Hello friends!
I am not very good at creating and balancing new items in game, especially second edition as I'm still fairly new to it. But I need help creating a powerful artifact / maguffin.
What players have been sent to recover an artifact called the MageSlayer sword, as they believe it will help them slay the big bad who is a powerful wizard and happens to be one of the players Brothers.
by the time the characters meet the brother they should be tenth level, and the brother will be sitting between 13 and 15 oh, it doesn't really matter if the weapon is a little overpowered, because they're going to go through a lot of hell to try to find it so I have no problem rewarding with them with a game changer. They've also agreed to return the sword to a powerful Ally once the brothers been killed so I'm not too worried about them misusing it they're good guys.
So friends can you help me create this cool sword?
If it is a mageslayer sword and you want it to be cool more importantly then balanced let me give a few ideas:
- on hit effects: the enemy has to save against some condition with every hit they take, first thing that comes to mind is silence, but slowed would also be very helpful
-manaburn: not quite appliccable but hits could possible burn spellslots and deal damage based on them
-censorship: the enemy hit is not allowed to use certain formulas, phrases etc (for example - the censored word is 'fire' so they can'T use fireball, burning hands, fire wall, etc)
- spell turning and or counter magic (there is a spellturning shield in the rules, it is lvl 18 or 19)
-magical feedback: if the enemy struck by the sword tries to cast a spell they get (mental (?)) damage
every single one of the things above could ruin a casters day
additionally the sword could precent the enemy from magically spying on you, teleporting away (or allies to him) banish summonings etc.
No idea about balance here, but I'll throw out some ideas and maybe some more experienced gms who are used to homebrewing stuff can pitch in.
My first thought was countering magic directly. Maybe the sword can have a dispel magic effect, with a counteract level equal to the level of the item. I don't know if doing that once a day would feel satisfying. More would be excessively strong, but works for an artifact, I think, and to make it feel earned, it could have this dispel effect only on critical successes, so every time the wielder crits, they can dispel an effect on the target. Or, if that's too strong, it could allow to dispel a chosen effect on the wielder (so as to remove annoying but not completely debilitating buffs).
It could also have regular attack bonus and damage runes, but function as having even stronger runes against summoned creatures. The strength of the numerical bonus and the number of extra dice would depend on what level you want to give the item. Don't make it normally stronger than regular weapons.
I like Seisho's idea of magical feedback too, so I'll push that further. It could be an effect that deals an extra 1d6 mental damage when it is used for an attack of opportunity triggered by a spell's components. That way, it's not too strong all the time, but it's particularly efficient against casters. That would only be useful if one of your players has attack of opportunity, however.
Finally, I think it could be nice to give it a once per day effect that's really going to get in the way of casters. Silence could work for that. It could also create some kind of fog to obstruct line of sight, preventing lots of long-range targeted spells, or create a flash of blinding light that has a chance of inflicting the blinded condition, or dazzled on a success, or a loud bang that inflicts the deafened condition (making it harder to use auditory spells).
I'd say think about the spellcaster this weapon was initially built to fight, and give it effects that would be particularly good against that caster's strategies. It will still affect other casters, but feel more specialized and story-driven.
So, for an idea, we can go back to PF1 to find our inspiration in Tannaris, Sword of Envy. In addition to being a +5 defending bastard sword, it also forces any creature struck by it to make a DC 20 Will save or else have the highest level magical effect they are under dispelled, as dispel magic save there's not saving throw. This ability does not affect summoned creatures or persistent spell effects, and the Will save is higher with a greater effect on a critical hit.
I'd say that sword is kind of what you're looking to accomplish, yes?
So, that gives us an inspirational base to build from. Now, let's consider balance and power concerns.
Basic MagicRunes gives us an expected baseline of how powerful PC weapons should be at level 10 (their expected level). The table says that at level 10, the PCs should have +2 striking weapons. That's a +2 potency rune (for to-hit) and a striking rune (one additional weapon die of damage). Now, this being an artifact, along with you saying you're okay if the weapon is a little overpowered, I'd say we could up the stats to a +3 major striking weapon, appropriate for a level 16 PC. So, our base MageSlayer sword could look something like this:
Mage Slayer Stats v 1:
Mage Slayer Sword - Item 16
Unique, Magical
Price 10,000 gp
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk 1
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This +3 major striking longsword has a black blade that turns white when mages are near.
That's some pretty basic stats, however, and no different than a normal +3 major striking longsword. Looking back at our inspiration, let's add something to make it more interesting.
There aren't any particularly thematic Weapon Property Runes yet that would make sense - thundering making creatures deaf on a critical hit is nice, but not necessarily what you're looking for in a Mage Slayer. I think unique abilities are what we'll use to add a bit of interest.
Combining our inspiration sword with the suggestion others have used, I'd say we can give it some abilities - one which has to be activated, one which can be used as a reaction, and a passive ability. First, our activated ability should be something that can counteract magical effects. Something like:
Activated Ability wrote:
Activation (2 actions) command, Interact; Effect You swing the Mage Slayer into the area of an active spell effect, and the blade attempts to counteract the spell effect with a counteract check of +29. If it fails, it can't attempt to counteract the same spell effect again.
This gives us the ability to attack battlefield control spells (such as fog cloud) as a way of countering the Mage's spells. Next, let's look at our reaction ability, which should key off attacks. Something like:
Reaction Ability wrote:
Activation (Reaction) command; Frequency once per round Trigger Your attack roll with the Mage Slayer is a critical success; Effect The Mage Slayer attempts to counteract the highest level active spell effect on the target with a counteract check of +29.
This reaction allows us to strip away the Mage's buff spells as we Strike them, making follow-up strikes easier for both ourselves and our allies. Finally, for the passive ability, let's have the weapon provide a small bonus to our defenses against spells - something like:
Passive Ability wrote:
While wielding this sword, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to saving throws against Arcane tradition spells and effects.
So, our Mage Slayer Sword looks like this.
Mage Slayer Sword v 2:
Mage Slayer Sword - Item 17
Unique, Magical, Abjuration
Price 10,000 gp
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk 1
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This +3 major striking longsword has a black blade that turns white when mages are within 60 feet. While wielding this sword, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to saving throws against Arcane tradition spells and effects.
Activation (2 actions) command, Interact; Effect You swing the Mage Slayer into the area of an active spell effect, and the blade attempts to counteract the spell effect with a counteract check of +29. If it fails, it can't attempt to counteract the same spell effect again.
Activation (Reaction) command; Frequency once per round Trigger Your attack roll with the Mage Slayer is a critical success; Effect The Mage Slayer attempts to counteract the highest level active spell effect on the target with a counteract check of +29.
Since we've given the weapon two activation abilities, I upped the Item level to 17.
Feel free to choose a different type of sword than a longsword, and if you feel it's too powerful, you could change it from +3 major striking to +2 major striking. If you do that, I would lower the Item level to 14, and the Counteract checks to +25 or +26. I would also change the +2 circumstance bonus to saving throws vs Arcane spells to a +1 circumstance bonus.
Tangent on projected encounter:
If the party is level 10 when facing the big bad, you should note that under the PF2 encounter building guidelines, a Party Level +3 encounter is a Severe or Extreme threat boss. That means if the big bad is level 13, the fight will be very difficult at the minimum level you plan for them to face him at, and unlike in PF1, that actually has some meaning for difficulty. A Level 15 Big Bad at level 10 (Party Level +5) isn't even on the chart, meaning he will clean house with them. If the brother is at the end of a dungeon they've fought their way through, I would not make him HIGHER than level 13, and might even make him only level 12.
I know CR in PF1 was inherently a poor indicator of the difficulty of a fight, but the math in PF2 is designed so that the level of a creature is actually relevant to the challenge of that creature.
...or a loud bang that inflicts the deafened condition (making it harder to use auditory spells).
FYI, deafened does almost nothing in PF2: it only prevents casting a grand total of 15 spells, all of which work through vocal communication, such as command, enthrall and the power words.
I'd go with a +3 Major Striking Longsword ( Keen, Greater Shocking).
Extra Feature:
-Mage Slayer: Any arcane spellcaster hit by the sword receive doubling the effects of Greater Shocking rune, and must attempt a DC XX fortitude save, or become stupified 2 ( Stupified 1 on a success and stupified 3 on a critical failure ).
- Spell Warding: Always Active. The wielder is protected against spells, gaining +2 item bonus saves against them ( just spells, not magical effects, like dragon's breath ).
- Detect Arcane Spellcasting: Always active, and works like detect alignment, but only for arcane spellcasters, regardless their alignment.
- Tuning in:
1 Action
Effect: The wielder tunes in with the magic sword, gaining +2 Circumstance AC against magical attacks. It also double the effects of Spell Warding ( which becomes +4 status to all saves against spells ) and Detect Arcane Spellcasting ( doubling its radius and increasing arcane spellcasters aura level by 2, allowing you to easily find them ).
- Reflect Magic:
Reaction
Trigger: You critically succeed a save against a spell ( Target or AoE )
Effect: You smash away the magical spell against the one how cast it. DC and attack bonus remain the same ( based on spellcaster stats ).
The sword gives drained 2 to its owner, if it is an arcane spellcaster ( whether it gains its power from study, arcane heritage, or whatever ).
