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Arta Soral

 demon sword vajra discussion

discussion of question posed in rpg.stackexchange.com/question...
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 15:32
1/26*
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 15:32
A good character whose trying not to kill people and send them to the abyss only has a 2/26 chance, so the sword might never get powered up if it loses souls too quickly
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 15:29
@daze413 so that the balance im trying to find, but I did the math and the way I have it setup if a CE character is using the sword so hes trying to get souls theres are 2/9 chance he will get the souls, which means he will have to kill (as in be the one to "last hit") around 5 people a day to get a soul. And thats for a character who is playing Evil
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 04:23
I apreciate all the help, ty so much
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 04:23
true, i just wish i felt like less of a newbie DM at times
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 04:22
lol they're lvl 11 now and i don't plan on having them jump too quickly
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 04:21
that sounds stressful :) but then again i suppose thats the DM's job
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 04:20
ill tone it down alot, or mby attach a quest line to it
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 04:20
o, your probably right, thank you
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:43
I looked esp at the Book of Vile Darkness, thats where i got the alignment change idea from
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:41
thats about it though, the rest I tried to base as closely as possible with stuff from the DMG
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:40
so i know he wants the sword to act similar to the One Ring from Tolkien in terms of being semi-sentient and CE
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:39
Hundreds of years ago a great war broke out in the northern lands of Ogrillion. The demon lord (name) opened a portal from the Abyss to the Material plane and began his invasion. (rest of backstory of the war here [I lost my notes on that so we gotta work on it again]
Upon seeing the invasion begin to fail, a fleshsmith crafted a demonic sword in an attempt to turn the tide of the war. Sacrificing and binding the powerful demon Vajra he spent weeks straight performing horrifying rituals and crafting the blade to perfection. At the last, he gave his own soul to the sword, and the dark wea…
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:39
heres my notes on the flavor background he wanted (sorry for length ill sum up)
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:38
however flavor-wise he had ALOT
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:38
3 having it absorb souls in some way that improved the weapon
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:37
2. making it a casting focus (same reason)
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:37
in terms of the technical aspects of it he only really cared about 1. making it thrown (hes an eldritch knight and he likes summoning his stuff back to his hand)
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:23
Also, and this may be me being a bit selfish, I wanted to make it, really unique. It's not just any magic weapon its an artifact with a whole huge backstory and stuff behind it. So the special submision action and diguise stuff really apealed to me
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:14
As far as the worldbuilding goes, your right that I do need to add a mechanic for having the sword lose souls, but I kinda (mostly because i know the player wont be happy otherwise) want to make the sword be able to absorb souls at least semi permanently
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:11
your right I was kinda of blinded by the player, hes CG and plays the character that way, even going so far as to refuse to fight in some situations where there was great loot and stuff
Arta Soral
Aug 31, 2016 03:10
First off i really appreciate the feedback, i feel kinda bad for posting incorrectly in the stack exchange but thank you so much fr the response
 

 Discussion between Arta Soral and Pur…

Imported from a comment discussion on rpg.stackexchange.com/qu...
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 20:00
I see it more as a story first and foremost :)
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 19:41
im probably being too nit-picky here, but it really bugs me that the animal companion in combat effectively doesn't act like a pet or even a real animal.
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 19:37
Its true that would probably balance very well, but that seems even farther from the spirit of a beast companion. This, to me at least, would make it feel like the companion is an empty shell, waiting for its masters conciousness, or something like that as rangers cant actualy see from their beasts perspective
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 18:31
O and i wanted to thank you for your answer and patience, sorry for all the trouble :)
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 18:23
Also (and maybe i should be asking this in a separate question) regardless of how much we remove the autonomy of the beast, shouldn't we also treat the familiar at least the same even though there may not be a balancing issue?
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 18:20
what happens if the beast is attacked without the ranger using his action to give it an attack order still bothers me, and I'm not sure how i would DM that situation.
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 18:17
I get that balancing can sometimes force DMs and/or Wizards of the Coast to implement rules/decisions that don't seem to fit with whats "actually happening in the world" but obviously we want to avoid that as much as possible
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 18:14
Your right that does help alot, thank you
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 18:14
you're right i did forget that the beast could be moved for free. I as well don't yet have enough experience to say if it is balanced, but i think I'm going to DM treating the beast as a separate entity for a while and see how it goes. In addition, I'm going to have the familiar take its masters initiative, that ruling still baffles me.
Arta Soral
Oct 4, 2015 18:14
Would having the Rangers animal attack really cause that much of a balancing issue? Most of the companions attacks are pretty weak and this is a feature just like action surge is also a feature. Even if it is too strong, we could prevent that by not having the companion attack, but still have it move around or do other actions. It also really bugs me that the animal takes its masters initiative but the familiar doesn't, even though the familiar seems more like an extension of its master then the companion does Also if the animal was attacked would it not defend itself?