I just made a mistake – giving away powerful items

[Methinkus]

I just made a mistake – giving away powerful items

It was part of a campaign I recently decided not to continue, where all the PC’s would eventually find some very powerful equipment in an old elven armory which would motivate further adventures – you know, others want it, contingencies and geas spells on the armor that would lead to many cooky adventures in the future - but I’ve decided not to go that way after all. Not a problem right?

Well the thing is this, I already gave a very powerful sword to one of the PC’s because he would not have been able to use any of the major equipment they were going to find later on – an alignment problem – so that he wouldn’t feel underpowered. But now that the other PC’s aren’t going to be getting that equipment after all, he is way to strong with this item to be allowed to continue peacefully.

So what I’m asking is this; how would you get the item away from him without making the players feel like I was just compensating for something or that I had made a mistake – which I have, but they don’t need to know about that. I’m thinking I might have Duke Ijustkilledyourmother stop by and steal it from them, that way they have another reason to hate and fear my main evil NPC until they get tougher and kill him, or I could just go the way of Ethereal Filcher in the middle of the night, or something else entirely, but I wouldn’t feel right if it was something silly, like if Harpies ambushed the PC while he was by himself one day or when he was on the toilet.

The PC’s are level 4 and the sword is +3, holy, mercurial longs word, with which the Ranger who owns the sword has killed everything they faced single handedly. So the PC’s aren’t all powerful, but the game isn’t balanced anymore.

How do you deal with the problem of PC’s with magic junk that is simply way to good for them?

 

[Zad]

Sunder.

 

[jollyninja]

rust monsters, many of them, but give the party enough gems to reasonably reaquip themselves.

give the RM's a trainer in the employ of the evil duke, when the duke heard of the sword, he unleashed the trained monsters to deal with the problem, have the trainer use the above posts advice and sunder.

 

[Victim]

Sunder.

The lackey of level 9+ cleric or wizard villain should sunder the item.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Well the rightful owner of the Sword wants it back ? May even be the original owner 300 years ago... Undead can be very persuasive about having their belongings back.

Instead of being a dictator make the sword part of a story... its the only weapon that can kill a powerful Succubus and some self righteous clerics who worship her want that sword taken away. After the group gets tired of being trashed by the she devils companions a higher level NPC group offers to take the sword and stick it in the Succubus for them... etc...

 

[Oni]

Holy weapon huh, well here is what I would suggest. Have a agents from a good aligned temple show up and tell the party that they have been searching for the most holy relic of their temple. The relic is of course the sword. Being good aligned people they would probably start off by offering some sort of trade if the current holder seems to be of any sort of decent character. Perhaps a lesser magic item and the promise of service later (like maybe a free raise dead or something equally useful). If the party will not give it up, the agents would be obligated to take be force (though most likely none leathal unless the party doesn't give them much choice). If the party wants to know more about whats going to happen to the sword tell them that it is supposed to go the champion of the church, or that in addition to its other properties it is part of a seal to a portal underneath the temple or some such thing.

 

[Wolfspider]

Make the sword a heirloom of a powerful noble house, lost for many years. Have a scion of the noble house come looking for it, demanding to have it returned. The noble won't take no for an answer, but to be fair is willing to offer some monetary compensation. The noble's claim is verified by either runes on the blade that name the noble family or a crest or other symbol.

 

[Zappo]

Well the rightful owner of the Sword wants it back ? May even be the original owner 300 years ago... Undead can be very persuasive about having their belongings back.

No need for undead. An elf is more than enough.

 

[Cheezehog]

You could use Monte's Unholy Riven found at: http://www.montecook.com/mpress_BOEM2preview.html
Its CR is 13 but could just destroy the item and wonder off thereby becoming an enemy or plot point for the future.

A villian or group of villians could disarm and/pr steal if plot convienct.

 

[Enkhidu]

An interesting take on the Succubus idea used earlier by Rash...

What if they find out the sword was specifically created to destroy a demon of some sort, and the only reason the sword came back into the realm of mortals was so that it could once again be used to destroy it's nemesis?

That way, huge plot hooks can be brought to bear, and the weapon could be "done away with" (maybe being destoyed as it destroys it's nemesis, become non-magical again, etc) in a manner that the players wil find satisfying.