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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 2:07AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jan 20, 2012
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So my current party (3rd lvl Human Swordsage, Human Favoured Soul, Human Factotum and Uldra Barbaridruid [because one person flat out refused to play anything reasonable]) have just begun a homebrew campaign setting. Their quest? To retrieve four ancient artefacts in order to seal a great evil within the earth forever.
One of the artefacts is a mighty sword sacred to the Frostfang Tribes (basically Scandinavia+ Highland Scotland + Cimmeria) called Tyrfing. It belonged to their first king, Jorvik Ironbones.
When the party retrieves Tyrfing, they will soon discover that Jorvik's spirit has not departed, but is bound within the blade. He is still fully sentient, able to communicate telepathically and verbally with his wielder, and retains the lust for violence he had in life. He will refuse to be sheathed without tasting blood, and always suggest the most violent course of action.
The blade was used by him to slay his last opponent, the great sea serpent Ormr. Jorvik and the beast fought for a day and a night, before the king's blade slew the serpent. Jorvik then fell to the foul beast's poisonous blood. On his death, he was buried within a great cairn with the sword. However, Jorvik did not enter the afterlife, instead pleading with the gods to be allowed an eternity of war. The gods agreed to his pleas, and bound his soul to the blade. Centuries of solace have nearly driven Jorvik mad, and he yearns for battle once again.
So, I've got the background, now what do I do for stats and bonuses? (I'm not intending for the party to find Tyrfing until around 5th level, so keep that in mind)
I've a few tentative thoughts, but nothing seems to fit the character very well
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 6:43AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jan 19, 2012
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So my current party (3rd lvl Human Swordsage, Human Favoured Soul, Human Factotum and Uldra Barbaridruid [because one person flat out refused to play anything reasonable]) have just begun a homebrew campaign setting. Their quest? To retrieve four ancient artefacts in order to seal a great evil within the earth forever.
One of the artefacts is a mighty sword sacred to the Frostfang Tribes (basically Scandinavia+ Highland Scotland + Cimmeria) called Tyrfing. It belonged to their first king, Jorvik Ironbones.
When the party retrieves Tyrfing, they will soon discover that Jorvik's spirit has not departed, but is bound within the blade. He is still fully sentient, able to communicate telepathically and verbally with his wielder, and retains the lust for violence he had in life. He will refuse to be sheathed without tasting blood, and always suggest the most violent course of action.
The blade was used by him to slay his last opponent, the great sea serpent Ormr. Jorvik and the beast fought for a day and a night, before the king's blade slew the serpent. Jorvik then fell to the foul beast's poisonous blood. On his death, he was buried within a great cairn with the sword. However, Jorvik did not enter the afterlife, instead pleading with the gods to be allowed an eternity of war. The gods agreed to his pleas, and bound his soul to the blade. Centuries of solace have nearly driven Jorvik mad, and he yearns for battle once again.
So, I've got the background, now what do I do for stats and bonuses? (I'm not intending for the party to find Tyrfing until around 5th level, so keep that in mind)
I've a few tentative thoughts, but nothing seems to fit the character very well
The 3.5 DM Guide goes into detail about sentient weapons and tools. When you create one you have to create it as you would a separate character with will and intelligence. Obviously it won't have any dex or str attributes though. As well the alignment plays a MAJOR roll with sentient weapons especially if they go against the wielders alignment. Every time the PC would go to use the weapon they would have to make a will check to control it. If the PC wins then the blade would grudgingly go along with it, if the blade wins... that could provide some interesting game play.
One of the previous games that I played in, one of the PC's picked up a cursed sentient morning star. He was originally NG but the morning star was CE. Because the weapon was powerful he kept using and loosing the will save battles. Eventually the PC became CE as well because of the influence of the weapon and the rest of the group had to kill him or be killed by him.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 16, 2012 - 10:10PM
#3
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I agree. the alignement of the weapon is really important here. For added fun I'd have the weapon be CN. You could justify that by saying that Jorvik's soul went mad during its wait for heroes to find the sword in his funeral Cairn. As for the stats, you could make it a +1 Magical beast Bane Greatsword. It could be the kind of weapon Jorvik used to slay a huge magical sea serpent. It's powerful for a 5th level party but not too powerful so it's gamebreaking. It also remains pretty useful for the remainder of the campaign when the party will be looking for the other 3 articfacts. Also, some kind of berzerker sword could be fun since you want the sword to always favor the most violent outcome. You can make it so that the wielder sometime needs to control the sword with a will save. (Like in a really bloody fight). If he fails by a considerable margin, he can't control the sword anymore and he needs to attack the closest target; even if it is a friend. If I were you, I would try to make it crazy. A bit like Lilarcor in Baldur's Gate 2. It was a pretty crazy talking sword that always wanted to slay people and that always wanted to be shined. Actual quotes from Lilarcor:"Can we go kill something now, huh?" "Come on let's kill something NOW!" "Ooo, that'll leave a mark!"
"Hands up, kiddies, who wants to die?!"
"I'm the best at what I do, and what I do ain't pretty!"
"I am invincible! Invincible, I say!"
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1 year ago ::
May 06, 2012 - 4:38AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Apr 27, 2012
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One time i wrote a sentient sword into a campaign of mine. I think the best phrase was: "Death is honorable, and i am now to show you the greatest honor of all times..."
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1 year ago ::
May 06, 2012 - 4:33PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jun 22, 2011
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if it is intended to be a 5th level magic item, what the heck, go ahead and give it a +2.
The sword is a major story item, and has legends based around it. It makes sense that it would be moderately powerful.
Also, if the characters are to have the weapon for a long time, increase the bonuses according to level of characters and how long they have been using the sword. For example, after 2 or 3 levels increase the bonus to +3, or add a bonus to will saves (I'd like to guess Jorik was pretty strong-willed, and still is)
do what you will, this is how I'd go about it though.
A great man once said "If WotC put out boxes full of free money there'd still be people complaining about how it's folded." – Boraxe Pulp "Encumbrance"
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http://rottenpulp.blogspot.com/2012/06/matt-rundles-anti-hammerspace-item.html
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