Homebrew magic items for commentary

[tnli]

I haven't seen a thread about homebrew magic items, so I'll start one. Please comment the item below, and do feel free to show items you've created! 

Rune spear with a catch

Whether a long-forgotten artefact from the God-time, an experimentation of the God-learners, or a result of foul Malkioni sorcery, this long spear is adorned with the runes of Air, Movement, and Fire/Sky. (If found in the hands of Orlanthi, the last rune is often hidden under wrappings.)

The wielder can spend 3 magic points as a free action to activate the effects of the runes. When activated this heavy weapon of can be thrown  as a javelin, with range of 40 meters and damage of 1d12 plus half of damage bonus, as usual for thrown weapons, and with an additional fire damage as determined on each hit by rolling a 1d6:

• 1: 1d4
• 2: 1d6
• 3: 1d8
• 4: 1d10
• 5: 1d12
• 6: 1d20

After a hit or a miss, on the next strike rank, the spear flies back to the thrower, flipping in mid-air! The thrower can either choose to defend against it, or try to catch it. The chance for catching this spear is equal to DEX*2 plus Manipulation modifier, and can be improved as a skill. Depending on the degree of success, various things can then follow:

• On a critical hit, the catcher can throw the spear again, on the same SR as it was caught!
• On a special success, the spear can be thrown again on the same round on strike rank equal to return rank + user's DEX SR, if possible.
• On a normal success, the spear is ready in the users hands, and can be thrown again on the next round.
• On a failure, the spear hits a ground next to the user and needs to be readied to be used again, the effect ends.
• On a fumble, the spear hits the hand that was used to try to catch it! Apply normal damage and the additional fire damage to that location, the effect ends.

The damage bonus only applies to damage when thrown, but can set things on fire as a torch.

The effect lasts for 15 minutes, unless cancelled early by a a failed or fumbled catch or not trying to catch it.

Treat as a 15-point effect against countermagic and similar spells. If countermagic or (especially) Shield ends the effect, the spear does not fly back to the thrower. If Shield countermagics the effect, it's still going to hit the target and do the normal 1d12+1/2 bonus damage as any other thrown weapon.

--- end of item description ---

I envisioned this thing as something inspired from the Thor's Hammer, transferred to Glorantha. I don't think that it is too powerful, extra range is useful just sometimes, fire damage boost is usually less than that of a Fireblade, and the returning effect & chance for free throws doesn't feel too powerful, as it shouldn't show up too often. That said, I don't think it's too weak either. 

What do you think, and what would be a fair price for one of these? 

[PhilHibbs]

Good to have a new thread I think. See also, but competition probably closed now: 

 

[French Desperate WindChild]

for me, a character should obtain that by heroquesting more than bargaining with a merchant but the price should be more than 45000 silvers ( you said 15-points effects, so a lot, so 3000 * 15. I used 1500 silvers for 1 POW, in my oriflam version as I don't see price for enchanters in RQ:G), the powers are rare too so why not 100 000 ?

I feel it stronger than fireblade (time x3 + damage in all cases)

fireblade = 3D6 = 10,5 (average)

your spear :

if 1 : 12.5 = 6.5 + 3.5 + 2.5

if 2 : 13.5 = 6.5 + 3.5 + 3.5

3 -> 14.5, 4 ->  15.5, 5 -> 16.5, 6 -> 20.5

it seems a little bit complex beacause to many steps to define damages why not just define 3d6 or 4d6 and then apply critical / special damages when it happens (if counter magic, then use your 1d12 as the "normal" spear)

I would also add an attunementthen no need to roll dice to know if yes or not it go back to the owner and can be use as usual (sometimes twice per round, depending dex)

Question : if it is an impale, what happens ? 1) go back as usual but use the double damage rule 2) go back if the owner succeed a pow roll ?(or something else) if not apply the rules ( +1d6 fire / round)  3) like any impale until the victim is slowly burned ?

[g33k]

I love this idea, though I agree that the double-variable on fire damage (roll a d6 to see what die you roll for fire-damage) is an unneeded complexity.

 

But the following is particularly inspiring...

7 hours ago, tnli said:

...

After a hit or a miss, on the next strike rank, the spear flies back to the thrower, flipping in mid-air! The thrower can either choose to defend against it, or try to catch it. The chance for catching this spear is equal to DEX*2 plus Manipulation modifier, and can be improved as a skill. Depending on the degree of success, various things can then follow:

• On a critical hit, the catcher can throw the spear again, on the same SR as it was caught!
• On a special success, the spear can be thrown again on the same round on strike rank equal to return rank + user's DEX SR, if possible.
• On a normal success, the spear is ready in the users hands, and can be thrown again on the next round.
• On a failure, the spear hits a ground next to the user and needs to be readied to be used again, the effect ends.
• On a fumble, the spear hits the hand that was used to try to catch it! Apply normal damage and the additional fire damage to that location, the effect ends.

...

This makes me picture the target/victim who ALSO knows how this spear operates, who catches it and throws it back!  Then the original attacker has to "catch" the spear to re-throw it... etc...

[JustAnotherVingan]

I agree its quite a clever idea for an item.

Should be a one of a kind, too good to be available for purchase.

[tnli]

15 hours ago, g33k said:

I love this idea, though I agree that the double-variable on fire damage (roll a d6 to see what die you roll for fire-damage) is an unneeded complexity.

 

But the following is particularly inspiring...

This makes me picture the target/victim who ALSO knows how this spear operates, who catches it and throws it back!  Then the original attacker has to "catch" the spear to re-throw it... etc...

 That is a really good idea. Off the top of my head, I'd say that in order to do this you need to have increased your chance to catch the spear above your base chance - i.e. you need to have gained some experience with this thing to be able to catch it when thrown at you. 

[tnli]

17 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

for me, a character should obtain that by heroquesting more than bargaining with a merchant but the price should be more than 45000 silvers ( you said 15-points effects, so a lot, so 3000 * 15. I used 1500 silvers for 1 POW, in my oriflam version as I don't see price for enchanters in RQ:G), the powers are rare too so why not 100 000 ?

I feel it stronger than fireblade (time x3 + damage in all cases)

fireblade = 3D6 = 10,5 (average)

your spear :

if 1 : 12.5 = 6.5 + 3.5 + 2.5

if 2 : 13.5 = 6.5 + 3.5 + 3.5

3 -> 14.5, 4 ->  15.5, 5 -> 16.5, 6 -> 20.5

it seems a little bit complex beacause to many steps to define damages why not just define 3d6 or 4d6 and then apply critical / special damages when it happens (if counter magic, then use your 1d12 as the "normal" spear)

I would also add an attunementthen no need to roll dice to know if yes or not it go back to the owner and can be use as usual (sometimes twice per round, depending dex)

Question : if it is an impale, what happens ? 1) go back as usual but use the double damage rule 2) go back if the owner succeed a pow roll ?(or something else) if not apply the rules ( +1d6 fire / round)  3) like any impale until the victim is slowly burned ?

 

Hmm, maybe it should just be 1d12 fire damage - I like how it gives more variation than 2d6.

On an impale, I'd rule that the spear tries to unstuck itself on the next strike rank as per usual return, and then maybe at SR 12 on that and following rounds? Feels like it would be too powerful for it to be able to try to unstuck itself on each SR. And yes, I'd believe that the fire damage would apply on each round, and the half damage if the victim tries to move. 

The chance to loosen up would probably be the spears's POW*4 -roll. (So, 60%, if assuming that the POW is equivalent to the 15-pt spell strength mentioned in the description.) 

Incidentally, I gave it the spear that 15-pt spell strength in order to not be nullified by most Shield-spells. An 8-point shield is really quite a bit, and this is a weapon for heroes. 

[Akhôrahil]

Rolling 1D6 to see what die you should roll for damage is silly from a mathematical perspective and generates completely unnecessary die rolls. In play, it might be fun at first but will tend towards the repetitive soon enough.

[g33k]

If you want extreme but rare variability, borrow the "exploding dice" concept from other games.

Roll 1d4 for damage, EXCEPT that on a "4" you re-roll it as 1d4+3, re-rolling each "4" with a +3 until you stop hitting 4's, but upping the "+plus" by 3 each time.  So a roll of 4-4-4-1 is 3+3+3+1 = 10 points of damage, but only gets so high (into double-digits of +fire bonus damage) on 1 in 4^3 = 1/64 of the time.

Why add "3" instead of your rolled "4"?  Two reasons:

• historically, RQ has often stepped up to the next die (usually a d6, but whatever, we're into new-rules territory anyhow) at +3
• Since you are adding another die (which has a minimum roll of 1) your rolled "4" is simply the minimum on the next die; if you kept +4 as your add, you couldn't roll any of +4, +8, +12, etc as damages.

Just an idea, FWIW.  Computer geeks may already have spotted the recursion.