dragonkingofthe
2015-11-11, 10:05 PM
So When I'm board I tend to type out some homebrew ideas for D&D 3.5, not that any of them are likely to ever see the light of day but it's a amusing thing to do. But recently, I had an idea, I blame the monster manual 3 'living spell' template and some legend of Zelda and wondered if you could create a template to twist a sentient magical item into a creature: the Unbound Artifact. This results in something that I think may actually be interesting for other people.
However I found three issues that make this template less then what I want.
first, and worst of all is I don't have a way to attach a challenge rating to the final creature. meaning the end result is a creature, but one without challenge rating built into mean you have to eye ball the end result and give it a guess as to the challenge rating
secondly: I'm not sure how to scale the magical powers of the magic item. right now it's set up so the Unbound Artifact gains the magic of the +3 sword it was made out of as a constant +3 to natural attacks, (the magic item it was made out of), and any spell the item could use become spell like ability. But that scales a bit too strong in my view, I would prefer if Unbound Artifacts where, more like Drow. They have Spell like ability but you expect some class levels added to that. It would also mean that Unbound Artifacts made of an item of a low enough power level could be player characters.
lastly the way the system is set up now, the stats are experiential. Since I tied strength to the hardness of what the weapon was made out of plus ego, the result is very high strength scores, but ego is because of strong magical traits, good enchatment bonus and inbuilt spells. So the result is a creature with high physical traits and powerful enchantment bonus's. Hit dice have a similar problem.
So what does the community of Giant think Can be done to make this idea work?
The template is bellow along with a brief fluff blurb.
Template: Unbound Artifact
."Thank you, Master. May we meet again in another life..."
It is said the first living item was a longsword used by a cleric. Found deep in the hoard of an evil dragon he found a sword. The steel was grained like the finest wood. It was a full yard long and more. Near the hilt, set in copper wire, a phoenix rose up from it's pyre. A copper star within the fire rayed out copper cords. The grip was like a saguaro made that clasped a moon in quartz and jade. The runs along the blade read. “I serve but the good of life and liberty.” the cleric took the sword to it's word and wielded it for the rest of his days, fighting evil, slaying demons, devils and fallen lords and more. Im time, with each use in the name of good the sword revealed more and more of it's nature until it reached the point that the sword trusted the cleric enough to revel it's intelligence. The two would come to have deep conversations about life, what the rain felt like, what was warm? Cold? What was it like to live, and between the conversations and questions, the two served the cause of good serving as a bane of true evil. Eventually however, time would claim the cleric, as it does all things. The cleric and the sword spoke one last time, the cleric asked what he could do for the being who had served him for so long. Silence was the answer until the sword merely asked if he could answer a question, what had it been like to live. The old cleric chuckled and softly said it could find out for it self. He then with his dying breath he cast a final spell, and interceded with his god for his first, and last Miracle, and with a flash of light it was granted. When after glow faded and as the windows vibrated to distant booming thunder, where once a sword and leaned against his bed side, now stood a being, with skin like steel, inlayed with copper jade, clothing made of dull reds, woven from metals, and two halves, still smoking, of a former sword. Thus was the first Unbound Artifact given solid form and the ability to travel and find there place in the world.
Unbound Artifact is a template applied to a self aware magical item (hence for called the base item)
Size and type: An Unbound Artifact is the same size as the creature teh Base Item was designed for. A longsword made for a medium sized creature would produce a medium sized Unbound Artifact. While a war hammer made for a grant would produce a large Unbound Artifact. It's type is Construct.
Hit dice: 10-sided Hit Dice per it's enhancement bonus plus special ability bonus equivalents
Speed: Medium sized construct have a speed of 30, small have a speed of twenty and Unbound Artifact larger then Medium have ten more speed for each category larger.
Armor class: an Unbound Artifact armor class is calculated as a normal, (10 + armor bonus + shield bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier.) But an Unbound Artifact armor bonus is equal to the armor bonus of the Base Item. If the base item was a suit of splint armor the awakened construct would have an armor bonus of +6, a sword would have no natural armor bonus. This bonus does not stack if the Unbound Artifact wears armor and if it wears armor with a greater armor bonus then it's natural armor bonus it uses the higher bonus. If the base item was a shield it gains a shield bonus in the same manor except that it can't use a regular shield.
Attack: an Unbound Artifact has a natural weapon that has the same property’s and does the same damage as the base item. If the Base item was a sword it's natural attack is D8, critical on a 19–20/×2. Slashing. Range attacks don't require ammunition. If the Base item was a shield then the Awakened Item has a shield bash as a natural attack. All of an Unbound Artifact's Natural and Unarmed attacks are treated as Magical, if the base item was made of a magical material, (cold iron, silver,ecta) then it counts as that item for over coming damage resistances. An Unbound Artifact always counts her natural weapon as being her primary weapon if she's using another weapon without a shield, in effect she's duel wielding her self, (unless the base item was a shield). An A unbound Artifacts natural attack counts as a weapon, so they can take Weapon Focus feat for there natural weapons.
Base attack bonus: An Unbound Artifact gains as attack bonus equal to total Hit Dice
Special quality’s: Unbound Artifact natural weapons have the magic of the base item. For example if the Unbound Artifact base item was a +3 Frost sword then the Awakened Artifact would have a +3 to hit, +3 damage, and do 1d6 of cold damage on a successful hit. If the base Item was a +2 shield of acid resist, then the awakened item would be able ten points of acid damage without damage and have a +2 to it's armor class. If the item could cast a spell the Unbound Artifact gains that spell as a spell like ability it can use once per day, or as many times a day as it could as an item.
Saves: an Unbound Artifact, gains the saves it's stats would normally grant it.
Ability’s: an Unbound Artifact, wisdom, charisma and intelligence are the same it had as an item. It's Strength is based on the hardness of the material the Base Item was made out of plus it's ego score. If the base item was made out of steel it would have a strength of 10 plus ego, if it was made out of mitheral them the unbound artifact would have a strength of 15 plus it's ego. The Unbound Artifacts constitution is based on the hit points per inch of material. Lastly the dexterity of the unbound artifact is equal to double the casting level of the base item. If the base item was a +2 flaming sword (caster level 10) then the Unbound Artifact would have a dex of 20. Unbound Artifacts have no Constitution score.
Feats: an Unbound Artifact gains Weapon Specialization for it's natural weapon if the base Item was a weapon. If the base item was a set of armor then the Unbound Artifact gains all Armor Proficiency feats and dodge feats. If the base Item was a shield the unbound Artifact gains improved shield bash. If the base item was not a weapon, shield, or suit of armor, such as a ring or cloak, then the Unboudn Artifact gains the Quicken Spell-Like Ability feat for it's spell like ability, allowing it to use it's spell like powers as 3 times per day (or less if the spell like ability can only be used fewer times per day) as a free action
Alignment: An Unbound Artifacts alignment is the same as the Base Item.
Advancement: Unbound Artifacts advance by class level. There favored class is fighter unless the Base Item was a holy weapon, then there favored class is Paladin. If the Base Item had the Ki Focus trait then the favored class in monk.
Traits: Unbound Artifacts have the following traits
-Darkvision or blind vision equal to the Base Item.
-if the Base Item could not speak or was Empathetic the Unbound artifact is only capable of telepathic communication range 60 feet. If the base item had a longer range of telepathic communications then it uses the better range.
-The Unbound artifact gains
-Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects.
-Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain.
-Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
-Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
Putting it together: the following base item is from the 3.5 DMG.
Acrola tooth of Ashardalon. +5 Keen dagger, Chaotic good, int 10, wis 18, cha, 18, speech telepathy, 120 feet, Darkvision, Blind sense, and hearing. ego score 22.
Lesser power, zone of truth 3/day.
greater powers, slow 3/day, clarivoince 3/day.
Acorla Ashardalon: Unbound Artifact.
Size: medium construct.
Hit dice: 6d10
speed:30
Stats: int 10, wis 18, cha, 18, strength 32, Dex 30.
Saves: Fort- Will:4 Refex: 20
Armor class: 20 (10 + (dex)10.) flatfoot 10, touch 20.
Base attack bonus:+6/1
Natural weapon:1d4, critical 17–20/×2 range 10 ft,. Piercing or slashing.
Special quality’s: +5 to attack rolls and to damage with natural weapon and doubly critical range (bonus already included in natural weapon.)
Spell-Like ability:3/day.
greater powers, Lesser power, zone of truth 3/day, greater powers, slow 3/day, clairvoyance 3/day.
Alignment: Chaotic good.
Traits:
-Dark vision/blind sense
-Telepathy:120 feet,
-Immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects.
-Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain.
-Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
-Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
PS: if you can guess what the swords name was you get a cookie.
However I found three issues that make this template less then what I want.
first, and worst of all is I don't have a way to attach a challenge rating to the final creature. meaning the end result is a creature, but one without challenge rating built into mean you have to eye ball the end result and give it a guess as to the challenge rating
secondly: I'm not sure how to scale the magical powers of the magic item. right now it's set up so the Unbound Artifact gains the magic of the +3 sword it was made out of as a constant +3 to natural attacks, (the magic item it was made out of), and any spell the item could use become spell like ability. But that scales a bit too strong in my view, I would prefer if Unbound Artifacts where, more like Drow. They have Spell like ability but you expect some class levels added to that. It would also mean that Unbound Artifacts made of an item of a low enough power level could be player characters.
lastly the way the system is set up now, the stats are experiential. Since I tied strength to the hardness of what the weapon was made out of plus ego, the result is very high strength scores, but ego is because of strong magical traits, good enchatment bonus and inbuilt spells. So the result is a creature with high physical traits and powerful enchantment bonus's. Hit dice have a similar problem.
So what does the community of Giant think Can be done to make this idea work?
The template is bellow along with a brief fluff blurb.
Template: Unbound Artifact
."Thank you, Master. May we meet again in another life..."
It is said the first living item was a longsword used by a cleric. Found deep in the hoard of an evil dragon he found a sword. The steel was grained like the finest wood. It was a full yard long and more. Near the hilt, set in copper wire, a phoenix rose up from it's pyre. A copper star within the fire rayed out copper cords. The grip was like a saguaro made that clasped a moon in quartz and jade. The runs along the blade read. “I serve but the good of life and liberty.” the cleric took the sword to it's word and wielded it for the rest of his days, fighting evil, slaying demons, devils and fallen lords and more. Im time, with each use in the name of good the sword revealed more and more of it's nature until it reached the point that the sword trusted the cleric enough to revel it's intelligence. The two would come to have deep conversations about life, what the rain felt like, what was warm? Cold? What was it like to live, and between the conversations and questions, the two served the cause of good serving as a bane of true evil. Eventually however, time would claim the cleric, as it does all things. The cleric and the sword spoke one last time, the cleric asked what he could do for the being who had served him for so long. Silence was the answer until the sword merely asked if he could answer a question, what had it been like to live. The old cleric chuckled and softly said it could find out for it self. He then with his dying breath he cast a final spell, and interceded with his god for his first, and last Miracle, and with a flash of light it was granted. When after glow faded and as the windows vibrated to distant booming thunder, where once a sword and leaned against his bed side, now stood a being, with skin like steel, inlayed with copper jade, clothing made of dull reds, woven from metals, and two halves, still smoking, of a former sword. Thus was the first Unbound Artifact given solid form and the ability to travel and find there place in the world.
Unbound Artifact is a template applied to a self aware magical item (hence for called the base item)
Size and type: An Unbound Artifact is the same size as the creature teh Base Item was designed for. A longsword made for a medium sized creature would produce a medium sized Unbound Artifact. While a war hammer made for a grant would produce a large Unbound Artifact. It's type is Construct.
Hit dice: 10-sided Hit Dice per it's enhancement bonus plus special ability bonus equivalents
Speed: Medium sized construct have a speed of 30, small have a speed of twenty and Unbound Artifact larger then Medium have ten more speed for each category larger.
Armor class: an Unbound Artifact armor class is calculated as a normal, (10 + armor bonus + shield bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier.) But an Unbound Artifact armor bonus is equal to the armor bonus of the Base Item. If the base item was a suit of splint armor the awakened construct would have an armor bonus of +6, a sword would have no natural armor bonus. This bonus does not stack if the Unbound Artifact wears armor and if it wears armor with a greater armor bonus then it's natural armor bonus it uses the higher bonus. If the base item was a shield it gains a shield bonus in the same manor except that it can't use a regular shield.
Attack: an Unbound Artifact has a natural weapon that has the same property’s and does the same damage as the base item. If the Base item was a sword it's natural attack is D8, critical on a 19–20/×2. Slashing. Range attacks don't require ammunition. If the Base item was a shield then the Awakened Item has a shield bash as a natural attack. All of an Unbound Artifact's Natural and Unarmed attacks are treated as Magical, if the base item was made of a magical material, (cold iron, silver,ecta) then it counts as that item for over coming damage resistances. An Unbound Artifact always counts her natural weapon as being her primary weapon if she's using another weapon without a shield, in effect she's duel wielding her self, (unless the base item was a shield). An A unbound Artifacts natural attack counts as a weapon, so they can take Weapon Focus feat for there natural weapons.
Base attack bonus: An Unbound Artifact gains as attack bonus equal to total Hit Dice
Special quality’s: Unbound Artifact natural weapons have the magic of the base item. For example if the Unbound Artifact base item was a +3 Frost sword then the Awakened Artifact would have a +3 to hit, +3 damage, and do 1d6 of cold damage on a successful hit. If the base Item was a +2 shield of acid resist, then the awakened item would be able ten points of acid damage without damage and have a +2 to it's armor class. If the item could cast a spell the Unbound Artifact gains that spell as a spell like ability it can use once per day, or as many times a day as it could as an item.
Saves: an Unbound Artifact, gains the saves it's stats would normally grant it.
Ability’s: an Unbound Artifact, wisdom, charisma and intelligence are the same it had as an item. It's Strength is based on the hardness of the material the Base Item was made out of plus it's ego score. If the base item was made out of steel it would have a strength of 10 plus ego, if it was made out of mitheral them the unbound artifact would have a strength of 15 plus it's ego. The Unbound Artifacts constitution is based on the hit points per inch of material. Lastly the dexterity of the unbound artifact is equal to double the casting level of the base item. If the base item was a +2 flaming sword (caster level 10) then the Unbound Artifact would have a dex of 20. Unbound Artifacts have no Constitution score.
Feats: an Unbound Artifact gains Weapon Specialization for it's natural weapon if the base Item was a weapon. If the base item was a set of armor then the Unbound Artifact gains all Armor Proficiency feats and dodge feats. If the base Item was a shield the unbound Artifact gains improved shield bash. If the base item was not a weapon, shield, or suit of armor, such as a ring or cloak, then the Unboudn Artifact gains the Quicken Spell-Like Ability feat for it's spell like ability, allowing it to use it's spell like powers as 3 times per day (or less if the spell like ability can only be used fewer times per day) as a free action
Alignment: An Unbound Artifacts alignment is the same as the Base Item.
Advancement: Unbound Artifacts advance by class level. There favored class is fighter unless the Base Item was a holy weapon, then there favored class is Paladin. If the Base Item had the Ki Focus trait then the favored class in monk.
Traits: Unbound Artifacts have the following traits
-Darkvision or blind vision equal to the Base Item.
-if the Base Item could not speak or was Empathetic the Unbound artifact is only capable of telepathic communication range 60 feet. If the base item had a longer range of telepathic communications then it uses the better range.
-The Unbound artifact gains
-Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects.
-Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain.
-Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
-Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
Putting it together: the following base item is from the 3.5 DMG.
Acrola tooth of Ashardalon. +5 Keen dagger, Chaotic good, int 10, wis 18, cha, 18, speech telepathy, 120 feet, Darkvision, Blind sense, and hearing. ego score 22.
Lesser power, zone of truth 3/day.
greater powers, slow 3/day, clarivoince 3/day.
Acorla Ashardalon: Unbound Artifact.
Size: medium construct.
Hit dice: 6d10
speed:30
Stats: int 10, wis 18, cha, 18, strength 32, Dex 30.
Saves: Fort- Will:4 Refex: 20
Armor class: 20 (10 + (dex)10.) flatfoot 10, touch 20.
Base attack bonus:+6/1
Natural weapon:1d4, critical 17–20/×2 range 10 ft,. Piercing or slashing.
Special quality’s: +5 to attack rolls and to damage with natural weapon and doubly critical range (bonus already included in natural weapon.)
Spell-Like ability:3/day.
greater powers, Lesser power, zone of truth 3/day, greater powers, slow 3/day, clairvoyance 3/day.
Alignment: Chaotic good.
Traits:
-Dark vision/blind sense
-Telepathy:120 feet,
-Immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects.
-Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain.
-Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
-Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
PS: if you can guess what the swords name was you get a cookie.