Topic: Legendary weapons

[Bruce]

I had an idea the other day I think may work great with HARP. But I need some input from other people, in particular the guys at ICE.

There are a few people that have pointed out that at higher levels (10th or so) leveling up becomes somewhat meaningless and characters all begin to look alike because most of all the good skills have been developed to a good high level.

I have been toying with the idea that the more a PC uses a weapon or object of some kind in their heroic deeds the weapon or object can become somewhat of a focal point in stories and legends, and the weapon itself can develop magical properties. Basic rules for this may be the player uses this weapon or object exclusively and does her/his best to maintain the weapon. They practice with it all the time and maybe even use it as a focal point when praying to some god or in meditation. Note that does not mean this is the only weapon the player uses.  I had been thinking of a way to bring this into the game without causing balance issues. But then it struck me, what if I allow the players to use development points to help create a legendary weapon of sorts. I brought this up to my players and they were interested.

I was thinking of using the same basic talents they have in the rules for bonuses and what not. Lightning reflexes gives you a +5 for initiative and costs 10 DP's. This could be the same for developing a legendary weapon. But this is an idea that is still in development and requires some tweaking.

What does everyone think and do you have any suggestions for making something like this playable?

[egdcltd]

I recently read a review of one of Purple Duck Games' Legendary Weapons series (http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/3367/Purple-Duck-Games?keywords=legendary).

They're for Pathfinder, and I'm not sure if other publishers have done something similar, but they sound to be the sort of thing you're looking at.

[Bruce]

I recently read a review of one of Purple Duck Games' Legendary Weapons series (http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/3367/Purple-Duck-Games?keywords=legendary).

They're for Pathfinder, and I'm not sure if other publishers have done something similar, but they sound to be the sort of thing you're looking at.

I might look at it but that game does not use development points and right now my biggest hurdle is figuring out how to balance the cost with the attributes.

[Glenn_Gould]

In Harpers Bazar was a spell 'Holy Weapon' which was similar to  'Holy Symbol' but was cast on weapons and added to OB instead of resistance rolls.

I still use it, with the costs adopted to 'Holy Symbol' of the recent harp edition.

The spell also adds the option to enchant a minor and a major Holy Ability (see customizing the cleric in the core book for examples).

Given that +RR +OB +DB +Maneuver seems to be treated equally in terms of costs by the spell system, that might give you a nice toolkit to develop something without unbalancing the system.

However: adding up to +25 to a weapon which might have additional boni of it's own could be viewed as unbalancing nevertheless - but we're talking 'legendary' here, don't we?

What I like about the Holy * spell is the built-in development: the priest has to enchant it, step by step, while being limited to one scaling option per day, so it'll take time and a bond with the weapon of choice might be developed. The bearer probably wouldn't exchange it easily, even for a potentially better one.

Also it might get rather difficult to successfully cast the highest levels of enchantment:
consider -180 for the major Holy Ability with 36PP used for scaling - not easy even with the necessary 50 ranks in the spell. And the 10 rounds of casting may require a ritual-like setting.

The weapon would be 'holy' only for the caster himself, but that may fit to your ideas anyway.

Of course you may need to construct something for non-spell users ...

Hope it helps despite being only a possible starting point.

[Bruce]

I remember that spell and plan to eventually convert it to the current HARP guidelines using my spell creator in the ICE vault. That is somewhat along the same lines as to what I am thinking about in this "Legendary Weapon" idea. The only difference is you can only do one talent per level and the adjustments will be both minimal and costly. I was thinking for the first +5 it only costs like 10 DP's but anything further will cost more, maybe double the DP cost each time you want to add a +5 or scale it up based on a chart. I was also thinking there should be some kind of character level requirements for certain bonuses/abilities. I don't want to make it either to difficult or to easy. I am thinking of adding the requirement that the character needs to do something spectacular with the weapon each level to add legendary options to it. The hard part is that the weapon can get broken or lost somehow in all the levels the character gains, and the character has to start new.

[Thom @ ICE]

It's a very similar concept to the "Starting Items" that can be purchased with DP when doing character creation - except now instead of adding a new item or aspect to the individual's background, you would be using that DP to enhance an item of theirs. 


While this is an option, you may also want to consider just using the Attunement skill as the way to consume DP and award special abilities for weapons/items.

[Bruce]

It's a very similar concept to the "Starting Items" that can be purchased with DP when doing character creation - except now instead of adding a new item or aspect to the individual's background, you would be using that DP to enhance an item of theirs. 


While this is an option, you may also want to consider just using the Attunement skill as the way to consume DP and award special abilities for weapons/items.

One option I was toying with was to require a roll of some kind each level you want to add a legendary ability. I thought of using a meditation skill or something similar. Though attunement may work but the problem is fighters and warriors do not usually develop that skill very well.

[Zhaleskra]

I wish I could remember the title. Anyway, there is a third party supplement for D&D 3.X that has Prestige Classes based around certain magic items. I bought it from RPGNow, and had one player use it, just having trouble with the title unfortunately. Either a re-download, or discovering if it's on my desktop then.