OK here it is:
VECNA'S FINGERNAILS
The lesser-known item of the ultra-powerful lich, it is used in very special occasions, only when Vecna tries to take down a huge group of awesome spellcasters who don't bother to protect themselves from physcial attacks. As if anything COULD protect against these...
Count as Darts +5
Fired in two groups of five; only two groups of five exist in the game.
After damage is dealt, darts return to hand in groups of five.
Have to be attached to Hand of Vecna: if wearer does not possess hand of Vecna, cannot be used. If wearer possesses one hand of Vecna(see very bottom), only five can be used at a time.
Equipped abilities:
each dart intetwines the nature of its wearer with the evil nature of the lich, lowering his/her reputation by a point
The extensive contact each dart has had with the magic flowing through Vecna's arms gives it the ability to "store" many forms of magic, but these forms can only be memorized after resting. As a result, each fingernail can contain up to two mage and/or cleric spells of any level below 4th. The spells can then be released instantly by activating one of the fingernails. Upon the release of spells, however, the fingernail loses all power: it cannot be used in combat for a day, and cannot store additional spells for 1d4+3 days. Also, if a mage wishes to release the full power of the fingernails by activating more than two at once, dangerous side effects may occur...
(Dangerous side effects: if three fingernails are used, 15% chance of spell reflecting back at caster. If four fingernails are used, 30% chance of reflecting back at caster and 15% chance of spells randomly changing to other spells of the same level. Five or more fingernails: 50% chance of reflecting back at caster, 20% chance of random spell change)
Speed factor:1
THACO:+5
DEX:-1
CON:-1 (due to the draining magical power of the nails)
Damage:1d10+5 instantly, then 12 additional damage over 1d5 rounds.
MR:+20%
All saving throws increased by 2
Wearable by:
Non-Good aligned Mages
All right, this is the modified version. I put a big emphasis on the drawbacks (need to have hand, less spells, dangerous side effects, no damage prevention, less #d#).
On the other hand, I gave saving throws, and MR. My reasoning: first, there are enough drawbacks to prevent all but the most powerful mages from using these, and these mages will need the MR and throws to become even more powerful. Second: this is ToB we're talking about, so all items are super-powerful (note: hand of vecna may be replaced by another artifact as appropriate to ToB).
BTW, the hand-taking-over-wielder thing is interesting. I will have to incorporate this later on.
Again, having 5 fingernails equipped will result in -5 CON, -5 DEX, -5 rep. I am not really sure about the existence of two Hands of Vecna (but hedoes have two hands, right?), so I don't know about having 10 fingernails equipped.
See what y'all think
