Converting Oriental Adventures creatures

[Cleon]

That would work for me. And the General is LE, so shouldn't the sword also be LE?

Weird, why did I think the sword was CE. It just says "evilly aligned" in the description.

Maybe make the crimson katana Neutral Evil, so it doesn't care about law or chaos?

 

[freyar]

NE is ok for the sword.

Anyway, I think the last things we need for the crimson katana are how many times per day the user can blink and how long the new owner needs to meditate. How about 3/day on the blinking (I mean, if we go to 1/level, we might as well go with at will given the general's level) and 2 hours for the meditation?

 

[Cleon]

NE is ok for the sword.

Anyway, I think the last things we need for the crimson katana are how many times per day the user can blink and how long the new owner needs to meditate. How about 3/day on the blinking (I mean, if we go to 1/level, we might as well go with at will given the general's level) and 2 hours for the meditation?

Yes, once per level is a very non-standard usage for a 3E magical item. Rather than have it cast blink 3 times a day, how about if it works like the haste granted by boots of speed?

i.e. "the wielder can act as though affected by a blink spell for 10 rounds each day. The duration of the blink effect need not be consecutive rounds."

The original description says the wielder can blink "as a blink dog" - so do they get the free dimension door once per round as well? I'm assuming not, otherwise it'll be a lot more valuable.

Speaking of value, blink and haste are the same level, so it would seem sensible to assume this "sword of blinking" costs at least the 12,000 gp price of boots of speed. It should certainly be cheaper than the 27,000 gp of a ring of blinking, since that allows unlimited usage.

Oh, I also wondered about making the blink a supernatural ability of The General rather than his sword, but it says it's the sword in the original adventure so let's stick to that. It gives the PCs something to loot.

 

[freyar]

I think 'blink "as a blink dog"' means just the blink ability, not also the dimension door ability. They're separate. I would be happy with the 10 rounds/day as you suggest.

I'd make it a property of the sword, too. It stands to reason that a general would have a pretty nice weapon or two.

Anyway, how's this for a start?

Crimson Katana: NE +1 flaming katana. The wielder can act as though affected by a blink spell for 10 rounds each day. The duration of the blink effect need not be consecutive rounds. Also, the owner can issue a mental command at will to the crimson katana that causes it to teleport unerringly to his hand; if a new owner comes into possession of the katana, it requires 2? hours of quiet meditation with the sword to reset the sword's teleportation ability.

That feels a bit awkward, but I think it's what we're trying to do.

 

[Cleon]

I think 'blink "as a blink dog"' means just the blink ability, not also the dimension door ability. They're separate. I would be happy with the 10 rounds/day as you suggest.

I'd make it a property of the sword, too. It stands to reason that a general would have a pretty nice weapon or two.

Sure. A 13th level NPC like the General ought to have about 35,000 gp worth of gear according to the 3E treasure tables.

Anyway, how's this for a start?

Crimson Katana: NE +1 flaming katana. The wielder can act as though affected by a blink spell for 10 rounds each day. The duration of the blink effect need not be consecutive rounds. Also, the owner can issue a mental command at will to the crimson katana that causes it to teleport unerringly to his hand; if a new owner comes into possession of the katana, it requires 2? hours of quiet meditation with the sword to reset the sword's teleportation ability.

That feels a bit awkward, but I think it's what we're trying to do.

A "katana" is officially a masterwork bastard sword in 3E, so we'd better use +1 flaming bastard sword rather than "+1 flaming katana.

It also needs mental abilities plus an Ego score if it's an Intelligent weapon.

Here we strike a slight problem in that the sword is unable to speak (or at least there's no mention of it speaking), which according to the Intelligent Magic Items Table means its an "Empathy" level weapon with only one or two lesser powers. Teleporting and blink are probably both greater powers going by the various Powers Tables for intelligent magic items. To keep within the rules we could make it smarter but have it refuse to communicate with living creatures.

Also, according to the original description it teleported to the user's hand when disturbed, not when the wielder commanded it. That sounds like it's up to the sword.

The Special Purpose Item Dedicated Powers table includes a "Item can use dimension door on itself and wielder" at will, which seems the closest to a teleport power. It also costs 50,000 gp! That's about the same as the 49,000 gp price of boots of teleportation.

Of course, it's only the sword that teleports, but still it might be better to have it only able to teleport a few times per day. We could also give the teleport a rather short range - maybe the sword has to be able to see its wielder to teleport to him?

If we stuck to the rules for magical items, it'd need to be something like this:

Crimson Katana: This +1 flaming bastard sword is an intelligent magic item with the special purpose of shedding the blood of the living. It has the following statistics:

Strong conjuration; CL: 13th; Alignment: Neutral evil; Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +12; Abilities: Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 18 Ego 20; Senses: 120 ft. darkvision, blindsense and hearing, telepathy (with owner only), plus continual deathwatch and read magic; Skills: Listen +14, Spot +14; Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +12.

The crimson katana is capable of speech (in Common) and can communicate telepathically with its wielder, but refuses to communicate with any living creature. It can read all languages as well as use read magic. The sword has three lesser powers, one greater power and one dedicated power. Its lesser powers are the skills Listen and Spot (10 ranks each) and continually active deathwatch (as the spell).

The sword will only allow a wielder it accepts as its "master" to use its powers. Mastering the crimson katana requires the wielder to meditate in front of the sword for at least an hour and then succeed at a DC 20 Will saving throw to dominate the weapon's Ego.

The crimson katana's greater power is to enable its master to act as though affected by a blink spell for up to 10 rounds each day. The duration of the blink effect need not be consecutive rounds.

The katana's dedicated power is to teleport into its master's hand as per the teleport object spell. The sword will teleport to its master whenever a being who is not its master disturbs it. The sword will also teleport to its master if it telepathically senses that its master desires to harm a living creature, or if it notices (using its 120 ft. range senses) living enemies threatening its master. The crimson katana is drawn by the opportunity to draw blood, not any sympathy for its owner.
​

Going to the SRD Intelligent Item rules, the above should have a price of roughly 95,035 gold pieces, which is WAY more than a 13th level NPCs wealth-per-level.

It does fit (barely) within a 13th level PCs 110,000 gp wealth-per-level though, and the item looks a lot less useful than its price indicates. Its desire to make everything it meets bleed is a bit of a drawback, for a start!

For the price guesstimate, I used:
335 masterwork bastard sword
+8000 +2 bonus (+1 flaming)
+12000 two greater powers level of intelligence
+12700 three lesser powers (two skills plus deathwatch)
+12000 greater power of blinking (estimate cost = boots of speed)
+50000 dedicated power of teleport object (estimated cost = at-will dimension door dedicated power)

The "teleport to hand" power seems grossly overpriced as do the two "skills" powers - and I only gave them the latter because the SRD insisted it must have three lesser powers.

If you can find that "teleport to hand" item, Freyar, we might have precedent for a more reasonable price.

 

[freyar]

Odd, I thought there might be a katana in Oriental Adventures somewhere. But I was otherwise going to suggest treating it as a bastard sword.

Well, that does seem a bit overpriced, especially since most of the time the wielder will probably be wearing it (negating much of the need for the dedicated power). Maybe there's a more useful dedicated purpose? I'll check again for the teleporting weapon, but I'll be durned if I can figure out where it was. I really thought it was in the MIC, but I looked fairly carefully and didn't see it. Maybe it's a special item rather than an item ability.

 

[Cleon]

Odd, I thought there might be a katana in Oriental Adventures somewhere. But I was otherwise going to suggest treating it as a bastard sword.

There are katanas in the 3E Oriental Adventures. It says they're masterwork bastard swords.

Well, that does seem a bit overpriced, especially since most of the time the wielder will probably be wearing it (negating much of the need for the dedicated power). Maybe there's a more useful dedicated purpose? I'll check again for the teleporting weapon, but I'll be durned if I can figure out where it was. I really thought it was in the MIC, but I looked fairly carefully and didn't see it. Maybe it's a special item rather than an item ability.

As far as its effectiveness in combat goes, it's pretty much equivalent to a +3 weapon. It's certainly nowhere near the +7 it's estimated price suggests.

I tried a few internet searches before I wrote up that crimson katana draft but couldn't find a magic item power to fit.

I guess the returning property is a sort-of match, since it performs a similar function, except the weapon flies back to your hand after being thrown instead of teleporting when called. That's worth a +1 bonus, so "teleport to hand" ought to be worth more, like +2, but anything more than that seems much.

I'm not that worried about the estimated price being so high - it's just one of those cases were the SRD is a bit off. Like for monster's Challenge Ratings.

Speaking of costs that make little sense. Why does a helm of teleportation cost 73,500 gp and boots of teleportation 49,000 gp when they are do exactly the same thing?

 

[freyar]

Ahhh, well that's easy.

Well, the MIC also repriced a lot of items. I still haven't had time to look for that property again. Maybe I was imagining it. As for the helm vs the boots, maybe they figured that people used the "hat" slot less than the "boot" slot, so a helm is intrinsically more useful?

 

[Cleon]

Ahhh, well that's easy.

So shall I add the draft of the crimson katana to The General's Working Draft as-is?

Well, the MIC also repriced a lot of items. I still haven't had time to look for that property again. Maybe I was imagining it. As for the helm vs the boots, maybe they figured that people used the "hat" slot less than the "boot" slot, so a helm is intrinsically more useful?

Who knows?

Maybe it's a class thing with them thinking hat-slot items tend to benefit caster-types who can already teleport (e.g. headband of intellect), which martial-types prefer boots?

Or perhaps the helm was meant to be greater teleport instead of teleport and they left out the "greater"? That'd roughly match the difference in cost.

Hold on. Mystery solved. The SRD's Creating Magic Items entry says the helm has the +50% cost of an "uncustomary space limitation".

3E's whole approach to Magic Item Body Slots seems wonky to me.

 

[freyar]

Yes, let's add it to the working draft. Someday I will both remember and have time to check out pricing, etc. In the mean time, let's just price it lower ourselves or something.

What's next for him?