Paladin Treasure

[Burn_Boy]

I'm really into role-playing my characters, more so than most people in my group. We're starting a new campaign and I just got done fleshing out my Dwarf Paladin Angus the Ashbringer (if there are any WoW fans out there I hope you get the reference). I fitted him with his gear and I added little things to them like making his armor the same armor that had been in his family for generations and his warhammer the same weapon his father used, and I kind of got attached to these things.

The problem is, gear is going to constantly get replaced. The only way to really get attached to something is for it to be Masterwork so you can get it enchanted, otherwise your weapon damage is stuck being 1d8 until you finally bite the bullet and toss away part of your character's back story. But, I think I found a way around this and I'd like a third party view.

What I was thinking was, rather than keeping and spending my share of any treasure, I donate to the church or too the needy or something, or just don't take it at all and my God decides to improve and change my armor and weapons to keep them on level with the partys. Like everyone upgrades to +1 weapons and items and suddenly my God turns my warhammer to a +1 and my holy symbol also then acts as an amulet of +1 and I keep advancing through like that and that way I get to keep my backstory stuff, but I don't fall far behind the rest of the party.

 

[Nimloth]

My 2 cents

If it were my game I would be ok with that. In fact, that is what I am doing with a character in a game I run right now. The character donates to the church, and when he has donated enough to have enchanted his weapon, it gains a new ability.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Personally, I think it's a great idea. Imho, it's a lot more flavorful than just paying a wizard to add an enhancement, or ditching one weapon for a better one found on some random monster's corpse.
If I were DMing, it would be a pleasure to have a player interested enough to thinking things like that through.

 

[Vurt]

If you or one of your roleplaying buddies has a copy of the 3.5 Book of Exalted Deeds, check out the feat Ancestral Relic. It kind of has rules for pretty much exactly what you're trying to do, Burn_Boy, and pointing it out to your DM and saying "something like that" should give him enough to work with to satisfy both of you.

 

[Grymar]

Yep, if I was the DM I'd be in total favor of that. Set up the amounts required well ahead of time so there is no question and make sure it is all being properly tracked, but I wouldn't mind a bit.

 

[Burn_Boy]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I'm showing this to my DM today and I thik he'll be okay with it.

Also, the set of armor I start with is a set of scale mail, would you all be in favor of having the Gods morph it into Splint Mail, then Breastplate and then onto half or full plate or just add continual bonuses to the scale mail?

 

[Sigurd]

I think it makes a lot of sense to give your treasure to your church and your church bankrolls you through your various item levels. I wouldn't want to simply have a shopping list for the deity to transmute, improve or bless etc... Deities have more important things to do than our shopping, even for his\her champion.

Equipping and supporting their champions is absolutely an aim of a chapter house: re-assigning heroic pieces, myth building, even retrieving famous or powerful pieces. It spreads the faith and helps the order.

Its actually another hook source for your DM. You might be sent for things or even have to destroy things. Very often the things won't be for or from your party.


Without regard for how powerful your deity is, changing armor from scale to plate is more a job for a quartermaster than a miracle.


Sigurd

 

[Ryujin]

I've been using that sort of concept since 1e. I call them "campaign items" and usually restrict it to one item per player, that goes up in power levels at appropriate times, when the PC would otherwise be receiving a treasure allotment of some sort. After a particularly difficult battle, for instance.

Not all players like the idea. Some want their items to grow along with them, so that they feel some tie to "past family glory", while others prefer to be Conan (movie version, not books), finding his sword in Crom's cave.

 

[Abciximab]

Another possibility that I offered to one of my players in my up coming Pathfinder game was to use a modified verion of the "Rich Parents" Trait. Called it Ancestral Relic allowed him to take a masterwork item to start and the item would change/gain in power as he leveled.

Balancing this with treasure awarded would be the only challenge and not much of one at that.

As he wanted to use his Trait for something else, he opted against it.

 

[Burn_Boy]

I've talked with my DM and we've come an agreement of some kind but I wanted to get you guy's opinion again. In doing all this, would you require it be with a Masterwork weapon? I'm planning on taking the Rich Parents trait so I can get Masterwork items but this is a concept I want to build a few other characters around too and I might not be inclined to take Rich Parents with them.