Give me some ideas for creating a relic

[Shin Okada]

Well, one of my player's PC, who is a Kensai, lost his signature weapon. So I gave him a rather hard quest (must kill a Wyrm White Dragon!) for getting a new weapon, which is meant to be blessed by Bahamut.

The player wanted a Sunblade. Mainly because it seems cool to wield a Sun-themed blade when fighting against the various villains from the Underdark (mainly forming the invading armies), and those from the Shadow Plane (they are the one truly behind the war).

But instead of just giving him an usual Sunblade, I want to make it a Relic of Bahamut. The blade works as a Sunblade for LG, NG, or LN characters. But to use the Relic Power (s), the PC must either sacrifice a 8th-level Divine spell slot or must be 15+HDs and has True Believer feat. That can be met by the PC as he is now a 15th-level PC worshipping Bahamut (retraining will give him the True Believer feat).

Now the subject is, what should be the Relic's power(s). The sword is blessed by Bahamut. But the PCs are fighting against the forces from Shadow Plane, mainly Shades and other native creatures of the shadow plane (Shadow Beasts, creatures with Dark Template, Shadow Elementals, undead creatures and such). The Sunblade is already very strong against undead creatures, but not that great against others.

Do you people here have some nice and cool ideas? Any suggestions and random thoughts will be welcomed.

By the way, I will allow him to enhance the blade further, by using Kensai's ability. In that case, the blade is considered to be just a +2 weapon. So, say, he may later give it +5 enhancement bonus. That will cost the difference between +2 weapon and +5 weapon. And will make the Sunblade's "+4 enhance bonus against evil creatures" useless. Still the sword will inflict double damage against undead creatures, though.

 

[Celebrim]

Pick powers similar to those found on an intelligent special purpose item. If you can't find something with the right flavor, substitute a power or spell of similar level and utility.

Then decide what sort of drawbacks it should have, including possibly being intelligent (which is a fairly huge drawback depending on how much EGO the item has and how demanding it is).

Rely on what you know about Bahumut for inspiration. What is the platinum dragon known for? Look at his entry. Make smaller versions of his prominent abilities.

To be an actual 'relic' in a technical sense, it must have a bit of Bahumut actually in it - a scale, a bit of claw, or some such.

 

[pdzoch]

Sound like the Saint's Mace or Mace of St Cuthbert would be a good model. I would make it a +5 blade. No disruption. The Searing Light spellcast feature makes sense given the name and specialized foe -- shadow and undead. You might reduce the usage instead of "at will" and I would tie the "caster level" to the wielder level, so it becomes more powerful as the character advances (instead of being max level at the start). I would be inclined to make the blade holy and axiomatic (LG wielder only). I do not think I would allow the kensai "Keen blade +2" to stack with the divinely honed +5. But bonding makes sense.

 

[Shin Okada]

Making it into an intelligent weapon sounds good.

Maybe I can give it high enough mental ability scores to gain at least one greater power and give it the ability to cast Daylight spell (along with lessor powers such as Faerie Fire). That will help the champion of Tiamat fighting against monsters of shadows.