Behold_the_Void
2007-02-01, 05:34 PM
First, as a note. What is presented here will give an extraordinary boost to fighter classes that rely little or no magic. I am well aware of this and will discuss why I feel they should be balanced later on. I will also need some help with the pricing, it's not something I feel should be in the hands of low-level parties. So, to begin:
Rivane and his partner Sera sat at the corner table in the Trollsbane Alehouse, so named for its brew so potent it can lay low a troll.
"So, what's the next job?" Sera asked, an open spellbook on the table in front of her. "I need to know what to prepare."
"We're attacking a cabal of necromancers," Rivane said. "I think there are about five of them to deal with."
"Five!?" Sera nearly shouted, drawing stares from the other patrons.
Glaring, she lowered her voice. "I'm good, but I'm not that good."
"Don't worry," Rivane said. "My commission was finally finished."
"What did you get, another pointed stick?" Sera asked sarcastically.
"In a manner of speaking," Rivane said as he reached into his bag of holding and withdrew a huge, leaden case. Placing it on the table, he opened it. Immediately, Sera drew back with a hiss, grabbing her book off the table as she did so. Rivane smiled.
"Pure Zynshyr alloy forged by the dwarven master smiths. The sharpness of the blade matches that of any well-enchanted blade, but it possesses not one speck of its own magic. Indeed, as you may well know..." Rivane said.
"It nullifies all magic it touches," Sera hissed.
Zynshyr is a rare and extremely valuable metal found deep within the greatest mountains. It has all of the properties of steel, but weighs half again as much. However, the greatest property of Zynshyr is its effect on magic. Magic that targets someone clad in Zynshyr armor is nullified, magical protections fall by the wayside when assaulted by a Zynshyr blade. The favorite of warriors who know they will be facing wizards in the near future, Zynshyr eliminates a warrior's weakness to petty wizardly tricks, giving them a definitive edge in combat.
Zynshyr
Zynshyr adds many special qualities to both armor and weapons. Light armor confers a 33% chance that any arcane, divine, or psionic spell/power targetting the wearer will fail. Medium armor offers a 66% chance of failure, and Heavy Armor fully protects the wearer from any form of magical or psionic attack. A buckler or small shield confers an additional 15% chance of spell failure, and a heavy shield confers an additional 30% chance of spell failure. Tower shields confer a 50% chance of spell failure. This stacks with the armor's protection.
Spells that last for more than one round, regardless of their nature, are negated after the first round of their effectiveness, while the armor may have failed to block the initial effect it almost immediately neutralizes the spell, preventing it from lingering. Zynshyr makes no distinction between a beneficial and harmful spell, it affects all magic the same. In addition, Zynshyr armor and shields still grant armor bonuses against magical touch attacks.
Zynshyr armor does not negate the properties of magical weapons, the quick pass of blades is not enough to surpress their offensive properties.
Zynshyr weapons have the ability to ignore magical protections. Any magical protections such as Stoneskin or Mage Armor are rendered completely ineffective to Zynshyr's touch. Enchanted armor and shields still function normally, the quick pass of blades is not enough to surpress their protective properties. Furthermore, light weapons have a 5% chance of dispelling one of the randomly chosen spells currently active on the target. This increases to 10% with one-handed weapons, and 20% with two-handed weapons. This is completely random, and does not differentiate between beneficial and harmful spell effects. This property also has the ability to dismiss a summoned creature to its home plane with the same percentage chance as it has to dispell a spell effect.
Zynshyr ammunition is considered to be especially potent. Zynshyr arrows ignore magical protections such as Wind Wall and Protection from Arrows, and have a 5% chance of dispelling a random active magical effect on the target, like light weapons. On a confirmed critical hit, the ammunition will lodge itself in the target, conferring two additional effects. Every round there is a 5% chance (cumulative with each embedded ammunition) of having a magical effect on the target dispelled. Furthermore, each time the target attempts to cast a spell, they must make a concentration check with a DC of 10+5 per embedded ammunition+spell level to prevent the spell from failing.
Spells that conjure permanent objects are unaffected by Zynshyr after casting. This includes spells such as the orb spells that can be fired into an anti-magic field without adverse effect, or any other spell that can continue to function within an anti-magic field.
Because of the nature of Zynshyr's magical nullification, no magic items worn or wielded by someone who is also wearing Zynshyr armor or wielding a Zynshyr weapon will function. Likewise, no spells can be cast while wearing Zynshyr.
Zynshyr's properties can be blocked by a case of lead or adamantine of at least twice the thickness of the Zynshyr in all directions. This allows for Zynshyr to be, for example, stored within a bag of holding or portable hole, or carried in one's pack without suffering any adverse effects. When contained in such a way, Zynshyr may be affected by spells such as teleport and dimension door, which bring the entire case with them.
Aside from its special qualities, Zynshyr is treated as a masterwork item for all other intents and purposes. The weight of a Zynshyr item is the base weight of the item multiplied by 1.5. Zynshyr's properties are ineffective against epic or godly magic.
Type of Zynshyr and cost modifier:
Ammunition: +275 gp
Light armor: +10,000 gp
Medium armor: +15,000 gp
Heavy armor: +20,000 gp
Weapon: +8,000 gp
Shield: +7,000 gp
Feats
Craft Superior Arms [Item Creation]
Prerequisite:
8 ranks in Craft (Weaponsmithing)
Benefit:
You are able to craft such masterful weapons that they can equal enchanted weapons in terms of raw power. Enhancing a weapon takes three days for each 1,000 gp of the price of equivalent magical features. To enhance a weapon you must spend 1/25 of its features’ total price in XP (due to the amount of effort and raw force of will required to make a truly superior item) and use up raw materials costing one-half of this total price.
The weapon to be enhanced must be a masterwork item that you provide. Its cost is not included in the above cost.
Superior weapons do not count as magic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
All Superior items have their price multiplied by 1.5 before the process is undergone.
You can also mend a broken superior weapon if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the XP, half the raw materials, and half the time it would take to craft that item in the first place.
Craft Superior Armor [Item Creation]
Prerequisite:
8 ranks in Craft (Armorsmithing)
Benefit:
You are able to craft such masterful armor and shields that they can equal enchanted armor and shields in terms of raw power. Enhancing a suit of armor or a shield takes three days for each 1,000 gp of the price of equivalent magical features. To enhance a shield or suit of armor you must spend 1/25 of its features’ total price in XP (due to the amount of effort and raw force of will required to make a truly superior item) and use up raw materials costing one-half of this total price.
The armor or shield to be enhanced must be a masterwork item that you provide. Its cost is not included in the above cost.
All Superior items have their price multiplied by 1.5 before the process is undergone.
You can also mend a broken superior shield or suit of armor if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the XP, half the raw materials, and half the time it would take to craft that item in the first place.
Craft Epic Superior Armor [Item Creation] [Epic]
Prerequisites:
Craft Superior Arms, Profession (Blacksmith) 28 ranks, Craft (Armorsmithing) 28 ranks.
Benefit:
You can craft superior arms that exceed the normal limits for such items.
Superior Epic weapons do not count as epic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
Craft Epic Superior Arms [Item Creation] [Epic]
Prerequisites:
Craft Superior Arms, Profession (Blacksmith) 28 ranks, Craft (Weaponsmithing) 28 ranks.
Benefit:
You can craft superior armor that exceed the normal limits for such items.
Applicable Enhancements for Superior Items
As with magic weapons, standard superior weapons and armor can have a total accumulated enhancement bonus of +10, and follow the standard regulations of magical items. In addition, there are a select number of special abilities superior weapons and armor may have, due to their nature. Note: Bows and other ranged weapons may not be made superior.
Weapons
Keen: +1
Mighty Cleaving: +1
Throwing: +1
Adamantine: +1
Cold Iron: +1
Silver: +1
Wounding: +2
Speed: +3
Vorpal: +5
Armor
Bashing: +1
Fortification, Light: +1
Fortification, Moderate: +3
Fortification, Heavy: +5
Reflecting: +5
All enhancements are treated the same as their magical counterparts, except that they're assumed to be through extremely skilled crafting, as opposed to magic (example: A superior speed weapon is so well balanced it passes through the air with incredible ease, a superior vorpal weapon is so sharp that a well-placed blow can split a man in fullplate in two). Adamantine, Cold Iron and Silver enhancements involve weaving enough of the metal into the weapon so that it can overcome the appropriate damage reduction, although it doesn't involve enough of the substance to give it the full properties.
Note: All enhancements, be it from bonuses or special abilities, count as magical for the purposes of enchanting a weapon. Enchanting a superior +1 weapon is a useless endeaver, as it will simply give it magically qualities that it already possesses. Raw enhancement bonuses overlap, so it is possible to have a +3 superior weapon be enchanted to +1 normally, but it will still be treated as a +1 weapon, albeit now magical and able to acquire magical abilities. Likewise, special abilities still count for the maximum enchantability of a weapon, a superior keen longsword +5 is still only applicable for +4 worth of special abilities, be they from superior workmanship or magical enhancement. As with raw enhancement bonuses, enchantments that do the same as the superior workmanship (such as keen) overlap and do not stack.
Discussion:
Yes, I realize that the Zynshyr is extremely good. I'm further aware that the superior item crafting makes it even better. I'll address the possible problems that I thought of when I was coming up with the idea, and why I don't feel that they really are a problem.
Problem 1: Fighters can now defeat wizards easily.
I don't particularly see this as a huge problem. People are always going on about how Fighters have no chance against wizards. I feel this evens the score. Just like a wizard can win against anything if they prepare correctly, a fighter who knows he's going up against a wizard can likewise plan accordingly. And even then, the wizard still has the option of flight, which the fighter will not have. Futhermore, the wizard can teleport, which again the warrior cannot. Finally, the wizard can polymorph into something appropriately nasty if they have to. Wizards can still do enough to counteract this, although Zynshyr weapons in particular limit their options (Wall of Force/Forcecage can easily be broken through, for example, and polymorph might be removed from the wizard with a well-placed arrow). However, damage reduction can negate this.
Finally, I didn't make this with the expectation of arena combat. In an adventure setting, this can be very useful for a warrior who is going up against many magical foes, but it's not the be-all and the end-all (see below).
Problem 2: Why would any warrior NOT use Zynshyr?
Sometimes, magic is superior. Even with the enhancement abilities presented with the superior item feats, Zynshyr cannot duplicate magic, epic, holy, unholy, anarchic or axiomatic. Damage reduction can hurt, and being immune to magic isn't much good when you can't hurt your enemy.
Furthermore, against certain enemies, you'll really want more of the options that magical equipment allows. The balor is a prime example of this, you probably don't want to be going toe-to-toe with an enraged demon from the Abyss without the many tricks enchanted items can afford you.
Zynshyr is not, in my opinion, overpowered. It gives a mighty boost to fighters and gives them a great option that they can prepare for any mage-heavy battles, but it doesn't give them an instant "win" ticket that a lot of wizard spells do. This just gives warrior-types a very good fighting chance.
I am, of course, open to suggestions on balancing issues, but I will try to stay as true to the original flavor as possible.
Rivane and his partner Sera sat at the corner table in the Trollsbane Alehouse, so named for its brew so potent it can lay low a troll.
"So, what's the next job?" Sera asked, an open spellbook on the table in front of her. "I need to know what to prepare."
"We're attacking a cabal of necromancers," Rivane said. "I think there are about five of them to deal with."
"Five!?" Sera nearly shouted, drawing stares from the other patrons.
Glaring, she lowered her voice. "I'm good, but I'm not that good."
"Don't worry," Rivane said. "My commission was finally finished."
"What did you get, another pointed stick?" Sera asked sarcastically.
"In a manner of speaking," Rivane said as he reached into his bag of holding and withdrew a huge, leaden case. Placing it on the table, he opened it. Immediately, Sera drew back with a hiss, grabbing her book off the table as she did so. Rivane smiled.
"Pure Zynshyr alloy forged by the dwarven master smiths. The sharpness of the blade matches that of any well-enchanted blade, but it possesses not one speck of its own magic. Indeed, as you may well know..." Rivane said.
"It nullifies all magic it touches," Sera hissed.
Zynshyr is a rare and extremely valuable metal found deep within the greatest mountains. It has all of the properties of steel, but weighs half again as much. However, the greatest property of Zynshyr is its effect on magic. Magic that targets someone clad in Zynshyr armor is nullified, magical protections fall by the wayside when assaulted by a Zynshyr blade. The favorite of warriors who know they will be facing wizards in the near future, Zynshyr eliminates a warrior's weakness to petty wizardly tricks, giving them a definitive edge in combat.
Zynshyr
Zynshyr adds many special qualities to both armor and weapons. Light armor confers a 33% chance that any arcane, divine, or psionic spell/power targetting the wearer will fail. Medium armor offers a 66% chance of failure, and Heavy Armor fully protects the wearer from any form of magical or psionic attack. A buckler or small shield confers an additional 15% chance of spell failure, and a heavy shield confers an additional 30% chance of spell failure. Tower shields confer a 50% chance of spell failure. This stacks with the armor's protection.
Spells that last for more than one round, regardless of their nature, are negated after the first round of their effectiveness, while the armor may have failed to block the initial effect it almost immediately neutralizes the spell, preventing it from lingering. Zynshyr makes no distinction between a beneficial and harmful spell, it affects all magic the same. In addition, Zynshyr armor and shields still grant armor bonuses against magical touch attacks.
Zynshyr armor does not negate the properties of magical weapons, the quick pass of blades is not enough to surpress their offensive properties.
Zynshyr weapons have the ability to ignore magical protections. Any magical protections such as Stoneskin or Mage Armor are rendered completely ineffective to Zynshyr's touch. Enchanted armor and shields still function normally, the quick pass of blades is not enough to surpress their protective properties. Furthermore, light weapons have a 5% chance of dispelling one of the randomly chosen spells currently active on the target. This increases to 10% with one-handed weapons, and 20% with two-handed weapons. This is completely random, and does not differentiate between beneficial and harmful spell effects. This property also has the ability to dismiss a summoned creature to its home plane with the same percentage chance as it has to dispell a spell effect.
Zynshyr ammunition is considered to be especially potent. Zynshyr arrows ignore magical protections such as Wind Wall and Protection from Arrows, and have a 5% chance of dispelling a random active magical effect on the target, like light weapons. On a confirmed critical hit, the ammunition will lodge itself in the target, conferring two additional effects. Every round there is a 5% chance (cumulative with each embedded ammunition) of having a magical effect on the target dispelled. Furthermore, each time the target attempts to cast a spell, they must make a concentration check with a DC of 10+5 per embedded ammunition+spell level to prevent the spell from failing.
Spells that conjure permanent objects are unaffected by Zynshyr after casting. This includes spells such as the orb spells that can be fired into an anti-magic field without adverse effect, or any other spell that can continue to function within an anti-magic field.
Because of the nature of Zynshyr's magical nullification, no magic items worn or wielded by someone who is also wearing Zynshyr armor or wielding a Zynshyr weapon will function. Likewise, no spells can be cast while wearing Zynshyr.
Zynshyr's properties can be blocked by a case of lead or adamantine of at least twice the thickness of the Zynshyr in all directions. This allows for Zynshyr to be, for example, stored within a bag of holding or portable hole, or carried in one's pack without suffering any adverse effects. When contained in such a way, Zynshyr may be affected by spells such as teleport and dimension door, which bring the entire case with them.
Aside from its special qualities, Zynshyr is treated as a masterwork item for all other intents and purposes. The weight of a Zynshyr item is the base weight of the item multiplied by 1.5. Zynshyr's properties are ineffective against epic or godly magic.
Type of Zynshyr and cost modifier:
Ammunition: +275 gp
Light armor: +10,000 gp
Medium armor: +15,000 gp
Heavy armor: +20,000 gp
Weapon: +8,000 gp
Shield: +7,000 gp
Feats
Craft Superior Arms [Item Creation]
Prerequisite:
8 ranks in Craft (Weaponsmithing)
Benefit:
You are able to craft such masterful weapons that they can equal enchanted weapons in terms of raw power. Enhancing a weapon takes three days for each 1,000 gp of the price of equivalent magical features. To enhance a weapon you must spend 1/25 of its features’ total price in XP (due to the amount of effort and raw force of will required to make a truly superior item) and use up raw materials costing one-half of this total price.
The weapon to be enhanced must be a masterwork item that you provide. Its cost is not included in the above cost.
Superior weapons do not count as magic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
All Superior items have their price multiplied by 1.5 before the process is undergone.
You can also mend a broken superior weapon if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the XP, half the raw materials, and half the time it would take to craft that item in the first place.
Craft Superior Armor [Item Creation]
Prerequisite:
8 ranks in Craft (Armorsmithing)
Benefit:
You are able to craft such masterful armor and shields that they can equal enchanted armor and shields in terms of raw power. Enhancing a suit of armor or a shield takes three days for each 1,000 gp of the price of equivalent magical features. To enhance a shield or suit of armor you must spend 1/25 of its features’ total price in XP (due to the amount of effort and raw force of will required to make a truly superior item) and use up raw materials costing one-half of this total price.
The armor or shield to be enhanced must be a masterwork item that you provide. Its cost is not included in the above cost.
All Superior items have their price multiplied by 1.5 before the process is undergone.
You can also mend a broken superior shield or suit of armor if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the XP, half the raw materials, and half the time it would take to craft that item in the first place.
Craft Epic Superior Armor [Item Creation] [Epic]
Prerequisites:
Craft Superior Arms, Profession (Blacksmith) 28 ranks, Craft (Armorsmithing) 28 ranks.
Benefit:
You can craft superior arms that exceed the normal limits for such items.
Superior Epic weapons do not count as epic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
Craft Epic Superior Arms [Item Creation] [Epic]
Prerequisites:
Craft Superior Arms, Profession (Blacksmith) 28 ranks, Craft (Weaponsmithing) 28 ranks.
Benefit:
You can craft superior armor that exceed the normal limits for such items.
Applicable Enhancements for Superior Items
As with magic weapons, standard superior weapons and armor can have a total accumulated enhancement bonus of +10, and follow the standard regulations of magical items. In addition, there are a select number of special abilities superior weapons and armor may have, due to their nature. Note: Bows and other ranged weapons may not be made superior.
Weapons
Keen: +1
Mighty Cleaving: +1
Throwing: +1
Adamantine: +1
Cold Iron: +1
Silver: +1
Wounding: +2
Speed: +3
Vorpal: +5
Armor
Bashing: +1
Fortification, Light: +1
Fortification, Moderate: +3
Fortification, Heavy: +5
Reflecting: +5
All enhancements are treated the same as their magical counterparts, except that they're assumed to be through extremely skilled crafting, as opposed to magic (example: A superior speed weapon is so well balanced it passes through the air with incredible ease, a superior vorpal weapon is so sharp that a well-placed blow can split a man in fullplate in two). Adamantine, Cold Iron and Silver enhancements involve weaving enough of the metal into the weapon so that it can overcome the appropriate damage reduction, although it doesn't involve enough of the substance to give it the full properties.
Note: All enhancements, be it from bonuses or special abilities, count as magical for the purposes of enchanting a weapon. Enchanting a superior +1 weapon is a useless endeaver, as it will simply give it magically qualities that it already possesses. Raw enhancement bonuses overlap, so it is possible to have a +3 superior weapon be enchanted to +1 normally, but it will still be treated as a +1 weapon, albeit now magical and able to acquire magical abilities. Likewise, special abilities still count for the maximum enchantability of a weapon, a superior keen longsword +5 is still only applicable for +4 worth of special abilities, be they from superior workmanship or magical enhancement. As with raw enhancement bonuses, enchantments that do the same as the superior workmanship (such as keen) overlap and do not stack.
Discussion:
Yes, I realize that the Zynshyr is extremely good. I'm further aware that the superior item crafting makes it even better. I'll address the possible problems that I thought of when I was coming up with the idea, and why I don't feel that they really are a problem.
Problem 1: Fighters can now defeat wizards easily.
I don't particularly see this as a huge problem. People are always going on about how Fighters have no chance against wizards. I feel this evens the score. Just like a wizard can win against anything if they prepare correctly, a fighter who knows he's going up against a wizard can likewise plan accordingly. And even then, the wizard still has the option of flight, which the fighter will not have. Futhermore, the wizard can teleport, which again the warrior cannot. Finally, the wizard can polymorph into something appropriately nasty if they have to. Wizards can still do enough to counteract this, although Zynshyr weapons in particular limit their options (Wall of Force/Forcecage can easily be broken through, for example, and polymorph might be removed from the wizard with a well-placed arrow). However, damage reduction can negate this.
Finally, I didn't make this with the expectation of arena combat. In an adventure setting, this can be very useful for a warrior who is going up against many magical foes, but it's not the be-all and the end-all (see below).
Problem 2: Why would any warrior NOT use Zynshyr?
Sometimes, magic is superior. Even with the enhancement abilities presented with the superior item feats, Zynshyr cannot duplicate magic, epic, holy, unholy, anarchic or axiomatic. Damage reduction can hurt, and being immune to magic isn't much good when you can't hurt your enemy.
Furthermore, against certain enemies, you'll really want more of the options that magical equipment allows. The balor is a prime example of this, you probably don't want to be going toe-to-toe with an enraged demon from the Abyss without the many tricks enchanted items can afford you.
Zynshyr is not, in my opinion, overpowered. It gives a mighty boost to fighters and gives them a great option that they can prepare for any mage-heavy battles, but it doesn't give them an instant "win" ticket that a lot of wizard spells do. This just gives warrior-types a very good fighting chance.
I am, of course, open to suggestions on balancing issues, but I will try to stay as true to the original flavor as possible.