One fun way one of my characters received their ancestral weapon. He didn't have any noble lineage or anything like that, but he befriended a old swordmaster. As he mentored my character they formed a strong bond, and as he later died he handed that sword over to my character. We had the rule that ancestral weapons could only reach their full potential when passed down the family, and my character and the old swordmaster weren't blood related at all. Yet the swords powers activated for my character, and at first my character thought it was because they were secretly related. But after alot of investigation into the bloodlines it turned out they weren't related, and the old swordmaster had come to consider my character as a son. It was a strong moment, as the sword didn't discriminate between blood relatives and found family. It showed that the family you find is equally valid to the one you were born into.
We had a character die in game and the DM imbued some of his essence in the long sword he use to wield. Now once a day it cast spirit guardians in the form of our deceased friend. Now the sword has a story to it and its ours....:)
I thought of this idea a year ago, though it wasn't nearly as developed as this. Basically, instead of having the players _find_ a +1 sword, the players should have their starting equipment (likely an heirloom) get upgraded in a moment of heroism or as a quest reward. Maybe a sword becomes a _dragon slayer_ when it's drenched in dragon's blood, or a paladin's sword becomes a _holy avenger_ when he finally defeats an evil overlord and the archbishop blesses his blade. Or the spirit of an ally could possess it, or an angel could touch it, or a fire giant could reforge it, or any other number of awesome ways. I've found that at _least_ 50% of the fun of a magic item is the story behind it, so I highly recommend a system like this.
The problem is that every hero would easily create weapons like this, whereas magic weapons are supposed to be limited resources, difficult to make, ancient, requiring spell casters and skill smith's working together...the peak of civilization Not haha, dragon blood go brr. Blessed sword go swoosh swoosh
@@seeker296 I suppose it depends what kind of vibe you want your magic weapons to have. If they're the product of manufacturing processes that always felt very generic to me and lends itself to the fantasy costco issue where you just go down to your local magic weapon emporium and pick out your preferred style of magic weapon. Having them grow as a result of achievements makes them feel much more mystical to me. Sure it might mean that every legendary hero has a magical weapon, but it also probably means that only legendary heroes (or villains) have magical weapons. Well depending on what you think is a cool enough achievement to earn a weapon a reputation
@@seeker296, writes _"The problem is that every hero would easily create weapons like this, [...]"_ As opposed to what? The current system where practically any spell caster can make magic items just by spending a few gp -- or just buy them outright from a Magic Shop? With this system items become more powerful as they're used by the characters in the game, they become part of the character's advancement and are personal to the character -- they are no longer just generic magic items.
This would be a great addition to the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian! Imagine inheriting a weapon passed down the family line doing different feats and resetting with each new wielder. This is giving me such Fables 3 vibes and I'm here for it!
Yeah I saw this and made an ancestral guardian. I had her backstory be that the matriarch of the family always wielded the weapon, and when the matriarch died, the eldest daughter would take the weapon and go on a quest to make the weapon powerful again, as when the mother died, the weapon reset back to no power. And with each new daughter, the weapon would return to the clan different as the augments of the weapon would reflect her personality. Now my character has to go on a quest to make the weapon powerful so she can guide her clan. I also multiclassed her with echo knight, so her echo would be her mother aiding her in battle and when she rages her ancestors also appear with her in battle -all wielding a different form of the weapon. It's my favourite character I have made in a while. Also I'm 100% getting Fable 3 vibes.
I bow to you, queen of the puns. Thanks for the reminder about this! I bought this a while ago when I was a pc, but it kinda got buried in the 100 other things I've bought from them. Would be excellent to incorporate for my druid player's staff and paladin player's greatsword.
We're back! And we're back with a great topic to boot. I love weapons that are a greater part of a character's identity. There is a reason why looters are so popular, people love their loot. There is a very real sentimental value to the weapons you use in a game and if a game's mechanics reflect that, you can carry that sentimentality to your own game. Player investment is a major part of what makes a game great and having another avenue for that investment (I.E. an Ancentral Weapon) can make your game all the better.
In my characters' cases especially, having an iconic weapon (or weapons) can act as a cool calling card. For example, if three of my now-legendary(In a hypothetical example) characters walk into a tavern, having everyone recognize their weapons and thus their owners makes for some great post-campaign stuff. That weapon is now synonymous with their owner, and it's really fun to imagine people telling stories about your character's deeds, those especially involving that character's signature weapon.
Of all the examples you gave, the Skywalker lightsaber is the closest to fitting both thematically and mechanically. Lightsaber crystals are alive and they grow and change through their bond with the wielder and can even influence them, and some have even gained interesting abilities as a result of certain events
Sword of Gryffindor is a perfect example of a non bloodline ancestral weapon. Also, the way it disappears and appears is a very convenient dm/author tool.
@@fred_derf deus ex machina is more of a linear storytelling thing. It's what we call when an author just solves narrative tension in a contrived way and it carries a really bad conotation it doesn't really apply in this context. First, it's an improv-minded game. Some randomness here is fun. But also, it's a tool for game balance. So that your group can have a climactic fight with borrowed power punching up against a foe that's too much for their level and not ruin the game balance for the next sessions
@@shinkamui, writes _"It's what we call when an author just solves narrative tension in a contrived way and it carries a really bad conotation"_ By, for example, having a powerful magic item just show up?
@@fred_derf did you really respond without reading the comment ''i made a pact with a sentient magical sword that would help me in the hour of need''. Goes to fight a dragon, a +1 sword shows up oh no, tension is gone.. deus ex machina much.. i guess? nah, makes no sense to call it a deus ex machina besides pedantism
One member of my group in DnD had an ancient very powerful knife. The hook: The knife got stolen when she got banned from her thieves guild. Moreover a Big Bad Guy used it against our group while we were travelling. This was definetely a very thrilling part of the story which showed the power of the dagger - although she never got her hands on it because our group had to split up for different reasons.
Something DM's might want to look up is an old book for 3.x, called Weapons of Legacy. As DM and player I loved this tome, because it put up a whole new concept in magic items: Magic items that level up with you. Essentially, there were various weapons and even armors and such that, with the rules in the book, started off as basic weapons until certain conditions were met, at which point they would unlock a power, and could have multiple levels of this, creating weapons that continued to improve with the character. This made my job as DM *so* much easier, and more fun. As DM, it gave magic items a greater feeling, and players didn't keep switching up weapons throughout a campaign. So that "Sword of your father" that was merely a basic weapon you wrote into your backstory, one day, starts to glow, and becomes empowered, and will still be with you at level 15 for far more than simple sentimental reasons. I had one, where our group's fighter was advancing his weapon, and he thought it had reached its limit at level 9. It was an ancestral weapon, passed down through 10 generations of his family. It had started out as just a masterwork weapon, finely made sure, but it didn't have anything more powerful to it. When he hit level three, after holding some pretty nasty undead, the weapon flared to life with an intelligence. This intellect was essentially an amalgam of all those who wielded the blade previously, and as Fighter's father had passed, he got to here the voice of his father. We had a really good series of RP moments of him speaking with his father. Well, on about level 12, the party was in a nail-biting fight with an ancient green dragon. The fight isn't going great for the party, but Fighter's convinced that the party can still do this, and he's determined. He's dying here, or the dragon is. It is in this moment I halt the fight, just as his turn is coming up, and I ask, "So, I have a question: What is your character's most fervent desire in this moment?" "I want to stop this god damned dragon!" "You look around at your friends, as you're facing down this evil dragon, and you've fully set yourself. Only your party or this vile thing are walking away from this. And as you're having this thought, you feel an immense power well up with the blade, and you hear the voices of your ancestors, rising up in song, a prayer for the strength to do what is needed. A wave of power blasts out from the sword, staggering all around you, and a new voice joins the chorus within the blade: Your own. The blade thrums with power, and your father's voice comes in, saying with a heart full warmth, 'I am so proud of you'. Your weapons gains a +1 enhancement bonus, and you is now a bane (dragon) weapon. Know this: In 10 generations of your family, you hear it now, that none in your line of warriors has ever gotten this far. You are beyond what the sword has done in the past, and for each step you take forward from now, you are now forging your own legacy with the blade." He literally laughed triumphantly in that moment.
I love the sound of this, I'll check it out! I made a home brewed ancestral weapon recently for my Bladesinger, but factored in some mystery from the beginning by saying that my character refuses to attune to or Identify the sword (which he took as a child when fleeing the site of his mother's murder by an unknown group) because he's still rebelling from his mother's heroic legacy and feels that if he used the sword's special abilities it would imply willingness to step into her shadow and become a hero like she was. I asked the DM to include his mother's killer as one of the minor boss fights in the game, after which my character will have to make the decision to either take on the mantle of responsibility she left behind, and wield her sword proudly to its full effect, or forever walk away from that life, and leave the sword behind as well.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS IDEA! I will probably buy the book as a supplement/inspiration for other similar ideas I have used in the past. In one game I designed 2 helms (a helm and mask) that were designed to become totally OP by the campaign's end. They had 3 branching upgrade paths that had cross-path bonuses and earned upgrades as the PC's gained serval levels or completed important main quest objectives. In another every PC received a 'quirky' item from the Trickster Deity* that serves as the party Patron. The items were 'immune' to the identify spell, so required in game experimentation to discover what they can do was required. While not sentient the items had 'personality'. The powers of the item would grow with the PC's PB as long they treated it well enough in accordance to it's personality. And seeing how items were 'quirky' gifts of a Trickster God, there was always a chance of them not doing what the PC wanted, at least not the way the PC hoped, often involving a random die roll or a Save vs their own DC. The items included: 1. A sword that responds to Anime style named attacks gaining bonus damage based what is shouted. 2. A spell absorbing wand that could 'steal' a spell as it was cast with a 'zero level' (ie always had roll) counter spell, but if the spell was too powerful the wand would release the energy explosively, damaging its wielder those close by 3. An Alcohol stein that would produce random potions, or Super strong alcohol that did poison damage in instantly made the drinker drunk 4. A stealthy cloak that could teleport between shadows, but could leave a careless user lost in realm of shadows briefly when doing so 5. A book on demonology that could, usually, summon illusions of Fiends, but occasionally a real one might show up and be pissed at everyone. * This not being the Trickster Deity's home world so, while accompanying the party, for 'entertainment', they could not use their powers willy nilly without getting into trouble with the native godhead.
Ah, glad that 1:30 is still correct with the OGL staying as is. Great work everyone and give thanks to those who risked their livelihoods to let us players and GMs know what was up.
I have a player who inherited a broken sword, I think I'm going to be using this in my game for them once they repair it, changing over time with a weapon is such a cool idea and I think will slot nicely with the family history they will discover in the campaign
Thats a sick idea. Reforging a weapon of legends. Almost gives a Skyward sword vibe ( I think thats the one where he repairs/creates the master sword?)
@@gamingmemories8326 In Wind Waker you repair it, in Skyward sword you create it... sorta? it starts out as a different sword and gets reforged into the Master Sword.
I love the Ancestral Weapons book. A friend introduced it to me and is such a great way to give people items that are both narratively significant and mechanically significant.
best custom weapon we had in a campaign was a sentient sword named Gramklinge. or Tristan. the player literally had to pull it out of a sword in a dungeon designed to test him by the Red Lady. it was battle-hungry and played Blind Guardian whenever it was used in combat. in one of the final battles, Tristan sacrificed himself to defeat a strong entity sent by Shar. in more recent campaigns, our DM tends to give us powerful magical weapons which, upon identified, come with their stats as well as the info that there's greater power within them, which can be unlocked through great effort. this allows for interesting character choices, as well as artifacts which scale with our progress.
I'm going to let my brother find a weapon called Man of War, a magical longsword that has a cross piece that is fashioned to look like a viking longboat and a large clear blue sapphire gem in the hilt. The blade looks like Damascus steel but it is waves moving along the blade. Initially it will be a +1 longsword. But later as the campaign develops, I will add features.
The french RPG "Bloodlust" is built around sentient weapons, each with their own personnalities, but only able to feel emotions and satisfaction through the feelings of their wielder. You can play the wielder, or the weapon. Some mode let you play both a wielder and the weapon of another wielder player. Have fun!
Love that this is a thing because I've been doing it for years. The fact that my players don't fight over loot because they're building their own unique gear makes game sessions a lot more pleasant, and the player gets to build weapons and armor they become attached to and interested in, rather than just jumping from random weapon drop to drop. In my world, you have a variety of ways that this happens. A monk in my world would unlock mystical tomes that would reveal new ways to utilize their ki, enhance their physical properties, etc. My barbarian had a weapon made out of a mercurial kind of magical metal that could alter its properties, letting the player shift bonuses between accuracy and damage, as well as shift the type of melee weapon itself (shifting from a dagger, to a greatsword and everything in between)! As they go, they find new pieces of the puzzle that is their weapon's final form. So a new ingot of this mercurial metal would be of far less use to another player than it would be to the player who can add it to their weapon, enhancing its properties. Same with the mystical monk tomes...unless you really think you'd gain more out of it than you know, the monk? Then you probably won't be arguing about wanting it for yourself!
Hi Ginni, I used the book to create a ancestral set of plate mail for the pally in my game. You can use the rules in this book to make anything ancestral with just a little effort.
A monk I played in a game was given a katana that wrote "I walk through the river of life with my mistakes as my stepping stones". She was given it as a thank you for saving her village from a tyrant. She would spend a few hours each night practicing to use it since she didn't know how to. She would even spar with the party's fighter as well, making their bond better. At level 3 she could finally use it and thats how I explained how she became a kensei monk :) .
Can confirm this is pretty great. Can also be used in conjunction with "The Complete Armoer's Handbook" as a viable gold sink and for non-ancestral weapons. I use both in my campaign and they're fantastic
The one from heavyarms? I love that book! I haven't had a chance to use it myself since I don't run a campaign, just one-shots (too much stress right now), but I hope to one day!
I've always liked meaningful magic weapons, but have always struggled to make them myself, since the DMG doesn't have the best means of it. So thanks the initiative on the inspiration, Ginny Pun.
I keep to a simple template -- the weapon is enchanted with the effects of a cantrip which the player can activate by taking an Attack action overriding the normal effects of that Attack action. Similarly the weapon can be enchanted with a level 1-3 spell with 3-1 charges that recharge at dawn. Such examples include Weapon of True Strike (take the Attack action to make one weapon attack with advantage; overrides the extra attack feature when used) and Weapon of Cure Wounds (you don't need me to explain this one, do you?)
@@dylanwight5764 i like this idea, the Dagger of the Booming Blade you can cast the booming blade cantrip a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, would be awesome for hit and run type Rogues that don't stay in melee which causes the monster to chase them
Agghhhhhh this is so cool! I NEEED to pick up Ancestral Weapons! I'm just getting into 5e DMing after DMing for lots of other systems, and I had something very similar to Ancestral Weapons I made for the Final Fantasy D6 System called 'Onion Items'! These Items grew with the players as they slew great foes, often became more ostentatious to reflect their owner, and often tied into their personal choices as warriors of destiny! But NOW I can do something similar like this for 5e and I am SOOOO Hyped. Thank you for this awesome inspirational Video Ginny :3!
I enjoyed custom magic weapons that level up with the characters. This was my 3.5 days, but the idea still stands. Weapons of Legacy a 3.5 book had a published system for such a system.
I've had this in my campaign for a couple of years now. Players like it because their weapons "level up" with them, and it feels more natural than constantly buying new ones.
In our current campaign, my urchin barbarian's heritage was discovered, and after a few session of slowly gaining more details on his heritage, his father weapon was reviled in possession of a boss. It was so so satisfying to beat the boss, reclaim the fathers greataxe and then discover it is an ancestral weapon. Huge rp moment for my character, who now has a purposeful tie to his roots. I love dnd for these moments.
this sounds really great! we are playing CoS atm and my DM wanna introduce an "item breaking/repairing" system. My chqracter, Ashton is an aasimar bloodhunter (fallen, order of the ghostslayers) and his only belonging is the greatsword he trained before running away from the cult now that i really love the design we came up with it, i asked my DM if i could use this "repair" system to make my weapon magical when we get a little downtime activity like enchanting it with some divine/necrotic power or making it a moontouched greatsword (and later improving in it)
There’s so many great ideas in here!! As a barb main, having a DM who’s super into doing weapons homebrewing work has been SUCH a treat, you’re right on that it makes all the difference in the world for martial classes!
This is an awesome addition. I can see using it for deity/fey/devil created weapons. Think the Daedric artifact weapons of Skyrim. As you do heroic things that further their cause on earth, the champion's weapon becomes even more powerful. God of light creates sword for his champion. At first it glows blue in the presence of undead..then it gains the power to rebuke undead, does fire damage to undead, grants immunity to level drain. Or as the badge of belonging to a holy order, paladins are given this simple sword at second level, and carry it as they go become great heroes in the world, the sword and their legend growing with them
I'm doing something similar. I have a player named Farmy that has a dwarven family axe that get's special properties the more he levels up. At level 5 it became a +1, at level 8 he learned that it was originally made from the metal of an ancient Dwarven multitool and can shrink and grow to fit his needs as it did for his warrior ancestors. It started as a greataxe, and it can take the form of a battleaxe for when he needs a shield, a handaxe that returns to him when he needs a ranged attack, and a halberd when he wants reach. He's a Battlemaster and this has helped him have just that extra bit of variety in combat.
also the feat "Ancestral weapon" from book of exalted deeds, and "Item familiar" from unearthed arcana... I hate being that guy, but almost every good idea I've seen come out for 5e, third party in particular, that gets held up as revolutionary ideas the game needed, is things that 3.5 already had. the book does look great, and I'm glad to have these kinds of options back for 5e... but it still stands...
@@seiglegar I am fairly certain that 2E AD&D had something similar I am just not recalling it because I think the 2 most "out there" resources I used were the Elven Archer fighter substitution rules from the Elf supplement for my Moon Elf archer I played and the Necromancer's Handbook for my Drow Wizard I played.
To give your players a taste of power without committing to it, they could find an old powerful ancestral weapon that is trying to find its way back to its ancestors, granting your players temporary guardianship/power so long as the blade feels the players are helping it get home.
I genuinely got choked up when you started talking about the characters passing on their weapons to their descendants, carrying on the legacy. It makes the fictional world feel so much larger and more real, to imagine the story continuing on even after we stop telling it.
I'm a huge fan of "deal damage, take damage" weapons. Recently I designed a rapier that let's you deal 12 damage to yourself by drawing your blood and infusing it in the metal. This lets the wielder perform a 3d8+3 AOE (Dex save) "dance" that flings crystallized ribbons of blood outwards, damaging anyone within 10 feet. And yeah, I 100% imagine it looking like waterfowl dance.
I've done almost exactly this before and my players loved it. A big part of setting out was to find her brother's sword, taken when her family home was attacked by Giants. In times of dire straits I had her roll a D20, and on a Nat 20 when everybody else was down it became a flame tongue. Do recomend.
@@silcrow4045 really depends on how competent the adventures are :P But it might have been an 18 or something. Either way, it did come up a couple of times.
This is actually why when playing Pathfinder, specifically in mythic adventures, my favorite mythic ability is Legendary Item. Which does exactly this. It allows the Mythic character to create a deeply personal magic item that grows with them, and is intrinsically connected to them and their Mythic Powers. At the highest mythic rank, it even becomes a Major Artifact, whose magic can neither be suppressed nor destroyed except by incredibly specific circumstances
My dm revealed that the sword i stole from my father was actually an ancestral sword in an epic battle against my personal bbeg and somewhere exists a video of me falling out of my chair sobbing as it came to life. It was the best experience and I'm excited to see if he does something more with it
I've been running a campaign for over 100 sessions, and I gave my party draconic items from the ruins of an ancient dragon temple. Each item is made from a body part of its associated dragon, and is sentient. The items have their own desires, and by building their bond with their dragon, the players discover new abilities and features. This has caused conflict among the party, since some dragons really don't mesh well, and taking actions to please one upsets another. It's been a really interesting extra layer to add to the main story.
I once gave one of my better RP'ers a senile sword. He would often have to beat on the wall to wake it up so it would use its power. The sword would periodically make cryptic or rude remarks.
In one campaign a giant poisonous snake was tired of her life and after talking to it with „speak with animals“, it joined the party as a weapon with the same attack (scaled).
I had the idea of a magic sapphic axe that was enchanted by an elven woman's song while her dwarven girlfriend was carving runes into the flat of the blade. The entire process took a total of 3 days, and the elf's song helped the dwarf focus on her craft. I believe the axe itself would respond strongly to any actions the user takes out of genuine love for their partner or crush.
this video could not come at a better time! I've been struggling with homebrewing an ancestral weapon for my knight for ages, and this is exactly what I need!!
I really recommend Weapons of Legacy from 3.5 too, it has awesome rules for weapons that evolve with your character and that have powers that unlock when you complete certain tasks or uncover some lore
Reading that book made me think about previous wielders like finding the lost weapon of an Anointed knight or runeblade. Or having a weapon that trapped the souls/memories of those who died using it . Really diving into the backgrounds of the weapon to think about its power and the way it might anger previous wielders friends etc
@@avrilfan0521 indeed! It also sets up a potential connection to other campaigns. Like a powerful character on your last campaign may have left a really good axe, and some of his power still lingers dormant on that object. And the fact that weapons of legacy can evolve with your character also keeps you from becoming bored of it, like it sometimes happens with normal magic items that you may be inclined to sell or exchange for another item.
@@MaestroOblidemon exactly I had a campaign built around a Sun Blade that my beard used and when it was over the Sun Blade had turned into a legacy artifact that adopted some of the bards knowledge and personality creating a legacy weapon that was found by char 2 when the bard died mid campaign and the DM and I just had it learn from whatever good aligned char used evolving whenever its owner died and gradually showing signs of sentient life it was almost as much fun as roleplaying my char
I had something like the skit at the beginning happen to one of my characters. He started out with a fighting knife that was meant to be a huge part of his backstory, but mechanically it was just a simple dagger. It doesn't do more damage, it doesn't have any special magical effects. At one point, I tried to get it silvered, but was told it wouldn't be worth the cost vs. just buying a new silver dagger. This character ended up carrying a lot of daggers, but because of not being special mechanically I almost never used it. I later planned on having it enchanted, no matter the cost, but the campaign was canceled due to being too much for my DM to run. This might also have been an interesting way to think of his magic sword, Heartsbane. He received this sword after triggering a blood based trap that copied his body, and when defeated left a perfect copy of his cutlass, only made entirely of blood. The blade was already a +1, with a unique enchantment that allowed him to add up to four 1d4 charges of necrotic damage per sunrise, but dealing same or half that to himself when used. Perhaps over time, it could have stopped damaging him, then become stronger: more charges, higher base bonus, bigger hit die even; at a potential cost that as it progresses, it needs to draw blood at least once a day, even if it's the wielder's blood. Perhaps later on, it needs to kill something, even just a rat, once a week. It becomes more bloodthirsty the more powerful it becomes, perhaps even making the wielder bloodthirsty if not fed. However, should the wielder fall in battle after a certain threshold of "trust" is reached, and there is at least one charge remaining, the blade could once more transform back into the guardian it once was, mimicking its wielder and protecting him for a number of minutes equal to the number of charges left in the blade, plus one minute every time it kills an attacker. It would have his mental stats, though perhaps not his magic; it would not, however, recognize any as a friend but the wielder unless convinced otherwise. It could only do this act once per day/week, and when all charges are used, it would drop back into the ground, once more inert. Flavor wise, the blade has been examined by a cleric and determined to not be evil, so it could become a case of the blade simply needing blood to keep itself intact, and needing more blood to do so the more powerful it becomes. Perhaps the mind is still in there somewhere, and simply wants to survive; what better way than to make itself useful to it's wielder? If it ever ends up in the hands of others, it could change what it does depending on their alignment, as if responding to their personality; perhaps even changing shape over time to better suit their preferences. Alternatively, it could view things from the learned perspective of the character it initially copied. My character was extremely neutral, though weather chaotic or lawful depends on your point of view. He was also aggressively honest, his primary character motivation being to root out lies and reveal them. Perhaps it wouldn't approve of liars, those who seek to harm the innocent, or who follow others orders blindly. I may suggest some things like these for my new character, who holds two sort-of magic tools: a knife made of a magical wood, and a staff of that same wood that had been his master's staff before he was killed. Perhaps as I level up, they get more powerful in some way?
This reminds me a lot of Matt Mercer's vestiges of divergence which also have a mechanic for growing with the character and I don't think it would be difficult to rework those to also work as starting equipment. Although the ancestral weapons would have most of the homebrew leg work already done for you
I had a friend who once gave a player a Moonblade at the start of the campaign. They predetermined the runes on the blade, but the only active rune at level 1 was the Finesse Rune. Every subsequent rune on the blade was then activated as the campaign went along. Its why the Moonblade is my favourite magic item, because its so modular and easy to work into a character with a little tweaking.... as long as they're an elf.
I play an Eladrin Bladesinger in my party with a background and story of a Noble of the family Lasslórien in Faerûn and the DM bless me with the sword of the family, that item has almost the same amount of lines of story as my character and use this sword to comunicate clues to the character and the party, leading the adventure where we're supposed to go. Great content!
"This is Caledfwlch, the Unyielding Cutter. Placed into the blackest stone by the great wizard Barcud Coch, who declared that only the true heir could draw it. Of course, I'm just some rando, so mostly I just hit people with the rock that's still stuck to the end...."
I like the image of a big bruiser who found "A rock with a handle - cool!" and has been carrying it around as a nifty club until encountering someone who gets a close enough look to read the writing.
I picked up Hew, a magical Axe, when we played Phandelver. I like it so much that I came up with an idea that if my current character dies, the great-great-grandson of the Dwarf that forged Hew would come looking for it and he would be my new PC
My fighter in 4e some 10 years ago inherited her weapon from her mother, and she was so attached to it that instead of replacing it with a better weapon, we flavored it as upgrading her weapon. ... Said weapon was a shovel named Lucy.
I did this once (kinda) with lineage. One of my players made a tiefling that was the daughter of a brass dragon and a tiefling. They wanted to be an artificer, but also thought it would be cool to have a few dragon powers. So I took a few metallic dragon related abilities and introduced them over the course of the game, depending on that character's choices. In the end, my player had a Tiefling artillerist with brass scales here and there (small boost to AC,) a breath weapon, the ability to frighten once per long rest, and a few other things that I forget. It was so cool!
This is super cool. My character has an "heirloom dagger" that they found in the second session. When the party started asking questions, they just declared the newly-found dagger "An Ancient Family Heirloom," and has been lying their way through writing a backstory as questions come up.
"Or the flying upgrade to give the wielder flight" vs a dragon is the fan art I need to see. Just yeeting yourself through the sky so you can stab it. :D
We're doing something like this in our current campaign, its pretty sweet...not necessarily ancestral, but more signature weapon. Gains extra damage, attack bonus, and cantrips at certain levels. The weapon levels up as the character levels up, just easier to keep track of leveling this way.
Thanks for pointing me to this resource! When we played Lost Mines as our first foray into D&D my then first time DM and I very quickly came up with basically the same idea, but we didn’t introduce a currency for upgrades. Instead we made the upgrades milestone events. I have been fiddling with our vague mechanic ever since I donned the DM hat for our second campaign, but haven’t formulated anything robust yet. I will definitely get the PDF and salvage the parts that I like.
Agreed. You are hilarious. Also super knowledgable and easy on the eyes. Love to watch and listen about DnD. Ive been a DM for years, always homebrew and write my own plots and stories. You have some awesome ideas!!
I am SO gonna use it! One of my players in a Cleric of Bahamut (light domain) whose abbey was destroyed by an ancient blue dragon. He really wanted to use the mace he was given by the abbot, but they’re level 4 now and it just started to feel underwhelming. This is the perfect way to spice it up! He’ll love it, I’m sure 🤩
Nine Hells yes. The character I currently play is using an ancestral blade that belonged to their father. It wasn't willingly handed down and she is slowly learning how to wield it. I picked for the last ability to learn for you to never be able to willingly drop the weapon. I love the flavor of that, though I can't see it coming up that much. I am also running a game as a DM where one of my players is a gunslinger class who has built their gun themselves and we are using the ancestral rules for it. There is no family history, but it also makes sense that the weapon grows and changes what it can do as he levels up and "fine tunes and tinkers" his gun. This also makes some sense because the setting for that campaign doesn't have guns as a common item. So buying or looting upgraded weapons isn't as easy as it is for other classes.
The only changes from level to level are hitting more and hitting harder... yeah 4:20 That's WHY we play martial classes, that's the EXACT thing we want. Yeah that wizard gets to cast one 6 level spell a day, but we now swing a 3rd time EVERY ROUND. Great vid thou, love the concept
Thank you for this! I went out and bought it immediately after watching. I plan to offer players weapon features through scenarios in their dreams. That way it's not explicit what is happening and should make it more thrilling for them along the way.
Here’s a great way to make magic items: base it on a class feature that fits a character’s class. Maybe give a warlock some metamagic, where the item prevents them from Coffeelocking and levels up alongside them. Maybe an Amulet of Lay on Hands, a maul of Reckless Attack, a book of ritual spells. You could even give it a separate level, and level it up alongside them. To balance it, cut out certain features (like subclass) and have it at a lower level.
Cool to see someone tried to codify this concept. I once gave a pc fighter a gold bracer that had a magical ranged attack and was slowly growing across their arm. The campaign got interrupted before it could turn into a full suit of armor, but I did have time to give them a couple castings of shield per day. The player had a lot of fun :)
This kind of weapon works really well at my table. I’m doing a campaign where each character gets something like this and they players have really enjoyed it. One of the items I gave the fighter made him to narratively choose to multi-class into paladin. They’re tons of fun
This is absolutely my jam. I love the idea of legendary weapons. I'll definitely be picking up this book and having a few ancestral weapons as loot in my players' next dungeon
This mechanic also feels like it would work well in the context of a character such as a warlock or a paladin who might have an item granted by their patron/diety that gains abilities as the character pleases that entity. I like it.
This couldn't come at a better time. I'm just about to run a campaign where the major plotline is star students of their respective fields traveling to find the one responsible for their teachers' death and avenge them. An arc where they find the weapons would fit in so well.
I have a funny story for something similar which happened to me involving magic items with some story behind them. My first proper DnD character was an elf ranger who found himself fighting against cultists kidnapping and brainwashing innocent people across the campaign’s kingdom in order to fulfill a ritual, and one of those people was a noble man who had a family relic on him which was a flametongue dagger. It had a long history of being passed down in a long lineage of elves, but what matters is that the nobleman felt guilty for being possessed, claiming he did “horrible things with the dagger”, and giving it to my character in an attempt to cleanse the dagger’s name under the hands of a hero rather than the ones of an assassin. The dagger became so important for the character that it also kept the noble man’s family name on it, being also the one magic item I kept across the entire campaign as a “boss killer”. Funnily enough, later on I ended up playing a campaign which I played as the daughter of the same character and she also ended up getting her hands on a dagger (Although this was a dagger of venom rather than a flametongue one) after saving other people from a faction of cultists, which I found as a very funny coincidence because the DMs didn’t know each other at all.
I looooove weapon levelling. I have 5 custom made, each with unique ways of levelling from level 1 to 3. My personal favorite is the devil's cane, a staff gifted to the player by Asmodeus (which only happens in a very specific situation by the way). It starts out as little more than an immovable rod that lets you use thaumaturgy, but later on it grants you the lucky feat and other fun things. My favourite thing is giving these weapons their final form only through roleplay situations. For example the longbow 'Whisper' only becomes it's final form 'Secret' when the telepathy it grants is used to tell a precious secret to someone. The Devil's Cane only reaches it's final form when you shake Asmodeus' hand by your own free will and not as part of a deal.
This marks the first time I've ever actually gone out and purchased something the sponsor was trying to sell. Phenomenal video and I can't wait to apply this to my home game!
I wonder if Mark Hulmes used this or his own homebrew for Katie's characte Aila in High Rollers. Her Howling Gale warhammer would definitely resembles an ancestral weapon. It was gifted to her by her (adopted) clan when she went out into the world, and has grown along her in her travels with the Stormchasers.
My primary character is a Level 7 Eldritch Knight Fighter, she has a simple +1 longsword, but the Uncommon component from the campaign was a magical chunk of toffee from the lair of a toffee witch. So my blacksmith friend forged me the Toffee Longsword +1 which is like a rippled steel/toffee Damascus blade which tastes like candy. And yes I yell candy puns when I hit things with it!
I'm doing something like this in my current campaign. In my world, anyone can have these "ancestral weapons" but they work a bit differently. They can be any equipped item and are tied to the character in some way, either family lineage, something that's been with them throughout their journey, etc. I make them specifically for the character and how their character operates during gameplay. For instance, I have a homebrew Witch in my campaign and he has a grimoire that in his backstory he stole from his teacher when he lived in the Astral plane. I started them at level 9, so he's had this book since his apprenticeship and has bonded with him. The tome becomes his familiar and acts alongside him. Over time, its able to hold concentration on spells for him (up to a certain level), can offer guidance (the book is a conduit for a being on the Astral realm), etc. Lots of stuff. Another has a sword that once he hits level 10 can split into a secondary, ethereal sword that he can dual-wield. It also gains some vampiric abilities, elemental upgrades, etc. This weapon is bonded with a Barbarian (Zealot)/Fighter (Echo Knight) and is from his family line. I also have another player who's bonded item is a suit of armor (for a Light cleric) and an amulet (Inquisitive rogue). The way I do it is they have 5 abilities total (3 passive, 2 active) and gain them at levels 3, 7, 10, 14, and 18. All abilities are compounding. Definitely a power house, but none of my players are min-maxers nor do they intentionally try and break my game. And of course, if something is too powerful/weak, we all have an agreement to modify them on a case-by-case basis. This works for my table and they seem to really enjoy it. On the same token, other NPCs in the world have similar items that I create if they're important to the story. Villains have them as well, so they are extra careful when coming into contact with them.
This is great! I've got a Triton Bard who wields her mother's trident and turning it into a powerful ancestral weapon was something I've been wanted to do! Super helpful!
One fun way one of my characters received their ancestral weapon. He didn't have any noble lineage or anything like that, but he befriended a old swordmaster. As he mentored my character they formed a strong bond, and as he later died he handed that sword over to my character. We had the rule that ancestral weapons could only reach their full potential when passed down the family, and my character and the old swordmaster weren't blood related at all. Yet the swords powers activated for my character, and at first my character thought it was because they were secretly related. But after alot of investigation into the bloodlines it turned out they weren't related, and the old swordmaster had come to consider my character as a son. It was a strong moment, as the sword didn't discriminate between blood relatives and found family. It showed that the family you find is equally valid to the one you were born into.
W-wait that’s so cute tho 🥺🥺🥺
What a cool story! If your dm needs some players, damn I would love to play with someone who can write like that
That's, so rad.
So wholesome
i teared up a bit
We had a character die in game and the DM imbued some of his essence in the long sword he use to wield. Now once a day it cast spirit guardians in the form of our deceased friend. Now the sword has a story to it and its ours....:)
That's beautiful!
Can they communicate ?
Damn… I’m stealing this for sure 🥲🥲
We had the same idea in our campaign! It's a super loved idea for sure!
Thank you, Mr. Enkler, for the TOTALLY ORIGINAL idea for my next campaign.
"So Ginny, how many different swords do you have?"
"Yes."
I thought of this idea a year ago, though it wasn't nearly as developed as this. Basically, instead of having the players _find_ a +1 sword, the players should have their starting equipment (likely an heirloom) get upgraded in a moment of heroism or as a quest reward. Maybe a sword becomes a _dragon slayer_ when it's drenched in dragon's blood, or a paladin's sword becomes a _holy avenger_ when he finally defeats an evil overlord and the archbishop blesses his blade. Or the spirit of an ally could possess it, or an angel could touch it, or a fire giant could reforge it, or any other number of awesome ways. I've found that at _least_ 50% of the fun of a magic item is the story behind it, so I highly recommend a system like this.
Yeah I definitely feel like having important events magic-ify some of your gear is a great way to add weight and significance to them
The problem is that every hero would easily create weapons like this, whereas magic weapons are supposed to be limited resources, difficult to make, ancient, requiring spell casters and skill smith's working together...the peak of civilization
Not haha, dragon blood go brr. Blessed sword go swoosh swoosh
It doesn't have to be that way. And since the players are the heroes of the story, their weapons would stand out as legendary among commoners.
@@seeker296 I suppose it depends what kind of vibe you want your magic weapons to have. If they're the product of manufacturing processes that always felt very generic to me and lends itself to the fantasy costco issue where you just go down to your local magic weapon emporium and pick out your preferred style of magic weapon.
Having them grow as a result of achievements makes them feel much more mystical to me. Sure it might mean that every legendary hero has a magical weapon, but it also probably means that only legendary heroes (or villains) have magical weapons. Well depending on what you think is a cool enough achievement to earn a weapon a reputation
@@seeker296, writes _"The problem is that every hero would easily create weapons like this, [...]"_
As opposed to what? The current system where practically any spell caster can make magic items just by spending a few gp -- or just buy them outright from a Magic Shop?
With this system items become more powerful as they're used by the characters in the game, they become part of the character's advancement and are personal to the character -- they are no longer just generic magic items.
Puns usually aren't my cup of tea but I really saber the flavour of this video
seppuku
@@DucksAndCatnip DISHONOR ON YOU!
@@IsaacLalpekhlua-x9o pls not my cow
This would be a great addition to the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian! Imagine inheriting a weapon passed down the family line doing different feats and resetting with each new wielder.
This is giving me such Fables 3 vibes and I'm here for it!
I did this. I made an Orc with an Ancestral Warpick. It wasn't optimized for damage dealing, but it made him *very* hard to kill.
Yeah I saw this and made an ancestral guardian. I had her backstory be that the matriarch of the family always wielded the weapon, and when the matriarch died, the eldest daughter would take the weapon and go on a quest to make the weapon powerful again, as when the mother died, the weapon reset back to no power. And with each new daughter, the weapon would return to the clan different as the augments of the weapon would reflect her personality. Now my character has to go on a quest to make the weapon powerful so she can guide her clan. I also multiclassed her with echo knight, so her echo would be her mother aiding her in battle and when she rages her ancestors also appear with her in battle -all wielding a different form of the weapon. It's my favourite character I have made in a while. Also I'm 100% getting Fable 3 vibes.
I bow to you, queen of the puns. Thanks for the reminder about this! I bought this a while ago when I was a pc, but it kinda got buried in the 100 other things I've bought from them. Would be excellent to incorporate for my druid player's staff and paladin player's greatsword.
Haha, “bow”
@@birubu Good catch! 😎😎😎😎
@@birubu glad my subtle genius can be appreciated
Oh, you like weapon puns?
Join the club!
@@Apeiron242 That is so cool!
We're back! And we're back with a great topic to boot. I love weapons that are a greater part of a character's identity. There is a reason why looters are so popular, people love their loot. There is a very real sentimental value to the weapons you use in a game and if a game's mechanics reflect that, you can carry that sentimentality to your own game.
Player investment is a major part of what makes a game great and having another avenue for that investment (I.E. an Ancentral Weapon) can make your game all the better.
In my characters' cases especially, having an iconic weapon (or weapons) can act as a cool calling card. For example, if three of my now-legendary(In a hypothetical example) characters walk into a tavern, having everyone recognize their weapons and thus their owners makes for some great post-campaign stuff. That weapon is now synonymous with their owner, and it's really fun to imagine people telling stories about your character's deeds, those especially involving that character's signature weapon.
Of all the examples you gave, the Skywalker lightsaber is the closest to fitting both thematically and mechanically. Lightsaber crystals are alive and they grow and change through their bond with the wielder and can even influence them, and some have even gained interesting abilities as a result of certain events
Sword of Gryffindor is a perfect example of a non bloodline ancestral weapon. Also, the way it disappears and appears is a very convenient dm/author tool.
"[...] is a very convenient dm/author tool." I think the term you're looking for is _Deus Ex Machina._
@@fred_derf deus ex machina is more of a linear storytelling thing. It's what we call when an author just solves narrative tension in a contrived way and it carries a really bad conotation
it doesn't really apply in this context. First, it's an improv-minded game. Some randomness here is fun. But also, it's a tool for game balance. So that your group can have a climactic fight with borrowed power punching up against a foe that's too much for their level and not ruin the game balance for the next sessions
@@shinkamui, writes _"It's what we call when an author just solves narrative tension in a contrived way and it carries a really bad conotation"_
By, for example, having a powerful magic item just show up?
@@fred_derf did you really respond without reading the comment
''i made a pact with a sentient magical sword that would help me in the hour of need''. Goes to fight a dragon, a +1 sword shows up
oh no, tension is gone.. deus ex machina much.. i guess? nah, makes no sense to call it a deus ex machina besides pedantism
One member of my group in DnD had an ancient very powerful knife. The hook: The knife got stolen when she got banned from her thieves guild. Moreover a Big Bad Guy used it against our group while we were travelling. This was definetely a very thrilling part of the story which showed the power of the dagger - although she never got her hands on it because our group had to split up for different reasons.
For those familiar with the Moonblade in the DMG, it's basically the Moonblade but waaay more versatile. It's good!
Something DM's might want to look up is an old book for 3.x, called Weapons of Legacy. As DM and player I loved this tome, because it put up a whole new concept in magic items: Magic items that level up with you. Essentially, there were various weapons and even armors and such that, with the rules in the book, started off as basic weapons until certain conditions were met, at which point they would unlock a power, and could have multiple levels of this, creating weapons that continued to improve with the character.
This made my job as DM *so* much easier, and more fun. As DM, it gave magic items a greater feeling, and players didn't keep switching up weapons throughout a campaign. So that "Sword of your father" that was merely a basic weapon you wrote into your backstory, one day, starts to glow, and becomes empowered, and will still be with you at level 15 for far more than simple sentimental reasons.
I had one, where our group's fighter was advancing his weapon, and he thought it had reached its limit at level 9. It was an ancestral weapon, passed down through 10 generations of his family. It had started out as just a masterwork weapon, finely made sure, but it didn't have anything more powerful to it. When he hit level three, after holding some pretty nasty undead, the weapon flared to life with an intelligence. This intellect was essentially an amalgam of all those who wielded the blade previously, and as Fighter's father had passed, he got to here the voice of his father. We had a really good series of RP moments of him speaking with his father. Well, on about level 12, the party was in a nail-biting fight with an ancient green dragon. The fight isn't going great for the party, but Fighter's convinced that the party can still do this, and he's determined. He's dying here, or the dragon is. It is in this moment I halt the fight, just as his turn is coming up, and I ask, "So, I have a question: What is your character's most fervent desire in this moment?"
"I want to stop this god damned dragon!"
"You look around at your friends, as you're facing down this evil dragon, and you've fully set yourself. Only your party or this vile thing are walking away from this. And as you're having this thought, you feel an immense power well up with the blade, and you hear the voices of your ancestors, rising up in song, a prayer for the strength to do what is needed. A wave of power blasts out from the sword, staggering all around you, and a new voice joins the chorus within the blade: Your own. The blade thrums with power, and your father's voice comes in, saying with a heart full warmth, 'I am so proud of you'. Your weapons gains a +1 enhancement bonus, and you is now a bane (dragon) weapon. Know this: In 10 generations of your family, you hear it now, that none in your line of warriors has ever gotten this far. You are beyond what the sword has done in the past, and for each step you take forward from now, you are now forging your own legacy with the blade."
He literally laughed triumphantly in that moment.
“The Skywalker Saber form Star Wars”
-Ah yes, the Youngling Slayer 9000.
I could adapt some of these to be things other than weapons. Like a ring with Deathward, or a circlet with Will of Ancestors.
I love the sound of this, I'll check it out! I made a home brewed ancestral weapon recently for my Bladesinger, but factored in some mystery from the beginning by saying that my character refuses to attune to or Identify the sword (which he took as a child when fleeing the site of his mother's murder by an unknown group) because he's still rebelling from his mother's heroic legacy and feels that if he used the sword's special abilities it would imply willingness to step into her shadow and become a hero like she was. I asked the DM to include his mother's killer as one of the minor boss fights in the game, after which my character will have to make the decision to either take on the mantle of responsibility she left behind, and wield her sword proudly to its full effect, or forever walk away from that life, and leave the sword behind as well.
Yay!! I’m like a kid at Christmas when there’s a DM-focused vid from Ginny Di!!
"Whatever, I'm hilarious!" is the energy I hope to take with me throughout life.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS IDEA! I will probably buy the book as a supplement/inspiration for other similar ideas I have used in the past.
In one game I designed 2 helms (a helm and mask) that were designed to become totally OP by the campaign's end. They had 3 branching upgrade paths that had cross-path bonuses and earned upgrades as the PC's gained serval levels or completed important main quest objectives.
In another every PC received a 'quirky' item from the Trickster Deity* that serves as the party Patron. The items were 'immune' to the identify spell, so required in game experimentation to discover what they can do was required. While not sentient the items had 'personality'. The powers of the item would grow with the PC's PB as long they treated it well enough in accordance to it's personality. And seeing how items were 'quirky' gifts of a Trickster God, there was always a chance of them not doing what the PC wanted, at least not the way the PC hoped, often involving a random die roll or a Save vs their own DC.
The items included:
1. A sword that responds to Anime style named attacks gaining bonus damage based what is shouted.
2. A spell absorbing wand that could 'steal' a spell as it was cast with a 'zero level' (ie always had roll) counter spell, but if the spell was too powerful the wand would release the energy explosively, damaging its wielder those close by
3. An Alcohol stein that would produce random potions, or Super strong alcohol that did poison damage in instantly made the drinker drunk
4. A stealthy cloak that could teleport between shadows, but could leave a careless user lost in realm of shadows briefly when doing so
5. A book on demonology that could, usually, summon illusions of Fiends, but occasionally a real one might show up and be pissed at everyone.
* This not being the Trickster Deity's home world so, while accompanying the party, for 'entertainment', they could not use their powers willy nilly without getting into trouble with the native godhead.
Ah, glad that 1:30 is still correct with the OGL staying as is. Great work everyone and give thanks to those who risked their livelihoods to let us players and GMs know what was up.
Really great way to make the mechanics of the moon blade match the lore.
Yeah, I've been thinking of using moon blades in game, and this is a brilliant idea to open that up for non-elven PCs.
Your storytelling is always immaculate, I struggle to believe that you play every character in your videos sometimes. Great work :D
I have a player who inherited a broken sword, I think I'm going to be using this in my game for them once they repair it, changing over time with a weapon is such a cool idea and I think will slot nicely with the family history they will discover in the campaign
Thats a sick idea. Reforging a weapon of legends. Almost gives a Skyward sword vibe ( I think thats the one where he repairs/creates the master sword?)
@@gamingmemories8326 I can't remember if Skyward Sword does that, but I know Wind Waker does.
Check out "The Broken Sword" by Poul Anderson.
@@gamingmemories8326 In Wind Waker you repair it, in Skyward sword you create it... sorta? it starts out as a different sword and gets reforged into the Master Sword.
The Shards of Narsil
I love the Ancestral Weapons book. A friend introduced it to me and is such a great way to give people items that are both narratively significant and mechanically significant.
best custom weapon we had in a campaign was a sentient sword named Gramklinge. or Tristan. the player literally had to pull it out of a sword in a dungeon designed to test him by the Red Lady. it was battle-hungry and played Blind Guardian whenever it was used in combat. in one of the final battles, Tristan sacrificed himself to defeat a strong entity sent by Shar.
in more recent campaigns, our DM tends to give us powerful magical weapons which, upon identified, come with their stats as well as the info that there's greater power within them, which can be unlocked through great effort. this allows for interesting character choices, as well as artifacts which scale with our progress.
I'm going to let my brother find a weapon called Man of War, a magical longsword that has a cross piece that is fashioned to look like a viking longboat and a large clear blue sapphire gem in the hilt. The blade looks like Damascus steel but it is waves moving along the blade. Initially it will be a +1 longsword. But later as the campaign develops, I will add features.
The french RPG "Bloodlust" is built around sentient weapons, each with their own personnalities, but only able to feel emotions and satisfaction through the feelings of their wielder.
You can play the wielder, or the weapon.
Some mode let you play both a wielder and the weapon of another wielder player.
Have fun!
Love that this is a thing because I've been doing it for years. The fact that my players don't fight over loot because they're building their own unique gear makes game sessions a lot more pleasant, and the player gets to build weapons and armor they become attached to and interested in, rather than just jumping from random weapon drop to drop.
In my world, you have a variety of ways that this happens. A monk in my world would unlock mystical tomes that would reveal new ways to utilize their ki, enhance their physical properties, etc. My barbarian had a weapon made out of a mercurial kind of magical metal that could alter its properties, letting the player shift bonuses between accuracy and damage, as well as shift the type of melee weapon itself (shifting from a dagger, to a greatsword and everything in between)!
As they go, they find new pieces of the puzzle that is their weapon's final form. So a new ingot of this mercurial metal would be of far less use to another player than it would be to the player who can add it to their weapon, enhancing its properties. Same with the mystical monk tomes...unless you really think you'd gain more out of it than you know, the monk? Then you probably won't be arguing about wanting it for yourself!
Hi Ginni, I used the book to create a ancestral set of plate mail for the pally in my game. You can use the rules in this book to make anything ancestral with just a little effort.
A monk I played in a game was given a katana that wrote "I walk through the river of life with my mistakes as my stepping stones". She was given it as a thank you for saving her village from a tyrant. She would spend a few hours each night practicing to use it since she didn't know how to. She would even spar with the party's fighter as well, making their bond better. At level 3 she could finally use it and thats how I explained how she became a kensei monk :) .
Can confirm this is pretty great. Can also be used in conjunction with "The Complete Armoer's Handbook" as a viable gold sink and for non-ancestral weapons. I use both in my campaign and they're fantastic
The one from heavyarms? I love that book! I haven't had a chance to use it myself since I don't run a campaign, just one-shots (too much stress right now), but I hope to one day!
I've always liked meaningful magic weapons, but have always struggled to make them myself, since the DMG doesn't have the best means of it. So thanks the initiative on the inspiration, Ginny Pun.
I keep to a simple template -- the weapon is enchanted with the effects of a cantrip which the player can activate by taking an Attack action overriding the normal effects of that Attack action. Similarly the weapon can be enchanted with a level 1-3 spell with 3-1 charges that recharge at dawn. Such examples include Weapon of True Strike (take the Attack action to make one weapon attack with advantage; overrides the extra attack feature when used) and Weapon of Cure Wounds (you don't need me to explain this one, do you?)
@@dylanwight5764 i like this idea, the Dagger of the Booming Blade you can cast the booming blade cantrip a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, would be awesome for hit and run type Rogues that don't stay in melee which causes the monster to chase them
Agghhhhhh this is so cool! I NEEED to pick up Ancestral Weapons!
I'm just getting into 5e DMing after DMing for lots of other systems, and I had something very similar to Ancestral Weapons I made for the Final Fantasy D6 System called 'Onion Items'! These Items grew with the players as they slew great foes, often became more ostentatious to reflect their owner,
and often tied into their personal choices as warriors of destiny!
But NOW I can do something similar like this for 5e and I am SOOOO Hyped. Thank you for this awesome inspirational Video Ginny :3!
I enjoyed custom magic weapons that level up with the characters. This was my 3.5 days, but the idea still stands. Weapons of Legacy a 3.5 book had a published system for such a system.
Weapons of Legacy never quite worked well for my groups. Good concept, but clunky application.
One of the few TH-camrs who's videos I "like" within 5 seconds, regardless of what comes next. Love the puns, and nice rapier!
The mid-part cutscenes or w/e you want to call it were really well done. I liked them
The dramatic interludes in this video are even more excellent than usual.
I've had this in my campaign for a couple of years now. Players like it because their weapons "level up" with them, and it feels more natural than constantly buying new ones.
In our current campaign, my urchin barbarian's heritage was discovered, and after a few session of slowly gaining more details on his heritage, his father weapon was reviled in possession of a boss. It was so so satisfying to beat the boss, reclaim the fathers greataxe and then discover it is an ancestral weapon. Huge rp moment for my character, who now has a purposeful tie to his roots.
I love dnd for these moments.
this sounds really great!
we are playing CoS atm and my DM wanna introduce an "item breaking/repairing" system. My chqracter, Ashton is an aasimar bloodhunter (fallen, order of the ghostslayers) and his only belonging is the greatsword he trained before running away from the cult
now that i really love the design we came up with it, i asked my DM if i could use this "repair" system to make my weapon magical when we get a little downtime activity like enchanting it with some divine/necrotic power or making it a moontouched greatsword (and later improving in it)
There’s so many great ideas in here!! As a barb main, having a DM who’s super into doing weapons homebrewing work has been SUCH a treat, you’re right on that it makes all the difference in the world for martial classes!
This is an awesome addition. I can see using it for deity/fey/devil created weapons. Think the Daedric artifact weapons of Skyrim. As you do heroic things that further their cause on earth, the champion's weapon becomes even more powerful. God of light creates sword for his champion. At first it glows blue in the presence of undead..then it gains the power to rebuke undead, does fire damage to undead, grants immunity to level drain.
Or as the badge of belonging to a holy order, paladins are given this simple sword at second level, and carry it as they go become great heroes in the world, the sword and their legend growing with them
I'm doing something similar. I have a player named Farmy that has a dwarven family axe that get's special properties the more he levels up. At level 5 it became a +1, at level 8 he learned that it was originally made from the metal of an ancient Dwarven multitool and can shrink and grow to fit his needs as it did for his warrior ancestors. It started as a greataxe, and it can take the form of a battleaxe for when he needs a shield, a handaxe that returns to him when he needs a ranged attack, and a halberd when he wants reach. He's a Battlemaster and this has helped him have just that extra bit of variety in combat.
The base concept behind this book reminds me of the base concept that existed in the Weapons of Legacy book for 3.5. Love it.
also the feat "Ancestral weapon" from book of exalted deeds, and "Item familiar" from unearthed arcana... I hate being that guy, but almost every good idea I've seen come out for 5e, third party in particular, that gets held up as revolutionary ideas the game needed, is things that 3.5 already had.
the book does look great, and I'm glad to have these kinds of options back for 5e... but it still stands...
@@seiglegar I am fairly certain that 2E AD&D had something similar I am just not recalling it because I think the 2 most "out there" resources I used were the Elven Archer fighter substitution rules from the Elf supplement for my Moon Elf archer I played and the Necromancer's Handbook for my Drow Wizard I played.
I felt the piercing, slashing and bludgeoning of those dad jokes.
To give your players a taste of power without committing to it, they could find an old powerful ancestral weapon that is trying to find its way back to its ancestors, granting your players temporary guardianship/power so long as the blade feels the players are helping it get home.
I genuinely got choked up when you started talking about the characters passing on their weapons to their descendants, carrying on the legacy. It makes the fictional world feel so much larger and more real, to imagine the story continuing on even after we stop telling it.
I'm a huge fan of "deal damage, take damage" weapons.
Recently I designed a rapier that let's you deal 12 damage to yourself by drawing your blood and infusing it in the metal. This lets the wielder perform a 3d8+3 AOE (Dex save) "dance" that flings crystallized ribbons of blood outwards, damaging anyone within 10 feet.
And yeah, I 100% imagine it looking like waterfowl dance.
Well-known fact that humor is better if explained. Hats off to you, Di.
Twitter has taught me that if I don't explain my jokes, men will explain them to me instead 😅
I've done almost exactly this before and my players loved it. A big part of setting out was to find her brother's sword, taken when her family home was attacked by Giants. In times of dire straits I had her roll a D20, and on a Nat 20 when everybody else was down it became a flame tongue. Do recomend.
...seems like it'll come up a bit rare no?
It sounds sick as hell, 100% awesome, just. The condition for activation is kinda tedious
@@silcrow4045 really depends on how competent the adventures are :P
But it might have been an 18 or something. Either way, it did come up a couple of times.
@@Coldshrike i mean course, every d&d party gets absolutely blasted every now and again. lovely idea for an item though.
Some well hammered-out ideas 👌
"Perhaps they are pleased with me?" Gut punch to the feels. Well done.
This is actually why when playing Pathfinder, specifically in mythic adventures, my favorite mythic ability is Legendary Item.
Which does exactly this. It allows the Mythic character to create a deeply personal magic item that grows with them, and is intrinsically connected to them and their Mythic Powers.
At the highest mythic rank, it even becomes a Major Artifact, whose magic can neither be suppressed nor destroyed except by incredibly specific circumstances
My dm revealed that the sword i stole from my father was actually an ancestral sword in an epic battle against my personal bbeg and somewhere exists a video of me falling out of my chair sobbing as it came to life. It was the best experience and I'm excited to see if he does something more with it
I've been running a campaign for over 100 sessions, and I gave my party draconic items from the ruins of an ancient dragon temple. Each item is made from a body part of its associated dragon, and is sentient. The items have their own desires, and by building their bond with their dragon, the players discover new abilities and features. This has caused conflict among the party, since some dragons really don't mesh well, and taking actions to please one upsets another. It's been a really interesting extra layer to add to the main story.
I once gave one of my better RP'ers a senile sword. He would often have to beat on the wall to wake it up so it would use its power. The sword would periodically make cryptic or rude remarks.
"Old sword yells at cloud".
In one campaign a giant poisonous snake was tired of her life and after talking to it with „speak with animals“, it joined the party as a weapon with the same attack (scaled).
I had the idea of a magic sapphic axe that was enchanted by an elven woman's song while her dwarven girlfriend was carving runes into the flat of the blade. The entire process took a total of 3 days, and the elf's song helped the dwarf focus on her craft. I believe the axe itself would respond strongly to any actions the user takes out of genuine love for their partner or crush.
I picked this up around the same time I picked up the Adventurer's domestic on Ginny's recommendation.
This is wonderfully full circle.
this video could not come at a better time! I've been struggling with homebrewing an ancestral weapon for my knight for ages, and this is exactly what I need!!
I really recommend Weapons of Legacy from 3.5 too, it has awesome rules for weapons that evolve with your character and that have powers that unlock when you complete certain tasks or uncover some lore
Exactly. Very fun book
I learned about it from The Order of the Stick and it's now on my to-read-list.
Reading that book made me think about previous wielders like finding the lost weapon of an Anointed knight or runeblade. Or having a weapon that trapped the souls/memories of those who died using it . Really diving into the backgrounds of the weapon to think about its power and the way it might anger previous wielders friends etc
@@avrilfan0521 indeed! It also sets up a potential connection to other campaigns. Like a powerful character on your last campaign may have left a really good axe, and some of his power still lingers dormant on that object.
And the fact that weapons of legacy can evolve with your character also keeps you from becoming bored of it, like it sometimes happens with normal magic items that you may be inclined to sell or exchange for another item.
@@MaestroOblidemon exactly I had a campaign built around a Sun Blade that my beard used and when it was over the Sun Blade had turned into a legacy artifact that adopted some of the bards knowledge and personality creating a legacy weapon that was found by char 2 when the bard died mid campaign and the DM and I just had it learn from whatever good aligned char used evolving whenever its owner died and gradually showing signs of sentient life it was almost as much fun as roleplaying my char
I had something like the skit at the beginning happen to one of my characters. He started out with a fighting knife that was meant to be a huge part of his backstory, but mechanically it was just a simple dagger. It doesn't do more damage, it doesn't have any special magical effects. At one point, I tried to get it silvered, but was told it wouldn't be worth the cost vs. just buying a new silver dagger. This character ended up carrying a lot of daggers, but because of not being special mechanically I almost never used it. I later planned on having it enchanted, no matter the cost, but the campaign was canceled due to being too much for my DM to run.
This might also have been an interesting way to think of his magic sword, Heartsbane. He received this sword after triggering a blood based trap that copied his body, and when defeated left a perfect copy of his cutlass, only made entirely of blood. The blade was already a +1, with a unique enchantment that allowed him to add up to four 1d4 charges of necrotic damage per sunrise, but dealing same or half that to himself when used. Perhaps over time, it could have stopped damaging him, then become stronger: more charges, higher base bonus, bigger hit die even; at a potential cost that as it progresses, it needs to draw blood at least once a day, even if it's the wielder's blood. Perhaps later on, it needs to kill something, even just a rat, once a week. It becomes more bloodthirsty the more powerful it becomes, perhaps even making the wielder bloodthirsty if not fed. However, should the wielder fall in battle after a certain threshold of "trust" is reached, and there is at least one charge remaining, the blade could once more transform back into the guardian it once was, mimicking its wielder and protecting him for a number of minutes equal to the number of charges left in the blade, plus one minute every time it kills an attacker. It would have his mental stats, though perhaps not his magic; it would not, however, recognize any as a friend but the wielder unless convinced otherwise. It could only do this act once per day/week, and when all charges are used, it would drop back into the ground, once more inert.
Flavor wise, the blade has been examined by a cleric and determined to not be evil, so it could become a case of the blade simply needing blood to keep itself intact, and needing more blood to do so the more powerful it becomes. Perhaps the mind is still in there somewhere, and simply wants to survive; what better way than to make itself useful to it's wielder? If it ever ends up in the hands of others, it could change what it does depending on their alignment, as if responding to their personality; perhaps even changing shape over time to better suit their preferences. Alternatively, it could view things from the learned perspective of the character it initially copied. My character was extremely neutral, though weather chaotic or lawful depends on your point of view. He was also aggressively honest, his primary character motivation being to root out lies and reveal them. Perhaps it wouldn't approve of liars, those who seek to harm the innocent, or who follow others orders blindly.
I may suggest some things like these for my new character, who holds two sort-of magic tools: a knife made of a magical wood, and a staff of that same wood that had been his master's staff before he was killed. Perhaps as I level up, they get more powerful in some way?
This reminds me a lot of Matt Mercer's vestiges of divergence which also have a mechanic for growing with the character and I don't think it would be difficult to rework those to also work as starting equipment. Although the ancestral weapons would have most of the homebrew leg work already done for you
My thoughts exactly.
Very cool. Thanks for posting!
I had a friend who once gave a player a Moonblade at the start of the campaign. They predetermined the runes on the blade, but the only active rune at level 1 was the Finesse Rune. Every subsequent rune on the blade was then activated as the campaign went along. Its why the Moonblade is my favourite magic item, because its so modular and easy to work into a character with a little tweaking.... as long as they're an elf.
Love the idea of crafting a weapon that becomes ancestral over multiple campaigns
I play an Eladrin Bladesinger in my party with a background and story of a Noble of the family Lasslórien in Faerûn and the DM bless me with the sword of the family, that item has almost the same amount of lines of story as my character and use this sword to comunicate clues to the character and the party, leading the adventure where we're supposed to go. Great content!
Ah yes, the moonblade that DMs actually know how to incorporate
"This is Caledfwlch, the Unyielding Cutter. Placed into the blackest stone by the great wizard Barcud Coch, who declared that only the true heir could draw it. Of course, I'm just some rando, so mostly I just hit people with the rock that's still stuck to the end...."
Now that's a Warhammer!
I like the image of a big bruiser who found "A rock with a handle - cool!" and has been carrying it around as a nifty club until encountering someone who gets a close enough look to read the writing.
@@lindafreeman7030 Later on, hitting a guy with the rock and it falls off: "holy moly guys I think I found the lost prince!"
I picked up Hew, a magical Axe, when we played Phandelver. I like it so much that I came up with an idea that if my current character dies, the great-great-grandson of the Dwarf that forged Hew would come looking for it and he would be my new PC
My fighter in 4e some 10 years ago inherited her weapon from her mother, and she was so attached to it that instead of replacing it with a better weapon, we flavored it as upgrading her weapon.
... Said weapon was a shovel named Lucy.
I did this once (kinda) with lineage. One of my players made a tiefling that was the daughter of a brass dragon and a tiefling. They wanted to be an artificer, but also thought it would be cool to have a few dragon powers. So I took a few metallic dragon related abilities and introduced them over the course of the game, depending on that character's choices. In the end, my player had a Tiefling artillerist with brass scales here and there (small boost to AC,) a breath weapon, the ability to frighten once per long rest, and a few other things that I forget. It was so cool!
This is super cool. My character has an "heirloom dagger" that they found in the second session. When the party started asking questions, they just declared the newly-found dagger "An Ancient Family Heirloom," and has been lying their way through writing a backstory as questions come up.
"Or the flying upgrade to give the wielder flight" vs a dragon is the fan art I need to see. Just yeeting yourself through the sky so you can stab it. :D
We're doing something like this in our current campaign, its pretty sweet...not necessarily ancestral, but more signature weapon. Gains extra damage, attack bonus, and cantrips at certain levels. The weapon levels up as the character levels up, just easier to keep track of leveling this way.
Thanks for pointing me to this resource!
When we played Lost Mines as our first foray into D&D my then first time DM and I very quickly came up with basically the same idea, but we didn’t introduce a currency for upgrades. Instead we made the upgrades milestone events. I have been fiddling with our vague mechanic ever since I donned the DM hat for our second campaign, but haven’t formulated anything robust yet. I will definitely get the PDF and salvage the parts that I like.
Agreed. You are hilarious. Also super knowledgable and easy on the eyes. Love to watch and listen about DnD. Ive been a DM for years, always homebrew and write my own plots and stories. You have some awesome ideas!!
I am SO gonna use it! One of my players in a Cleric of Bahamut (light domain) whose abbey was destroyed by an ancient blue dragon. He really wanted to use the mace he was given by the abbot, but they’re level 4 now and it just started to feel underwhelming. This is the perfect way to spice it up! He’ll love it, I’m sure 🤩
Nine Hells yes. The character I currently play is using an ancestral blade that belonged to their father. It wasn't willingly handed down and she is slowly learning how to wield it. I picked for the last ability to learn for you to never be able to willingly drop the weapon. I love the flavor of that, though I can't see it coming up that much.
I am also running a game as a DM where one of my players is a gunslinger class who has built their gun themselves and we are using the ancestral rules for it. There is no family history, but it also makes sense that the weapon grows and changes what it can do as he levels up and "fine tunes and tinkers" his gun.
This also makes some sense because the setting for that campaign doesn't have guns as a common item. So buying or looting upgraded weapons isn't as easy as it is for other classes.
As a reminted DM, I find your videos very useful.
Dude you made me cry with some of the character lines that was amazing
The only changes from level to level are hitting more and hitting harder... yeah 4:20 That's WHY we play martial classes, that's the EXACT thing we want. Yeah that wizard gets to cast one 6 level spell a day, but we now swing a 3rd time EVERY ROUND. Great vid thou, love the concept
Thank you for this! I went out and bought it immediately after watching. I plan to offer players weapon features through scenarios in their dreams. That way it's not explicit what is happening and should make it more thrilling for them along the way.
Here’s a great way to make magic items: base it on a class feature that fits a character’s class. Maybe give a warlock some metamagic, where the item prevents them from Coffeelocking and levels up alongside them. Maybe an Amulet of Lay on Hands, a maul of Reckless Attack, a book of ritual spells. You could even give it a separate level, and level it up alongside them. To balance it, cut out certain features (like subclass) and have it at a lower level.
Cool to see someone tried to codify this concept. I once gave a pc fighter a gold bracer that had a magical ranged attack and was slowly growing across their arm. The campaign got interrupted before it could turn into a full suit of armor, but I did have time to give them a couple castings of shield per day. The player had a lot of fun :)
This kind of weapon works really well at my table. I’m doing a campaign where each character gets something like this and they players have really enjoyed it. One of the items I gave the fighter made him to narratively choose to multi-class into paladin. They’re tons of fun
This is absolutely my jam. I love the idea of legendary weapons. I'll definitely be picking up this book and having a few ancestral weapons as loot in my players' next dungeon
I know this pdf, I used it to make a Long sword with the ability to cast the Tidal wave spell. I like the idea of magical weapons for Monks.
I love the way that Ginny formats her videos, I'm obsessed with the examples that she gives
This mechanic also feels like it would work well in the context of a character such as a warlock or a paladin who might have an item granted by their patron/diety that gains abilities as the character pleases that entity. I like it.
This couldn't come at a better time. I'm just about to run a campaign where the major plotline is star students of their respective fields traveling to find the one responsible for their teachers' death and avenge them. An arc where they find the weapons would fit in so well.
I have a funny story for something similar which happened to me involving magic items with some story behind them.
My first proper DnD character was an elf ranger who found himself fighting against cultists kidnapping and brainwashing innocent people across the campaign’s kingdom in order to fulfill a ritual, and one of those people was a noble man who had a family relic on him which was a flametongue dagger. It had a long history of being passed down in a long lineage of elves, but what matters is that the nobleman felt guilty for being possessed, claiming he did “horrible things with the dagger”, and giving it to my character in an attempt to cleanse the dagger’s name under the hands of a hero rather than the ones of an assassin. The dagger became so important for the character that it also kept the noble man’s family name on it, being also the one magic item I kept across the entire campaign as a “boss killer”.
Funnily enough, later on I ended up playing a campaign which I played as the daughter of the same character and she also ended up getting her hands on a dagger (Although this was a dagger of venom rather than a flametongue one) after saving other people from a faction of cultists, which I found as a very funny coincidence because the DMs didn’t know each other at all.
Thanks for making this video! Two of my players decided to have an ancestral weapon, and are loving the personalization and storytelling.
I love DM's Guild and I actually picked up Ancestral Weapons to create a proper weapon for our Black-Dragonborn Paladin.
I looooove weapon levelling. I have 5 custom made, each with unique ways of levelling from level 1 to 3. My personal favorite is the devil's cane, a staff gifted to the player by Asmodeus (which only happens in a very specific situation by the way). It starts out as little more than an immovable rod that lets you use thaumaturgy, but later on it grants you the lucky feat and other fun things. My favourite thing is giving these weapons their final form only through roleplay situations. For example the longbow 'Whisper' only becomes it's final form 'Secret' when the telepathy it grants is used to tell a precious secret to someone. The Devil's Cane only reaches it's final form when you shake Asmodeus' hand by your own free will and not as part of a deal.
This marks the first time I've ever actually gone out and purchased something the sponsor was trying to sell. Phenomenal video and I can't wait to apply this to my home game!
I wonder if Mark Hulmes used this or his own homebrew for Katie's characte Aila in High Rollers. Her Howling Gale warhammer would definitely resembles an ancestral weapon. It was gifted to her by her (adopted) clan when she went out into the world, and has grown along her in her travels with the Stormchasers.
My primary character is a Level 7 Eldritch Knight Fighter, she has a simple +1 longsword, but the Uncommon component from the campaign was a magical chunk of toffee from the lair of a toffee witch. So my blacksmith friend forged me the Toffee Longsword +1 which is like a rippled steel/toffee Damascus blade which tastes like candy. And yes I yell candy puns when I hit things with it!
Pretty sweet idea, not gonna lie.
I'm doing something like this in my current campaign. In my world, anyone can have these "ancestral weapons" but they work a bit differently. They can be any equipped item and are tied to the character in some way, either family lineage, something that's been with them throughout their journey, etc. I make them specifically for the character and how their character operates during gameplay. For instance, I have a homebrew Witch in my campaign and he has a grimoire that in his backstory he stole from his teacher when he lived in the Astral plane. I started them at level 9, so he's had this book since his apprenticeship and has bonded with him. The tome becomes his familiar and acts alongside him. Over time, its able to hold concentration on spells for him (up to a certain level), can offer guidance (the book is a conduit for a being on the Astral realm), etc. Lots of stuff. Another has a sword that once he hits level 10 can split into a secondary, ethereal sword that he can dual-wield. It also gains some vampiric abilities, elemental upgrades, etc. This weapon is bonded with a Barbarian (Zealot)/Fighter (Echo Knight) and is from his family line. I also have another player who's bonded item is a suit of armor (for a Light cleric) and an amulet (Inquisitive rogue). The way I do it is they have 5 abilities total (3 passive, 2 active) and gain them at levels 3, 7, 10, 14, and 18. All abilities are compounding. Definitely a power house, but none of my players are min-maxers nor do they intentionally try and break my game. And of course, if something is too powerful/weak, we all have an agreement to modify them on a case-by-case basis. This works for my table and they seem to really enjoy it. On the same token, other NPCs in the world have similar items that I create if they're important to the story. Villains have them as well, so they are extra careful when coming into contact with them.
This is great! I've got a Triton Bard who wields her mother's trident and turning it into a powerful ancestral weapon was something I've been wanted to do! Super helpful!
If anyone ever thought Ginny wasn't a nerd then all of those puns should have cut away all doubt
making youtube videos about dungeons and dragons is my full-time job, why would anyone not believe I'm a nerd?? 🙃
This was a really clear explanation, which I appreciate. I bought the PDF, and picked up another PDF on festivals that was $1 or $2. Thanks, Ms. Di!
I really like the new (I think?) character introduced in this video! She just seems neat.