As the title implies, a character in my campaign has called asking about creating an entirely new type of weapon based off of a video game he's been playing. while i'm usually okay with homebrew concepts, this one has me a little on edge. Here we go.
There are two pictures that break down the general idea behind the weapon; a sword/axe combo weapon that can switch forms rather easily (a mechanical lever on the handle). He also wants to add a hammer head so that it is all three weapons in one. This just seems a little rediculous to me, but I was interested to hear the opinions of others before saying yes or no to its creation.
Sure why not?
Make it an exotic weapon. Make it a move action to switch it between great sword, maul, and greataxe. If he also has quick draw he can make it a swift action to switch it.
Make it REALLY heavy, and have a lower harness than you would expect because of the mechanical bits in there.
Each head has to be enchanted and master worked separately.
What would it be? An exotic slashing weapon that switches from a 19-20/x2 weapon to a 20/x3 weapon as a swift action? 18-20/x2 to 20/x4???
How would the hammer-sword work? A split blade with rail between the halves of the blade that the hammerhead can slide up and down?
Switching between onehanded 1d8 slashing 19-20/x2 to onehanded 1d8 bludgeoning 20/x3 as a swift action? That might be worth an exotic weapon feat.
Would each weapon-type have to be enchanted separately? Maybe both at a reduced price, since you can't use both at once? Like 1.5 x the cost of a double weapon?
Well lets break it down a bit a few things you need to decide are
How many hands? From the pictures that seems a no brainer of 2.
Level of profiency? I would definatly go exotic here.
How much Damage? Here is where it can get odd set it too low and its pointless other than fluff set it two high and it becomes too good not to have I would think probably 1d10 with a x3 crit. (less damage than a great axe or great sword but a better crit than a bastard sword.) Unless you want to get strange and have each head have its own damage and crit.
Action to switch heads? At least a swift honestly leaving it at one switch a round keeps it from being a new damage every swing(on the off chance that would be useful such as having zombies and skeletons on you at the same time.) But keeps it better than the normal need to drop one to draw the other.
Price? Go with your gut here but remeber those mechanisms are gonna make it harder to put together so aim higher than the standard 2h weapons.
Sure why not?
Make it an exotic weapon. Make it a move action to switch it between great sword, maul, and greataxe. If he also has quick draw he can make it a swift action to switch it.
Make it REALLY heavy, and have a lower harness than you would expect because of the mechanical bits in there.
Each head has to be enchanted and master worked separately.
While that has crossed my mind, i was wondering if anyone could give me a rough idea on how his character would go about making such a weapon. the world is low-tech (medieval, pre-fire arms) and he himself is relatively low level still (only 4th). any idea on what i could list as prerequisites to make it?
Well lets break it down a bit a few things you need to decide are
How many hands? From the pictures that seems a no brainer of 2.
Level of profiency? I would definatly go exotic here.
How much Damage? Here is where it can get odd set it too low and its pointless other than fluff set it two high and it becomes too good not to have I would think probably 1d10 with a x3 crit. (less damage than a great axe or great sword but a better crit than a bastard sword.) Unless you want to get strange and have each head have its own damage and crit.
Action to switch heads? At least a swift honestly leaving it at one switch a round keeps it from being a new damage every swing(on the off chance that would be useful such as having zombies and skeletons on you at the same time.) But keeps it better than the normal need to drop one to draw the other.
Price? Go with your gut here but remeber those mechanisms are gonna make it harder to put together so aim higher than the standard 2h weapons.
thanks for the idea about swift actions to switch it, that will make much more sense than a free action like he was asking for. as for damage, we both agreed that half of the reason to want such a weapon was for alternate damage types/dice/criticals, so we're gonna go with it having three distinct "Modes".
Knowledge: Engineering, Weaponsmithing, around 4-6 ranks.
Or you might make it trial and error allow him to make one with a check by you each combat that something jams up also have it jam on a natural 1. Each time it does this allow him to tinker on it during down time and reduch the failure chance until it hits zero and its perfected.
Also don't let him take profiency with out sometime trainging with it if he finishs it at during level 4 lets say, and you take a couple of months to hit level 5 then sure. But if he finishs it the day before he hits level 5 then he won't have had time to accustome himself to it.
Use the elven swordbow from races of the wild as the base.
Three modes then I would recomend setting the damage and crit for each mode based on the number of hands and damage type for instance if its all 2h then:
Axe 1d12 x3 S
Sword 2d6 19-20 x2 s
Hammer 1d10 x4 b
I wouldn't make him enchant all the heads seperatly since his isn't gaining a huge advantage but you might consider raising the cost to 1.5x normal or even 2x normal to help off set it. Though keep in mind if he enchants it as one item then all of it must be one material and one set of enchantments.
Yeah, another advantage might be a silver sword blade, adamantite axe blade, and cold iron hammerhead.
And if he's going for a triple-header, go bludgeoning hammer, piercing pick/axe, slashing sword. I think the damage should be slightly below the baseline of the 2-handed weapons if you go two-handed. Maybe 1d10 slashing 19-20/x2, 1d10 20/x3 bludgeoning, and 1d8 20/x4 piercing.
Three modes then I would recomend setting the damage and crit for each mode based on the number of hands and damage type for instance if its all 2h then:
Axe 1d12 x3 S
Sword 2d6 19-20 x2 s
Hammer 1d10 x4 bI wouldn't make him enchant all the heads seperatly since his isn't gaining a huge advantage but you might consider raising the cost to 1.5x normal or even 2x normal to help off set it. Though keep in mind if he enchants it as one item then all of it must be one material and one set of enchantments.
The damage you suggest sounds perfectly fine, but i've been talking to him a bit and he says he wants each to be a seperate enchanted item, so sword, axe and hammer can each have different enchantments. I've been thinking of saying that because of the ease that he'll have (being able to have one be cold, one fire and one electricity, or whatever) i'd impose an increase in the enchanting cost, say half again the price. does that seem fair, or am I over-reacting to the possible threat that this thing can have to game balance? I'm a little paranoid as over-powered items have ruined a few of my campaigns before.
I wouldn't increase the price of each weapon-head. It's basically just Quick Draw + wrist cords.
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Don't increase the cost of enchanting. Remember, in order to enchant each head, he has to pay three separate times. He's going to be paying for three different weapons to be equally enchanted. Since he seems to be a martial character, he's either going to be limiting himself to melee combat only, or be forking over money for a good bow. Then he also has to pay for his armor and other magical trinkets.
He's going to find out that having to enchant all three heads separately, is going to be more trouble than it's worth.
To not make this weapon automatically better than other like weapons of it's kind, I'd avoid the 2d6, 1d12 and 1d10 for sword, axe and hammer respectively. The Greatsword should have the highest straight dice of all the weapon, the Greataxe the best of axes, and the hammer has way too high of a crit modifier at x4 when compared to the only other two handed hammer which is 1d12 x2
I'd suggest something like 1d10 19-20 x2 sword; 1d10 x3 axe; 1d8 x3 hammer.
Each head would then remain a viable weapon, but you don't make a weapon that is as good or better than similar weapons of its size and type. Granted, it will be doing the same damage as a Bastard Sword, but a Bastard Sword, unlike this weapon, can be used with a shield.
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Wouldn't carrying three different weapons and using Quick Draw achieve the exact same effect? Why would you need to lower the damage, or even make it exotic? Or make anything special about it at all, really? It's just a cosmetic effect.
Edit: Apparently I didn't read the above post very well :p Ninja'd by 47 minutes.
The major benefit of the switcherooblade is that you don't have to pick up (and provoke attack of opportunities) dropped weapons to switch back. For example, if you are fighting a mob of skeletons and zombies, instead of concentrating on skeletons with your warhammer, then dropping it to draw your longsword so you can fight the zombies, you can switch back and forth between skeletons and zombies willy-nilly....and still get your full attack on.
This weapon will probably really shine in levels 6+ when you get iterative attacks and can benefit relatively consistently from an ally's haste spell.
It might shine sooner if you cast continual flame on it.
I think if I was designing this weapon, instead of axe/sword, I would go hammer/sword.
Exotic Two-Handed Weapon:
Hammerblade
Cost: 200 gp
Damage (Small): 1d8 or 1d8
Damage (Medium): 1d10 or 1d10
Critical: 20/x3 or 19-20/x2
Range: --
Weight: 15 pounds
Type: Bludgeoning or Slashing
Special: see text
The hammerblade has a hammerhead that slides up and down the sword blade, providing the weapon with a great deal of versatility. As a swift action, the wielder can switch between using the hammerhead and the swordblade.
When the wielder is using the hammerhead, the threat and critical range is 20/x3, is considered a hammer for the purposes of a fighter's weapon training class feature, and is treated as a warhammer for any feats the wielder may have, such as Weapon Focus or Weapon Specialization.
When the wielder is using the swordblade, the threat and critical range is 19-20/x2, is considered a heavy blade for the purposes of a fighter's weapon training class feature, and is treated as a longsword for any feats the wielder may have, such as Improved Critical.
The hammerhead and the swordblade may be constructed from different materials, the costs of any special material is applied individually to each weapon head.
Any enhancement bonus that is applied to the hammerblade applies to both weapon heads, but each weapon head may have its own special properties applied it it, such as icy burst, keen, or flaming. Both weapon heads must be constructed so that the cost in plusses is the same for each. This does not increase the cost of constructing magical versions of the hammerblade.
If the wielder the hammerblade rolls a natural 1, or if the hammerblade acquires the broken condition, the wielder must make a DC 15 Reflex save or the weapon becomes jammed in its current configuration and cannot change its damage type until 1 hour is spent making a DC 15 Craft weaponsmithing or Knowledge engineering check to clear it. Magical versions of the hammerblade provide its wielder a +1 bonus to the Reflex save for each +1 of its total number of magical plusses.
If you want to make it mechanical then just treat it as three seperate weapons that can be swapped as a move action (or swift if he has quickdraw). However I'd recommend making it a +1 weapon with a special variant of the shifting property. Basically it magically chanages shape. Shifting typically only allows similar weapons, but just let this one be special to have a bludgeoniing weapon also.
It's a cool idea and won't really hurt anything. Let your player be unique, but keep it in line with the rest of the camapaign.
He himself has said no to transforming, and instead wanted it to actually be a brand new weapon type. he basically just wants it to be something totally unique to his character, so just saying that it has a magical property doesn't really strike his fancy.
On a side note, he's said that anyone interested in using it has his blessing, so if any of you guys want to use it for an NPC or something, go nuts.