Planning to run the new Phandelver and Below the Shattered Obelisk and looking ahead at Ruxithid the Chosen (Chapter 5), his melee attacks are with a Psi-Charged Scimitar. If my player's kill Ruxithid, does his weapon drop and if it does, should the scimitar retain it's psi-charged status? It isn't explicitly called out in the enemy stat block as equipment he is carrying a "magical" item, like a Spider Staff or something. I know DMs have some flexibility in how they want to run their campaign, but as a brand new DM, I'm curious what other DMs would do when a potential 2d6 + 2d6 melee weapon drops for a level 7 (if they defeat Ruxithid) character.
Weapon Stat Block:
Psi-Charged Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) psychic damage.
In general I’d assume the boss is making the scimitar psi changed and unless the module specifies the loot the the scimitar would become mundane after the boss dies. That being said, you’re the DM so if you say the scimitar is magic then it is. I would give consideration to whether or not the weapon is going to add too much power at that point in the campaign?
Thanks for the response! After looking at some other weapons, this would be crazy strong at level 7 and I agree, the weapon is most likely empowered by him and not innately magical/psi-charged.
One thing I have done if you’re interested in awarding the party is making the weapon damaged or required attunement for an extended time?
my example was the lighbringer hammer, an extra 1d6 radiant damage per hit, too strong at level 3, so it could only be activated a number of times equal to proficiency. At the time this meant 2 a day, once the weapon had been powered up (the party were higher level) I removed the limitation and said the weapon was useable as intended from now on.
Oooo that's a really good idea, thanks again for the comments. Really excited to start off my first campaign and this helps remind me of the huge amount of creativity and flexibility we have on this side of the DM screen :D.
No problem, i hope the campaign goes well and everyone is having fun.
currently running Curse of Strahd, but I’ve used my power as DM to make changes, I know some of the content wouldn’t work with my group and what they like. I also know what I would enjoy running so I’m using the module as a framework to guide the experience but making it my own. Remember, you are also a player so your fun is important, if making changes is something you think is cool you should definitely do it. Combat in some DnD campaigns can be wildly off as far as difficulty is concerned, in both directions so as DM you’re almost expected to make changes on the fly
I was looking at this same question. It looks like it's basically a Mind Blade (but with 2d6 base damage instead of 1d6), so even though it's a magical weapon, it only works for Mind Flayers or their thralls.
As several people have already suggested, prewritten stuff is great, but make it your own!
LMoP was my first campaign - or maybe is my first campaign, given that we finished the LMoP portion of the story but are still playing the same campaign. I looked at continuing with the Shattered Obelisk story, as it came out only a month or two after the campaign reached the end of the written portion, but I don't think the body horror vibes fit my table. That said, there are a bunch of things that I did want to use here, and Ruxithid was one of them. I renamed him to "Ruxlee" and changed the source of his powers to match the nemeses in my story, and now they're a tribe living in the (not as) Sealed (as previously believed) Chasm under Neverwinter. Their powers come in part from proximity to the old plaguelands and the Symphony of Madness. They call their tribe the Mind Goblins.
Just updating where I went with this. So, my player's haven't ventured into Ruxithid's lair quite yet, however during the first 4 chapters of Phandelver/Shattered, they decided they wanted to head into Neverwinter for some shopping. During that shopping excursion, they ended up doing the Masterpiece Imbroglio adventure from Keys from the Golden Vault and the Nest of the Eldritch Eye adventure (to potentially introduce the Eve of Ruin campaign when we finish Phandelver. The advice to "make it my own" was super helpful, and I created a Talos-inspired weapon for my cleric replacing the Lightbringer from Wave Echo Cave.
Good luck on your adventures all <3
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Planning to run the new Phandelver and Below the Shattered Obelisk and looking ahead at Ruxithid the Chosen (Chapter 5), his melee attacks are with a Psi-Charged Scimitar. If my player's kill Ruxithid, does his weapon drop and if it does, should the scimitar retain it's psi-charged status? It isn't explicitly called out in the enemy stat block as equipment he is carrying a "magical" item, like a Spider Staff or something. I know DMs have some flexibility in how they want to run their campaign, but as a brand new DM, I'm curious what other DMs would do when a potential 2d6 + 2d6 melee weapon drops for a level 7 (if they defeat Ruxithid) character.
Weapon Stat Block:
Psi-Charged Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) psychic damage.
In general I’d assume the boss is making the scimitar psi changed and unless the module specifies the loot the the scimitar would become mundane after the boss dies. That being said, you’re the DM so if you say the scimitar is magic then it is. I would give consideration to whether or not the weapon is going to add too much power at that point in the campaign?
Thanks for the response! After looking at some other weapons, this would be crazy strong at level 7 and I agree, the weapon is most likely empowered by him and not innately magical/psi-charged.
One thing I have done if you’re interested in awarding the party is making the weapon damaged or required attunement for an extended time?
my example was the lighbringer hammer, an extra 1d6 radiant damage per hit, too strong at level 3, so it could only be activated a number of times equal to proficiency. At the time this meant 2 a day, once the weapon had been powered up (the party were higher level) I removed the limitation and said the weapon was useable as intended from now on.
Oooo that's a really good idea, thanks again for the comments. Really excited to start off my first campaign and this helps remind me of the huge amount of creativity and flexibility we have on this side of the DM screen :D.
No problem, i hope the campaign goes well and everyone is having fun.
currently running Curse of Strahd, but I’ve used my power as DM to make changes, I know some of the content wouldn’t work with my group and what they like. I also know what I would enjoy running so I’m using the module as a framework to guide the experience but making it my own. Remember, you are also a player so your fun is important, if making changes is something you think is cool you should definitely do it. Combat in some DnD campaigns can be wildly off as far as difficulty is concerned, in both directions so as DM you’re almost expected to make changes on the fly
I was looking at this same question. It looks like it's basically a Mind Blade (but with 2d6 base damage instead of 1d6), so even though it's a magical weapon, it only works for Mind Flayers or their thralls.
As several people have already suggested, prewritten stuff is great, but make it your own!
LMoP was my first campaign - or maybe is my first campaign, given that we finished the LMoP portion of the story but are still playing the same campaign. I looked at continuing with the Shattered Obelisk story, as it came out only a month or two after the campaign reached the end of the written portion, but I don't think the body horror vibes fit my table. That said, there are a bunch of things that I did want to use here, and Ruxithid was one of them. I renamed him to "Ruxlee" and changed the source of his powers to match the nemeses in my story, and now they're a tribe living in the (not as) Sealed (as previously believed) Chasm under Neverwinter. Their powers come in part from proximity to the old plaguelands and the Symphony of Madness. They call their tribe the Mind Goblins.
Just updating where I went with this. So, my player's haven't ventured into Ruxithid's lair quite yet, however during the first 4 chapters of Phandelver/Shattered, they decided they wanted to head into Neverwinter for some shopping. During that shopping excursion, they ended up doing the Masterpiece Imbroglio adventure from Keys from the Golden Vault and the Nest of the Eldritch Eye adventure (to potentially introduce the Eve of Ruin campaign when we finish Phandelver. The advice to "make it my own" was super helpful, and I created a Talos-inspired weapon for my cleric replacing the Lightbringer from Wave Echo Cave.
Good luck on your adventures all <3