D&D 5E Dex-based greatsword?

[Fishing_Minigame]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I've rolled as much as I can into this magic item. I'll be working it in at some point, with the following 2 caveats for the player:
1) If she does manage to start completely outdamaging the other party members, it's getting demoted to 1d10
2) This will be her main magic item. There won't be any upgrades for it until everyone else is finding magic weapons of their own.

Aphelion, The Edge of the Woods
Weapon (greatsword), very rare (requires attunement)

Of the many relics produced during the age of Myth Drannor, these blades are among the lesser known. Massively enchanted and impossibly light, these greatswords were often used to destroy orcish siege engines. However, the enchantments had to be constantly renewed, and fully functional examples are now almost nonexistent. Great dexterity was required to keep the blade under control.

Two silver channels run along the edge of the mithril blade, and scrollwork along the hilt indicates it was crafted during the reign of the Sixth Coronal. A moonstone is set into guard, amid silver etchings of holly.

Properties
When wielded two-handed, this weapon loses the heavy property. You may use your dexterity as your attack stat for this weapon.

Absorption. This weapon may absorb part of the enchantment from another magic item of the same type. The owner may perform an arcane ritual while in possession of a greatsword with a greater enhancement bonus. At the end of one hour, the weapon used for the ritual crumbles and Aphelion assumes its enhancement bonus. The ritual will fail, causing no change, if the other weapon is not a greatsword, or if its enhancement bonus is equal to or lower than the current enhancement bonus of this weapon.

(Thanks to [MENTION=6790260]EzekielRaiden[/MENTION], this was too cool not to use. I'll be giving this to magic weapons I custom-make for players from now on)

Possessive. This weapon won't attune to anyone without elven blood or possessing other other undesirable traits (i.e, rogues). If wielded by an unworthy user, the enchantments on this weapon suddenly become inert. It requires a DC 20 strength check to lift, and incurs disadvantage on attack rolls.

Is there an ideal place in PotA where I might insert this? Since its an elven blade, the High Forest sounds likely. Alternately, since her background hook is Best Served Cold, Windharrow might have it. After all, the best motivation to hate someone is "That jerk has my cool sword!", right?

Also, thanks to [MENTION=6796566]epithet[/MENTION] for the name and inspiring the description.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Thanks to [MENTION=6790260]EzekielRaiden[/MENTION], this was too cool not to use. I'll be giving this to magic weapons I custom-make for players from now on

My pleasure. I'm a strong believer in quality-of-life enchantments that help encourage players to find a unique and personal weapon. Helps players avoid wistfully eyeing each upgrade that passes by. Or worse yet, going through an MMO-like ludicrous progression of upgrades so you have a pile of gradually-suckier replaced weapons.

 

[Taronkov]

As an example(which if someone else pointed out I apologize for overlooking) the Sun Blade is a finesse longsword. And while yes it's a rare weapon it includes far more than the finesse feature. Overall you should be fine. I've got finesse greatswords(made out of magical wood) that don't have the heavy feature and I have seen no issues with them thus far.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Yeah, this is going to be a one-off thing for this particular character, and only because its a weird situation where its important to the character but they weren't built to take advantage of it. It would definitely be a magic weapon (without the +1) so I can require attunement. That way there's no casually lending it to the rogue...

I like the mithril idea. My other idea was that maybe it was made of some nifty wood that's only found in the heart of an elven forest.

I dont think this should be an issue, as you have noted, its a specific thing for a specific character, rather than a blanket ruling others can create a cheesy "build" around. More or less this is a "ribbon" (a mainly flavor ability). No Great Weapon Fighting and shes really no better off than with her bow (with Archery being the more optimal fighting style). Go for it. It averages 2 more damage per hit, on an unoptimized ranger. This is not the character you need to watch out for.

I did something similar with an archery fighter using a polearm spear from the plane of air that allowed finesse.

 

[Blue]

The D&D Next Playtest featured the Katana, a d10 slashing finesse two-handed martial weapon costing 35gp and weighing 3 lbs.

I remembered it because it was two-handed but not heavy and I was planning a halfling fighter who'd do all these tumbles and acrobatic moves as he fought.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

I find such a weapon to be too munchkin'y. Dex is already a super-stat. Now you can add a 2d6 damage weapon to the fold of Finesse weapons? Uh-uh.

 

[Yunru]

I don't see a problem if it's a magic item any more than her finding a Belt of X Strength would be.
With the exception of Sneak Attack. But eh, Sunblade says hi.

 

[akr71]

Does it have to be called "greatsword"? I would also go with the "elven blade" suggestion, but instead of making it a "two-handed" weapon, I'd just add "finesse" to the longsword. So you can use it with two hands (versatile) and use Dex with it.

This is the direction I would go. A mithril 'finesse/versatile' longsword.

What is her strength? In 5e max stats are nice and all but not really required to be effective, even if she only has a 14 then she should do fine when push comes to melee.

Though this makes more sense to me. The Ranger in my group is a dex based archer, but uses a longsword in melee and she does just fine. The extra damage of the greatsword has to come as a trade-off somewhere. Using the lower (STR) ability score and no shield in this case.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

I don't see a problem if it's a magic item any more than her finding a Belt of X Strength would be.
With the exception of Sneak Attack. But eh, Sunblade says hi.

I agree. But magic is one thing, a weapon you can pick up from a bazarre for a few gold is another.

 

[Gnashtooth]

I don't know why some people don't get that they have to pay for versatility. My gnoll ranger uses a halberd two handed, but is dex based for AC. He has a 16 dex and 14 str. It's not the best, but if it's important to the character concept, sometimes you give stuff up. If Strength was your dump stat, then you just have to redesign the character to have a better strength if it's that important.