Weapons of Legacy

in Weapons

After thousands of years of epic history over an infinite and expanding stage of worlds and planes, certain stories still resound with mythical significance. Of those, tales of mighty weapons, relics of exceptional power, and artifacts of previous civilizations are especially potent. Who doesn’t thrill to the tale of Excalibur, the sword that can be drawn from the stone only by one worthy to rule? All shudder to think on the soul-drinking blade Stormbringer, and the price that its wielder must pay. So, too, do we read in awe of the One Ring, with its ability to confer on the wearer powers so vast that only those of already exceptional ability can unlock the ring’s potential.   These are weapons of legacy. Many are items crafted in a long-ago age when legends walked the mortal world. These mighty tools have since been lost, secreted away, or destroyed, so that now they are no longer within the reach of mortals. Perhaps they are still among us, but unrecognized as the mighty relics once hailed throughout the lands.   The world also holds new heroes, who are creating new legends and forging new items of legacy in their telling.  

What is a Weapon of Legacy?

  An item of legacy has the capacity to grow in power as its wielder advances in level. In addition, it confers increasingly powerful special abilities on its wielder. That character might carry and treasure the same item over her entire career as a hero (or villain). Why not? As her own talents and abilities progress, so too do those of the legacy item, assuming the wielder takes the time to learn its complete history and awaken its quiescent power with the appropriate rituals.   As a player character, you could discover or inherit an item of legacy. Initially, it might seem like nothing more than a standard magic item. Only when you learn something of its past do you begin to understand that this object has untapped potential. By uncovering the item’s full history, you can discover the keys that unlock the item’s full power.   You might even found your own item of legacy. After all, the player characters are the epic heroes of a campaign, from which arise myths, relics, and weapons of legend. By founding an item of legacy, you gain some degree of control over its abilities, although how you wield it is in the hands of fate (and the Dungeon Master).   Every item of legacy is distinct from the next, and each has its own unique story. Unearthing that story (or creating it, when founding an item of legacy) allows you to gain the full benefits of the item. For example, the story of Caladbolg, which appears only when a great hero has need of it, contrasts sharply with that of Stormchaser’s Cudgel, whose heritage involves the murder of the weapon’s original owner, Suldan Kabrel the giant slayer.   No matter what items of legacy you eventually discover or create, using such items entails a steep personal cost. The specifics are different for each item, but the costs are always substantial. You must consider the consequences before taking up a legacy item.   For most characters, these costs are well worth paying.  

Why Use Items of Legacy?

  If you’re a DM, items of legacy provide exciting rewards for players whose characters are willing to devote time and energy to learning about your campaign world. To unlock the powers of a legacy item, a player character must learn fabled legends of ancient history and complete rituals of mythic significance. Not only does this require the player to study the “backstory” of your world but also provides any number of ready-made adventure hooks for the campaign.   If you’re a player, a legacy item presents a way of personalizing your character while simultaneously building up her might. By tying her development to one of the great tales of history, your character takes on heroic proportions. Who knows? She might even become more famous than the first owner of the legacy item, unlocking powers of even greater potential.  

Artifact or Legendary Item?

  At first blush, artifacts and legacy items look similar, and they do share many traits. However, they are distinct from each other and should remain separate entities.   Both are extremely powerful, and neither should be considered just another piece of equipment. But an artifact’s power can be the hub upon which campaigns spin, while legacy items shake the world less—if only because their abilities are not free to all comers. Of course, the search to discover an item of legacy (or reforge a destroyed one) can still produce exciting and memorable storylines.   Artifacts are generally constructed in a distant age using spells and rites that are beyond the ken of present-day knowledge. They survive to this day, but the knowledge necessary to duplicate their creation does not. Their abilities are also always available to any would-be wielder, regardless of how much or little knowledge he has of the artifact’s history, and do not require costly rituals to unlock.   Legacy items are not always lost wonders—even today, a new legacy might be founded. If one is located, only a dedicated researcher can discover and use its powers, and then only after undergoing one or more legacy rituals. Such items might be more plentiful than artifacts, but because of their hidden nature and forgotten lineage, their true numbers are unknown.  

Legacy Items As Treasure

  Because legacy items initially look like standard magic items, you’re free to sometimes add one to the treasure normally gained for defeating a particular threat at a given Encounter Level. (Until its legacy powers have been unlocked, the item has no more apparent value than any other of its kind.)   The party members may or may not discover the true lineage of the item, but if they do not, you can always introduce more legacy items in the guise of “ordinary” treasure later in the game. The party might wrest an item of legacy from an NPC foe who wields it against them. Depending on whether it has unlocked any of the item’s legacy abilities, that opponent can present a greater challenge than usual.   If the foe has not yet unlocked the item, treat it as a normal part of that foe’s equipment. If it has completed one or more legacy rituals, do not reduce the value of its equipment, even though these rituals represent additional costs (this would be the equivalent of taking treasure away from the PCs). Instead, adjust the NPC’s Challenge Rating based on the number of legacy abilities to which it has access. These increases do not stack.  

Legacy Rituals

  Every legacy item’s history contains a seed of opportunity that a new wielder can exploit. Through research, the wielder can learn what specific rites, procedures, or ceremonies are necessary to bond with the item.   With each ritual completed, a new range of legacy abilities become available. For instance, a wielder of Stormchaser’s Cudgel (see page 163) who learns some of the enormous club’s history can also learn the ritual of the Traceless Path. On completing the ritual and paying all associated costs, the wielder learns to use the weapon’s dazing strike ability. In addition to any tasks required as part of the ritual, every legacy ritual has a substantial gold piece cost for materials (such as unguents, fine robes, or other expensive items) expended during its performance.   A legacy item has up to three rituals associated with it, each one tied to a yet-more-obscure piece of its past. An item of particularly great importance has a more extensive history, and thus more associated rituals, than one with less influence on history. As a wielder discovers each piece of an item’s story, he or she learns each of its legacy rituals.   A legacy item’s wielder who completes a given ritual immediately gains a bonus legacy feat: Least Legacy, Lesser Legacy, or Greater Legacy. For more information, see Legacy Feats on page 13. Each legacy feat is specific to the particular item whose connected ritual the wielder performs. For instance, if Aedwar completes the ritual of Sanctification of Darkness associated with his legacy weapon, Exordius, he gains the Least Legacy (Exordius) feat. From now on, he can use the weapon’s least abilities (assuming he has attained a high enough level), but only when wielding Exordius. If he were to wield another item of legacy, the Least Legacy (Exordius) feat wouldn’t allow him to use that item’s least abilities—he’d first have to research the new weapon’s history and perform its specific legacy rituals.  

Wielding an Item of Legacy

  After having completed at least one of the legacy rituals of your item, you are entitled to use the abilities of that item available to a character of your level.   That’s right—you don’t get them all at once. If you are 5th level and you have just earned the Least Legacy (Bloodcrier’s Hammer) feat, you do not have access to abilities of the weapon keyed to characters of 6th level and higher. However, as soon as you attain another level in any class, bringing your character level to 6th, you can use the earthseeker ability of Bloodcrier’s Hammer (see the weapon’s description on page 29).   Unless otherwise specified, an item of legacy confers a given ability as long as you are wearing or carrying it on your person; some abilities, however, require that you wield, gesture with, or in some way actively use the item. Such abilities’ descriptions state this specifically. Losing possession of the item immediately removes all legacy benefits.  

SUMMARY: DISCOVERING A LEGACY WEAPON

1. Discover an interesting item.
2. Determine whether the item has a special history.
3. Research history and determine if it is an item of legacy.
4. Learn the legacy ritual to unlock the item’s abilities.
5. Perform the ritual, pay required costs, and gain bonus legacy feat.

Personal Costs

  In addition to performing a ritual and paying its gp cost, you must pay personal costs to use a legacy item’s ability. All items of legacy exact substantial personal costs, which represent the item’s tapping into your vital energy to unlock its full potential. You must make this sacrifice willingly to forge the bond between wielder and item.   Personal costs are permanent and can range from hit point loss to forfeiting spell slots. You must pay a personal cost immediately upon reaching the level at which it is assessed, after all other level-related adjustments. For example, if you are the wielder of Bloodcrier’s Hammer, on reaching 6th level you immediately lose 4 hit points after determining your new hit point total. If you are unable to pay the cost (for example, because you do not have access to a required spell level), you do not gain that level’s legacy ability or abilities until you can pay.   Unlike legacy abilities, personal costs are assessed permanently, whether or not you have the item in your possession. The only way to recover a personal cost is to destroy or renounce the legacy item.  

Renouncing a Legacy

  Perhaps the cost of wielding your legacy item is too high, or you have discovered a different item and no longer wish to wield the original one. If you wish, you can renounce your connection with a legacy item. This requires performing a 24-hour ritual that expends materials costing 1,000 gp. On concluding the ritual, you lose all bonus legacy feats (Least Legacy, Lesser Legacy, Greater Legacy) you had previously gained for that item. For you the item now has only its nonlegacy properties, and you lose all legacy abilities you previously had access to. You recover any personal costs you previously paid (such as lost hit points or penalties), but not any gp costs paid for legacy rituals. If you regain lost skill points, you must allocate them immediately. Treat this as if you were purchasing skill ranks for the last class in which you advanced a level.  

Damaging Items of Legacy

  Items of legacy are more resistant to damage than standard magic items, but they can be damaged and even destroyed. Even so, it’s often possible to repair a broken legacy item.   As with any magic item, a legacy item doesn’t need to make a saving throw unless it is unattended, it is specifically targeted by an effect, or its wielder rolls a natural 1 on a saving throw against a damaging effect. Legacy items always get a saving throw against spells that might deal damage to them—even attacks against which a nonmagical item would normally get no chance to save. Legacy items use the same saving throw bonus for all saves, no matter what the type (Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity, or Wisdom, ect.). A legacy item’s saving throw bonus is +20. Even if a legacy item is damaged (whether because of a failed save or through direct physical attack), it is tougher than a standard magic item of the same sort. A legacy item’s hardness is increased by 10, and its hit points are 50 or the total from materials and enhancements, whichever is higher. For instance, a legacy longsword with a +5 enhancement bonus has hardness 30 (10 for steel, +10 for the weapon’s enhancement, and +10 for being an item of legacy its hit points total 55 (5 for the steel blade, +50 for the weapon’s enhancement). A damaged legacy item continues to function, but once it is destroyed, its legacy abilities are lost. However, a destroyed legacy item always leaves a tangible remnant—the shards of a sword’s blade, the metalshod heels of a staff, and so on. Even a legacy item destroyed by a disintegrate spell leaves a remnant (this is an exception to the spell’s printed effect).  

Legacy Item against Legacy

  When a legacy item is used to attack another legacy item, it ignores the additional 10 hardness that the attacked item has by virtue of its legacy status. In other words, it treats the opposing item as a standard magic item of the same sort for the purpose of dealing damage, though both items retain their +20 bonus on saving throws.  

Repairing Legacy Items

  A legacy item that is damaged (but not destroyed) can be repaired using the Craft skill, or with the make whole spell, just as if it were a nonmagical item of the same sort. Destroyed legacy items must be reforged from their remnants, which requires much more effort. If a legacy item is destroyed, you lose your connection to it, just as if you had renounced the item. For you it has only its nonlegacy properties, and you lose all legacy abilities you previously had access to. You recover any personal costs you previously paid (such as lost hit points or penalties), but not any gp costs paid for legacy rituals.  

Reforging Legacy Items

  Though wondrously tough, sometimes legacy items are destroyed through physical damage or magical means. But, as noted above, they always leave behind remnants. Be they shards of a blade, a ring’s gemstone, or a few plates of loose armor, those remnants retain a residue of power that links them to the original item. Characters with the proper skill and knowledge can attempt to reforge the item from its remnants. Such an undertaking is often associated with an important quest, a great need, or some other compelling, campaign-related impetus.   If scanned using detect magic, the remnants of a destroyed legacy item have a faint aura of no particular school. Obviously, the original wielder already knows what the remnants represent. Someone who doesn’t realize their true nature could learn the remnants’ history from clues found over the course of the campaign. This information is also available through the legend lore spell, as well as Knowledge (history) or bardic knowledge checks. The check DC is equal to that required to learn the item’s least legacy ritual.   Once the remnants are recognized for what they are, a determined owner can attempt to restore the original legacy item from its fragments.  

Reforging by Previous Wielder

  If you are a previous wielder of a now-destroyed legacy item and wish to reforge it, you must repeat the highest legacy ritual (least, lesser, or greater) that you had previously completed for that item. You must again pay the gp cost of raw materials. Not more than one week before or after completing the ritual, you (or someone working on your behalf) must successfully repair the item as described above. Once the legacy item is reforged, it has the same connection to you as it did before it was destroyed; you regain lost legacy feats, and you immediately are again assessed any personal costs.  

Reforging by New Wielder

  If you discover the remnants of a legacy item and have identified them, you must make another Knowledge (history) check to learn the least legacy ritual associated with the item. Next, you must perform the least legacy ritual, paying all associated costs. Not more than one week before or after completing the ritual, you (or someone working on your behalf) must successfully repair the item as described above. Once the legacy item is reforged, you gain the Least Legacy feat associated with the item and have access to its least abilities, assuming you are of the requisite level and meet any other prerequisites.  

Permanent Destruction

  A legacy item is not easily destroyed, but if you are determined to erase it permanently, a method does exist. (An example is the great quest required to destroy the One Ring.) You must possess the item’s remnants (which might require first destroying it). You then must perform the item’s least legacy ritual, paying all associated costs, as though reforging it. However, at the end of this procedure, the remnants are permanently destroyed beyond recall.