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This is my quick attempt at cranking out a legacy item. Vaguely followed the guidelines with some liberties here and there.

The reason for including the bloodline adjustment is because nearly all of my abilities are dependant on class levels, and seeing as almost all my classes are only 5-levels long, this leaves me with awful DCs at higher levels.

I tried to keep things as simple as possible, thus the really simple mechanic for piercing defenses. I might need to tweak that, as the way it currently is I don't think I can actually beat any of my opponent's saves. Maybe increase the bloodline boosts to 1/2 HD? Either that or boost my Cha some more somewhere.

Any input is welcome.

Abilities marked with * are straight out of the book.

*ritual costs: least 1500, lesser 13000, greater 40000

least ritual (somewhere around level 11-12?): lightbringer, magic cipher, pierce mental wards

lesser ritual (around level 15?): pierce possession wards, evade AMF, obscurity, remove level cap for telekinesis

greater ritual (around level 18?): pierce immunities, something else? (can be decided at a later date)

mechanic for piercing defences: target makes a save as usual, but gets a bonus to his saving throw equal to 1/2*(spell level + caster level)

at 20th level, can pierce mental immunities (as above, but they get a simple +20 to their save)

bloodline: add this number to my bloodline level (1/2 of HD, rounded down)

Lightbringer: at will: dancing lights, flare, light, DC = 11+cha

Magic Cipher: at will: detect magic, read magic, arcane mark

evade AMF: if walking into an AMF or similar effect, make a Reflex save (DC = 10 + spell level + caster's ability mod) to avoid walking into it; if possessing a host, I remain in the host

Obscurity: wearer is essentially protected similar to Obscure Object spell (thus cannot be detected through divination)

comments? thoughts?

^^fil here 2-21

can you explain the pierce save mechanic again for me? the +20 is straight forward enough for me. ut what do you mean prior to that?

Bloodline levels 1/3hd not so bad. tath's gonna boost everything you got. so coupled with the inevitablility of cha boosting in epic, I'm sure you'll stay on track.

this started at 6th level... why is that?

^^Surreal here

re: piercing mechanic

• Say someone has Mind Blank (8th level) cast at CL15 to protect them. Normally this means I can't read their thoughts, but with the piercing mechanic I can still make the attempt, but they get a bonus to their Will save equal to 1/2*(8+15)= +12.
• lower level stuff, like the Protection from Evil line of spells correspondingly give smaller bonuses
• however the higher level stuff scales rather quickly (since I have both spell level and caster level in the equation). I was thinking maybe to change the equation to 1/3*(spell level + CL) and setting the immune bonus at +15 instead. Either that or bump up bloodline boosts to 1/2HD
• someone who is naturally immune currently gets a simple +20 (compared to a 9th level spell at CL21, which gives +15). Someone who is immune and with good saves could easily have a +40 mod to their will save, and at ECL 20 I don't think I can even get a DC 40 to my abilities. Hence my thought to change the formula above. I'm trying to find a balance point that would give me maybe a 20-25% chance to pierce immune creatures

re: I started the legacy item at 6th level because, umm, all the ones in the book seem to start then

• the low level abilities are mostly out of the book and don't impact the game heavily (I particularly like the ability to make ghostly lights though; combined with the haunting thing it fits into my backstory. The ability to use Arcane Mark could be an interesting effect; perhaps during my suicides I would unwittingly leave my mark on my hosts that forensics could dig up years later (ew), so that plot line will eventually come back to bite me)
• I intentionally did not put any of the piercing abilities until level 11+, so they won't affect gameplay until next chapter

re: legacy rituals, items, etc.

• For random flavour reasons, I was thinking that the legacy item itself would be a dragonshard of some sort, possibly part of the weapon/bomb the killed Sul, embedding in his body and thus carrying on into the afterlife. It may or may not he connected to his ghostliness, and he doesn't even know it's there.
• first ritual could very well have been the battle with the Cabinet spy at which he obtained his sword and armour
• other rituals have yet to be determined

^^FIL HERE 2-21

Okay. I don't have the book, but i've seen a smatterig of it online.

I've got a logical way for Sul to actually get access to this off hand during normal adventuring, which would be a bit more logical to me. You may need to delay usage a level or two, but in the next two chapters, You'll have access to it even if the plot is thrown horribly off-course.

Ritual 1. "Let the dead be at peace". Visit the site of your death-- Accept the fate that has befallen you. Break the cycle of your damnation.

From then forward, you can choose to rematerialize at your original place of death, or the same location you were just "killed" as a ghost. (useful if sul gets "killed" in-game and the mournland is thousands of miles away)

This is going to give you your memory back as well, so you'll remember who Valeas is at that moment too. Pretty convenient, huh?

I won't reveal the second or third ritual to you until ritual one is completed... for the sake of DRAMA.

does that work? makes sul a bit cleaner.

^^ZarZak here

For custom legacy items like this DM intervention is encouraged if I remember right. Fil, the lesser (or is it eleast? medium legacy ritual) is at 12th level, and the greater one is at 17th level.

^^Fil here

first would have been 6th? is that right?

then 12th?

then 18th?

That sounds logical to me... but we're starting late in the game.

So I'm going to have to fudge for sul a bit. He;ll have 6th - 12th put in place once he's complted the first ritual and blows xp

then as soon as he completes second ritual everything will snap into place then too.

then as long as hefinishes thrid ritual before 18th, everything will flow smoothly from there forward.

We have so many fubar thins goin on with this character in this setting with these rules, that sounds fair as an impromtpu toss- in, yes?

^^Surreal here - Heh, huzzah for being a big rules quandary. At times I've considered just saying "aw heck with it, how about we just ad-lib the whole thing?".

Getting the abilities in clumps works for me. I'll follow the table for attack/save/hp loss just so things are gradual. I'll let you throw in the rituals at whichever point fits the story. I think I'll leave the piercing mechanic as it originally was and up my bloodline boost to 1/2HD. It's simpler math that way. I guess the goodies can be allocated thusly:

least ritual (somewhere around level 11-12?): lightbringer, magic cipher, pierce mental wards

lesser ritual (around level 15?): pierce possession wards, evade AMF, obscurity

greater ritual (around level 18?): pierce immunities, something else? (can be decided at a later date)

How does that look Fil?

I don't think embedded shard technically take up slots, though in my case I was thinking of having it emebedded in my chest opposite the heart, and I don't actually wear armor anyways.

^^that looks real good, surreal.

For the item, just pick a body slot. I'm gong to have this be an adjustmnt to your aura. No physical anything with it. It'll still take a slot for "game balance", but you are going to be takig cotrol of your curse, and thus altering your incorporeality/spirit body (but only changing things as you designed it... no surprise changes with it)

I've got some good flavor text worked up for that you are going to be running into chapter three to make that a bit more understandable. so there ya go.

I recommend taking the pants slot for this. No one ever wears magic pants.

Surreal here - made edits to the top. For slot, I figure it will take my body slot; embed it in the "heart" of my spirit form, or opposite the heart.

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