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i got my rusty sword i dont need no other

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so i wanna design a legendary/intelligent/scaling weapon for a game with just one player gonna start out as a "rusty sword"

in the begining rusty sword will use the stats for
LONGSWORD
Price 15 gp
Type martial
This sword is about 3-1/2 feet in length.

it will be a very powerful thing by lvl and then mythic later

need a good backstory and weapon progression (pc lvl 1 probably will just be a simple rusty sword)

as the pc lvls they can "unlock" secrets about the weapon and learn about its origin and what not

\if anyone can help that would be great

The first question that needs to be answered: where are your characters going to end up? Level 20? Level 20 + Mythic 10? Epic levels? That'll help establish where we need to aim the end-game at and can progress from there.

most likely lvl 20 mythic 10 i dont know what epic is but maybe lol i know she is considering paladin (wants to heal and fight ((which is important seeing as she is only one lol)))
Sovereign Court
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Maybe look at the Magus Blackblade and work from that - it is a scaling intelligent weapon.

Yeah, at what level does it become a +5 BLING blade?

Or more honestly: can you imagine the progression of this sword? Is it something like this-
1-5- Rusty->
6-10-Plain->
11-15-well made with fine engravings (may or may not glow)->
16-20- gaudied out with gold and diamonds and glitters like a 5 year old's art project (tasteful alternative: Crystal. Just make the blade look like it was practically glass, with glowing runes as decoration)

One interesting thing you can do with the first transition would be to have the blade lose its rust after it was coated in the blood of some power monster. Having it just happen suddenly could be a nice little surprise, and it can get the player excited for an encore.

Maybe make all the upgrades like this. It gives a nice benchmark for where you want the character to power up at ("When he can beat a CR X monster, he gets X upgrade"), and gives the character a better sense of fullfillment than if it was level based (since they might have accidentally leveled on a 1 armed blind goblin that gives 1 xp and just happened to steal his lunch).

Now, whether to make the monsters themselves particularly important, or whether just to have the sword eat mythical beasts is an important issue. While the 'defeat the 4 demon lords that threaten the land' is a common RPG plot....well.... it is just that the level difference between demon lords gets noticable. Why did the CR 20 Lord of Air team up with this CR 5 lord of earth? The air lord's lowest minion could wipe that guy out. I knwo they could be powering up during the campaign by breaking seals or eating angel babies (whatever)...still, it can be jarring.
lemeres wrote:

Yeah, at what level does it become a +5 BLING blade?

Or more honestly: can you imagine the progression of this sword? Is it something like this-
1-5- Rusty->
6-10-Plain->
11-15-well made with fine engravings (may or may not glow)->
16-20- gaudied out with gold and diamonds and glitters like a 5 year old's art project (tasteful alternative: Crystal. Just make the blade look like it was practically glass, with glowing runes as decoration)

One interesting thing you can do with the first transition would be to have the blade lose its rust after it was coated in the blood of some power monster. Having it just happen suddenly could be a nice little surprise, and it can get the player excited for an encore.

Maybe make all the upgrades like this. It gives a nice benchmark for where you want the character to power up at ("When he can beat a CR X monster, he gets X upgrade"), and gives the character a better sense of fullfillment than if it was level based (since they might have accidentally leveled on a 1 armed blind goblin that gives 1 xp and just happened to steal his lunch).

Now, whether to make the monsters themselves particularly important, or whether just to have the sword eat mythical beasts is an important issue. While the 'defeat the 4 demon lords that threaten the land' is a common RPG plot....well.... it is just that the level difference between demon lords gets noticable. Why did the CR 20 Lord of Air team up with this CR 5 lord of earth? The air lord's lowest minion could wipe that guy out. I knwo they could be powering up during the campaign by breaking seals or eating angel babies (whatever)...still, it can be jarring.

*hides the 5 yr old looking concept art* i wasnt thinking that at all lol but i do like the crystal sword idea definately glow and still gotta design campaign so big bad bloody dude a definite possibility

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Awright, Legacy of Fire straight-up HAS a protean blade called the Moldspeaker. It's a bit slow compared to other weapons our martials have, but that may or may not be because almost all treasure we find is magic axes of one sort or another.

Baseline: Your mark is probably rolling WBL, she's probably a melee-martial (paladin, battle cleric) and according to PFS you aren't supposed to plant more than 50% of your wealth into any one item. You're leveling up AND mythic-ing, but since mythic tier is meant to be a lateral movement* rather than a straight increase in points its growth should likewise be "special" and unrelated to character level or regular enchantments.

Finally, you are making a homebrew and a custom job for a character, so you wanna put a little "character" into it. Especially the mythic stuff, because a quick skim of mythic magic items shows they're all frelling boring.

So...let's start:

level 1, you can't afford a magic weapon.

Level 2, you can afford a MW weapon, so when she does the thing that gets her to level 2 the rusty, dented, notched exterior of her blade flakes off and reveals a really nice MW sword underneath.

Level 3 you can't quite afford a +1, but maybe when you smite evil or channel energy (holy girl) it retains a +1 bonus for 10 minutes. That will last any fight length.

Level 4 it just hits +1 and acts as a holy symbol for praying and such.

Level 5...it's 2300 hours and I get tired.

Sorry I seem to have run out of steam. But my recommendation is that for straight enchantments try to keep the weapon price around 33-50% of Character Wealth By Level, and don't be afraid to add interesting enchantments/abilities that aren't necessarily weapon related. Maybe at level 9 the sword develops the ability to convert to positive energy and just do 1d8+(half paladin level) in healing/undead hurting. Sure it's non-standard, but it's basically the effect of having a 750 gold wand of cure light wounds, except it's a sword and only she can use it. Maybe she serves Sarenrae and it casts light that beats any and all darkness spells. Not a HUGE deal in the grand scheme of things but darn nice when Grimlock witches are throwing deeper darkness around. Maybe it auto-magically maintains enough threat that she can use her fiddling small-change paladin healing without provoking AoOs. Maybe she's a Paladin of Apsu and it gives her the power to speak to anything that has scales.

Also, paladins get "divine bond" which can be a weapon instead of a horse, think long and hard on whether or not that will tie in. (Or she takes cleric and it doesn't matter).

Finally, any blade worth knowing is a blade worth having arguments with. You don't want to overdo talking/personality weapons, but a tool that's granted by the god(dess) and grows in divine power as the PC grows in divine power is a cheap and easy conduit for divine guidance.

*let us table the debate of how well it does so for now

The Black Blade is a good starting point but won't end how you want; it doesn't scale properly.

Ultimately you have two basic measures of power for the weapon:
-Enhancement Bonus/abilities of up to +10
-Legendary abilities of up to 10

The simplest form of progression would be to simply grant a +1 bonus every two levels and a legendary ability every tier. Intelligence is an available legendary ability that I'd definitely take a close look at.

Do you want to build the full weapon (in terms of what abilities it grants) or let her make choices with it?

I was planning on getting some sample builds from her then finding out what kind of weapon sounds cool

Don't want to overwhelm her with make a char and all the confusing rules of making weapon and what not

Do you need to plan out 30 levels of this up front?

I'd say let it progress with the story. She'll probably be some sort of divine caster, so the sword should have some connection with her god.

See how she uses it, see what the story requires. When she does some service to her god, go the sword an extra New power that's somehow related to the service she's performed.

yep i agree with rumpinrufus, ideas will present themselves as you move along. i wouldnt set too much in stone - your player may even give you ideas -

man, it'd be cool if my sword could do xyz!

someone just earned themselves a side quest to add a power to their weapon...

You could always do what my DM is currently doing. At first mythic tier, we were given the path ability "Legendary item" but we had to choose a weapon. But as we gain tiers, our weapon follows suit, without having to use the path ability again. At 4th tier, it becomes a minor artifact and 7th tier, a major one. Honestly each tier could grant a +1 bonus to the sword, allowing the character to apply that bonus directly to the sword, choose an enchantment to add to the sword, or save it towards another more expensive enchantment (+2 or higher, like Holy). Just remember if you follow that progression to tone down the amount of treasure gained as it won't be going towards their primary weapon.

She's already gave some input this morning likes the crystal look green glow wants it to do lightning damage

Oh and now a titan mauler so will be a two handed sword (she's a small char though)
Count Coltello wrote:

She's already gave some input this morning likes the crystal look green glow wants it to do lightning damage

Oh and now a titan mauler so will be a two handed sword (she's a small char though)

Oh, maybe make it so the lightning is rounds/day when it is in the 'fairly normal sword, but well made' stage, and then constant during the crystal stage (and give it that shocking burst ability times/day, as a nice upgrade)

Obviously the rusted sword only gives you mild static shocks every once in a while.

Static cling.
boring7 wrote:
Finally, any blade worth knowing is a blade worth having arguments with. You don't want to overdo talking/personality weapons, but a tool that's granted by the god(dess) and grows in divine power as the PC grows in divine power is a cheap and easy conduit for divine guidance.

Yeah. That's better than my magic 8 ball from the other thread. Put that into the sword instead. Maybe immediately. The sword could give her very limited guidance right away, like whispering that it needs the blood of evil-doers to "recover" or something.

RumpinRufus wrote:

Do you need to plan out 30 levels of this up front?

I'd say let it progress with the story. She'll probably be some sort of divine caster, so the sword should have some connection with her god.

See how she uses it, see what the story requires. When she does some service to her god, go the sword an extra New power that's somehow related to the service she's performed.

Agreed. Just plan out the first few levels with things like augury and light (and obviously being a magic weapon). Those will really help her adventure without adding much to character power.

Just call it "bonded weapon". The pc may invest gp into it as if they hAd craft magic arms & armor.

The mechanic exists. Just reflavor it.
boring7 wrote:
Static cling.

And she pops all the balloons the little kids in the kingdom has and becomes evil

Logic being static draws balloons to sharp sword blade and then pop

Question what lol do I add light and augmented?

At whatever lol is the loudest, or which ever one first makes you rotfl.

Magic objects shed light as a torch 30% of the time by virtue of being magic according to a generally-ignored section of the magic item chapter, so as soon as level 2 if you really want, level 4 maximum.

If it's supposed to cast a light spell at will the rules say it should add 1k to whatever the price is currently, but I wouldn't bother because seriously, who cares? It's a 0th level spell.

I don't know what Augmented means.

I dunno look the two things people said from the thread light (easy cheap then don't have to worry bout torches)

And someone said divine guidance through blade(blade is intelligent not quite divine but no one needs to know that right away)

So was wondering if light and magic 8 ball sword at lvl 1 or 2 (when ever it stops being rusty and starts to "wake up") was too powerful

I would do augury right away, mainly as a teaching tool and plot hook. Maybe give it 1 charge a day per level, plus whatever you deem necessary for her to know using the sword as a narrative tool.

Light could be level 2. Something for the first level up that's visually dramatic and lets her put the torch away.

The power level is high for the level, but the effects are not "power" effects, so personally I don't feel it matters.
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