Obsidian Sword

[Ralcos]

I'm planning the first adventures of a campaign, and I wanted to get some opinions on a reward I wanted to give for the end of one of the adventures:

Obsidian Blade
Legendary

This weapon is treated as a Longsword of exquisite make. Being light and somehow sturdy, you can use double your Proficiency Bonus to any attack rolls, and add your Proficiency Bonus to any damage rolls made with the weapon.
In addition, you may add an extra 2d6 slashing damage when you attack a creature with this weapon and roll a 20 on the attack roll.

NOTE: The adventure I wanted to put this in is a quest to find some kidnapped villagers, where it leads to the hidden Obsidian Pools of legend. With a proper Wisdom (Perception) test (say DC 20), one can get it.

Is this too powerful?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Is this too powerful?

For the rare category, I would say yes. You're expecting to get rare items in the heroic tier (proficiency bonus +3), which makes it strictly better than a +3 weapon (which is very rare, itself). And then it scales ridiculously well from there. I'd say that qualifies it for the legendary category. It sits alongside the Vorpal Sword comfortably, though in that category, I'd up the critical bonus to 2d6.

And consider rephrasing the critical bonus to "when you attack a creature with this weapon and roll a 20 on the attack roll." That brings it back into line with the official content, eliminates the awkward "hit critically" phrasing and generally maintains the balance of features that expand the critical range.

[Ralcos]

Edited based on suggestions.

Hmm... If it's a Legendary item, does this mean I need to wait to give this item to higher level adventurers? I was planning this adventure for a group of Level 3s, so...

[Ninja_Prawn]

Edited based on suggestions.

Hmm... If it's a Legendary item, does this mean I need to wait to give this item to higher level adventurers? I was planning this adventure for a group of Level 3s, so...

That's up to you, really. If you give the players a legendary item each, the party might remain (sort-of) balanced, but you'd have to up-gun some of the challenges they face to keep things interesting. The problem with that is that the PCs' survivability tends not to keep pace with their damage output when they start tooling up with magic items, which can turn combats into games of rocket tag.

I'd either design a less powerful weapon, or save this one for higher levels. Or do both... those options aren't mutually exclusive at all.

[Ralcos]

Obsidian Blade
Rare

This weapon is treated as a Longsword of exquisite make. Being light and somehow sturdy, you can add your Proficiency Bonus to any damage rolls made with the weapon.


How's this?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Obsidian Blade
Rare

This weapon is treated as a Longsword of exquisite make. Being light and somehow sturdy, you can add your Proficiency Bonus to any damage rolls made with the weapon.


How's this?

Yeah, I call that fair. Then you can rename the legendary one to something ridiculous like the Vorpal Macuahuitl of Qotal... :smallamused:

[Celluloid Flick]

Obsidian blades are actually not that sturdy in terms of withstanding a forceful blow when swung against one's enemies.

However, they are much sharper than steel blades can get, when knapped properly.

So maybe have it have a frequent chance to deal extra damage.

[Venardhi]

I recently introduced my party to a civilization with Obsidian weapons. I gave them one level higher damage dice than the equivalent standard weapons but on a critical hit they shattered dealing 2x max weapon damage and had their damage dice reduced to one level below the equivalent standard weapon.

[Arkhios]

one way I could think of making a legendary item that could be given to low level party would be making the weapon's power scale depending of the attuned character's level.
at first its effects could be equivalent to a +1 weapon, while from 11th level the powers would grow to +2 equivalent, and finally at 17th level and beyond, truly legendary +3 equivalent.

Although, I might actually make that sort of item an artifact instead. Similarities between an artifact and a legendary magic item is that both are likely one of a kind items.