The Final Blow [3.5, PEACH]

[CriticalFumble]

I'm trying to come up with a good +1 weapon enchantment for the party's "finisher."

Some background - My group is approaching the end of The Red Hand of Doom, at the completion of which the DM is recommended to give out custom-tailored items of approximately 18K gp value (so, in the case of weapons, +3). We have a dwarf cleric who's been pining for a flaming warhammer for ages, and he's going to get it. But a +1 flaming warhammer gives me one plus left to play with.

Somehow, this cleric has become the party's "finisher." By which I mean that he lands the killing blow (be it via spell or melee) to a disproportionate number of enemies. So I want to use the last plus on the hammer to celebrate and increase this legacy.

My best idea so far is very simple: +5 to hit versus enemies who are at 10HP or less (which means I've got to be on my toes). It's not a huge bonus, and it will definitely have the desired effect. Since there's no chance the cleric will ever take Cleave, I don't have to worry about a broken interaction there.

Any thoughts?

[DracoDei]

Allow it to do "Finishing Blow" (a maneuver from from Tome of Battle) a certain number of times per day... alternatively, add in a non-evil Death Knell effect a few times per day.

[Boci]

Allow it to do "Finishing Blow" (a maneuver from from Tome of Battle) a certain number of times per day... alternatively, add in a non-evil Death Knell effect a few times per day.

A bit much for a +1 ability I think. Maybe punishing stance, without the AC penalty against an opponent with less than 10hp or something. Or something that doubles its crit range and automatically confirms any crits against an enemy below 1/2 hp.

[DracoDei]

Well, Death Knell is only a 2nd level spell and the primary benefits would be chaining it onto an attack, and the "non-evil" part, but you are right that "Finishing Move" is 7th level maneuver... maybe if you cut all the damage from it in half and made it only once a day... I don't like Punishing Stance. With the mod you suggested it is somewhat "on theme" but Finishing Move is much more-so.

[CriticalFumble]

Now let's say I don't own ToB... what kind of effects are we talking about here?

[DracoDei]

Plus a few dice of damage if they aren't particularly injured. If they are below certain percentages of their max hp, the number of dice increments.

Actually, if you look around on the Wizards site, you should be able to find pdf reference cards with all the maneuvers on them.

[Mulletmanalive]

The Death Knell thing works better for actually feeling rewarded for killing something. The variant from the Corrupt Avenger [HoH] was an "if you have enough paladin levels, here's some replacements" thing.

"When you deliver a Coup de Grace to a target with [insert quality here; alignment, corruption, depravity, creature type], you gain the benefits of a Death Knell effect should the creature snuff it. I.e. you gain a +2 strength bonus and 1d8, +1 per HD of dead creature, temporary hp for one minute."

The original was non-discriminatory but was a tradein for 9 levels of paladin...

It's not actually overpowered for one simple reason: In any game where optimisation is allowed, actually crippling a foe is really tricky, so it doesn't come up all that often!

[DracoDei]

I believe you mean UNDERpowered, and I am not sure if he would enjoy the caster level boost, or the temporary hp.

Also, to keep it in theme with the way the character is going, and relevant at higher levels, I don't think it should require crippling them. The effect I had in mind would trigger in the mircosecond they are at -1 on their way to -(some number). This is more powerful, but leaves out necessity to take time out to kill helpless foes (and to keep it "Good" perhaps it should trigger at -10, rather than -1).

[CriticalFumble]

I'm trying to lean more toward an effect that increases the chance that the cleric will finish off his opponents, rather than reward him for doing so. I keep enemy HP totals pretty close to the vest, and the party almost never worries about what happens to their enemies once they drop below 0.

[Merk]

Seconding doubled threat range and autoconfirm crits for enemies at less than 50% HP.

[Ouranos]

Make up a bonus. Perhaps something akin to cleave. Perhaps..

"When your attack does enough damage to kill your target, your weapon triggers the Flaming Burst effect, as though your weapon had the Flaming Burst enchantment and you had achieved a critical strike. If your weapon has Flaming Burst and you kill your target with a critical hit, increase the damage dice by one step."

Lets him have his sexy flamin mace with extra badassness. Or of course, you could always... WEAPONS OF LEGACY!!!!!

[Mulletmanalive]

I believe you mean UNDERpowered, and I am not sure if he would enjoy the caster level boost, or the temporary hp.


We're talking about a Cleric. I can't think of any circumstance where a caster level boost would be MORE welcome. An infinite supply of Death Knells, which stack if i remember the last time this ability was in play, gets pretty silly pretty quickly under certain circumstances and this is ONLY a +1 effect.

OP: There is a quality in MIC [Magic Items Compendium] that allows Coup de Grace attacks as a Standard action. Was that more what you were after?

[DracoDei]

Which is why I was thinking "1/day" or some such.

[Mulletmanalive]

As a complete outsider: a weapon that grants a class feature from Mongoose's Ultimate Prestige Classes volume II...

Finishing Move: Once per round, a character with a Finishing Move weapon may declare an attack to be a Finishing Move. Doing so renders them effectively Flatfooted for the remainder of the round [lose Dodge and Dexterity bonuses to defence, enemies are at +2 to hit you and you can't make AoOs]. In exchange, the attack deals significantly more damage, in this case +2d6.

I forget how much the "extra sneak attack" quality is but this is pretty similar, if more penalising. Probably about worth the +1 and risky to use against anyone on more than a few hp.

[CriticalFumble]

OP: There is a quality in MIC [Magic Items Compendium] that allows Coup de Grace attacks as a Standard action. Was that more what you were after?

I don't own the MIC either :smallfrown:
But like I said, my group almost never worries about about coup de grace until the battle is complete.
Something like your Finishing Move suggestion might work, though I'd have to be more diligent about describing my monsters as "badly wounded," "bleeding heavily," or what have you.