Freedom's Wrath - the Mace of Mandal (new inteligent item)

[Olive]

I have a slight problem with a player. Her character is really aweful in combat, and the player doesn't really participate in the roleplaying aspect of the game. Another player from the group today suggested that I might tackle the problem with giving the problem PC a special weapon that both helps in combat, plus gives a roleplaying opportunity.

One of the problems is that the PC, a cleric, has scores of 10 in Str and Dex. Simon (the other player) noticed the Intuative Attack feat from the BoED (like Weapon Finese, but for Wis rather than Dex), and pointed out that in 3.0 at least (we are playing 3.5) intelligent weapons could sometime grant the use of a feat to the wielder.

So I was wondering about this as a weapon:

Freedom's Wrath - the Mace of Mandal
Inteligent +1 light mace
Chaotic Good
Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 12; Empathy, 30' vision and hearing; Ego 8.
Lesser Power: Grants the wielder the Intuative Attack feat.
Special Purpose: To liberate the oppressed
Dedicated Power: Haste
Personality: Forged soon after the priestesses of Denarii were forced from the Underhome buring the dark years, this mace was used by the cleric Mandel to defeat the first coming of the Eldrath Veluthraa when they tried to enslave human refugees in the vicinity of the city of Caren. Mandel eventually founded the Great Temple of Denarii in Caren, to this day a centre of worship of this religion. Freedom's Wrath seeks combat on behalf of the oppressed, and is never happy unless it feels that it is doing something towards the goal of total liberation.

Is this overpowered? useful? Obviously these are all new powers. I selected the dedicated power as a 3rd level spell that fit with what the weapon's purpose is. I figure that a feat would be a lesser power as the +10 to one skill is a lesser power, and that would require 3.3 feats to achieve.

I also was intrested in the pricing. I put it at just over 58,000gp, which is more powerful than I'd like to give out, but I think it would be a useful item to help fix an issue in my game.

So, any coments?

 

[Telperion]

I have a slight problem with a player. Her character is really aweful in combat, and the player doesn't really participate in the roleplaying aspect of the game. Another player from the group today suggested that I might tackle the problem with giving the problem PC a special weapon that both helps in combat, plus gives a roleplaying opportunity.

One of the problems is that the PC, a cleric, has scores of 10 in Str and Dex. Simon (the other player) noticed the Intuative Attack feat from the BoED (like Weapon Finese, but for Wis rather than Dex), and pointed out that in 3.0 at least (we are playing 3.5) intelligent weapons could sometime grant the use of a feat to the wielder.

So I was wondering about this as a weapon:

Freedom's Wrath - the Mace of Mandal
Inteligent +1 light mace
Chaotic Good
Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 12; Empathy, 30' vision and hearing; Ego 8.
Lesser Power: Grants the wielder the Intuative Attack feat.
Special Purpose: To liberate the oppressed
Dedicated Power: Haste
Personality: Forged soon after the priestesses of Denarii were forced from the Underhome buring the dark years, this mace was used by the cleric Mandel to defeat the first coming of the Eldrath Veluthraa when they tried to enslave human refugees in the vicinity of the city of Caren. Mandel eventually founded the Great Temple of Denarii in Caren, to this day a centre of worship of this religion. Freedom's Wrath seeks combat on behalf of the oppressed, and is never happy unless it feels that it is doing something towards the goal of total liberation.

Is this overpowered? useful? Obviously these are all new powers. I selected the dedicated power as a 3rd level spell that fit with what the weapon's purpose is. I figure that a feat would be a lesser power as the +10 to one skill is a lesser power, and that would require 3.3 feats to achieve.

I also was intrested in the pricing. I put it at just over 58,000gp, which is more powerful than I'd like to give out, but I think it would be a useful item to help fix an issue in my game.

So, any coments?

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Well, that sounds nice enough. Although if you don't want to use a feat to give more kick to a character then I would suggest using the Force of Will spell from RR2. It goes like this:

Force of Will
Clr2, Pal2.

Subtitute your Wisdom modifier for one of your physical ability modifiers.

If you feel like making this into a fairly powerful intelligent item, then you could even stack more than one version of Force of Will into the weapon, and make the effect permanent as long as the weapon is wielded.

This way the character has an intelligent weapon, which the DM can control to a point, and gets the stat-boosts that she needs. The Haste sounds good .

 

[Olive]

Ah, but I don't have R&R2, where as I do have BoEM. Interesting spell though. It's not OGL by any wierd chance is it?

 

[Nightfall]

The spell names and their descriptive texts are not OGL, but the rest of the spells from R&R2 ARE OGC.

 

[exempt]

I like it, though the only question I have is why does it have such great abilities with only a +1 enchantment... they seem incongruous. But if that's ok with you, then that's fine, of coyrse.

 

[Olive]

I like it, though the only question I have is why does it have such great abilities with only a +1 enchantment... they seem incongruous. But if that's ok with you, then that's fine, of coyrse.

Yeah, I know. basically because I didn't want to make it too powerful so that the player overshadows everyone else. But I agree, why make all that mace and leave it at +1. Maybe I'll make it a +2...

 

[RuminDange]

why make all that mace and leave it at +1. Maybe I'll make it a +2...

Better Idea: Why not leave it at +1, write it in such a way that as the player gains in level so does the weapon. This way the weapon doesn't stay at whatever you make and doesn't get tossed away later for a mace with a higher plus.
I do this one one of my players swords. He dedicates up to 10% of earned exp to the weapon and the weapon has a level. It started out with a base set of powers but gets more as it levels.
something like what you have written is the base powers at lvl 1, then the follows something like:
Lvl 2 : increases to +2
Lvl 3 : Gains Chaotic (or whatever it is called in 3.5 now) power
Lvl 4 : increases to +3
Lvl 5 : etc...
figure out where you want to stop it at like maybe 10 lvls or 20. Either way it stays useful thoughout the character's career and helps define them, if they ever stop putting xp into it it can complain to be passed on, in the weapon's eyes it should as be improved or passed on. This way they pay for the increase of the weapon's power no different than the other player us wealth and/or xp to get weapons that suit them.
Also it starts over if ever passed on to another person. Each person has thier own level with the weapon.

I found this works great and have several weapons similiar IMW.

RD

 

[Olive]

Better Idea: Why not leave it at +1, write it in such a way that as the player gains in level so does the weapon.

Not a bad idea, but the player in question isn't that rules savvy, and I don't want to have to remind her, or having other players remind her.

 

[RuminDange]

Not a bad idea, but the player in question isn't that rules savvy, and I don't want to have to remind her, or having other players remind her.

Then don't remind just do it.
Set a percentage or treat the weapon as a cohort gaining no more than 25% of the xp the player gains since the weapon is not always used in everything the player does and handle it all behind the scenes. That way she never knows what is going on, has no idea what is coming next, and all of sudden one day her weapon does better or blasts lawful stick in the muds with great power, etc...
Make the development of new powers fun to find out about and a surprize and the player may never look at another weapon again (that of course assumes this one never stops developing powers over time). Not to mention a story and character that would be remembered for long time after the character is gone, and told again and again to new players and groups. A DM's Legecy.

Just a thought.
RD

 

[Olive]

Then don't remind just do it.
Set a percentage or treat the weapon as a cohort gaining no more than 25% of the xp the player gains since the weapon is not always used in everything the player does and handle it all behind the scenes. That way she never knows what is going on, has no idea what is coming next, and all of sudden one day her weapon does better or blasts lawful stick in the muds with great power, etc...

That's a really really great idea. I won't tell her about the haste either, just the core feat and +1 and then have it get better as she serves her Goddess. Thanks a lot!