Legacy Weapon Balance..

[daggaz]

I'm running a campaign soon, and one of the players is a Barbarian with a 2lvl dip in fighter, and not a lot of exp with tabletop DnD. Another hardcore player is going to be running a druid (albeit sans natural spell), and another player will be sneak attack skill monkey. Not sure about the third guy, but I suspect he will be doing the melee cleric route.

I was wondering how balanced folks think it would be, to give the barb a homebrewed legacy weapon (the fluff on the one in the SRD doesnt really do it for me), which he would gain extra feats/damage etc for, without losing ANY levels in barbarian... i really dont like that whole scion PrC idea. Basically, he would end up being a barbarian and then some.

The druid is going to kick ass no matter what, and will probably be keyed into the plot a bit more, and I have ideas how to make the rogue happy, so I was thinking giving the barb a bit of a boost featwise could make him more happy and versatile in battle.

What do you all think?

[daggaz]

Heh, wow really. No answers yet? Thats a first for me... =)

[Inane-Fedaykin]

If the guy playing the barb is new and the one playing the druid is experienced he's allready going to be struggling to play catch up. So yeah, why the hell not give the barb a cool weapon.

[Sulecrist]

How are you planning on homebrewing it? The rub of the RAW Weapons of Legacy is that they hurt more than help, but are pretty cool and fun. Are you planning on removing all the negative modifiers or just giving him a +1 sword and adding to it as he levels up?

(For a new player, I suppose I'd recommend the latter.)

[daggaz]

Yeah, I pretty much didn't like the whole PrC idea for legacy weapons... taking 10 levels just to pimp your sword and lose all your class abilities? No thanks.. The one for the barbarian really sucked as well, at least the cleric weapon let the cleric gain spellcaster levels still.

So anyhow, I was figuring that the weapon would level up as he did, without any need to drop barb levels...adding damage, granting special skills and feats, etc, as he went up. Things like cleave and greatcleave, knockdown, extra rage, extended rage, increasing enhancement bonus, stuff that barbarians would like, but usually have to wait a bunch of levels for in order to get all the feats. Haven't really figured it all out yet.

[Ferreon]

As a minor point, Legacy Champion (the PrC) actually progresses class abilities for every class, not just casters

[daggaz]

Hmm, dont know that one. I only saw the one in the variant section of the SRD, which is not too hot at all.

[Fenix_of_Doom]

This story reminds me a little of a NWN module that came with my diamond copy, it was called Kingmaker IIRC. At the beginning of the game you got a weapon, you could choose what kind and with every level up you could choose between a few bonuses.
The bonuses were as following:
elemental damage
+1 bonus enchantment(only available once per four levels or so)
a cure spell
a restoration spell
weird effects like a chance to daze/confuse/stun.

It might offer some inspiration.

[Ferreon]

daggaz, you are referring to LEGENDARY weapons...which are different to legacy items.

Legacy items (in Weapons of Legacy) are go up in power as you level, no prestige class required, but as a downside sap some of your power (penalties to saves, hp, skill points,attack rolls or in the case of casters, spell slots). The PrC I mentioned connects with these.

The legendary items in the srd, require levels in a prestige class, but have no penalty to any rolls


It's a case of you have to pay for your power, in one way or another.

[daggaz]

Ooops, my bad then. Legendary weapon then, but Im not going to have him require the PrC because, well, a barbarian who is missing 10 class levels for whatever nifty tidbits you put on his sword is an even weaker barbarian than before, and they are already pretty weak if you ask me...

[ArmorArmadillo]

Sort of an issue here;
You're homebrewing the weapon; it's kind of impossible to determine whether or not it's balanced without weapon specs.

[Matthew]

I agree. If you're simply asking 'should I give the Barbarian some free Magic to help him compete with the Druid?', the answer is more or less 'if you want', with the caveat that you will have to scale challenges appropriately.

[Sulecrist]

A thought comes to mind: give the weapon abilities that'll increase his mobility, especially if you plan on taking this to high levels. The eventual ability to fly (at a good speed) or make short line-of-sight teleports will make the barbarian far more useful in high levels, especially if the Druid is a 'zilla.

Not sure how tweaked the other characters are, though. It might not be at all necessary.