[Legend] Weapon Houserule, and a few other questions

[maysarahs]

I was recently introduced to Legend via these boards and ever since I've been reading up on the rules, and trying to familiarize myself (I hope to DM a game next semester). I am incredibly excited to play with this system.

I am wondering if it would be okay to use the magic weapon system to add a weapon property in lieu of a +1 to attack and damage rolls (maybe in keeping with traditional D&D, it has to have a +1 on it before other properties can be added). They are pretty cool, and specifically the elemental property was the first one that clued me in to them as replacements for the variety of magical enchantments in D&D/PF.

Moving on, the weapon rules are a little unclear. In the first official release, one could dual wield two holdout weapons (1d6 each, for a total of 2d6, the same total of a main weapon). But there was a recent redoing of the weapons system that makes every single weapon do 1d6. The only dual wielding clause included was that your 1d6 could be refluffed to be 2-20 weapons if desired. How would I do this if I wanted to model two different weapons with different properties, say a rapier and parrying dagger, or longsword and pistol? I think there are rules that say you have to switch between different weapons as a move action, but there must be an easier way to model two weapons without making them mechanically one?

My final question has nothing to do with weapons, but [HP reduction]. I don't understand its utility, or specifically in what cases it differs from, and is better than, regular damage. The only cases I can see it being useful are in the first few hits, when it lowers the max hp an enemy has, and brings the enemy closer to death, but other than for purposes of healing I don't see why this poses any benefit (in the above case I guess it effectively causes "hp damage" and kinda imposes [battered] in one fell swoop?)

Thank you all in advance for your responses!

[Answerer]

I was recently introduced to Legend via these boards and ever since I've been reading up on the rules, and trying to familiarize myself (I hope to DM a game next semester). I am incredibly excited to play with this system.
It's a great system.


I am wondering if it would be okay to use the magic weapon system to add a weapon property in lieu of a +1 to attack and damage rolls (maybe in keeping with traditional D&D, it has to have a +1 on it before other properties can be added). They are pretty cool, and specifically the elemental property was the first one that clued me in to them as replacements for the variety of magical enchantments in D&D/PF.
Magic properties similar to the mundane ones are supposed to come out soonish I think? It was one of the promotional things.

Magic weapons are supposed to be more than just a +1 to attack; they're supposed to be +1 to attack, plus its other more significant bonuses. You can see this with some of the premade weapons. So I wouldn't replace, so much as just add on – but I'm not sure how many to add. It should be more than one per tier, because the magic properties are definitely worth more.


Moving on, the weapon rules are a little unclear. In the first official release, one could dual wield two holdout weapons (1d6 each, for a total of 2d6, the same total of a main weapon). But there was a recent redoing of the weapons system that makes every single weapon do 1d6. The only dual wielding clause included was that your 1d6 could be refluffed to be 2-20 weapons if desired. How would I do this if I wanted to model two different weapons with different properties, say a rapier and parrying dagger, or longsword and pistol? I think there are rules that say you have to switch between different weapons as a move action, but there must be an easier way to model two weapons without making them mechanically one?
A pair of weapons are treated, together, as a single weapon. I tend to agree that this gets kind of awkward.


My final question has nothing to do with weapons, but [HP reduction]. I don't understand its utility, or specifically in what cases it differs from, and is better than, regular damage. The only cases I can see it being useful are in the first few hits, when it lowers the max hp an enemy has, and brings the enemy closer to death, but other than for purposes of healing I don't see why this poses any benefit (in the above case I guess it effectively causes "hp damage" and kinda imposes [battered] in one fell swoop?)
First of all, [Battered] is a very powerful and high-level condition, while [HP Reduction] is more common and lower-level. Mostly, [HP Reduction] is an anti-healing tactic. Healing is fairly common and relatively powerful in Legend, so this can be important in a lot of fights.

[Flickerdart]

If you take a look at Vera (page 171) it's a Greater item with the following properties on top of the +2 to-hit (for being a greater weapon): [Brutal 2], [Distant 2], [Magnum]. That's two properties in excess of the standard. Logically, it should be fine to allow a Lesser magic weapon with an extra property without sacrificing the attack roll bonus.

But yes, custom magic items are coming soon - they are in the priority content list, and will probably be the next thing released, or possibly the next after the Investigations skill game.

The problem with the dual-wielding issue is that Legend doesn't model handedness, in order to let people play things with extra (or no) hands without having to jump through hoops. This means that, conceptually, someone could be wielding every combination of weapon properties at the same time. This gets kind of ridiculous. If you wish to have the flexibility that comes with wielding multiple weapons at once, I suggest you give them all the [Quick-draw] property, allowing you to switch between them as a free, rather than swift, action.

And yes, [HP reduction] is an anti-healing tactic - not only does it stop people from healing, but it's also harder to remove, and harder to defend against, as it isn't damage and thus not subject to [Resistance] or [Damage reduction]. At higher levels, when the resurrection 7th circles hit play, you'll be glad that your enemies only came back with half their HP.