Experiences with Weapons of Legacy

[coyote6]

FWIW, I used neither; I thought the Scion system wasn't worth it, either.

 

[MerricB]

FWIW, I used neither; I thought the Scion system wasn't worth it, either.

Don't blame you.

The most valuable thing about the WoL system was the way it gave you a system to create your own items with bonuses at various levels. I've got a feeling that you can strip away the penalties and use "as is" without too much of a problem... yes, it might cause some balance issues, but you need to pay attention to that anyway with magic items and treasure.

Cheers!

 

[Vorput]

Big question: who here has used the Scion/Legendary Weapon system in play? I used the Weapons of Legacy system in two campaigns that went from 1st to 16th level.

I used WoL in a campaign I ran. They lasted for a few levels till the campaign ended. As I said early in this thread though, I ended up changing the way the weapons worked significantly.

 

[Freakohollik]

Big question: who here has used the Scion/Legendary Weapon system in play? I used the Weapons of Legacy system in two campaigns that went from 1st to 16th level.

I halfway used the WoL system once. Running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, a player found the Sunsword. He had no desire to unlock those penalties. It forever remained a +1 weapon. Does that even count?

I think they both involve too many penalties and needlessly complicate the system. How about we add a third option? Who has used the artifacts straight out of the DMG? I found a Frostbrand in a high level 3.5 game. Loved it.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I halfway used the WoL system once. Running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, a player found the Sunsword. He had no desire to unlock those penalties. It forever remained a +1 weapon. Does that even count?

Does it even count as what? Every character I've ever had has had the option of using subsystems, some of which I've declined to use.

I think they both involve too many penalties and needlessly complicate the system.

Fair enough. I don't. (Or, at least, I don't to nearly the extent of most of the people on this thread.)

How about we add a third option? Who has used the artifacts straight out of the DMG? I found a Frostbrand in a high level 3.5 game. Loved it.

As far as I'm aware, a Frost Brand isn't an artifact in 3.5. It's just a powerful weapon with specific abilities.

 

[coyote6]

I don't think a frost brand was ever an artifact, was it? Maybe in 2e.

 

[MerricB]

I don't think a frost brand was ever an artifact, was it? Maybe in 2e.

No, never - just cool. (In both senses of the word! )

Cheers!

 

[TheAvatarofSet]

I'm in a Forgotten Realms game currently and our GM is running us through the Demonweb Pits module. We're high level (15-18), so the GM has made some modifications to make the fights challenging. In that module, we've encountered two Weapons of Legacy thus far. One of them is the black bow. I have an archer character, so at first I thought "Great"...until I realized just how many penalties there would be, and for a few abilities that are very situational and might not get used often. By the time he gets to 20th level, he would have to sacrifice 16hp, -6 to all saves, and a -3 to attack bonuses? All this for a +4 bow (which he already has). Some of the abilities it grants are nice, but I wouldn't have him use that weapon if the cost was ONLY to saving throws, considering it would reduce all of them by 6, much less the attack bonus and hit point loss. I don't think these weapons are "balanced" at all...I haven't seen a single one where the cost is a worthwhile trade-off for the benefit. Interesting idea, but horrible execution.

 

[TBeholder]

The idea is good.
It can work, the way Dying Legacy was done in Earthdawn (original, AFAIK), and perhaps expanded.
Or if reduced to simple "awakening" events combined with old good "property X is activated if the user has ability Y" requirements - less-MMO version of level scaling.
As it was done in that book, it's a mess. d20 is obviously badly fit for it either way, but the specific implementation is useless - doesn't make sense in Hack&Slash with "Global Magic Market" because not worth it, and doesn't make much sense in roleplaying because too tied to mechanics. And that's before it runs into that stupid "Gold Piece Magic" thing in D&D3.

 

[Jhaelen]

Well, considering the thread necormancy, I probably already posted about my house rules somewhere in these nine pages.
In my 3e campaign I made extensive use of 'Items of Legacy'. At the end of the campaign (almost) every pc had one.
Basically, I translated all of the penalties into gold & xp costs. Worked like a charm!
Many of the official items are suddenly very much worth it. But I also boosted some of them.
(After translating the bonuses & penalties you have a pretty accurate idea of the item's gold worth, and can tell which ones are subpar - assuming you want them all to have a similar power level.)