Making stuff from dragons

[Lee]

Dragonhide is a material in the DMG, there is something more detailed (IIRC) in the Draconomicon (which I need to borrow again from this player).

Bathing it in a source to unlock more abilities, I like that.

[irdeggman]

Look at Weapons of Legacy for some real interesting ideas for weapons that grow with you and are very unique. While the concept doesn't work for a newly crafted weapon, there might be a way to work it in through elven knowledge. The way to work this material needs to be an elven only knowledge due to its rarity and history, IMO.

[Lee]

Even before Weapons of Legacy came out, I had ruled that sidhe-made weapons could increase in power by an investment of xp. I used a Dragon article for the basis, I think it was half duplicated in the kensai PrC in Complete Warrior. (Sidhe only could do it, and the items might lose power if not kept by the investor.)

To me, WoL is too big. By that, I mean its weapons are too tied to the 20-level paradigm, and the legacies cost too much in gold to activate. I never did like to run games past about level 10-12 (the only 3.5 campaign I've played in that's gone past that has reinforced this concept). I hadn't been paying attention to the wealth-by-level thing, either, and it seems too... un-fluffy to me.

Having said that, the idea of a ritual or something similar to activate abilities seems good, and I could tie it more tightly to my earlier concept of investing xp into magic items. Something on about half or a third the scale of WoL should work.

[AndrewTall]

Earthdawn is a classic example of a game where items grow based on actions and rituals - probably overly so. For example my troll's axe increase from rank 2 to rank 3 (I think) after he used it to slay an ogre twin just as the legendary wielder of the axe had done long before.

[irdeggman]

Even before Weapons of Legacy came out, I had ruled that sidhe-made weapons could increase in power by an investment of xp. I used a Dragon article for the basis, I think it was half duplicated in the kensai PrC in Complete Warrior. (Sidhe only could do it, and the items might lose power if not kept by the investor.)

To me, WoL is too big. By that, I mean its weapons are too tied to the 20-level paradigm, and the legacies cost too much in gold to activate. I never did like to run games past about level 10-12 (the only 3.5 campaign I've played in that's gone past that has reinforced this concept). I hadn't been paying attention to the wealth-by-level thing, either, and it seems too... un-fluffy to me.

Having said that, the idea of a ritual or something similar to activate abilities seems good, and I could tie it more tightly to my earlier concept of investing xp into magic items. Something on about half or a third the scale of WoL should work.

Wealth by level and access to gold is difficult at best to handle in a BR game. Especially if using domain level play (adventure only it is not so hard). At the domain level regents have access to much more money than do the adventurers that are the basis for the standard D&D wealth by level guidelines In BR this is further complicated by the reduced amount of magic items that the setting is supposed to reflect.

So in general for a BR game I would pretty much ignore the wealth by level guidelines.

IMO the cost for awakening the powers of a WoL - like item would be reflected in money on the the order of GB (not gp) and an investment of blood score. I resist using RP since I feel that it is like using interest instead of investing capital in something. Blood score, to me is similar to investing xp - it is a sacrifice of part of the individual and something that is not realatively automatic in gaining, like RP is in general.

[Green Knight]

Earthdawn is a classic example of a game where items grow based on actions and rituals - probably overly so. For example my troll's axe increase from rank 2 to rank 3 (I think) after he used it to slay an ogre twin just as the legendary wielder of the axe had done long before.

I've been doing this from when I first got my hands on an Earthdawn book...allowing items to grow in power to match their wielder. It's NOT cool to have to swap your family's heirloom sword for another blade just because you've found something better.

[Lee]

It's NOT cool to have to swap your family's heirloom sword for another blade just because you've found something better.

[rant, side track]
THIS has been one of my pet peeves about 3.5 and the way it has developed. Most of the people I play with have been heavily influenced by LG, so that magic is reduced to just another commodity.

In a non-LG game I played in, the carryover from that really seemed to suck some of the fun out of the game. The assumption from the GM is that higher-level magic didn't need to be placed where we could fight for it, but that we could make or buy it on our own.

[end rant]

In my BR, there are NO magic stores, and I prefer to give out a few, rather powerful, magic items. Thus the +2 dagger with a bunch of secondary abilities someone received at level 3 or so.

[AndrewTall]

In contrast to Lee, I have magic stores in many large towns, love potions, beauty potions, fertility charms, lucky pendants, cards to tell fortunes, dowsing sticks, remedies to ward off demons, nightmares, etc, etc, etc. Some may even have some magic in them if you look hard enough, assuming of course that you don't get burnt at the stake as a heretic for shopping there of course.

[Lee]

AndrewTall wrote:
In contrast to Lee, I have magic stores in many large towns, love potions, beauty potions, fertility charms, lucky pendants, cards to tell fortunes, dowsing sticks, remedies to ward off demons, nightmares, etc, etc, etc. Some may even have some magic in them if you look hard enough, assuming of course that you don`t get burnt at the stake as a heretic for shopping there of course.


Ah, well, that would be a different story.? There can be some of those, but staffed by magicians at best.

[AndrewTall]

Based on the oft quoted 150 number for wizards in Cerilia (presumably excluding non-humans), half of all wizards are regents with source holdings... most wizards will be courtiers, or advisers to guilds / nobles. Making and selling magic items is going to be very rare - I'd figure minor potions only, otherwise they might do the odd bespoke item or make stuff for themselves, but that's probably it.