Hey I'm looking to design a weapon for gruumsh's chosen. I was thinking about a spear that can turn into a pike. And maybe some thunder or lighting damage. But beyond that I'm pretty stumped.
It is a godly artifact. So it should probably be up there in power levels.
Posted Mar 19, 2018, 9:40 PM UTC
Things associated with Gruumsh:
Since Dragonslayers, Flametongues, etc. exist in 5E, I'd suggest enchantments like:
+5 to hit and damage (of course)
Even Artifacts seem to cap at +3 in 5E. Both the Sword of Kas and the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords get +3 to hit and damage.
I defer to you on that. After more than 20 years and something like 8 different rulesets, I do often lapse into "old" thinking.
Thanks! That helps a lot
(effect on half-orcs at your discretion, but I'd say treat as non-orcs given Gruumsh's and mainstream orcish society's racism in general)
The MM says they don't really care that much about that unless you are an Elf.
I'm not seeing that in the MM, though there is that "new" (to a guy who played AD&D, anyway) bit about Mother Luthic and a "go forth and multiply; we're not picky about with whom or what, really" kind of attitude. Orcs used to be pickier about their half-breed offspring. You had to work harder to prove yourself. But, as I said to the OP, that's up to them.
They're trying to make Orcs less needlessly edgily Grimdark. Luthic used to be the godess of keeping Orc women pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen. Wizards wisely decided that needed to change.
Half Orcs used to all be the product of sexual assault. Now Orcs don't even sex for pleasure, they only do it to reproduce, and Half Orcs are accepted since they're just as strong but notably smarter.
+3 weapon, and it's gotta be big. It's the weapon of an orcish god, so borrow a bit of the SUPER orc-y visual stuff from something like Warhammer. A spear, obviously, but maybe not just a regular sticky-stick. A halberd or poleaxe, something like that. Gotta be jagged, and adorned probably with elf skulls and elf ears. Add some bonus damage vs elves. Add some constant bonus damage, probably some number of d6 as fire. Crits on 19s and 20s, representing orcish fury. Crits deal a wound that makes them take a bit of damage each turn after, representing his infamous wounding for Corellon. Aaaand.... grants an extra attack on a kill/KO, and can't be touched by anyone with elvish heritage. True endgame weapon.
A necklace made of one pickled eye from two dozen elven heroes. Wearing it charges your melee attacks with lightning damage.
Check out the weapons of legacy book from 3.5 they have a really cool orc Spear in there for inspiration
in addition the Complete warrior has a class called the Eye of Gruumsh that gets some cool powers that could be adapted
A giant needle because it has only one eye.
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I like the spear. That is Gruumsh's chosen weapon.
Supposedly he was trying to paralyze Corellon with the spear when he lost his eye. So I would make anyone damaged have to save vs. paralysis.
Past that, I would steal abilities from Orcs. Look at the MM. Aggressive. Gruumsh's Fury. Maybe Thaumaturgy from the Orc Eye of Gruumsh cantrips list.