D&D 5E (2014) 4 Horsemen Weapon powers

[Balfore]

Anyone have any ideas for some good weapons for these guys?
High level, end game campaign.

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[Leatherhead]

A bow
A (great)sword
A set of scales (caster focus)
A sythe or sickle

 

[cbwjm]

Death. This guy would have to reduce maximum hit points and deal necrotic damage or bonus necrotic damage. His scythe acts like an ornate quarterstaff in the hands of another, but when death holds a blade of dark energy extends from one end.

War. I feel like this guy would have a vorpal great sword. Not very exciting, I know, and any natural 20 will outright kill one of your PCs so you might want to tone it down to a vicious weapon if you don't want to run the risk of instant death although an extra 7 points of damage on a natural 20 also isn't that exciting for the aspect of War. Another option I like would be to have it deal an escalating amount of damage for each successive attack against someone. Assuming he has multiple attacks, have it deal +2d6 if the target is hit twice in a row, +4d6 if hit 3x in a row during a single turn as the sword cleaves into War's opponent, hungering for their death.

Famine. I'm not really sure what kind of weapon Famine would have. For an effect, maybe something like a constitution save or gain a level of exhaustion to represent the hero wasting away. If not that, then perhaps the target is afflicted by the poisoned condition to represent it instead.

Pestilence. A dagger, pitted with rust. With just the slightest scratch the target is afflicted with some kind of horrific disease. Each time it hits, the player must make a constitution save or be instantly afflicted by one of the diseases listed for the contagion spell. Maybe have it deal bonus poison damage.

 

[Balfore]

Death. This guy would have to reduce maximum hit points and deal necrotic damage or bonus necrotic damage. His scythe acts like an ornate quarterstaff in the hands of another, but when death holds a blade of dark energy extends from one end.

War. I feel like this guy would have a vorpal great sword. Not very exciting, I know, and any natural 20 will outright kill one of your PCs so you might want to tone it down to a vicious weapon if you don't want to run the risk of instant death although an extra 7 points of damage on a natural 20 also isn't that exciting for the aspect of War. Another option I like would be to have it deal an escalating amount of damage for each successive attack against someone. Assuming he has multiple attacks, have it deal +2d6 if the target is hit twice in a row, +4d6 if hit 3x in a row during a single turn as the sword cleaves into War's opponent, hungering for their death.

Famine. I'm not really sure what kind of weapon Famine would have. For an effect, maybe something like a constitution save or gain a level of exhaustion to represent the hero wasting away. If not that, then perhaps the target is afflicted by the poisoned condition to represent it instead.

Pestilence. A dagger, pitted with rust. With just the slightest scratch the target is afflicted with some kind of horrific disease. Each time it hits, the player must make a constitution save or be instantly afflicted by one of the diseases listed for the contagion spell. Maybe have it deal bonus poison damage.

Was thinking Scales on the head of a Staff, for Pestilence or Famine.
Just trying to figure out that they can do [emoji2]

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[Balfore]

A bow
A (great)sword
A set of scales (caster focus)
A sythe or sickle

Who gets the bow?
And what are all the powers? [emoji2]

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[Leatherhead]

Who gets the bow?

Conquest, Rider of the White Horse.

As for what powers: "They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth"

Bow: The ability to summon monsters and animals.
Sword: Mind Control, specifically the power to turn allies upon each-other and lead armies.
Scales: Blight crops, control plants, cause mass starvation.
Scythe: Spread disease, control and create undead.

Fairly generic, but that's what happens when everyone cribs the same major plot point.

 

[discosoc]

Rather than special weapons, what about their presence having large aura effects. Something like this:

Each horseman radiates an aura 20 feet in diameter, centered on the horseman.

Pestilence - Damage cannot be healed, conditions cannot be cured, and exhaustion cannot be removed, while within the aura. Wields a greatsword, never misses, but only one attack.
War - All hits caused by any Horseman while in the aura are critical hits. Wields a glaive, unlimited reactions.
Famine - All crits cause by any Horseman while in the aura also cause one level of exhaustion (con save to ignore). Wields a scyth, very high hp.
Death - Any Horseman slain while in the aura immediately heals to half health at the end of the next round. Dual-wields battleaxes, and has


Basically, you'd have one total cluster F of a fight unless the players do some real research or have experience with them beforehand. I could totally see a T4 campaign where they fight each Horseman (possibly "killing" them) individually over 5 or 6 sessions, before the final showdown where they face them all together and coordinated. Because of the way the auras sort of play off the others, the fight would have to involve some risk vs reward decisions where the group figures out a balance to keeping the horseman auras from overlapping, while still being able to focus one down.

This was actually a pretty fun battle to write...

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Don't forget any famine weapon should do maximum damage on a hit to plants. Maybe something about anyone who takes a hit from a famine weapon needs to make a con save or have to use his/her action eating food or trying to find food. If your party is up to this kind of thing, you could throw in something like if they don't have food, they attack the nearest nonconstruct doing unarmed piercing damage (trying to bite them).

 

[Balfore]

Don't forget any famine weapon should do maximum damage on a hit to plants. Maybe something about anyone who takes a hit from a famine weapon needs to make a con save or have to use his/her action eating food or trying to find food. If your party is up to this kind of thing, you could throw in something like if they don't have food, they attack the nearest nonconstruct doing unarmed piercing damage (trying to bite them).

Maybe every other round, a player used their action to eat or take a bite of something.
Thereby taking them out of combat every other round?

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Maybe every other round, a player used their action to eat or take a bite of something.
Thereby taking them out of combat every other round?

That would work. The rest of the party will freak out when the front line melee type suddenly stops fighting to eat a sandwich.....

If you are running a long adventure, instead of having the famine weapon directly affect the PC's, you could borrow an idea from Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid books. In one of the books, the titular druid annoys Hel, and she enchants her dagger so that everything she stabs with it develops an uncontrollable desire to eat the druid.