Elves
2022-09-14, 02:30 AM
Legacy items are widely disliked mostly because of their personal costs. It doesn't feel good for your special item to make you worse. As a game design element, the idea seems to be that the personal costs offset possessing a more powerful item than you would normally have at your level. At the same time, most legacy weapons are significantly underpriced (based on their ritual costs) compared to what the item would cost with the typical magic item formulas. Probably this is, again, so that a lower-level character than normal can afford them.
So we see that the personal costs are actually offsetting the item's low price, not its powers per se. An obvious solution emerges: let people pay full price for the item in order to avoid the personal costs.
Now we get a system that works for everyone. Anyone can wield the weapon and gain its powers, but if you haven't performed its rituals, you suffer its personal costs. The rituals have their gp cost bumped up to be in line with the normal cost of the item. At any point, you can perform the rituals to fully "earn" the item and remove its personal costs.
This fulfills the goal of letting the item be given out at a lower level than normal. Later, if you want, you can pay it off to rid yourself of the penalties.
Addendum -- I also think it would be cool to play with personal costs that are more unique: for example, a heedless axe could impose –1 AC and prevent you from fighting defensively or using total defense while you wield it. But unlike the general penalties of the current system, these make it easier to pick an item with a personal cost that doesn't affect you, so they shouldn't be used as a serious balancing factor.
So we see that the personal costs are actually offsetting the item's low price, not its powers per se. An obvious solution emerges: let people pay full price for the item in order to avoid the personal costs.
Now we get a system that works for everyone. Anyone can wield the weapon and gain its powers, but if you haven't performed its rituals, you suffer its personal costs. The rituals have their gp cost bumped up to be in line with the normal cost of the item. At any point, you can perform the rituals to fully "earn" the item and remove its personal costs.
This fulfills the goal of letting the item be given out at a lower level than normal. Later, if you want, you can pay it off to rid yourself of the penalties.
Addendum -- I also think it would be cool to play with personal costs that are more unique: for example, a heedless axe could impose –1 AC and prevent you from fighting defensively or using total defense while you wield it. But unlike the general penalties of the current system, these make it easier to pick an item with a personal cost that doesn't affect you, so they shouldn't be used as a serious balancing factor.