Ok so we are in serpent's skull, I've done away with certain minor artifacts that are in the AP and replacing with my own.
The Spear of savith.
I've stolen some ideas from the rod of seven parts, rod of lordly might and some other places.
The PCs have assembled all seven parts and I want to finalize the total item.
This is what I have, Full assembled:
+1 spear of monstrous humanoid bane, throwing, returning, distance, transformable, intelligent.
Alignment neutral good, special purpose defeat monstrous humanoids, magic aura at will. Special purpose power, +2 attack, saves, checks.
The rods (beside the head) that make it up give it powers of ectoplasmic, lingering, empower, extend, and quicken.
It's a seven part 'rod'/spear so part 1 was the spear tip and part 7 I have as the "power source" which is the intelligence and transformable powers.
It comes with a sheath of bladestealth.
I decided since I found nothing on it, that savith was either an eldritch knight or magus. So I set to make out a ftr/wizard super weapon artifact.
What does anyone think?
The party has just found the last part in saviths tomb (the intelligence rod) and have yet to assemble it, so i need a little feed back if I'm going to tweak it.
It would help to know what level the players are, so this can be scaled appropriately.
Generally speaking, you seem to have too many abilities on the weapon. Toss transformable off, and intelligent. Don't overwhelm the players with that much stuff at once.
Use intelligent later, just have it start chatting/yelling at the player who holds it at some point. Makes for fun roleplay.
The spear doesn't need an ability for each part, however, it does need something special that sets it apart from other weapons.
The extra powers, ecto, linger, empower, extend and quicken, seem way too much. Instead go with the spears main purpose, to extend a weapon to do damage, so extend works very well.
Need more info before I can try to give more advice.
firstly we dont play with WBL (world's dumbest idea, seems like it came out of tournament play), Bilbo and Thorin were hardly the right level to have gotten "sting", "Orcrist" or the one ring, when they found them, were they?
The purpose and intent of the magic item is #1 it was Saviths "other weapon" (im assuming the main one was vorpal-ish and maybe destroyed by the uber poisons spewing out of ydersius' neck when she cut off his head)
#2 it was in seven parts, each item had a power (as in the rod of seven parts) but assembled together have greater power.
#3 Gave some congruency and the the party something to do in what ended up being possibly the most boring AP installment ever.
The Rods have all had their own magical properties, they always have. The Players just simply didn't use them for anything yet.
Until the last playing session they had 5 of the seven rods, which were all the meta magic rods. They just found the "head" (which is the 'weapon' part of the item) and the "butt" of the spear, which is the part that carries the intelligence.
I was thinking of having the intelligence actually be the ghost of savith, or maybe an intelligence that 'thinks' it is savith, and just has a bunch of the same memories from that era.
Transformative is just a flavor, because it can turn into other weapons.
Where as the Rod of lordly might can do that, but it's more specfic and the weapon actually have different traits, like battle axe and flaming sword. I this case it could whatever weapon the wielder wants it to be, or whatever 'It' wants to be.
It's not particularly powerful addition to something like an artifact.
Mechanically it simply changes the type of damage being done (piercing, slashing, etc)
The characters are about to level to tenth (they have the experience, just haven't done the paperwork yet).
If the weapon is intelligent it can also give the characters history and backstory, and a direction, that this AP is badly lacking.
city of seven spears is literally a disaster of AP installment, and this thing is really the re-rail plot device i've been using.
A rod of seven parts, with parts that have no powers, makes no sense.
Each rod had a power, and together , fully assembled it has greater power. That's the way the original item worked.
I'm not looking for "is this a good 10th level weapon", I'm trying to put together an artifact they found in the tomb of a hero, who was way higher than 20th level when she died.
Also we don't "identify" magic items, the way we play... "oh look it's a +2 longsword of shocking frostness!" Players discover what it can do over time (like bilbos ring being invisibility, but a whole lot more, he just never got to using it, had it kept wearing it all the time it would have become apparent that it was more but he onyl carried it his pocket)
So likewise, if you wield the spear of savith (never knowing it was seven parts of their own) you might only think it was a magic spear, if say you used it in one battle once, then decided to sell it.
When we play, "lore" of a magic item takes time and study, and often players won't even use a new weapon right away until they have had the proper time to study them, as they could be cursed, aligned or whatever.
"identify" we use for things like potions etc. So basically we have either wizards/bards who specialize in this kind of thing, meetings with elrond (or the like), trips to libraries and such, or the good ole, "heck it put these boots on, click my heels together and run that way, do they do anything" style of play.
We also have the occasional "I drink the unidentified potion" events too.
The Party witch is very "lore-sy" and has identified alot of the party loot, but this would be beyond her caster level to figure out on her own. However she has done a ton of wall studying and bogging down play by reading glyphs and what not. So she is well aware that Savith had a spear, and out of game she's darn sure she has "it" in her mitts.
An aligned, intelligent artifact however could keep whatever powers it wants secret or unaccessible, until it's wielder has proven it's self worthy.
The witch and the weapon happen to have the same alignment however ( I decided Savith was neutral good)
The tomb was guarded by a portal that damaged anyone who wasn't neutral good, which is funny, because the witch is the only one int he party who has that alignment. (Most of them are neutral, the ronin is Chaotic Neutral)
You seem to be trying to tone the thing down to a "magic weapon" (simply a +1 monstrous humanoid bane spear with returning, throwing and distance, with a single meta magic rod of extend thrown in there)
I'm not looking for a weapon.
Trying to make an artifact.
Trying to give each rod a 'power' on it's own. And the fully assembled item something that none of them have together.
Im not entirely set on which meta magic abilities the 5 other rod parts should have (they are only lesser by themselves when not assembled, normal ones if more than three are assembled and greater if all five are together)
But the Players have never used any of them anyway, so what they are can still be up for grabs.
IT could be that part 1 is a +1 monstrous humanoid bane shortsword (the head) with each part of the rod carrying a "plus" (returning, throwing, etc) have them all go together and have it be intelligent.
But I need it to have an "Eldritch Knight" feel to the weapon... could be something as simple as "spell storing, or spell turning" as an ability.
I thought the meta magic rods would be cool. But like I said the players have yet to use them, so I can still change them at this point.
So if part one is: monstrous humanoid bane
2: transformative
3: distance
4: returning
5: throwing
6: spell storing or spell turning (not decided)
and part 7: I dunno holds the intelligence part of it like I said
Then it assembles to be one cool weapon, but then it's really only a sum of it's parts not the sum equals something greater than it's parts.
and is it enough to be an artifact weapon?
So far what we have there is a +6 or +7 (transformative isn't listed as an actual 'plus') intelligent weapon.
I like the transformative, because it can be any one handed weapon, distance is coll because you can throw it farther. Throwing because if it changes to a different form, some forms can't be thrown, with this power anything can, returning? nuff said.
I think Im leaning toward spell storing.
but now is that enough to be an artifact?
bump.
Thats a solid artifact in my book. Not world shaking - but a good one. Ill go for spell storing too, seems to fit the "fluff" and also is a solid choice for a gyth/EK/Slash n cast character type..
Keep in mind that Distance/returning and throwing are specific to the weapon of choice, even if the rules allow it, sword are not meant for Throwing xD (Maybe you can "pre-select" a few forms for the weapon to take)
just my 2 cp.-
Thats a solid artifact in my book. Not world shaking - but a good one. Ill go for spell storing too, seems to fit the "fluff" and also is a solid choice for a gyth/EK/Slash n cast character type..
Keep in mind that Distance/returning and throwing are specific to the weapon of choice, even if the rules allow it, sword are not meant for Throwing xD (Maybe you can "pre-select" a few forms for the weapon to take)
just my 2 cp.-
Wait, throwing specifically lets you throw something that is not meant to be thrown (effectively giving it a range increment of 10) so basically, if you have a sword, it now throws like a hand axe.
If it have a spear, it has no effect (since it already has that ability) and same goes for a hand axe or the like.
Since the combination of the three powers essentially make it throw, and come back no matter what form it is in, wouldnt distance double it's distance (from 10 to 20)?
throwing specifically applies to a sword, for example, as a weapon that is not supposed to be thrown. That's why that magically ability exists.
The point is the "base weapon" is a spear, and all 'forms of the weapon' are essentially at heart a spear, but it should be able to (theoretically) be used by any character class or a hero with a specific weapon choice (like greater spec. longsword for example)
So even if a wizard finds and uses it, it could be a staff, and still get the throwing and distance and returning