Aetrimonde

As a special Boxing Day post, I’m going to revisit Ragnvald and Valdo, to provide them some magical items of their own!

Ragnvald

One magical item that Ragnvald will seek out early on (he could easily afford to have them made around level 2) is a pair of Gauntlets of Might, putting some extra force behind the blows of his warhammer. This is a nice, straightforward enchantment, creating a pair of gauntlets (or gloves, or what have you) that grant an item bonus to melee weapon damage rolls. It does have the slight drawback that, unlike an enchantment applied directly to a melee weapon to grant that weapon a similar bonus, it does not actually make Ragnvald’s melee attacks magical. But, it does apply to any melee weapon Ragnvald wields in these gauntlets, making him less tied to a single melee weapon.

Later in his adventures, Ragnvald obtains a Dwarven Berserk’s Axe…a magical weapon that he has conflicted feelings about. Not only is it not his preferred type of weapon (a hammer), not only does it prevent him from using his shield, but to top things off there are social connotations to dwarves wielding axes that he’s not eager to labor under. On the other hand, it’s an actual magical weapon…and one that lets him hit much harder than his warhammer, to boot.

The Dwarven Berserk’s Axe is created by applying the Combatant weapon enchantment twice to a battleaxe. Combatant allows a weapon to have a (limited-effectiveness) Martial power as an item power, and the Dwarven Berserk’s Axe gains the Furious Strike and Rapid Strikes powers. Wielding the Berserk’s Axe, Ragnvald can alternately unleash higher-damage attacks (using the favor on damage rolls of Furious Strike) or a series of many attacks that are still quite damaging (by repeatedly using Rapid Strikes and following it up with the extra attack as a minor action).

While the powers of the Dwarven Berserk’s Axe do not use Ragnvald’s full abilities (being limited to +3 <STR>), it partly makes up for that with its greater power source, which conveys a built-in +1 item bonus to its own powers’ attack rolls and a +2 item bonus to their damage rolls. These item powers won’t be quite as good as Ragnvald’s inherent powers…but when Ragnvald really wants to do damage, and doesn’t need to focus as much on protecting his allies, the Berserk’s Axe gives him some niche options.

The decision to carry, if not consistently use, a Dwarven Berserk’s Axe marks Ragnvald’s growing willingness to buck traditional dwarven society and his departure from his hard-line clan.

Valdo

Because of his frankly awful AC, Valdo will be looking for some defensive options early on. An Amulet of Deflection is one item that he would pounce on should it show up in a treasure hoard: while it doesn’t provide the same benefits as a suit of magical armor, it also doesn’t conflict with armor, allowing Valdo to use armor with enchantments that do other things than just granting bonuses to AC. And as a side note, the Deflection enchantment is also available for magical rings.

As Valdo prepares to return to Der Eisenwald and complete his eradication of the vampire coven that forced him out, he will also commission himself a suit of what he considers vampire-proof armor, by invoking and binding the spirits of some of the vampires’ victims into a suit of bear-hide armor.

The Spiritbound armor enchantment carries a Ward power with it, and Valdo (by swearing an oath to avenge the vampires’ many victims) is able to prepare a version of this enchantment carrying the Bond of Oaths power, which (aside from further improving his abysmal AC while the power is active) allows him to challenge foes who fail to hit him with their attacks.

His armor’s second enchantment is actually an enchantment for belt-slot items, but in commissioning this armor, Valdo will specify that the armor occupies the belt slot (as well as the usual body slot), enabling it to accept enchantments for the belt slot. This, in turn, allows him to apply the Belt of Wound Closure enchantment, giving him some sizeable resistance to bleed damage…such as that predictably dealt by vampires.

With this armor, Valdo is now prepared to return to his monster-hunting roots, and conclusively deal with the nest of vampires that has so vexed him. After that…who knows what further adventures might lie in store?