Pimp my sword

[Xervous]

I'm working on a replacement character for a campaign I'm currently in. All that is left to decide is how his item familiar sword will be empowered as he progresses through the levels. I've already shopped through the mundane enhancements and materials to make it considerably more durable, but for our consideration of enchantment and enhancement, I'll note that it has the alloy Oerthblood in it, permitting a maximum of +6 enhancement bonus (wooo, so pointless), and a +12 total enchantment.

Now, what are good options for the remaining +11 and the item familiar benefits? I'm looking to have the sword be powerful and versatile (i.e. not crying when half of its abilities don't work vs. X monster/type/alignment), with a few additional preference constraints.

This character is a sorcerer based gish

The OMGWTFBBQ Greatsword of +win
Currently a
+1
Oerthblood / Adamantium / Pure Ore (not sure if legal to have a trialloy)
Folded metal
Resilient
Perfect Balance
Blood Groove
Acid Washed
Ornate
Razor Sharp
Basket Hilt
Serrated

with the following taken into consideration
Flat
-Spellblade: hmm, I dunno what spell to pick... /sarcasm maybe Dispel magic, Greater?
-sudden stunning: its charisma based. DC should scale nicely

"+ N"
-Shadow striking: sounds cool, its a +3, and it works in the same round you smack something, unlike transmuting.
-magebane: +2 enhancement and +2d6 vs. arcane casters (and invocation users) situational, but amazing in the right setting.
-BoVD cursespewing, if I can get it to fly with the DM to use the BoVD one over MIC =/



stuff to go on other equips
-warning
-eager

[BowStreetRunner]

Transmuting (MIC 45)

[herrhauptmann]

What book is Oerthblood in? Drag Mag of some sort?

Magebane. MiC +1
Spellblade. PGtF? MoF? Flat cost.
Parrying. EPH. Flat cost.
0 wish luckblade. DMG. Flat cost.
Smoking. Lords of Darkness.
Everbright. Flat cost.
Warning. MiC. +1
Lifedrinker. DMG. Flat cost.
Nervewrack. DunMag. +1?
Subjugating. HoB. +2
Sudden Stunning. DMG2. Flat cost.
Cursespewing. BoVD. +1

As far as dedicated purposes, I got nothing.
If you choose a purpose like 'kill the drow,' and consistently act mercifully to drow (maybe children, or Good individuals), the familiar can cut you off from it's powers.
The dedicated purpose should probably be something related to your campaign, or your character backstory.
While the dedicated power should be something that helps you out specifically. The +2 luck bonus seems nice, and all around good. But 'confusion' might be a bad idea if you're in an undead heavy game, particularly if the weapons goal is 'destroy undead.'

[JaronK]

Do you know about Pure Ore, which also boosts hardness?

Also, consider the enhancements from Dragon Magazine 358... they're mundane but very nice. They include Razor Sharp (+1 damage on a piercing weapon), Serrated (1 damage per round for 1d4 rounds after every critical hit), Blood Groove (reduced weight), Cup Hilt (harder to disarm) and more.

And what kind of sword is it, anyway?

JaronK

[DMVerdandi]

You could make it a legacy weapon... Those have downsides to use, but on the tail end, are rather cheap to make, and you could give it some awesome special abilities.

You said that it is a sorcerer based gish?
Then have it give you some spellcaster based benefits.

How about:
1. when held and used as an arcane focus, it gives you all sorcerer spells known as long as you are holding it.

2.When not in use, you can absorb it into your body. (Won't come out in an anti-magic field)

3.If you sacrifice spell slots (Like an archmage), You can buy metamagic that is free if you buy it at the same level as it's general cost plus one. You must have the original feat first.
(Persistent spell costs +6, so it would permanently cost one 7th level spell slot to use it without spell level adjustment ).

[Xervous]

ok, I'll update the first post with all the goodies and details...

[herrhauptmann]

A basket hilt on a greatsword?
And why isn't it serrated? Or did you decide to save that one for your bow?

[Xervous]

whoops missed the serrated, it wasn't at the front of my mind with how little it was contributing

[JaronK]

Note you can only have a maximum of 5 of the Dragon 358 enhancements generally, because a smith can only add one per 5 ranks of craft he has +1. So, a level 17 smith could make 5. Even that much is quite a lot.

JaronK

[EpsilRon]

It might not necessarily increase combat effectiveness, but i absolutely love Hideaway Weapon from RoTW. Its a 7500gp enhancement that lets you transform your weapon into a palm sized cylinder and back again as a free action and gives a small Sleight of hand bonus to keep it concealed. You could keep your greatsword in your jacket pocket. :smallcool:

[Xervous]

JaronK, you do bring up a good point; even an exceptional blacksmith would have great trouble hitting the DC 56 (if I calculated that right) to craft the mundane sword. But with a little bit of help, DCs that low can be rendered trivial. However this says nothing about the additional costs that are accrued or the sheer quantities of dairy products involved, and how long it would take to make the item in question


level 17 smith
lets say he has 26 int, base 20 with a +6 headband. +8
20 skill ranks. +20
properly equipped working environment. +4
has guidance of the avatar cast on him repetitively. +20
has an item familiar with all the resulting skill bonuses going towards craft. +20

thats a +72, so the max DC he auto succeeds on is 73.
73 squared is 5329. lets just put the upper bound for the item at 13k gp, or 130,000 sp. roughly 24 weeks to craft.

just hitting the 56 dc...
56 sqaured: 3136
roughly 41 weeks to craft,

and those numbers are on a per week check, multiply by 10/7 for per day.

[Metahuman1]

Get a very, very, VERY thin coating of Riverine over the weapon. Should make it sunder proof. In fact, should stop everything that cant mess up Riverine, and you can have a couple of traps to protect your sword form those. And might I also suggest another couple traps to make the sword come back to you if it get's swiped, thus circumventing all the weaknesses of the feat.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

If it were a ranged weapon, Force (MIC P35) would've been an option. Bypass DR and miss chance entirely, for a +2. Too bad it is ranged only.

Ghost touch is quite useful, negating the 50% miss chance against incorporeal. If you have a real problem with Incorporeal, you may also wish to consider Incorporeal Binding synergy. For an additional +1, you get to negate their miss chance for everyone this round.

Also, if you are worried about concealment, a cute one is Revealing for a +1, which effectively drops Faerie Fire on the target. Faerie Fire negates concealment miss chance due to darkness, blur, displacement, invisibility, and similar effects. Pretty useful.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I would suggest Shadow Striking (ToM) over Transmuting, it is a +3 equivalent instead of a +2; but it bypasess any DR (Somewhat iffy concerning damage type DR) not only material based one an it doesn't need to hit before changing it occurs automatically.

If you can I suggest you to go for an Executioner Axe (Dungeon magazine 135) does 2d6 crit x3 and deals both slashing and bludgeoning damage (or piercing and bludgeon) at the same time. Therefore it can benefit from both Greater Mighty Wallop (size increases are fun) and Whirling Blade. Best part it is a Martial weapon so you don't need to waste a feat.

Make one of it's power to cast Greater Mighty Wallop with CL=your HD to save a spell known slot.

[Morcleon]

JaronK, you do bring up a good point; even an exceptional blacksmith would have great trouble hitting the DC 56 (if I calculated that right) to craft the mundane sword. But with a little bit of help, DCs that low can be rendered trivial. However this says nothing about the additional costs that are accrued or the sheer quantities of dairy products involved, and how long it would take to make the item in question


level 17 smith
lets say he has 26 int, base 20 with a +6 headband. +8
20 skill ranks. +20
properly equipped working environment. +4
has guidance of the avatar cast on him repetitively. +20
has an item familiar with all the resulting skill bonuses going towards craft. +20

thats a +72, so the max DC he auto succeeds on is 73.
73 squared is 5329. lets just put the upper bound for the item at 13k gp, or 130,000 sp. roughly 24 weeks to craft.

just hitting the 56 dc...
56 sqaured: 3136
roughly 41 weeks to craft,

and those numbers are on a per week check, multiply by 10/7 for per day.

Or it could simply be a bunch of low level smiths using aid another. :smallwink:

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Parrying was reprinted in MIC, it's a +N now instead of a flat cost.

Warning, Eager, Illithidwrought, etc. can be put on armor spikes, gauntlets, etc. You don't need to take up valuable +'s on your primary weapon with them.


An Item Familiar is already an intelligent item, so you can upgrade it with more intelligent item abilities via normal item creation rules. Intelligent items are regarded as constructs, and thus creatures, so they can be targeted by spells that affect constructs and it gets actions every round like anyone else. It can activate its own special abilities, so if you give it a special purpose (of your choosing) and the 10d6 Fireball at will dedicated power, it can spend a standard action every round to shoot that fireball independent of your own actions.

The 3.0 DMG lists Disintegrate as a possible dedicated power, and the 3.5 at-will dedicated powers are priced at Spell Level x Caster Level x 2,000 gp (Fireball and Lightning Bolt) or x 1800 gp (Mass Inflict, Prying Eyes, Song of Discord). That means you could give it an at will Disintegrate at CL 20 for either 216k or 240k depending on what you multiply it by, I'd go with the higher cost to be safe/fair. The sword could activate its own Disintegrate every round, targeting not just opponents but their equipment, doors, bridges opponents are standing on, support columns holding up the ceiling, etc.

The Greater Powers include Detect Thoughts at will, a 2nd level spell. Judging by the cost it's at a caster level of 11 (2 x 11 x 2000gp). You could reasonably give an intelligent item a greater power of any 2nd level spell at will for that same price, though a personal range spell would affect the weapon itself instead of the wielder. I'd put Swift Fly on there so the weapon has its own means of propulsion (think Thor's hammer Mjolnir). Silence is another extremely strong choice since the weapon can ready an action to use it targeted at a point in space if an opponent casts a spell with a verbal component, as the spell will automatically be interrupted and ruined with absolutely no chance to resist.