Shoggoth/Artifacts
If you make any comments, questions, or suggestions, please let me know on my main page - Shoggoth
Widow's Lament</b>
Artifact <b>••••</b>
Soulsteel Daiklave
Normal: Speed +1, Accuracy +3, Damage +8L, Defense +5*
Requires: Strength 4; Commitment: 10
Though it falls under the auspices of a Daiklave, Widow's Lament is actually something else entirely. Rather than being a solid blade, it is actually a twisted maze of metal and sharp points jutting in every direction, all attached to a handle. Though delicately balanced, it is unwieldly to use because it does not cut easily through the air the way a blade does. It is impossible to carry except openly in the hand - there is no way to sheath it, although it can be sent Elsewhere by charms. Despite all this, the blade has a number of advantages and special qualities.
First, it is so fearsome and intimidating that simply carrying it grants +2 dice to all intimidation attempts. Against people familiar with a person the blade has already killed, one of these dice becomes an automatic success as the blade moans and screams in the voices and shows the faces of everyone it has killed. Against someone familiar with more than one victim of the sword, both dice are automatic successes.
Secondly, due to the twisted shape and random barbs, it can actually entangle people it hits. Anyone successfully struck for health levels of damage must make a reflexive Dexterity + Athletics roll (difficulty 3) or be held by the blade. If this happens, Widow's Lament causes 10L damage each turn on it's wielder's initiative as long as he maintains his hold on the blade. This is reflexive action, but the weapon cannot be used for anything else while someone is entangled. The person held may take no action other than trying to escape, which is also a Dexterity + Athletics roll (difficulty 3). The wielder of Widow's Lament may release an entangled target at any time reflexively.
Third, Widow's Lament is ideal for disarming and grants +2 dice to attempt such versus a one-handed weapon larger than a dagger or brawling aid, and +4 dice versus any two-handed weapons. (Note that this does not change the disarming rules chosen by the storyteller. If using the realistic rules, the wielder of Widow's Lament must still have a Melee score 2 higher than his opponent to have any chance for success.)
Finally, against anyone wielding a one-handed weapon, successfully parrying an attack with Widow's Lament deals 5 damage back to the attacker (soaked as normal).
*Note that Widow's Lament and all similar blades have only ever been discovered in the hands of Abyssals and forged of Soulsteel, so these statistics include the modifier for Soulsteel.
Comments
This one seems a bit overpowered. The stats alone would make it a four-dot artifact by the formula I've reverse-engineered, and the general suggestion on artifact weapons is that the four- and five-dot ones should probably be on par with three-dot ones stat-wise, but have cool powers. The specials it has are quite powerful--intimidation with possible automatic successes, improved clinching with huge damage, improved disarming, and automatic counterattack. This is five-dot at the least, and probably needs some powering down, especially in the realm of things that work automatically. -- Mapache
I'm not sure how you see the stats as overpowered, and I don't mean to be snooty here, but I'm not at all concerned about your homebrew reverse-engineer system. Comparing it to a Reaver Daiklave, it has 1 more speed and 5 defense. I don't think that bumps it up from 2 to 4 dots by itself. It would be a high-end 3-dot without any powers, but I just gave it some minor powers and made it a 4-dot. 2 bonus dice is a level 1 power. Sure, you can turn them into automatic successes, but they require a fair amount of work and even 2 automatic successes isn't particularly overpowering in intimidation. I would say 2 autosux would be a level 2 power, so we have a "level 1.5".
I would hardly call a difficulty 3 reflexive Dex+Athletics an "improved" clinch. Since the weapon can only be used to do 10L once a turn as opposed to 8L+Str as many times per turn as you can swing it, it seems a fair tradeoff - I'm not even sure when I'd bother to do it. The +2/+4 dice to disarm is another 1.5-dot power. The damage taken parrying it with a one-handed weapon (more properly, it should be a short-sword-sized or smaller weapon) is probably a level 2 power. Damage which will be soaked down to 1 die by nearly anyone (although I will grant that it should be lowered under Powercombat because it can't be soaked down that far). And in addition to all that, if you don't have Void Sheath Technique, then you have to carry the weapon in your hand at all times.
Now, all that said, I do appreciate your opinion and I'm certainly open to changing the artifact rating if you can show it is more powerful than other existing level 4 artifacts, or where any of my assumptions are wrong in my rebuttal. I try very hard to balance things correctly as I hate overpowered fan stuff. This weapon was designed to be devestating to mortals while being passable for fighting Exalts. Since the focus of the weapon is fighting people the Exalt could slaughter anyway, while not being too useful against enemies who could actually pose a challenge, I deemed it a fair level 4. But I look forward to any other thoughts you have on the matter. -- Shoggoth
I think you should state that short-sword requirement, or whatever requirement you think is appropriate. Daiklaves are one-handed, after all.
-- Darloth
