Have you used "signature items"?

[hong]

I am thinking of trying to get away from the "Magic Market" in the DMG and using items a character keeps for the long term. Items which can grow more powerful as the PC gains levels (ancestral blade, etc.). Does anybody have house rules for these kinds of "signature items" or know where I could look at some sample rules?

See the samurai class in OA, the levelled weapons article in Dragon 289, and the nemuranai chapter in Magic of Rokugan. I've also cooked up some house rules for imbued magic, using these as a starting point:

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~hong/dnd/imbued_magic.htm

 

[Blacksad]

I'll second what hong said.

and I'll add that I believe that sword of our father and staves of ascendence, both available at RPGnow, and soon to be available from Green Ronin in a compilation of both as a print product have such rules.

edit: RPGnow.com seems down, anyway here are the links toward the product description:

http://www.greenronin.com/cgi-bin/product.cgi?prodid=1022

http://www.thegamemechanics.com/products/swordsofourfathers.asp

http://www.thegamemechanics.com/products/stavesofascendance.asp

 

[Fenes 2]

I made several signature weapons in my campaigns. One was tailored for a blademaster (a modified Weapon Master): The weapon bonded with a blade master, and for each level in that prestige class the weapon gained a +, either an enhancement bonus, or some equivalent special ability, chosen by the PC.

 

[haiiro]

One more source of personal growth item rules to add to the pot: FFG's Spells & Spellcraft (an excellent book).

It covers a couple of different types of PG items, as well as a couple of different ways to advance them (and rules for creating them). It's a pretty good general take on the topic, and is fairly mechanics-light overall.

 

[Skarnkai]

Well an very easy way to do it is with the Soul Forge feat from Rokugan. It allows a character to bond a piece of equipment or item to himself like the ancestral daisho are. It has a few pre requisites though.

 

[Norfleet]

Explicit methods like this are fine and good, but I've always found them to be heavy-handed and unsubtle. It becomes a premeditated act by the player, rather than something spontaneous which just happens, that neither the player nor character are really conciously aware of.

Having it as something you pay for in with XPs and feats makes it seem no different from creating a magic item, which somehow detracts from the experience.

 

[Blacksad]

Having it as something you pay for in with XPs and feats makes it seem no different from creating a magic item, which somehow detracts from the experience.

Except that Fighter and Barbarian can't create magic items, here the difference.

Between the sword that the fighter bought, or that the wizard was nice enough to give/improve, and the one that you keep since your first level, choosing its path of improvement, there is a huge difference in the player behavior.

Also, if a DM is like me, and doesn't like to hide the fact that the latest sword is a +2 one after a few hit, or if the DM is using skill roll to determine magic items capacity, your method will be felt as heavy handed. Depends on DMing style I guess

 

[hong]

Explicit methods like this are fine and good, but I've always found them to be heavy-handed and unsubtle.

But having the DM specify all of an item's abilities in advance is somehow not heavy-handed?

It becomes a premeditated act by the player, rather than something spontaneous which just happens, that neither the player nor character are really conciously aware of.

Nonsense! Just think of it as being able to experience, as a DM, some of the delicious sense of unpredictability and lack of control which some DMs like to throw at their players at every opportunity. If it's such fun for the players, imagine how much fun it will be for you! Of course, not being a control freak DM, you will have no argument with this whatsoever.

Having it as something you pay for in with XPs and feats makes it seem no different from creating a magic item, which somehow detracts from the experience.

Does it now?