D&D 5E White Plume Mountain - The Weapons

[Ebon Shar]

I'm getting ready to run WPM for my DnDNext group, so I've whipped up my (probably sad) versions of Wave, Whelm, and Blackrazor. Overpowered? Underpowered? Am I on the right track? I'd love some feedback and alternate ideas. Thanks.

Wave – This trident is ornately decorated with aquatic images. When grasped, it emanates a divine fervor, urging its bearer to follow its lead.
1. +3 Trident dedicated to the worship of Procan (Oeridian God of the Oceans)
2. Critical: Dehydrates target: +3d6 damage, save (Con:15) or be stunned for 1-6 rounds. Stunned characters/creatures may use an action to make a Con save each round to end the effect.
3. Confers waterbreathing and underwater action on user
4. Grants the ability to communicate with any sea creature
5. Once per day may summon a cube of force for 10 non-consecutive rounds. The user may dismiss and re-summon the cube for a total of 10 rounds per day.
6. Wave will force users to worship Procan and spread his word. If user fails to proselytize daily, the trident becomes a mere +1 trident.

Whelm- Whelm is plain and unadorned, with a steel head and a haft made from the golden wood of a gingko tree. When it's wielded, Whelm glows with a soft, silver-black light.
1. +1 Hammer (+3 to Dwarf) – Purpose: Kill all Trolls, Giants, Goblins
2. Critical: Subject is disintegrated (Con:12) if M or smaller, L or larger takes 20 damage
3. 3xday can be thrown 150’ and return to user’s hand
4. 1xday can be used to stun (con:15) up to 65 HP of enemies in 60’ radius for 1-4 rounds when ground is struck. Stunned character/creatures may use an action to make a Con save each round to end the effect.
5. Detects gold, gems, and presence of goblins at 60’. Detection is blocked by 6" of stone/1" of iron.
6. User suffers extreme agoraphobia and is at disadvantage on all rolls when not inside, underground, or at night.

Blackrazor - Blackrazor’s blade is as black as the night sky and sparkles with the stars of alien constellations. The chill of the endless void emanates from Blackrazor, and those who stare into its blade too long get the eerie feeling that the stars within are slowly drifting closer...
1. +3 Chaotic Neutral Greatsword,- Purpose: To devour souls
2. Any Lawful character attempting to wield BR takes 15 damage and is stunned for 1-4 rounds. Thereafter, the character has a severe aversion to BR and all rolls (combat and checks) are at disadvantage while BR is within sight. Characters/creatures can use an action each round to make a Con save to end the effect.
3. Critical: +3d6 necrotic damage, user gains HP equal to necrotic damage roll.
4. Detect living creatures (souls) 60’. Detection is blocked by 6" of stone/1" of iron.
5. Grants Haste to user 1/day
6. Advantage on saves vs. charm and fear
7. Any creature killed by BR has its soul devoured and cannot be raised by any means.
8. If BR does not feed for 3 days, it will dominate its user and force it to kill.
9. If BR strikes a negative energy being, user loses 3d6 HP and save (Con:15) or stunned for 1-4 rounds.

 

[Jester David]

Fan-tucking-fastic!

I'm going to run this tomorrow and *just* realized I hadn't started up the weapons and that the conversion document only covers the monsters.
Glad someone else did this for me.

 

[the Jester]

I'm getting ready to run WPM for my DnDNext group, so I've whipped up my (probably sad) versions of Wave, Whelm, and Blackrazor. Overpowered? Underpowered? Am I on the right track? I'd love some feedback and alternate ideas. Thanks.

Wave – This trident is ornately decorated with aquatic images. When grasped, it emanates a divine fervor, urging its bearer to follow its lead.
...2. Critical: Dehydrates target: +3d6 damage, save (Con:15) or be stunned for 1-6 rounds.

Whelm- Whelm is plain and unadorned, with a steel head and a haft made from the golden wood of a gingko tree. When it's wielded, Whelm glows with a soft, silver-black light.
...
4. 1xday can be used to stun (con:15) up to 65 HP of enemies in 60’ radius for 1-4 rounds when ground is struck.


Blackrazor - Blackrazor’s blade is as black as the night sky and sparkles with the stars of alien constellations. The chill of the endless void
emanates from Blackrazor, and those who stare into its blade too long get the eerie feeling that the stars within are slowly drifting closer...
...
2. Any Lawful Good character touching BR takes 15 damage and is stunned for 1 hour

Too much stunning for too long IMHO. At the very least, I'd use the "spend an action to make a save" mechanic, and stunned for one hour is WAY too long imho- does this happen if the wielder strikes a LG enemy with Blackrazor, or only via a voluntary touch? Also, why only for LG creatures? I'd think there would at least be a minor negative effect on NG/LN creatures (being only one step from LG) and possibly also for CG/N (though prolly not for unaligned) creatures.

 

[Ebon Shar]

Here's a couple of modifications I made to the weapons:

Wave – This trident is ornately decorated with aquatic images. When grasped, it emanates a divine fervor, urging its bearer to follow its lead.
1. +3 Trident dedicated to the worship of Procan (Oeridian God of the Oceans)
2. Critical: Dehydrates target: +3d6 damage, save (Con:15) or be stunned for 1-6 rounds.
3. Confers waterbreathing and underwater action on user
4. Grants the ability to communicate with any sea creature
5. Once per day may summon a cube of force for 10 non-consecutive rounds. The user may dismiss and re-summon the cube for a total of 10 rounds per day.
6. Wave will force users to worship Procan and spread his word. If user fails to proselytize daily, the trident becomes a mere +1 trident.

Blackrazor - Blackrazor’s blade is as black as the night sky and sparkles with the stars of alien constellations. The chill of the endless void emanates from Blackrazor, and those who stare into its blade too long get the eerie feeling that the stars within are slowly drifting closer...
1. +3 Chaotic Neutral Greatsword,- Purpose: To devour souls
2. Any Lawful character attempting to wield BR takes 15 damage and is stunned for 1-4 rounds. Thereafter, the character has a severe aversion to BR and all rolls (combat and checks) are at disadvantage while BR is within sight.
3. Critical: +3d6 necrotic damage, user gains HP equal to necrotic damage roll.
4. Detect living creatures (souls) 60’
5. Grants Haste to user 1/day
6. Advantage on saves vs. charm and fear
7. Any creature killed by BR has its soul devoured and cannot be raised by any means.
8. If BR does not feed for 3 days, it will dominate its user and force it to kill.
9. If BR strikes a negative energy being, user loses 3d6 HP and save (Con:15) or stunned for 1-4 rounds.

The stun effect from Whelm is very similar to the original weapon, but if it seems too powerful, reduce the amount of HP's affected, perhaps to 50 and/or reduce the save to Con(12). Additionally, as suggested, the victim can use an action to make the Con save to end the effect each round.

 

[Ebon Shar]

How did your game go, Jester Canuck? I saw some posts on Twitter, but would love some details. My players managed to obtain both Wave and BR during the first session. The Wave player did a great job proselytizing for Procan during the adventure and the BR player willingly accepted BR, which I'm sure will come back to haunt him in future sessions. Obtaining the weapons was part of an overall plot thread in our campaign, so they know they are not going to be allowed to keep them, even if they get them out of the dungeon, but I wonder how willing they are going to be to part with them. This could get very interesting.

 

[Jester David]

How did your game go, Jester Canuck? I saw some posts on Twitter, but would love some details. My players managed to obtain both Wave and BR during the first session. The Wave player did a great job proselytizing for Procan during the adventure and the BR player willingly accepted BR, which I'm sure will come back to haunt him in future sessions. Obtaining the weapons was part of an overall plot thread in our campaign, so they know they are not going to be allowed to keep them, even if they get them out of the dungeon, but I wonder how willing they are going to be to part with them. This could get very interesting.

Fun was had.
But I'll give the full story.
We had an absent player so it was only a three man group: paladin (warden), cleric (storm), and druid (moon circle). This is a filler game as a break between our regular campaign so the role-playing was a little light. There was still a lot of fun, especially after the cleric player realized she could choose the colour of her light spell, which was being cast on the paladin's armour. So the paladin was running around glowing bright pink.
I have a metric crap tonne of minis and use battlemaps a lot so my Theatre of the Mind was rusty and one of the players (very visual) struggled to get the descriptions.

After solving the Sphinx's riddle, they went right down the middle passage and beat up the kelpies with the paladin only taking a little bruising.

The spinning corridor really slowed them down and did a surprising amount of damage. The druid sent his familiar in first and it was shot by the fighter on watch. This prompted some debate over how a familiar heals and if it was worth it to burn a potion. They joked that an injured familiar was no good so they should just mercy-kill it and summon a new one, miming snapping its neck while giving it sympathy for the arrow wound. (They opted to let it live.) They assumed the arrow was a trap the familiar set off so the druid went through the tunnel and was flopping around when the fighter set it on fire.
The druid stumbled out (they still thought it was a trap) so everyone decided to wait until the grease stopped burning giving the were-wizard time to buff the fighter who leapt to attack the still flailing druid. The pally and cleric quickly dove through the (still burning) tunnel ending prone at the feet of the fighter who happily whumped the prone paladin that appeared at his feet. The wizard dumped a stinking cloud in the end of the chamber, chocking out the party. (I'm not particularly impressed by how stinking cloud works in Next. It was a non-offensive control spell and now it's just another AoE, and if you position it right, it can do a crap tonne of damage, more than fireball as you can catch people in it multiple rounds.)
The druid went off to solo the wizathrope and after waffling on what spell opted for moonbean as an okay offensive spell, unaware he was fighting a werewolf. So that hurt the wizard's effectiveness. The fighter dropped quickly but the wizard managed a few more rounds of damage with some high level magic missiles.

Everyone mopped up, rested, and backtracked to head down the corridor towards the crab. Seeing the doors in that corridor close securely and suspecting shenanigans, they piton the doors open.
They reach the boiling lake and quickly laugh as the crab can't get out of the chamber. Not realizing the magical bubble in the boiling lake was puncture-able, everyone sat back while the paladin pumped arrows into the crab. Dexterity was an okay stat for him so I allowed the cheap potshots knowing he was bound to miss eventually and puncture the bubble flooding the chamber and putting everyone on the clock or risking losing an item. Plus, in case you haven't seen the crab's stats, it's pretty damn tough and can take a few cheap shots from a bow. The pally would miss on an 10 or lower so I figured it'd be 2-3 rounds then things would get interesting. Nine roundsof deadly strike crossbow bolts later with the crab at half hitpoints and the pally finally misses and the bubble pops. The druid rushes in, gets scalded by the water and floored by the crab. The cleric and pally dump some spells into the crab, which paired with the water, finish off the beast. And fills the shrinking chamber with a delicious smell. The cleric heals the druid then grabs the chest (with Wave inside) and they skedaddle. The druid spent three rounds sizzling in the water but he had used resist energy prior and stabilized after his death saves, so he came out of the fight alive.
But now there's a wave of water rushing after them. Since the paladin secured the pitons to the door I have him make three Strength checks to set the DC for how secure the doors are stuck. His dice have been on fire all night and now is no exception. All three pitons are really securely in place. The group frantically pulls on the doors, each taking one, before a lucky roll jars one loose and the slam it shut avoiding flooding half the dungeon with boiling water.

After a short rest and some potions, the group continues on down the left/west passage. They puzzle at the metal plates for some time before walking down and realizing the heat metal effect. Throwing their gear in backpacks and tying it with rope and dashing forward. When it burns through their bags they used a magical maul (wooden handle) to shuffleboard their gear into the room, just in time for a ghoul ambush. Which were insta-turned by the cleric.
I missed the note that the ghouls couldn't be turned, which does seem a little cheap given that's traditionally the cleric's chance to shine. ("Gee, sorry wizard, the oily rag golem is warded against fireball.") But it emphasised how broken turn undead can be against waves of weak undead.

From there they entered the frictionless room and the druid prompted found himself sliding face first in a pit of razors. But, druids be immune to disease, so the deadly instant super-tetanus did nothing. The druid tied a rope to himself which was kept taut and slid about the floor until they reached the far door. But not before bashing off and taking a handful of razors covered with save-or-die super instant tetanus.

From there they went the way I was hoping they wouldn't go and went north to the kayak room. A 10th level fighter and his many 4th level fighters are a nasty encounter. I opted to scale it back to just Sir Bluto and one flunkie, which was still a potent fight for my level 7 party.
Seeing the water (and having been dunked over his head twice so far), the paladin took of his armour (again) and hoped in a kayak and muddled into the stream, followed quickly by the others. And was promptly ambushed. Seeing trouble, the paladin flopped out of the kayak onto the floor, laying prone and unarmoured at the feet of the villains. Three attacks. Advantage. Somehow I still managed to hit once.
Everyone rushed in. The paladin entangled the area (another crowd control spell that does damage. WTF?!) And then Sir Bluto responded with his ungodly number of attacks and high damage aimed directly at the paladin. He hit with a critical I was positive was going slay outright, but only sent the paladin into low, low negatives. -17 with death at -21. The druid and cleric twacked the weaker fighter and turned to Sir Bluto, who exchanged blows with the cleric before knocking her down. After failing to death saves but only rolling "1" for damage, the paladin was sitting scared at -19. He failed his third death save and bled out 4 points, dying on the ground. Sir Bluto turned to the druid, and struck hard but the druid remained on his feet and obliterated the fallen knight with his last high level spell.
TPK narrowly avoided.

While the cleric was healed, they were down one party member and everyone low in resourced we called it for the night.

 

[Ebon Shar]

That sounds very much how my game went. They followed the same path as your players, but took a look at the river room and decided to go south, hitting the ziggurat. The ziggurat fight for my team went very easily. They killed all the creatures except the crawfish, whom they bypassed. That came back to bite them when they tripped the trap and shattered the glass and flooded the ziggurat. The crawfish fight was almost a TPK as the heavily armored warriors were too busy keeping themselves from drowning while the squishier characters fought off the crawfish, who had nasty attacks. The fight for Blackrazor was too easy and if it were not late in the evening and we all wanted to call it a night I would have doubled or tripled the ogre mage's hit points. The players did tell me that they had a blast and they all liked WPM much more than Mines of Madness, which we played in our last session.

 

[Minsc]

I know this is a bit of thread necromancy, but is Whelm a war hammer or a maul?

What about the stats for Frostreaver?

How would intelligent weapons be treated in 5e?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I know this is a bit of thread necromancy, but is Whelm a war hammer or a maul?

What about the stats for Frostreaver?

How would intelligent weapons be treated in 5e?

All the Info you want and the official stats for Welm, Wave and Blackrazer are in the DMG.

 

[Kobold Stew]

All the Info you want and the official stats for Welm, Wave and Blackrazer are in the DMG.

This: pp. 216-18 DMG.