Weapon Augment Crystals are wrong and dirty

[Jason Opheim]

I recently bought the new magic item compendium. I really liked the Augmented Crystals for weapons until I noticed their fatal flaw. My 27th level character has his +10 sword but hes to cheap to make it epic. So this is my plan would it work? Buy crystal you can only have one. On page 288 of the DMG Under magic items there is a section (adding new abilities). So why not add the abilities of several other crystals to my one crystal for the extra 50% cost. They are cheap anyways. Another quick +10 so to say worth of cool abilities. I think ill just have to take that item familiar feat to so I can really have fun and make like a +25 weapon. Would that work with the crystals if so they need to be taken out of the game. Of course it does not actually say +1 on the crystals but if you read them you will get my drift.

 

[Stalker0]

I recently bought the new magic item compendium. I really liked the Augmented Crystals for weapons until I noticed their fatal flaw. My 27th level character has his +10 sword but hes to cheap to make it epic. So this is my plan would it work? Buy crystal you can only have one. On page 288 of the DMG Under magic items there is a section (adding new abilities). So why not add the abilities of several other crystals to my one crystal for the extra 50% cost. They are cheap anyways. Another quick +10 so to say worth of cool abilities. I think ill just have to take that item familiar feat to so I can really have fun and make like a +25 weapon. Would that work with the crystals if so they need to be taken out of the game. Of course it does not actually say +1 on the crystals but if you read them you will get my drift.

As always, those pricing guidelines are....GUIDELINES!! I personally would not allow the crystals to be merged in such a way.

 

[Jason Opheim]

But according to the rules you could do that correct?

 

[glass]

But according to the rules you could do that correct?

No, according to the rules, you have the items exactly as listed. There are (as Stalker0 notes) guidelines for going beyond that, but the guidelines say that they can't cover everything.

Especially as the first guideline is 'compare with other items'. As all the existing crystals have limited sets of thematically linked abilities, I as a DM would rule that any proposed new crystals would have to do likewise, which effectively eilminates the sort of multi-crystal you envisage.


glass.

 

[Jason Opheim]

Make for a good artifact though wouldnt it

 

[blargney the second]

A neat idea, and it'd never fly in my games.

 

[Mistwell]

I recently bought the new magic item compendium. I really liked the Augmented Crystals for weapons until I noticed their fatal flaw. My 27th level character has his +10 sword but hes to cheap to make it epic. So this is my plan would it work? Buy crystal you can only have one. On page 288 of the DMG Under magic items there is a section (adding new abilities). So why not add the abilities of several other crystals to my one crystal for the extra 50% cost. They are cheap anyways. Another quick +10 so to say worth of cool abilities. I think ill just have to take that item familiar feat to so I can really have fun and make like a +25 weapon. Would that work with the crystals if so they need to be taken out of the game. Of course it does not actually say +1 on the crystals but if you read them you will get my drift.

The standard rule that you cannot add the same ability twice still applies. And, I wouldn't allow mutiple abilities in a single crystal, as they don't seem to work that way.

There is a flaw with crystals though, I think (I have to read up on it again). You should have to attune to a crystal for 24 hours, with it on your weapon (or armor for armor crystal) for that period of time, before it will function. It might already require that (again, need to check) but if it doesn't it should.

 

[IanB]

The standard rule that you cannot add the same ability twice still applies. And, I wouldn't allow mutiple abilities in a single crystal, as they don't seem to work that way.

There is a flaw with crystals though, I think (I have to read up on it again). You should have to attune to a crystal for 24 hours, with it on your weapon (or armor for armor crystal) for that period of time, before it will function. It might already require that (again, need to check) but if it doesn't it should.

One of the stated design goals with the crystals (called out in the Behind The Curtain section I think) was that you could swap them on the fly for a particular situation, though. "Hey, there are wraiths coming! Swap on the lesser truedeath crystal (or whatever it is called.)"

 

[James McMurray]

This is one of the many instances where treating the DMG guidelines as hard and fast rules creates havoc. I couldn't allow it.

 

[Eloi]

I think, IMHO, the "one-power-at-a-time" limitation keeps the power of the Weapon Augment Crystal under control, and that removing that restriction leads to chaos.

However..

Adding neat powers to a Weapon Augment Crystal, under *extremely* limited circumstances, might be fun and acceptable. The improvements that I'm thinking about here are the improvements that could be made to a magic weapon, in the WIC, that simply cost money, and don't count as adding a "plus-equivalent". Having a Weapon Augment Crystal, with its one power, that also made the weapon Sizable (for +5000 g.p.) might be ok, with strict GM approval.

Weapon Augment Crystals seem to beg to be filched, since they are:
A - Portable

B - Valuable

and

C - Useful.

So I wouldn't just load on extra, costly improvements to a given Crystal- it seems inherently dangerous.