Wednesday, August 7, 2019

+1.5 Magic Weapons

+1 magic weapons are a staple, but really just not particularly interesting unless they've got something else going for them. Sometimes that's a unique history, sometimes that's the story of how you acquired them, and of course sometimes there's just another magic effect included. To roll up a +1.5 magic weapon, figure out why it's got that +1 bonus to damage and accuracy, then give it another ability that's flavorful and slightly obtuse.

by Guro




Why's it +1?
1. A clockwork mechanism runs through the weapon and aids its balance
2. An oracle told you when it would fail you, and so until that time comes you can wield it with reckless abandon, sure of its potency
3. Bathed in hearts as it was forged, it seeks hearts or the closest similar thing
4. Blessed by a high priest, covered in prayer-glyphs that mark you as a believer even if you aren't
5. Enchanted to flawlessly keep its edge, blood and viscera wicks off it like water off a duck
6. Exists across multiple realities, brings the one where you hit the hardest into truth
7. Extends an extra second forward in time, wounding targets across the fourth dimension
8. Fell from the sky, still reflects starlight even in day
9. Forged in dragonfire, still warm to the touch
10. Former training weapon, moves your hand for you to help you find an opening
11. Gems embedded in the weapon's hilt give it perfect weighting and also look really nice
12. Hexes the enemy you're attacking with it with self-doubt, making them slip up just a bit more
13. Inscribed with a mathemagical formula that calculates the best strike in any situation
14. Iron imbued with a grain of occultum in the crafting process, gives off magic radiation (don't worry about it)
15. Made of giantbone, the giant's still looking for its bones
16. Mastercrafted with superior techniques lost to all but one smith, might be able to re-engineer the smith's process
17. Soul of famous soldier was melted into the metal, their visage peeks through and offers whispered advice
18. The weapon's really confident in itself ever since it was complimented by a powerful warlord
19. Tiny hooks and grooves in the business end tear and slice at flesh in just the right way to make its wounds incredibly painful
20. Wizard tried to explain the arcanodynamics behind the enchantment, but lost you at "terrauric micro-fluctuations," as far as you can tell it's just better

d66 Magic Weapon Effects
11. Alarmed, screams when someone besides you is nearby
12. Antimagic, its effects can't be undone or influenced by magic
13. Banner, can be seen from up to a kilometer away regardless of obstacles
14. Bestial, design resembles an animal and attacks imitate that animal's perfectly
15. Branding, leaves unique mark on hit
16. Cold Iron, extraplanar creatures can't heal wounds from it
21. Collectible, there's d10 other copies of the weapon out there and when you have them all something neat happens
22. Edible, counts as rations (3 per inventory slot it takes up, each consumed part gives -1 damage until it's all gone)
23. Fashionable, always pristine, counts as formalwear
24. Fissile, splits into two half-size weapons which can be reunited into one
25. Floating, hovers in place when released
26. Friend to X, passes harmlessly through X (suggestions: animals, believers, party members, walls)
31. Glowing, emits light as torch, runs on oil as lantern
32. Gory, all wounds inflicted create ten times the mess
33. Gripping, can latch onto whatever you hit with it
34. Hollow, can hold 1 slot of stuff inside it
35. Hunting, always points towards last creature you injured with it
36. Imbued, has an inscribed spell that can be cast once as a scroll, may be reimbued with the right materials
41. Invisible, doesn't turn blood coating it invisible
42. Keening, makes loud noise as you swing it
43. Key, opens a particular lock
44. Kitbashed, roll (slots+1) times on the random equipment table to find its component parts (you can still use them!)
45. Liquid, can be liquefied or congealed back into weapon on touch
46. Living, needs food but can crawl under own power
51. Oversized, twice as large but just as maneuverable
52. Sanguine, absorbs blood from its attacks and can spray it as an action
53. Shieldbane, automatically forces shields to be sundered instead of dealing damage if possible
54. Shielding, counts as a shield as well as a weapon so long as you wield it with both hands
55. Sparring, only wounds when its wielder intends it to
56. Sundial, tells time, date, and phase of moon
61. Tome, has a novel's worth of easily legible text written on it
62. Trick, can switch into a weapon of a different type (2-handed vs 1-handed, large vs small, melee vs ranged)
63. Trophy, is respected by those who know its provenance
64. Undead, has been destroyed and reforged, undead recognize it as one of them
65. Undersized, half-size but hits just as hard
66. Unsheathed, always in your hand when you need it

3 comments:

  1. "+1 whip. Gems embedded in the weapon’s hilt give it perfect weighting and also look really nice. Also bestial, design resembles an animal and attacks imitate that animal’s perfectly."

    So I'm thinking this is The Chameleon's Tongue - a retractable whip, its hilt a weighty rod of jade carved in the likeness of a chameleon, its tail a spool of red silk that unfurls in use and recoils on return. The tip of the tail is black iron fly tied tightly to the silk, aiding the aim of the strike and adding to its damage. On a critical hit, the whip disarms the target, or steals their shield or another held object.

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  2. "Made of giantbone, the giant's still looking for its bones"

    You know what, I'm just gonna let you keep this sword, good Wizard. I would rather not wake up in the middle of the night, being strangled by a giant mass of angry skin and viscera.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a *very* useful post. 5e has a bit of something like this, but it's not enough.

    ReplyDelete

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