The Wight Stuff [3.5, items, PEACH]

[4th number]

I wrote these up years ago (under a previous name) for a contest that never got going, but I think they're good enough that they warrant a thread. They're useful only if you're running a wight-apocalypse campaign, but if you are, they're great. I'm especially proud of the Veil.

Here's a wight, by the way. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/wight.htm) I reckoned that they were the best core creature for an undead apocalypse-- sort of a mix between zombies and Buffy-style unsuave vampires. One wight killing a town full of commoners turns into a serious army very quickly.


WARD OF SAFE REST
Price (Item Level): 600 gp (3rd)
Body Slot: --
Caster Level: 10th
Aura: Strong; (DC 16) Abjuration
Activation: --
Weight: 1lb

This simple totem is made of a holy symbol, a twist of white silk, and a small fragment from the corpse of an undead.

When hung upon the door of a building, a ward of safe rest prevents all undead creatures of the kind from which it was made from entering or approaching within 5 feet.

Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, hide from undead
Cost to Create: 300 gp, 24 xp, 1 day


DECLAWING
Price: +1 bonus
Property: Weapon
Caster Level: 8th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 16) Necromancy
Activation: Swift (command)

This weapon bears a simple engraving of a wight's clawed hand formed into a fist. When it is wielded, the hand unclenches.

When you are wielding a declawing weapon, you can choose to deliver a smite attack against a wight five times per day. The attack deals 2d4 extra points of damage. If the attack hits, the wight is unable to use its Energy Drain for a number of rounds equal to half of the extra damage dealt, rounded down. You must declare the smite attack before you make your attack roll. If the attack does not strike a wight, the smite is wasted.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, disrupt undead, daze
Cost to Create: Varies.


WIGHTSDOOM
Price: +3 bonus
Property: Weapon
Caster Level: 10th
Aura: Strong; (DC 21) Necromancy
Activation: -- and Swift (command)

This weapon is adorned with an engraving of a stylized wight's head. For each wight that it has been used it to kill, a small mark appears beside the engraving.

This weapon functions as a declawing weapon (see above), except that the smite attack deals 8d4 damage.

In addition, the weapon grants a +6 sacred bonus to all attack rolls versus wights. If a wight is destroyed by a wightsdoom weapon, you get an immediate, extra melee attack against another creature within reach. The extra attack is at the same bonus as the attack that destroyed the wight.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, greater disrupt undead, daze
Cost to Create: Varies.


VEIL OF POSTPONED MOURNING
Price (Item Level): 100 gp (1st)
Body Slot: Eyes
Caster Level: 5th
Aura: Faint; (DC 17) Illusion
Activation: --
Weight: --

This translucent veil covers the upper half of the face and clings loosely to the wearer.

A veil of postponed mourning makes all undead creatures appear faceless and generic to the wearer, so that they cannot discern how the undead appeared in life.

Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, silent image
Cost to Create: 50 gp, 4 xp, 1 day


RING OF DESPERATION
Price (Item Level): 3500 gp (8th)
Body Slot: Ring
Caster Level: 8th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 21) Evocation
Activation: --; see text
Weight: --

Made of rough, hastily forged pewter, this ring has the following engraved on the inside, in Common: "May the gods be merciful."

A ring of desperation grants a +2 sacred bonus on saves against effects generated by undead creatures. Additionally, if the wearer becomes an undead creature, they are immediately destroyed, and all undead creatures within 10 feet take 5d6 radiant damage and must make a DC 16 Fortitude save or be destroyed.

Prerequisites: Forge Ring, death ward, searing light
Cost to Create: 1750 gp, 140 xp, 4 days

[willpell]

I really like the Ring of Desperation, and the Ward of Safe Rest is also pretty good; aside from perhaps adjusting their prices (not saying I would, only might), I'd probably consider them suitable for use in my campaign as-is (and I'm very slow to adopt homebrew so you may consider this high praise). The Veil is pretty useless, but at 100 gp it should be, and it's a nicely flavorful sort of item; to make it actually do something, you could put a houserule about morale penalties in your campaign and then have the Veil immunize the wearer from these.

The anti-wight weapons are too specific IMO, and the 8d4 smite damage on Wightsdoom seems too high to me, while the Declawing doesn't seem like it needs to also smite on top of what it does. I'd suggest these versions as more generic abilities that any campaign could use, with setting them to "wight" as just one option:


HOBBLING
Price: +1 bonus
Property: Weapon
Caster Level: 8th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 16) Necromancy
Activation: Swift (command)

This weapon bears a simple engraving of a wight's clawed hand formed into a fist. When it is wielded, the hand unclenches.

Each Hobbling weapon is attuned to a particular kind of creature, such as wights, brass dragons, or half-dragon humans. When a Disarming weapon scores damage against a creature of the appropriate kind, any Su or Ex abilities that creature has which normally trigger when it hits with its natural weapons are rendered inoperable for 1 round. For instance, if a Wight-Hobbling weapon deals damage to a Wight, that Wight's natural attacks no longer inflict negative levels.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, disrupt undead, daze some other spell
Cost to Create: Varies.


-DOOM
Price: +3 bonus
Property: Weapon
Caster Level: 10th
Aura: Strong; (DC 21) Necromancy
Activation: -- and Swift (command)

This weapon is adorned with an engraving of a stylized wight's monster head. For each wight such monster that it has been used it to kill, a small mark appears beside the engraving.

Similar to a bane weapon but more specific and more deadly, a -Doom weapon is attuned to a particular kind of creature, such as wights, brass dragons, or half-dragon humans.

The weapon grants a +6 bonus to all attack rolls versus wights creatures of the appropriate kind. For instance, a Wightsdoom weapon gains the bonus when wielded against a wight (if a single attack roll targets multiple creatures, the bonus applies if at least one of those creatures is of the weapon's specified kind). The bonus is either sacred or profane, depending on whether or not the specific creature is usually evil; a Tigerdoom weapon, for instance, would gaina profane bonus, though the weapon is not evil per se, because it can be used to kill tigers even if they are not evil, and a significant percentage of tigers are not evil. A Wightsdoom weapon however gets a sacred bonus, because non-evil wights are exceedingly rare.

When you are wielding a doom weapon, you can choose to deliver a smite attack against a wight creature of the appropriate kind five times per day. The attack deals 1 extra point of damage per d4 hit die of the target, 2 points per d6 or d8, and 4 points per d10 or d12. (For instance, a Half-Dragonsdoom weapon is used against a half-dragon bugbear with one rogue level; the bugbear has 3d10+1d6 HD, so the smite deals 14 extra damage.) If you perform the smite attack against a creature which is not of the appropriate kind, the smite has no effect.

Additionally, if a creature of the appropriate kind is destroyed dropped by a -doom weapon, you get an immediate, extra melee attack against another creature within reach, at the same attack bonus. This ability is equivalent to the Cleaving property save for being more limited in operation; a weapon which is both Cleaving and Doom may Cleave only once when it first drops a target, but may then Cleave again if it drops the second target, if either of the targets is of the appropriate kind.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Cleave, greater disrupt undead, daze some other spell
Cost to Create: Varies.

[4th number]

For the Veil, I was picturing them on NPCs as opposed to being something the PCs would buy. The ring is a little expensive for what it does, too-- maybe there's a city artificer who's cranking these things out for the local guardsmen.

I like the generic-izing of the weapons.

I figured that the powerful abilities on the originals are justified because these aren't the kind of things that players are buying for use in a normal campaign. Either this is a stand-alone survival game where there are tons of wights to chew through (and there are always more of them to kill until you get the original), or this is an adventure as part of a larger campaign where they can pick up items like this that are only useful for a while. These are tools for a DM, not the players.

EDIT: Say there's a dungeon crawling with the undead, mostly wights. Teach the players to be afraid of them for a couple of encounters, but then have the fighter find a Declawing weapon on a crumbling skeleton. Suddenly they're empowered and ready for a boss-wight fight.

Ain't nobody gonna spend money on these unless they're rich already.

[Frathe]

Maybe instead of -Doom you could call it -bane, as in Wightsbane?

[willpell]

Maybe instead of -Doom you could call it -bane, as in Wightsbane?

Bane is already a weapon quality.

[Frathe]

Bane is already a weapon quality.

Oops, you're right. You even mentioned those in your description. What about -slayer (Wightslayer, Dragonslayer) or -smiter (Wightsmiter, Dragonsmiter, etc.)?