D&D Cosmere weapons

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

Has anyone else thought about this? If you have, how would the different weapon attributes ( abilities, intelligence, magic consumption etc. ) convert to the D&D 3.5 system?

Edit: is this the best place? Or should it be in Role-playing? I put it here because I'm a useless sack of rust.

Edited May 16, 2014 by CrystalBodies

[Eerongal he/him]

I'd say either here or maybe entertainment discussion is the right place. Roleplaying is for actually roleplaying, not talking about it.

 

As for weapons, and such, you could probably get away with building nightblood as an intelligent item. Might to tweak some of the rules, though, but for the most part it has everything there. A purpose (destroy evil), dedicated powers (an auto-kill spell, maybe, like phantasmal killer), might need to tweak it so that evil characters auto-fail the ego check and good characters do not. I think it could work pretty well

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

It did, thanks. I was unsure what to do about enchanted armour so I made it if my character used sunder on the armour it knocks the armour from, say, a +5 to a +4 etc. if the attack is successful.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

I think Shardblades in D&D would be rather broken - They ignore armour (based off Touch AC) and are instant-kill weapons if you hit right (Vorpal, or some kind of attribute damage to represent dead limbs. Bonus to Sunder too). I would say that they would also ignore DR. They'd require an Exotic Weapon proficiency, I think, since they're so different to normal weapons. The 10 heartbeats translates into about six seconds, I think? So probably a full round action to call it to them, which would balance them somewhat. Whenever the wielder would be disarmed, I would make them make a Will Save, or it unsummons. It'd be a Swift/Immediate action to unsummon it.

 

Shardplate, on the other hand, is mostly just really good Heavy Armour. Not quite as easy to break (in a mechanical sense). Probably a high enhancement bonus, and maybe base it off Adamantium armour so it has DR/-, with a number of charges of this DR to represent the plate's deterioration. In a D&D-world, I would say that a spellcaster could restore charges by expending a high-level spell slot.

 

For Nightblood, I would look at Pathfinder's Bladebound Magus Archetype, since both the Black Blade and Nightblood both stem from the same place, in Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga. I would make Nightblood as a Shardblade with the Black Blade's intelligence aspect. The usage of it is somewhat harder to calculate though. Perhaps give the wielder a number of charges per day equal to their Charisma bonus?

 

Unfortunately, the Cosmere's special weapons are rather OP when you bring them to a place with no counters. We already know that from the books. Still, if I was looking at a high level fighter, I wouldn't say Shardblades or Plate would be too strong, especially if they have spellcasters. Indeed, it could bring them up to snuff quite effectively if done right.

 

Hope that helps.

[Kobold King he/him]

When such weapons are raised against men, the lives of NPCs become cheap things indeed.

[Eerongal he/him]

I think Shardblades in D&D would be rather broken - They ignore armour (based off Touch AC) and are instant-kill weapons if you hit right (Vorpal, or some kind of attribute damage to represent dead limbs. Bonus to Sunder too). I would say that they would also ignore DR. They'd require an Exotic Weapon proficiency, I think, since they're so different to normal weapons. The 10 heartbeats translates into about six seconds, I think? So probably a full round action to call it to them, which would balance them somewhat. Whenever the wielder would be disarmed, I would make them make a Will Save, or it unsummons. It'd be a Swift/Immediate action to unsummon it.

 

 

Shardblades actually resemble, in many ways, the soulbound weapon soul meld of the incarnum classes, other than the "insta-kill" properties, that is.

 

they were essentially solidified incarnum into a weapon. You could "summon" it to you in like a round or so, if it was ever seperated from you, it would reappear in your hand at the beginning of the next round unless you willed it otherwise, they were typically oversized compared to the normal weapon (but not particularly more heavy), and were ornate looking. If you made them use touch attack against anyone not in some form of invested armor, and auto-kill, they would be like almost verbatim shardblades.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

Shardblades actually resemble, in many ways, the soulbound weapon soul meld of the incarnum classes, other than the "insta-kill" properties, that is.

 

they were essentially solidified incarnum into a weapon. You could "summon" it to you in like a round or so, if it was ever seperated from you, it would reappear in your hand at the beginning of the next round unless you willed it otherwise, they were typically oversized compared to the normal weapon (but not particularly more heavy), and were ornate looking. If you made them use touch attack against anyone not in some form of invested armor, and auto-kill, they would be like almost verbatim shardblades.

 

My DM doesn't let us touch those classes, though they do look fun. From what I recall, they are a class feature though? I suppose you could perhaps use the Legendary item rules that are floating around somewhere to have a weapon that grows with its wielder... If everyone had a unique weapon, they could grow in strength with the party, which would be nice. I've never truly liked D&D's loot system.

 

I think the problem with balance is whether you want the characters wielding them to be balanced against enemies or other party members. If every party member has a Shardblade, then balance is somewhat easier to find; Start weaker and then just keep raising the difficulty against them until they start to struggle, then keep it around there. If only one character has a Shardblade, then the rest are going to want something comparable as well. If the enemy has one, then just hope he never loses it to them without having a monetary price on it. And Adonalsium help you if the party has a Fighter and a Paladin or something similar in it. Such things can wreck an entire party, as we've seen with Nightblood in Warbreaker.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Wyrmhero

[Eerongal he/him]

My DM doesn't let us touch those classes, though they do look fun. From what I recall, they are a class feature though? I suppose you could perhaps use the Legendary item rules that are floating around somewhere to have a weapon that grows with its wielder... If everyone had a unique weapon, they could grow in strength with the party, which would be nice. I've never truly liked D&D's loot system.

 

I think the problem with balance is whether you want the characters wielding them to be balanced against enemies or other party members. If every party member has a Shardblade, then balance is somewhat easier to find; Start weaker and then just keep raising the difficulty against them until they start to struggle, then keep it around there. If only one character has a Shardblade, then the rest are going to want something comparable as well. If the enemy has one, then just hope he never loses it to them without having a monetary price on it. And Adonalsium help you if the party has a Fighter and a Paladin or something similar in it. Such things can wreck an entire party, as we've seen with Nightblood in Warbreaker.

 

 

Actually it was a soulmeld. Essentially the "spells" of the incarnum classes. Technically you could gain access to them through a feat. You wouldn't be able to improve it too much particularly, though, unless you were to dedicate a ton of feats towards it.

 

Also: It's worth noting that the incarnum classes are probably are probably the most well balanced classes in 3rd edition. They're highly versatile, but don't particularly outshine anyone.

[Laughing Fool he/him]

When I DM, I only allow core classes. This allows me much more flexibility with introducing custom weapons like Shardblades because I know and understand the core classes abilities and limitations. Some of those expanded classes can do some truly outrageous things even without overpowered magical gear.

The first time I ran a campaign with no limits where everyone rolled in at fifth level, I just couldn't challenege the party. I play with guys who have more fun with the optimization of classes than the actual role-playing, so needless to say, it was a disaster. If I had let them use Shardblades as well, I wouldn't have been able to control them at all. Not even if I lied about roles.

A fun suggestion for any DM who is concerned about being able to balance the party while keeping things interesting, especially if your players are min maxers like mine, is to occasionally host an entirely hypothetical campaign seperate from your main one.

For example, my group meets Thursday nights, and every third Thursday is just a couple rounds of hypothetical combat. Last Thursday I had the players compete in gladiator games against each other. They would roll to randomly decide a class, then they had one hour to roll a tenth level character. We did various matchups. 1v1, 2v2, FFA, etc. There were only a few limitations, like no using your starting gold to create a golem or something to bring to the arena. At the end, each player must nominate a player other than himself for MVP, and that player would recieve a reward in the main campaign. Usually in the form of a small amount of gold, a little experience (leveling up one session before your friends is fun!), or a novelty item. My fighter, Khandrak, loves his magically weighted dice that requires a DC 25 check to determine the dice are cheating. Petyr Baelish, our rogue (I know...), has used his diminutive iron golem quite cleverly (an iron golem that stands about an inch tall.)

The point is, allowing custom items isn't the hard part. Controlling your party's almost pathological need to abuse the item to break the game is the hard part, and giving them an outlet outside the main campaign is a good strategy to help.

[Chaos he/him]

Moved to Brandon discussion for the obvious reason

[Eerongal he/him]

When I DM, I only allow core classes. This allows me much more flexibility with introducing custom weapons like Shardblades because I know and understand the core classes abilities and limitations. Some of those expanded classes can do some truly outrageous things even without overpowered magical gear.

The first time I ran a campaign with no limits where everyone rolled in at fifth level, I just couldn't challenege the party. I play with guys who have more fun with the optimization of classes than the actual role-playing, so needless to say, it was a disaster. If I had let them use Shardblades as well, I wouldn't have been able to control them at all. Not even if I lied about roles.

A fun suggestion for any DM who is concerned about being able to balance the party while keeping things interesting, especially if your players are min maxers like mine, is to occasionally host an entirely hypothetical campaign seperate from your main one.

For example, my group meets Thursday nights, and every third Thursday is just a couple rounds of hypothetical combat. Last Thursday I had the players compete in gladiator games against each other. They would roll to randomly decide a class, then they had one hour to roll a tenth level character. We did various matchups. 1v1, 2v2, FFA, etc. There were only a few limitations, like no using your starting gold to create a golem or something to bring to the arena. At the end, each player must nominate a player other than himself for MVP, and that player would recieve a reward in the main campaign. Usually in the form of a small amount of gold, a little experience (leveling up one session before your friends is fun!), or a novelty item. My fighter, Khandrak, loves his magically weighted dice that requires a DC 25 check to determine the dice are cheating. Petyr Baelish, our rogue (I know...), has used his diminutive iron golem quite cleverly (an iron golem that stands about an inch tall.)

The point is, allowing custom items isn't the hard part. Controlling your party's almost pathological need to abuse the item to break the game is the hard part, and giving them an outlet outside the main campaign is a good strategy to help.

 

 

Well, everyone is allowed to have their own house rules in campaigns and such, but limiting to JUST core classes cuts out a TON of official D&D supplements, especially if you're concerned about stuff being broken/OP, since the most broken classes ARE the core classes (specifically, wizard, cleric, and druid), generally with core abilities as well (a few exceptions). Everyone's certainly allowed to play how they want, though, just wanted to point out that you miss out on a lot if you do this, especially some of the more interesting/fun classes.

 

Also, this is generally why pretty much every DM i've ever played with requires you to submit your character for approval prior to playing, so the DM has the understanding what you can and can't do.