What's an appropriate level for this?

[zero skill LPB]

Sounds like my character's moonblade.

I'm playing in a FR campaign. My character found a moonblade to which he belongs (with an Ego like the sword has it is definitely a swords-owns-wielder sort of situation) and the GM and I worked out a schedule for activating the runes.

Standard rules say: 5,000 XP to awake/attune the sword.

What we're doing: 1,000 XP per rune on the blade, spent no more frequently than every other character level.

Sure, my character is a good chunk of XP behind the group at this point (nearly 3k), but, dude, my 3-of-5 moonblade is too cool and just keeps getting cooler!

 

[blackshirt5]

D'oh! Forgot about the moonblades. now I gotta go borrow MoF and look em over.

 

[333 Dave]

I love power gaining swords! And the sword can still have the negative level thing, just refuse to use it (it is intelligent) untill the character gains enough levels...

 

[Lord Pendragon]

blackshirt5,

I'm going to assume you want opinions, regardless of how far afield they may be. So let me give you mine and hope it's useful.

A +4 shocking burst longsword is worth 36,000gp. Intelligence adds, minimum, 10,000gp to that value. Since the level-draining ability isn't on the standard list, I can't say for sure how much it's worth, but I'd say at least a +3 enchantment. So total, you're looking at, minimum, 91,000gp worth of sword.

The Wealth-by-Level chart shows that a 12th-level PC should have a total of 88,000gp worth of gear, and a 13th-level PC should have 110,000gp. So if the sword is the only magic item the PC owns, then he should get it somewhere between 12th- and 13th-level.

Personally, since he likely will have other magic items, I'd go with 15th- or 16th-level, as the time when the PC should be wielding the fully-powered weapon. If you intend to have the weapon grow in power (a great idea, I had a katana that did that in my last game,) try and keep the weapon's powers in line with something the PC could buy legitimately at his level. Otherwise, the weapon is going to start throwing things out of whack as surely as a Deck of Many Things.

Piratecat provided a great way to give the sword it's Trademark Power early, without overpowering the PC wielding it.

 

[Nifft]

I'd leave the save DC highish (10-11 at lowest level), but only allow the level drain power to be used 1/day at low levels, 3/day for mid level, 20/day for mid-high levels and continually at high levels.

Secondly, is this an Evil sword? If so, since level drain takes some power from a foe and puts it in the sword, why not chain together the number of negative levels granted and subtract it somehow from the XP cost to advance the sword's powers.

Third, how about chaining the powers? Low level example: +1 Sword with Level Drain 1/day; if the Drain is successful, the sword becomes Shocking for 5 minutes.

-- Nifft