Legacy Weapons: How Do?

[torrasque666]

So my DM had found out about the 9 Blades and gave my Crusader the Faithful Avenger. We basically figured out how it works and I understand it kinda decently at this point.

What I curious about is, and I apologize if I word this weirdly, can a player make their own Legacy Weapon similar to how one can make their own Magic Weapons? If so, what would be required? Or would my time be better spent trying to come up with one that I would think is a good one? This isn't necessarily for myself, but the other players.

[XionUnborn01]

According to Weapons of Legacy pg 180, you can turn your equipment into a legacy item, but it requires a dramatic/powerful event to occur.

Also DM fiat and approval is needed because that entire book is borked.

[OldTrees1]

The book has enough traps that it would be best if both the DM and the player were directly involved in the creating process. The DM for balance considerations, and alterations/homebrewing. The Player so that each ability is one relevant to the PC.

[Red Fel]

As others have said, Weapons of Legacy has the rules for creating new legacy weapons. The thing to remember is that legacy weapons, as they're currently written, are kind of crappy. You're giving up some moderately valuable stuff for a gradual progression of features, and frankly existing magic items tend to do it better, at less cost. There have been several proposed homebrew fixes (Google is your friend) that suggest alternate (better) methods of doing legacy items. If you insist on using legacy items in a campaign, I'd suggest looking into those.

[Extra Anchovies]

I've always much preferred the Legendary Weapons (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/legendaryWeapons.htm) subsystem, because you can get a legendary weapon without it screwing over your build.

[Forrestfire]

Personally, I think that the best way to handle a weapon of legacy is to scrap the whole system and make it a featless version of an Ancestral Relic.

[OldTrees1]

I've always much preferred the Legendary Weapons (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/legendaryWeapons.htm) subsystem, because you can get a legendary weapon without it screwing over your build.

Doesn't that subsystem cost you levels(and thus features)? I think it is more expensive than the gold/statistics cost of legacy(which is too much).

Ancestral Relic is a good idea.

[Extra Anchovies]

Doesn't that subsystem cost you levels(and thus features)? I think it is more expensive than the gold/statistics cost of legacy(which is too much).

Ancestral Relic is a good idea.

Well, Legendary Weapons requires that you take levels in an associated prestige class. Battle Scion has a 1/4/7/10 bonus feat progression with full BAB and fortitude, Faith Scion has average BAB, good fort/will, and full divine casting, and Spell Scion has poor BAB, good Will, and full arcane casting. You don't lose much of anything, especially from Spell Scion and Faith Scion, but they aren't useful in TO except as filler levels. You'd be better off power-wise if you took Incantatrix, but having a legendary weapon is just so cool. You can have Excalibur, or Tyrfing, or Zulfiqar, or Ruyi Jingu Bang, or Mo Ye. And sometimes, that's worth not being able to break the game quite as hard.

[OldTrees1]

Well, Legendary Weapons requires that you take levels in an associated prestige class. Battle Scion has a 1/4/7/10 bonus feat progression with full BAB and fortitude, Faith Scion has average BAB, good fort/will, and full divine casting, and Spell Scion has poor BAB, good Will, and full arcane casting. You don't lose much of anything, especially from Spell Scion and Faith Scion, but they aren't useful in TO except as filler levels. You'd be better off power-wise if you took Incantatrix, but having a legendary weapon is just so cool. You can have Excalibur, or Tyrfing, or Zulfiqar, or Ruyi Jingu Bang, or Mo Ye. And sometimes, that's worth not being able to break the game quite as hard.

Battle Scion has a slower feature progression than Fighter(which is often accused of having too few features). Sure having a legendary weapon is cool, but it should not cost you class features. It is rare to find a hero in literature that wielded something legendary and the weapon got stronger but the wielder did not/had stunted growth.

[Extra Anchovies]

First, I forgot to mention Swift Scion; they have average BAB, good Reflex, gain a bonus class skill at levels 1, 5, and 9, and they gain a special ability from a list at levels 2, 6, and 10. Of note is the fact that they can advance effective monk unarmed damage by four levels with a two-level dip, and can get +6d6 sneak attack in only 10 levels. Plus the 6+Int skill points, it's better than Battle Scion by a fair bit.


Battle Scion has a slower feature progression than Fighter(which is often accused of having too few features). Sure having a legendary weapon is cool, but it should not cost you class features. It is rare to find a hero in literature that wielded something legendary and the weapon got stronger but the wielder did not/had stunted growth.

You do have a point; Faith Scion is really the one that loses the least over the class it's made for (fighter/cleric/wizard/rogue for battle/faith/spell/swift). The only thing that isn't advanced from the cleric is Turn Undead, whereas Spell and Battle give up bonus feats (1 and 2 feats, respectively). Swift Scion gives up the rogue's side abilities and 2 skill points/level, but can get higher sneak attack dice. (with a 1-level dip into a different SA-granting class, rogue 9/swift scion 10/Assassin 1, for example, can get 12 dice of sneak attack)

Regarding the battle scion more directly: with fighter entry, you trade away one bonus feat for a +5 intelligent item, that upgrades for free. That's about on par with Ancestral Relic; the enhancement bonus doesn't go as high (but there's nothing stopping you from adding more enhancements on top of what's already there), but it doesn't cost any gold, and gains some nice side abilities (Hammer of the Dwarffather gives +6 to Constitution, which is the equivalent of a fairly pricey magic item). If I could get all that for one feat, I would take that feat.