Vaults of Ao Qin
Tyrant's Glaive
By: OutrageousPages
The Tyrant's Glaive
Legendary Weapon, Cursed, Requires Attunement
This Glaive is a +3 Weapon, providing a +3 to Attack and Damage Rolls. It deals 1d10+3 Slashing damage plus an additional 1d10 Lightning Damage on a successful hit.
It
has the following traits; Two Handed, Heavy, Reach.
Underhanded Maneuvers
While wielding this Artifact, you add its magical bonus to any Disarm (DMG 271) or Shove contests that you initiate.
Pressing the Advantage
The blade can sense when an advantage can be exploited even further, its blade sinking deeper into its target.
When you have Advantage on an attack roll, the Traitor's Glaives damage dice both increase by one step (D10 - D12).
Crushing Betrayal
When you attack a Surprised creature, you may instead make a single special melee attack. If this attack hits, roll damage. The enemy must then make a Constitution Saving Throw. On a failure, they are Stunned until the end of their next turn. The DC of this Saving Throw is 10 or 1/2 of the damage dealt, whichever is highest.
Cursed
The Tyrant's Glaive holds the Curse of the Traitor Tyrant, and as such looks for opportunities to corrupt it's wielder or enforce opportunities to slake its own bloodthirst.
Curse of the Traitor Tyrant
This weapon originally to a warlord of prestigious power and brutality. It has brought many nations to their knees, and has sown terror across countless peoples. The Tyrant's Glaive seeks to corrupt and manipulate it's wielders into betraying those around them for power, conquest, or security.
When the attuned wielder rolls a Natural 1 in an attack roll, the Glaive forces the wielder to change the attacks target to an allied creature within reach, and reroll the attack against them. If no allied creature is within reach, nothing happens.
In addition, if the weapon is discarded without the curse being removed, it reappears within 10 ft of its attuned wielder after they complete a Long Rest.
Slaking the Curse
If the Curse of the Traitor Tyrant results in an allied creatures death, the Curse is satisfied, and does not activate its effect on the wielder again until six weeks have passed.
For games with shorter timeframes, consider reducing the Curse's inactive timeframe to six days.
Destroying the Glaive
To discern the knowledge of how to destroy the Tyrant's Glaive, a creature must make a DC 25 dice check in a following skill; Arcana, History, or Religion.
The Glaive must be immersed in a pool of blood willingly drawn by allied creatures. This pool of blood takes up a 5x10 space, or approximately 300 HP of blood.
Over the course of a minute, the Glaive absorbs this blood which was given in good faith and trust, and becomes brittle as a result. A DC 15 Smith's Tools check or a DC 20 Strength check shatters the now brittle blade, and its magic fades.
If the blade is not destroyed within an an hour, the ritual and attempted destruction must be attempted again. If there is a catastrophic failure, The Traitor Tyrant may be summoned.
Obtaining The Tyrant's Glaive
Below is a scenario you can use to introduce the Tyrant's Glaive to your party. Its Encounter CR varies.
Encounter: The Traitor Tyrant
The original master, Baojun Luse, died long ago, but has since been turned into a powerful fiend who commands a band of Abyssal demons. He has recently been sent above ground, perhaps to sow chaos or seek power. The Tyrant's Glaive uses altered mechanics when wielded by him.
Baojun Luse is a CR 11 Glabrezu (MM Pg. 58) with 225 HP and 19 AC. He replaces his Fist attacks with The Tyrant's Glaive when determining the Glabrezu's Multiattack.
The Tyrant's Glaive. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. Hit: 20 (2D10+8) slashing damage and 12 (2d10) lightning damage.
If this Glaive reduces an allied creature to 0 HP, Baojun gains Advantage on all attacks with it until the end of his next turn. The Traitor's Glaive deals d12's rather than D10's when attacking with Advantage.
Baojun also gains access to the following Lair Action while he is travelling with his warband.
Sacrifice. Baojun beckons a creature under his command to approach. They must immediately move up to their Movement Speed. If they end their turn within 10 ft., Baojun then makes an attack against them with the Traitor's Glaive, and regains 12 (2d10) HP.
By default, Baojun has 8 Manes (CR 1/8), 6 Imps (CR 1) and 4 Balezau (CR 3) in his roving warband.
Encounter CR Alterations
As written, Baojun Luse and his warband provides a Deadly Encounter for four average Level 10 Player Characters.
Add another 4-8 CR of various demonic fiends to the Warband to make it a Lethal Encounter.
For more experienced or powerful parties, consider having Baojun make good use of his Fly spell and his imps, keeping himself in the air while relying on his Artifacts Reach to stay out of attack of opportunities.
In addition, using the Variant: Demon Summoning feature can provide a decent boost to this encounters difficulty.
Outrageous Pages
I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for 14 years, and have been granted the coveted and feared title of Forever DM by my players.
The Gransys Chimera was heavily inspired by the video game Dragon's Dogma, and its incredibly cool creatures and RPG mechanics.
If you have any interest in seeing more of my D&D homebrew, feel free to check me out on Reddit at u/OutrageousPages or my GMBinder profile at OutrageousPages!
Cover Art: Skiorh
Version 1
Tyrants Glaive
Tyrants Curse
Traitor Tyrant Encounter
More Credits
Tyrants Glaive model and textures created by myself, OutrageousPages, in Autodesk Maya and Adobe Substance Painter
I could not find the artist of the Glabrezu that I used. If anyone knows who made it, please let me know so I can drop the credits here!