[3.5]New Augment Crystals

Augment Crystals are cool. Call 'em sockets or materia or what have you, they're still neat and help address some of the unnecessary high cost and static nature of magic weapons and armor. Here's some new augment crystals that I made up. Enjoy!

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Weapon Crystals

Dragonmark Crystal
Price: 1,000gp (least), 5,000gp (lesser), or 10,000gp (greater)
Body Slot: -- (weapon crystal)
Caster Level: 12th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 21) transmutation
Activation: As Dragonmark
Weight: --

This dark crystal seems to be filled with wisps of shadow.

A dragonmark crystal attached to a weapon allows the wielder to use his dragonmark granted spell like abilities more often. A creature may only benefit from a single dragonmark crystal in a 24 hour period and the crystal only grants 1 extra use of each spell like ability per day, regardless of how many people wield the weapon the crystal is attached to or switch the crystal to another creatures weapon.

Least: This crystal allows the wielder to use the spell like ability granted by his Least Dragonmark feat one additional time per day.
Lesser: As the least crystal, and it allows the wielder to use the spell like ability granted by his Lesser Dragonmark feat one additional time per day.
Greater: As the leser crystal, and it allows the wielder to us the spell like ability granted by his Greater Dragonmark feat one additional time per day.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, mage's lucubration, creater must have a true dragonmark of the appropriate grade (least, lesser, or greater).
Cost to Create: 500 gp, 40xp, 1 day (least); 2,500gp, 200xp, 5 days (lesser); 5,000gp, 400xp, 10 days (greater).

Crystal of Expertise
Price: 300gp (least), 1,000gp (lesser), or 4,000gp (greater)
Body Slot: -- (weapon crystal)
Caster Level: 5th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 11) divination
Activation: --
Weight: --

This clear crystal reflects no light.

A crytal of expertise grants proficiency with the weapon it is attached to.

Least: The least crystal of expertise may be attached to any simple weapon and the wielder is granted proficiency with that specific weapon.
Lesser: The lesser crystal of expertise may be attached to any martial weapon and the wielder is granted proficiency with that specific weapon.
Greater: The greater crystal of expertise may be attached to any exotic weapon and the wielder is granted proficiency with that specific weapon.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, master's touch.
Cost to Create: 150gp, 12xp, 1 day (least); 500gp, 40xp, 1 day (lesser); 2,000gp, 160xp, 4 days (greater).

Metalline Crystal
Price: 1,000gp (least), 3,000gp (lesser), or 6,000gp (greater)
Body Slot: -- (weapon crystal)
Caster Level: 9th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 19) transmutation
Activation: --
Weight: --

This small crystal shifts colors randomly from gray to silver.

A metalline crystal allows the weapons wieder to overcome damage reduction and hardness as if the weapon were made of a special material.

Least: A weapon with this crystal attached overcomes damage reduction as a silver weapon.
Lesser: As the least crystal, and the weapon is treated as adamantine for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction and bypassing hardness.
Greater: As the lesser crystal, and the weapon is treated as cold iron for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, fabricate.
Cost to Create: 500gp, 40xp, 1 day (least); 1,500gp, 120xp, 3 days (lesser); 3,000gp, 240xp, 6 days (greater).

Crystal of Weapon Alignment
Price: 1,000gp (least), 3,000gp (lesser), or 5,000gp (greater)
Body Slot: -- (weapon crystal)
Caster Level: 9th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 19) transmutation
Activation: --, Standard
Weight: --

Good Alignment
This smooth, blue crystal glows with a faint light.

Evil Alignment
This sharp and jagged crystal glows red.

Lawful Alignment
This clear crystal is perfectly round and smooth.

Chaotic Alignment
This clear crystal is shot through with cracks, but it doesn't seem to break.

A Crystal of Weapon Alignment adds a particular alignment to a weapon: Good, Evil, Lawful, or Chaotic. Any creature that picks up a weapon with this crystal attached and does not have the same alignment as the weapon gains a negative level, which remains as long as it holds the weapon and disappears when the weapon is no longer wielded or the crystal of weapon alignment is removed. This negative level never results in actual level loss, but it cannot be overcome in any way (including restoration spells) while the weapon is wielded with an alignment crystal of opposed alignment than the creature.

Least: This crystal adds the appropriate alignment to the weapon. The weapon is treated as aligned with that alignment for the purpose of over-coming damage reduction.
Lesser: As the least crystal, and the weapon deals an additional +2d6 damage against creatures that are not the same alignment as the weapon. This damage is untyped.
Greater: As the lesser crystal and the crystal allows the wielder to make a smite attack against a creature that does not have the weapons alignment. Once per day the wielder may make a smite attack and add his Charisma modifier to his attack roll and add his character level as a bonus to his damage roll. If the attack misses the smite attack is wasted, as well as if the wielder mistakenly strikes a creature that does have the weapons alignment.


Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, align weapon, good, evil, lawful, or chaotic alignment.
Cost to Create: 500gp, 40xp, 1 day (least); 1,500 gp, 120xp, 3 days (lesser); 2,500gp, 200xp, 5 days (greater).





Armor Crystals

Crystal of Expertise
Price: 300gp (least), 1,000gp (lesser), or 4,000gp (greater)
Body Slot: -- (armor or shield crystal)
Caster Level: 5th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 17) divination
Activation: --
Weight: --

This clear crystal reflects no light.

A crytal of expertise grants proficiency with the armor or shield it is attached to.

Least: The least crystal of expertise may be attached to any light armor or buckler shield and the wielder is granted proficiency with that specific light armor or buckler shield.
Lesser: The lesser crystal of expertise may be attached to any medium armor or light shield and the wielder is granted proficiency with that specific medium armor or light shield.
Greater: The greater crystal of expertise may be attached to any heavy armor or heavy shield and the wielder is granted proficiency with that specific heavy armor or heavy shield.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, master's touch.
Cost to Create: 150gp, 12xp, 1 day (least); 500gp, 40xp, 1 day (lesser); 2,000gp, 160xp, 4 days (greater).

Lightstep Crystal
Price: 500gp (least), 1,500gp (lesser), or 3,000gp (greater)
Body Slot: -- (armor crystal)
Caster Level: 5th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 17) transmutation
Activation: --
Weight: --

This white crystal seems to weigh nothing, almost as if it floats.

When attached to a suit of armor the lightstep crystal increases the wearers speed and provides other benefits.

Least: This crystal increases the wearer's speed by +10 feet and applies to all of the wearers movement modes. This speed bonus is considered an enhancement bonus.
Lesser: As the least crystal and the wearer gains a +4 bonus on Initiative checks.
Greater: As the lesser crystal and the wearer may immediately reroll an initiative check once per day. She may take either result. A creature may only gain this benefit once per day, regardless of whether she uses another lightstep crystal later. This ability only functions once per day, regardless of whether another creature uses the same lightstep crystal later.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, haste.
Cost to Create: 250gp, 20xp, 1 day (least); 750gp, 60xp, 2 days (lesser); 1,500gp, 120xp, 3 days (greater).

Steadfast Crystal
Price: 500gp (least), 2,000gp (lesser), or 8,000gp (greater)
Body Slot: -- (armor crystal)
Caster Level: 5th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 17) transmutation
Activation: free (mental)
Weight: --

This brown crystal seems to be alive, pulsing slightly in your hand.

A steadfast crystal, when attached to a suit of armor, increases the wearers Hit Points and povides other benefits.

Least: When attached to a suit of armor the wearer may activate the crystal and gain 15 temporary hit points. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour and do not stack with any other source of temporary hit points. A creature may only gain these temporary hit points once per day, regardless if he activates another steadfast crystal later. This ability may only be activated once per day, regardless if another creature uses the same steadfast crystal later.
Lesser: As the least crystal and the wearer gains a +3 bonus to his Fortitude save.
Greater: As the lesser crystal and the wearer gains damage reduction 3/--. There is no daily limit on the number of points of damage the crystal may absorb and this damage reduction stacks with similar damage reduction granted by another source.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, bear's endurance.
Cost to Create: 250gp, 20xp, 1 day (least); 1,000gp, 80xp, 2 days (lesser); 4,000gp, 320xp, 8 days (greater).

Cant say much as far as balance goes, but I definately like these. Especially the alignment crystals. Hard to believe no one thought of that yet. Good job. :smallbiggrin:

The lightstep crystal is probably too cheap. Compare it to the boots of striding and springing (DMG pg. 250), which grants a +10 foot enhancement bonus to your base land speed and a +5 competence bonus on Jump checks for 5,500 gp. The Jump check bonus is worth 2,500 gp, which means the +10 speed bonus is equal to 3,000 gp (2,000 gp if we assume a 50% increase has been applied because of the boots having two separate effects).

The crystal instead increases all movement by 10 feet, and has the added benefit of not occupying an item slot by itself. I'd suggest making the movement speed increase the lesser version of the crystal (with the initiative bonus becoming the least version) and possibly having it affect only base land speed.

As it is currently written, a Greater Crystal of Expertise (weapon) will not help me use this sweet longsword I just found because it only works on exotic weapons. Similarly, the greater armor version only helps me wear full plate, not this breastplate. Make them work as the lower level crystals plus another ability.

The crystal of weapon alignment seems undercosted for +2d6 damage to a broad swath of enemies. Maybe up the price by 1K or so and only apply the damage to people of opposite alignment as the crystal, so a good crystal only hurts evil things more, not neutral as well.

These are pretty good. The Lighstep crystal is waaay to cheap, and the alignment crystals should only work against the opposing alignment and be more expensive, like Glimbur said. I think the steadfast crystal is probably a bit too cheap as well, since DR 3/something usually costs more than that to begin with. I really like the crystals of expertise though, that's the kind of ability they've been charging way too much for, and for only the one weapon. Letting you transfer it between weapons actually makes it worth it, and the opportunity cost of not having a different crystal should balance it out quite nicely. I can't comment on the Dragonmark Crystals, all I know is that there are similar items in the Eberron books, which may or may not be cost effective, and that's basically what you'd need to compare to.

Thanks for the critiques, all. :smallsmile:

I goofed on the Lightfoot crystal price. I couldn't figure out how they priced the crystals so I just went with prices that were similar to the ones in the MIC. I'll make some revisions.

I like how a lot of these function, though I have issue with the Expertise crystals, given you can't use the Greater crystals unless your exotic weapon is already +3 and not every bec de corbin out there that you want to use is going to be a +3 whatever one.

I know what you're trying to go for here with the different tiers of equipment but I think I'd move to make them just one crystal of least power so that any weapon or armor you care to plug it into only needs to be masterwork to use properly. Still not exactly perfect but more on a parallel with the Skillful weapon special ability and all around more user friendly.

With metalline, you should switch Lesser and Greater. Adamantine is generally the "top" metal in terms of overcoming DR.

Just my 2 cents.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cieyrin

I like how a lot of these function, though I have issue with the Expertise crystals, given you can't use the Greater crystals unless your exotic weapon is already +3 and not every bec de corbin out there that you want to use is going to be a +3 whatever one.

I know what you're trying to go for here with the different tiers of equipment but I think I'd move to make them just one crystal of least power so that any weapon or armor you care to plug it into only needs to be masterwork to use properly. Still not exactly perfect but more on a parallel with the Skillful weapon special ability and all around more user friendly.

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In agreement about the expertise crystals. Basically, you have to wait for a +3 weapon to use any exotic weapon, but apparently you can't apply that expertise with lower weapons.

I'd go a different path: the least crystal grants expertise when wielding the weapon (so you can change it from a rapier to a spiked chain to a maul to a Jovar greatsword to a minotaur greathammer to a ribbon rapier) and keep the property. Same for armor; though that would mean you could go anywhere from chain shirt to full plate in a matter of minutes, but since most of the light-armor classes already have abilities that depend on little armor, that means it would be more of a novelty than anything else.

I'd suggest a crystal of Finesse, upon which you can treat any one-handed martial weapon as a finessable weapon (but not two-handed weapons) for purposes of Weapon Finesse. That could open the Weapon Finesse feat for even more weapons (mostly longsword and scimitar which are the most evocative) than normal, but you would be essentially locking out other augment crystals (since you can only apply one augment crystal per weapon or armor).

I'd also suggest a Least, Lesser and Greater Crystal of Armor Adjustment. The lesser would decrease the armor check penalty of an item by 1 and increase the max Dex bonus of an armor by 1, the Lesser would be 2 instead of 1, and the Greater would be 3 instead of 1. Though, I'd personally go for -1 ACP/+1 Dex for Least, +3 ACP/+2 Dex for Lesser, and +5 ACP/+3 Dex for Greater. That way, you could make heavy armor and Dex-based characters an applicable option. I'd also add to the Lesser Crystal of Armor Adjustment that the armor does not restrict your movement (if medium or heavy armor) thus you can move at your base land speed and use skills like Tumble on said armor, and the Greater Crystal of Armor Adjustment would allow you to treat the armor as lighter for purposes of class-related abilities (heavy to medium, medium to light, light remains the same).

*looks for a Greater Witchlight Reservoir*

*does not find one*

*leaves, depressed* :smallfrown:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by T.G. Oskar

I'd also suggest a Least, Lesser and Greater Crystal of Armor Adjustment. The lesser would decrease the armor check penalty of an item by 1 and increase the max Dex bonus of an armor by 1, the Lesser would be 2 instead of 1, and the Greater would be 3 instead of 1. Though, I'd personally go for -1 ACP/+1 Dex for Least, +3 ACP/+2 Dex for Lesser, and +5 ACP/+3 Dex for Greater. That way, you could make heavy armor and Dex-based characters an applicable option. I'd also add to the Lesser Crystal of Armor Adjustment that the armor does not restrict your movement (if medium or heavy armor) thus you can move at your base land speed and use skills like Tumble on said armor, and the Greater Crystal of Armor Adjustment would allow you to treat the armor as lighter for purposes of class-related abilities (heavy to medium, medium to light, light remains the same).

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And suddenly Mithral Full Plate of Speed is light armor like it really should be. Approve, I do.

Thanks for the great suggestions. :smallsmile: When I have time I'll go back and revise them.

I thought about doing a few that granted feats. I had crystals worked out for the Two Weapon Fighting line and the Power Attack line, but decided against it.

I may do them anyway and let you guys decide whether they're good or not.

Honestly, I've never been a big fan of the Witchlight one. What do you think the Greater version should do?