15 Specific Weapons

15 Specific Weapons
Volume III
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Credits
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Original Concept by Marc Rødskov Jensen
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Authors: Ken Burnside, K. Axel Carlsson,
Mark Gedak, Will McCardell and Jonathan Palmer
Artist: Mike Burns
Graphic Design: K. Axel Carlsson and Rene Walk
Compatibility with the Pathfinder Roleplaying
Game requires the Pathfinder Roleplaying
Game from Paizo Publishing, LLC. See
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG for more
information on the Pathfinder Roleplaying
Game. Paizo Publishing, LLC does not
guarantee compatibility, and does not endorse
this product.
Pathfinder is a registered trademark ofPaizo
Publishing, LLC, and the Pathfinder
Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder
Roleplaying Game Compatibility Logo are
trademarks ofPaizo Publishing, LLC, and are
used under the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Compatibility License. See
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/compatibil
ity for more information on the compatibility
license.
OPEN CONTENT: All mechanics are
considered OPEN GAME CONTENT.
PRODUCT IDENTITY: All other material proper names, settings, characters, story
hooks and author's notes - are considered
PRODUCT IDENTITY.
15 Specific Weapons, Vol 3 (c) 2012 HEADLESS HYDRA GAMES. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
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THE THIRD VOLUME
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agical weapons are a necessity ofmost roleplaying games, yet the core
rulebook presents so few ofthem. Magical weapons are loved by players and
game masters alike, yet there are almost none to choose from. There is
nothing like a memorable magical weapon to help define a character
throughout a campaign, just think about your favorite fictional heroes offantasy and
the weapons that they carry!
It is certainly possible to purchase a magical warhammer such as the dwarven
thrower or a magical longsword like the nine lives stealer, but most weapons are not
represented at all. For example, where are the magical falchions, flails, kukris,
morningstars, spears, hand crossbows and whips?
Sure, a creative player can take a look at the special abilities and come up with a
concept ofhis own, but it will be a very limited concept, limited to the twenty-nine
special abilities ofthe core rulebook. The Advanced Player's Guide makes this
selection slightly bigger, yet, most weapons are still not represented among the specific
magical weapons selection.
This series ofshort pdfs hope to bring new weapons and concepts to your game!
The first two volumes ofthe 15 Specific Weapons series presented weapons from the
core rulebook and Advanced Player's Guide, but with the third volume, we are also
introducing a few weapons from other sources, such as the dogslicer, ogre hook and
the bladed scarf.
Within these pages, you'll find concepts for the following weapons; bladed scarf,
bolts, dogslicer, flail, gauntlets, kukri, longspear, maulaxe, ogre hook, pilum,
punching dagger, shuriken, sickle, swordbreaker dagger and wooden stake.
Furthermore, you'll also find a new magical weapon special abilities; bloodhunter.
UPCOMING VOLUMES!
Upcoming issues will feature more magical weapons, ofcourse, and weapons from
other sources, such as a battle ladder and even a magical pillow!
Also ifyou want to help us make better weapons (or pdfs), just make sure to review
our products!
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Magic Items and Utility
By Ken Burnside
It is very easy, when designing weapons, to think
of them only in terms of the standard Pathfinder
and Fantasy RPG tropes: They have to be useful
to adventurers who will be going up against a set
CR in an environment where choices are
constrained. A snarky commentary on Pathfinder
and its progenitor RPGs is that it's a fantasy
Special-Ops team doing home invasion and
murder.
and sometimes, something to be feared. (A theme
that's common in the source fiction our games take
inspiration from, but isn't really present in the game
mechanics, is that magic is meddling with forces that
the user barely controls, and always has a price.)
This assumption means that most magic items that
are purchased will be made for the benefit of the caster,
or for the benefit of the patron funding the item's
creation.
This leads us to the second and third assumption,
which is magic item availability and in character
knowledge of what every type of magic item does.
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game have the "odds a
magic item will be available" roll as a meta-game
convenience. Players are assumed to get more items
and more powerful items, as the game progresses.
Furthermore, there isn't a good way to regulate the
propagation of knowledge of magic item creation to
the players. When these two assumptions are
combined, you are back to the Wal-Mart Magic Items
store.
It's that first assumption that leads to a solution.
When putting a magic item in the campaign, ask
yourself the following:
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There is some truth to this complaint about the tropes
of Fantasy RPGs. Nearly every magic item in the game
– and especially magic items geared towards the martial
classes – is aimed at making you better at killing things
and taking their stuff. There is another way to think
about magic items, beyond their utility for home
invasion and looting plots.
Pathfinder and similar RPGs have an economic
engine that makes three incompatible assumptions. The • Who originally paid to have that magic item made?
first assumption is that every item is handmade by a • Who made it?
single item crafter. The second assumption is that every • Would a wizard or cleric making a magic item just
item can be purchased in any city of sufficient size. make it for the highest bidder, or would he restrict
There is a third assumption that's worth mentioning: magic item creation only to people whom he knew well,
Every character whose player looks over the magic and whose aims and goals he trusted and agreed with?
item list knows what every item does, or can find out
with a little bit of effort.
This is the "Magic Item as Handmade Furniture"
assumption. Exploring this assumption, and putting it
Let's unpack these assumptions and see where they at the forefront, means that every item will have at
lead when it comes to item creation.
least a minimal backstory of some sort. When
combined with the idea that magic items take one
First, every magic item – even at the default week per 1,000 gp in purchasing price, it shows that
construction rate of 1,000 gp of creation time per day – magic item creators will be much more selective in
is a hand crafted item made by a spellcaster. This is well creating items, and the items will be less likely to be
in like with the original tropes of fantasy ranging from exactly like what's in the book listing.
Leiber to Tolkien to Howard, where the main
Consider going back to the well for "magic is fickle
perspective characters didn't make magic items and and not every item will do exactly what the creator
generally regarded them as objects of mystery – intends." If magic items are cheap enough to make, in
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Fantasy fiction, and the myths it draws on, typically
don't have "+ 4/+ 4 swords" in their canon. Most
magic swords just talk about how they're a magic
sword without quantifying the blade's abilities, and
often give it a second, useful ability that's not directly
related to fighting. Think of the Singing Sword of the
Chanson de Roland, or Excalibur and its scabbard
from Arthurian myths. There are myths about swords
that will glow in the presence of enemies; these were
used carefully by Tolkien in the Hobbit. One of the
uses of a flaming sword in myth is to use it as a light
source.
When designing magic items, or using these magic
items as inspirations, look at the items in the context of
how they'd be made, who they'd be made for, and
what unusual utility you can add to them. Look at
themes – a cloak that turns into a carpet of snakes is
very thematic for a worshippers of a snake cult to own;
the thunderstroke falchion's ability to convert stored
spells into resist energy [electricity] is another example
of thematic links.
Look for thematic abilities that are useful out of
combat. Beyond making your magic items more
memorable, you'll also cut down a bit on the
Christmas Tree Effect, where characters at level 7 and
higher run around with a small country's gold reserves
in magic items. Working those abilities into an
appropriately themed magic item (such as a chakram
that can cast detect alignment by looking through it, or
a dancing Winged Talon that casts mage hand created
by a wizard and given to a halfling rogue as an aid for
getting things off of tall shelves…) also makes magic
items fun.
Item utility isn't limited to weapons. Imagine how
much navies would pay for breastplates that granted
their wearers competence bonuses to Swim checks; you
could justify this easily as something that high ranking
officers get issued as standard equipment, and lower
ranking officers will commission after scrimping and
saving for them. On the flip side, owning one of these
breastplates might cause an investigation into where
you acquired it.
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terms of time, mild mistakes will be melted down and
re-done. If magic items take a significant investment in
time to create, items with creation quirks are likelier to
exist. This also means that player characters may decide
to fund the creation of specific magic items "made to
spec" and have to wait for the items to be completed.
They may search high and low for a magic item creator
who isn't booked solid by higher status patrons…and as
anyone who's ever commissioned art, or custom
furniture knows, sometimes you get what you want,
and sometimes you get what entertained the person
doing the work.
Pathfinder also assumes every spellcaster can make
every single item. The history of medieval economics
shows how likely that is; the original creation of trade
guilds was to keep trade secrets from leaving the
purview of the inner circle. Having specific magic item
creators making specific items, and having a monopoly
on that type of item in a campaign world is a great plot
hook and a way to limit access to powerful items. Some
magic item creators may even make signed and
numbered copies of specific items…and come looking
for them if they're recovered in treasure hoards!
If items are made with the intervention of
otherworldly powers, you're likelier to end up with
items like The Librarian's Rejoinder, in this PDF. It's an
item that very few adventurers would have
commissioned directly. Its most interesting abilities, the
ability to cast silence (and impart a silence effect on a
confirmed critical) don't kill NPCs any faster, though
they are combat useful abilities. The most useful ability
on the item for a devious GM is its ability to generate
an infernal translation of whatever text the victim last
read.
A previous example that's a little less whimsical is
the Soulcleaver Scimitar from the first volume of this
series – it's an item that was clearly made by the forces
of the Abyss to both remove powerful agents of the
opposition from the mortal realm, and to tempt people
into doing chaotic evil acts. Religion is full of stories
about the temptations of evil and their subtle
machinations to twist the world of men to their aims;
this is fertile ground for making magic items with
character and built in backstory.
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