Item Request Discussion Thread v2

[Alcoholic Squirrel (Birdman)]

https://www.nwnravenloft.com/forum/index.php?topic=44496.msg814807#msg814807

Alot of people use Greatswords and very few use Axes/Flails. I've barely seen any good In Game items for greataxes either, so.

The best weapon in the game is a greataxe.

[Spazzer]

https://www.nwnravenloft.com/forum/index.php?topic=44496.msg814807#msg814807

Alot of people use Greatswords and very few use Axes/Flails. I've barely seen any good In Game items for greataxes either, so.

The best weapon in the game is a greataxe.

I'll go out on a limb and guess you are talking about Fate of Traitors. People barely if ever use that in PvE because damage rules and many enemies have high will. It is also not that very useful in PvP in higher levels. I also see it vendored often.

[MAB77]

Item Name: Dark Speak
Item Type: Kama
Description of the item: From the world of Eberron, crafted within the Demesnes of Shadow, these kamas have been passed down in honor of those ninja who had proven themselves worthy through rigorous trials by combat. Imbued by the alchemists of House Phiarlan, these weapons were made to make ones death quick, yet very painful, their edge dripping with flesh eating acid. A weapon of ill repute, anyone seen wielding these is certain to be frowned upon.

Statistics:

1d6 Slashing Damage
Damage Bonus: 1d6 acid damage
+1 Fire damage
+2 enhancement bonus

Decreased Skill Modifier: -3 concentration
Decreased Skill Modifier: -10 influence
Saving Throw Bonus: None
Use Limitation: Monk
Weight: 1.0

Appearance: TBA

Cost: In open market, 10-15k

Material: Mithril

A few notes here.

1) We rarely give Enhancement Bonus to loot drop weapons. By far and large we prefer to go with attack bonuses instead. I do not feel you need to add any here anyway. You already give it damage bonuses and that suffices. The enhancement bonuses are very easily covered through Greater Magic Weapon buffs or easily available magical varnishes that will make them +3. And that leads to my next point.

2) Taking out the EB on the suggestion would reduce the cost value and therefore allow you to tone down the penalties on the item. We try to keep away from items with prohibitive penalties. Items with a -10 to a skill are less likely to be considered.

3) You ought to pick more meaningful penalties too. An influence penalty on a weapon is pointless. Influence is never a skill used in combat making your penalty toothless. I think a -1 on Universal Saving Throws would be better for balance. You want penalties that will apply in situations where the kama is actually wielded and used. That means you need penalties impacting battles.

4) The cost does not refer to a suggested market value, but the actual GP value when you make the item in the toolset. Please be sure to follow the instructions in the Item Request thread. Make your item in the toolset before suggesting it. This will allw you to see what is possible and what is not. It is the cost value returned by the system that helps us gauge it's drop probability. Be sure to keep the item below 8k value else it will likely never drop.

[Noah]

-See MAB's post-

1d6 Slashing Damage
Damage Bonus: 1d6 acid damage
+1 Fire damage
+2 enhancement bonus

Decreased Skill Modifier: -3 concentration
Decreased Skill Modifier: -10 influence
Saving Throw Bonus: None
Use Limitation: Monk
Weight: 1.0

Judging by the description, this also definitely needs an alignment limiter set to Evil in addition to abiding by the 8,000 gold item cap.

[MAB77]

Item name: Memoria manet
Item type: Greateaxe[...]

For a token of a character's presence in-game, I recommand that you submit a book for the Vault of Remembrance that will detail the deeds and life of your character. That is what it's for.

You can always petition DMs for a custom item related to an active character that you may later leave to others as a legacy. Whether they accept the request or not will be their prerogative. It's not something they do often, but it's been done as rewards for exceptionnal roleplay. The Dev team does not add these items to the treasuries. Thus keeping these items unique and meaningful to the players it concerns.

Patterning a new item after the equipment worn by an existing character is a bit moot. Why go for a weaker copy of an item when you can acquire the real deal in-game? Especially when we talk about crafted items.

The item's background aside, this one is rather lackluster. It does nothing that cannot be accomplished using crafted components. The negative energy bonus can easily be obtained and applied on all weapons through varnishes. We have other loot drop weapons that are better against outsiders. A simple greater magic weapon buff, or mid-tier magical varnishes, will override the enhancement bonus, and there really isn't a lot of outsiders dealing divine damage out there to make that vulnerability significant.

[Maiyannah]

Just to back up MAB77's claim here, my garda Roxane's sword is out there, somewheres, after her passing.  I wouldn't expect it (I didn't even know this was a thing), but it can be a fun way to memorialize a closing scene.

[Madame Trousers Son]

Herald of the Age of Orcs

https://www.nwnravenloft.com/forum/index.php?topic=44496.msg825921#msg825921

One of the more salvageable ideas I had for half-orc/caliban focused gear. This great axe is fairly strong but obviously not as strong as enchanted gear. The extra melee damage type means that it might even see use in later levels; though maybe not. This is a great weapon for caliban/half-orcs to go slaughtering human NPCs/bandits in Barovia or Dementlieu, and that's OK.

The fact that the axe can't be crafted/altered, as stated, is part of the intent. That someone might see the axe and deduce that this wielder intends to kill humans is entirely part of the design.

Game mechanically, most UMD builds aren't going to be wielding great axes, so I don't expect this to have major impact. I think the fringe scenarios are outweighted by the benefits.

[zDark Shadowz]

A greataxe that cuts through human wizards laced with stoneskin is pretty strong for PvP, and I could see this being used in (redacted) since it's almost entirely humans with stoneskin prebuffed, saving you from needing a lv 16+ caster with GMW.

The influence bonus is a bit redundant, being a weapon for outcasts and not a penalty during combat. If a penalty needs to be given, it should be something that will punish the user, rather than a very narrow band where it might bring someone up to 16 OCR for walking around in town with it still equipped.

An extra damage type with bludgeoning makes it potently versatile. I'm a fan of not needing to weapon switch between living and undead/ooze types since it'd keep the weapon in use.

[Madame Trousers Son]

The intent of the Influence penalty is to bump up OCR rather than being a generic penalty. I know a lot of items included Influence penalties to appear "balanced" but here it fits. If some outcast is just about tolerated in Barovia/Dementlieu, but they whip out the axe and that one bump in OCR turns NPCs hostile or even aggressive, that is working as intended.

[Avarice]

Suggested Animal Summoning Items:
(We can talk about flavor text if it seems like a good idea to flesh out)

Elephant in the Room

-small item
- single use
- Summons a White Elephant to be the caster's faithful servant.

A Fine Kettle of Fish
- medium item
- single use
- Summons a Great White shark to be the caster's faithful servant.  Ineffective if sommoned on land.

A Barrel of Monkeys
- Medium item
- Single Use
- Summons a Gorilla to be the caster's faithful servant. 

Horse of a Different Color
- Small Item
- Single Use
- Summons a Horse to be the caster's faithful servant

Powdered Rhino Horn
- Small item (Pixie Dust graphic)
- Single Use
- Cure Disease OR
- Summons a Rhino to be the caster's faithful servant

[MAB77]

Suggested Animal Summoning Items:
(We can talk about flavor text if it seems like a good idea to flesh out)

Elephant in the Room

-small item
- single use
- Summons a White Elephant to be the caster's faithful servant.

A Fine Kettle of Fish
- medium item
- single use
- Summons a Great White shark to be the caster's faithful servant.  Ineffective if sommoned on land.

A Barrel of Monkeys
- Medium item
- Single Use
- Summons a Gorilla to be the caster's faithful servant. 

Horse of a Different Color
- Small Item
- Single Use
- Summons a Horse to be the caster's faithful servant

Powdered Rhino Horn
- Small item (Pixie Dust graphic)
- Single Use
- Cure Disease OR
- Summons a Rhino to be the caster's faithful servant

Please remember this thread is to discuss the items proposed in and following the instructions of this thread. I invite you to submit your items properly before they are to be discussed further.

[MAB77]

Item Name: Herald of the Age of Orcs

I have no objection to orc themed items, but the tradional enemy of orcs are elves, not humans. This conflict is so important lore wise that even in the limited lore about orcs that would find its way to the Demiplane of Dread that part would not be distorted.

+4 AB seems a bit too much, I'd go for +2 at most. Influence -5 on a weapon is rather pointless as this skill has little bearing in battle, and there is no explanation as to why it would deal bludgeoning damage either. Instead of the influence penalty I'd make the axe heavier thus explaining that the extra blunt damage is because the weapon is so massive.

I see little reason to restrict by alignment here. Good orcs could very well hate elves too.

[Madame Trousers Son]

Item Name: Herald of the Age of Orcs

I have no objection to orc themed items, but the tradional enemy of orcs are elves, not humans. This conflict is so important lore wise that even in the limited lore about orcs that would find its way to the Demiplane of Dread that part would not be distorted.

So my overall purpose here is to try and create an item that actually has a niche where it will be used, as opposed to just more vendor-bait. I think the problem with watering down suggestions that legitimately fit within the 8,000 gold cap is that often we end up with these very weak items that don't actually inspire any kind of reverence. "Oh, the reference to legendary Tolkienesque Orc hatred? Yeah, let's throw that on top of Djordji's Pile O' Junk #314." I think that ends up being very lame.

As for why Humans, the item is a wink to the LotR 2003 movies and this clip in particular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1x4JkZTfPs ; while I appreciate that a more purist and "classical" approach to the lore would probably represent the enmity between elves and orcs, I'm not aware of many, if any, NPC elven mobs that might be targetted by this so the issue is that having a weapon that's anti-elf would be mostly ventor-trash or PVP fodder  -- although if the elven ghost NPCs in Sithicus count as Elves as well as ghosts, then I suppose that's fine and I don't have an objection.

+4 AB seems a bit too much, I'd go for +2 at most.

Why would anyone use a +2 AB vs. <race> great axe? Honestly even +3 vs. <race> is weak for such a niche weapon that's easily eclipsed by enchanted gear. There's already a longsword in the loot that has +4 AB vs. Undead, an incredibly common monster type, and that is considered weak/temporary gear in the age of platinum-guilded enchantment.

Please, let's not "over-balance" things that are already so incredibly niche as to turn them into meme vendor trash, and actually make useful items that players might use.

Influence -5 on a weapon is rather pointless as this skill has little bearing in battle, and there is no explanation as to why it would deal bludgeoning damage either. Instead of the influence penalty I'd make the axe heavier thus explaining that the extra blunt damage is because the weapon is so massive.

I see little reason to restrict by alignment here. Good orcs could very well hate elves too.

Making it heavier sounds good.

[MAB77]

By virtue of granting it extra blunt damage you already guarantee that it will have a niche. The desireable qualities on a loot drop weapon are mainly its damage potential and special properties that cannot be gained through crafted items.

While there may be some rare exceptions, it is exceedingly rare that we go above +2 AB on loot drop weapons. That part is mostly moot anyway as most players rely on GMW or magic varnishes buffs to make it even better vs all creatures. +3 EB vs all, remains better than +4 AB vs humans alone. Now if you didn't have the extra damage I'd be more inclined to accept the +4 AB value but here it's not required at all. You'd still have a weapon with great potential even if it had no attack bonus at all.

Now knowing that it's an LOTR reference item it does make a bit more sense, but do not forget we focus 1st on D&D lore. But LOTR references are still welcome.

[Madame Trousers Son]

Item Name:  Prototype Spyglass

Item Type:  Miscellaneous / Holdable

Item Description:

This curious piece resembles a spyglass that one might use to spot distant land masses on the horizon, or to admire birds from afar.  However, trying to look through it creates a blurred and distorted image.  You're sure it could be serviceable with a little polish and work.  Someone might even be able to make something useful of it.

Weight:  0.3 lbs

Function:  This is a loot item that can be used to replace the secondary component of a bow, typically metal in the case of crossbows or antlers / horns in the case of bows.

A successful crafting attempt will add +5 Spot and the bonus feat Called Shot to a bow or crossbow.

I'm not sure a +5 Spot craftable is fair in the current detection sub-economy. Someone who's using a cane of detection and a Haldemar's spyglass can go up to +8 Spot from held items and a bow precludes the use of the offhand. But you're still using a crafted bow that can be enchanted. That's damage output combined with only an effective -3 on a peak Spot load out.

Which goes to the next point: you probably need to differentiate between non-enchanted bonus and enchanted bonus. Should that be +1 to +3 Spot? +2 to +4 Spot? Again, bear in mind that a +4 Spot is just -4 on a peak, weaponless Spot load out.

And on top of all that the bonus Called Shot feat.

Can you remind me what the equivalent bonus from secondary crafting bonuses is on bows/crossbows, for comparison?

[MAB77]

Adding detection items is a point of contention in itself, crafted ones even more so. The standard secondary bonus on bows is an AB bonus vs a creature type. I'm not sure if I like the idea of scopes in a fantasy game either. If the purpose is to detect the presence of others, a consumable casting invisibility purge would be more appropriate.

A feat on a crafted items guarantees no one ever invests in it at level ups. That's reason enough not to do it IMHO.