Homebrew Magic Weapon: Sword of the Elements

[Battle-Ace]

Spell Like Abilities:
Gaseous Form; one charge
Meld into Stone ; two charges
Wind walk; four charges
Misty step; one charge


Charges: 12 charges, regains 1d6 charges at dawn.


Other abilities:
Flame Aura (until sheathed or dropped)
Activated with the command word pryro and consumes one charge.
-Causes blade to give off light for 20 feet,
-Causes 2d6 additional fire damage
-Grants resistance to cold damage

Frost Aura (until sheathed or dropped)
Activated with the command word frigidio and consumes one charge.
-Bright light for 20 feet
-Causes 2d6 additional frost damage
-Grants resistance to fire damage


Aura Blade: When the requisite aura is active, you can use a bonus action and two charges to create a sword of the auras type that deals 2d6 damage of that weapons type when you attack with it. This magical blade may be used with the dual wielder feat, two weapon fighting style and two weapon fighting. This blade disappears when you sheath or drop the sword.


Sentient Magic Weapon: Work in progress, unsure whether to go with a battle hungry mentality or an honourable, yet somewhat blood thirsty knight.

[JNAProductions]

You say it's sentient but give no personality.

In addition, this is a rather powerful blade. Like, really powerful. What's its purpose?

[Battle-Ace]

This is a magic artifact im working on. I want it to be an element themed blade forged in ancient times.
Any critique on the design?

[JNAProductions]

You have charges, then make a lot of abilities not dependent on charges.

And honestly, it kinda seems like you're throwing on every ability you think sounds cool, without much regard for theme. Why does it get Mirror Image, or Misty Step? Why is it Dancing, or Defending?

[Battle-Ace]

Its the result of changing the design halfway through and switching from a weapon with a heavy emphasis on defense due to the swords mindset with defensive abilities to fit that.

[GalacticAxekick]

I agree with JNA. You've given this weapon a lot of abilities, but no consistent theme or balance considerations, and you haven't said a word on the personality of your sentient weapon.

Why not break this down into several weapons, each with a few abilities and a clear personality? Or tone down the abilities to make this weapon consistent and balanced?

[Battle-Ace]

Ive cut away the defense abilities and changed everything to charges.
I also decreased the charges regained and the total charges.

[JNAProductions]

Gaseous Form=Air
Meld Inton Stone=Earth
Wind Walk=Air
Misty Step=Air, I guess?

Branch out in your spells.

Still feels pretty powerful. You're looking at 4d6+the base damage each turn. Now, extra damage IS one of the easiest things for a DM to handle... But what sort of power level are you looking for?

[Battle-Ace]

Gaseous Form=Air
Meld Inton Stone=Earth
Wind Walk=Air
Misty Step=Air, I guess?

Branch out in your spells.

Still feels pretty powerful. You're looking at 4d6+the base damage each turn. Now, extra damage IS one of the easiest things for a DM to handle... But what sort of power level are you looking for?

Its 4d6 damage with just one extra attack.

The blade abilities take advantage of the dual abilities wielding abilities to allow a person that had focused on dual wielding to use the weapon and take advantage of it while wielding the weapon.

In effect its an additional 2d6 damage (without the longswords damage) at the cost of a bonus action; instead of 2d6 elemental damage plus 1d10 slashing damage from wielding the lonsgword with two hands.
That and I thought it would look cool while somewhat balancing out the damage output differences between the two.

Its basically 4(1d10+2d6) vs 4(1d8+2d6)+2d6. Hopefully it balances out somewhat for a fighter as well as other classes. At least at higher levels.

[Battle-Ace]

I wanted it originally to be a legendary artifact, then I nerfed it before I posted it.
Now Im trying to get a similar power level to a legedary weapon without the +1, +2, or +3 weapon bonuses to hit. I figure an automatic proficiency when attuned to it would keep ac balanced out.
Thematically it would be the swords "spirit" guiding the wielders hit if they are not proficient, but not providing magical assistance to do so.
If they are already proficient then it won't have an effect on accuracy.

[JNAProductions]

That's at 20th level. Unless you intend to keep it from players until then, run the math for 3 attacks base, since that's levels 11-19.

And again-what sort of power are you looking for?

[Battle-Ace]

It balances out at around the same damage if I reduce the damage from the aura blades to 1d6. Its only around a few poits difference in the peak damage (or at least the most probable damage values) output of 38 to 39 vs 39. The rest of the graphs are close enough statistically according to http://anydice.com.

Its more powerful vs flametongue, but its defence properties are focused just on the wielder vs those that affect the entire party like those of holy avenger.

Im aiming at a legendary magic item to potentially a legendary artifact like the axe of the dwarven lords.
The powers are limited somewhat by the dm as the character would need to find out the spells from the spirits sword via roleplaying, as the dm effectively controls npcs. That and all the spells are non-damaging boosts that are still thematic.

What spells would you suggest for fire, and water?

Would misty step fit the theme of a water element?

It has water (or ice) and fire based damage abiities already.
Earth and air spells finish out the four element theme of air, water, fire and earth.