Special weapon(s) for my game? (3.5)

[Chronos Flame]

I am running a game and need help deciding what is fair to put into it at this stage. My characters are about to get their hands on a weapon that they will get a few more of throughout the adventure.

Normally i would just say "+1 cold greataxe". The thing is it is a very low-op game (most players are pretty new, the most experienced player enjoys fighters). The weapon will be able to get extra enchantments but it will be more expensive than normal and difficult to find somebody to do for them.

So any ideas of a weapon I can give to a 5th level party that wont be useless by the time they are lvl 10, but not overpowered for now? For flavor's sake it is a Final Fantasy-esqe game and the weapon is made from one of the "great crystals". The water one, so it should have something to do with water, or cold.

[Daelen]

Why not pull out Weapons of Legacy? That way you can make a weapon that's not that powerful for right now, that the player can unlock and make more powerful as they level.

[Chronos Flame]

What book are weapons of legacy in?

[super dark33]

my DM made us rings of the four elements and turned tham to kickass weapons

like:earth powers hammer
wind powers spike chain
fire powers scimitare
water powers mace

and thay could shift to the weapon the PC is expert with!

[Aroka]

What book are weapons of legacy in?

Weapons of Legacy.

Ask an obvious question, etc. ...

[Chronos Flame]

my DM made us rings of the four elements and turned tham to kickass weapons

like:earth powers hammer
wind powers spike chain
fire powers scimitare
water powers mace

and thay could shift to the weapon the PC is expert with!

While a good idea, it wouldn't work well with this. They are having a craftsman actually make a greataxe out of this crystal. So it will not be able to be anything but a ring. i am just wondering what enchantments to give it, and how to make it work well.

Weapons of Legacy.

Ask an obvious question, etc. ...

Ah sorry... not familiar with the book, that's why I asked lol. I'll see if I can get my hands on one.

[The Dark Fiddler]

What book are weapons of legacy in?

Weapons of Legacy

And a few spare ones scattered throughout books after it.

[super dark33]

well then,
a greataxe that can fire magical crystals on the enemy!
and give it enchantments from the crystal like fire crystal or ice crystal and add bonus demage to it.

[Fouredged Sword]

Try to pick things the party will use well. Try adding flaming if you know that you will throw trolls at them. Situational usefulness can help a particular enchantment along. Also consider going off the books. Some nice enchantments can be made by looking at spells and powers. Consider makeing a sonic ax that adds sonic damage that ignores hardness, or maga that deals fire damage for a second round. A DM fait weapon feel really good if they are not something you could just buy.

[Chronos Flame]

Thanks for all the ideas. I'm gonna find weapons of legacy then decide. :)

[Aroka]

Brief summary of weapons of legend (ages since I read the book though):

You take a feat that allows you to bind with a weapon of legacy (I forget if each feat is weapon-specific; I suspect you're only allowed one).

You perform rituals that often have some gold cost (might have XP cost too) to bind with and activate the weapon.

Once activated, the weapon ceases to be (for you only) a regular magic weapon, and instead gets an increased enhancement bonus and more special abilities depending on your level. However, you take penalties to hit points, etc. to "balance it out". Weapons of legacy are not generally considered very useful or powerful if the DM doesn't waive these penalties.

[Vizzerdrix]

Handbook Linky for Weapons of Legacy.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boa...p?topic=5907.0

[nargbop]

Harpoooooooooooooooons
from Stormwrack

[Crow]

Weapons of Lagacy can be a pain, so I would like to propose a simpler approach.

You are the DM, so you have a pretty good idea how things are going to progress. I would highly suggest a +1 Bane weapon, set to whichever creatures you expect to see them up against later down the road.

It's a +1 weapon for now, but later down the road it will be acting as a +3 weapon, with a little extra damage to boot. Give it a cool name, too!

[Chronos Flame]

Brief summary of weapons of legend (ages since I read the book though):

You take a feat that allows you to bind with a weapon of legacy (I forget if each feat is weapon-specific; I suspect you're only allowed one).

You perform rituals that often have some gold cost (might have XP cost too) to bind with and activate the weapon.

Once activated, the weapon ceases to be (for you only) a regular magic weapon, and instead gets an increased enhancement bonus and more special abilities depending on your level. However, you take penalties to hit points, etc. to "balance it out". Weapons of legacy are not generally considered very useful or powerful if the DM doesn't waive these penalties.

So the penalties should be waived? What about the EXP cost to get it to its next level? Should that stay? And do they pay it EVERY time they get a new special bonus?

Handbook Linky for Weapons of Legacy.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boa...p?topic=5907.0

Thanks, I'm reading through that now!!

Weapons of Lagacy can be a pain, so I would like to propose a simpler approach.

You are the DM, so you have a pretty good idea how things are going to progress. I would highly suggest a +1 Bane weapon, set to whichever creatures you expect to see them up against later down the road.

It's a +1 weapon for now, but later down the road it will be acting as a +3 weapon, with a little extra damage to boot. Give it a cool name, too!

While that's a great idea, it doesn't fit the flavor in the least... I would certainly do it for a magic weapon that wasn't this, and have in previous games, but sadly i can't for this...

[Psyx]

Adamanitine sword?

They never really become useless.

[Chronos Flame]

Adamanitine sword?

They never really become useless.

Lol. The crystal they are made from actually is similar to adamantine stat-wise.

[IdleMuse]

For a 'Water Crystal' weapon that you really don't want to lose, I can't really make any suggestion that is more important, as well as thematic, than making it out of Riverine, (Stormwrack p128). It is immune to damage, unaffected by most spells (outside of Disintegrate and other high-high-level stuff), and is essentially water compressed into form by magical force fields.

[Psyx]

Oooh...what's that substance that stores souls, rendering someone killed by it un-ressable? It's pricey and niche, but really handy for stabbing your NPC nemesis in the face with.

[Vilyathas]

Weapons of Legacy.
*snip*

Seconded. I used the concept in my games, minus the complicated concepts of rituals and penalties.

I usually start off by giving them a normal +1 weapon or armor by L5, and slowly gaining new abilities and enhancements every other levelup. This way you can tailor your items as you get to know your players' playing styles, strengths, and weaknesses.

My personal favourite creation is an sentient Holy Avenger that slowly becomes more intelligent and Lawful Stupid as its owner levels up

[Chronos Flame]

Well it looks like a good few use weapons of legacy. Is it overpowered to cut out the EXP cost for the rituals? I still want to make them pay the gold, but that is because they are getting a good bit through bounties.

For a 'Water Crystal' weapon that you really don't want to lose, I can't really make any suggestion that is more important, as well as thematic, than making it out of Riverine, (Stormwrack p128). It is immune to damage, unaffected by most spells (outside of Disintegrate and other high-high-level stuff), and is essentially water compressed into form by magical force fields.

Oooh...what's that substance that stores souls, rendering someone killed by it un-ressable? It's pricey and niche, but really handy for stabbing your NPC nemesis in the face with.

The crystal is a special substance already. Similar to adamantine, even goes through the DR/adamantine. And it can (almost) only be broken by another crystal.

[Yorrin]

You could always go with something that isn't in a book for it's powers- like have it able to once per day summon a water elemental with maximum HD equal to half the HD of the wielding character, and have it remain for an hour. That's long enough that it can have non-combat uses, such as propelling a boat for a good distance or something.

[Chronos Flame]

You could always go with something that isn't in a book for it's powers- like have it able to once per day summon a water elemental with maximum HD equal to half the HD of the wielding character, and have it remain for an hour. That's long enough that it can have non-combat uses, such as propelling a boat for a good distance or something.

Oh i like that idea! I'm going to add that to what I have written up for it so far. I have it somewhat specialized to the character going to receive it. She is a barbarian that gets frenzy instead of rage. Which is nice... until the enemies are dead. So one of the weapon abilities is the as-written self cure moderate, that also hits her with calm emotions. I plan to do that sort of thing for all my characters who get one (hopefully all of them).

[TheManlyFlower]

You could also use something similar to the rules that a soulknife has for their psiblade. But you could apply limitations to cold/water only buffs, or even hamper its growth to a certain point like a +2 blade, +2 enhancement. You can find the info for it up on the SRD.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/soulknife.htm

[Chronos Flame]

You could also use something similar to the rules that a soulknife has for their psiblade. But you could apply limitations to cold/water only buffs, or even hamper its growth to a certain point like a +2 blade, +2 enhancement. You can find the info for it up on the SRD.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/soulknife.htm

I suppose I could. It just makes it harder to give it unique things. I at the same time there are enough weapon special abilities that there would be some decent choice involved.

[TheManlyFlower]

I made up some sets of 2-4 different enhancements that were not more than a +4 modifier total (Keen, Cleaving, Flaming burst)(Bane, speed). Depending on the enhancements you seet for them, you can also control how quickly their weapon grows. I allowed them to choose one enhancement to apply when they qualified for it and it was locked to the weapon. Using the two above examples, player 1 could have keen/cleaving on the weapon at 6th level and player 2 could have bane. Or, player 1 could wait till 10th level and apply flaming burst and later apply the keen/cleaving and player 2 could apply speed at 14th level because its a +3 enhancement.

You can also use the magic item compendium for a bunch of extra weapon enhancements for lots of types of weapons. Like the one that allows a bow to store arrows in an extradimensional space (Don't have my books near me so I don't recall what its called) combined with distance and seeking enhancements make an awesom bow combo.

[Chronos Flame]

I made up some sets of 2-4 different enhancements that were not more than a +4 modifier total (Keen, Cleaving, Flaming burst)(Bane, speed). Depending on the enhancements you seet for them, you can also control how quickly their weapon grows. I allowed them to choose one enhancement to apply when they qualified for it and it was locked to the weapon. Using the two above examples, player 1 could have keen/cleaving on the weapon at 6th level and player 2 could have bane. Or, player 1 could wait till 10th level and apply flaming burst and later apply the keen/cleaving and player 2 could apply speed at 14th level because its a +3 enhancement.

You can also use the magic item compendium for a bunch of extra weapon enhancements for lots of types of weapons. Like the one that allows a bow to store arrows in an extradimensional space (Don't have my books near me so I don't recall what its called) combined with distance and seeking enhancements make an awesom bow combo.

Not a bad idea. I have almost a week to decide for sure. I will probably do weapon of legacy, but only assuming I can figure some things out... Otherwise this is a pretty good alternative.