Weapon (any sword), legendary (requires attunement by a Paladin)
You gain a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. When you hit a fiend or an undead with it, that creature takes an extra 2d10 radiant damage.
While you hold the drawn sword, it creates an aura in a 10-foot radius around you. You and all creatures friendly to you in the aura have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. If you have 17 or more levels in the paladin class, the radius of the aura increases to 30 feet.
Applicable Weapons:
Name | Type | Damage | Properties |
---|---|---|---|
Greatsword | Martial Melee | 2d6 slashing | Heavy, two-handed |
Longsword | Martial Melee | 1d8 slashing | Versatile (1d10) |
Rapier | Martial Melee | 1d8 piercing | Finesse |
Scimitar | Martial Melee | 1d6 slashing | Finesse, light |
Shortsword | Martial Melee | 1d6 piercing | Finesse, light |
Notes: Bonus: Magic, Damage: Radiant, Advantage: Saving Throws, Paladin, Damage, Combat, Warding, Versatile
Like CRs2
What a fantastic question!
It depends on the table and the game, I think. Personally, it would be awesome to give someone a sword that can potentially "become" a holy avenger if the paladin using it does lots of cool stuff for their deity. Start out at +1 and not give the aura, then after a couple of levels or a particularly amazing fight it could "grow" to +2 and gets the aura, then at some other point it goes up to +3. The rest (17 levels in paladin) is built in.
I have a pretty high-level campaign going right now and one of my players picked up a holy avenger as a gift for taking a big quest. It started as a +3 weapon, but didn't have the aura until after they got into the fight with the big bad. PC Paladin gave a particularly inspiring speech, so I said, "Why the heck NOT?!" and boosted it. It was epically appropriate and probably made things too easy. But damn, it was cool. :)
My players can buy it from a shop pretty early on, but that isn't a big balance issue because it is somewhat underwhelming compared to almost every other weapon in the campaign. It also costs just as much as an immoveable rod, and knowing my players, they will probably buy that first. I feel like having the holy avenger in a shop really sets the tone for what they will obtain in the future
This version of the Holy Avenger is much weaker then previous editions. I do not like that they have removed the Dispel Magic ability in the hands of a Paladin from this version. Also the extra radiant damage.should be a flat +10 against.all chaotic evil creatures not just +2d10 vs undead and fiends.
Has anyone created a Holy Avenger Battleaxe for say a Dwarf Paladin? I understand in terms of swords but an Axe version which would fit Dwarf Paladins would be great!
Fetch quest
In my campaign, I just found it as a part of a randomized treasure table roll (!!). Quite the opposite of the whole deliberately-placed approach. Of course, it was in the treasure vault of a mysteriously abandoned keep in a mysteriously abandoned city, so I would say it was not an inappropriate place to find a Holy Avenger, even if it was randomly rolled.
I play a NG character and I'll be using this bit of random treasure as inspiration to become a paladin. It was even randomly rolled as a rapier, which fits perfect with my character, who is a 8th level water genasi sea bard. Given the fact that there is an Oath of the Open Sea option for paladins, the switch to be become one seems obvious. I'm just happy to have a legitimately believable way to adapt the sword to character!
When I add Holy Avenger as an item in my character profile, it is not requiring me to Attune. What gives? Is this a glitch or is there something I'm missing.
would you say as a level 8 paladin i could obtain this sword with 110 000 gp and a wish (don't ask how i obtained both of them)
I had this same idea
As a martial weapon, it's not the most powerful but it does decent damage vs undead/fiends. The secondary ability is what makes it legendary, however.
Good luck getting a spell to land on the pally and his allies.
I would be more willing to hand it out earlier if they made lesser versions that could grow... like, even without the +3 this is still incredibly good.
Just gave my Paladin a reskinned Holy Avenger at level 7, scaled back its abilities until he reaches higher levels. He’s fulfilling mission for his god and so was gifted it by one of his angels