Reward for player

[Biotroll]

Hiho playground, I'm here to ask for a bit of a help. One of my players (hengeyokai (fox) duskblade 9) was spending quite a lot of his free time and part of his wealth to study electricity. I've got one reward thought up for him, which will help them with the plot, but his main idea was to make some kind of tesla-gun. >.> Now, I'm not saying it will be gun (more likely some kind of rod-like device) that will shoot lightning. The question is: How strong it should be?

When I was thinking about it, I came with this:
The device would be able to store 1 charge per 2 character levels in it. One charge will do 1d6 damage and will act like lightning bolt spell for area etc. The device should recharge 1 charge per turn (?).
Does this sound ok? The party isn't really powerful. They are all kinds of melee characters with only dusklbade and bard with access to any spells. Player in question said he doesn't matter if he is going to use it only few times a day, he just wanted somehing that would give him some ranged option and would be based on his research.

So if you have any recomendations or better ideas, I would like to hear them. :smallsmile:

[Xerlith]

Well, if your player doesn't mind it being underpowered...

Make it take a standard action to use and deal 2d6 + int mod damage on a ranged touch attack with a range of 30ft.
Move action to charge it and deal an additional 2d6.

The uses may very well be unlimited since it won't be a gamebreaking thing - as long as it doesn't overpower the others' damage output. Does 4d6+int/round (avg. 14 + int) do it in your group?


Alternatively, as an AoE version it may deal 4d6 in a 20ft line, Reflex (DC 13 + INT mod) halves. (Based on the Storm Bolt reserve feat).

If you think it is too strong for the group, you may make it 3 uses/day instead.

[Biotroll]

The first version looks fine. I might give it 3/day ability to do line efect instead of attack so he has something to play with. And if it feels like being too underpowered, he can make some more research to add some dice. Thanks a lot.

Also a side question, so I don't have to start new thread:
I can't find a monster I wanted to use in future. It was some big undead lizard/dragon who had a swarm living inside of him and was usualy followed by other undead. I thought he would be in Libris Mortis but failed to find it there and in the first 3 Monster Manuals. Any idea where to find it?

[John Longarrow]

What may be easier would be a magic item that provides the reserve feat for electricity. So long as the caster has an electricity based spell memorized, it does 1d6 damage per spell level of the saved spell. Standard to use, range (iirc) 15 or 30 bolt. Low ref save allowed for 1/2.

Not all that powerful, but definitely useful as an "At will" attack.

[Big Fau]

There's actually an item that does what you're looking for in Lords of Madness (Lightning Lances, page 115, may need to house rule out the Grell requirement).

Alternatively, a custom Runestaff with various Electricity spells of 3rd level and lower would help him out immensely, especially if he can't learn those spells normally. Combining this with the Lightning Lance wouldn't be too overpowering at 9th level.


Also a side question, so I don't have to start new thread:
I can't find a monster I wanted to use in future. It was some big undead lizard/dragon who had a swarm living inside of him and was usually followed by other undead. I thought he would be in Libris Mortis but failed to find it there and in the first 3 Monster Manuals. Any idea where to find it?

Closest thing I can think of is a Hivenest Monster from Dungeonscape (Hivenest Zombie Dragon fits the bill, but it isn't listed as a specific example). Barring that, check Dragon Magic, Dragons of Faerun, or Dragons of Eberron.

[Afgncaap5]

You could also have the player invent something similar to the Laser Pistol in the DMG, page 146. 3d6 damage, can shoot fifty times before it needs a new power cell, and has a rate of fire equal to the number of attacks the character usually gets. The player would have to keep investing to build new power cells for it, but the gun itself would remain usable.