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Weapon (any), rarity varies (requires attunement)
An ancestral weapon has been passed down from hand to hand for many generations. Likely it has seen some action, (though some are purely ornamental) and many members of a particular family or clan will have held it when charging into battle, usually waving it above their heads. Ancestral weapons vary greatly, no two are ever truly alike. This is because each has been imprinted with the lives, loves and losses of tens if not hundreds of different people. Those who wield an ancestral weapon may not be members of the family it represents in body, but they slowly become so in spirit. When the time comes, they feel an intense urge to pass the weapon on to another wielder.
The more generations the weapon has been passed through the more powerful it is (and the rarer it is). Each ancestral weapon has all the features associated with its current age and all of the features of the ages it used to be.
1 Generation (Common). The ancestral weapon is magical.
10 Generations (Uncommon). The ancestral weapon grants the benefits of a feat chosen by the player and DM as long as it is you have it on your person. The feat should be associated with the family who owns the weapon.
20 Generations (Rare). The ancestral weapon has 2 charges. While holding it you can use an action to spend 1 or both of its charges to cast a spell from it requiring no components, the save DC for such spells is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier and the spell attack bonus is equal to your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier. The weapon regains 1 expended charge daily at dawn. The three spells you can cast from the weapon are chosen or determined randomly by the DM from the following table (re-rolling duplicate results):
- Searing smite (1 charge)
- Shield of faith (1 charge)
- Comprehend languages (1 charge)
- Heroism (1 charge)
- Bane (1 charge)
- Inflict wounds (1 charge)
- Hideous laughter (1 charge)
- Unseen servant (1 charge)
- Burning hands (1 charge)
- Charm Person (1 charge)
- Cloud of daggers (2 charges)
- Enhance ability (2 charges)
- Calm emotions (2 charges)
- Hold person (2 charges)
- Crown of madness (2 charges)
- Darkvision (2 charges)
- Phantasmal force (2 charges)
- Heat metal (2 charges)
- Suggestion (2 charges)
- Branding smite (2 charges)
50 Generations (Legendary). You have +1 to attack rolls made with the ancestral weapon. It now has 3 charges and you can cast an additional spell from it decided by the DM.
In addition, the ancestral weapon gains one of the following features from this table.
- You may spend 2 charges from the ancestral weapon as a bonus action to give yourself a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it until the next dawn.
- You may spend 1 charge without spending any actions to reroll one or more of the ancestral weapon's damage die, you must use the new result.
- You may spend 1 charge as an action to empower the next 1d6 attacks. If you do, the attacks you make with this weapon score a critical hit on a roll of 19-20. If you already have an effect like this, you can roll an additional damage dice instead.
- You may spend 3 charges from the ancestral weapon to cast the shapechange spell from it, becoming a creature appropriate to the weapon's history. (For example, if the weapon once slew a balor, it might allow the user to take on the form of that balor, or one of the angels that assisted the hero in the great deed). Once this property is used the ancestral weapon loses this property, becoming a nonmagical weapon of its type for the next 7 days, even after the magical effects are restored, this effect can only used once.
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