Wraith Form
Explorer
I posted this in House Rules, too...wasn't sure what category this falls under.
...So I was hasty and spontaneously made up a magic long bow, wielded by an NPC opponent, that my 4th level players got their hands on once they defeated him. The bow transforms standard arrows into "shadow arrows" (think the LOST smoke monster) that ignore armor and hits Touch AC. Once the arrow strikes, it dissolves into a wisp of smoke leaving a sucking wound that does an additional +2 damage due to bleeding. (In the Magic Item Compendium, it would be an impaling weapon [p. 37]--the "sucking wound" thing is my own creation.) The bow as I described it, however, appears to be able to fire several times per day.
I had the NPC opponent shoot several of these arrows at my party without thinking of the ramifications of a Touch AC weapon that has no "X times per day" limit. I mean, that goes from "mildly overpowered" to "dramatically insanely overpowered" when we're looking at NPCs that can get hit by Touch ACs of 10 or 11 every single time it fires.
My intention is to make it a Legacy weapon--the bow is Elvish in make, and as the Elf player who's using it investigates the bow's powers and history, it'll increase in power. I have a whole history for the bow, and (better balanced) powers that activate at certain levels once the player meets certain requirements.
Does this bow need to have a limitation to it currently? I was thinking having it create "shadow arrows" out of standard arrows x6/day. (That's roughly the number of times the NPC opponent fired at the party.) The rest of the time it'll be a standard +1 bow.
Or it might make "shadow arrows" only when the bow is not in sunlight.
Or it might force the player to save vs. Will (DC 15) or geas/'induce' the player to not use other weapons, with a cumulative +1 to the DC the more he fires the bow. (It 'resets' back to DC 15 each day.)
Any ideas for limitations that won't utterly suck?
(Hey, I'm a new DM, so I'm allowed to make a magic weapon gaffe on occasion!)
...So I was hasty and spontaneously made up a magic long bow, wielded by an NPC opponent, that my 4th level players got their hands on once they defeated him. The bow transforms standard arrows into "shadow arrows" (think the LOST smoke monster) that ignore armor and hits Touch AC. Once the arrow strikes, it dissolves into a wisp of smoke leaving a sucking wound that does an additional +2 damage due to bleeding. (In the Magic Item Compendium, it would be an impaling weapon [p. 37]--the "sucking wound" thing is my own creation.) The bow as I described it, however, appears to be able to fire several times per day.
I had the NPC opponent shoot several of these arrows at my party without thinking of the ramifications of a Touch AC weapon that has no "X times per day" limit. I mean, that goes from "mildly overpowered" to "dramatically insanely overpowered" when we're looking at NPCs that can get hit by Touch ACs of 10 or 11 every single time it fires.
My intention is to make it a Legacy weapon--the bow is Elvish in make, and as the Elf player who's using it investigates the bow's powers and history, it'll increase in power. I have a whole history for the bow, and (better balanced) powers that activate at certain levels once the player meets certain requirements.
Does this bow need to have a limitation to it currently? I was thinking having it create "shadow arrows" out of standard arrows x6/day. (That's roughly the number of times the NPC opponent fired at the party.) The rest of the time it'll be a standard +1 bow.
Or it might make "shadow arrows" only when the bow is not in sunlight.
Or it might force the player to save vs. Will (DC 15) or geas/'induce' the player to not use other weapons, with a cumulative +1 to the DC the more he fires the bow. (It 'resets' back to DC 15 each day.)
Any ideas for limitations that won't utterly suck?
(Hey, I'm a new DM, so I'm allowed to make a magic weapon gaffe on occasion!)
