Shadow Death (my first attempt at a legacy weapon)

[Dozen]

Well hes already playing neutral evil... so the balls in his court

I have no further objections then. You've made good points. Hope your player will like it.

 

[Rakusia]

Thank you for playing devils advocate. It helped me solidify certain ideas in my head andcrealize that i need to explain certain things a bit more in flavor text.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Minor cosmetic suggestion. D&D has Darkwood, as a fictional substance that may fit the thematic style of this item.

 

[Rakusia]

Oh cool. Thanks rumble tiger. Other than that what do you think mechanics wise?

 

[thedmstrikes]

ritual: must use the bow for the killing bow of anything with the fire type or subtype.

powers least:
shadow shot at will may fire an arrow into shadows and recieve the targets flat footed ac as opposed ac.
shadow step times per day equal to half hit die may us shadow step to move equal to half movement speed
powers lesser:
shadow pet if anyone allowed animal companion slays their pet using the bow they may instead recieve a shadow mastiff as their new companion
shadow step times per day equal to half hit die may move between shadows equal to full movement speed
powers full:
shadow flames: 4 times per day one arrow may erupt into shadow flames dealing an extra damage equal to rogue sneak attack of equal level as the shooter
shadow walk once daily as the spell from a caster level 3/4 your own level

I was intrigued by someone asking for ideas on legacy weapons as I thought no one used them anymore and I think they are cool. Some thoughts:

I quoted the sections I have questions about. First, this third ritual I believe to be a little too easy as a creature that is a fire type or subtype is fairly easy to find, especially if it is summoned. Second, there are low level creatures that meet this requirement. My suggestion is that you place the limitations that it is not a summoned creature and that it has a certain minimum number of hit dice, or at least that the wielder of the item must travel to the elemental plane of fire to destroy such a creature. The ritual for the third stage should be a little...extravagant.

Next up are the powers. You have listed some powers here, but legacy weapons in 3.5 follow a progression chart that starts at 5th character level, the minimum level a character can complete a ritual and "bond" with a legacy weapon. Not every character level of advancement opens up a new power depending on how intense the power is for each of the three ritual stages. So, if you do not have enough powers to progress to the next stage, no need for the ritual...unless you are leaving the "slot" open for the character to create their own and add it to the legacy of the weapon. If you are using a different rulebook than the one I am pulling my thoughts from (WOTC 3.5 Weapons of Legacy), kindly disregard these suggestions.

 

[Rakusia]

no using the same book. and i agree legacy is underused imo. the main thing is the third ritual hasnt happened yet. its my current campaign. kinda how i see it going down at the moment. im not too fond of the levels required to do something from your legacy item. it suspends the disbelief again in my opinion. to me it makes more sense to tie up the level you think they should be able to access the stuff. along those lines ill agree i do need to increase the last ritual but for the time being its kinda more of a space filler

 

[Jacob]

I've been reading the Weapons of Legacy book for a couple weeks now, so this makes me smile. I enjoy the idea of them, but hate the fact they require a penalty to your stats to activate. Not only are you accounting for the Feat selection just to use the item (I don't think they're Bonus Feats?), but penalties too? There's also the fact that some of the powers you get boost your stats...all while the same weapons gives you negatives to said stats. So I got to thinking on just throwing the penalties out (Feats too?). Gives more incentive to use them, and given they singular items that so many bonuses on top of them, them Power Gaming folk would jump all over them. The hope at least.

 

[thedmstrikes]

As I understand the text, when you complete a ritual, it grants the bonus feat that grants access to those levels of the weapons abilities. While I am also not a fan of the penalties, they are there to offset the massive amount of advantages the weapons grant. These things can get more powerful than some Artifacts and all artifacts have a downside as well.

 

[Rakusia]

yeah feats are granted as bonus. they do need some maybe not penalties but a sorta off set

 

[aglondier]

rather than kill the previous companion, why not just add a "shadow critter" template to it and keep the loyal pet...