Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with 6 Epic Weapons Inspired by Hero Forge
Smiths and magic users across the multiverse of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons seek to create better artifacts than those of legends. Most fail — especially when compared to the epic weapons detailed below. The incredibly high detail on the customized tabletop miniatures of Hero Forge inspired me to create these six magic weapons for 5E D&D, and you can certainly change the weapon type to whatever awesome weapons of destruction best fit your game and the heroes wielding them. Epic weapons should bring powerful features to bear so I aimed to make these give characters cool and iconic abilities.
Epic Weapons can define your 5E D&D character
Hero Forge’s immense variety of options including your customized tabletop miniatures and statuettes 3D printed in full color and awesome features like these Epic Weapons give you deep control over the complexity of creating the perfect representation for your characters. In the same way the amazing magic items our 5E D&D adventurers discover often become signature parts of their identities and stories. For a different sort of game try giving each one of these epic weapons to a party of 3rd level adventurers or even simple NPC stat blocks like commoners and nobles for a wild one shot.
Blade of Giant Might
Weapon (longsword), very rare (requires attunement)
You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. Giantish runes spell out ‘might’ etched into the wide blade of this longsword that appears to be made of gray stone. While you are attuned to the sword you count as one size larger than you actually are and appear physically more imposing, and you can speak and understand Giant. In addition you have advantage on any Charisma (Intimidation) checks. While interacting with any giants you have advantage on all Charisma checks made to influence them.
While you are holding the blade of giant might all your weapon attacks deal 1d4 extra damage.
As an action you can invoke the ancient Giantish runes to increase your size by one category for 1 minute. During this time all your weapon attacks deal an extra 2d4 damage. Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until the following dawn.
Tech-blade
Weapon (longsword), very rare (requires attunement)
You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. This weapon combines magic and technology unlike anything you have seen before. It may be from far away, or the future, or both. Whenever you hit a creature with the sword you can choose to deal an extra 1d6 lightning damage.
When you attune to the sword you come to understand the technological aspect of the blade. You can store up to three potions within the blade and buttons operate an injection that administers the potions. When found the sword has 1d4-1 potion inside. The Dungeon Master can roll these randomly or choose. You can load one potion into the blade as an action and a single button can easily be used in combat as a free interaction with an object, but only one potion can be administered per round.
Axe of Primal Fury
Weapon (greataxe), very rare (requires attunement)
You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. This greataxe embodies the anger, rage and passion of combat and bloodshed. While you’re attuned to the axe you unlock the power and fury inside of you. On your turn, you can enter a rage as a bonus action. While raging you have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws, and when you make a melee weapon attack using Strength, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll. In addition you have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while raging.
Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven’t attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your rage on your turn as a bonus action.
Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until the following dawn.
If you are a barbarian this weapon is more powerful in your hands. Instead of rage taking a bonus action, you can enter a rage as part of your attack action so long as you are making a melee attack using the Axe of Primal Fury. In addition your rage damage is increased by 1.
Necro-blade
Weapon (greatsword), very rare (requires attunement)
You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. This bone handled great sword teams with necrotic power and grants you the power of undeath. While it is not fully sentient when you attune to the sword you gain the desire to kill and a penchant for the trappings of undeath. When you reduce a humanoid to 0 hit points with this sword, it rises one minute later as a zombie or skeleton under your control. Roll 1d6. On a roll of 1-3 it rises as a skeleton and on a roll of 4-6 it rises as a zombie. You can have 4 times your proficiency bonus of these type of undead under your command at any given time. If you raise another creature in this manner the oldest creature collapses, no longer animate. You can use a bonus action to command a portion of or all of the group to do a single task. These creatures function mindlessly on the task and do not have the ability to to comprehend complex instructions or avoid obstacles.
In addition to this you can choose on a creature you kill with a strike from this sword to raise as a ghast or ghoul instead of above. You can only have one such creature under your command at a time. Doing this requires no action other than part of the attack and once you use this feature you cannot use it again until the following dusk.
This sword radiates strong necromancy under the effect of a detect magic spell and slowly changes its wielder to acts of evil. While attuned to this you feel uneasy unless you have at least one undead within 10 feet of you.
Eldritch Bane
Weapon (greatsword), very rare (requires attunement)
You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. This hooked greatsword is a bane to magic users but deadly in the hand of one proficient in magic as well. When you hit a creature that has spell slots with this sword the target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or lose their lowest level spell slot as if they had cast a spell. In addition the sword has 3 charges. When a spellcaster loses a spell slot to the sword you can use your reaction, without knowing the level of the spell, to capture the magic lost to regain a spell slot of your own. The spell slot recovered must be equal to or lower than the spell slot lost by the target of the attack. The sword regains 1d3 charges daily at dawn.
Celestial Sunrise
Weapon (greatsword), very rare (requires attunement)
You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. This white metal greatsword is adorned with gold and radiates divine energy. While you are attuned to this sword with a thought you can command the sword to emit bright light out to a radius of your choosing. It can be as near as 5 feet to as far as 30 feet. It then creates dim light out to an equal radius. Undead in the light have disadvantage on attack rolls while within the light.
You can use your action and hold aloft the sword to channel its power to censure undead within the bright or dim light area of the sword. Each undead in the area must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can’t willingly move to a space within the light of the sword for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from the area of the sword’s light. If there’s nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action. Undead of Challenge 1 or lower that fail are turned to dust instead.
Once you use this feature you must cannot use it again until the following dawn.
In addition you can beseech the sword to return to life a creature who has died within the last minute. Doing so takes an action and you call upon the divine forces to intervene in the creature’s fate. That creature returns to life with 1 hit point and any conditions or effects on the creature end. This spell can’t return to life a creature that has died of old age, nor can it restore any missing body parts. A non-good creature feels compelled to carry out a good deed in return for the divine healing and remains uneasy until they feel they have balanced the scales of the sword’s intervention. Until this time the creature takes 3d10 psychic damage each time it performs an evil deed, but no more than once each day.
Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you defeat an evil creature of a higher Challenge than your level. You need not single handedly defeat the creature in combat but the sword must have struck the creature once before it is killed.
Your customized 5E D&D epic weapons
These weapons were inspired by the amazing options now available at Hero Forge. I have been a fan of them for years and own quite a large number of them. They offer a humongous number of options with races, items and even advanced positioning tools. And now they are moving in the direction of full color 3D printed customized tabletop miniatures. For only slightly skilled painters like myself the detailed color printed miniatures give me all the detail and more right out of the box. I have seen some samples and I am continually impressed far beyond my expectations. If you like miniatures you have to check out Hero Forge and all the awesome tools they have over there. We recently started a Community Spotlight on our weekly Nerdarchy the Newsletter too and maybe your story will wind up there. We want to know what you’re up to around your gaming tables. Did you find inspiration from one of our videos, website posts or products? Let us know! Comment on this post, tag us on social media or send us a message and share your stories and images. We love making all sorts of content for you and we want to hear about your adventures too. You get a special coupon for $9.99 when you sign up for the newsletter too.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, stay nerdy! Check out Hero Forge and create your own customized tabletop miniatures with epic weapons here.
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February 4, 2023 at 2:45 pm