Advice for magical power: times per day?

[Wraith Form]

So I was hasty and spontaneously made up a magic long bow, wielded by an NPC opponent, that my 4th level players got their hands on once they defeated him. The bow transforms standard arrows into "shadow arrows" (think the LOST smoke monster) that ignore armor and hits Touch AC. Once the arrow strikes, it dissolves into a wisp of smoke leaving a sucking wound that does an additional +2 damage due to bleeding. (In the Magic Item Compendium, it would be an impaling weapon [p. 37]--the "sucking wound" thing is my own creation.) The bow as I described it, however, appears to be able to fire several times per day.

I had the NPC opponent shoot several of these arrows at my party without thinking of the ramifications of a Touch AC weapon that has no "X times per day" limit. I mean, that goes from "mildly overpowered" to "dramatically insanely overpowered" when we're looking at NPCs that can get hit by Touch ACs of 10 or 11 every single time it fires.

My intention is to make it a Legacy weapon--the bow is Elvish in make, and as the Elf player who's using it investigates the bow's powers and history, it'll increase in power. I have a whole history for the bow, and (better balanced) powers that activate at certain levels once the player meets certain requirements.

Does this bow need to have a limitation to it currently? I was thinking having it create "shadow arrows" out of standard arrows x6/day. (That's roughly the number of times the NPC opponent fired at the party.) The rest of the time it'll be a standard +1 bow.

Or it might make "shadow arrows" only when the bow is not in sunlight.

Or it might force the player to save vs. Will (DC 15) or geas/'induce' the player to not use other weapons, with a cumulative +1 to the DC the more he fires the bow. (It 'resets' back to DC 15 each day.)

Any ideas for limitations that won't utterly suck?

(Hey, I'm a new DM, so I'm allowed to make a magic weapon gaffe on occasion!)

 

[Andre]

I like the idea of situational limits (such as not being in sunlight). Depending on how it was used against them, how about having the shadow arrows dissolve in sunlight (so the shooter, target, and path of the arrow have to all be free of sunlight). Could be a cool effect to have the arrow disappear in a puff of smoke when touched by sunlight.

As for times per day, maybe once/character level? Or once per day per point of BAB?

Alternately, if you use action points or something similar, maybe those could be expended - one point to have the shadow powers function for an entire round or minute?

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

A couple simple methods:

1- Legacy weapon requires investment by the new owner to unlock its kewlness... the BBEG had invested enough to get the unlimited shadow arrows going. Each 'level' unlocked adds +1 shadow arrow per day or some related ability. Cost to unlock generally involes some ritual and costs in gp/xp

2- Have the weapon draw upon the soul of the weilder, something like using a Will save DC = 10 + number of arrows fired since last sunrise.. either slipping his alignment or reducing his CHR

3- As an evil weapon any Paladin/Good Cleric could received a boon from thier diety after destroying it {sorta like downgrading to a more appropriate weapon but with some RP elements}

4- When was the encounter? During a full moon you said?... unlimited use during the night of the full moon, 3x a day otherwize..

5- Use the old 'drow weapon' sillyness, you need to keep the bow out of sunlight and/or protected by a specific alchemical oil. Each exposure to sunlight reduces the x-per day by one.. down from the 20 or so its at right now.

6- Next encounter = Improved Sunder!!! {not really a good suggestion.... }

This is a powerful weapon for a group of 4th level characters, but not horribly so. There are alot of ways to gimp ranged weapons that are not full blown nerf-bat solutions.

I would say just run with it, and make sure to let the players know they are over their recommended daily allowance of loot, so the next couple adventures might be a bit loot-low to make it easier for you to run good challenges.

 

[Machiavelli]

The shadow arrows dissolve in sunlight or magical sources of bright light, and can only be fired once per round. It could still be a pretty nice bow for firing normal arrows, but the shadow arrows have the strict limitations that make them less than uber. A full-round attack would then include a single shadow arrow and however many standard arrows, and if a shadow arrow is fired and then hits bright magical or solar light, it turns back into a standard arrow.

That sounds like a nice boost to 4th-level archers, without turning them into gods. If you want them to hang onto the bow as they level up, don't treat the shadow ability as an enhancement, but rather an intrinsic ability, so that adding enhancements is not exceptionally difficult/expensive.

 

[Nifft]

The bow sucks your soul. Each "shadow" arrow costs 20 xp.

- - -

The bow sucks your wallet. Each "shadow" arrow burns a 100 gp gem that's been fitted in the bow's grip. The bow holds up to 10 such gems.

- - -

The bow sucks your brain. Each "shadow" arrow deals 1 point of Charisma damage. Or Wisdom damage. Whatever feels most appropriate.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I was going to suggest some kind of "soul-sucking" and was beaten to it...

I'll chime in anyway.

At this point I'd say that the bow lets you use it for X number of arrows before the thing starts sucking XP (or whatever negative action it takes)- that way, it will seem less of a retcon. Give the player a chance to avoid the damage via a Will save.

And just to make it nasty, with each failed Will save, the more the PC wants to use the bow (penalties to subsequent will saves regarding the bow's use).

After enough failed Will saves, the PC becomes a Shadow, freeing the weapon to find another bearer...

 

[Pyrex]

And just to make it nasty, with each failed Will save, the more the PC wants to use the bow (penalties to subsequent will saves regarding the bow's use).

After enough failed Will saves, the PC becomes a Shadow, freeing the weapon to find another bearer...

Ooh, yeah, Will save for Wis damage.