Messy's Revelation (Link = Bard)

[Power Word Unzip]

His (Her?) comment in the Ask JJ thread reminded me of something I placed in a game a few years ago. This is rough copy, of course, and may not be properly formatted, though I'd love to give it a dust-off for kicks.

New Magic Weapon Special Ability: Lifelance: If the wielder of a lifelance weapon has at least 90% of his maximum hit points, he can fire a beam of force from the weapon at any one target within 60’. This is a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity from adjacent enemies. The weapon's wielder must succeed on a ranged touch attack, adding the enhancement bonus of the sword to the attack roll; if the attack hits, the beam deals 1d6 points of force damage plus the enhancement bonus of the weapon.

Some myths hold that if a wielder of a lifelance weapon proves himself a great hero in the eyes of a fey, he may be permitted to baptize the weapon in one of their mystic springs; it then becomes a greater lifelance weapon. Greater lifelance weapons’ beams deal 1d8 points of force damage plus the weapon’s enhancement bonus, and this ability can be used so long as the wielder retains 80% of his total hit points.

Moderate evocation; CL 10th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Arcane Blast, magic missile; Price +1 lifelance; +2 greater lifelance.

[Power Word Unzip]

Any suggestions on mechanics, such as appropriateness of costing or prereqs, would be welcome. In particular, I'm wondering if the greater lifelance beam damage should be upped to 2d6, since it's priced as if equivalent to a +2 bonus.

[Caineach]

I find it pretty weak. I would compare it to a returning thrown weapon, which
A. Does not require a standard action and can be used as part of a full attack (though can only be used once per round)
B. Uses the base weapon damage, not the significantly weaker 1d6/1d8
C. Adds strength modifier
D. Has no HP requirement
but has the drawback of range increments and normal instead of touch attack.

Without the HP requirement its not something I would get rid of, but also not something I would ever go out of my way to get. WIth it, I would not hold onto one of these weapons and would look to liquidate it for cash.

[Power Word Unzip]

Hmm, good comparison. Only point I would add to your list in favor of the lifelance property is that it's typed as force damage, which will negate the impact of a target's DR and elemental resistance - and a returning weapon generally doesn't, unless its enhancement bonus is high enough to negate the need for a special weapon material (a rule I'm personally not a fan of, but RAW is RAW for purposes of analysis).

I'd hate to altogether remove the HP restriction since it's clearly meant to be a nod to the swords in the Legend of Zelda games, but perhaps the thresholds could be lowered to 75% and 50%, respectively.

Basing the beam damage off of the base weapon's damage is also a good suggestion; maybe the greater version could simply inflict an additional die of damage on a critical hit like thundering and burst weapons do.

I could see a magus with vampiric touch getting quite a bit of use out of a weapon like this, personally, but that's just me.

[Caius]

The problem is that it's really not comparable to the elemental bonuses. Those scale up with number of attacks and crit range while in its present state this one will never grow. It's force damage is easily outclassed by magic missile and that doesn't even require the attack roll. You either need to take the full attack idea or honestly it's too weak to justify an enhancement cost.

I would honestly go for more of a custom sword akin to the swords from zelda. I see this as an augment like the flametongue getting a scorching ray attack in addition to its own stats. I really don't feel this is a standalone enchantment.

[Caineach]

I could see this as a set value enchantment rather than an enhancement bonus. It doesn't really scale with the other properties of the weapon.

[Power Word Unzip]

I had thought the same thing, Caineach. I'm still debating pricing, though - it's sort of hard to get a decent comparison because there aren't any weapon abilities that I'm aware of with a price tag below 2,000 gp, though there are definitely magic weapons priced that low (most of them single-use).

Given its limited usage tied to user hp, I'm tempted to use the pricing guidelines for a single-use use activated spell effect, then drop Arcane Blast as a creation prereq and drop the necessary CL to 5. That would end up being SL 1 x CL 5 x 50 gp, which comes out to 250 gp - meaning you could get a +1 lifelance longsword for 2565 gp.

[messy]

Power Word Unzip wrote:

His (Her?)

<-- my picture should make it obvious. ;-)

[Caineach]

I would probably cost it closer to 1K, since while it is restricted use it is repetative uses. $250 would be the price of something like a feather token magic missile that shot 3 missiles.