weapon), if you had a weapon that only did the +1d4.

 

[aco175]

I'm not sure if I like having weapons with the new weapon mastery properties added to them. I kind of get it since they are a bit cool and can give something to a caster or cleric. But then, they also take away from the fighter classes who they are designed for.

Adding a d4 instead of a d6 is not much. I find it bothers more since the d4 is not used much and grabbing d6s is more common. It might also feel a bit cheap if people played in the 3e days with the d6.