item of power - sword of Heimdallr

[scarius]

hey guys and galls,

in my game we have a guy playing a champion of god (knight of Heimdallr), and he decided that the god will be Heimdallr, so we had a bit of a chat and did some research on him, after this we decided that we would use a little bit of marvel and a little bit of norse.

we havent changed any of the champion of god must haves, but we decided that he dosent really warrent a sword of the cross, so we made our own one instead, with out further adue i present it to you for comment and criticism.

sword of Heimdallr - -2

item of power (with all the stuff that comes with being one)
two handed broad sword - weapon 3
one time discount - +2
refinment - -1
used for 4 enchanted slots granting: spend a fate point and recive +6 to weapons or +6 to counter spell, only able to be used 4 times
world walker - -2
hammer blows - -1
we are calling this amazingly sharp edge or something along those lines we havent decided yet, it still gives the +2 to damage

[Sanctaphrax]

I don't understand what Refinement is doing there or how it's supposed to work.

Could you explain, please?

[scarius]

The refinement is used for the enchanted item slots.

It's to provide a +6 counter spell or +6 weapon, much like the wardens sword, or is there something else that does that?

[Becq]

If you're using the Warden Sword as a template, keep in mind that the Warden Sword gives counterspell of +6, not a +6 to counterspell.  That is, you can use it to counterspell something as if you had rolled a final result of fantastic (+6); you don't make a roll with your own skill and add 6 to the result.  Similarly, the second Warden Sword ability does not add +6 to Weapons skill, it replaces the weapon's weapon rating with 6.  (So the weapon 3 for the 2-h sword would be increased to weapon 6 when the power is triggered.)

Maybe you already assumed these thing; the wording in your post made me think the clarification was worthwhile.

[scarius]

Thanks for the info becq, I realized that the counter spell did that, but I didn't realize that the sword became a weapon 6 as aposed to replacing your weapon skill with +6 for that action. That is actually very handy to know

[Kiero]

Weapon:6 is a good deal less powerful than +6 Weapons.

[Becq]

Weapon:6 is a good deal less powerful than +6 Weapons.

Much less, absolutely.

[Sanctaphrax]

Pretty sure that enchanted item slots don't work that way.

But I don't think it'll break anything if you act as though they do.

[scarius]

thanks for the infomation everyone, i didnt realise that the enchanted items didnt work that way, i think that because the wardens sword is in the book as a focus/enchanted item that i just assumed that it did.

i dont think that it really matters in the end what i can the refinment then, maybe something else, just question i ask though is: is the -1 for the quality cheep or is it an ok price?

[Sanctaphrax]

I actually think that -1 for that quality is fairly expensive, given that it costs a FP with each use.

(Assuming that +6 weapons actually means weapon 6.)

[scarius]

Originally I had it a +6 weapons, but then I was informed that the wardens sword is actually weapon 6, so I changed it. This being the case what should I price it at?

Is there anything that it's missing?

[Becq]

Balancing the IoPs powers using the stunt/power creation rules is your best bet.  For Fate expenditure stunts, the 'standard' is a Fate point for 3 shifts of effect, once per scene.  So it would be hard to argue that the following power is unreasonable, especially since it is identical to the 'Killer Fists' stunt:

Blessing of Heimdallr [-1].  Add 3 to the damage of a successful hit with the Sword of Heimdallr, once per scene, for a fate point. This stacks with any other damage-increasing stunts or powers.

Note, by the way, that since the base weapon has a weapon rating of 3, this works out to being identical to:

Blessing of Heimdallr [-1].  On a successful hit with the Sword of Heimdallr, once per scene, spend a fate point to make the Sword cound as having a weapon rating of 6.

To be honest, I think that either of these is somewhat on the weak side, since they grant in effect 1 shift of benefit once per scene, and only when a fate point is spent (since a fate point is generally worth 2 shifts on its own).  I think I'd be tempted to boost it along these lines:

Blessing of Heimdallr [-1].  Any time you invoke the aspect linked to the Sword of Heimdallr to aid an attack using the Sword, you get +3 to the roll instead of the normal +2.  If you choose to invoke for a reroll, you may "lock down" one of the dice, rolling only the other three OR you may reroll all the dice and add +1 to the result.

This last one is a bit like a inverted version of the 'Unshakeable' stunt.

I hope some of this is useful to you!

[Sanctaphrax]

Three things:

1. The sword's base weapon rating is 5, by my reading. I guess you could let the +2 stress power stack with the "becomes weapon 6" power, though.

2. Killer Blow is really weak, possibly as a way to balance out its stackability. Balancing against it seems slightly unwise to me.

3. Would limit the final version of Blessing Of Heimdallr to one use per action. Otherwise I like it. The part about locking down a die that rolled +1 is clever, I will steal that idea.

[scarius]

Form reading through what you have all said I think that I might change it to mean that you don't need to spend the fate point but it can only be done four times in a scene

[ARedthorn]

As a note- Heimdall(r) is a guardian, traditionally... I mean- there's no reason you have to stick to that if you don't want to... but I think it'd be nice to see some alertness (watchful eye) and endurance (last stand) type benefits from this, not just raw damage. The biggest reason Heimdall was total BA was because he saw everything, and could take it on the chin from ANYONE and throw back.