Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 WanderingBard Apr 30, 2015 12:28:08	Finally going to be a PC! So I stepped down from DMing after my 6 campaign session and now as a player I decided to roll a Oathbreaker Paladin. Although the party I'm with is good/neutral-aligned in terms of the story (although truthfully most of them borderline chaotic evil with their selfish tendencies), I checked with my DM and went Oathbreaker to better follow the story I crafted. Since I personally don't believe Oathbreakers have to be completely evil (just filled with enough hatred/ negative emotions counter to the oaths of a paladin), I came up with a backstory having him be a former-paladin turned criminal. [Backstory] Kariel Ziegheart known as the Dread Knight of the Seas. A paladin who along with the captain of his ship turned allegiance from Turael and turned to a life of piracy on the seas. Although never directly engaging in piracy, Kariel loyally protected his captain in every engagement, serving as her body guard. Their ship the New Horizon evaded Turaelian navy vessels and raided government ships frequently, effectively terrorizing the sea for decades. However, the ship was finally caught by the famous Turaelian navy captain William Adama, which is considered one of his most famed naval accomplishments before his retirement. After their capture many of the New Horizon’s crew were publically executed or imprisoned. The primary reason he followed her was because he fell in love with his captain, and thus he supported her after she decided thathe Turaelian Church was corrupt and decided to form a resistance. They were labeled as pirates and traitors to the Goddess and finally captured. The story basically starts off as a continuation a few years after the end of campaign I ran. So I wanted to be introduced as sort of a criminal type character forced to work for the church in order to prevent my captain from being executed. Do you think that this fits the criteria for an Oathbreaker paladin? Furthermore what do you guys think of this magic item? Since my character was not present for the last campaign he is lacking in magic items compared to the other PCs I crafted my own, and ran by a draft by the DM so far. Do you think its too strong? It's a level 8-11 campaign, and +1 platemail is a very rare item, which I believe is one tier above uncommon. Most of the players have +1 weapons with special properties against specific monsters, which is a bit more then uncommon. I also added a lot of curses to the armor, but I think they serve more of a story purpose then an actual disadvantage in combat.   Also it absorption effect is mostly for the sake of story, so I can keep the armor design consistent, and I don't think it's that great of a ability because it leaves the orginal item it steals from powerless. I.e   The 7 Deadly Sins [The Prison of Lust]: Platemail +1 [Item Effect] Able to absorb any armor property that is not an artifact or a sentient armor. This can be done by spending a long rest with the armor with the desired effect. The original armor loses its properties after the long rest and the [Prison of Lust] gains this property, however it loses whatever property it had previously. [Lore] Part of the 7 Deadly Sins series a legendary blacksmith of Fia created. These creations are used as enhancements as well as prisons for powerful re-purposed criminals the church still has use for. Each item is unique and named after one of the Seven Deadly Sins which corresponds to the sin that each specific individual committed. [The Prison of Lust] prevents the user from attacking any protected member of the Church, and serves as a mobile prison, one which the wearer cannot take off unless allowed by a church sanctioned official.   [The Prison of Lust] is an armor refurbished for Kariel, once known as the Dread Knight of the Seas, Kariel was captured and tried before the Turaelian Church after the fall of his captain Alyss Ebonrose's ship The New Horizon, a former military turned pirate ship, at the hands of William Adama, a legendary Turaelian navy captain. While most of the crew of The New Horizon were executed, Kariel Ziegheart due to his past as a powerful paladin of fia was deemed a valuable asset and forced into the role of The 7 Deadly Sins. He was stripped of his title of Paladin of Fia and was branded with the sign of Lust as his "sin". This was due to his decision to turn his back to the church to follow his "traitorous" captain Alyss Ebonrose out of his love for her. He serves the church as their dark hand in order to keep his beloved captain from having to face execution.   How it works Armor of Invurnerabiltiy + The Prison of Lust (+2) = Platemail + The Prison of Lust (Invunerability +1) (Because +1 is the base, and +2 was the additional effect on top which is removed when the armor absorbs the Invurnerability effect, leaving a normal platemain and a net loss of +1 enhancement). However, this would be useful in taking abilities from armor I can't wear such as gender or race specifc armor that dosen't change that isin't an artifact or sentient.
#2 mellored Apr 30, 2015 12:38:33	I would make the origional magic item be restored when you take a new property.  So you can only temporarly disenchant an item. Also, i would limit the magic items copied to rare or weaker.  Copying a +3 armor, in addition to it's base +1 would be a bit much.   Also, i don't see how it has to do with lust.... unless it double as a chastity belt.
(Reply to #2) SterlingRat	mellored wrote:
#4 supreme_slayer Apr 30, 2015 12:53:55	Platemail on its own is equivalent to a very rare magic item from what I remember, so +1 to that in addition to other properties is a bit much to ask for in my opinion.
#5 WanderingBard Apr 30, 2015 13:34:07	The reason why I made it take the armors properties and its replacement function is that its basically the equvialent of wearing the new piece of armor you got and selling/ throwing away the other. The only difference is that there is a net loss and the armors looks and curse is kept while allowing an upgrade. So pretend I get a +3 Platemail, The Prison of Lust would turn into effectively a +3 platemail with its curses attatched, the orginal +3 platemail would become a normal platemail. Also there are already party members with a +1 magic item and a platemail (or enough money to afford one), so a +1 platemail with curses I felt was justified. So lets see in a normal situation where I can take off my armor. Say It wasant cursed and it was a plain old +1 Platemail. I get a +3 platemail in the adventure say, I take off the +1 platemail and equip the +3, now I'm wearing armor that has +3 properties and have 1 suit of platemail that has +1 properties. The cursed armor on the other hand, when I find a +3 plate armor, I have to spend a long rest with the armor, the +3 becomes a mundane plate armor, and my orginal armor becomes +3 platemail with curses. So there is a net loss of a +1 enhancement. Which is worse then if I just normally switched out armor like everyone else can. I guess it could also switch just switch around the effects i.e my platearmor becomes +3 and the orginal plate becomes a +1 instead of a +3. Actually lets make it defininative that ALL properties are replaced, so a +1 Prison of Lust with a Armor of Invunerability would simply become a Prison of Lust (Invurnerability) (No +1) and the platmail becomes a +1 platemail or a mundane depending on how severe the curse should be. Furthermore the armor itself dsen't really have anything to do with Lust itself. Other than its specfic enhancement that forces me to kill the object of my lust, the main reason its named that is because it tailored to Kariel whose sin was directly tied to what the Church considers Lust, in Kariel's case it was turning his back on the church and his faith because of his "misguided" love for his "treasonous" captain. Also the property stealing ability feels like lusting after what others have as well. I was also thinking of giving it an Aura that automatically notifies anyone near it that Kariel sin is Lust, but I'm not sure how to go about that. So far i'm of the opinion that being forces to kill anyone I "lust" after is a punishment for lust enough.
#6 supreme_slayer Apr 30, 2015 13:50:52	+1 armor is not equivalent to a +1 weapon in the dmg. AC costs more to obtain from what I can surmise. If your DM says its fine though then go ahead.
(Reply to #6) WanderingBard	supreme_slayer wrote:
#8 supreme_slayer Apr 30, 2015 14:43:55	Seems to be a very wide variance on the power of those weapons... Based on the first one though, +1 platemail doesn't sound out of the question.
(Reply to #8) WanderingBard	supreme_slayer wrote:
#10 supreme_slayer Apr 30, 2015 21:55:06	If I had to rank them based on my experiences thus far as DM...   1. Oathsworn  - For many reasons, besides just increasing in + over time. 2. Webbed Staff - Assuming the "+1 to DC" means for all spells and not just Web, this is a very powerful item. If not, it's a worse version of the already existing Spider Staff. 3. Turaelian Holy Platemail - Platemail, and won't be destroyed by oozes, rust monsters, etc. -2 necrotic damage doesn't follow the normal rules for 5e's damage reduction and is also very subpar, but that does keep it from being OP to the max I suppose. 4. Repentence - Being able to break magic items is... very odd, and in some ways counter-productive, but if the big bads have enough magic items that the party doesn't want, it becomes an instant way to make an enemy completely useless. I'm assuming this is for plot? Other than that, I only ranked it so high because it gives potential extra damage, even if it's rarely going to come up. 5. Spider Fang - Not sure if it's different in your campaign, but disarming is very, very, very rare in most, and having to sleep with an axe in your hands, walk into churches with your weapon drawn, etc... 6. Garment of Swiftness - Could be much worse of an item, but its effects will rarely come up unless the PCs are trying to escape something.
(Reply to #10) WanderingBard	supreme_slayer wrote: