Blood weapon (custom)

[Renen]

I am horrible at balancing, so I am asking for some help reviewing my weapon augmentation.
Keeping in mind that a weapon with Shock (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Shock) has (as far as I understand) permanent +1d6 electric damage and is +1
And a spell called Blade of blood (http://dndtools.eu/spells/players-handbook-ii--80/blade-of-blood--2991/) adds 1d6 damage for one attack, with additional 2d6 if you pay 5hp, I thought this up:

Blood weapon

Upon drawing, select one of the effects (and pay). Effect persists until the weapon is sheathed.
Pay 10 hp, get 1d6 slashing damage added to all attacks made.
Pay 20 hp, get 2d6 slashing damage added to all attacks made.
Pay 40 hp or 1/3 current hp whichever is higher and lose a limb. Gain 6d6 slashing damage, and weapon counts as a 1 handed (if you cut off an arm, no penalty for using 2 handers). Limb is destroyed (for those that can easily regenerate if cut off limb is intact)
Cost: +1

Thoughts?

[Sir_Thaddeus]

The destruction of a limb seems a bit harsh. And are there restrictions as to what kind of weapon this can be added to, like with Keen or Vorpal? Seems a bit odd to have, say, a club dealing extra slashing damage. And would this make a non-slashing weapon count as slashing for the purposes of qualifying for Keen or Vorpal?
Seems an interesting idea, but I wouldn't make a character with one of these weapons.

[ArcturusV]

A bit on the weak side. Not sure why the damage is typed as Slashing necessarily. Might want to go with Corrupt or some other damage type that suggest what this seems to be, dark magic sacrificing blood/life for the ability to inflict harm.

Also the way your ability is written it has potential abuses. Like, well, never Sheathing your weapon again and basically just paying the cost once for a permanent bonus. Or making a schmuck pay the cost for you to have a permanent boost. An evil character (most likely to use something like this) could make some hireling go pay 40 HP, killing himself in the process of drawing the weapon, then the evil character in question grabs up a Greatsword he can swing one handed with a permanent 6d6 added to every attack unless he puts it in a sheath.

Not to mention weapons that don't get sheaths in general like a polearm.

Now a more appropriate limitation on it would be rather "until sheathed", you have something like "You went 3 rounds without drawing blood from an enemy". Might want to phrase that a little differently to include Undead, Constructs, Outsiders, Elementals, etc. So something like "If you go 3 rounds without inflicting damage on an enemy this effect ends." For the more legalese style to it.

I would also avoid the limb loss (Easy to recover at higher levels, at low levels you couldn't pay for it anyway). As well as the 2 handed to 1 handed thing as it's no longer necessary without the limb loss.

[Renen]

Any suggestions on the numbers then?
Only thing I dont want it to be, is to be counted as an "evil" weapon. Its simply using the owner's blood to amplify effects.
Perhaps allow it to gain bonuses if something is killed with it? Absorbing their blood.
The limb loss was meant to give a really high bonus in a desperate situation.
As for the wording on when effect ends, perhaps "Until weapon is not actively used"? That way you can still actively chase someone through the woods without weapon losing power, but taking a nap at the campfire (or even starting to make said fire) would deactivate the weapon, because its not in active use.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I just want to add that it is very similar to the vicious weapon enhancement (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#vicious) at least conceptually (damaging yourself in order to strike harder).

[Renen]

Hrmm... That does look similar. But i'd love to see if anyone can help me tweak these numbers.
And it doesnt seem like vicious can be turned off too...

[ArcturusV]

Problem with that is the vagueness of the term. Probably not a problem for use around the table. But you'd have to give examples to strangers on what counts as "in use". I mean I could see how, in your own example, if that came up in a game someone would go, "Well you're not using it... you're running/tracking someone down, not fighting." and think it's turned off. Course the guy who payed for it probably won't agree with that.

It's just hard to get a "Blood" thing that isn't "EVIL" in most people's minds. Blood Sacrifice for Power (Your own or others), is classic evil territory. So is "Feeding on the blood of my victims" as it would be for inflicting damage.

If you want to do the Sacrifice for Power thing, you might want to look at temporary ability damage instead. It has less "obviously evil" connotations. So revised you might want it to look something like:

Blood Bonded Weapon:
Upon entering battle with a Blood Bonded weapon choose one or more of the following effects, this effect lasts until the end of the battle:
Take X Temporary damage to a single stat: Deal Xd4 additional damage of a type the weapon already inflicts.
Take 1 Temporary Charisma Damage: Your weapon becomes your alignment types for the purpose of overcoming damage resistance (e.g.: If you were Chaotic Good your weapon would overcome both DR/Chaotic and DR/Good).
Take 4 Temporary Constitution Damage: Until end of battle whenever you take damage you gain a bonus to your next damage roll equal to the damage you took.

I dunno. Something like that seems a bit more fun to me. More powerful in general I'd think. Stat damage is harder to heal, of course. But it avoids the idea that this weapon enchantment is Corrupt, or Exalted for that matter. It's good for just about everyone other than True Neutrals. Even then it's not BAD for them... just they couldn't really do anything with the second power as I can't think of anything with DR/Neutral.

[Renen]

Hrm... That does sound interesting. Since i AM a noob, how would you heal the said temporary damage?

[ArcturusV]

Well, Temporary Stat damage goes away. I believe off the top of my head it's 1/day to a stat. So if you had 1 damage in each stat, resting at the end of the day would clear it off. Also the spells in the Restoration line (Lesser, Normal, Greater) clear off temporary stat damage.

[Fouredged Sword]

Consider this

Reaper

Reaper is a +1 scythe. The wielder of Reaper can invest their life into the blade for increased power.

The wielder can voluntarily take up to four negative level to power the scythe. Each negative level adds +2 to the enhancement bonus of the scythe and allow it to deal an extra 2d6 damage. This effect works only for as long as the scythe is wielded by the creature who took the negative levels. Any effect that heals the negative levels removes the bonuses. Any creature that can avoid the penalties of the negative levels cannot use this blade unless the forgo the immunity or take the full penalty for the negative levels. The damage dealt by the negative levels cannot be healed until the negative levels are removed. The wielder can remove these negative levels as a swift action, subduing the effect of the scythe. The negative levels caused by Reaper never become permanent level loss, even if the scythe is wielded for 24 hour or more.

Reaper is a +3 scythe for price references. The reaper effect is a +2 equivalent enhancement.

Add this kicker if you want to give your players a cruel choice - At any point that Reaper is invested with four negative levels and strikes a target the wielder can choose to reap the soul of the creature struck. Any creature non-undead creature makes a willsave of 10+HD+wis of the wielder of Reaper or dies instantly. If the target dies the wielder of reaper also dies. Nether can be resurrected, both souls are destroyed forever and can be restored only by an act of a god.