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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 2720007" data-attributes="member: 3586">One thing that has been made abundantly clear to me over the past few months, as I've discussed Weapons of Legacy with many people on the 'net, is that having penalties in important areas for increased power in other isn't something that is universally admired.Weapons of Legacy is a book about magical items that grow with the character. Items of significance, if you will. The controversial nature of the book comes from the inflicting of penalties on the wielder's abilities. If you can get a +3 sword for only 4,000 gp, then is a -1 to hit with all weapons make it worth the cheaper gold cost of the sword?The answer to that question will probably tell you more about whether you'll like Weapons of Legacy than my review will, but the book is interesting enough to describe in more detail.Weapons of Legacy is a standard 224 page book from Wizards of the Coast: good production values, artwork, attractive layout and a us$35 price tag. The book is divided into five chapters:Chapter 1: The Legacy (8 pages) describes what a legacy item is. They don't have to all be weapons, which is an important point! Advice is given on integrating the rules into an ongoing campaign, on designing adventures that feature them, on the player's role with the item, and on some of the issues that might arise from the attempted destruction of a legacy item. (It's not easy, and most of them can be reforged: see Anduril).Chapter 2: Heroes of Legacy (10 pages) gives feats, spells and a prestige class (the Legacy Champion) that relate to Items of Legacy.Chapter 3: Items of Legacy (156 pages) presents 49 items of legacy. Each item takes up about three pages. This includes the item's abilities, its history, the rituals needed to unlock its abilities, and an adventure seed/encounter that normally involves finding the item in the hands of an enemy.Chapter 4: Founding Legacies (23 pages) describes the process of PCs creating new items of legacy, and the rules for both PCs and DMs creating balanced Items of Legacy. (It's a menu system).Chapter 5: Optional Rules (17 pages) provides variant rules for items of legacy.In the main, the rules are clearly presented, as is standard for Wizards of the Coast products. There is one staggering exception to this: the item ability levels that the Least, Lesser and Greater Legacy rituals unlock are never clearly stated. You have to infer this from the text. The book would have benefited greatly from this having been clearly set out in the first chapter.Here are what the rules actually are:An Item of Legacy appears as a standard magical item, such as a +1 scimitar, although it may have a small magical effect about it (the Omen) that alerts its owner to the fact that it is potentially more than it might appear.Research into the history of the item (performed by Knowledge (History) checks) will reveal its true nature, and the existence of rituals to bind the wielder to the object and unlock its greater powers.To perform any of the rituals, the wielder must have some fairly easy prerequisites (base attack, spell-use or skills). These do mean that the items are somewhat themed - a magical staff will only be of use to a spell-user.At 5th level, the first of these rituals (Least) may be performed. This ritual is different for each weapon, and requires both a GP cost and some task that must be performed. This allows the wielder to use the item's 5th to 9th level powers. (A 7th level character with an item of legacy will be able to use the 5th, 6th and 7th level powers). For book-keeping purposes, the wielder gains the Least Legacy feat specific to that weapon to indicate that the ritual has been successfully performed. There is no other way to gain this feat.At 10th level, the second of these rituals (Lesser) may be performed. It grants access to the 10th through 16th level powers.Finally, at 17th level, the third ritual (Greater) may be performed, and the user gains access to the 17th through 20th level powers.The optional rules give epic legacy abilities and progressions.What is interesting about all of this is that the basic item (without any rituals) costs as much as a standard item of its type. The first ritual normally costs about 2,000 gp to perform, the second ritual about 12,000 gp, and the third ritual about 40,000 gpBy the end of it all, you've spent about 55,000 gp. Meanwhile, the item has gained abilities equivalent to somewhere between 100,000 to 200,000 gp value! The balancing factor, as mentioned before, are penalties.For fighters, these penalties are likely to be attack bonus, save penalty and hit point loss.For rogues, saves, skill points and hit points, as well as a lesser penalty to attack.For wizards and clerics, they lose spell slots, caster level, hit points and possibly attack bonus.These penalties vary by each item. They're meant to be significant to the PC without being crippling. They're often not quite as severe as it might first appear. An attack penalty only affects your bonus to hit, not your Base Attack Bonus (so you'll still have your extra iterative attacks). The spell slot loss isn't cumulative, and only affects one slot. (At 20th level, you lose one 8th level slot). Caster Level doesn't affect spells known or the slots you can prepare, but only the caster-level dependent effects, so a 10th level caster with a -1 penalty will only deal 9d6 damage with a fireball instead of 10d6. Many of the penalties are compensated for by the item's abilities. The Bow of the Black Archer gives a -2 attack penalty, but is a +4 drow bane longbow, so could be considered a +2 drow bane longbow with an extra +2 damage bonus.(If you do the sums, it seems that the penalties balance the lesser cost pretty well. The one possible exception might be saving throws, for a -3 to saves is very dangerous at high levels).Items of Legacy are more than just +5 longswords, though. They have other suites of abilities, ranging from minor skill bonuses to major spell-like abilities. Once this is added to the histories and rituals of the items, you have items of great distinction and interest.What happens if you don't like all the abilities of a given item? This is where the Legacy Champion prestige class comes in. This is a real oddity of a prestige class: d8 hit dice, 4 skill points, and 8/10 previous class progression. That latter ability means that for 8 of the 10 levels of this class, you gain any special abilities (such as bonus feats, spells, turning, etc.) that your previous class would have given you. The Legacy Champion also gives you a reduced ritual cost for your item of legacy, the ability to use its powers more often each day, and to replace some with powers more suited to your needs. It's an interesting class, although almost impossible for me to examine from a balance point of view. As far as the actual items of legacy go that are described in the book, they're a mixed bag. Some are really great: good powers and inspiring histories. Others don't interest me at all. There's a good selection, though, so you're likely to find something of use.(There's even a legacy item for a soulknife, which acts as a soulblade!)I found the rules on creating your own items of legacy far more interesting. Indeed, within a week of me buying this book, I had an original item of legacy in my ongoing Greyhawk game. I feel that this section of the book is far more interesting than any of the premade items; however, those items do give many examples that will help you to understand the system better.The two most interesting items of legacy in the book aren't in the main section, however. They're in the optional rules: the legacy staff of power and the legacy holy avenger. These adaptations of standard magic items will both soon see use in my campaigns. I find the legacy staff to get the real essence of the original staff of power, but to be far more effective at portraying it.Where does the book fall down? Well, apart from the real blunder in not properly explaining what least, lesser and greater legacy powers are, it doesn't explain how to add new abilities to the lists of legacy powers in the "create your own item" section. From what I can gather, each menu is about a certain gold value, but it'd be nice if this was explicitly explained.There is also no way of buying off the penalties. At 20th level, an item of legacy may look like a +5 holy avenger, but won't be quite that effective. A system of additional rituals (and costs) to reduce the penalties would have been greatly welcomed. Certainly, your 20th level PC with a legacy holy avenger will have more gold to spend (quite a lot more gold, in fact), but some times you may just want to have a +5 holy avenger without any more penalties. There is a complexity issue to buying off the penalties, of course, so I understand why it wasn't included, but its lack may prove to be problematic for some.What Weapons of Legacy gives you are magical items that are significant in their own right, and that can be used throughout the lifetime of a PC without being abandoned for the next just a bit better item that comes along. I really like the concept of the book, and, for the most part, its execution, as do my players.The true test of Weapons of Legacy isn't in just a short one-off adventure, however, but in an extended campaign. The book will get that chance over the next year or two in my campaigns, and I trust that it will be as useful as it promises to be.</blockquote>

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