Trying to make balanced but cool item

[Shaker]

So as part of the campaign I'm writing, one of the characters is picking up a pair of magical rapiers - I want them to be cool, since they tie into his story very tightly, but not overpowered. Here's the basic design I'm trying, and I'd like other DM's opinions on what may be too much. In essence, I do want him to prefer these over anything else he'd find (and he would anyway due to story concerns) but I don't want them to completely overpower the campaign.

I'm dropping them in as lvl 5 magic items, basically at the 'final' level of their respective plus, so he won't be able to upgrade them to +2 till he has access to lvl 10 magic items.

So the idea is that there's a pair of these swords, and they house the souls of two powerful wolves - the two wolves are somewhat competitive, so they tend to balance eachother out.

Base stats are +1 rapiers with no properties/powers. When he lands a killing blow with an attack, the rapier in his main hand 'empowers', going to +2 with no properties, and the other one (losing the 'competition') goes to +0. They can further empower/diminish one more rank, giving him a +3 and a -1 (-1 to attack, -1 to damage, 0d6 on crit). He can swap which sword is in which hand in order to balance them back out if he so chooses. After an extended rest, the swords reset to the balanced state.

When a sword is at its maximum or minimum level, it gains a property - this is where the balance seems to get tricky. The ideas I had so far were:

First sword (Lone Wolf theme, based on mobility) max level property (when the sword is fully empowered) - Gain access to Wolf Spirit Walk power:
Free Action - At will
Can only be used once per turn, can only be used on player's turn
Move 2 squares - this movement ignores difficult terrain

Minimum level property (when the OTHER sword is fully empowered): -1 to base movement speed

Second sword (Leader of the Pack theme - based on group combat) max level property, when the sword is fully empowered - Gain access to Dogpile power:
Free Action - Encounter
Trigger: Your attack bloodies an enemy
Effect: All of your allies adjacent to that enemy can make a MBA as an opportunity action.

Minimum level property (when the other sword is fully empowered): Player grants enemies +3 to attack rolls with combat advantage instead of +2.


So the things I'm not sure about are generally the properties - are the positives too good? Should the "Dogpile" power be a daily instead of an encounter - should the MBA be an interrupt action so it has some cost to the players using it? And I had a very hard time coming up with a 'negative' property for the Leader of the Pack sword - I wanted something that wasn't just "you get -1 to hit" or "-1 to damage", so if anyone has cool ideas there, I'm very interested in hearing it.

 

[weem]

I'm a visual guy, so let me lay this out as I understand it (correct me if it looks wrong) - it might help others who are visual like me as well...

What is Fully Charged: To get a blade fully "charged", the player would need to deliver the killing blow to 2 non-minion mobs with said blade in his main hand. At that point, the other blade would apply its negative effect.

So, the two situations you are concerned about (with regards to balance) are...

Situation 1

Main hand: Fully Charged "Lone Wolf" Blade

+3 Attack Bonus

- plus -

Wolf Spirit Walk
Free Action - At will
Can only be used once per turn, can only be used on player's turn
Move 2 squares - this movement ignores difficult terrain

Off Hand: Negatively impacted "Leader of the Pack" Blade

-1 to attack, -1 to damage, 0d6 on crit




Situation 2

Main hand: Fully Charged "Leader of the Pack" Blade

+3 Attack Bonus

- plus -

Dogpile
Free Action - Encounter
Trigger: Your attack bloodies an enemy
Effect: All of your allies adjacent to that enemy can make a MBA as an opportunity action.

Off Hand: Negatively impacted "Lone Wolf" Blade

-1 to attack, -1 to damage, 0d6 on crit

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Like I said, it looks cool to me - I'm curious to see what people think about the balance as well

 

[Shaker]

If you lay out as situations - you have these situations:

Balance (just after extended rest):
Each sword is a +1 Magic Rapier (+1 attack, +1 damage, +1d6 on crit)

After one kill (and yes, non-minion):
Mainhand sword: +2 (+2 attack, +2 damage, +2d6 on crit)
Offhand sword: +0 (+0 attack, +0 damage, +0d6 on crit)

After a 2nd kill without swapping which is in the MH vs OH, these two scenarios exist:
Lone Wolf Empowered:
Mainhand (Lone Wolf): +3 (+3 attack, +3 damage, +3d6 on crit), Property: Access to Wolf Spirit Walk
Offhand (Leader of the Pack): -1 (-1 attack, -1 damage, 0d6 on crit), Property: -1 to base movement speed

Leader of the Pack Empowered:
Mainhand (Leader of the Pack): +3 (+3 attack, +3 damage, +3d6 on crit), Property: Access to Dogpile Power
Offhand (Lone Wolf): -1 (-1 attack, -1 damage, 0d6 on crit), Property: Grant +3 to enemy attack rolls when they have CA


At any point the player can swap which is the mainhand, and when he lands a killing blow, it moves each sword 1 tier in the opposite direction (from +0/+2 to +1/+1, etc) - this is if he wants to access the other sword's property.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Cool idea.

At first I thought that this would not be balanced, until I noticed that dogpile was an encounter power, and that the swords only reset after an extended rest.

I don't expect that you'll ever see a player swapping the swords once one is fully charged unless they've got multiple powers that require main and off-hand attacks, like a ranger. Losing 4 points of attack bonus is just too high a price to pay.

 

[Shaker]

The character is, in fact, a ranger - the swords are definitely intended for characters that use two weapon fighting specifically.

 

[Eric Finley]

Honestly, it's a neat idea but I'd almost be inclined to counterbalance things rather than accentuate them - that is, that it's the disempowered one which offers an incentive to switch to it, and if so resets the swords.

So, for example:

- Lone Wolf blade maxed at +3: You may no longer participate in flanking.
- Lone Wolf blade bottomed out at -1: You may use the Rebellion power.

Rebellion - Immediate interrupt, at-will. When you are granted the ability to spend a healing surge, or make a saving throw, by an ally, you may forgo the granted effect. If you do, shift 1 square away from the granting ally - this move is not optional - and then use a standard action attack power which uses this weapon, and does not use the companion blade, as a free action. Before the attack, both blades reset to +1.

- Leader of the Pack maxed out at +3: The only Standard action you may perform during your turn, other than when spending an Action Point, is Ready Action; it must key to an ally's action (either movement or the use of a specific power). You may ready any action you normally could. (As the GM, be forgiving of the "one interrupt action per turn" and "readied actions are immediate reactions" situation here. But don't bother to write it in explicitly, IMO.)
-- If this is too complicated, the simpler version: you suffer a -1 penalty to hit any creature you are not flanking.
- Leader of the Pack bottomed out at -1: You may use the Cry Havok power.

Cry Havok - Immediate reaction, at-will. Martial, weapon. Use when an adjacent ally bloodies an adjacent enemy. Make an attack using this weapon, Str vs. Fort, on the bloodied enemy. Before making the attack, both blades reset to +1. If the attack hits, it inflicts [W]+Str damage, and until the end of the next turn of whoever's turn it is, each ally who targets this enemy with a standard action attack may shift two squares before that attack. This free shift must improve the attack against this enemy - either by bringing them into position to attack it, or flanking it, or by improving line of sight etc. to the target. (GM's discretion on this last, of course.)

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Now, that would be a really cool dynamic, encouraging the player to periodically switch tactical styles.