GMW, flame weapon, keen edge -> change suggestions

[Naghast]

So, to put it bluntly
All three of the beforementioned spells are, frankly speaking, barely ever used from my experience.
Their only "use" comes from very early levels, but even then, getting a decent steel weapon is not expensive, and usually lasts long enough for a character to earn enough money to get their go-to weapon (which, oftentimes, have level requirement of like, 16 or 21 at worst).
That and classes that have access to the spell, AND rely on these weapons, usually have access to other spells that apply a similar buff, although unrestricted (read: imbue weapon, bless weapon, curse weapon, bladethirst, as immeidate examples)

The main reason to that is that they're, well, restricted. you can ONLY put these spells on a blank weapon. And quite frankly, on a class that can't +5 their weapon through unrestricted (hexblade, paladin, blackguard, ranger, spellsword) spells or passives (fighter, rogue), getting this 1 ab over a crafted +4 weapon is just not worth the loss of damage, and crit range.

So, i thought that the spells could use some touch up, in a way that would, in my opinion, NOT upset balance of martial classes.

The suggestions are as follows:

Flame weapon:
Make it unrestricted, AND turn it from what it is, to a spell that applies 1d4/1d6/1d8 (scaling) elemental damage bonus on a weapon, occupying a TEMPRARY ESSENCE SLOT.
Reasoning for this is that, it's technically possible to buy 1d8 temporary damage essences (fire and acid) from an NPC. Meaning, this would, at best, simply serve as a spell replacement for that essence. And would open up 1d8 temp dmg options for cold and electricity damage.
For scaling, it could use highest between either: (caster level) OR (character level, capped to a certain value that allows for 1d6 damage) IF allowing others easy access to 1d8 damage would be too overpowered.
(Also could be allowed to be cast on gloves, for reasons)
Darkfire weapon, being a nearly identical spell, could receive similar treatment.

Greater magic weapon: That, took me a tad bit more thinking about. But, my suggestion is as follows:
Once again, make it unrestricted.
Instead of from +1 to +5 enhancement, turn it into from +1 to +4 attack bonus, with scaling once again choosing between higher of:
caster level
OR
character level, capped at a value that only reaches +3 attack bonus.
Reasoning: I initially just wanted to suggest it goes to +4 indiscriminately, but frankly, that would be a rather large buff to masterly damask weapons and would make the craftable +4 weapons straight up obsolete. Mostly.
Capping it at +3 for mundanes means it'd simply serve as a touch-up of a weapon for someone who, for any reason, is high level enough to get the +3 from GMW but does not have their end-game weapon of choice. And allowing mages to make it +4 would, in turn, could encourage a mage preparing a few casts of GMW for their teammates, if they still don't have their +4 crafted weapon.
Or could allow for one more point of AB for those who, for some ungodly reason, use masterly damask weapons while not having any other unrestricted weapon buff (curse weapon, corrupt weapon, bless we- you get the idea) and not having any passive that adds AB on their weapon.
Also for this grand total of...
2 class archetypes (battlecleric / battlebard, unless i missed something else.)
It would allow them to simply have a bronze weapon that they'd +4. Since these classes get access to greater magic weapon.
(Once again, it could also be allowed to be cast on gloves. Because frankly, a battlecleric/monk casting weapon enhancing spells on these hands is a concept that, simply put, makes me chuckle. But it would also help not only monks, but also puglists.)

Keen edge:
That, was the hardest one to come up with.
My initial thought would be to have it unrestricted and just apply keen and -nothing else- but that would be way too overpowered. Free keen property on any weapon is too much. I instantly say that.

My second idea, which i thought would be more possible, would be to have it occupy a temporary essence slot (essentially being a flame weapon counterpart) that applies 1d2/1d4/1d6 physical damage bonus to the weapon. but that would be a mixed bag as well.

So ultimately, i think that simply having it, once again, be unrestricted
and apply wounding property to a weapon, with DC scaling with caster level, up to like, DC 24 fortitude save versus wounding, seems rather fair. It could occupy a temporary essence slot still, to NOT be just free onhit dot with no downsides. And i'd be reluctant to introduce any stacking to it. Or maybe make it give massive crits scaling with caster level? I simply have no idea what option would be the best, but temp essence wounding option seems to be the one that would least impact the power of any lvl 30 character on the server.
It could also, only work on weapons that can deal slashing or piercing, like current keen edge, since it's hard to make someone bleed with a blunt weapon.
Unless we count internal bleeding from shattered bones and stuff.

All in all, i wanted to suggest turning these spells from
Only ever "useful" in very early levels and frankly not even that much then
to
Spells that could provide an alternative, even at lvl 30.
Depending on how fast the scaling is, it could also be extremely useful in early levels.