Is my original Bladesinger magic weapon over/underpowered?

[Scarey Nerd]

Hey guys; after reading through the Bladesinger Wizard Tradition from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, I've decided to include them in my setting, centered around an order of Elven mages dedicated to defending the ruler of a large Elven republic, Daenis. In the game I will be running soon, one of the players has decided to play a Half-Elf Bladesinger, who has her Mother's sword (her Mother having died in childbirth). To this end, I figured that she wouldn't want to swap weapon later in the campaign, but she shouldn't be cheated out of the weapon improvements everyone else would get as they levelled up, so I decided to make an original magic item for the Bladesingers, and I just wanted some feedback on whether it's overpower/underpowered/boring/too much/whatever. If this thread belongs in the Homebrew section then I apologise, but I figured since it's D&D 5e specific it would probably belong here.

Singing Blades – Members of the Ael’Tahlaer, the Knights of the Singing Blade, wield these swords. Dating back to the founding of the ancient order of mages and the gift of the Bladesong from Solwyn herself, Bladesingers have passed down these enchanted weapons from master to student for generations. Each Bladesinger sword, no matter if it is a Longsword, Shortsword, Greatsword etc., bears the crest of the Ael’Tahlaer, somehow never gets dirty, and weighs half what the weapon would normally weigh. It requires attunement from an Elf or Half-Elf Bladesinger Wizard. When the bearer is a 4th level Bladesinger, the sword receives a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls; at 8th level it receives a +2 bonus; at 12th level it receives a +3 bonus and bestows the bearer with the Protection from Evil spell as long as they are attuned; at 16th level it becomes a dancing sword; and at 20th level it allows the bearer to speak with the previous deceased bearers of the sword as per the commune spell once per month (by the Elvish calendar), and deals an additional 2d6 damage to creatures marked by the bearer as enemies of Elves.

[Alejandro]

Hey guys; after reading through the Bladesinger Wizard Tradition from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, I've decided to include them in my setting, centered around an order of Elven mages dedicated to defending the ruler of a large Elven republic, Daenis. In the game I will be running soon, one of the players has decided to play a Half-Elf Bladesinger, who has her Mother's sword (her Mother having died in childbirth). To this end, I figured that she wouldn't want to swap weapon later in the campaign, but she shouldn't be cheated out of the weapon improvements everyone else would get as they levelled up, so I decided to make an original magic item for the Bladesingers, and I just wanted some feedback on whether it's overpower/underpowered/boring/too much/whatever. If this thread belongs in the Homebrew section then I apologise, but I figured since it's D&D 5e specific it would probably belong here.

Singing Blades – Members of the Ael’Tahlaer, the Knights of the Singing Blade, wield these swords. Dating back to the founding of the ancient order of mages and the gift of the Bladesong from Solwyn herself, Bladesingers have passed down these enchanted weapons from master to student for generations. Each Bladesinger sword, no matter if it is a Longsword, Shortsword, Greatsword etc., bears the crest of the Ael’Tahlaer, somehow never gets dirty, and weighs half what the weapon would normally weigh. It requires attunement from an Elf or Half-Elf Bladesinger Wizard. When the bearer is a 4th level Bladesinger, the sword receives a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls; at 8th level it receives a +2 bonus; at 12th level it receives a +3 bonus and bestows the bearer with the Protection from Evil spell as long as they are attuned; at 16th level it becomes a dancing sword; and at 20th level it allows the bearer to speak with the previous deceased bearers of the sword as per the commune spell once per month (by the Elvish calendar), and deals an additional 2d6 damage to creatures marked by the bearer as enemies of Elves.

Wow. Just my opinion of course, but that is basically an artifact, especially at full power. Even at 12th level, it's a +3 weapon with a great, always on buffing defensive spell. Just gets better from there. Even though most games never feature 20th level, that capstone is great, since the bearer can pretty much claim anyone they want to use the sword against as an enemy of the elves.

[CantigThimble]

First off this should be in the homebrew section, you can mark it as '5e D&D' so everyone knows which edition it's from.

Second this really depends on the campaign. 5e is designed so if no character ever finds a +1 anything the system will still be balanced all the way up to 20. So a 5e campaign could have lots of magic items or few/no magic items and remain balanced as long as the distribution was fair to all the players.

Third this item seems insanely powerful. A +3 weapon is FANTASTIC for a level 20 character. At level 12 the sword might be more powerful than the character itself. If all the players are getting crazy amounts of stuff that could be fine, but in every game I've played in this would be game-shatteringly strong.

Here's an alternate idea I had:
Singing Blade: When a bladesinger casts Magic Weapon on a singing blade they are attuned to the duration is increased to 8 hours and it does not require concentration.

[Sir cryosin]

I like it but it's a powerful weapon just make sure your other players don't get left out in thing. Because your giving a play that for free. Just remember that you got go be fair to everyone or it not fun.

[Sir cryosin]

Or you could make it a moon blade and just have its powers awaken later on in the campaign.

[Scarey Nerd]

I figured it was overpowered - I was going by the rarity chart to try and gauge power level, and since a +3 weapon is "very rare" and is recommended to be obtained from level 11 onwards, I thought it worked out. I'll try to cut it down pretty severely - the game probably won't even get much past level 8 at the most anyway, but all the same I'll try to cut it down. Naturally I'd be keeping everyone else in line with the sword anyway, I tend to give magic item loot far more than gold in general so that's no issue. Perhaps I'll cut it to a flat +1 at 5th level, +2 at 10th and +3 at 15th - according to the rarity chart that would make it slightly underpowered, but an extra 3 damage and hit bonus isn't exactly gamebreaking when you're slaying Dragons or smiting Demons, at least not in my games.

[Nicodiemus]

And it might make sense for the character to put the heirloom weapon away when they get something more powerful. This way they can display it with pride and then pass it on to the next generation.

[Alejandro]

I figured it was overpowered - I was going by the rarity chart to try and gauge power level, and since a +3 weapon is "very rare" and is recommended to be obtained from level 11 onwards, I thought it worked out. I'll try to cut it down pretty severely - the game probably won't even get much past level 8 at the most anyway, but all the same I'll try to cut it down. Naturally I'd be keeping everyone else in line with the sword anyway, I tend to give magic item loot far more than gold in general so that's no issue. Perhaps I'll cut it to a flat +1 at 5th level, +2 at 10th and +3 at 15th - according to the rarity chart that would make it slightly underpowered, but an extra 3 damage and hit bonus isn't exactly gamebreaking when you're slaying Dragons or smiting Demons, at least not in my games.

Instead of giving it large static bonuses, consider giving it a few charges, which renew each day, and can be spent for various effects, like spells. Especially spells that a Bladesinger would find desirable, like Blur, or Haste.

[Bellberith]

I figured it was overpowered - I was going by the rarity chart to try and gauge power level, and since a +3 weapon is "very rare" and is recommended to be obtained from level 11 onwards, I thought it worked out. I'll try to cut it down pretty severely - the game probably won't even get much past level 8 at the most anyway, but all the same I'll try to cut it down. Naturally I'd be keeping everyone else in line with the sword anyway, I tend to give magic item loot far more than gold in general so that's no issue. Perhaps I'll cut it to a flat +1 at 5th level, +2 at 10th and +3 at 15th - according to the rarity chart that would make it slightly underpowered, but an extra 3 damage and hit bonus isn't exactly gamebreaking when you're slaying Dragons or smiting Demons, at least not in my games.

If you wanted to go with +1/2/3 then i would recommend going with +1 at level 5, +2 at level 11, +3 at level 17.

Those 3 levels are major turning points in the game where player characters get massive power-ups (mostly casters). But melee get second attacks, and third attacks in the case of fighter.

[Foxhound438]

Hazerawn (from hotdq) is almost as strong and is a legendary item, so i'd say probably have it be an artifact. At level 20 though your characters could reasonably expect to have such powerful items.

maybe take off the dancing blade property, but it's not too bad otherwise. Again, as a 20th level character it's not too broken. Now if it was a polearm and added 2d6 to each of 3 attacks, it's getting a bit over the top. Honestly though, there are stronger things you can do with 9th level spells, so i wouldn't worry about it.

might also qualify that the ability level requirements are referring to wizard level, otherwise multi classing fighter becomes too strong.

[Socratov]

For one, yes it's overpowered. Then there is the fact that it does jack all with the actual bladesinger features. I'd say that if you made it a spell attuning weapon that activates on bladesong that it would make for a potent, but interesting weapon.

Song Blades - Song blades are enchantments for weapons handed down through oral tradition within the Bladesingers. The bades enchanted to become a Song Blade can be any edged weapon and, after attunement will give the following benefit:

At dawn, after preparing spells a Bladesinger can imbue the Song Blade with a spell of at least lvl 1 by spending 2 spellslots of the level of the chosen spell (or higher) to attune the weapon to a spell. When the bladesinger in question uses his bladesong ability the weapon starts glowing and the enchantment takes effect.When imbued with an offensive spell the blade will impart the spell's effects when used with the attack action. When imbued with a protective spell, the blades will, during blade song, impart the effects fo the imbued spell in the bearer of the weapons.

However, there are limits to the spell chosen: the spell must be spell with a casting time of 1 action and must be offensive or defensive. else imbuement fails and the spellslots are wasted.

Special These weapons can exist as a pair and can be attuned to as a pair. However, the effects will be shared between the blades and will empower the effects of the spell as if it was under the effects of the Empower Spell metamagic.
Special To enchant a weapon into a Song Blade a bladesinger needs to, in addition to any other crafting costs decided by the DM, for 1 year and a day (Elven calender) while using bladesong, cast the same spell twice into the blade while in meditation. The spell used may differ from day to day.

[Malifice]

Hey guys; after reading through the Bladesinger Wizard Tradition from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, I've decided to include them in my setting, centered around an order of Elven mages dedicated to defending the ruler of a large Elven republic, Daenis. In the game I will be running soon, one of the players has decided to play a Half-Elf Bladesinger, who has her Mother's sword (her Mother having died in childbirth). To this end, I figured that she wouldn't want to swap weapon later in the campaign, but she shouldn't be cheated out of the weapon improvements everyone else would get as they levelled up, so I decided to make an original magic item for the Bladesingers, and I just wanted some feedback on whether it's overpower/underpowered/boring/too much/whatever. If this thread belongs in the Homebrew section then I apologise, but I figured since it's D&D 5e specific it would probably belong here.

Singing Blades – Members of the Ael’Tahlaer, the Knights of the Singing Blade, wield these swords. Dating back to the founding of the ancient order of mages and the gift of the Bladesong from Solwyn herself, Bladesingers have passed down these enchanted weapons from master to student for generations. Each Bladesinger sword, no matter if it is a Longsword, Shortsword, Greatsword etc., bears the crest of the Ael’Tahlaer, somehow never gets dirty, and weighs half what the weapon would normally weigh. It requires attunement from an Elf or Half-Elf Bladesinger Wizard. When the bearer is a 4th level Bladesinger, the sword receives a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls; at 8th level it receives a +2 bonus; at 12th level it receives a +3 bonus and bestows the bearer with the Protection from Evil spell as long as they are attuned; at 16th level it becomes a dancing sword; and at 20th level it allows the bearer to speak with the previous deceased bearers of the sword as per the commune spell once per month (by the Elvish calendar), and deals an additional 2d6 damage to creatures marked by the bearer as enemies of Elves.

The levels should be 6, 12 and 18 in my view (for the bonuses). Ditch the extra damage at 20th.

Seems OK otherwise (assuming magic items are fairly common in your games)