I am currently running a Pathfinder campaign and have been trying to stick to Pathfinder Core books as much as possible. However, one of my players is playing with rules for the Ancestral Daisho from Oriental Adventures. He wants to give it the "Assassins" property, similar to that of the Assassins dagger.
1) Is this even possible? It seems to me that an assassins dagger is specifically unique and only comes constructed specifically as a dagger. He cites that under crafting rules you can "change what slot a magical item takes up by a 50% increase in cost", and wants to pay the additional 50% sacrificial cost for the Ancestral Daisho to awaken the assassins property in it. Is this legit?
2) Even so, there are no rules for assassins property on other magic weapons. I see this as further evidence of the dagger being unique. If not, would 'assassins' take up a +1 or +2 weapon bonus?
3) Are there any Pathfinder rules in any of the books that are similar to the Ancestral Daisho or Assassins blade? I would much rather convert as much as possible to Pathfinder rules on this. If i had some Pathfinder reference for this, perhaps it would be much easier to rule on.
Personally, I don't like reverse-engineering the prices of unique weapon qualities, but I know people who think that's just swell, and they'd suggest that the cost of the "assassin" property (+1 to Fort DC of death attacks) would be a flat +2,000 gp (10,302 minus the cost of a normal +2 dagger). YMMV.
Just for kicks- Ancestral Daisho was paired to the Samurai class last time I checked. Samurai must be lawful, and act honorably. Assassin's do neither. Therefore, he can't use that "enhancement" without sacrificing his standing as an Honorable warrior. He would lose all benefits from the samurai class as a paladin or cleric who violated his code/god's precepts.
And since when does he have a Death Attack as a Sammy?
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1)There are no specific rules for any of the Specific Weapons. They all have something unique that does not have a set rule to it. The assassin's dagger has a straight forward base, +2 weapon. You would have to assign a monetary value to it. It looks like that effect adds about +2,000 gold to the price of a +2 dagger . So it looks like a GM call on your part whether you want to allow it.
I am not familiar with the awakening part.
2)It seems like a static ability that has a set monetary value attached to it(+10,000), not a +(something) cost modifier. It is a very unique ability, so it may not be commonly know how to do it unless you are in an assassin guild. You might impose a pre-req to craft it of being crafted by a high ranking assassin.
3) There is the sawtooth blade? the weapon of the Red Mantis Assassins
the assassin's dagger was a unique weapon, so they didn't list what the price of it's abilities would be. here is my reverse engineering of it
total price 10,302
2 gp for a dagger's base price
300 gp masterwork
8,000 gp for +2 enhcancment
that means the assassin's property costs 2,000 gold. it doesn't take up an enhcancement power. it's a flat 2,000 gold add on. 2,000 gold pieces to raise a death attack's DC by 1.
i kind of hate reverse engineering too. but i hate how the unique weapon properties don't have listed rules, maybe some of us want to further enchance a Dawn Dagger rather than just use a vanilla sun sword. or maybe some us want to apply the celestial property to a mithril chain shirt, and not to a suit of chainmail. such as a female rogue with weapon finesse, maybe the little girl wants some protection while she wears her kimono, that will not bulge to the point of excessive clothing damage.
Just for kicks- Ancestral Daisho was paired to the Samurai class last time I checked. Samurai must be lawful, and act honorably. Assassin's do neither. Therefore, he can't use that "enhancement" without sacrificing his standing as an Honorable warrior. He would lose all benefits from the samurai class as a paladin or cleric who violated his code/god's precepts.
And since when does he have a Death Attack as a Sammy?
*sigh* I hope this doesn't hurt your head as much as it hurts mine, but here goes...
The character was created under another DM's rules. He started the game, then after 3 sessions handed it off to me to DM, but kept the title of "Master DM". In doing so, he kept his rules for character creation in effect. As part of character generation he gave all characters the option to take any Profession, Traits, Flaws, reroll specific stats, reroll HP's multiple times, AND "randomly" made up an "heirloom item" to give to each PC as a starting magical item.
The character in question is a Monk/Rogue/Assassin ('Ninja') PC, and was given an Ancestral Ninjato for his heirloom item, using rules for the Ancestral Daisho. Yes, i realize this is giving a character a free, powerful class ability of a completely different class to the character. I wasn't the one who approved of this.
The other DM has since quit the game, allowing me complete control as the DM now. NEW characters follow my own, more realistic rules for creation, and while i'm still allowing heirloom items, they've been toned way down. Rather than just take away the Daisho from the character, i'm leaving it be since the entire party was built under these rules, so if I nerf one i'm gonna have to nerf them all... which would turn bad. At least things are leveling out now and away from the monty-haul munchkin fest the previous DM had it set to become.
I'll look up the sawtooth blade. So far the 2000gp seems fair enough. Thanks for the responses so far
The character was created under another DM's rules. He started the game, then after 3 sessions handed it off to me to DM, but kept the title of "Master DM"...
New DM, new rules, period. If that means a full character rebuild, so be it. The Master DM can Master deez, if you will....