Post/Author/DateTime	Post
celestialkin 04-27-08, 10:59 PM	I have just sketched out a magical weapon which will be an important part of my champaign. Fluff wise it's an important item (artifact?) which belonged to a dwarven king, and I am designing it for a player's dwarf character. Since this characters clan (other PCs by this player) has appeared in all of our group's game I want to connect them to this item and it's former own, so I want to make it special and make it a semi-artifact (plus I just want to be a bit creative. :)). I was worried about giving him something too powerful, and I was not sure what +X modifier would be appropriate, but after thinking about it for a while I got the idea of a magical +1 weapon which would have a +1 modifier (for a total of +2) that each day allowed the owner to reset it's +1 property. It would ask it's owner something on the lines of "What is your desire master". As the character goes up in level I will control the +X modifier through an required attached item (a jewel), which I will make the weapon more power as the character gets more powerful. Since I am new to DMing I was hoping the more experienced players, DMs, and item makers on here could tell me what you thought of this idea. Is it balanced. Is it broken? Is it extremely broken? Also, do you guys believe that having a ritual where the PC needs to sacrifice gold to improve the item (equal to the price of adding a +X normally) would help balance out the party gold? I am afraid that if I simply upgrade it and deduct the price from the found treasure might cause the party to still split the gold equally, while this PC still gets the item. Thanks in advance for any help!
nytemare3701 04-27-08, 11:43 PM	Seems like a Legacy Weapon to me. Make him spend the required gold for a +X enhancement in materials and other things for a ritual to "unlock" the weapon's new levels. If you want to avoid breaking this thing, then DO NOT let him pick the enhancements. Sure he can say "I want to slay trolls" but don't let him say "flaming trollbane weapon, GO!" My 2cp
pigknight 04-27-08, 11:52 PM	Get Weapons of Legacy, that's where rulles for legacy weapons are.
celestialkin 04-27-08, 11:55 PM	Seems like a Legacy Weapon to me. I was trying to remember which book Legacy Weapons are in. Do you happen to know? edit: Oops. Posted a bit late. Thanks for the help pigknight! Also, would this classify as a legacy weapon? It seems a bit too simple I believe. Make him spend the required gold for a +X enhancement in materials and other things for a ritual to "unlock" the weapon's new levels. Will do. If you want to avoid breaking this thing, then DO NOT let him pick the enhancements. Sure he can say "I want to slay trolls" but don't let him say "flaming trollbane weapon, GO!" OK. How would you recommend I go about it then? Do I need to keep a Magic Item Compendium handy to look up a match to what he wants each day? Thank you for your help so far. Much appreciated!
jaelis 04-28-08, 12:23 AM	I like the idea. I think the "switching" ability might be worth more like +2 than +1, but it's not unbalanced. Just don't go out of your way to let the players know what they will be facing on a given day. (At least, don't to it too often.) A lot of people (me included, I'm afraid) find the weapon of legacy rules a bit too stifling in terms of the penalties imposed. I think a better solution is to just make the character pay equivalent gold as usual to unlock the weapon's greater potential as he levels.
nytemare3701 04-28-08, 12:27 AM	Make a list of +X to +Y enhancements, X being lowest level enhancement (SINGULAR, don't let him stack multiple +1 enhancements!) and Y being highest. Pick one accordingly. If he doesn't answer when the sword asks...then you have a handy random table!
LKD 04-28-08, 01:35 AM	You might like giving them a bonus +effect to add each 3 levels (1,4,7,10,13,16,19). Allow the player to choose at each 3rd tick whether they want an increased available power or an increased enhancement bonus on the weapon. Have the player pay for the extra benefit by having to let the legacy sword consume another magic weapon of the corresponding bonus. Slip the weapon in the sheath with the legacy weapon and by the end of the night you have an improved legacy weapon.
Rebel7284 04-28-08, 11:50 AM	I think you guys are over-complicating things. Sure he can read the whole weapons of legacy thing with multiple unlockable abilities. Or he can just make it a +2 weapon in which any bonus over +1 could be converted to an ability. If you want to improve it to a +3 later with up to 2 points of enhancement being convertable to abilities, then make a fun quest out of it. :)
Someone 04-28-08, 01:10 PM	I think there was an ability in the 3.0 Arms and Equipment splatbook called "energy aura" or some such that does what you're looking for. As a 1/round, it could change between flaming, frost, shock, and maybe some others. Though it was a +3 enhancement. adding more abilities to the list of what it could function as should up the cost, but limiting it to 1/day (and maybe only while sheathed) would be a good limiting factor. But definitely no less than a +2 equivalent.
aelryinth 04-28-08, 01:52 PM	Just stat it up on the sword as a +2 ability and you should be all right. You might want to do something like a sacrifice of 2000gp for each+1 ability he can potentially 'unlock'. I bring this up because the abilty to select Bane (enemy of the day) is actually an incredibly strong ability for any weapon, so adding in a bit of a sacrifice to gain access to a wide range of abilities makes sense, and thus he could tailor his range of +1 effects to his own whims. Start it off with 2 +1 abilities by default...I suggest Flaming and Keen. let him pay to expand the list from there. ===Aelryinth
Johnathan_Vagabond 04-28-08, 02:30 PM	Just stat it up on the sword as a +2 ability and you should be all right. You might want to do something like a sacrifice of 2000gp for each+1 ability he can potentially 'unlock'. I bring this up because the abilty to select Bane (enemy of the day) is actually an incredibly strong ability for any weapon, so adding in a bit of a sacrifice to gain access to a wide range of abilities makes sense, and thus he could tailor his range of +1 effects to his own whims. Start it off with 2 +1 abilities by default...I suggest Flaming and Keen. let him pay to expand the list from there. ===Aelryinth Thats a pretty neat idea. You could also require small quests, such as going somewhere and doing something, in addition to the gold cost. Lightning Weapon? Alright, you're going to need to wave it around during a lightning storm and hope it gets struck. Oh, and survive it, naturally. Before it can become a bane weapon, it has to kill a few of those critters.
Plothos 04-28-08, 03:18 PM	It should be at least +2, maybe more, IMO. Consider that on any given morning if he has an inkling of what sort of thing he'll be fighting, he can make the sword the right kind of bane. That's brutally helpful. He won't always know and you can always mess with him, but if having a bane that you can't switch daily is +1 by itself, you definitely need to up the price. D&D has a precedent (witness the above post about the enchantment changing between the three basic energy types) wherein flexibility like this (because it can be exploited) should be pretty pricey. If it were me, I'd make it +3, or else nerf the flexibility, by limiting the options, or else making it more like 1/week or decided 24 hours in advance or ... something. Maybe make the thing intelligent (without any real powers to speak of) and have IT decide what it will be that morning. That'd be fun. :D
Ldragon1 04-29-08, 05:56 PM	Another potentially amusing way of doing this item would be to say that the player cannot choose the power, but that the weapon randomly changes what it's ability is every day to a random one from a relative large list. That could lead to some amusing results.
jaelis 04-29-08, 11:21 PM	I think there was an ability in the 3.0 Arms and Equipment splatbook called "energy aura" or some such that does what you're looking for. As a 1/round, it could change between flaming, frost, shock, and maybe some others. Though it was a +3 enhancement. Energy aura is in the MIC too, working the same way. The cost has been reduced to a +2 bonus though.
aelryinth 04-30-08, 02:29 PM	Also keep in mind that Foebane, which turns a weapon into Bane against all your favored enemies, is, I believe, +2. being able to select your Bane/day is quite strong, I agree...but regardless, not ALL the enemies you fight will be Baneworthy, and a little extra damage is a good thing for a melee. Also, why can't the Fighter/Melee have a weapon extremely effective against a foe he's going to fight? Spellcasters can do it, why can't he? I senseth favoritism from the studio audience... Lastly, note the list is limited to what he pays for, i.e. like paying for spells acquired. Once he has it, he can use it as often as he likes, just like a spell. I personally think it's just perfect. I use a similar effect called Blooding in my own campaign, but it's based on a foe you do damage to, not pre-set ahead of time. Being able to alter energy damage on the fly from round to round? that's also very nice, especially with creatures with an elemental subtype, or immunities. ===Aelryinth
Plothos 04-30-08, 02:37 PM	why can't the Fighter/Melee have a weapon extremely effective against a foe he's going to fight? Spellcasters can do it, why can't he? I senseth favoritism from the studio audience...Of course he can. He just has to pay for it. How much should he pay? Well, that's the issue here isn't it? And the basis for any answer will have to be the precedent set by comparable powers in official publications. Casters being better than melee is a whole other can of worms, and probably not best fixed by just unbalancing the whole magic item setup to give fighters some (relative to their price) superpowered items.
jaelis 04-30-08, 03:11 PM	Actually, looking at the math and assuming that it would never be more valuable than being bane vs the creature you're fighting, I think making it a +2 ability is pretty reasonable.
Plothos 04-30-08, 03:23 PM	Actually, looking at the math and assuming that it would never be more valuable than being bane vs the creature you're fighting, I think making it a +2 ability is pretty reasonable.Even though it takes a weapon that is already statted at +2 because of its flexibility (with powers that add only +1d6) and massively increases that flexibility? Well, alright, massively is debateable, given that you can only change it 1/day, but still. I'd take this one any day over the other, which suggests it should cost more. So compare it to +3 weapons like speed. I'm not sure, but I'd probably take speed over this. So it's probably somewhere between +2 and +3. I'd say it's closer to speed, though, than the aura thing, and when making new weapons I'd err on the side of overpricing, myself.
aelryinth 05-01-08, 04:53 PM	Speed is a constant bonus, this is a situational one that actually means he has to know who he's fighting ahead of time. The closest ability is the one that allows you to change elemental dmg AT WILL, and that's +2, and you'll probably get more mileage out of it in an average campaign then a sword that is bane to one critter type/day. What it effectively does is give your Bane Weapon more 'oomph' then just being pulled out when you fight a specific creature. Otherwise, it just sits in its sheath while you ply generic damage against everything. Bane is either great or totally useless. Unless you run a very Bane=centered campaign, 90% of the time it's useless, and 10% of the time it shines. Skewing those odds a little bit should not harm anything. People argue the same all the time with Favored Enemy...less DM dependence on making a magic item toy useful is a Good Thing, not a Bad one. ===Aelryinth
Plothos 05-01-08, 06:24 PM	Yeah, it probably depends on the campaign. If it's one where you usually fight things of one type or where for any given encounter you're likely to have a way to find out what, the bane thing is super strong. If it's more of a kick in the door and fight whatever's in there, not so much. You're probably right, though, that it is closer to the +2 example than the +3. Of course, if the +2 and +3 examples are both high-end for those bonuses, the case could still be made that this is better as a +3. I'm not gonna make it though. :) I guess it's fair to say this would be on a par with Holy or something, so I'm fine with it being +2, now that I think about it.