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Fouredged Sword
2010-12-17, 12:34 PM
Ok, I have had an idea for a long time about a dnd game, but I have yet to run it. The idea is a story told as a series of legends about various holders of two magic swords. There are three legends. The Lady of the Red blade, The Master of the Blue Blade, and the Swordsman of the Gods.

The lady is a good character who takes up the cursed Red Blade when her home city comes under attack by an invadeing army. The Master of the Blue blade follows the rise to domination of a evil ruler who used the Blue Blade to gain power. Finaly the Swordsman of the Gods is the final story with a great hero who finds and wields both blades at once to gain great power.

I need help stating the artifacts.

One of the central points of the blades is that they give power, but extract a price. One used without the other leads to imbalance in the person who wields it. The two blades respond to willpower and grant bonuses that scale with the penelty you accept.

Here is my rough idea.

Red Blade - this blade apears to be made from red glass with an onxy hilt and crossguard. The blade can apper as anything from a knife to a greatsword, but remains light and easy to wield in one hand at all times. When not held by a wielder it apears as the last form it took. It reverts to a knife when picked up by a new user.

The wielder may resize the sword as a swift action and the blade has difrent effects at the various sizes.

sizes

Knife - All stats as a kinfe except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Can be wielded two handed
+1d4 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
+2 Str divine bonus
+2 Wiz divine bonus
+2 con divine bonus
-1 int divine penelty
-1 dex divine penelty
- 1 cha divine penelty

Short Sword - all stats as short sword except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Can be wielded two handed
+1d6 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
+4 Str divine bonus
+4 Wiz divine bonus
+4 con divine bonus
-2 int divine penelty
-2 dex divine penelty
user takes 1 hp damage per turn. He may prevent this damage in any way, but may heal it at any time.

long Sword - all stats as long sword except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Counts as a light weapon, can be wielded two handed.
+2d6 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
+6 Str divine bonus
+6 Wiz divine bonus
+6 con divine bonus
-3 int divine penelty
-3 dex divine penelty
-3 cha divine penelty
user takes 2 hp damage per turn. He may prevent this damage in any way, but may heal it at any time.

bastard Sword - all stats as bastard sword except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Counts as a light weapon, can be wielded two handed.
+3d6 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
+8 Str divine bonus
+8 Wiz divine bonus
+8 con divine bonus
-4 int divine penelty
-4 dex divine penelty
-4 cha divine penelty
user takes 3 hp damage per turn. He may prevent this damage in any way, but may heal it at any time.

great Sword - all stats as short sword except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Counts as a light weapon, can be wielded two handed.
+4d6 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
+10 Str divine bonus
+10 Wiz divine bonus
+10 con divine bonus
-5 int divine penelty
-5 dex divine penelty
-5 cha penelty
user takes 4 hp damage per turn. He may prevent this damage in any way, but may heal it at any time.


more to come later, but I am intrested in hearing the thoughts of the playground. I will post the whole of it later, but the Blue Sword is much the same except the bonuses and penelties are switched, and the sword grants fast healing in the same amounts as the Red Sword causes damage.

Thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of these artifacts and what I should keep in mind if I play a solo game with the player having one or both swords.

Dragonmuncher
2010-12-17, 12:58 PM
For the damage per turn thing- do you mean he may NOT prevent this damage in any way?

Fouredged Sword
2010-12-17, 02:06 PM
I mean that you can't ignore it due to dr or resistances of any kind. Such effects as a crusader's damage pool, temp HP, or other methods can midigate the damage. Fast healing and regeneration can heal it. You could even potentialy share the damage with another with spells and other effects that share damage. You cannot reduce the amount of damage total though. I put that in to avoid some of the immune to damage tricks out there.

Dragonmuncher
2010-12-21, 10:08 AM
Right. But you have written


user takes 4 hp damage per turn. He may prevent this damage in any way, but may heal it at any time.



It should say may NOT prevent this damage in any way.

kestrel404
2010-12-21, 12:48 PM
I've got some suggestions.

First, I'm going to assume that the +2x to 3 stats, -x to 3 stats is going to be reversed by the other color of blade? That's a neat idea.

Suggestions:
1) The damage that you take from the blade be unhealable and unpreventable as long as you are holding the weapon - you have to pay for those stat boosts. This prevents a cleric (for example) from using DMM:Persist to give themselves fast healing 3 for the day, and then trading it for a +6 wisdom boost (with the extra spells that implies).
2) The weapon reverts to dagger size when not wielded. These should not be used as thrown weapons (most of the time), unless they're really meant to.
3) I suggest that the 'Red' weapon you proposed above be color-swapped for the blue weapon. I may be biased, but if one of the weapons is Str/Con boosting and the other is Dex/Cha boosting, I'd have the feminine-associated blade be teh Dex/Cha blade.
4) Here's an idea for the other blade -
Always counts as a light weapon for dual-wielding purposes. Grants weapon finesse. If the wielder already has weapon finesse, then they may choose to deal additional damage based on dex instead of str.
Instead of changing sizes, this weapon alters its shape/crit range (but always deals 1d8 damage).
Starts out as a club (20/x2), grants +2 dex/int/cha, -1 str/con/wis
Starts out as a short sword (19-20/x2), grants +4 dex/int/cha, -2 str/con/wis, and when the wielder takes damage, they take +25% extra
Starts out as a scimitar (18-20/x2), grants +6 dex/int/cha, -3 str/con/wis, and when the wielder takes damage, they take +50% extra
Starts out as a 'lethal' short sword (17-20/x3), grants +8 dex/int/cha, -4 str/con/wis, and when the wielder takes damage, they take +75% extra
Starts out as a 'lethal' scimitar (15-20/x3), grants +10 dex/int/cha, -5 str/con/wis, and when the wielder takes damage, they take +100% extra

When the two weapons are wielded together, the two weapons 'balance' with one granting its size/damage modifier and the other granting the shape/crit modifier (so you can end up wielding a pair of keen falchions that each deal 2d4+4d6, 15-20/x3 damage).

However, the damage you're taking from the weapons stacks (8 unpreventable damage/turn, and you're taking double damage from your enemies). Note that the extra damage dealt to you normally can be healed/prevented as normal, but if you're taking extra 'unpreventable/unhealable' damage due to wielding both blades at a high level, then the 'extra damage' is also unbreventable/unhealable so long as you wield EITHER blade.

Hope that helps.

Fouredged Sword
2010-12-21, 05:23 PM
The idea I had was for the blades to balance one another like you said, but in slightly altered way. One of the central points of the story is that there are two blades that are good and evil. The good blade grants strength and force of will, but forces the user to sacrifice himself. The evil blade grants intelect and health, but weaken the will and body of the user. The blades are not good or evil in of themselves, but they draw those of that bent twards them. The red blade is held in a shrine to the sacrifice of it's wielders in Averum. The blue blade is passed down (oftimes by force) from ruler to ruler of the empire of Demedra. Both blades are held apart and oftimes on the oposite sides of conflicts.

The truth is that the two blades are a manifestation of the TN over-deity of cycles (the overall balance between good, evil, law, and chaos) of the universe, and they are one of the ways his will is expressed into the world. They are wielded in times of changeing, when one period in a cycle is over and another begins. Not many mortals make this conection though, as the over-diety doesn't directly interact with mortals at all, and the lesser gods rarely speak of him.

The blades both look identical except one is made from blue glass, the other red. Both have the same black handle and crossguard.

Stats for the blue sword.


Knife - All stats as a kinfe except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Can be wielded two handed
+1d4 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
-1 Str divine penelty
-1 Wiz divine penelty
-1 con divine penelty
+2 int divine bonus
+2 dex divine bonus
+2 cha divine bonus

Short Sword - all stats as short sword except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Can be wielded two handed
+1d6 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
-2 Str divine penelty
-2 Wiz divine penelty
-2 con divine penelty
+4 int divine bonus
+4 dex divine bonus
+4 cha divine bonus
User Gains regeneration 1 with no weaknesses. Removeing the blade from the hands of the user converts all damage converted to non lethal by regeneration to lethal damage.

long Sword - all stats as long sword except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Counts as a light weapon, can be wielded two handed.
+2d6 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
-3 Str divine penelty
-3 Wiz divine penelty
-3 con divine penelty
+6 int divine bonus
+6 dex divine bonus
+6 cha divine bonus
User Gains regeneration 2 with no weaknesses. Removeing the blade from the hands of the user converts all damage converted to non lethal by regeneration to lethal damage.

bastard Sword - all stats as bastard sword except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Counts as a light weapon, can be wielded two handed.
+3d6 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
-4 Str divine penelty
-4 Wiz divine penelty
-4 con divine penelty
+8 int divine bonus
+8 dex divine bonus
+8 cha divine bonus
User Gains regeneration 3 with no weaknesses. Removeing the blade from the hands of the user converts all damage converted to non lethal by regeneration to lethal damage.

great Sword - all stats as great sword except
wieldable by anyone regardless of weapon proff - the will alone directs the sword.
Counts as a light weapon, can be wielded two handed.
+4d6 unresistable/ingoreing DR divine damage
-5 Str divine penelty
-5 Wiz divine penelty
-5 con divine penelty
+10 int divine bonus
+10 dex divine bonus
+10 cha divine bonus
User Gains regeneration 4 with no weaknesses. Removeing the blade from the hands of the user converts all damage converted to non lethal by regeneration to lethal damage.

Anxe
2010-12-21, 07:28 PM
Sounds like Soul Calibur.

Fouredged Sword
2010-12-21, 08:23 PM
In the epic weapon of destiny kinda way, not the soul sucker death sword way. I am pulling images from epic games like god of war, ect.

I am not so much concerened with balance due to it being a solo game. I want the player to be much more powerful due to the sword or swords, but I want it to be useful to every character to not constrict the player too much in character options.