Weapon crystals, add properties

[Sektat]

Would you allow to add several properties to a weapon (or armor) crystal?
For example "crystal of return" and "fiendslayer" together (cost: cheaper one + 50%, as usual).
My "feeling" is that it shouldn't be allowed (because all the players will add "crystal of return" to their weapons), but I can't find a reason against it.

 

[Slaved]

Sounds OK to me!

 

[Lopke_Quasath]

The relatively cheap price of weapon and armour crystals makes them useful, but not overpowered. Along with their entire nature being that they can be easily switched to another crystal, putting two powers together in one crystal defeats their purpose.

I would not allow this as a DM.

 

[Jhaelen]

The relatively cheap price of weapon and armour crystals makes them useful, but not overpowered. Along with their entire nature being that they can be easily switched to another crystal, putting two powers together in one crystal defeats their purpose.

I would not allow this as a DM.

Ditto.

 

[eamon]

The relatively cheap price of weapon and armour crystals makes them useful, but not overpowered. Along with their entire nature being that they can be easily switched to another crystal, putting two powers together in one crystal defeats their purpose.

I would not allow this as a DM.

Neither would I.

 

[akbearfoot]

I wouldnt allow it either. They are already getting an extra added to their weapons for very cheap. Don't let them abuse it.

 

[Bumamgar]

I've already started disallowing half of the items in the Magic Item Compendium as it is. Weapon crystals are next on my list to obliterate from my campaign. 10k to sneak attack undead? What where they thinking?

"Transmuting"? Already out the window... +2 enhancement to be able to completely bypass all typed DR after the 1st round? Maybe if it was a +5, or hell, +6 (ie: epic level only)

Combining weapon crystals? Might as well gate the party to the plane of cheese and be done with it...

 

[Lopke_Quasath]

Well, the weapon crystals as written are pretty much okay.

To use the example of the crystal that allows sneak attacks on undead. It is a Greater Crystal which costs 10,000 gp. A Greater Crystal can only be put on a weapon with an enhancement bonus of +3. So, that's another +18,000 gp.

28,000 gp, and usually characters are only allowed half their wealth in one item, so that's minimum character level 11 (or 12th if you go by the MIC guidelines). At that point, yeah sure I'd allow a rogue to have it. That's a lot of gold invested in a weapon *just* to sneak attack undead.

If your campaign is undead heavy then maybe it could be considered broken, but then again, if there's that many undead you'll want the rogue to be effective and this is one way of guaranteeing that.

Cheers.

 

[Bumamgar]

But it's not 28,000 gold on a weapon 'just' to sneak attack undead. It's 18,000 gold on a +3 generic weapon, which can be used against anything, and 10,000 gold on being able to add undead sneaking whenever you like (as a standard action). Another X gold takes that same 18,000 gold investment and makes it able to sneak/crit constructs, or swap in a fiendslayer crystal, etc. Basically, for 50k or so invested (spread out over 5 items, so no real issue there) a PC can be prepared for any contingency without any real sacrifice. It gets even worse at high levels. You shouldn't be able to add the effects of a greater crystal to a +10 (effective) sword... The caps are there for a reason.

The real problem with the crystals is at the high end. They are balanced just fine pre-10th level, but after that, they just become insanely over-powered.

 

[akbearfoot]

Considering theres like 18 ways for rogues to get sneak attack against undead, I don't see how this is a problem.

Theres a +1 enchantment that requires ghost touch as a prerequisite that lets them add their sneak attack. Same book, and it costs a little more.

There is a rogue class choice that trades trap sense(crap sense) for 1/2 sneak attack dice against non-crittable things.

There are spells that allow sneak attacking and critical hitting undead.

Also, the cleric in the party is still always going to be better at killing undead than the rogue ever will.


Also, I generally find that rogues are far from one of the strongest damage dealing classes in the game...All this does is make them less useless in a few encountes per adventure.

The bonuses the weapon crystals add seem to be cool, but comparing the ability to sneak attack undead to the other properties of a +10 weapon is silly to me....That's like saying it would be broken if you let a druid add the animal friendship property to his ring of elemental command. Say what?


Maybe I am too used to seeing fights where we encounter undead and anyone who doesent have power attack or turn undead just sits outside the room and waits for the fight to be over. I'd rather see a happy player whos spent his resources and can now contribute more to more types of encounters. Afterall, undead encounters certainly shouldn't be there JUST for the sake of denying sneak attack to your 1 lowly rogue.