PDA

View Full Version : Magical enhancement items (NEED HELP)



AeonsShadow
2013-07-31, 11:42 PM
Ok, so I'm starting with a rough idea here so hear me out. I'm creating a set of magical items that when touched to various non magical weapons/armor/equipment, create powerful magical items for a set period of time. My problem thus far is balancing out the power and time they last (per day? per battle?) for various levels.

The basic idea is that when touched to a non magical item of one specified type or another, they combine for a small time to create a powerful but temporary magical artifact.

Example: The key of Prayer: A small obsidian disc carved with the symbols of every holy Deity you recognize, and a few you don't.

When touched to a non-magical weapon, that weapon becomes a holy avenger, retaining it's shape and weapon type. This effect lasts (X) rounds before disappearing. This item can only be used (X) times per day.

Any ideas for other magical items and the time limits/ times per day? I'm looking to allow weaker characters larger weapons while forcing stronger characters to be forced to rely less on their all powerful beat sticks of doom. All words of wisdom are well appreciated.

Mangles
2013-08-01, 12:24 AM
I think this is a good idea. Balance would be hard but coming up with weapons that affect things isn't. Just choose a thematic enchantment set and then make it x times a day. You could have one for each element and call them red/blue/whatever dragon stones. Teeth of the necromancer for negative energy. Steeds horseshoe for the charging bonus.

Getting the balance right will be more tricky, but I think that having only one attuned to you at a time + 24 hour attunment phase in which none can be used would be a good start. That way people don't carry 8 of these depending on who they fight.

Then make it (char level/day)/level of enchantment. So a level 3 character with a +3 bonus can use it once per day. A level 3 character with a +1 bonus will use it 3 times a day (a d&d standard work day). Given a level 3 character is meant to have a +1 weapon this seems to make sense.

Another Idea is to have the magic item have charges per day equal to character level and then make them pay for each +1. This would allow them to select certain enchantments and customise their output, for an easy fight using less charges than the boss fight.

P.S I don't know how you managed it, but your signature ruined your post.

AeonsShadow
2013-08-01, 09:57 PM
Thank you for the help I'm excited to actually try and put this into effect, because it will help me throw lower or higher level characters together without there being some sort of majorly ill effect.

Lets see, We'll sort it by elemental type, general effects, and magical types. That should make it a little more interesting.....

Water, earth, fire, wind,

Destruction magic (Shatter and the like), illusions, healing, Polymorph, transmutation, and so on... This should make it more effective for me, but... Should I make them stronger as they level up like artifacts...?

PS, that's cause lasers cut through EVERYTHING.

Debihuman
2013-08-02, 04:27 AM
While it's a nifty idea, it's going to be badly abused and it is going to throw off your WBL. Why pay for magical enhancements later on if you can touch it with your key? And what happens if it gets lost or stolen?

While not paying the cost for Holy Avenger that you can you for X times a day for Y number of rounds sounds great for the Paladin PC who benefits.

How is that fair to the other members of the party? Are you going to give them the equivalent of free stuff? If you aren't prepared to be accused of playing favorites don't do it. Also, for the key to work, it would have to only work on cold iron weapons (if they're not cold iron to start they can't technically become holy avengers even with the magical enhancements. See holy avenger below:

Holy Avenger
This +2 cold iron longsword becomes a +5 holy cold iron longsword in the hands of a paladin.

It provides spell resistance of 5 + the paladin’s level to the wielder and anyone adjacent to her. It also enables the wielder to use greater dispel magic (once per round as a standard action) at the class level of the paladin. (Only the area dispel is possible, not the targeted dispel or counterspell versions of greater dispel magic.)

Strong abjuration; CL 18th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, holy aura, creator must be good; Price 120,630 gp; Cost 60,630 gp + 4,800 XP.

So you are effectively giving the PC an extra 60K free gp. It is your game so do what you want but there are consequences. If the paladin only has a cold iron longsword and is relying on the key, what happens if the key is lost or stolen? It's a lot easier to lose or steal a key than a sword. And if he's surprised, will he have time to use the key before he needs to pull out the sword? Not fun if his weapon runs out of juice part way through a battle.

60K gp is quite a bit to be giving away--especially on an item that can't be shared by the party.

As a DM, if you have people in the party who are weaker, then it your job to level the playing field. Will this item actually make up for that?

Did you let them in the game at lower level? Then perhaps boosting the level makes more sense. Are they weaker because they rolled stats badly? Then give them an ioun stone that raises a stat would make a lot more sense and be a lot cheaper. It's 8,000K to raise an ability +2.

How much weaker and why is more important then giving PCs an ityem that is probably out of their WBL. It's not necessarily fair to the PCs that earned theirs (unless you are in the habit if giving out a lot of stuff that goes beyond WBL).

An item generally doesn't make up for low levels or lousy stats.

Debby

AeonsShadow
2013-08-06, 08:13 PM
While it's a nifty idea, it's going to be badly abused and it is going to throw off your WBL. Why pay for magical enhancements later on if you can touch it with your key? And what happens if it gets lost or stolen?

While not paying the cost for Holy Avenger that you can you for X times a day for Y number of rounds sounds great for the Paladin PC who benefits.

How is that fair to the other members of the party? Are you going to give them the equivalent of free stuff? If you aren't prepared to be accused of playing favorites don't do it. Also, for the key to work, it would have to only work on cold iron weapons (if they're not cold iron to start they can't technically become holy avengers even with the magical enhancements. See holy avenger below:


So you are effectively giving the PC an extra 60K free gp. It is your game so do what you want but there are consequences. If the paladin only has a cold iron longsword and is relying on the key, what happens if the key is lost or stolen? It's a lot easier to lose or steal a key than a sword. And if he's surprised, will he have time to use the key before he needs to pull out the sword? Not fun if his weapon runs out of juice part way through a battle.

60K gp is quite a bit to be giving away--especially on an item that can't be shared by the party.

As a DM, if you have people in the party who are weaker, then it your job to level the playing field. Will this item actually make up for that?

Did you let them in the game at lower level? Then perhaps boosting the level makes more sense. Are they weaker because they rolled stats badly? Then give them an ioun stone that raises a stat would make a lot more sense and be a lot cheaper. It's 8,000K to raise an ability +2.

How much weaker and why is more important then giving PCs an ityem that is probably out of their WBL. It's not necessarily fair to the PCs that earned theirs (unless you are in the habit if giving out a lot of stuff that goes beyond WBL).

An item generally doesn't make up for low levels or lousy stats.

Debby

While I agree with you, I was just using that as an example.

While I agree with everything you just said, I was just using that as a radical (Maybe over much so,) example. The basis for my world is that the lost age before was a time of magical prosperity. And during that age a war broke out that brought your basic world ending calamity to end the age. Most all of th knowledge was lost, save for the agricultural/elemental aspects, and although the magical items are still around, the ability to enchant such items and such things are impossible at this point in time. Most of what is left over from that age is fairly mundane, (The Eveflowing Teapot, some self sweeping brooms, so on and so forth,)however, there were certain talismans that were mass produced in that age that allowed the user to enchant either thier weapon or armor temporarily (a few turns at best) which allowed them to fight thier wars on a larger scale.

This might be a better example than that last one:

The talisman of flames
This talisman, shaped like a small bright red flame, fits in the palm of your hand.
Once a day, this talisman, when placed against a non-magical weapon, turns it into a flaming weapon for 4+1d6 turns. Once while active, as a full round action this weapon may shoot out a fireball to a single spot within 60 feet which deal 1d4 force damage per active turns left of the magical effect including the turn it was activated to everything in a 10Ft radius +5 Ft per every two dice in the damage after the first. Activating this effect immediately end the all other effects of the talisman, reverting it back into a non-magical item.

Debihuman
2013-08-06, 09:21 PM
First if this is for 3.5 there are no turns. It's rounds. fireballs deal fire damage not force damage.

Talisman of Flames
Minor Artifact, CL 15

This talisman, shaped like a small bright red flame, fits in the palm of your hand.

Once a day as a standard action, a talisman of flame can be placed against a non-magical weapon, turning it into a flaming weapon for 1d6+4 rounds. As a full-round action, the weapon may shoot out a fireball to a single spot within 60 feet, dealing 1d6 points of fire damage each round to everything in a 20-foot radius. Activating this effect immediately end the all other effects of the talisman, reverting it back into a non-magical item.

Since the item can only be used on non-magical weapons, it's not likely to see a lot of action once the PCs get real magical weapons since they can be used more than once a day. The fireball is a nice effect but a 10th level wand of fireballs is 22,500 gp.

Item is worth about 25,000 gp.

Debby