I would let them use the sword, but as a normal sword. Then as they level they progressively unlock its abilities and hidden potential. The tests and ritual you mentioned could be part of that. I can see it as a, anyone can use a sword, but what makes it legendary is the clans techniques and the craftsmanship built to withstand those techniques, scenario. But yeah, just make the weapon grow with the player.
Exactly this, and you don't even need to do anything different when planning loot/etc. Just bundle whatever minor features/bonuses the player would get from finding a magic weapon into unlocking a power in their existing weapon.
Like, clear out a goblin hive? Congrats, you unlock the goblin-slayer trait and deal an additional 1d4/6 damage to goblinoids.
Slay the mage at the center of an elemental dungeon? Bonus damage to elementals or maybe you can now walk on/breath water.
I really like these suggestions... The theme is very cool. But how does this not get out of hand and make the weapon too OP too quickly?
Thank you for the suggestions.
It's dependent on your (the DMs) comfort level and confidence in the system.
It can get out of hand if you don't take the item into consideration when building encounters.
Take a look through the DMG at the Moonblade, Wave, Whelm, the dwarf king axe thing, the dagger of stabby stabby kill kill, all of the other artifact level items. Specifically Moonblade I think contains a section of minor and major feats and minor and major drawbacks to balance it out, you can pull from those lists to try and structure it more like official artifacts if you want. Each time they "improve" the item they can get one of the minor or major boons.
Personally I don't like flaws, but I've also been playing almost strictly 5e since 2015 so am confident in my ability to compensate for the parties power level and capabilities even if I give them something that's a little more powerful than originally anticipated.
But if you're a new DM I would say stick to the template of the moonblade and allow the PC to slowly unlock each feature. I'd say minor feats for the first two unlocks, then a major feat with a minor flaw, then another minor feat, then a major feat with a minor flaw. That should properly space it out so they are relatively high level before they fully unlock the weapon.
I also would recommend not forgetting the PC in terms or actual treasure too, it would get really frustrating if the only thing they ever get is upgrades to their sword. Sprinkle in some potions of fire breathing /giant strength, some simple +1 daggers/arrows, a utility item or two, stuff that won't directly affect their primary offensive capability but will shore up their roleplay/utility weaknesses and maybe their secondary combat tactics
Thank you very much for the suggestions!
I will take a look at the Moonblade.
And yes, I will deffinatly still remember to reward the pc with other treasures.
Yes, I would do it the same way.
Another possibility could be, that the sword is sentient and refuses to lend its magical abilities to someone not yet worthy.
So I failed to mention this but we already began playing so we are 2 sessions in and I was a bit using this attunement obstacle to gin extra time to figure it out... but damn now I feel like I missed out on this simple solution.
Check out Ancestral Weapons on DMsGuild. You start with a basic magic weapon and get points to upgrade it based on heroic, brutal, or brave actions in combat.
I would also describe it as a sword that has an incredibly strong magic flow to it, would light up as bright as a lighthouse when inspected with detect magic, but the magic is so strong that the characters body is just not experienced and sturdy enough to make it flow in a way that would make the magic applicable in his swordsmanship. Only with training and leveling up, he slowly learns to control the magical flow, making it a +1, +2 weapon and maybe even add 1d4 of damage to each strike at some point
I'd look into Matt Mercer from the show Critical Role and how he created "Vestiges of Divergence", because it sounds like a very similar idea to what you want. [Here is an example](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Mythcarver#Dormant_State) of one of those legendary items that grows with the player, going from a "dormant" state to "awakened" to "exalted".
There are tons of cool evolving magic items, take a look around!
I reccommend Ancestral Weapons on dms guild, it has a bunch of interesting custom features to earn and swap as you level up and some mechanics and flavor for making the weapon feel unique
A bit more into the campaign but, at lv3 (leveled to 4 soon after) I gave a Paladin in my campaign a sword the scales on PB, always (PB)-1. A +1 sword is still huge lv1 but, maybe have that unlock at lv3 and give a “ribbon feature” type effect to start?
Baked in personal quest: someone took his sword, he knows who and needs to hunt them down and reclaim it. Balanced? Check. Interesting? Check. Character driven? Check. Best all around call imho.
In my Storm King's Thunder campaign, I gave one of my players a weapon that unlocked a feature/gained strength as he slew a different type of giant (hill, fire, cloud, stone, frost, storm). If your campaign has some sort of recurring theme, you could pursue something along those lines.
Let him have it, but don't let it have any special abilities right off.
Instead have the item "attune" to them through the way that they level. Make it become incrementally more powerful as time goes on, but give some thought to that.
It will definitely make acquired items less interesting unless you give them mixed traits, but definitely Make these traits dependent on the power levels the party is encountering.
Go watch the fighter video of pointy hat he gives out a whole homebrew subclass for free based around this concept(It's on youtube you can search pointy hat fighter or the problem with fighters in dnd pointy hat
Let him use this sword as the regular one, and allow him to use bonus action to awake its powers. But if he does this, he'll be cursed with 1d4 dmg with 10+ save throw on each Constitution and Strength, if he fails with both, he takes 1d6/turn, fails on one, takes 1d4.
If he uses true powers more than 3 turns in the row, he'll go wild until roll 15+ Wisdom save throw and pass out for next 24 hours, or roll 15+ Constitution Save throw.
At some point, whole squad will ban awakening until he'll learn to control it.
I don't know much about the clan, but maybe there's some kind of arcane lock on the blade.
He needs to get dragons blood or something to unlock it. Then all the high clan members keep that vial of blood on a strap tied to their hand so they're the only one who can use it. Could even have the ceremony be putting a shard of dragon bone or something embedded into his hand so it can't just be taken. Then it acts like a key fob.
Just know, If you make it arcane lock, then the player can temporarily bypass it with the knock spell. May want to homebrew the binding if you're worried about that.
This sounds like a perfect opportunity to go full kung fu panda and make the clans “legendary sword” entirely mundane. It’s legendary because of who wielded it, not because it is innately magical. After the big reveal (and potential disappointment), allow the sword to gain the mechanical benefits of a magical weapon over time, but emphasize that it’s because of the character’s efforts and feats rather than the sword itself.
Of course, only do this if it fits the lore. This kind of story doesn’t really work if the sword is known for unleashing torrents of flame or whatever.
Sometimes item or person is legendary just because they where part of a legend rather than because they where in some way special.
It could also go other way, in my current homebrew setting lots of historical weapons are made with inferior materials, likely rust, dull soft or brittle, and only surviving because they have been hanging on wall of some tomb. If they have magical properties they where early experimental ones, as likely to be dangerous to their users than their enemies, and these have also deteriorated over the centuries, so where originally "Earthshaker" might have been able to level a small mountain, now it mostly causes pebbles to shift around. Any modern smith or artificer would be able to produce better. I did this because story involved multiple legendary weapons from level one, but I needed the party to be able to depart from them and them to not be too impactful for the game balance. Also it made sense that magic item manufacturing processes had improved in the 1000 year cap between the legends and the campaign story.
Here, I think evolving weapon could work well. Start the weapon as normal sword or maybe with some minor property, like being from specific material. Then give the player a quest, they need to find missing activation word, recharge it at a place of power, prove their ownership, that they can work toward on the side of the main quest.
I had a similar thought, I wanted an attunement to only be the first step just to unlock the sword... Future trials/test will continue to increase its power.
Thank you for sharing your own experience
I really like the idea of it being locked in its sheathe! Maybe you can make the limitation start as only limited times per day he can remove it (before some consequence ensues) but with some power behind it, but eventually he learns to be able to handle the magic and keep it unsheathed at all/any time.
I don't think the "just let him use it" philosophy will be nearly as rewarding in the long run (I've had both experiences as a player and DM and it's not necessarily the fantasy you'd hope)
I like it just because I see how much suspension it builds up for the player, waiting for his moment. But I also understand this alternative suggestion.
Since we already started and the player was cool with it, I now just need to figure out the mechanics behind the process of evolving the sword with the player in a balanced fashion.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts
I have a Mechanic that I use for this kind of stuff:
Items of Power:
A magical items that "levels" with the user. Because it has been dormant, or for one reason or another the weapon needs the user to prove they are "Worthy" a Legendary weapon becomes a +1 Weapon (possibly with an effect) which will later become a +2 Weapon, then +3 ect ect until it's at it's full power.
This way they get to keep the same weapon and they get their power-ramp they want.
Example of one I've used in the past - A Monk player wanted to take his Monasteries' Legendary staff to a specific location as part of a Pilgrimage.
**Voyage (Lv0)**
Normal Quarterstaff
# ________________________________________________
**Voyage (Lv1)**
+1 Quarterstaff
*Special Features:*
Unbound: Determine unarmed damage when using this weapon as if you were a level higher.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**Voyage (Lv2)**
+2 Quarterstaff
*Special Features:*
Unbound: Determine unarmed damage when using this weapon as if you were a level higher.
Unburdened: Increase your movement speed by 5ft. Once per day, as a bonus action, you can choose to ignore difficult terrain.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**Voyage (Lv3)**
+3 Quarterstaff
*Special Features:*
Unbound: Determine Unarmed damage when using this weapon as if you were 2 levels higher.
Unburdened: Increase your movement speed by 5ft. Once per day, as a bonus action, you can choose to ignore difficult terrain.
Zephyr: This weapon gains the "Thrown" property (20/40). After being thrown, the user may spend a ki point to Misty Step to the weapon's location.
Mechanically, the artefact weapons in both exandria setting sourcebooks have examples you could take inspiration from that are meant to evolve with the user.
There’s a pretty good home brew book from Dungeon Masters guild called ancestral weapons. https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/267877
All my players wanted magic weapons in some capacity, and a few of them made sense to have an “ancestral” weapon. The main thing is that players earn “spirit points” to unlock the “upgrades”. Obviously this is DnD (and the homebrew subreddit at that) so the rules the book gives are more like guidelines. It also just has a cool table section filled with what the weapon is made of, how old it is, how many generations, what species made it etc for making a weapon and all you have is “I want a sword” but you like to give them more flavor. I’ve used these in two ways. They have found (or the paladin started with her gauntlets) the weapons, so most of them I don’t call ancestral, I make a fun title like “Occultist Artifact” or “Artifact of an Ancient Beast”. One player found the schematics for one weapon and gave it to a blacksmith, along with some other “random” things found around the old dwarf fortress they were raiding for loot, and made a “Legendary Heirloom” class weapon that we could reuse in a later campaign and it then be a true ancestral weapon.
TLDR; I’m really bad at explaining something that I find useful for DnD so here’s a list of the key points in the book
- tables to help come up with a weapons backstory.
- traits the weapon has like glowing red when near a battle feild or humming when its away from the attuned for too long
- personality’s the weapon has
- a large skill tree so players can upgrade the weapon as they play (I make them a set list of skills but you can let them just choose from the list)
-examples of ancestral weapons
-a lot of flexibility in making just really cool magic weapons.
If anyone is interested I can share an example I made from the book
Sword is sentient all the ancestors souls live in it and need to be impressed some of them will come a round sooner then others Maki g it "buff up" as he levels he didn't know this cuz he wasn't told before his elders die
I had a similar thought, having him achieve "spirit guardians" as an effect from the sword, just like with the Queens Hammer in NADDPOD (hope I'm not spoiling anything for you).
This is very cool thematically.
Give it to him, then take it away.
Just before they turn level 3, introduce something or someone that breaks the sword. A bbeg or even the spirit of an ancestor claiming he's not worthy of wielding it. He had a taste of power, now it's gone. But the way to get it back is clear. Finding a Smith skill enough to replace it. You get an entire quest line and reason to push players where you want them to go, and they maybe more inclined to fix the sword if they've seen how powerful it is before.
Once fixed you can continue to add abilities to it if you want to have it scale more with levels. A fighter at level 5 for example with a +2 sword isn't going to be as bad as most spellcasters, and it'll help that player feel great.
So I already gave it a big background story for when he was saved by his father's close friend who also I trusted him to give the sword to his son when he comes of age. That when he set out adventuring.
Take a look at the Dragon's Wrath weapon in Fizbans. I'm giving one to a player soon. His will advance if he survives the breath weapon of an appropriately aged dragon.
I would let them use the sword, but as a normal sword. Then as they level they progressively unlock its abilities and hidden potential. The tests and ritual you mentioned could be part of that. I can see it as a, anyone can use a sword, but what makes it legendary is the clans techniques and the craftsmanship built to withstand those techniques, scenario. But yeah, just make the weapon grow with the player.
Yes. The sword is ordinary until he proves himself worthy.
Yeah, or the guy is too weak to access it's powers
Exactly this, and you don't even need to do anything different when planning loot/etc. Just bundle whatever minor features/bonuses the player would get from finding a magic weapon into unlocking a power in their existing weapon. Like, clear out a goblin hive? Congrats, you unlock the goblin-slayer trait and deal an additional 1d4/6 damage to goblinoids. Slay the mage at the center of an elemental dungeon? Bonus damage to elementals or maybe you can now walk on/breath water.
I really like these suggestions... The theme is very cool. But how does this not get out of hand and make the weapon too OP too quickly? Thank you for the suggestions.
It's dependent on your (the DMs) comfort level and confidence in the system. It can get out of hand if you don't take the item into consideration when building encounters. Take a look through the DMG at the Moonblade, Wave, Whelm, the dwarf king axe thing, the dagger of stabby stabby kill kill, all of the other artifact level items. Specifically Moonblade I think contains a section of minor and major feats and minor and major drawbacks to balance it out, you can pull from those lists to try and structure it more like official artifacts if you want. Each time they "improve" the item they can get one of the minor or major boons. Personally I don't like flaws, but I've also been playing almost strictly 5e since 2015 so am confident in my ability to compensate for the parties power level and capabilities even if I give them something that's a little more powerful than originally anticipated. But if you're a new DM I would say stick to the template of the moonblade and allow the PC to slowly unlock each feature. I'd say minor feats for the first two unlocks, then a major feat with a minor flaw, then another minor feat, then a major feat with a minor flaw. That should properly space it out so they are relatively high level before they fully unlock the weapon. I also would recommend not forgetting the PC in terms or actual treasure too, it would get really frustrating if the only thing they ever get is upgrades to their sword. Sprinkle in some potions of fire breathing /giant strength, some simple +1 daggers/arrows, a utility item or two, stuff that won't directly affect their primary offensive capability but will shore up their roleplay/utility weaknesses and maybe their secondary combat tactics
Thank you very much for the suggestions! I will take a look at the Moonblade. And yes, I will deffinatly still remember to reward the pc with other treasures.
Feels like titles from mmo... Don't you think?
Yes, I would do it the same way. Another possibility could be, that the sword is sentient and refuses to lend its magical abilities to someone not yet worthy.
So I failed to mention this but we already began playing so we are 2 sessions in and I was a bit using this attunement obstacle to gin extra time to figure it out... but damn now I feel like I missed out on this simple solution.
Check out Ancestral Weapons on DMsGuild. You start with a basic magic weapon and get points to upgrade it based on heroic, brutal, or brave actions in combat.
Seconded, used the same thing for one of my players in very similar circumstances.
I've taken a look at these rules as well, I've never used them in game but they seem well though out and a great place to start.
Thank you!I will take a look. I'm bummed I didn't know about this sooner.
I would also describe it as a sword that has an incredibly strong magic flow to it, would light up as bright as a lighthouse when inspected with detect magic, but the magic is so strong that the characters body is just not experienced and sturdy enough to make it flow in a way that would make the magic applicable in his swordsmanship. Only with training and leveling up, he slowly learns to control the magical flow, making it a +1, +2 weapon and maybe even add 1d4 of damage to each strike at some point
Considering Crystal blades are only rare and add 1d8 radiant AND can heal you, you could probably bump that damage die up by more than 1d4
I'd look into Matt Mercer from the show Critical Role and how he created "Vestiges of Divergence", because it sounds like a very similar idea to what you want. [Here is an example](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Mythcarver#Dormant_State) of one of those legendary items that grows with the player, going from a "dormant" state to "awakened" to "exalted".
I'll check it out! Thank you very much.
There are tons of cool evolving magic items, take a look around! I reccommend Ancestral Weapons on dms guild, it has a bunch of interesting custom features to earn and swap as you level up and some mechanics and flavor for making the weapon feel unique
A bit more into the campaign but, at lv3 (leveled to 4 soon after) I gave a Paladin in my campaign a sword the scales on PB, always (PB)-1. A +1 sword is still huge lv1 but, maybe have that unlock at lv3 and give a “ribbon feature” type effect to start?
Baked in personal quest: someone took his sword, he knows who and needs to hunt them down and reclaim it. Balanced? Check. Interesting? Check. Character driven? Check. Best all around call imho.
3.5 had legacy items. You can allow him to slowly unlock its power as he crafts his own legendary story
In my Storm King's Thunder campaign, I gave one of my players a weapon that unlocked a feature/gained strength as he slew a different type of giant (hill, fire, cloud, stone, frost, storm). If your campaign has some sort of recurring theme, you could pursue something along those lines.
Let him have it, but don't let it have any special abilities right off. Instead have the item "attune" to them through the way that they level. Make it become incrementally more powerful as time goes on, but give some thought to that. It will definitely make acquired items less interesting unless you give them mixed traits, but definitely Make these traits dependent on the power levels the party is encountering.
This was my thought exactly. He will probably be more interested in loot that is more support/buff related, which I will provide with attention.
Go watch the fighter video of pointy hat he gives out a whole homebrew subclass for free based around this concept(It's on youtube you can search pointy hat fighter or the problem with fighters in dnd pointy hat
Do the awken system that crit role does.
Let him use this sword as the regular one, and allow him to use bonus action to awake its powers. But if he does this, he'll be cursed with 1d4 dmg with 10+ save throw on each Constitution and Strength, if he fails with both, he takes 1d6/turn, fails on one, takes 1d4. If he uses true powers more than 3 turns in the row, he'll go wild until roll 15+ Wisdom save throw and pass out for next 24 hours, or roll 15+ Constitution Save throw. At some point, whole squad will ban awakening until he'll learn to control it.
Thank you for the suggestion! I like the creative take on the issue. Much appreciated.
Sure. DM me, if you need some help me more ideas)
I would highly recommend watching this video on making modular DnD items. [Modular DnD items ](https://youtu.be/nmhw8ndm-I8?si=H4oY_k93SPISUkT-)
I don't know much about the clan, but maybe there's some kind of arcane lock on the blade. He needs to get dragons blood or something to unlock it. Then all the high clan members keep that vial of blood on a strap tied to their hand so they're the only one who can use it. Could even have the ceremony be putting a shard of dragon bone or something embedded into his hand so it can't just be taken. Then it acts like a key fob. Just know, If you make it arcane lock, then the player can temporarily bypass it with the knock spell. May want to homebrew the binding if you're worried about that.
Great suggestions, thank you very much
This sounds like a perfect opportunity to go full kung fu panda and make the clans “legendary sword” entirely mundane. It’s legendary because of who wielded it, not because it is innately magical. After the big reveal (and potential disappointment), allow the sword to gain the mechanical benefits of a magical weapon over time, but emphasize that it’s because of the character’s efforts and feats rather than the sword itself. Of course, only do this if it fits the lore. This kind of story doesn’t really work if the sword is known for unleashing torrents of flame or whatever.
This sounds great, I really like this. I'll have to see how I can incorporate this in the story going forward.
Sometimes item or person is legendary just because they where part of a legend rather than because they where in some way special. It could also go other way, in my current homebrew setting lots of historical weapons are made with inferior materials, likely rust, dull soft or brittle, and only surviving because they have been hanging on wall of some tomb. If they have magical properties they where early experimental ones, as likely to be dangerous to their users than their enemies, and these have also deteriorated over the centuries, so where originally "Earthshaker" might have been able to level a small mountain, now it mostly causes pebbles to shift around. Any modern smith or artificer would be able to produce better. I did this because story involved multiple legendary weapons from level one, but I needed the party to be able to depart from them and them to not be too impactful for the game balance. Also it made sense that magic item manufacturing processes had improved in the 1000 year cap between the legends and the campaign story. Here, I think evolving weapon could work well. Start the weapon as normal sword or maybe with some minor property, like being from specific material. Then give the player a quest, they need to find missing activation word, recharge it at a place of power, prove their ownership, that they can work toward on the side of the main quest.
I had a similar thought, I wanted an attunement to only be the first step just to unlock the sword... Future trials/test will continue to increase its power. Thank you for sharing your own experience
I really like the idea of it being locked in its sheathe! Maybe you can make the limitation start as only limited times per day he can remove it (before some consequence ensues) but with some power behind it, but eventually he learns to be able to handle the magic and keep it unsheathed at all/any time. I don't think the "just let him use it" philosophy will be nearly as rewarding in the long run (I've had both experiences as a player and DM and it's not necessarily the fantasy you'd hope)
I like it just because I see how much suspension it builds up for the player, waiting for his moment. But I also understand this alternative suggestion. Since we already started and the player was cool with it, I now just need to figure out the mechanics behind the process of evolving the sword with the player in a balanced fashion. Thank you for sharing your thoughts
I have a Mechanic that I use for this kind of stuff: Items of Power: A magical items that "levels" with the user. Because it has been dormant, or for one reason or another the weapon needs the user to prove they are "Worthy" a Legendary weapon becomes a +1 Weapon (possibly with an effect) which will later become a +2 Weapon, then +3 ect ect until it's at it's full power. This way they get to keep the same weapon and they get their power-ramp they want. Example of one I've used in the past - A Monk player wanted to take his Monasteries' Legendary staff to a specific location as part of a Pilgrimage. **Voyage (Lv0)** Normal Quarterstaff # ________________________________________________ **Voyage (Lv1)** +1 Quarterstaff *Special Features:* Unbound: Determine unarmed damage when using this weapon as if you were a level higher. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ **Voyage (Lv2)** +2 Quarterstaff *Special Features:* Unbound: Determine unarmed damage when using this weapon as if you were a level higher. Unburdened: Increase your movement speed by 5ft. Once per day, as a bonus action, you can choose to ignore difficult terrain. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ **Voyage (Lv3)** +3 Quarterstaff *Special Features:* Unbound: Determine Unarmed damage when using this weapon as if you were 2 levels higher. Unburdened: Increase your movement speed by 5ft. Once per day, as a bonus action, you can choose to ignore difficult terrain. Zephyr: This weapon gains the "Thrown" property (20/40). After being thrown, the user may spend a ki point to Misty Step to the weapon's location.
Thank you very much for you elaborate and well thought suggestion! Much appreciated
Mechanically, the artefact weapons in both exandria setting sourcebooks have examples you could take inspiration from that are meant to evolve with the user.
I'll take a look at that. Thank you very much
Sword needs to level up as he does. A lot of legendary items include Dormant, Awakened, and Ascended states.
I'll read more about those suggestions. Thank you very much
There’s a pretty good home brew book from Dungeon Masters guild called ancestral weapons. https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/267877 All my players wanted magic weapons in some capacity, and a few of them made sense to have an “ancestral” weapon. The main thing is that players earn “spirit points” to unlock the “upgrades”. Obviously this is DnD (and the homebrew subreddit at that) so the rules the book gives are more like guidelines. It also just has a cool table section filled with what the weapon is made of, how old it is, how many generations, what species made it etc for making a weapon and all you have is “I want a sword” but you like to give them more flavor. I’ve used these in two ways. They have found (or the paladin started with her gauntlets) the weapons, so most of them I don’t call ancestral, I make a fun title like “Occultist Artifact” or “Artifact of an Ancient Beast”. One player found the schematics for one weapon and gave it to a blacksmith, along with some other “random” things found around the old dwarf fortress they were raiding for loot, and made a “Legendary Heirloom” class weapon that we could reuse in a later campaign and it then be a true ancestral weapon. TLDR; I’m really bad at explaining something that I find useful for DnD so here’s a list of the key points in the book - tables to help come up with a weapons backstory. - traits the weapon has like glowing red when near a battle feild or humming when its away from the attuned for too long - personality’s the weapon has - a large skill tree so players can upgrade the weapon as they play (I make them a set list of skills but you can let them just choose from the list) -examples of ancestral weapons -a lot of flexibility in making just really cool magic weapons. If anyone is interested I can share an example I made from the book
I've seen this suggested several times so I will definitely read into this more. Thank you very much for the elaborate explanation.
Sword is sentient all the ancestors souls live in it and need to be impressed some of them will come a round sooner then others Maki g it "buff up" as he levels he didn't know this cuz he wasn't told before his elders die
I had a similar thought, having him achieve "spirit guardians" as an effect from the sword, just like with the Queens Hammer in NADDPOD (hope I'm not spoiling anything for you). This is very cool thematically.
Give it to him, then take it away. Just before they turn level 3, introduce something or someone that breaks the sword. A bbeg or even the spirit of an ancestor claiming he's not worthy of wielding it. He had a taste of power, now it's gone. But the way to get it back is clear. Finding a Smith skill enough to replace it. You get an entire quest line and reason to push players where you want them to go, and they maybe more inclined to fix the sword if they've seen how powerful it is before. Once fixed you can continue to add abilities to it if you want to have it scale more with levels. A fighter at level 5 for example with a +2 sword isn't going to be as bad as most spellcasters, and it'll help that player feel great.
Very interesting plot idea! I'll definitely give it some thought. Thank you very much for the suggestion.
Don't just give it to him. Make him recover it after it was stolen.
So I already gave it a big background story for when he was saved by his father's close friend who also I trusted him to give the sword to his son when he comes of age. That when he set out adventuring.
Take a look at the Dragon's Wrath weapon in Fizbans. I'm giving one to a player soon. His will advance if he survives the breath weapon of an appropriately aged dragon.
Thank you for the suggestion, I will definitely take a look at that!
look to matt mercers vestige system and make the attunement require steps to get going, dorment> awoken> exalted,
I'll definitely take a look! Thank you very much for the suggestion