Weapons of Legacy

[divinedragonslayer]

I have a player who is interested in creating a weapon of legacy. Has anyone ever really worked with them and if so what do you think of them?

[InnaBinder]

While the concept of a weapon that becomes more powerful in parallel to the character who wields it has merit, the printed weapons of legacy are pretty much universally garbage, costing too much in ability scores and such to justify avoiding trips to the MagicMart for weapon upgrades.  The general consensus I've seen is legacy weapons either need to a) have all the negative effects of increasing the weapons' powers removed by DM fiat or b) be completely designed from scratch with cooperation between player and DM, so that the player's choice of keeping a special weapon throughout her career doesn't hamstring her character needlessly. 

[Sinfire Titan]

As a fan of Drakengard, I loved the concept of WoL and was sorely disappointed with the execution.


As with every splat printed by any company anywhere, this book has it's ups and downs. Among the ups are custom Legacy item founding (which is one of, if not, the most balanced custom magic item systems out there), a handful of special abilities, the Legacy Champion PrC, and the concept itself. The rest of the book is composed of mostly downs. Several Legacy items are overly narrow and not worth the penalties, others simply hurt more than they help, and all of the Intelligent ones are underpowered by comparison to actual Intelligent items.


A majority of the book was geared towards melee combat, as if the Devs were trying to throw a bone to the noncasters. The unfortunate truth is that most Legacy item abilities benefit spellcasters far more than they benefit noncasters. That said, custom Legacy items are a great help to the noncasters, as they are considerably cheaper than most similar abilities.

[divinedragonslayer]

And that's what we're working towards at the moment, but nothing of course is set in stone.

[NunoM]

I never tried WoL, but i ran two characters (a melee guy and an archer) using an optional rule from Dragon (don't recall the issue #, but i'll search for it if you wish): Levelled weapons.

The char can transfer some of his own XP into the weapon, unlocking enhancements and powers. For each enhancement to unlock, even if all the XP has been put into the weapon, the PC, at the DMs discretion, may have to perform a ritual, which may or may not involve special ingredients.
The DMs were kind enough to let me choose the powers i wanted in my weapons (Bastard sword and Comp. Longbow, respectivelly). We (me and my DMs) found that this actually brought some spice into the adventure, and the bond between character and weapon really becomes, i'd say: a fellowship.
Quick example:
I wanted the "Holy" special ability in the Comp. Longbow
- the 1st time i transfered XP into the weapon, it (the weapon) communicated telepathically, that the ritual to unlock it would require that i plunged the bow in holy water, have a 5+ level Cleric cast "Bless" on it (specifically for this purpose) and then insert the finger of a skeleton (undead), slayed by the weapon, in it. If it melted (80% chance), the weapon would be enchanted, if not, the ritual would have to be repeated.
I spent a loooong time searching for skeletons to kill, another long time bringing the guy down with a piercing weapon, but i finally got my reward!

The only time i felt sub-par with this weapon building stuff, was when i saw the "Signature Weapon" ability of the Kensai :/

[Tiltowait]

I played in one campaign that used these. It stopped at level 9 and they were completely unimpressive the entire time. Looking at the higher level ability lists they do have some potential later but a significant portion of campaigns don't even reach level 11 or higher and almost all of the abilities you can take at level 10 or lower are forgettable. Combined with the penalties I'd have been better off without one.

[divinedragonslayer]

Actually NumoM's idea sounds epic and a great solution to the Magicmart problem in games.

[NunoM]

I'm glad you like it

It's in Dragon #289, p. 56.

Re-reading the rules, now, i remember that i made deals with the DMs, regarding the price of the item.
The rules state that a leveled item has all the enhancements (powers) from the start, but they're not unlocked. It's cheaper to buy a leveled weapon, yes, but it's still way over the top for a low level character!

I agreed with the DMs that i would pay the initial value for the item with a normal +1 enhancement (the bare minimum for a leveled weapon/armor), and, as part of the ritual(s) of unlocking the powers, i would sacrifice gold, gems or whatever to pay for the enhancement.

Of course, if you want to start with a simple MW weapon and, through wit and guile or might and brawn "discover" that it's actually a leveled weapon, you could bend the rules a bit and have the character conducting a quest and performing a ritual, so that it unlocks it's magical properties... The first "power" - so that this flows into the mainstream of the RAW - would have to be the +1 enhancement, though. The imagination is the limit here

EDIT: We also found important that the leveled item (in my case, weapons), should be directly linked to the wielder.
For example: if the character was Evil, he/she would never unlock "Holy" in the weapon.
Also, as a sign of this link, the weapon would perform as a simple +1, in the hands of another character, regardless of it's current power level BUT the downside was: it's supposed to be the weapon of choice for the character, the one and only among all others!
For example: I remember i had to "dump" a +2 Flaming Longsword, while i was still working on leveling up my +1 Bastard Sword to +2...

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Let them make custom ones (1 weapon, 1 armor/shield), especially if they are low on the tier side of things. Its a minor buff assuming optimization.