Leveling Weapon

[ZenBear]

Do any of you allow, or have you ever been in a group with a DM that allowed weapons to grow with the characters that wield them? I have a character concept that happens to work really well with a sentient weapon someone came up with and I don't want the character to only work within a certain level range suited to the weapon's power. How would you scale a sentient magic weapon from 1-20 in 5E?

[Ralanr]

I probably wouldn't give a + bonus until level 5 and I'd wait about 6 more levels to increase it by 1. The weapon would be able to bypass magical resistance from the get go so that'd be great.

I love those kind of weapon concepts. I hate the idea of swapping one magical sword for a better one out of sheer convenience.

[Aldreck]

Have you seen Submortimer's Scion homebrew class? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?426238-Class-Scion) The concept is that you inherit an artefact that has been drained of most of its power and it grows as you do.

[ZenBear]

Have you seen Submortimer's Scion homebrew class? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?426238-Class-Scion) The concept is that you inherit an artefact that has been drained of most of its power and it grows as you do.

Yeah, it's a cool homebrew but it definitely doesn't fit the character and I don't see why anyone can't have scaling gear.

[inuyasha]

3.5's Weapons of Legacy is your friend. Just eliminate all of the stupid penalties and you should be good to go. Even though you're playing 5e, it shouldn't be too hard to convert.

[JNAProductions]

3.5's Weapons of Legacy is your friend. Just eliminate all of the stupid penalties and you should be good to go. Even though you're playing 5e, it shouldn't be too hard to convert.

I wouldn't be so sure. 5E is built to be balanced with no magic items at all, whereas 3.5 has strict WBL.

[inuyasha]

I wouldn't be so sure. 5E is built to be balanced with no magic items at all, whereas 3.5 has strict WBL.

Oh that's right, I forgot that 5e is bringing back the old school approach to magic items (which I think is great by the way). Thanks for the correction.

[ZenBear]

3.5's Weapons of Legacy is your friend. Just eliminate all of the stupid penalties and you should be good to go. Even though you're playing 5e, it shouldn't be too hard to convert.

Link? I'm running magic items for everyone in the party so it shouldn't be a problem.

[Gr7mm Bobb]

Link? I'm running magic items for everyone in the party so it shouldn't be a problem.

Not available in a link mate, any that get you to the book can't be posted on this forum. Against the rules and stuff. But google is helpful at finding pdf's for books like Weapons of Legacy and Unearthed Arcana (from 3.5).

I mention the 3.5 UA because it introduced a concept involving bloodlines that gave out benefits as you leveled (with some convoluted mechanics that can be ignored). Regardless it might help. Also the Book of 9 Swords: The Tome of Battle has a legacy weapon for each discipline.

Anyway goo luck, hope it helps.

[jiriku]

At its simplest, create a weapon appropriate for a max-level character, then depower the weapon in stages down to the point where its barely magical at all. The character starts with the barely magical weapon, which then powers up in stages as the wielder levels up, ultimately reaching its final form at or near maximum character level. Ensure that at each powerup stage the weapon is still appropriate for the level of its wielder, and remember to grant less treasure because the characters are getting weapon powerups instead of (not in addition to) additional magic items.

[Jormengand]

Legendary weapons? (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/legendaryWeapons.htm) Just remove the restriction that you have to be a scion of some type to use one, and then double all the level requirements (have the - ability become a 1st-level one) and alter the abilities to work in 5E.

[Extra Anchovies]

Scaling Magic Items (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/scaling-magic-items) work pretty darn well. Just give normal treasure and require that PCs sacrifice wealth to upgrade their item at a 1-to-1 rate.

[Submortimer]

Have you seen Submortimer's Scion homebrew class? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?426238-Class-Scion) The concept is that you inherit an artefact that has been drained of most of its power and it grows as you do.

Hey, thanks for the promotion!

In any case, I'd do scaling like this:

level 1: Magic Weapon
Level 6: Select a bonus
Level 11: Select a bonus
Level 16: Select a bonus

Come up with a small list of bonuses (+1 stackable enhancements, bonus damage dice, bonus flat damage, a special ability, etc.) then allow the player to select what he wants.

Lets say a player really wants a flame tongue. Well, at 6th level, he could say his sword deals an additional 1d6 fire damage, then at level 11, he can boost that to 2d6 fire damage. Boom, flame tongue.