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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    Central US
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    Default Weapon: Bittersteel Blades

    Hello, gentle people! So...I haven't done this sort of homebrewing for a while, and sadly, my books happen to be unavailable at this moment, so I'm moderately unable to figure out the game-mechanics details on my own. However, I have here the idea for what could be a very, very nasty weapon to use on an unsuspecting party - especially if, like most of mine, they tend to rely rather heavily on their cleric as a Magical Reset Button. With that in mind, I present to you...


    Bittersteel Blades

    Poisons, curses, rust, foul enchantments, barbs – there are nearly as many variations on the assassin’s blade as there are assassins to carry them. Among the darkest of weapons carried by the most ruthless of killers, the Bittersteel blades are some of the most fiercely denounced by clerics and lawmen alike for their evil nature.

    Originally created by the Belladonna Society, an assassin’s guild comprised entirely of females, the Bittersteel weapons are created by a fiercely-guarded secret alchemical process known to no others. Countless attempts have been made by other guilds to secure or duplicate the recipe, but to date none has succeeded. While the process could conceivably be applied to any bladed weapon, the Society normally only produces daggers made from the substance, unless the buyer in question wishes to pay an exceedingly hefty fee.

    What makes the daggers such hotly contested items is a two-fold effect of the alchemical treatment. Firstly, the enchantment worked into the steel of the blades is untraceable by any form of magical detection which, when coupled by the rather plain and unremarkable appearance of the daggers themselves, makes it almost impossible to tell the true nature of the weapon. However, while that alone would be cause for alarm, it is the nature of the hidden enchantment that so upsets the clerical world; for whenever a victim is wounded by a Bittersteel blade, the wound – and all wounds following, for the duration of the effect – is completely incurable by magical, psionic, clerical or any other means beyond natural healing; even magically induced regeneration is stopped until the wound has healed naturally.

    Worse still, however, is the fact that the enchantment not only prevents all magically or psionically induced forms of healing, it actually reverses the effects of any such efforts – in other words, the damage that would have been healed by a timely Cure Wounds spell is instead made worse by the same amount, as if the spellcaster had instead used a Cause Wounds spell. However, harmful spells and abilities are not reversed in kind, and still function at their normal strength – in other words, casting a Cause Wounds spell would still deal the normal amount of damage, and not do any healing whatsoever.

    Clearly, all good-aligned clerics that have discovered the true nature of these blades consider them an abomination, as do those neutral-aligned who also rely on spontaneous curative spells. In most places where the nature of such weapons are known, it is quite often a crime punishable by death (or at least life-imprisonment and hard labor, depending on the local laws) to even be found carrying such a blade, if its nature is discovered; and even in places without such laws, those who are known to have and use such weapons are often discouraged from staying long.

    (Summary: Bittersteel blades cause all magically, psionically or otherwise induced healing (beyond non-magical medical treatment and natural regeneration) to deal in damage the same amount of HP as they would restore, until the original wound dealt by the blade heals naturally.)


    For anyone and everyone interested - feel free to take this idea and run with it. I know as soon as I write up some stats (and get back from Underway), I'll be making my little gamer-group's life rather fantastically miserable with at least one of these little nasties...Mweh-heh-heh...
    78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.
    (Actually, started DM-ing my first campaign mid-dungeon. Booyah.)

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

    Join Date
    Aug 2008

    Default Re: Weapon: Bittersteel Blades

    Price?? (I would put it at very high for a material) Seems cool though.
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  3. - Top - End - #3
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Mongoose87's Avatar

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    Jan 2008
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    Default Re: Weapon: Bittersteel Blades

    Sounds useful if you want someone to stop showing up for a couple sessions
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  4. - Top - End - #4
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Cieyrin's Avatar

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    Default Re: Weapon: Bittersteel Blades

    What happens if the target is a Tomb-Tainted Soul? Since they're healed by negative energy, would this material also reverse such effects or would the Tomb-Tainted Soul be healed, anyways?
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    Damn you Cieyrin! Cieyrin!!!!!read as Khaaaaan!

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  5. - Top - End - #5
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Default Re: Weapon: Bittersteel Blades

    Quote Originally Posted by Cieyrin View Post
    What happens if the target is a Tomb-Tainted Soul? Since they're healed by negative energy, would this material also reverse such effects or would the Tomb-Tainted Soul be healed, anyways?
    Given that bittersteel has no reaction to harmful spells such as the various Cause Wounds (which are all negative-energy spells), I would assume (having never run across these creatures before now) that Tomb-Tainted are actually rather immune to the effects, at least as far as being healed by negative energy applies. However, if they are affected by positive energy in any way, that effect would likely be reversed.

    Which, in turn, means that if they were HARMED by healing magic under normal conditions, bittersteel could concievably actually allow them to be HEALED by it...Hmmm...
    78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.
    (Actually, started DM-ing my first campaign mid-dungeon. Booyah.)

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