TOPIC: Transmute Ideas Please!

Mike Steele wrote: So - is there a reason the damage wheel has to match a die? Is it just to be consistent with D&D?

I believe that is what it is based off of. So has to no? Makes sense, yes. Daggers are d4's in Dnd so they have 4 in TD. (Except Obsidian Dagger) A shortsword is d6 and so on.

Can use Holy Avenger or Holy Great Sword to transmute into:

+3 Holy Avenger - Paladin
4, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 11*, 12*
* See token guide for same ability on +2 Holy Avenger
+3 dam. to evil creatures
+1 to all saves for party

Note that I think I would prefer the +1 saves would require showing the token to the room DM but wouldn't require wielding it so that it wasn't baked into the party card. I'd compare with Walking Stick's +2 to Reflex saves ability even though this is far less conditional.

+5 Holy Avenger - Paladin
6, 8, 9, 9, 10, 11, 13*, 14*
* See token guide for same ability on +2 Holy Avenger
+3 dam. to evil creatures
+2 to all saves for party

The current Holy Avenger ability is wordy, so it doesn't play well with other abilities, leading to the Polymorphification of the text box. The second ability is right off of Holy Great Sword but doesn't need added verbiage for Paladin only due to these already requiring a Paladin. A callback and makes even more sense when you can use a HGS to make the relic. The saves ability fits with the aura of protection theme.

Why not make guarding better, Lay On Hands better, etc.?

Few reasons. One, this is a weapon. Two, and more importantly, just giving a host of abilities to one token removes design space for other tokens for the class and overshadows other tokens even if you could combine Ring of Soothing Touch and another Lay On Hands pumper. Sure, these abilities don't push a facet of the class card, but I'd rather other, nonweapon tokens did. If the Paladin transmute was going to be a neck slot, then, of course, I'd push guarding being better while not having the additional damage against evil creatures. I realize the Amulet of Guarding upgrade is not likely to happen for a long, long time, but that's preserved design space.

Is this underpowered? Legendary averages 10 damage, 13 against evil. Deathcleaver averages just under 13 damage, so less against evil. Asher's averages 10.5 with 2 poison baked in. I don't think these values are that bad, though without the +3 vs evil doesn't look as good. Conditional nuke ability which I have no idea how often that would kick in and how often it would matter if it did. +2 saves for everyone is like how the Lute just makes the party noticeably powered up. I thought about +2 at relic, but that actually seemed a bit much for something that affects 10 characters at that level and left the Legendary either not improving or wanting to get even bigger.

Would I make one? Yeah. I don't care a lot about weapons (that don't increase spell damage or heal), but a weapon that helps everyone appeals to me - a poor Dungeoneer who doesn't play Paladin as much as he'd like. Would I look at Thor and be "Why, oh why does Thor's exist?" any more than I already do? Probably not.

Is it overpowered? I think the Druid necklace is cool, but it's very limited. I don't really have any feel for Rogue play. The Lute seems crazy powerful to me, as the Bard already pumps the party and just gets more of the same without being required to do anything unusual. This legendary is not pushing a particular style of play, and it has some similarities to the Lute, but it's not doing anything that's terribly game changing unless the save bonus matters fairly often. (I considered a save reroll, but that seemed too derivative.)

Fiddy wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Druegar wrote:

Fiddy wrote: I hope we avoid damage wheels with odd number of numbers.

Damage wheels should always have either 4, 6, 8, or 10 numbers.

I didn't know that.

What problem would there be if it had 3, 5, 7, or 9 numbers?

Damage wheels model die rolls. Regular polyhedrons have an even number of faces. Only some unholy non-Euclidean Cthulhu-ian abomination would have an odd number.

So this year it might be okay.

So - is there a reason the damage wheel has to match a die? Is it just to be consistent with D&D?

It is aesthetically pleasing?

It makes templating easier?

It helps my super-secret thing that I'm working on?

I think 5 is more aesthetically pleasing than 4 or 6. And it shouldn't be any harder for templating.

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Back to the original item, what would people think of letting Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, and Ranger use it as a weapon, but leaving the healing Cleric (and maybe Paladin) only?

Xavon wrote: I think 5 is more aesthetically pleasing than 4 or 6. And it shouldn't be any harder for templating.

I'm about to reinforce my nickname...

Ioun Stone Vacuum Tube
+2 INT

Ioun Stone Integrated Circuit
+3 INT, +2 WIS

Ioun Stone 4K Graphics Card
+4 INT, +3 WIS, +2 CHA

Druegar wrote:

Xavon wrote: I think 5 is more aesthetically pleasing than 4 or 6. And it shouldn't be any harder for templating.

I'm about to reinforce my nickname...

If a Short Sword is six and a Long Sword is eight, there's design room for a Medium Sword at seven.

Mike Steele wrote:

Druegar wrote:

Xavon wrote: I think 5 is more aesthetically pleasing than 4 or 6. And it shouldn't be any harder for templating.

I'm about to reinforce my nickname...

If a Short Sword is six and a Long Sword is eight, there's design room for a Medium Sword at seven.

Is a medium sword just sword? I like the ring of +1 sword

Endgame wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Druegar wrote:

Xavon wrote: I think 5 is more aesthetically pleasing than 4 or 6. And it shouldn't be any harder for templating.

I'm about to reinforce my nickname...

If a Short Sword is six and a Long Sword is eight, there's design room for a Medium Sword at seven.

Is a medium sword just sword? I like the ring of +1 sword

We think alike, I was thinking it could either be Medium Sword or just Sword.

Along with the Medium Sword (or Sword):

+1 Medium Bow (or +1 Bow) with damage wheel of 2-8

+1 Medium Crossbow (or +1 Crossbow) with damage wheel 2-10

You just know these were all on the Gygax wish list once odd numbered dice were invented.

Zocchi dice are a thing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Zocchi

I think all of the medium stuff just sounds silly. In dnd there is nothing called a medium sword. In real life there isn't anything called a medium sword. There are short and long sword in both. Just my two cents.

jedibcg wrote: I think all of the medium stuff just sounds silly. In dnd there is nothing called a medium sword. In real life there isn't anything called a medium sword. There are short and long sword in both. Just my two cents.

There are “hand-and-a-half” swords, aka Bastard Swords. But those are more like XL Swords, between Long and Two-handed.