Luck Blade: A Cursory Analysis

[James McMurray]

Right; neither take up item slots.

Your point about the +1 to skills and checks is well taken. I mentioned it above, but couldn't figure out what a fair price on that might be. Would you say that it's worth more than a reroll?

Depends on the character. For a rogue it probably is, because of how many skills he uses and how important initiative is to him. For a cleric it definitely isn't.

 

[Darklone]

My char always did everything he could to grab a luckblade.

 

[moritheil]

FWIW, if your DM allows you to swap another (non-shortsword) base weapon in and you are buying a +2 or better weapon anyway, the cost of the luck part is between 13k and 14k.

 

[hong]

See, if D&D had a decent fate point system, we wouldn't need luck blades.

This will be 7th, or is it 8th? against the wall when 4E comes.

 

[Darklone]

Use the luck feats in Complete Scoundrel. They are expensive but nice if you have enough of them.

 

[seans23]

a 1 level dip into a cleric with the luck domain never hurt anyone

 

[James McMurray]

Except the people that don't want to lose BAB, hit points, class abilities, access to higher spell levels, or any of the other things you lose when you dip.

 

[The Souljourner]

Meh. For any campaign not run by a computer, it's not a problem. No PCs are going to be running around with dozens of them because you can't just pick them out of thin air.

I have one in a campaign and was thinking about selling it. We're like 10th-ish level, and 22k is still a boatload of money for a weapon I don't even use. If the DM lets its effects work on me even while sheathed, I'd probably keep it. I'm not sure if he would though, regardless of what the rule says.

The long and the short of it is... they're 22k, and that's a lot of money for one reroll... I don't see it being a problem since that money could have been spent on making your saves better in the first place (by almost +5).

-Nate

 

[moritheil]

Meh. For any campaign not run by a computer, it's not a problem. No PCs are going to be running around with dozens of them because you can't just pick them out of thin air.

I have one in a campaign and was thinking about selling it. We're like 10th-ish level, and 22k is still a boatload of money for a weapon I don't even use. If the DM lets its effects work on me even while sheathed, I'd probably keep it. I'm not sure if he would though, regardless of what the rule says.

The long and the short of it is... they're 22k, and that's a lot of money for one reroll... I don't see it being a problem since that money could have been spent on making your saves better in the first place (by almost +5).

-Nate

It's one reroll per day, though. That's supposedly one reroll every four fights. Assuming that one does not have to roll critical saves (i.e. against save-or-die effects) in every fight, two luckblades might be enough to tide you over for the important saves you have to make each day.

RAW, it works while sheathed. It wouldn't be worth that much money if it didn't. And while we don't have an exhaustive numerical analysis, a luckblade offers flexibility (that +5 resistance bonus for 25k won't save you when you roll a 1, nor can it be swapped to reroll that 1 you rolled when your paladin did a charging smite evil on an enemy mage that absolutely has to go down fast.) It's a question of whether or not you believe that flexibility is worthwhile.

 

[Krafen]

At the level when you can reasonably afford a luckblade, you can also generally afford to have saves high enough that you rarely fail. Being able to eliminate automatic failure 1/day is incredibly useful.