Natural Weapons & Weapon Spirits

Table of contents

• Weapon Spirit Benefits
• Repairing & Upgrading Weapons

Some Heroes have Natural Weapons – equipment that is part of their body, and can’t be removed (unless the weapon has the Returning keyword). These weapons work like any of their ilk, including the attacks they enable, ammo usage, keywords they carry, and the empty hands required to use them.

Rarely, a Weapon may become inhabited by a Weapon Spirit, making the weapon unbreakable and imbuing it with magic.

In both cases, the Weapon can be Enchanted, per normal. But it also carries a special benefit: it regenerates its Durability, can never be broken, and can be upgraded.

The weapon regenerates Durability during every Extended Rest. The higher maximum Durability the weapon has, the more it regenerates, based on the chart below.

Finally, the weapon cannot be broken. If brought to 0 Durability, it is merely unusable until it recovers Durability from its next Extended Rest.

Weapon Spirit Benefits

In addition, a Weapon imbued with a Weapon Spirit gains further benefits:

The weapon gets a second Enchantment. This Enchantment is based solely on the nature of the imbued spirit, and cannot be changed. If the Enchantment checks its caster’s Enchantment Trait, always use 10 for that number. This second Enchantment can be same as the first Enchantment – see the Enchantments and Stacking section.

The weapon chooses who may wield it. If someone the weapon deems unworthy picks it up, that wielder takes (Weapon Rank x 2) damage at the start of its turn, for every turn that it wields the weapon, that cannot be mitigated by Defense (but can be mitigated by enchantments and Resistances).

Weapon Spirits cannot animate their weapon; they must be wielded to participate in combat, as normal weapons.

A Weapon’s Spirit may communicate with its wielder while held by them, stored in their Pack, or resting nearby. The Weapon Spirit may take a form that only its wielder can hear and see, it may deign to be seen by its wielder’s allies or other nearby creatures, or might speak to them telepathically, unseen.

Weapon Spirits are aware of their surroundings, and typically have Magic Sense. They may have other senses, too.

Heroes cannot create Weapon Spirits. Instead, they must earn the trust and service of some spiritual entity, and convince it to serve them by entering into a weapon. Once imbued into a weapon, the spirit retains its free will, but will typically be subservient to wielders it approves of.

Natural Weapons may be imbued with a Spirit, just like any other weapon.

Repairing & Upgrading Weapons

Normally, weapons cannot be repaired or reforged: attempting to do so creates subtle imperfections in a weapon, rendering it useless for all but display. Natural Weapons, or weapons with a Weapon Spirit, can heal those – and even be improved further.

Repairing or Upgrading such a weapon requires access to a Forge and sufficient Smithing skill, much like crafting a new weapon would. Natural Weapons may only be upgraded to a Rank of ((wielder’s base Discipline + Fortitude) / 3).

Natural Weapons use Monster Parts, while Spirit-infused weapons use either the weapon’s Material type, or Ancient Materials.

To repair a weapon, simply consume one Material of the weapon’s Rank or higher. This restores (Material’s Rank + 1) Durability to the weapon. So, using some Dark Ore (Rank 4 Metal) to repair a Rank 3 weapon would restore 5 Durability. You may do this multiple times, allowing you to fully restore a repairable weapon’s Durability without waiting for it to regenerate naturally.

To upgrade a weapon, you must apply 4 Materials, of the next Rank up. If you use Ancient Material to reforge a Spirit-infused weapon, it becomes an Ancient weapon. Once done, the weapon is increased to the next Rank, and is restored to full Durability.

You may also apply a Crafting Style as part of this process (overwriting the weapon’s existing Crafting Style, if it has one). Be sure to modify the amount of Materials used based on the new Crafting Style, if needed.

A weapon can only be upgraded one step at a time. To bring a weapon from Rank 3 to Rank 5, for instance, it must first be brought to Rank 4, and only then to Rank 5.

If the weapon is already Enchanted (beyond the Enchantment provided by a Weapon Spirit), the Enchantment remains at its current Rank. The Enchantment provided by a Weapon Spirit is automatically increased to the weapon’s new Rank.

To change a repairable weapon’s (non-Spirit) Enchantment, you may simply reenchant it, as if it were without an enchantment. This overwrites the previous Enchantment. However, you cannot change the Enchantment a Weapon Spirit provides.

---