[Raven Bloodmoon]

I think I mis-spoke. Morganth is Level 68 (LA 71) Wizard? (Firstly, didn't realize he was a wizard. Thought he was more a combat type)

Would you rather play a level 71 amnesiac wizard or a level 68 amnesiac Morganth? If it is hands down Morganth, then you probably need to up the LA on the blades.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Why would I have to up the LA on the blades purely by way of my like for Morganth?

[Raven Bloodmoon]

grr.....that's why I said to set aside your personal affinity for him. Let's change this around a little, then. Would you rather play a level 68 wizard (NOT Morganth) with these arm blades or a level 71 wizard without them?

[Lyinginbedmon]

I would rather play the 68 Wiz w/ blades than the 71 Wiz w/out blades. I say this because at level 68 you should have most of the bonus feats associated with Wizards, so an additional 3 levels apart wouldn't affect it much, but the blades ensure that the Wizard has a last means of defense if he should ever be caught in a major battle with none of the right spells, or no spells at all

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Based on that, I'd say up the LA. A lvl 68 wizard with blades should be no more desirable than a level (68 + LA) wizard without. That is my understanding of how LA works at least.

[Lyinginbedmon]

That's not how LA works. LA works to adjust a character's effective level to keep it in stead with other characters and levelling up. LA works to increase the amount of XP needed for a 1st level character to reach 2nd level, because the 1st level character is of a specific race that needs to be kept in check because of its abilities.

It is not a way of keeping favourite characters in check

[Dthclaw]

Well, actually, you're both about half right.

Part of the thing with LA, Lying, is that it evens out power levels, yes, but look at the acid tests for Savage Species. The example they give (ogre) has a lower than expected level adjustment because, if one were to go with the strictly-by-the-book method of determining LA, a human fighter would be more desirable than a lower level ogre fighter every time. By lowering the LA, it becomes a toss-up as to who is a more desirable character. Take note that the official LA of an ogre is this lower number. So LA is actually a way to keep favorite chars in check if they're powerful beyond what their class(es) give them. HOWEVER, Morganth shouldn't have a changing LA: once determined, his LA should be constant (unless he alters his race/abilities further).

Raven is partly right in saying that Morganth may need a different LA. BUT, without knowing the complete differences between a "standard" Wiz71 and Morganth Wiz68, assigning a different LA is a moot point: how do you compare an apple to something you've never seen before and is totally foreign to you?

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Good Point. And the particularly difficult part comes in when you see that adding these arm blades to Morganth gives a mage melee ability, but what happens if those same blades ended up on a fighter, ranger, or barbarian? The LA should not be dependant upon which class the base creature takes. With that in mind, I'm not sure how to set an LA for those.

[ninjaelf]

you could make it deal (1/2 * your level)d2 and give it an enhancment bonus of 1/4 *your level.

It would deal 34d2 +17 and have a plus 17 to hit. Damage would be Min 51 max 85 Avg 68.

Then you could Have a better chance at hitting a creature and still do alot of damage.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Raven Bloodmoon, on Jun 2 2005, 06:27 AM, said:

And the particularly difficult part comes in when you see that adding these arm blades to Morganth gives a mage melee ability, but what happens if those same blades ended up on a fighter, ranger, or barbarian?

Then you have a fighter, ranger, or barbarian with powerful blades that can only be used when they are almost completely out of health. As opposed to a Wizard with powerful blades that can only be used when they are almost completely out of health.

[Lyinginbedmon]

So, to round off before I consider having this thread locked once and for all:

Arm Blades of Grimdolf +1
2d6+Character Level 19-20/x2
These blades appear on the bodies of the creations of the insane mage, Grimdolf Fanelia, and are useable only when they are near death. They begin as three segments, two half-portions that snap out of the sides of their arms into a spiked center, and a final portion which snaps down over the top of them to finish the blade. It should be noted, that few have lived after these blades have been activated
Can only be used when the user is reduced to 5% of their full normal hit points. Whilst in use, the Constitution bonus to HP is reduced by 1/5 levels. This effects lasts for 3 rounds +1/5 levels. After which, the character suffers a -1 penalty to Strenght & Dexterity for 1 round. The HP will be recovered at a rate of increasing the effective Constitution by 1/round. A character reduced to 0 HP or below whilst using the blades merely falls unconscious and regains consciousness after recovering the lost HP from their Constitution modifier. As they usually appear on both arms, these weapons can be used as multi-weapon fighting, or can be used one at a time as single weaponsLevel Adjustment: +3

[Kupan9]

I was reading this and had a couple of thoughts.

First, how long do the blades take to draw? probably a full-action
Maybe have all spellcasting while they are out require a concentration check = number of dice of damage times 3. Kinda like avoiding stabing or slashing yourself while still casting without error.
now how about a non level dependant way to determine how much damage it does? someting like a fort check with where dice is the check result -20 then divided by 2 to get the number of d6 it is to do when it hits. that way it is less powerfull but does go up in level. so if you get a fort check of 70 then you would do 25d6. or maybe make it divided by something else.
This also adds a random element to how effective they are that particular use, which could symbolize the fact that few things are resistant to that weapon but some natural defences or defences for other things being effective.

Feel free to modify it or give it much needed balancing, just a thought i had.

[Yurith]

What are the blades made out of? How difficult would it be to break them? Have you created spells to couteract or work with the blades?

[Lyinginbedmon]

The blades are biological in nature, so whilst they do repair over a period of 2d8 weeks, they can be broken as an Adamantine item (If the blades are harvested for their composition, the material rots in the next 2d6 minutes, becoming completely useless), with Hardness 20 and 5% of the user's HP (Round down).

The blades don't actually see much use, since their operation depends on the user being almost dead, so as such they are extremely rare to see and thus no spells have been developed against them (They are Grimdolf's masterpiece after all)