Starting up RotR AGAIN (third times the charm), and one of the players is playing a black blade. Because it would fit their character, and because I know they are experienced enough to handle it, I thought it would be interesting to throw them Chellen, who can act as a red herrig or a plot driver whenever the party needs a nudge here or there in between the main action moments of each chapter. However obviously just giving a level 1 character Chellen is going to be silly levels of OP, so I want to make Chellen follow the Black Blade progression table(ish). Make it get more powerful as the Black Blade unlocks more of its potential. Does anyone have any good ideas for how to do this?
Much Appreciated,
Cheers
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Just my two cents... Doesn't make a lot of sense for Chellan to serve a pc whose entire career will be defined by opposing and destroying the Runelord it was created to serve. Perhaps Garvok, the Sword of Wrath would be more appropriate. Certainly plenty of antagonism there. The blade could be found in the Cathedral of Wrath or hidden with Malfeshnekor. It might harbor powerful resentment against the Scribbler (a traitor) and behave very erratically in the Halls of Wrath in Runeforge.
Whatever you give the character, you might want to look into the Pathfinder Unchained stuff on Scaling Magic Items - that does a pretty good job at keeping them somewhat balanced, and you can flavor it as the blade "Waking up" from slumber or something.
Just my two cents... Doesn't make a lot of sense for Chellan to serve a pc whose entire career will be defined by opposing and destroying the Runelord it was created to serve. Perhaps Garvok, the Sword of Wrath would be more appropriate. Certainly plenty of antagonism there. The blade could be found in the Cathedral of Wrath or hidden with Malfeshnekor. It might harbor powerful resentment against the Scribbler (a traitor) and behave very erratically in the Halls of Wrath in Runeforge.
I was thinking Chellan because then I can have it trying to push them towards helping Kharzoug throughout the campaign, and even if that doesnt succeed, Kharzoug can use it to learn about the parties and then have one of those 'Ahh, I see you brought me my sword, thank you' moments or whatever. Though stripping the BB of their sword during the final boss fight is perhaps a little cruel, so maybe I should chose the sword of wrath
Alright I have decided on Barakett, due to Pride being opposed to Greeed, and also because a rapier fits her better than a double edged greatsword. The final question is, Chellan has official stats, but none of the other blades seem to, various websites have similar but different stats, so unless I can find an official source im planning on just taking a little column A and a little column B
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Try Artifacts and Legends (Campaign Setting series). The Swords of Sin are described on pages 50-53, including Baraket.
The original Book 6 of RotR suggests that the "Seven Swords of Sin" module could represent the swords of sin in dormant condition.
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Alright I have decided on Barakett, due to Pride being opposed to Greeed, and also because a rapier fits her better than a double edged greatsword. The final question is, Chellan has official stats, but none of the other blades seem to, various websites have similar but different stats, so unless I can find an official source im planning on just taking a little column A and a little column B
Do your players know much about the swords of sin? Probably not. So I would think you could use whichever sword you wanted in whichever form fit the pc (instead of picking the sword of sin because its form fits the pc.) So if you wanted to use Wrath, and the pc's preferred form is rapier - Voila! the Sword of Wrath is a rapier (in your version of Golarion.) For that matter, they are major artifacts - maybe they just assume the form most suitable for their wielder. Which doesn't mean Pride is a bad choice - you just need to explain how it comes to be in the pc's possession...
Alright I have decided on Barakett, due to Pride being opposed to Greeed, and also because a rapier fits her better than a double edged greatsword. The final question is, Chellan has official stats, but none of the other blades seem to, various websites have similar but different stats, so unless I can find an official source im planning on just taking a little column A and a little column BDo your players know much about the swords of sin? Probably not. So I would think you could use whichever sword you wanted in whichever form fit the pc (instead of picking the sword of sin because its form fits the pc.) So if you wanted to use Wrath, and the pc's preferred form is rapier - Voila! the Sword of Wrath is a rapier (in your version of Golarion.) For that matter, they are major artifacts - maybe they just assume the form most suitable for their wielder. Which doesn't mean Pride is a bad choice - you just need to explain how it comes to be in the pc's possession...
Thats definitely a good point, but the sword fits them in more than just an aesthetic manner. This person has very ego driven characters, and this one seems no different. I figured giving them a weapon that is going to give them an even bigger head (with potentially fatal results) would be fitting
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One other point you may want to think about that shows up in Book 5 and 6...
At the end of Book 5, the pc's can add the dominant special feature to their weapons. This is a particularly potent feature for defeating Karzoug. And if I understand the rules for the Black Blade correctly, neither a Black Blade's "typical" magical weapon nor a major artifact like a Sword of Sin can be so enhanced. At least according to RAW. You may want to think about how this might affect the pc, etc. One particularly nasty feature (for Karzoug) of the dominant weapons is it absorbs the first three transmutation spells each day. This means the Runelord should not even memorize such spells if all the pc's have one. But if one of them doesn't... You could weave those powers into the Blade Blade's development, etc.
I love this idea of using the Sword of Wrath, along with the use of scaling weapons. I'm just confused, since the sword itself doesn't cast spells (per say), how would you break that scaling weapon down?