Ditching all magic weapons; replacing with legendary weapons.

[RodneyThompson]

Hey all,

For my homebrew campaign world, I'm seriously considering ditching the whole concept of generic magic items and going only with legendary items in the vein of those displayed in The Game Mechanics' Swords of Our Fathers sourcebook. Essentially, the ONLY magic weapons in the entire game would be those that are unique, eliminating the concept of scanning treasure for magic items and selling off old ones for an upgrade. I think this should be possible given that the world is rare-magic (I wouldn't say low magic because those that CAN use magic are extremely powerful, but incredibly rare). However, what problems am I going to run into here? I've already thought of the problem with critters that can only be hit by enchanted weapons, and of the problems weaning standard D&D players off of the common magic item mentality. Any other ideas?

 

[Bugbear]

well, there is the potential problems of the PCs creating their own magicial weapons. of course this could "problem" could be the solution to creatures with DR also.

Alternativly, you could give creatures with special DR an alternative weakness which the players would need to find and exploit.

 

[WanderingMonster]

Rip an idea off from 3.5e. According to the new Pit fiend's write up, one needs Holy Silver to affect him. Mere magic weapons won't do the trick.

 

[RJSmalls]

Heha

OT: I'm losing it, I think. I just laughed out loud for five minutes after reading Wandering Monster's sig. Ahhhhh...save me.

 

[dave_o]

I'd also suggest going for legendary (magic) item experience. Letting items level up with their user.

Something like this reminds me a lot of Black Company. Magic is rare, but powerful, and with the exception of the mass-produced fireball wands to fight shadows, magic items are doubly rare.

Good idea, I say!

 

[Darrin Drader]

what problems am I going to run into here?

Overall, I think this is an excellent idea. I do foresee one problem that you will run into. You will most likely have NPC's, and in order for them to be a sufficient challenge to a group of adventurers, they too will need magic weaponry and armor. By limiting the campaign to legendary weapons, what you will effectively be doing is replacing standard magic weapons with legendary ones, which will actually raise the magic level in your campaign and make the problem of magic items being too common even worse. The characters will still have the mentality of scavenging magic from the dead in order to sell it, but legendary weaponry will fill that niche and could give them even more valuable merchandise to trade in.

My suggestion is to plant some legendary weapons that they are meant to find and use, and then make most of the other ones they find a bit below what they are using now (how far below is up to you and how much of a chance you want their enemies to have against them). You could also create a class of weaponry that only evil NPC's use that bears tha taint of evil and has a negative modifier in the hands of any good or neutral characters.

Just food for thougth.

 

[Tonguez]

Hey all,

For my homebrew campaign world, I'm seriously considering ditching the whole concept of generic magic items and going only with legendary items

What generic items? - you mean to tell me their are generic magic items?

Seriously - ditching generic items and replacing them with Legendary items isn't a problem at all and its how I play.
Yeah sure the Heavenly Lightning Spear might give a +2 to BAb and shoot bolts of lightning from its tip.

But did you know that when combined with the Gauntlet of Power it gives the weilder control over the weather, and if the weilder also wears the Crown of the Rain Queen she will be able to summon Air Elementals. (okay this requires the PCs to also locate the companion items - and thus go on more adventures- but other systems are possible too)

PS I do however allow Experts to create 'Masterpeice' items which have +1 - +3 bonuses of non-magical origin which can affect DR none the less. I also think 3.5s use of Dr/types is way better for roleplaying - it means I can use things like Cold Iron (obviously) and Salt (less obvious) as weapons against Fey.
Oh yeah Dr 15/Salt

I'm not too sure on the Game Mechanics PrC idea though - need more info.

 

[RodneyThompson]

You will most likely have NPC's, and in order for them to be a sufficient challenge to a group of adventurers, they too will need magic weaponry and armor. By limiting the campaign to legendary weapons, what you will effectively be doing is replacing standard magic weapons with legendary ones, which will actually raise the magic level in your campaign and make the problem of magic items being too common even worse.

Actually, I'm hoping to avoid this altogether. In fact, I will probably be getting rid of magic items on the whole except for maybe one or two for the whole party. These weapons are supposed to be like Sting and Glamdring. I guess it's a whole other discussion altogether, but I'm going to be stripping away magic items as well as replacing them with legendary items. The question then becomes how to make it so that if one or two players have legendary items the other players won't feel overshadowed.

 

[RodneyThompson]

What generic items? - you mean to tell me their are generic magic items?

I meant the non-artifact magic items from the DMG, but I think you know that. Just clarifying.

I'm not too sure on the Game Mechanics PrC idea though - need more info.

Actually, it's relatively well done. You still gain many of the class features of your old class -- with exceptions for Paladins and monks -- so it's like you're still progressing in the original class. Drop the $5 on the supplement, you'll see what I mean.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

I guess I'll have to check out the supplement, then. I didn't like the PrC idea at first, just something about the concept of your class being someone who found a magic sword. But if it integrates with the other classes that would work a lot better.

The question then becomes how to make it so that if one or two players have legendary items the other players won't feel overshadowed.

Two suggestions I can think of here. First, make the legendary weapons only effective against very specific things, for example an evil humanoid race that serves the main bad guy (or whatever). This will also help with the problem of equipping NPC villains with Legendary Items, if the weapons don't work against them then it's not as much of a balance issue.

The second suggestion would be to not limit this to weapons. There's already rules for intelligent rods and staves in the DMG. I haven't seen the "Swords" PDF yet, but presumably the rules could be ported to something similar. In this manner, your wizard could have a legendary staff to counterbalance the fighter's legendary sword, even if the staff doesn't have all that much combat potential.

Then, there's no reason why these special little things should even be magic items. Now that I'm starting a new campaign I'm going to be restricting magic more, and was thinking of making a legendary-type sword for the duellist. Other people in the group get other special things that may not even be items- the twin half-elves, for example, will eventually discover that they have fae heritage, not elvish. This will open up a subplot for them and give access to some sort of fae magic or something (haven't decided yet). Essentially, everyone in the party gets a unique trait, and it doesn't have to be limited to magic weapons or even items.