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View Full Version : [4E] Good Weapon/Implement Enchants for low-level characters (help needed)



Grynning
2008-12-13, 02:19 PM
Ok, so the situation is that I'm Dm'ing an FR game (the first actual session will be tomorrow, our first meet up was all character creation and BS'ing), beginning at level 1. I told each of the players that they could have an item that shared a backstory with their character, that would level up with them (We were partially inspired by the weapons in LotRO that do the same thing). Everyone but the Wizard and the Rogue chose weapons, which I kind of expected, but I'm having trouble deciding exactly what abilities the weapons should gain. The items should be in the level 1-6 range (4-6 level items will not gain their special abilities until the group dings level 2 and will just be Magic weapons to start).Here's a breakdown of the group (this bunch is not really into optimization, more role-play and wacky character concepts, and they've solidly made up their minds on the race-class combos):

Halfling Two-weapon Ranger: His weapon will be a scimitar, his uncle's "lucky sabre." The uncle was a seafaring mechant/trader who was also an adventurer of sorts. I've narrowed this one down to either a Quick Weapon, or a Luckblade, but the first seems too powerful, the second too obvious. Any other ideas?

Halfling Cleric of Tymora: Above player and character's wife. Chose her holy symbol. Problem is none of the holy symbols really strike me as that interesting. Any good ones that fit in with the church of Tymora and would benefit her as the group's only healer?

Human Wizard: His hat. I already have this one planned out, no worries here (it will add situational bonuses to perception and once per day answer a question, the hat is trained in Dungeoneering and History).

Stormsoul Genasai Assault Swordmage: He chose a Falchion. I was thinking of making it a plain ol' thundering weapon to synergize with his racial, but again, that seems a bit uninspired. I also thought about a Parrying or some other tanky type enhancement.

Dragonborn Great Weapon Fighter: Chose a Fullblade and maxed out strength to 20 (he was inspired by the cover of the PHB to make the character). The weapon is an ancestral blade handed down by his clan. This player is very, very into character backstory and roleplay, and has been very serious about coming up with ideas on Dragonborn culture for the setting. I was thinking that either an Oathblade or a Vengeful weapon would fit well with the honorable warrior motif, or a Battlecrazed weapon to go well with Dragonborn racial abilities, but again, I can't decide.

Tiefling Artful Dodger Rogue: She hasn't picked anything yet, and I'd kind of like her to have a non-weapon item to break up the sword club, especially since the player is not super-combat focused. Any good items that will or can be adapted to scale up with level, that have fun out-of-combat uses?

I know that's a lot, but any suggestions will be helpful. So, send me some inspiration!

herrhauptmann
2008-12-13, 02:59 PM
Oof, this is a way tougher thread than I thought it'd be. Was expecting just a call for opinions on the different enchantments...

Now when you say it'll level up with the character, are you referring to the fact that weapons do extra critical damage at each tier of play?

As a partial suggestion: What if the genasi gets a sword that does a lightning spell from the list of daily powers. Since that may be too powerful, could depower it in some way... Once a game week it'll do it. Or it's a recharge power (like monsters get) that starts the encounter uncharged.

ex: Haven't used ability in a game week (if you take that limitation), and they storm a room. Genasi rolls his recharge, gets a 4 (no). Next round, he rolls a 6 (YES!), now for the rest of the encounter, he has the option of using his weapon's lightning ability. But once he uses it, it's gone for a week.
Say he doesn't use it for the fight where it charged, next encounter occurs after a short rest, and the charge goes away. So he must make the recharge again before he can plan to use it.
This idea is a little heavy in extra rolling, but it gives a powerful ability that won't break the game too much because it's a bit unreliable.

Grynning
2008-12-13, 03:09 PM
To clarify, when I say the weapons will level with the characters, I mean that the bonuses the weapons will provide will scale up when appropriate (so +1 items will become +2 items at about lvl 5 or so, +3 at lvl 10, etc). I may also add extra properties with small situational benefits to the items at each tier (making them a bit better than regular magic items, but not nearly as good as artifacts). For instance, the dragonborn's sword may add a +1 to attack rolls against Dragons or something like that, in addition to it's enchantment.



As a partial suggestion: What if the genasi gets a sword that does a lightning spell from the list of daily powers. Since that may be too powerful, could depower it in some way... Once a game week it'll do it. Or it's a recharge power (like monsters get) that starts the encounter uncharged.

ex: Haven't used ability in a game week (if you take that limitation), and they storm a room. Genasi rolls his recharge, gets a 4 (no). Next round, he rolls a 6 (YES!), now for the rest of the encounter, he has the option of using his weapon's lightning ability. But once he uses it, it's gone for a week.
Say he doesn't use it for the fight where it charged, next encounter occurs after a short rest, and the charge goes away. So he must make the recharge again before he can plan to use it.
This idea is a little heavy in extra rolling, but it gives a powerful ability that won't break the game too much because it's a bit unreliable.

That's a bit more complex than I'm looking for. I don't want to add anything that's drastically different from existing mechanics. I am open to making slight changes to existing items to make them work (for instance, scaling down and using items that wouldn't normally be available at low levels).

EDIT: I forgot one important thing. For any items from AV that I decide to use, I will likely be using Titanium Dragon's house rules (http://forums.gleemax.com/showpost.php?p=17038639&postcount=9) on the items.

skywalker
2008-12-13, 06:05 PM
I'm not going to go in the order you went in, but here we go:

For the fighter: Battlecrazed seems ok, I also like inescapable, pinning, reproachful, strongheart, sunblade, vanguard weapon, vengenful sounds cool too, wounding is a good property. Terror weapon also sounds cool. I think if he's very protective, the vengeful sounds good. Battlecrazed does work really well with the dragonborn abilities. Strongheart and sunblade are both very "I'm the frickin' hero!" type weapons, and oathblade and inescapable both mesh well with the "I will kill you" motif. Terror, vanguard, and wounding are just really nice bonuses.

Halfling: Gambler. I don't think quick would be overpowered, luck blade is a cliche but works alright, since he said the sword was "lucky." I like the flavor of gambler a bit more, maybe in all the old stories, the blade worked in his favor, but uncle forgot all those stories where the sword nearly got him killed.

The genasi: We don't have much personality regarding the genasi, vanguard, wounding and vengeful all work here as well, depending on whether or not he thinks of (and you allow) a possible combo between vengeful and aegis of assault. I personally see the stormsoul genasi as a very tempestuous person who's almost wild in combat, throwing things around, so I like properties like staggering, and thundering. Reproachful, reckless, pinning, and opportunistic are also just good powers that interest me. Reckless could mesh well with the craziness of the genasi.

For the cleric: From what I can tell (having very little 4e info on Tymora), I think you could reflavor the Avandra symbol, if it was low enough level. Alternatively, you could make it a lower level symbol and then have it change (through the power of her faith?) when she reaches the appropriate level. Anyway, symbols of divine reach, divinity, reproach, resilience, and hope are good general properties. Symbols of freedom and good fortune seem decently flavored for a luck or fortune type goddess.

Finally, the tiefling (I have spent a loooong time on this): Again, not much personality beyond "not combat focused," and this one is probably the hardest. Have you got anything beyond that? I think bracers of mental might seem pretty cool for a charisma rogue. Especially since it scales with your bonus automatically. Boots of stealth are cool for a rogue, and they kinda sorta scale. I think one thing you could do since you seem pretty cool with a more "narrative style" is that you could give the rogue an item, like these boots, and then start adding more properties as the other characters gain power levels with their weapons. Like they could start as just boots of stealth, but in the higher levels they could wind up being boots of stealth, boots of dancing, and airstriders. I'm just going thru the categories now. Flaying gloves are cool for a rogue, altho combat focused. Hedge wizard's gloves might also be cool, they're not uber-useful, but for a rogue, pretending to be a wizard sometimes might be useful. Reading spectacles aren't awesomely powerful nor do they grow in power, but being able to read any language at any time is pretty cool. A cape of the mountebank has always seemed really cool to me, and it's useful in a variety of situations. The gloaming shroud also sounds appealing.

A bag of holding is always cool, so are power jewels and I'm always partial to instant campsites, but I think that's just me being weird.