Club of Healing

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

First draft:

The Cudgel of Mixed Blessings is shaped like the god/goddess, with the female aspect and male aspect of Charlathan standing back-to-back.

The Cudgel of Mixed Blessings is a +1 darkwood club. On a hit, it does 1d6+1 damage and heals 1d6 points of damage, as cure light wounds. On a critical hit, the healing is not increased, simply the damage. The magic of the cudgel prevents it from being used to deal non-lethal damage.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

There was a club that worked like that in the 1st edition Oriental Adventures book. If I did not have it stored away, I would look it up. Maybe someone else has it available?

 

[Merkuri]

You could simply rule that any penalties or bonuses to damage also apply to the healing factor, eliminating the possibility of stacking the odds in one direction or the other due to strength bonuses/penalties. You could also rule that lethal damage must be used in order to activate the healing magic.

So they have a 50-50 chance of making themselves better or worse and can't "cheat" with nonlethal damage.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You could simply rule that any penalties or bonuses to damage also apply to the healing factor, eliminating the possibility of stacking the odds in one direction or the other due to strength bonuses/penalties. You could also rule that lethal damage must be used in order to activate the healing magic.

Good addition!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm thinking this should be comparable to a +2 club in costs and require a chaotic spellcaster and cure light wounds to create.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

The Cure Light Wounds should do a minimum of 1D8+1 healing. So if you just tell them it does 1D6+1 damage and casts a CLW, they're going to wonder what's going on!

 

[Merkuri]

It doesn't cast cure light wounds, it's just a very similar effect. Cure light wounds happens to be the most similar spell available, thus it is the one required to cast.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hmm, the SRD is not nearly as clear as the DMG is on pricing magic item creation. Anyone able to fill in the blanks here?

Added the damage bonus stuff and added some silly background referencing another silly fantasy game series:

Cudgel of Mixed Blessings

An infamous magical club created by a nameless cleric of Charlathan.

The cudgel is made of dark wood nearly black with age, shaped like the god/goddess, with the female aspect and male aspect of Charlathan standing back-to-back. This magical club does not shed light.

The Cudgel of Mixed Blessings first appeared in the Fables of Burdock in a footnote concerning the Battle of Fublio Valley fought more than 1,000 years ago in the Dragonsbirth Mountains by humans, gnomes and kobolds.

Although the club was originally carried into battle by the human side of the war (the stillborn would-be nation of Quendor), it passed from humans to kobolds to gnomes and back several times, before being stolen by a band of dwarf thieves.

It reappeared a century later far to the east, in the lands of the Eastern Hordes, where it was taken during a raid on barbarian bandits, and the cudgel returned to the clergy of Charlathan.

During an inquisition by the faithful of Castain, the club was seized from a temple of Charlathan and placed in a church storehouse in Tarsis. Following the collapse of Castain's church and the rise of Lothianism, the Cudgel of Mixed Blessings was one of a number of items looted from the storehouse. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

The Cudgel of Mixed Blessings is a +1 darkwood club. On a hit, it does 1d6+1 damage and heals 1d6 points of damage, as cure light wounds. On a critical hit, the healing is not increased, simply the damage. The magic of the cudgel prevents it from being used to deal non-lethal damage and any bonuses or penalty to the damage done is also applied to the healing.

Faint conjuration; CL 3rd; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, cure light wounds, creator must be chaotic

 

[Nyaricus]

Dude, I love this idea

In my homebrew I have the Twin Gods of Good and Bad Luck, and this is so going to be their signature weapon now

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Personally, if you get too caught up in making sure it can't be abused ... is it really worth the trouble? I mean, I thought the point was they didn't have a cleric and they needed healing ... if you make it too "not-good" then it becomes "bad" and all you've done is make sure a group that didn't have a cleric is now DEAD and doesn't have a cleric since they spent the last half hour killing eachother trying to get healed.

Which is maybe good for a laugh for the first five minutes, but if you're trying to actually run a game, sounds like it would begin to suck rather quickly.

The "Ha Ha!" should be in the discovering of how it works ... once that's happened, it needs to function in such a way as to make it beneficial. If it's only sometimes beneficial, then human psychology suggests they'll continually use it, trying to get the benefit to crop up again, probably slowing down the game overall and making sure they're never in fighting form.

Personally, I would lower the dice-involvement as much as possible.

Nifter's Nifty Club - +1 Merciful Greatclub: Any creature rendered unconcious by this weapon remains unconcious for 2d4 hours. Upon waking, they are subject to a Heal spell, but suffer from a terrible headache (treat as the Sickened condition with additional Light Blindness). The headache condition lasts 24 hours and cannot be removed except by a Heal, Miracle, Limited Wish, or Wish spell. Nifter's Nifty Club functions in this way once per day.

With that, if anybody is damaged they get to trade being out for 2-8 hours and nerfed for 24 hours for getting Healed. Additionally, by giving them Heal it allows them pretty much the full range of good Clerical "juice" ... Diseased, Energy Drain, Ability Damage, etc.

Something similar, anyway. With a constant effect, you can play around with them whacking eachother in the head ... once ... then later they can say: "I'm going to beat Bob about the head with the club until he passes out." "No no, I'm feeling better! Really! Aaaahhhggghghhh." *whack whallop KABLOOEY* "My aching head." And the game is back on track. As opposed to rolling 1d6 a billion times trying to get back on top of things EVERY TIME.

--fje