I'm putting together a mini-campaign for my triumphant return to RPG's, and one of my personal quirks is I hate non-interesting (ie +1/+2) magic items. I'm trying to make most items have something to make them interesting, and not something to dump once you get the next item up the ladder.
Campaign Arc/Background:
It's based on some of my favorite materials from various editions, and culminates in the Red Hand of Doom.
Several lower level adventures lead PC's to kill and recover the journal of a goblin leader who is in charge of garnering weapons for the goblin Horde. His journal indicates that the attack will hit Elsir Vale, as well as several other facts: he has contracted to procure many higher quality arms from a group of dwarves in Durgeddin's Deep (Forge of Fury), lots of low quality arms from orcs in The Five King's Mountains, his boss is a wyrmlord at a place called Vraath keep which no one has heard of. Hopefully the PC's will investigate and learn the tale of Glitterhame and the dwarf smith Durgeddin. If they do follow it up, I'm modifying it heavily, to have more duergar and orcs/fire elementals mining/smelting steel in the 2nd level in place of other stuff, and the duergar scaled up to have more slaves for mass producing master work weapons in the forges. I plan on having Durgeddin's ghost with his hammer on the 3rd (semi-secret) level. I'd like that hammer to be something unique - his personal weapon.
For my campaign outlined above, I'd like the players to find the personal weapon of a legendary dwarven smith, but they'll be only 5th level or so.
I'd like it to be something that remains useful, but not overpowering at 5th level. I'm thinking he had a weapon called a Hammer of Grudges. It's a +1 weapon (initially I was thinking of making it adamantite, but perhaps that's too good and it should be fire-forged steel instead). I'd like it so that a user can perform a ceremony on any Oathday (Sunday), where they can place the hammer on an anvil (any will do, as long as it's used to make weapons), and recite a long list of grievances against a specific race or group, and appeal to some nebulous dwarven ancestors to imbue the hammer with the Bane property against that group. This would remain (but only for whoever performed the ceremony), until a new ceremony is successfully performed to change it.
Thinking about the ceremony, I'd like it to go something like this:
1) cost about 2000gp in special materials (incense, fancy scrolls with mithril and gemstone inks which list the character's, his race's or society in general's grievances with the target group, which are burned in the forge)
2) character needs to make a Wisdom check of 20 to be successful, failure results in no Bane and a wasted 2000gp in materials
3) many ways to gain bonuses on that Wisdom check:
- being a dwarf, +4
- target being a group that dwarves have racial emnity for, +4
- having someone make a knowledge(local) check to list specific instances of the group causing 'harm' (from the char's and dwarves' perspective) - perhaps +6 for a DC 20, +4 for DC 15 or +2 for a simple DC 10
- perhaps a knowledge(history) or knowledge(planes) as appropriate to the group check to come up with more general, but less immediate, grievances - perhaps +2 for a DC 20, or +1 for a DC 15 (not as valuable as an immediate local example of a grievance)
- immediate, personal examples at DM's discretion ("Dem rotten no-good orcs killed my uncle and his family" might be +4, char's own parents might be +8 or something)
4) perhaps let dwarven clerics have option to take 10 on the check (since they are used to appealing to dwarven gods/spirits)
The idea being to require a significant investment, and near certain success to a group which has harmed the character or his family, but less certain against a race or group which is not 'evil' or generally behaving obnoxiously. The character can help his/her chances by doing some research and coming up with examples which would justify punishment in the eyes of a group of dwarven spirits (note that others can help by making the checks, then recording the deeds on scrolls to be burnt etc).
Basically, it's a +1 Bane hammer that can be changed as needed, albeit at some cost and inconvenience. I came up with the 2000gp figure based on adding Bane to +1 hammer normally costing 6000gp. I wanted to make it enough that the character wouldn't be changing weekly, but low enough that it made the item worth the hassel.
My concerns: Is ceremony too nebulous or badly explained? Is 2000gp too much, too little? Is adamantite too good, or should I stick to fire-forged steel or mithral? Is the DC 20 Wisdom check about right, or should it be higher/lower? If they fail I figure they can gather more grievances and try again next week, albeit at a cost of another 2000gp.
If the group cleric has it be a goblin bane weapon (for instance), and the group barbarian somehow pulls off a ceremony to be a dragon bane weapon, should I let both stand, or only the last one? ie the cleric carries it for fighting normally, but tosses it to the barbarian when a dragon is spotted. This seems kinda cheesy and meta-gamish to me.
The player's haven't rolled up chars yet, so I don't know who will be in the group. Will I regret having a char with a +1 Goblin Bane hammer running amok in RHoD, or Dragon Bane for that matter? I figure they could just buy one for 8000gp so it's not totally off the charts for power. A martial character would likely rather have a big 2h weapon (and I'll be leaving a +1 Frost 2h sword in the first keep), so I'm hoping this acts as a way for the cleric or other secondary melee char to have some fun caving in goblin heads, without ruining all the boss fights.
Sorry if all this is kinda basic, but I haven't DM'd or played since the 2E days.
TL;DR - I'd like a +1 hammer than can be a Bane weapon and be changed at some cost/hardship. Too powerful? Cool or cheesy?
1) To me, 2000 gp at lvl 5 seems like a lot for a temporary bonus. It is a very nice ability, but I'd fear the price makes the player too hesitant to use it (And frankly the idea about making a cool custom item, is for the players to use it).
2) Wisdom DC 20 is a bit high. Ability score rolls is mostly determined by the dice. The different bonusses fix that, but depending on which they get, it would go from easy to very hard.
If you have them pay a significant amount gp for it, it sucks if it doesn't work.
1+2) My suggestion would be to remove the cost. But limit the attempt to once per oathday. If they fail the check by 5 or more, the Dwarven Spirits are offended, and the hammer counts as non-magic for the character in question until they spend 2000 gp for incense and offerings (whatever dwarven spirits want in your campaign).
3) If the campaign is running longer than this, I'd consider making it a legacy weapon that increase its bonus as they become higher levels. Since it is a hammer made from a legendary dwarven smith, it might have the ability to absorb magic from other weapons through a special ritual. Basically this would allow them to increase it at crafting costs, paying the price with existing magic items.
3b) It might not be relevant in a lower level campaign, but a cool ability for such a weapon would be absorbing energy through sundering other weapons and armor. Have the bonus increase temporarily, when it it destroys or breaks magic items.
