Ring of Attacks - Refined

[Angel Tarragon]

I'm contemplating a new kind of magic item. It would be a ring that would confer magical weapon abilities to any weapon held in the hand that the ring is worn on.

The character must have the Forge Ring feat in oder to craft a Ring of Attacks. Forging a Ring of Attacks requires one day for each 1,000 gp of the base price. All rings start with a base bonus of +1 that applies to any weapon used in attack rolls and damage.

A character that is not wielding a weapon in the hand the ring is on may not benefit from using his fist as a weapon to gain the weapon enhancements placed in the ring on unarmed attacks. Weapons wielded in his ring hand must not already be magical. If it is, the weapon does not gain the weapon enhancements placed within the ring.

If a character is wearing two rings of attacks and wielding a two handed weapon, the ring with the higher Base Price Modifier has its magical weapon abilities conferred on the two handed weapon. If both rings are of equal value roll a d20. A 1-10 indicates that the ring in the characters right hand has its enhancements conferred to the weapon. An 11-20 indicates that the ring in the characters left hand has its enhancements conferred to the weapon. However if one ring has an ego and one doesn't the ring with the ego always has its qualities conferred to a two handed weapon.

A ring cannot be enchanted with a weapon special ability that is only meant for being imbued into weapons (this is left up to the DM). The ring may not exceed in having more than a +9 bonus Base Price modifier in weapon enhancements as per Table 7-14 in the DMG because it already has a base of +1.

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Example of a Ring of Attacks:

Ring of Merciful Holy Attacks +1
This ring bestows on its wearer the ability to add these weapon qualities to any weapon being held in the hand the ring is worn on. Any weapon held in the characters ring hand deals an extra 1d6+1 points of damage to NPCs of good alignment and 3d6+1 points of damage against all of eval alignment. If te wearer of the ring so commands, the ring supresses this ability until commanded to resume it. The ring makes the weapon good aligned and allows to bypass corresponding damage reduction. The ring bestows one negative level on any evil creature that dons it. The negative level remains as long as the ring is worn and disappears as soon as the ring is taken off. The negative level never results in actual level loss but it cannot be overcome in any way (including restoration spells) while the ring is worn. Any melee or ranged weapon may benefit from the effects of this ring.

Moderate evocation [Good] & Faint conjuration; CL 7^th; Forge Ring, cure light wounds, holy smite, creator must be good; Price 32,000 gp.
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So, What do you think?

 

[Rystil Arden]

As long as the ring works on only nonmagical weapons, it wouldn't be unbalanced for weapons (it is massively unbalanced if it works on weapons that already have enchantments, as it becomes a way to dodge the quadratic price growth for multiple special abilities). The real question is the unarmed strikes part, since those Amulets of Mighty Fists are so expensive. I would probably make the ring affect nonmagical weapons only and not unarmed striked. Additionally, I would require the ring to have at least a +1 enhancement bonus before getting abilities, just like a weapon. So you gain the ability to shift your magic around to weapons of different materials and/or damage types (slashing, piercing, bludgeoning) at the cost of a ring slot but for the same price--a fair trade, in my opinion

 

[Bront]

I would have the ring override any magical abilities or bonuses of any weapon, so it could in theory work with a magic weapon, but not stack.

I agree that it shouldn't work on Unarmed.

Obviously, it has no effect on items that it wouldn't normaly effect (Returning for a Melee weapon example, or Disrupting on a non-bludgeoning weapon)

I would double the cost, because you can use the effect on multiple weapons, so a normal Bow and normal sword both become enchanted with the same enchantment when wielded.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I would have the ring override any magical abilities or bonuses of any weapon, so it could in theory work with a magic weapon, but not stack.

I agree that it shouldn't work on Unarmed.

Obviously, it has no effect on items that it wouldn't normaly effect (Returning for a Melee weapon example, or Disrupting on a non-bludgeoning weapon)

I would double the cost, because you can use the effect on multiple weapons, so a normal Bow and normal sword both become enchanted with the same enchantment when wielded.

Remember the reduction because it uses an extra slot though, so maybe 1.5x the cost?

 

[Bront]

1.5 would be appropriate for an out of slot item, so that will work.

Obviously this only works on one weapon, so duel wielders don't gain it on both weapons. So only works on the weapon wielded in that hand?

 

[Rystil Arden]

1.5 would be appropriate for an out of slot item, so that will work.

Obviously this only works on one weapon, so duel wielders don't gain it on both weapons. So only works on the weapon wielded in that hand?

Yes, it appears so. Of course, you could buy two rings, one for each weapon.

 

[Bront]

Which one takes precidence when you use a 2 handed weapon then?

 

[Rystil Arden]

Which one takes precidence when you use a 2 handed weapon then?

Good question--my guess would be the one on the primary hand (and of course, that in itself is up for grabs with the removal of a feat requirement fro Ambidexterity)

 

[Bront]

Perhaps the one with the strongest enchantment then, as it's likely to override.

And if they are equal, make it random

 

[LordBOB]

well if i remember correctly the discription said that a command word could shut the ring off. So if you had 2 rings you could choose which one you could activate.

All-in-all i like the idea...it sounds like it would be UBER expensive b/c of what it could possibally do