D&D 5E Curse of Strahd - Sunsword alternative

[toucanbuzz]

Never ran the 3rd edition version, but know they kept with uniting the blade and hilt (instead of the light saber) and had options for the artifacts to be legacy items. My players love those, might have to go homebrew route. As for the chainsaw hand, pretty sure my players know Ash better than Strahd!

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think the most obvious answer is that whenever this new party arrives at the location where the Sunsword is supposed to be... they find it being held by the self-same elf cleric who had it in your previous campaign, except she's now undead. Alongside the undead forms of the rest of the OotA party.

Somehow Strahd drew the previous party into his realm off-screen and killed them all. This new group has to kill Strahd not only to allow their own escape from Ravenloft, but also to free the souls of their previous PCs.

Sent from my SM-J320V using EN World mobile app

 

[Quartz]

I like this:

If it's new PCs with same players...

Don't have it just be a sunsword. Have it be THE SAME SUNSWORD. Have bits of obscure legends about the old PCs scattered here and there

And this:

I think the most obvious answer is that whenever this new party arrives at the location where the Sunsword is supposed to be... they find it being held by the self-same elf cleric who had it in your previous campaign, except she's now undead. Alongside the undead forms of the rest of the OotA party.

Somehow Strahd drew the previous party into his realm off-screen and killed them all. This new group has to kill Strahd not only to allow their own escape from Ravenloft, but also to free the souls of their previous PCs.

Is a suitably horrific way of introducing it.

 

[grimslade]

I think the most obvious answer is that whenever this new party arrives at the location where the Sunsword is supposed to be... they find it being held by the self-same elf cleric who had it in your previous campaign, except she's now undead. Alongside the undead forms of the rest of the OotA party.

Somehow Strahd drew the previous party into his realm off-screen and killed them all. This new group has to kill Strahd not only to allow their own escape from Ravenloft, but also to free the souls of their previous PCs.

Sent from my SM-J320V using EN World mobile app

This is brilliant. It gives continuity for the players and provides a link between campaigns. The only caveat I would worry about is how your players would feel about their former PCs being killed off-screen. Maybe stage it as a flashback scenario where they can use their old PCs and are betrayed by a minion of Strahd? You know your players best.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Mean DMs, killing off poor former PCs for story plot...

I went with a hybrid setup, all rights reserved. For the card reading, [sblock]I expanded the telling to 6 cards. Madame Eva explains the number is 6 (cards) based on alignment of the stars. For visual, I will cross (lay a card over) the Power card for the Sunsword, as something that broken or that which must be healed. One extra locale added for the blade and hilt. That issue easily solved.[/sblock]

As to the Blade, modified the 3rd edition legacy version. Once the hilt and blade are within 60' of one another, the hilt gains sentience and imbues the wielder with vision of how to unite the blade.[sblock]Bonding: Hold the blade and hilt together for 8 hours while beseeching/praying for the Morninglord to unite the blade. Once done, it becomes a +1 weapon with finesse option, dim blue light that changes to angry sapphire when vampire in sensory range, and the next two rituals are imparted.

Fires of Heaven: Borrowed this from 3rd edition, defeat an evil (DM discretion) by use of wit or stratagem instead of force. This can be any number of foes in the land. Complete another Bonding and now 1/long rest can summon daylight as an action by holding blade over head and intoning "Lumina zilei!" (daylight). A 10' radius globe of sunlight centers around you. Good creatures can use an action to expand the globe by 10', max 60'. If a round passes where the globe is not expanded, it persists for 1 minute then vanishes.

Bane: Defeat a vampire or other suitable creature of the night (DM discretion) with use of the blade (must have assisted in some way). Complete another Bonding and unlocks +1d6 radiant damage vs. vampires. If a good wielder, add another +1d6 and can now use Fires of Heaven after a short or long rest.[/sblock]

 

[TheHentaiFriend]

Gearing up to run Curse of Strahd and I really need a replacement/modification to the Sunsword. Why? Well, we're finishing Out of the Abyss and it featured early on...a Sun Blade. This has been a core weapon for one of my players, including a side-quest to bond with it. So it's prominent.

If we hadn't run OOA, the Sun Sword as-is would've been just fine. But, artifacts need to be unique and another Sun Blade, I'm worried, is a bit anticlimactic. However, I know the Sun Sword is iconic in Ravenloft.

Ideas?

I had the same thoughts.

I personally got inspired by the Warrior of Light from the very first Final Fantasy game, and The Sword of Light from one of the latest Dragon Quest games.

I modified it and it looked great from my perspective!

Also, I have recently made smth similar in the form of dual longswords for a character I was playing an my latest campaign.
Sunset & Sundown or Sord of the Dawn and Sword of the Dusk.

You can customize and modify items, creaturesm npcs as you like them to fit in your needs. You just need a bit of imagination.

Personally, when I create smth for d&d, you use two very important rulles to me:
-The rule of cool
-And the rule of flavore

and when I say cool, I don't mean to make smth very powerful, but it can do smth cool that will also give flavore to the overal world setting and the story the game/campaign is based on.
And yes, you have to be careful not to go overboard and make smth too OP out there and over-powerful!

Great power comes with greater responcibility!

 

[Quartz]

Gearing up to run Curse of Strahd and I really need a replacement/modification to the Sunsword. Why? Well, we're finishing Out of the Abyss and it featured early on...a Sun Blade.

Are your players knowledgeable about Strahd? If so, just keep the Sunsword. They're all mature players, aren't they?

 

[toucanbuzz]

Are your players knowledgeable about Strahd? If so, just keep the Sunsword. They're all mature players, aren't they?

We finished this one after a year.

I ended up going with the Broken sword (crystal blade) idea (above). Afterwards, we chatted about "behind the scenes" stuff, and players felt the cool factor was much higher with the re-forged, ritual sword, even if the sun sword hadn't been in our most recent campaign. It's led me to tinker magic items for a higher cool factor in future campaigns.

 

[YEAH_IT5_GR3Y]

surely there could be something that is similarly evocative yet different?

The Dawn Blade, a sword made of stained glass (think the windows of a cathedral) - when exposed to the first rays of the dawn, the sunlight is captured within, and for 24 hours the blade shines with an inner light (and Strad is vulnerable to it)

There is no sunlight in barovia. There is only “the sun muffled by dark shady clouds”

 

[Ancalagon]

There is no sunlight in barovia. There is only “the sun muffled by dark shady clouds”

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