Legendary items are unique in that the abilities of the items improve along with those of their wielders. A legendary items is not merely a simple magic item or one which has a story attached to it. They are indeed the tools myth and legend. Excalibur, Mjölnir, Durendal, and other weapons which changed the course of history are counted among the truly legendary.
Using a Legendary Item
While there exist many stories of how an individual acquires a legendary item, ofttimes the wielder is surprised that the apparently common object they carry is the stuff of legend. A legendary item may pass through many hands, each unaware of its potential, until a truly worthy wielder is found.
A character wielding a legendary item—whether that item is a sword, ring, shield, bow, or even a magic staff—is eligible for the Legendary Scion prestige class. As long as the wielder does not adopt the prestige class, the legendary item remains a simple magic item with minor abilities, unwilling to lend the weight of its legend to an unworthy wielder. By taking levels in the legendary scion prestige class, a character can unlock and utilize the item’s more advanced powers.
Commonly, the wielder gains access to a suite of special abilities tied to the item’s purpose or magical enhancements to the character’s own skills and abilities. In every case, the legendary scion prestige class limits which of its abilities the wielder is eligible to benefit from. A wielder must be dedicated to growing the legend of the item to benefit from it.
Legendary items have specific abilities unique to each item. Thus, every scion is different, defined by the items they wield.
Losing a Legendary Item
Legendary items rarely become permanently lost, for fate has a way of bringing them back to their rightful wielders. A character with at least one level of legendary scion finds that their item quickly returns to them, often in the most unexpected of ways.
On a more practical level, the loss of a legendary item means that the character who has invested levels in the legendary scion prestige class is denied most of the class’s special abilities until the item is regained, because the abilities are specifically tied to the item. Thus the GM should try to ensure that the item and its wielder do not stay separated for long—unless, of course, the purpose of the adventure is to recover the item. In most cases, the item should turn up at the end of an encounter or should be near enough at hand that the wielder need only make a small reasonable effort to reclaim it.
Destroying a Legendary Item
Each legendary item has its own hardness and hit points. Treat the item as if it had a greater hardness and more hit points based on its maximum possible enhancement bonus, even if the wielder has not yet qualified to benefit from that high a bonus.
That said, under ordinary circumstances, legendary items do not break: Any attempt to sunder such an item automatically fails, and the item is treated as having immunity to all effects that could otherwise destroy it (such as a disintegrate spell, a dragon’s breath weapon, and so on).
If an attacker is foolish enough to attempt to sunder a legendary item, the combatants should still make the opposed attack rolls, however. If the scion wins, the attacker’s weapon suffers the damage it would have dealt.
The only exception to this rule is when legendary items clash. If an attacker uses a legendary weapon in an attempt to sunder another legendary item, the attacker may deal damage to the defender’s item if she wins the opposed attack roll. However, the defender also immediately makes his own sunder attempt against the attacker’s legendary weapon. If the defender wins this second opposed roll, he may deal damage to the attacker’s weapon—even if his own item was damaged or destroyed by the attacker.
Repairing a broken legendary item should never be easy. It should be the result of an epic quest, perhaps involving aid from other planes, arduous rituals, and perilous voyages.
Gaining Additional Legendary Items
If the wielder of a legendary item somehow gains another legendary item, she may only use the item as would a character with no levels in legendary scion, and she may not normally transfer the benefits of her scion levels to the new item. However, she may choose at each level of legendary scion which legendary item gains the benefit of that level.
The level of commitment that a legendary item demands from its wielder does not allow her to split her attention between two or more such items simultaneously without limiting the power of the legend. Thus, the owner of two legendary items must choose which commitment she wishes to focus on with each new character level, by virtue of her prestige class selection. For example, a 7th-level scion could have one item functioning at 5th level and another functioning at 2nd, but neither will ever reach the full potential that a dedicated scion would.
Known Legendary Items
Creating a Legendary Item
Legends spawn from a collection of similar stories that spread through many lands and across the ages. Although it’s not possible for someone to simply decide to create a new legend, sometimes the opportunity arises for an adventurer to take advantage of a legend as it forms and make it his own. Whether there is some dramatic event worthy of becoming a legend, many smaller events that culminate in something greater, or destiny simply ordains it to be so, a new legendary item can arise, though such events that don’t follow behind tragic events or great wars often instead cause them.
New legendary items are always magical in some regard; however, they never have more than minor magical properties. Mundane items may become culturally important, but they lack something inherent to magic that is necessary for becoming a legend. Conversely, items that already have great magic never become legendary, because stories of such things simply never grow into true legends.
A new legendary item always begins with no more than a +1 enhancement bonus or one enchantment with no more than a +1 equivalent cost. If not a weapon, armor, or shield, the total value of the item cannot be more than 2,000 gp and should not have more than one magical effect. A consumable magic item (such as a potion, wand, or scroll) cannot become a legendary item.
Costs of a Legendary Item
Unlike with crafting typical magic items, there is no inherent cost to creating or improving a legendary item. Legendary items draw their power from the legends surrounding them and the commitment of their wielders, not through gold or meaningless ritual.
Legendary Abilities
A legendary item’s abilities come in different three different tiers of power from least to greater. Stronger abilities require not only greater legends to be told but a greater level of dedication from the item’s wielder. Least legendary abilities are available to scions of any level, moderate legendary abilities are available to only 5th-level scions or higher, and greater legendary abilities are available only to scions of 9th and 10th level.
Each level of scion unlocks one new ability of a legendary item.