Which system is this from?

[xroads]

During a recent 5e game, my character randomly found a +7 chain flail that had a base damage of 2d10 and granted +4 initiative! Another character found a +7 sword in the same dungeon.

My friend is new at DMing and I think he might have been using a dungeon generator for the wrong system. I ended up asking him to tone it down (we were only first level!) So now it’s a +2 flail that does a 1d8 base damage.

My question is, which system would this have come from? D&D 3.5? 2.0?

And as a follow-up question, what would be the damage of a chain flail in 5e? I couldn't find it in the weapon table.

[JeenLeen]

Maybe something set to 3.5 at Epic levels?

Although it could have been truly randomly generating things, like applying a randomized +Bonus with different traits, rather than pulling a named magic item (or combination of named traits/modifiers) from sourcebooks.

But, yeah, that's crazy, especially for 5e.

[Mr.Sandman]

Not anything 3 or 3.5 bases. 2d10 as a base damage dice has a memetic 'lost number' quality to it, as it is listed as the highest damage for Medium Weapons in size conversion charts, but no weapon in any book has it. The + 7 MIGHT be a matter of font as some fonts can make a 1 look like a 7, especially if you don't see them both to compare.

[xroads]

Although it could have been truly randomly generating things, like applying a randomized +Bonus with different traits, rather than pulling a named magic item (or combination of named traits/modifiers) from sourcebooks.

You're probably right. Probably just a real basic randomizer.

Not anything 3 or 3.5 bases. 2d10 as a base damage dice has a memetic 'lost number' quality to it, as it is listed as the highest damage for Medium Weapons in size conversion charts, but no weapon in any book has it. The + 7 MIGHT be a matter of font as some fonts can make a 1 look like a 7, especially if you don't see them both to compare.

Memetic lost number? Ironically I think you lost me on this one. How is this memetic?

[Mr.Sandman]

It pops up on forums like this every few years, someone looking for what weapon deals 2d10. Is that not what memetic means? A repeating idea over time that gains and loses popularity in cycles?

[darkrose50]

There was a Diablo RPG that came out right before D&D 3.0. It had some wild random stuff in it.

Basically this is where they borrowed the ideas for "feats" from.

[xroads]

It pops up on forums like this every few years, someone looking for what weapon deals 2d10. Is that not what memetic means? A repeating idea over time that gains and loses popularity in cycles?

To be honest, I really don't know what memetic means. But my 30 seconds of Google Fu got me this...

Memetics is the study of information and culture based on an analogy with Darwinian evolution.

And this peaked my interest.

[Quertus]

2d10? How about Warhammer? They have damage that looks like that. I doubt that they have random number generators spitting out treasure like that without "my eyes, my eyes, the demons ate my eyes!" and the like, though.

[xroads]

2d10? How about Warhammer? They have damage that looks like that. I doubt that they have random number generators spitting out treasure like that without "my eyes, my eyes, the demons ate my eyes!" and the like, though.

Heh. With Warhammer, +7 would probably refer to the number of corruption points you get for just looking at the flail.