Help w/ Item Powers - Sword of 4 Souls

[Kyrail]

I need help figuring out the exact powers of an artifact I've given my level 10 players. It will also be a weapon of legacy and advance in power as they progress.

Okay, heres the gist of the item. It's a +2 sentient silver holy longsword that was enchanted to slay a very powerful devil lord who had subverted the rule of a small country, set in Forgotten Realms

Through some powerful circle magic, clerics prayed for help and various gods sent "Seraphs" to aid them, who gave up their lived to be bound to the power of the sword, and now reside within it granting powers to the wielder. The Seraphs sent were based on the wants and needs of the people at the time.

Helm for Protection
Lethander for Strength/Renewal
Tyr for Justice.

But secretly the wielder of the sword craved vengeance, not justice for the death of this Devil and the god Hoar sent a Seraph of Vengeance to him.

So the sword has four souls each embodying a difference aspect and granting different powers. Each set of powers can only function one at a time, depending on which seraph is aiding him at the moment.

Also the Seraphs appear briefly as visual cues to their abilities, so far only appearing when the wielder strikes an enemy. So far he's only got the protection seraph unlocked by guarding a group of exiles from giants.

So far I know what I'd like for protection. +1 AC +1 to saves, and the ability to cast shield other (without the ac boost) at the beginning of a combat on an ally of his choice, lasting for the combat duration. This will advance to +2 ac/saves and +1 to all allies within 10 feet of him, and so on.

Justice will probably be bonuses to hit, or somehow weakening an enemy.

Strength/Renewal... I need to figure out which aspect I really want to go with here, Lethander is the god of renewal essential. Maybe fast healing, or the ability to shrug off status effects.

Vengeance: + damage isn't an interesting enough ability, though I'd want to work it in somehow, it needs something to make it a little spicier. Maybe picking a single target at the beginning of combat and giving bonuses against him... though that would be 1 monster combats would make it a little too useful.

Okay so I'm really just looking for cool power ideas that can be balanced against the others to be equally useful. They'll advance in power as he unlocks them, and one day he'll be able to use more than 1 Seraph at a time.

 

[Tiberius]

I don't have much in the way of helpful advice, so I'm just going to point out that the plural of seraph is seraphim.

 

[Simm]

For vengeance I would jack the ability from the oathbow.

d20 srd
Oathbow

Of elven make, this white +2 composite longbow (+2 Str bonus) whispers "Swift defeat to my enemies" in Elven when nocked and pulled. Once per day, if the firer swears aloud to slay her target (a free action), the bow’s whisper becomes the low shout "Swift death to those who have wronged me." Against such a sworn enemy, the bow has a +5 enhancement bonus, and arrows launched from it deal an additional 2d6 points of damage (and ×4 on a critical hit instead of the normal ×3). However, the bow is treated as only a masterwork weapon against all foes other than the sworn enemy, and the wielder takes a -1 penalty on attack rolls with any weapon other than the oathbow. These bonuses and penalties last for seven days or until the sworn enemy is slain or destroyed by the wielder of the oathbow, whichever comes first.

The oathbow may only have one sworn enemy at a time. Once the wielder swears to slay a target, he cannot make a new oath until he has slain that target or seven days have passed. Even if the wielder slays the sworn enemy on the same day that he makes the oath, he cannot activate the oathbow’s special power again until 24 hours have passed from the time he made the oath.

Strong evocation; CL 15th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, creator must be an elf; Price 25,600 gp; Cost 13,100 gp + 1,000 XP.

 

[mr_outsidevoice]

Justice - Break Enchantment or Dispel Magic to negate The Devil's spell like abilities. Greater Dispel at higher levels. Perhaps a dismissal or banishment at higher levels and Holy Smite 1/day.

Strength/Renewal - Healing and restoration magics. Righteous Might 1/day.

Vengeance - Dimensional Anchor/Lock to make sure he can't leave. A Stunning attack. Perhaps something that grants a Morale bonus to hit and attack after slaying a minion of the evil being sought.


If you are making it a legacy item with different bonuses depending on who is in charge, have different penalties to the bonded.

Protection penalties to attack, Vengeance penalties to AC.

 

[Kyrail]

Okay by "weapon of legacy" I really just mean it improves over time. I'm not really down with the penalties associated with them. It is an artifact, but one that actually harbored the soul of the second strongest corruptive devil to grace the prime material, so it's powers are a little screwed up at the moment.

I'm really starting to think if this sword is going to have so many cool powers...they should only function in combat. They are based off the power of warrior seraphim, so it could be made to make sense.

Oathbow idea is pretty cool, though I feel it might over shadow the other abilities... if they're fighting a single creature the ability to just make his weapon X-bane is kind of strong, but awesome idea, I think I'm gonna go with that, maybe make it a little weaker at first.

Justice and dimensional anchor makes a lot of sense. In fact it was the original idea for the sword when I thought it up about 2 years ago, but I had totally forgotten that! I think a +2 hit bonus, and the ability to cast dimension anchor, break enchantment, or see invisibility 1/encounter.

Renewal: Fast Healing 2. Personal only: Break Enchantment, Restoration, Cure Serious Wounds 1/encounter. Probably buff it by adding more buffs later.

Does this seem balanced? I'm really looking for feedback and ideas.

 

[darthkilmor]

Helm for Protection
Lethander for Strength/Renewal
Tyr for Justice.

But secretly the wielder of the sword craved vengeance, not justice for the death of this Devil and the god Hoar sent a Seraph of Vengeance to him.

So the sword has four souls each embodying a difference aspect and granting different powers. Each set of powers can only function one at a time, depending on which seraph is aiding him at the moment.

If this thing is an artifact then I think it should do more than just, 1st level spell type abilities, to be honest.

Making each type of power selectable at dawn would help balance out the power, so they don't just flip/flop around to get all the abilities they can out of the thing.

I would maybe go with something like:

Each morning at dawn you select the aspect of the sword that will be dominant that day.

Protection:
User gains the clerical Protection Domain, and gains the ability to cast spells from the Protection Domain as if he were a cleric equal to his total level. He can only cast 1 domain spell of each level per day.(So a 11th level wielder could cast each of the 1st - 6th level Protection Domain spells once a day).

Justice:
User gains the clerical Exorcism Domain(Eberron CS), and gains the ability to cast spells from the Wrath Domain as if he were a cleric equal to his total level. He can only cast 1 domain spell of each level per day.(So a 11th level wielder could cast each of the 1st - 6th level Exorcism Domain spells once a day).

Vengeance:
User gains the clerical Wrath Domain(BoED), and gains the ability to cast spells from the Wrath Domain as if he were a cleric equal to his total level. He can only cast 1 domain spell of each level per day.(So a 11th level wielder could cast each of the 1st - 6th level Wrath Domain spells once a day).

Strength and Renewal:
User gains the clerical Strength or Healing Domain, and gains the ability to cast spells from the selected Domain as if he were a cleric equal to his total level. He can only cast 1 domain spell of each level per day.(So a 11th level wielder could cast each of the 1st - 6th level Strength or Healing Domain spells once a day).

That gets all the basic spells you wanted covered, plus a domain ability. You could ever do that each spell level can be cast once per encounter if you want(or 1st-3rd spells can be used once per encounter), but that might be a bit much. Also, this way the spells they can access scale with their level. (Domain list and description of each available here under Cleric Domains.

Just presenting an alternate idea to spin the wheels of creativity. You could tie a type of minor quest to unlock each domain so its not too overwhelming at first.(The wielder has to prove themselves to the aspect controlling each domain). Also you mention that it housed a devil at one point, you could add something like maybe on a new moon they instead have access the Decay, Destruction, Hatred, or Madness domain (instead of the normal ones).

heck, I might just have to put something like this in my campaign. Hmmmmmm.