Personalized “Items of Legacy”

[HermitIX]

So I am planning on running my players through a low magic item game. There will not be magic shops but I will roll randomly to see what magic items are available in each town. If they want the randomly generated magic items they can but them but they won’t get to go shopping for a +2 flaming whip.

I get that this is going to frustrate my players a little. So I thought at the beginning of the game I would give them a Master Work item of their choice. As they level the item will grow. I figure it gets a +1 every three levels starting at level 3. And as they adventure the item will gain item abilities. Flaming, Ghost Touch stuff like that. So at level 16 or so they will have a +5 weapon with abilities equal to +5.

My plan is to let the players choose the item that grows. I was going to give them all weapons but mages really don’t use melee weapons much as they level so it would be pretty useless for him. If they pick a weapon then the whole thing is pretty straight forward. But if they pick something like boots or gauntlets. How do I handle that? I could give them plusses to their AC or key ability scores. Would that be equivalent in power to a magic weapon?

Any critiques or input on this idea?

[caliga]

One thing you could recommend for the wizard/sorc of your party (if you have one) is a Staff. Instead of the normal enhancements a weapon would get, allow it to grow by giving it additional spells or even more charges.

I'm running a campaign where each character is getting a unique item that will grow as they do, something similar to what you are wanting. Instead of starting out with them I'm tying them into the campaign story. By the time they finish the first adventure set I have worked up they'll each have picked up their item.

One thing I was mulling over was items besides weapons or magical staff. For the fighter in the party who already has an ancestral weapon (using a first level feat), I'll be upgrading his armor instead. So there's that for your plate-wearing tank type.

For other body slot items, just add additional abilities. For example boots that give a Dex bonus that increases over time, gains that "Boots of Striding & Springing" ability, and eventually can be used to grant "Haste" for x rounds per day.

[Thomas LeBlanc]

I ran a intro adventure where a community of artisans was being accosted by bandits. For their reward, the artisans would make one item for each character. The item gained abilities as the players leveled. A wizard's cloak, cleric's holy symbol, bard's belt, and the barbarian's sheep hide armor (he seriously wanted specifically sheep hide with fluffy bits). All items gained abilities that were helpful to the immediate adventure.

upgrades:
cloak - energy resistance, blink, feather fall

holy symbol - bonus to sense motive and bluff checks, disguise self, illusions

belt - handy haversack-ish, % chance to any small mundane item out for free, turned into whip or rapier

sheep hide - electric charge in grapple, slippery, animal form (wolf in sheeps clothing)