D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 weapon for archivist

[paqqy]

I'm playing an archivist in a campaign. I just received a vorpal dagger +1, which is pretty useless to my character. Instead, I want to take it to town and trade it in exchange for enchanting my masterwork longspear with +6 worth of enhancement bonuses.

The weapon I want to create will ultimately have the following features (from MiC and PHB)

• MW Longspear +3
• Warning (+1 bonus) - +5 insight initiative bonus
• Keen (+1) - 19-20 crit range
• some other +1 bonus

Furthermore, I want to add an ability and a crystal

• Changeling (2000 gp) - swift action, change size into shortspear, spear or longspear.
• Crystal of Return (Greater) - draw as free action, call weapon from 30 ft as move, and 'returning' quality.

The end result is a melee weapon that, in a swift action, can also become a thrown weapon that can return to me, can jump back into my hand if I have to drop it, and that can be drawn instantly.

I'm not a huge fan of hand-to-hand combat, but I find myself caught in the fray somewhat often. I've made use of Holy Sword a few times and that worked very nicely... but I think that having to reserve a slot for that spell is kind of a pain... Is this a suitable substitute?

Is there something better?

I've also considered the brilliant energy weapon enhancement as a viable option. Or I could enchant my crossbow instead except that I can only shoot once per round until I get a repeating crossbow!

 

[Dandu]

If you don't like to get into combat, there are a number of magic items that can help you GTFO of a melee situation.

 

[FEADIN]

Brillant energy is good if you fight armored foes and have a low BAB, Holy is a good enhancement if you fight Evil, better than keen unless you have great bonuses otherwise to multiply, in the MIC there's an enhancement giving +5 damage on any hit (think it's +2 equivalent and don't remember the name....).

 

[paqqy]

I can't always be sure that I'm fighting evil. In some cases, I definitely am... but yeah....

 

[irdeggman]

Unless your DM is "kind", whenever you "trade" in magic items they are considered to have only 50% of their market price (just like selling them).

So unless there is a "special" reason why the person you are talking to about the swap wants that dagger then you will have a lot less "value" to deal with then you may think.