Weapon Of Warning

[Pex]

I hereby retract a comment I made a long time ago in a thread far far away that there's nothing wrong with a Weapon of Warning. I commented it was no big deal a PC knows an enemy is there because the enemy is still there the PC has to deal with. Being a DM with a PC having such a weapon, call it a lesson learned in spades. I am not trying to ambush the party at every corner. I'm not even wanting to surprise the party. What does happen though is the weapon existing can ruin the narrative. There's no assessment of the situation as the wielder yells out hostiles incoming and everyone goes into combat mode. I did tell the player to remind me when I forget about it, which is fair and I don't regret telling him to remind me, but having been reminded I lose the fun of the reveal of the monster/bad guys. It was never an ambush or surprise round situation, but it's a loss of the Aha! moment.

In the spirit of my infamous Tyrannical DMing rants, alright DMs, you win this one. :smallbiggrin:

[Atranen]

I've never been a fan of items that outright trivialize certain parts of the game...that said, as a player trying to optimize, you can pry my weapon of warning from my dead hands.

[JackPhoenix]

Weapon of Warning doesn't tell the wielder the enemy is there until the initiative is rolled, at which point, I'm sure he'd be able to figure it out anyway. The fun part is when the enemy initiates combat, the character ends with better initiative, but still has no clue where or what the enemy is, because the enemy is still hidden.

[Unoriginal]

I don't get how it's a loss of an Aha! moment.

Weapon of Warning if anything could help the tension buildup with a "something is approaching" alert, without actually telling what or how dangerous it is.

Like a radar bleep in a submarine movie, or the monster making noises in a horror movie, or other similar situations. The xenomorph in Alien, the Predator in the eponymous movie, and so many others became iconic because both audience and characters had just enough info to panic.

"Known presence of unknown danger" let the mind fills in the blanks, which can give nice results.

[Amnestic]

Is it just constantly beeping at you when you're at a high society gala?

[Unoriginal]

Is it just constantly beeping at you when you're at a high society gala?

Not unless you're asleep when combat starts.

[Catullus64]

Sorry that it's caused you problems, that's never fun.

But RAW I don't think it needs to. The weapon has three distinct properties:


Initiative advantage
Surprise prevention
Sleep awakening


The first two of those, Initiative and Surprise, are very mechanically specific. If a player claims that based on that description they're entitled to know about the presence of hostiles, or detect every hostile intention, which are not so narrowly mechanically defined, I don't think they have a leg to stand on.

[Unoriginal]

Sorry that it's caused you problems, that's never fun.

But RAW I don't think it needs to. The weapon has three distinct properties:


Initiative advantage
Surprise prevention
Sleep awakening


The first two of those, Initiative and Surprise, are very mechanically specific. If a player claims that based on that description they're entitled to know about the presence of hostiles, or detect every hostile intention, which are not so narrowly mechanically defined, I don't think they have a leg to stand on.

This is accurate.

Weapon of Warning lets you react to combat faster when it starts, and that's it.

It won't warn the PCs if they're being spied on, or if an ambush is ahead, or if the mayor wants to kill them. It will warn the PCs if and when they get attacked, not a moment sooner and not for anything other than an initiative order situation.

[Amnestic]

Not unless you're asleep when combat starts.

It was (mostly) a joke based off the first line: "This magic weapon warns you of danger."

[Unoriginal]

It was (mostly) a joke based off the first line: "This magic weapon warns you of danger."

I realized, but the image of an adventurer sleeping through a fancy gala until their sword's alarm beeps them awake was too funny to not comment on it.

[Bobthewizard]

I think you made it much more powerful than it's supposed to be.


This magic weapon warns you of danger. While the weapon is on your person, you have advantage on initiative rolls. In addition, you and any of your companions within 30 feet of you can't be surprised, except when incapacitated by something other than nonmagical sleep. The weapon magically awakens you and your companions within range if any of you are sleeping naturally when combat begins.

I think "This magic weapon warns you of danger" is fluff, and the rest of the description tells you how it warns you of danger.

1. While the weapon is on your person, you have advantage on initiative rolls.
2. In addition, you and any of your companions within 30 feet of you can't be surprised, except when incapacitated by something other than nonmagical sleep.
3. The weapon magically awakens you and your companions within range if any of you are sleeping naturally when combat begins.

The weapon does nothing to alter the narrative. It just gives advantage on initiative, allows the bearer and his companions to act in the surprise round, and wakes them from sleep. It's not constantly pinging when enemies are nearby. It doesn't let the wielder know that "hostiles are incoming." It just gives the three benefits above.

[KorvinStarmast]

I've never been a fan of items that outright trivialize certain parts of the game...that said, as a player trying to optimize, you can pry my weapon of warning from my dead hands. Concur, even though I eventually gave mine to a minion/henchman. At our table, the players did not try to assert that the weapon did stuff that the description does not say it does. (PhoenixPhyre was the DM, our first campaign). I needed to clear an attunement slot.

Weapon of Warning doesn't tell the wielder the enemy is there until the initiative is rolled, at which point, I'm sure he'd be able to figure it out anyway. The fun part is when the enemy initiates combat, the character ends with better initiative, but still has no clue where or what the enemy is, because the enemy is still hidden. Bingo.

Weapon of Warning if anything could help the tension buildup with a "something is approaching" alert, without actually telling what or how dangerous it is.

Like a radar bleep in a submarine movie, or the monster making noises in a horror movie, or other similar situations. The xenomorph in Alien, the Predator in the eponymous movie, and so many others became iconic because both audience and characters had just enough info to panic.

"Known presence of unknown danger" let the mind fills in the blanks, which can give nice results. Yes.

Is it just constantly beeping at you when you're at a high society gala? Heh, that got a chuckle out of me.

The weapon has three distinct properties:

Initiative advantage
Surprise prevention
Sleep awakening


The first two of those, Initiative and Surprise, are very mechanically specific. If a player claims that based on that description they're entitled to know about the presence of hostiles, or detect every hostile intention, which are not so narrowly mechanically defined, I don't think they have a leg to stand on. Concur.

I think you made it much more powerful than it's supposed to be. Such a tyrant! :smalleek:

The weapon does nothing to alter the narrative. It just gives advantage on initiative, allows the bearer and his companions to act in the surprise round, and wakes them from sleep. It's not constantly pinging when enemies are nearby. It doesn't let the wielder know that "hostiles are incoming." It just gives the three benefits above. Mechanically, yes.

[Dr.Samurai]

I concur with many of the other posts here. I used a Longsword of Warning for much of our last game and received its benefits without the DM alerting us to incoming hostiles. In essence the benefit of the weapon warning you is the advantage on initiative and the fact that you can’t be surprised. It’s not enough of a warning that you have advanced awareness to avoid or ambush enemies etc.

[Unoriginal]

Such a tyrant! :smalleek:

A DM that makes things too easy/gives too much benefits is often as fun-spoiling as a tyrannical one. I've seen gaming groups break due to the DM trying to make everyone happy all the time.

Not saying it's what happened here, but it seems Pex at least did not have much fun with that magic weapon's ruling.

[KorvinStarmast]

I concur with many of the other posts here. I used a Longsword of Warning for much of our last game and received its benefits without the DM alerting us to incoming hostiles. In essence the benefit of the weapon warning you is the advantage on initiative and the fact that you can’t be surprised. It’s not enough of a warning that you have advanced awareness to avoid or ambush enemies etc. That was our experience as well

Not saying it's what happened here, but it seems Pex at least did not have much fun with that magic weapon's ruling. More or less an own goal.