Legendary Magic Items - your experiences?

[Warmaster Horus]

I'm kicking around an idea where the PCs can retrieve a legendary Sword of Fiend-Bane.
The biggest problem I have right now is figuring out how to let the PCs know its power (and its limitations) without running somebody's character for one fight.

Sure, it sounds fun to say, "OK, fighter, you draw the sword; it gets a look at that tough nasty over there, lets out a battle cry, and CHARGES across the battlefield. You are drug along for the ride."
"Man, I was gonna stab this monster in front of me who is trying to eat my squishy friend."

Dream sequence/montage?

 

[Swarmkeeper]

(Nothing to see here)

 

[Azzy]

........

Don't you hate it when you post something to the wrong thread?

 

[Coroc]

[MENTION=6803337]Eltab[/MENTION] #5 What might this be ? An everfull Tankard of ultimate booze?

 

[Eltab]

An Everfull Tankard of Ultimate Booze?

We all wish! (Except me - alcohol makes me sick to my stomach. But I can still take unfair advantage - "You've had too many to drive, but let me take you home. I need some money for gas; umm, how much is left in your wallet?" - of the tipsy people...)

IIRC, it was a Warhammer.
Come to think of it, the 5e version of the White Plume artifacts were published in the Dungeon Masters' Guide, with no particular context. (This one is NOT Blackrazor.)

 

[Nevvur]

Hello,

I just browsed the DM's guide again and just for the fun of it was dreaming about my paladin having one (or more!) legendary items one day... (far away, if ever, now we are level 4).

As I also DM, my "DM-side" thought: "I'd never gave this one out!" when looking at some items.
For example almost all the stuff my paladin would like to have:
Holy Avenger, Belt of Giant Strength, Armor +3 or Invulnerabilty, ...

Some items seem more artifact or epic like, which I would possibly hand out only in some special epic "kill-archfiend-save-universe" adventure / campaign.
Come on, a belt of storm giant strength is effin' hilarious, str 29?

So what is your experience in actual game play with legendary items?
The 5e campaigns I DM'd ended at level 12 / is at level 5, the one I'm playing in are at about level 5, so far away from -err- almost any magic item right now...

In the game where I'm a player, I've got a paladin. Party fought a death knight, after which my PC examined his sword and determined that it was a corrupted holy avenger. Got the notion to redeem it. Been working on that since level 13, we're 15 now. The blade is intelligent and basically addicted to evil, and going cold turkey left it weak. My PC convinced it to stop causing necrotic damage after a "social" scene (quotes because I'm not sure it's social to talk with your weapons) and persuasion check. Restored the +3 bonus by defeating a powerful demon and reminding the blade of its purpose. Not sure yet what it'll take to restore the aura and radiant damage. Still, assuming my PC doesn't start down the path of evil, the sword's prospects are good. I suspect it'll be a full blown Holy Avenger just in time for the campaign's epic finale.

I'm glad the DM is handling it this way. It would've felt cheap and dirty to get a Holy Avenger in a random treasure horde or otherwise simply handed to me.

As a DM, I don't really distribute legendary items/artifacts. I've given out some items that are borderline, but they've been mostly utility/plot device. For instance, one PC recently acquired a magical book that can record his thoughts/mental images perfectly, and which can easily but irrevocably erase old records to make room for new ones as needed. Little does he know the book is sentient and can write onto itself, and has been doing so for centuries, backing up all its contents in an Ithkuil-like language printed in microscopic characters imperceptible to the naked eye. It effectively contains several libraries worth of information, and can recall any of it instantly for its owner.

But that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Like my paladin and the Holy Avenger, the PC is going to have to work to gain the item's trust and cooperation. No easy task for the new owner of the book, as I asked the player for suggestions as to its personality, and he suggested Orpheus from Venture Bros.

 

[Sleepy Walker]

In my experience keeping a legendary magical item in a campaign can lead to certain imbalances. It boosts one player up really high (unless it is a cool item which helps/hurts the party). I have seen the existence of this item promote two things in players.

- Players trying to match that effectiveness with their base characters (promotes power gaming)
- Players trying to perform other functions in the party (forces players into a niche, normally a more supportive role)

I can see room for 1 or 2 very powerful items in a party. Any more for any long period of time and the niches or options for play start getting very constricted. It is possible for one great mage and one great warrior to be in a party and still allow for other mages and warriors, but any more and people do not have a chance to play what they want in an effective way.

If everybody is ok with this, then there is nothing wrong with having a powerful magical item in the party. Biggest thing is to make sure that powerful item has a flaw, curse, or a weakness which is exploitable in the average combat, social, or exploration scenarios.

 

[Istbor]

I'm kicking around an idea where the PCs can retrieve a legendary Sword of Fiend-Bane.
The biggest problem I have right now is figuring out how to let the PCs know its power (and its limitations) without running somebody's character for one fight.

Sure, it sounds fun to say, "OK, fighter, you draw the sword; it gets a look at that tough nasty over there, lets out a battle cry, and CHARGES across the battlefield. You are drug along for the ride."
"Man, I was gonna stab this monster in front of me who is trying to eat my squishy friend."

Well, the item overpowering the wielder is certainly one approach. I typically telegraph or narrate more to show the powers of items like this. Have an encounter with fiends (strong or weak, really depends on the party level and story). These creatures can either recognize the weapon when drawn, displaying fear or absolute disdain or hate towards the weapon and wielder, or you can describe a distinct difference when the fiend-bane weapon lands a hit compared to a regular weapon. Have the creature reel back or hiss in pain, or even exclaim "It BURNS ussssss!". Make it obvious that this weapon does something different when striking this type of foe.

Though technically, when a character attunes or takes a short rest to identify an item they should be able to discover most of its properties. I can appreciate making this process more interesting though.

 

[Eltab]

Have an encounter with fiends (strong or weak, really depends on the party level and story). These creatures can either recognize the weapon when drawn, displaying fear or absolute disdain or hate towards the weapon and wielder, or you can describe a distinct difference when the fiend-bane weapon lands a hit compared to a regular weapon.

I was thinking about having a tough scary demon pursuing the party. They know his ability in combat, and should be wary of him.
They obtain the sword. For its first combat, they face some other foe, and the intelligent blade quietly grumbles about being deployed against "mere mindless monsters".
Eventually the demon catches up to them again. When the wielder draws the sword and it gains line-of-sight to that demon, it lets out a top-of-its-"lungs" battle cry - "Too long have I slumbered / But now MY QUEST RESUMES!" - and charges over to the demon.
I then tell the player that he can roll lots and lots of damage dice.
The demon should go down quickly, contrasting with how he was such a toughie before.

I don't want the first demon to recognize this legendary blade, because that will set off a 'dragnet' among the other demons, as word spreads. (There is a time for the PCs to deal with that, just not yet.)

 

[Istbor]

I was thinking about having a tough scary demon pursuing the party. They know his ability in combat, and should be wary of him.
They obtain the sword. For its first combat, they face some other foe, and the intelligent blade quietly grumbles about being deployed against "mere mindless monsters".
Eventually the demon catches up to them again. When the wielder draws the sword and it gains line-of-sight to that demon, it lets out a top-of-its-"lungs" battle cry - "Too long have I slumbered / But now MY QUEST RESUMES!" - and charges over to the demon.
I then tell the player that he can roll lots and lots of damage dice.
The demon should go down quickly, contrasting with how he was such a toughie before.

I don't want the first demon to recognize this legendary blade, because that will set off a 'dragnet' among the other demons, as word spreads. (There is a time for the PCs to deal with that, just not yet.)

Ah. I had not realized that the weapon was intelligent and could speak. That should make your task a lot simpler.