Can you guess why?
But Ritual does fit well.
Hard part is finding a match for Aegis-fang: Incredibly Vicious Throwing Hammer?
In 3rd ed there was the Throwing enchantment: making it a Throwing Returning Maul.
However I've not seen any Throwing enchantments in either PHB or Adventurer's Vault.
One reason is because any book I have read always have ways of eluding the characters actual power, or the items having any actual ability outside being an artifact (the sword that was so sharp it cut thru stone, or a bow that exploded with so much damage that it could colaps a stalamite!)
It always seems to me, items or powers are usually created after the fact that a fan of the book likes it so much they use whatever current rules are to try and create it, or if they can't make new ones.
As for anything being more viable in 4th edition, i can see lots of reasons why things in books make more sense, but i can also see why alot of the things in books like the crystal shard DON'T make sense anymore, aka their items, like their weapons....(IMO the equipment for 4th is weak, xcept for the million gp items...
)Not that it wasn't possible in older editions, it was just a feature that fell out from 1e, and wasn't built properly in 3e (and came too early for the Aquan property).
In 3rd ed there was the Throwing enchantment: making it a Throwing Returning Maul.
However I've not seen any Throwing enchantments in either PHB or Adventurer's Vault.
That's because of a little known rule in the Equipment chapter of the PHB that says that magic weapons that are meant to be thrown (like daggers, shurikens, etc.) automatically have the returning property. Give Aegis-fang a throwing range, and it returns automatically because it's magical. It's in the magic items section, and I didn't even know about it until listening to the Ranger Podcast on Radio Free Hommlet.
As for one other thing that fits 4e from those books, Drizzt must have some skill at Arcana, and the Ritual Caster feat, because he uses a magic circle and some chants he learned in his Drow homeland to summon the Balor Err'tu.
Everybody's favorite Drow hero summoned up a Balor all by his lonesome.
Just as ENHenry says, in 4E this is technically possible with the Ritual Caster feat.
Yeah, I should have thought of that too when I made this thread.
That little bit of item creation was a real humdinger that's irked me throughout my early teen years as a D&D player.
I dunno, I was pretty young when I read that book and it sure as heck kept me entertained.
Though I wonder what a true re-write set in the 4E Realms would be like. More detailed, no doubt. But overall?
(In later editions, I imagine he had a pre-enchanted kit that all he had to do was forge to finish the job.)
How was demon summoning handled back then? Wasn't it just a matter of knowing the true name? (As Drizzt so conveniently did?)
I prefer The Crystal Shard (at least, as I remember it) to later Drizzt novels. Everything was new and fresh, it had that first-time author eagerness, before RAS got set in his ways, and Drizzt was still mysterious and dangerous.
I don't remember that being the case for dwarves, but I'll sure check!
OK...per the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide by Gary Gygax (1979) under the Fabrication of Magic Items, Including Potions and Scrolls section (page 116), "Only very old, very intelligent and wise dwarves and elves who have attained maximum level advancement are able to properly forge, fashion, and/or make these items and have the appropriate magicks and spells to change them into special items -- i.e., these items are likewise the precinct of the DM exclusively."
As it related to dwarves, it must be "appropriate magicks" only and not "spells" since the Character Race Description for Dwarves (page 15) in the AD&D Player's Handbook (1978) says, "Because of their very nature, dwarves are non-magical and do not ever use magic spells."
Classic, contradictory and pure 1st Edition!
;)
An example of dwarves using magicks could be how Bruenor went through his whole setup to make Aegis-Fang (sorry lore aficionados if I spelled that wrong) and (if I remember right) finished off his ritual of sorts by tossing up all that diamond dust and having not a single speck of it go unwasted.
So, unless a 4th ed Throwing enchantment exists for big weapons, 4th ed Aegis-fang would be decidedly smaller than 3rd ed version.
In Silver Marches, it was martial two handed weapon.
In Complete Warrior, maul was upgraded to exotic one-handed, martial two-handed, a la the Bastard Sword.
If a 4th ed maul comes out, precedent would suggest it would be Superior, Versatile weapon.
I've got the 4E Adventurers Vault. Anything juicy in there?
I had rituals long before most designers were weened. :P
BTW - I didn't think of it - read any old fable or 'faerytale'. Anyone should be able to do magic, if it is cast from a Tome. Scrolls work that way, so why shouldn't Spellbooks?
Even Disney's Sorceror's Apprentice had that.
I guess I've alwys been ahead of my time.
