4 Elemental Weapons [PEACH]

[Carissacat]

In one of the campaigns I'm running the nature of 4 elements (wind, water, fire, earth) is a very important feature, and my players are the champions of these four elements. As part of their overall quest they must travel to their respective elemental forges and forge their own weapons. Each of these weapons will be unique to the player and specialised to their play style. These weapons will grow and adapt with them but as they haven't decided which forge they're going to first I've started all the weapons at the same level.
I've got the basic idea for all of them but I'd like a little help on making them balanced with each other and whether they are all sufficiently rad. I will italic areas I'm not finished with or would like help with. I'd like them to have some synergy with their classes so I've included those as well, but they're not class specific. These are going to be their primary weapons for a while so they need to be pretty cool
Also a note, where I say level I usually mean level of the weapon not of the player.
Let me know what you think and thanks in advance :)

EDIT: Because these are pretty long and epic I have made a homebrewery page
http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SkMgRSAX-
STILL NOT FINISHED PLS NOTE

Earth - Greatsword
Barbarian - Berserker
At first glance seems like nothing more than a roughly made sword hilt with a broken shard of metal for a blade. However the wielder of this blade instinctively knows what to do with the hilt. As a free action, or as part of the bonus action whilst raging, the wielder may thrust the hilt into the ground or other surface made of stone or earth. When the hilt is pulled back, a mighty blade has formed around the spike of metal. This blade will remain until the wielder spends a bonus action shedding the stone from the blade or until the next long rest. The swords property is decided by the DM, who judges best what kind of minerals the sword would be. A mountain might have stone or metal; a volcano might have glass or crystal. The swords property can be changed to another if the hilt is buried in an appropriate medium. If the wielder wanted a blade made of stone for example, they could thrust the hilt into a stone gravestone and gain a stone sword, or into a metal statue for a metal sword. The medium would be damaged however.
(I still like the idea of the sword being fed things, though it needs a simpler system)

Stone - Bludgeoning damage
Whenever you have advantage on a melee attack roll you make with the weapon and hit, you can knock the target prone if the lower of the two d20 rolls would also hit the target. Creature must be no more than one size larger
Metal - slashing damage
You can make attacks on any enemy within 5ft, with a separate attack roll for each
Crystal/Glass - Piercing
Instead of the usual attacks the wielder can perform a thrust action and forgo the roll to hit AC. Instead the enemy must make a DEX saving throw. On a reckless attack the target makes this save with disadvantage

At player level 7/ upon first wielding the blade deals 2d6 damage plus any bonuses granted by absorbed elements.
At player level 12?? weapon becomes +2 (weapons need more stuff as they grow, still working on this)
Gain immunity to the type of the weapon whilst raging. I.e stone blade gives immunity to bludgeoning.
At player level 17?? weapon becomes +3


Water - Twin Daggers
Rogue - Thief
Two slightly curved daggers with beautifully carved hilts set with blue gems. One of the daggers has a permanent drip of water running off of it, whilst the other has a constant mist rising from it and is always cold to the touch.
The water dagger can absorb and hold water up to a maximum of 20 gallons (is this too much?)
The ice dagger deals an extra d4 per level cold damage
Gain cold resistance
+1 dagger at level 7
+2 at 12
+3 at 17
As an action swipe both daggers across the air and summon 4 darts of ice. Roll to hit with each dart. On a hit each dart deals d4 per level piercing damage and d4 per level cold damage
(Short rest to recharge?)
At level 12 alternately 1 large dart can be summoned, dealing 4d4 piercing and 4d4 cold on a hit. By taking disadvantage on the shot a specific area of the body can be targeted for the following effects. If attacking from a hidden position then there is no disadvantage
(I want to make sure that each of these options are equal in usefulness)
Torso - Creature has disadvantage (on CON checks? Athletics checks?)
Arms - Arm becomes numb and the creature drops any weapon its carrying
Legs - Speed is dropped to 0. As An action the affected creature or another creature within 5ft can remove the ice
Face - Creature is blinded until the end of its next turn
At level 17 the wielder can use a bonus action to teleport between any sources of water such as puddles/streams etc. within a 60ft radius. As an action the wielder can release some of the stored water in one of the daggers to create an area that can be used to teleport between

Fire - Shield
Paladin - Ancients
This large, ornate shield has a large red gem set in the centre. Snaking outwards from the gems are rivulets of what appear to be lava that wind their way through the shield until sinking into the back of the gem.
This shield radiates light in a 10ft radius bright, 10ft radius dim. (possibly increase radius with level and this increases the radius of paladin auras)
(further ideas, shield spews lava, dealing fire damage and creating difficult terrain)
Fire resistance
+1 shield at level 7
As an action the wielder can slam the shield into the ground and cast wall of fire, giving advantage on the DEX save to any creatures of the wielder's choice
(Short rest?)
+2 at 12
+3 at 17



Wind - Longbow
Cleric - Knowledge
This bow looks like a pair of stylised wings held together at the handle. This bow has no string, but when an arrow is notched (nocked?) a pocket of air holds the arrow in place and allows it to be pulled back and launched, the wind providing some extra firepower
This bow deals an extra d4 (d6?) per level piercing
As a bonus action this bow can be split in half and then used like Wings of Flying
Whilst the wings are active (some benefit to clerics/knowledge clerics here. Something about wisdom saves? Angelic aura? they look pretty?? )
(possibly OP with flight, but this means that the bow cannot be used to fly up into the air and then shoot from the sky)
+1 at level 7
+2 at level 12
+3 at level 17

[Sariel Vailo]

Im asking about class specifics.do they need class specifics.or any class can use them

[GalacticAxekick]

Whenever you write rules for an object, feature and power, ask yourself (A) could this be simpler? (B) could this be more versatile? (C) is this fun?

Features that roll extra dice slow the game down and often cause confusion. Feature that demand extra actions or special conditions can be limited in scope. And features that make players better at what they're already doing instead of offering new options can be boring. I'll use the greatsword as an example:


Earth - Greatsword
Barbarian - Berserker
At first glance seems like nothing more than a roughly made sword hilt with a broken shard of metal for a blade. However the wielder of this blade instinctively knows what to do with the hilt. As a bonus action, or as part of the bonus action whilst raging, the wielder may thrust the hilt into the ground or other surface made of stone or earth. When the hilt is pulled back, a mighty blade of stone has formed around the spike of metal. This blade of stone will remain until the wielder spends an action shedding the stone from the blade or until the next long rest.
A fun concept! But does costing actions and bonus actions to basically draw and sheath the weapon add anything to the game? Or does it limit the scope of player actions? I would forming and shedding the stone blade an item interaction, just like drawing or sheathing a weapon.


This blade has the unusual property that it can absorb minerals and store them to be formed into the blade later.

By thrusting the hilt into the ground and leaving it there for at least 8 hours the blade will begin to absorb latent minerals. After the 8 hours roll a d100 to determine the minerals gathered and a d10 for quantity. 100 is needed for the sword to gain the relevant quality (A DM may decide that some areas have higher concentrations of various minerals) The minerals become embedded into the hilt, improving the look of it e.g. A full stock of silver will change the colour of the hilt to silverAgain, this is a fun concept, but demanding so many rests (at least 10!) and rolls (at least 20!) is confusing, slow and overall unnecessary.

Instead of spending 8 hours gathering minerals into the hilt to give their properties to the blade, gather minerals into the blade as part of the item interaction used to form it. It gets the job done quickly and simply.

Instead of rolling to determine what minerals are gathered you, as the DM, decide based on the terrain. This removes the needless uncertainty and instead encourages players to search/study their environment.


(May add to this list later)
(mythril sword gain thrown property?)
1-50 = silver - gains the property of a silvered weapon
51-70 = adamantine - 1d6 bludgeoning per sword level
71-90 = obsidian - 1d8 slashing per
91-100 = cold iron - bonuses to fey, fiends and undead (d4 per sword level)
First of all, these damage dice make no sense. Why would anyone want cold iron for 1d4 damage against a limited range of enemies when adamantine is 1d6 against all enemies? Why would anyone want adamantine when obsidian is 1d8?

Second, why damage dice? This is already a +1 (later +2 and finally +3) weapon. You're just making the Barbarian better at what it already does well, which isn't terribly interesting. Instead, think about the unique effects you could tie to different types of earth. Maybe the options are stone (bludgeoning), metal/glass (slashing) and crystal (piercing). Or maybe stone has a special shoving attack, metal/glass has a special cleaving attack, and crystal has a special armour-piercing attack. Or maybe each type has a unique innate spell (Shape Earth, Heat Metal, etc


+2 AC Whilst wielding
This is gratuitous. If the player wants the benefits of a shield or cover, they should grab a shield or take cover. Sacrificing power for defense is the sort of round-to-round decision that makes the game fun.


+1 weapon
At player level 7/ upon first wielding the blade deal 2d6 slashing damage plus any bonuses granted by absorbed elements.
At player level 12?? weapon becomes +2 (weapons need more stuff as they grow, still working on this)
At player level 17?? weapon becomes +3You don't need to add extra features at later levels. The increases to +2 and +3 are huge on their own, and the player's new class features will offer new ways to use the weapon's old features. After all, players find new ways to use ordinary weapons between levels 1 an 20.

[GalacticAxekick]

Im asking about class specifics.do they need class specifics.or any class can use themNone of these weapons' features are tied to specific classes, so you could definitely hand them to anyone of any class without problems.

I think OP just listed the classes of their intended uses so we'd know what playstyles they're catering to.

[Carissacat]

None of these weapons' features are tied to specific classes, so you could definitely hand them to anyone of any class without problems.

I think OP just listed the classes of their intended uses so we'd know what playstyles they're catering to.
Yes this was the idea

Thanks for the feedback
Yes you're right I probably made the earth sword too complicated to be much fun

The idea was that the sword would build up minerals over time. I'm designing these weapons to grow with the players as they progress through the game. Once the minerals had built up to 100 the sword gains these abilities every time its used. So I didn't want them to gain this too quickly but grow as they traveled to new areas and new minerals became available. These would then build up and empower their weapon. But as I was typing it it did seem like too much work. And too many rolls, even if they were spread out over a long period of time.

Making the sword construction as a bonus action was just a thought about timing. Thrusting a sword into the ground would take an amount of time, but I didn't want to deny my player any potential actions either which is why I stated it could be part of the bonus action of raging.... Not sure, but for max fun probably best as a free action.

I did have the idea as well as you of having the sword gain a random or 'local' effect dependent on the terrain that the sword was thrust into, I just didn't know how well to implement them. Roll randomly every time or work out the local area? Local area does appeal more, especially as its a homebrew world I custom made.

Hmm ok. I didn't want to make it that certain areas meant that certain bonuses (and damage resistances of enemies) wouldn't work. For example I wouldn't want my player to be fighting loads of skeletons and be really annoyed that the area they're in didn't have the stone for a bludgeoning attack. But at the same time I like the idea of damage type changing. Perhaps they can guarantee what the sword is made of if they deliberately thrust it into something made mostly of the right material e.g a stone gravestone for the stone effect.
If not damage types then..

Stone - perhaps on a crit or a certain amount of damage target must make a saving throw or fall prone? Shoving is rarely used I find. Or maybe steal from a feat.
Whenever you have advantage on a melee attack roll you make with the weapon and hit, you can knock the target prone if the lower of the two d20 rolls would also hit the target.
Metal/Glass - again maybe on a crit or certain amount of damage target must make saving throw or take extra bleeding damage? Im not sure about making extra rolls either for myself or the player
Crystal - Perhaps some piercing damage if they hit 10+creatures dex not their AC?

[GalacticAxekick]

Hmm ok. I didn't want to make it that certain areas meant that certain bonuses (and damage resistances of enemies) wouldn't work. For example I wouldn't want my player to be fighting loads of skeletons and be really annoyed that the area they're in didn't have the stone for a bludgeoning attack. But at the same time I like the idea of damage type changing. Perhaps they can guarantee what the sword is made of if they deliberately thrust it into something made mostly of the right material e.g a stone gravestone for the stone effect.Absolutely! There's no reason they shouldn't be able to produce a stone sword from a gravestone and a glass sword from obsidian in the same general vicinity.


If not damage types then..

Stone - perhaps on a crit or a certain amount of damage target must make a saving throw or fall prone? Shoving is rarely used I find. Or maybe steal from a feat. This is what I had in mind: after all, shoving is how people are normally knocked prone in 5e.


Whenever you have advantage on a melee attack roll you make with the weapon and hit, you can knock the target prone if the lower of the two d20 rolls would also hit the target.And thanks to the Barbarian's Reckless Attack, the Barbarian can secure advantage at will and really get mileage out of this! I like it!


Metal/Glass - again maybe on a crit or certain amount of damage target must make saving throw or take extra bleeding damage? Im not sure about making extra rolls either for myself or the playerDamage alone is rarely as fun as some unique effect. I might take a cue from the Sword Burst cantrip and offer a special cleaving attack that doesn't deal more damage, but damages more creatures. That or offer something similar to the Ranger's Whirlwind Attack action.

Crystal - Perhaps some piercing damage if they hit 10+creatures dex not their AC?[/QUOTE]In this case, I'd make it a Dexterity save. Armoured enemies like knights and dragons would suffer, losing out on their massive AC and instead relying on their low Dex. Agile enemies would actually fair better than usual, because of their high Dex and proficient Dex saves. This is good, because it encourages the player to use the special attack when the time is right.

[Carissacat]

Ok, made some changes based on suggestions.

Any thought about the other weapons? They were a lot simpler admittedly

[Carissacat]

Update with fancy(ish) homebrew page