Rules for Advancing Magical Items

[shilsen]

If you want to make the magic more memorable, he has to quest for it. Arthur didn't just get Exacaliber. He earned it.

Excalibur.

And, in my experience, it depends on the player. Some will be perfectly happy and find the weapon & magic just as memorable if it happens to grow in power with the PC, without needing to quest for it. Especially if the powers it develops are thematically linked to the character's development and his experiences.

 

[kolvar]

There where Rules in one Dragon, that did exactly that, something with leveling items.

 

[Nac_Mac_Feegle]

Book of Exalted Deeds

In it, there are 2 ways to advance weapons,

1 : The Ancestral Relic feat, where you do a ritual and expend the gold pieces, your weapon advances, it just exaclty like paying for the bonus, but if you dont have acces to smeone who can actually do the magic on the weapon

2: Anointed Knight (presitge class), at certain levels you can anoit your weapon with an oil you make and it gains certain properties, you can also anoit yourself

There is also the Kensai prestige class, Complete Warrior, where you sacrifce xp to enhance your weapon permanantly.

What you can do, is use a mix of these.

Firstly, base the maximum bonus of any weapon, on what a cleric of thier level could enhance a magic item using "Greater Magic Weapon".

Secondly, to mix the oil, they must gather the right materials for the effect they wish to produce (the materials could be a certain herb, skin of a certain creature etc, best way to do this, for a magic effect on an item, theres usually a corresponding spell, check thats spell components to find something suitable) - The materials, or time spent gathering them, should roughly equate to the gold value of the bonus, its just a little more depth to magicing up a weapon.

Third, anyone of say level 3 or above can create this oil, its a feature of the campaign, magic items are created by thier owners, and are tuned to them, putting the oil on is a sacred ritual, a way of giving praise to thier God, and thier god in turn blesses the weapon with divine power, so every magic weapon is blessed (how bless works depends on the gods alignment)

Fourth, any magic item found will be +1 and its powers can only be unlocked once you discover the weapons diety, and perform a quest in that gods name

That might give your weapons more flavour, doesnt hurt to have an xp cost each time the oil is applied either, soay 10% of what the gold value would be (I think thats how the Kensai does it) and make sure they can only mix the oil maximum of once per level, maybe every 3rd level (like the clerics advancement on the Greater Magic Weapon spell). You can also apply this to armour just as easily

Feegle Out

 

[isoChron]

I made some simple rule myself:
Characters get with age of 16 a weapon which was passed down through generations in that family. They players choose which kind of weapon that is. It's not magical but masterwork and doesn't count against their starting gold.
Now at some point somebody will cast a detect magic and will see some strange aura on these weapons. Later the group discovers somehow a compendium about legacy weapons, what they are and how they function. Also described are some few rituals to enhance a weapon to a magic weapon (enhancement bonus) and some simple other properties like flaming and keen.
At a point around level 3 they see their weapons glowing and pulsating vividly while looked upon with detect magic. This is the point where they can use a ritual to enhance the weapon equal to 1 point enhancement bonus. These rituals take some time, some flavourful surrounding, some hp damage and gold in form of gems or something like that. Each time they reach 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th and 18th level they get the possibility to enhance the weapon further. Some special properties like holy can be done in two steps: 1st good aligned weapon, not more, 2nd full holy enhancement.

They can only enhance their heiritage weapons and if they sell or give away that weapon it becomes non magical again after some weeks. There may be a ritual to pass a weapon down to the child with all given bonuses.

The DM is well in control of which enhancement he allows or not through the various ritual books he hands out.

This keeps the focus on one weapon throughout the career and creates a special binding to this weapon. You can allow to enhance the weapon further with common magical ways that stack with the existing ones. It also allows the characters to spend more money on other items since it's relative cheap to enhance a legacy weapon.

There is no feat, skill or spellcasting ability necessary to enhance your own weapon.

Maybe a simple and somewhat railroading take on magic weapons but my players are ok with it so far (level 9-10). Perhaps I advance the pace to every second level instead of every 3rd level beyond level 12.

BYE

EDIT [Some typos]

 

[pawsplay]

Weapons of Legacy is a flawed product. I would not recommend anyone use it for anything, not even light reading.

UA has some quick and dirty rules. Basically, you start with an item. Then you design a prestige class around that item that unlocks certain abilities. Each prestige class builds on the class abilities of the base classes. It's not what I would call an ideal method.

Perhaps a better method is simply to state that certain items have no prereqs for upgrading certain abilities; instead, the PCs just expend the GP and XP whenever they feel like it.

 

[Nightfall]

Paws,

I use it for light reading. Sue me.

Shil,

Again, my spelling, not so good. But I will admit I base my beliefs about weapon leveling on what I'd like to do. But you are right, some people might not want to do that. I am, however, in favor of spending XP and gold as a means for mechanics along with quests.

 

[Mistwell]

There where Rules in one Dragon, that did exactly that, something with leveling items.

Yes! That's it. I was thinking of that. Anyone recall the issue number?

 

[Hedgemage]

Bump to see if anyone knows the Dragon Mag issue.

 

[hong]

"Levelled Treasures" by Stephen Kenson, Dragon 289. Great issue, that was.

 

[Doctor DM]

I just use weapons of legacy as a loose basis, and don't use all those penalties and stuff.