When should you forge weapons?

[Finalgenesis]

Do keep in mind that for shadow brand, if antimagic (Or army of lead / Ulm equivalent) is a staple on the opposing side it won't be all that effective since the damage is MR resistible, otherwise their large AoE gives it great killing power against average or weaker MR troops.

Stone sword should ideally be wield by stone beings, like a GoRed gargoyle, otherwise you're liable to turning yourself into stone (big AoE that can hit yourself) if you fail an unlucky MR check, barring that you want really high MR and just pray Murphy don't rape you.