Making new magic hand axes

[poolio]

Hey all, i found an image online of a pair of hand axes, one fire and one ice, thought about making them a pair of magic items for my players to trade some of the lesser used magic items/weapons for, any ideas what they should have? I'm pretty open to all ideas, they can have charges, they could be X/day effect, could just be something at will or on a hit, whatever pops into your head when thinking about what you would have these things do.

Thanks in advance everyone, I'm mostly just trying to get the idea ball rolling, and it's worked out well for me here in the past lol

[Unoriginal]

Hey all, i found an image online of a pair of hand axes, one fire and one ice, thought about making them a pair of magic items for my players to trade some of the lesser used magic items/weapons for, any ideas what they should have? I'm pretty open to all ideas, they can have charges, they could be X/day effect, could just be something at will or on a hit, whatever pops into your head when thinking about what you would have these things do.

Thanks in advance everyone, I'm mostly just trying to get the idea ball rolling, and it's worked out well for me here in the past lol

Flametongue and Frostbrand could be adapted into hand axes easily enough. Do you want them to be more powerful than that? Less powerful?

[Man_Over_Game]

Throw an axe of one element, the other returns to you.

OR

Each axe emits a powerful aura within 10 feet. The ice axe reduces speed by 10, and the fire axe deals 1d4 damage at the start of each of those creatures' turns. These auras are disabled as long as their twin is within the range of the aura.

OR

Each axe emits an aura of resistance against its counter element (Fire axe gives resistance to cold), but the other axe has to be outside of the aura for it to work. The auras only function for an hour at a time, and recharge by spending an hour near one another.

OR

Change the auras into a Vulnerability aura that does the same thing as the last suggestion.

[poolio]

Flametongue and Frostbrand could be adapted into hand axes easily enough. Do you want them to be more powerful than that? Less powerful?

I was aiming for something a little different myself rather then just adding a bunch of damage, i was going to give them and additional 1d4 of the appropriate damage type to each axe, but other then that, feel free to tell me what you would do with this idea =)

[Corsair14]

Chill drinks set on the ice axe. Cook omelets on the fire axe.

The fire axe provides a dull glow making a fully dark room low light in say 5' radius. Carrying the ice lets you ignore the effects of environmental heat up to 130 degrees.

[JonBeowulf]

Building on Corsair14's suggestion:
- Each axe protects against the opposite temperature extreme
- Ice axe... does something useful
- Fire axe emits dim light to... say, 20'
- On a crit, the ice axe applies Slow until the end of the target's next turn
- On a crit, the fire axe ignites the target until the end of its next turn (sets the target on fire for even more damage or blinds the target due to flames obstructing its vision or whatever)

[Brawnspear]

Once per short/long rest (or charges or whathaveyou), can trigger a steam explosion after throwing the axes at the same target. After the explosion, the vapor reforms in your hands so you get the axes back.

The axes can turn into Mephits of the corresponding elements

Upon being hit by both axes, foes suffer from Frostfire. They must save or be illuminated like a torch and gain no benefit from turning invisible.

Can trigger a Song of Ice and Fire. Start playing a grand melody that inspires the audience to great emotion, but ultimately leaves them disappointed. Gain a bless effect or something bardlike at the expense of never finishing the campaign.

[Imbalance]

It's not the tools; it's the technique. Normally, each axe has some kind of effect related to its element - that's easy. But mastering the maneuver that allows both to work in concert is what makes them legendary.

Once per day, if both axes are fully charged, the attuned wielder can perform a devastating dual swing attack that combines the might of the enchantments to deal critical force and psychic damage instead of normal damage on a successful hit. This attack consumes half of the available combined charges (divided by choice - ie. each weapon starts with six charges, the attack uses six, take three from each or six from one, etc.) whether the attack is successful or not.

[thoroughlyS]

Can you post the image for inspiration?

[Kane0]

The Fire axe:
- Can turn the weapon's damage die into Fire instead of Slashing damage
- 3 charges
- As a bonus action use one charge to cast Firebolt using your Dex as casting stat. This can also ignite creatures as well as unattended objects, dealing 1d6 Fire damage each turn until a creature uses an action to put it out.
- Spend a charge to turn a hit against a creature that has taken Cold damage since the start of your last turn into a critical hit.
- Recharges 1 charge each dawn.

The Ice axe
- Can turn the weapon's damage die into Cold instead of Slashing damage
- 3 charges
- As a bonus action use one charge to cast Ray of Frost using your Dex as casting stat. A target hit has their speed reduced to 0 instead of reduced by 10.
- Spend a charge to turn a hit against a creature that has taken Fire damage since the start of your last turn into a critical hit.
- Recharges 1 charge each dusk.

[poolio]

Can you post the image for inspiration?

Sure, it might take me a try or two because i've never actually done something like that on this site so bear with me :smalltongue:

https://www.deviantart.com/kike1988/art/Fire-axe-and-Ice-Axe-616136755

seems best i can do is link to it, i don't know how to upload a saved image

[thoroughlyS]

Ok, those are some pretty gnarly-looking axes. How powerful do you want these to be? You mention letting your players trade some less-useful items to get these. Do you want these to be good enough to become your martial characters' main weapons? Also, for context what level is the party?

[quindraco]

Sure, it might take me a try or two because i've never actually done something like that on this site so bear with me :smalltongue:

https://www.deviantart.com/kike1988/art/Fire-axe-and-Ice-Axe-616136755

seems best i can do is link to it, i don't know how to upload a saved image

Oh, wow. Awesome. How powerful did you want these to be?

Here are some relatively low-level suggestions:

Axe of Chilly Frost: On a hit, the target can’t regain hit points until the start of your next turn, and its speed is reduced by 10 feet for the same duration. This axe deals 1d4 cold + 1d4 necrotic damage, rather than the usual 1d6 slashing damage for hand axes.

Axe of Brilliant Flame: This axe sheds bright light in a radius and dim light for an additional number of feet equal to that radius; as an action, the wielder can speak a command word to set the radius to any multiple of 5 from 5 to 20; at the same time the radius is set, the color of the flame may be set to any color visible light can be (so neither black nor clear). This axe deals 1d4 fire + 1d4 radiant damage, rather than the usual 1d6 slashing damage for hand axes. On a hit, the target suffers the weapon attack’s normal effects, and you can cause radiant fire to leap from the target to a different target of your choice that you can see within 5 feet of it. The secondary target suffers half as much fire damage and half as much radiant damage as the first one did.

[poolio]

Ok, those are some pretty gnarly-looking axes. How powerful do you want these to be? You mention letting your players trade some less-useful items to get these. Do you want these to be good enough to become your martial characters' main weapons? Also, for context what level is the party?

Lol right? So the plan i had envisioned was they have this battle axe that is probably along the lines of a legendary item, but none of them wanted to use it, they completely forgot to identify it sense they all seemed to figure it was just extra fire damage, sense it looked like they were going to try and sell it next game, i told one player what it did cause she was super curious, she loved the description of it and ended up wanting to keep it, she feels bad about having it now that i told her about it with the understanding that i thought they were gonna sell it, she's also started going monk with her character, so i figured if i could come up with something just as interesting, then she'd trade it for that, and sense monks are proficient with hand axes i went with these ones, cause as you so eloquently put it, are quite gnarly lol they are all lv9 and i was thinking about something a little less then legendary in power, I'm having a hard enough time balancing the group right now as is lol

[quindraco]

Lol right? So the plan i had envisioned was they have this battle axe that is probably along the lines of a legendary item, but none of them wanted to use it, they completely forgot to identify it sense they all seemed to figure it was just extra fire damage, sense it looked like they were going to try and sell it next game, i told one player what it did cause she was super curious, she loved the description of it and ended up wanting to keep it, she feels bad about having it now that i told her about it with the understanding that i thought they were gonna sell it, she's also started going monk with her character, so i figured if i could come up with something just as interesting, then she'd trade it for that, and sense monks are proficient with hand axes i went with these ones, cause as you so eloquently put it, are quite gnarly lol they are all lv9 and i was thinking about something a little less then legendary in power, I'm having a hard enough time balancing the group right now as is lol

Do you know her subclass? Maximizing synergy with a PC's subclass is a great way to ensure they feel like the item is part of their character.

[poolio]

Do you know her subclass? Maximizing synergy with a PC's subclass is a great way to ensure they feel like the item is part of their character.

Yeah, she's currently 8th level land druid, and is going to go the foreseeable future as a shadow monk.

But she's never really been to concerned with min/maxing, so i think as long as they're more interesting then the battle axe she'd likely be all to happy to trade that for them, even if they're not as strong as the battle axe or fits her class/build, most of my players favor flavor over numbers,

So far i really like the mephet idea someone had, i might make them sentient weapons with a magma and ice mephet in the corresponding weapons =P