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Partysan
2008-03-25, 12:12 PM
It is widely known, that the idea of Weapons of Legacy has been executed very poorly in the book.
Reasons for this are:
- Legacies penalize the wielder in a crippling way, taking away HP, BAB, Spell slots, Saving throws or Skill points
- Many Legacy abilities could be bought for money (esp. with MIC)
- Legacies are often weaker than normal items, because they cannot be further enhanced

So we have the following problems:

- How do we create a cost for Legacies that doesn't make the wielder worse at those things at that he wants to be good at?
- How can we give an appropriate advantage of Legacies over bought items in exchange for that cost?

Ideas:
- convert the cost of a legacy to XP cost, maybe those that are given for the founding rituals?
- giving the item an ability for each step (least, lesser greater), that doesn't have an enhancement bonus, limited by the cost of the enhancement (things like shadow, agility etc. and their synergy upgrades), maybe like: "maximum cost of the enhancement half ritual cost in gp, you may voluntary heighten the cost of the ritual to achieve a better enhancement to a maximum of double the original cost"
- giving some sort of flexibility (no idea how)

help would be highly appreciated.

Yakk
2008-03-25, 01:51 PM
Fix it like one fixes LA: give it to everyone.

If everyone has a "legacy" auto-upgrading item, you can strip away the annoying penalties. Just reduce WBL accordingly.

Ie: build a system in which your "legacy" item has the power of an item of about half of your WBL. Then have the expected treasure per encounter halved in the game.

Partysan
2008-03-25, 02:09 PM
Yakk: While your system would definitely work and is nicely easy I'd rather not give everyone a Legacy, because it would make them kinda worthless. Scaling weapons for everyone would be a different approach, but a Legacy is connected with a story (and sometimes a purpose) and such an abundance of Legacy items would not fit my concept of gaming style.

Thank you for the advice though, I'll keep it in mind. Maybe I'll use it for a truly "legendary" campaign where every character will have an own legacy.