Hello everyone!
I am running a campaign that has been going strong for 1 year and 3 months now! It has been very consistent, as in we do it weekly and everyone shows up pretty much 100 percent so it is very close to the GM's dream campaign.
My main player, the party leader, a super good Paladin has just turned level 12 and is very close to fulfilling a prophecy that will grant him a legendary weapon called "The Sword of Belfum" Its a longsword with three separate gems, gems that the players have spent entire story arcs to get a hold of. Each one is a facet of nature, as well as an implement of one of the 3 good deities in the campaign. One LG, NG, and CG.
So this is very much the "Master Sword" of this campaign and I would like some help from veteran system users to see if I can balance this thing properly.
I want it to be more powerful than level 12, potentially what he uses for the rest of the campaign but I want to make sure it's not BROKEN.
Thinking a +4 Holy, Flaming , Courageous Longsword but am open to more mechanics oriented GM advice!
I think if you want your paladin to use the sword for the rest of the campaign, the sword could "evolve" during levels to enhance the powers of his bearer.
At level 12 a +6 longsword would already be really nice. Then every 2 levels, it would gain +1.
Like 12: +3 holy keen
14: +3 holy keen flaming
16: +4 holy keen flaming
20: +4 holy keen flaming impact
This way, the rest of the group wouldn't feel useless and would shine too. A +8 sword at level 12 is severely broken (wealth by lvl 12: 108000 and the sword is Worth 128000
Anyway, courageous is not that good for a paladin who is already immune to fear. Better go for keen or merciful for this +1.
...well, to do this justice, I think we need to know what the three 'facets of nature' are. Hopefully more than just the three types of good alignment?
Is it an elemental thing? I think we can do something with elements. Heck, if you wanted to do something REALLY special and custom, you could even let the player crib some kineticist stuff to give it some great utility (no chance class features to avoid burn, although the blasts would have lesser burn than the kineticist's own version of the same).
So for example, for the earth gem, you could have it shoot out a blast of deadly earth (low damage AoE that lasts a few turns) that also has grappling infusion (grapples anything damaged by the AoE). This is basically an advanced black tentacles spell. And in return for this, the paladin would take 1-2 burn. So it is useful, but has its own
I mostly suggest kineticist stuff since it is nice and showy, but comes with the self balancing cost of burn. Useful for that dramatic moment when the hero overexert himself bringing out the power of his magic weapon.
Give it a unique ability that will always be useful, like being able to use Divine Bond with his weapon as a swift action.
There's a 3.5 enchantment that increases its bonus by 2 when smiting evil and grants an additional use per day.
A really strong option would be to treat his Divine Bond as 3 levels higher.
I'd share the wealth and give the sword auras so it could benefit the whole party. For example, all attacks within 10ft count as good aligned. Or maybe a X per day channel of the weilder's level as a swift action.
At least tell us whether the three elements are physical (like water/fire/earth) or mental (courage/wisdom/power).
It is important for how we work with this. It is hard to give you three fundamentals and now have the sword deal with any of them.
Check out the scaling items from Unchained that progress with the character.
The Sacred Avenger might be a good place to look, for the base of the item.
Figure out what your gems do based on the Domains/Portfolios of the deities.