Is this going overboard?

[Sodalis]

First lemme ask a question?

by lvl 15, what kind of sword (or any other weapon) would be appropriate for a group to have?

Now I have been playing since it 3E came out. i bought the DMG and thougth that the weapons wetre really cool, and would like to someday customize a weapon for myself. By lvl 15, i finally got enough money to buy me a cool custom +4 weapon. the only problem is that the DM is big on DR and so I feel obligated to spend all the +4 (or at least +3) on just magic mod and +1 on somethignlike frost. but I really wanted somethig better.

We are a rotating group and it is my turn to DM. In response to the lack of magic weapons, I decided to just give my players a big weapon that only they can use.. and I kinda got rid of pricing.
Their weapon is a +7 (any combo they want) with intelligence and a purpose and purpose powers.

I was just wondering if I went overboard? or is a +7 intelligent weapon adequate for a party of lvl 15 players (rogue, sorc, clr)

 

[omedon]

Hmm... I am not sure if your weapon is too powerful for a group of your level, although I suspect that it might be. However, if you want to have interesting weapons in your games you might want to take a gander at the Leveled Magic Items article in Dragon 289. Basically your weapons power grows as you level up.

Looking at the article now it actuallly has a table showing what the power of a weapon should be. At level 15 The weapon XP needed is 19,600 and the bonus is plus 7. It mentions that magic items cannot go beyond +5. The difference then (7-5=2) would be used to determine other abilites such as keen, frost, shock, mighty cleaving, etc.

So you should be able to have a +5 weapon at your level with some one or two other attributes (depending on there potency).

If you are interested though, you should probably just have a look at the article yourself.

 

[Akunin]

Is this one weapon for the entire group, or one weapon each? If the former, it doesn't sound *too* bad, but it would help to know how much magic has been given out to the PCs so far.

If you check the value of each character's equipment against the tables given for PC wealth by level, it'll give you a good gage of if your characters are over or under the "standard award level" and by how much.

You may want to pay attention to the pricing of this weapon you're making, and try to keep it within the guidelines for character wealth. If it's *really* valuable, and there's only one for the entire party, the players might make plans to sell it, split the loot, and buy their own magic weapons.

 

[Skald]

Although I don't know the particulars of your campaign, I think it is bad policy to give out magic items "just because" or if a particular item happens to be "cool."

Does your party need a +7 weapon? What special purpose does it serve, and are the players going to actually use the weapon to fulfill this purpose?

It's intelligent, you say, and only the party can use it. Will this weapon force the party to partake in a quest then, or can the fact that only the party can use it serve as a means to make NPCs not bother trying to steal it?

You also mentioned pricing (even though you skipped the necessity when handing it out the weapon). Are magical weapons normally for sale in your campaign? Why on earth (or whatever your campaign world's name is) would the owner want to sell a weapon such as that? Was there an adventure that the party undertook to gather the materials necessary to forge such a weapon, or did they convince a very powerful and high-level wizard to make it for them at no cost?

I'm not going to attack you personally here, but yes, I do think you went overboard by simply handing out the weapon, not to mention avoiding the exciting and arduous adventures it should have taken to gain an item of that much power. The party didn't earn it (yes, they've earned their levels, but not the sword), there were no sacrifices involved in gaining it, and I guarantee that as soon as you take it away, someone is going to throw a fit.

A +7 sword... wow. I never found anything like that in all my gaming years.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Their weapon is a +7 (any combo they want) ...

I assume by the 'any combo' comment, he meant that the players choose powers equal to +7 in enchantment...

That alone is fine, I'm iffy about intelligence on it...

 

[Victim]

It's not that hard to have a weapon with lots of powers, and then have someone cast Greater Magic Weapon on it. A +7 equivalent weapon costs about 98k, so it should be within the reach of a level 15 character, they just wouldn't have much other good stuff.

 

[Sodalis]

yes- when I said it was a +7, I meant it was a combination of magic bonus and enhancement (frost, keen, dancing...)

And I did hand one out to each player, but I think the rogue will be only person really willing to use it on a regular basis. the cleric is happy in the back, and the sorc is happy inv and flying.

As for intelligence, I wanted to just test it out. I have never played with a intelligent item before and wanted to see how it works.


My reasoning for handing these out (and not questing) is that i feel that a lvl 15 character (mainly fighters) should have a signature weapon. In every movie, a Bada$$ fighter always had a really cool blade. nobody knows where he got, and what he is doing with it. But those that challenge hm for it paid with their lives.

I personally don't think the characters knows what to do with teh intelligence either. I just want to use it keep tabs on them- make sure that they only use that weapon for a specific purpose...and not kill any and everyting.

As for background magic items:
like I said, I have been playing for almost 2 years, and all i have on my barb was a +2 mithril chain shirt and a +2 waraxe. The rogue has a +4 gloves of dex and the sorc has a ring of protection +2.

But that was in his campaign. Now that I have taken over, i want to continue the chars in a new kingdom (they are passing by or someting) and there is an abundance of magic items (major mages guilds, lots of churches...) and adventurers appear by the handful. Basically, they will have to watch where they tread, because I have littered the kingdom with random fighters and mages of ALL levels- most below them, some above.
And the focus of the weapon will keep them from just hacking at everyone.

 

[Sodalis]

to continue:

My rationale for a +7 weapon was that lvl 20 was the highest a character can attain (for now) and +10 is the best a weapon can be, so by simple division, you have a +1 enhancement for every two levels.

Also, a Samurai (OA) follows this same progression for his magic katana.

 

[Akunin]

A +7 equivalent weapon costs about 98k, so it should be within the reach of a level 15 character, they just wouldn't have much other good stuff.

True, but these are intelligent weapons with special purpose and powers. That can add +10k to +90k to the cost of the weapon.

Just handing out powerful weapons to "test them out", or out of a sense of "high-level characters need to have signature weapons" is a bad idea, IMO - the players may have been seriously slighted in the magic rewards gained over their careers, but to compensate by dropping mighty weapons in their laps isn't a good solution.

What about the arcane types who have no real use for such a weapon, and who'd rather have items to boost stats, or magical bracers? Since they are the only ones able to use them, selling them and buying something more useful is out of the question. I think the fact that the Rogue is the only one who seems happy with the gift is very telling - maybe you should talk to the players and ask them if they'd like to see changes in the way treasure is given out, and take suggestions from them.

It seems to me that the old DM should have paid better attention to the treasure guidelines, or the players' expectations should have been set that it was to be a low-magic campaign. The solution you've presented goes too far, I think.

 

[Conaill]

I'd say that at most a character should spend about half his entire wealth on a weapon, more likely only 1/4 to 1/3. The rest would go to armor and other magic items.

So... a 15th level character should own about 200K wealth (DMG table 5-1, pg145). 1/2 would be 100K, or a total of +7 weapon (DMG table 8-10, pg184). 1/4 to 1/3 would be +5 or +6.

So... the average 15th level character will have a +5 or +6 weapon, with the exception being a +7 weapon.

Alternatively, you could also have a look at the sample NPC's in the DMG (starting page 48).