Golden Vanguard of Inti [3.5, Legacy Item]

[Serpentine]

I'm in the process of custom-building a legacy item for one of my players, who'll be playing a Fighter 6/Favoured Soul of Inti (see below) 6, and I'd like some feedback on it. In particular,
1. I don't particularly like the mechanical "personal costs", so I try to come up with a more flavourful, but still significant, cost/handicap/requirement. I'm having trouble coming up with one for this. So far I've got a) fear of the dark, or b) must spend so much time every day in sunlight (artificial as a substitute?). The only real problem with those is he's taking the variant from Dungeonscape that's intended for underground. Although it's not necessarily underground-only, and it could be interesting having a dungeon-delver who's afraid of the dark...
2. I've taken some liberties with the abilities. "Resplendent Puissance", in particular, is possibly over the top, but I did cut out a few other things to try to make up for it. Does it seem relatively balancedish? One of the easier things I could do to tone it down is make the bull's strength and enlarge person normal instead of swift.
The character's going to be focusing on the strength and protection aspects of the deity, and bull rushing enemies into walls. This item is also intended to be the personal "Earthly" property of Inti, whenever he visits.

Inti
Handia (South American - Inca) equivalent/counterpart to Pelor, with more emphasis on protection and authority.
Greater Deity
Symbol: A benign sun face surrounded by long rays.
Home Plane: Elysium
Alignment: Lawful Good
Portfolio: Sun, light, strength, healing, life, protection, rulership.
Worshippers: Bards, rangers, druids, healers, rulers, nobles, guards, Good warriors.
Cleric alignments: LG, NG, LN.
Domains: Good, Healing, Life, Nobility, Protection, Strength, Sun
Favoured weapon: Shields.


Golden Vanguard of Inti (Legacy Item)
Golden Vanguard of Inti is a heavy shield made of polished ebony with a shining, benignly smiling sun – the symbol of the god Inti – made of gold on the front, with sharp spikes pointing out from the rays.
Nonlegacy Game Statistics: +1 Spiked heavy wooden shield; Cost 1,025gp; Weight 12lb.
Omen: Golden Vanguard of Inti always feels very warm to the touch, as though left in the sun.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h287/serpentine16/IntiShield.gif

History
When the god Inti visits the material plane, he seeks out the Vanguard as his own personal shield.

Legacy Rituals
Two rituals are required to unlock all the abilities of Golden Vanguard of Inti.
Inti Raymi: Organise a festival in Inti’s honour. For three days you must fast, refrain from sexual intercourse, and have no fire lit in your presence. Then you must arrange feasting for the next nine days, all animals slaughtered for meat first consecrated to Inti and sacrificed in his honour. Cost: 1,500gp. Feat Granted: Least Legacy (Golden Vanguard of Inti).
Light a Dark Place: You must assist an oppressed or endangered community by both freeing it from its threat and teach the people or establish something that will assist them in protecting themselves in the future. Cost: 11,500gp. Feat Granted: Lesser Legacy (Golden Vanguard of Inti).

Personal Cost



Wielder Requirements
Golden Vanguard of Inti can be wielded by clerics, paladins, druids, favoured souls and other devout military classes.

Golden Vanguard of Inti Wielder Requirements
Ability to cast 1st-level divine spells
Any nonevil, nonchaotic alignment
Base attack bonus +2

Option 1

{table]Wielder Level|Abilities
5th|+1 bashing spiked heavy wooden shield (1d8 damage and as +1 weapon when bashing)
6th|Shining Might
7th|
8th|Golden Grandeur
9th|
10th|+2 bashing spiked heavy wooden shield
11th|Luminous Brawn
12th|
13th|Resplendent Puissance
14th|
15th|Inti's Brilliance
16th|+3 bashing spiked heavy wooden shield[/table]

Legacy Item Abilities
All the following are legacy item abilities of Golden Vanguard of Inti.
Shining Might (Su): At 6th level, you are infused with some of Inti’s power, gaining a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength.
Golden Grandeur (Sp): From 8th level, you can cast enlarge person on yourself as a swift action twice a day.
Luminous Brawn (Sp): At 11th level and higher, you can cast bull’s strength on yourself as a swift action twice a day.
Resplendent Puissance (Sp): From 13th level, once a day, you can cast enlarge person and bull’s strength on yourself at the same time as a swift action. This effect lasts a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
Inti’s Brilliance (Sp): Starting at 15th level, three times a day the golden sun can emit a beam of light equivalent to a daylight spell. Caster level 10th.

Option 2

{table]Wielder Level|Abilities
5th|+1 bashing spiked heavy wooden shield (1d8 damage and as +1 weapon when bashing)
6th|Shining Might +2
7th|
8th|Luminous Brawn
9th|Shining Might +4
10th|+2 bashing spiked heavy wooden shield
11th|Golden Grandeur
12th|Inti's Brilliance
13th|+2 bashing brutal surge spiked heavy wooden shield
14th|Shining Might +6
15th|
16th|+3 bashing brutal surge spiked heavy wooden shield[/table]

Legacy Item Abilities
All the following are legacy item abilities of Golden Vanguard of Inti.
Shining Might (Su): At 6th level, you are infused with some of Inti’s power, gaining a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength. This enhancement increases to +4 at level 9 and to +6 at level 14.
Luminous Brawn (Su): At 8th level and higher, you gain a +4 bonus on the opposed Strength check made during a bull rush attempt, and you push your opponent back an additional 5 feet if the attempt is successful.
Golden Grandeur (Sp): From 11th level, you are under the effect of enlarge person. This is constant, and can be suppressed.
Inti’s Brilliance (Sp): Starting at 12th level, the golden sun can emit a beam of light equivalent to a daylight spell at will. Caster level 10th.

[PinkysBrain]

Fighter 6/Favoured Soul of Inti
Let me guess ... a TWF'er with improved shield bash? That's going to do rather subpar damage at level 12 (I'm not saying it can't be made to work, it's just that these classes won't do it).

In theory a quickened bullstrength is a 6th level spell, it's just not honest to price it as such ... because it's an incredibly weak 6th level spell, personally I'd rather get Righteous Might as a standard action ability. At the level he gets it he probabably already has a +4 enhancement bonus to strength anyway from an item ... this item has a +2, so even if he doesn't it will only give him a +2 increase. Enlarge person isn't all that great a buff either.

What kind of books do you allow and what kind other characters are there in the game? To me the item seems underpowered, even for a core game. If we start comparing against Magic Item Compendium items things it's worse.

Just using the standard menus and core enhancement I'd go for something like this :

{table]Wielder Level|Abilities
5th|+1 bashing spiked heavy wooden shield
6th|+1 bashing flaming spiked heavy wooden shield
7th|Lightbringer
8th|
9th|
10th|Scorching Ray
11th|Glitterdust[/table]

etc.

BTW, did you really mean Daylight for Inti's Brilliance? At will daylight is actually a menu D ability, you make it cost two levels (menu E) and only make it work three times a day. Daylight isn't that great.

[Serpentine]

So if anything, it's underpowered? That's a great start, thanks. I was worried about it being overpowered.

He didn't mention TWF, though I suppose that could be a good idea... More bull rush than shield bash, though (the fighter variant gives you a good amount of extra damage if you bull rush an enemy into a wall).

And yeah, I did mean Daylight. I just cut it back a bit cuz I thought I had to make up for the bull's strength + enlarge person swift bit.

edit: might be worth mentioning, the bull's strength and enlarge person were at his behest. If you can think of something along the lines but better and not overpowered, I'm pretty happy to change it.

[PinkysBrain]

Oh he wants to use dungeon crasher? That makes a whole lot more sense. One of the existing Weapon's of Legacy gives a Bullrush bonus BTW. I think for buffs, except single round ones, boots of speed are the best example of how to price items (although their activation really should be a swift action).

How about something like this :

{table]Wielder Level|Abilities
5th|+1 bashing spiked heavy wooden shield
6th|+1 bashing/+1 spiked heavy wooden shield
7th|
8th|+1 bashing/+1 Brutal Surge spiked heavy wooden shield (see Brutal Surge in MIC)
9th|Bull's Charge (see Caladbolg in WoL)
10th|Metamagic Lesser (extend)
11th|Enlarge person (continuous until turned off)
12th|Rapid Casting (see circlet of rapid casting in MIC)[/table]

He can do a swift bull's strength himself if he wants using the Rapid Casting, but this way is far more flexible and won't eventually become useless.

[Serpentine]

Thanks, that's a lot of help :smallsmile: I added a second option to the first post. How's that look? I don't really like the idea of the metamagic stuff, but it does seem like it needs something else, possibly more protectiony, even if it's just increasing the shield enhancement... Thoughts?

[Cieyrin]

I like your second set of options, as it remains useful and doesn't go obsolete with time, as that +6 to Strength frees you from having to get a belt.

On the other hand, I agree a bit with Pinky on making the shield more of a weapon, which is what the thing seems to be primarily. Thus, growing it into a +1 Brutal Surge Shield like he has it wouldn't be out of line in making it effective for Dungeoncrashing. I'm confused why Pinky's progression ends at 12th, though, as a Lesser progression normally ends at 16th.

[Serpentine]

I just read up on brutal surge, and you're both right, it's just right for it. I've added it (and moved Inti's Brilliance). How's that now?

[PinkysBrain]

Option 2 looks nice, but you missed that the shield is not yet a magical weapon (it only _acts_ like a +1 weapon, but it needs to truly be one to get magical enhancement).

So you need these changes to make it legal :
10th +1 bashing/+1 spiked heavy wooden shield
13th +1 bashing/+1 brutal surge spiked heavy wooden shield

Dunno exactly what 16th should be, in principle he could get +3 to AC for a +4 bashing/+1 brutal surge shield with a menu E armor enhancement ... but you gave him ability enhancement scores slightly earlier than normal, so probably a little less to compensate. Personally I'm not a big believer in adding enhancement bonuses to weapons/armor higher than +1 ... that is what Magic Vestment and GMW is for. How about giving Greater Blurring (a +2 enhancement) so :
16th +1 bashing, greater blurring/+1 brutal surge spiked heavy wooden shield