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Lawgivers

Lore: These crossbows were created by a dwarven smith named Henry 'Bud' Lawmaster in collaboration with his mage friend Knolan. The idea came from an adventuring friend who wanted a missile weapon that did not require him to carry a lot of ammunition. The Lawgiver was born from this idea. The original Lawgiver was a hand crossbow. After its completion, Bud decided to build two more, a light crossbow (Lawgiver II) and a heavy crossbow (Lawgiver III). Bud considered creating a ballista as well, but this would be a very powerful weapon and he didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands, mainly the Zhentilar.

Description: Each of these three crossbows is of exquisite dwarven craftsmanship. They operate as normal crossbows in most respects.

They are carved with dwarven runes that give the bows to channel magical power from the gems and stones that can be placed in the crossbows. Each crossbow can hold the number of gems indicated by its number. (Ex:Lawgiver II holds two gems.) Each crossbow usually comes in a box designed to hold it, a scroll with info about the crossbow, (but not how to create one) and a special variant of the elven sashling used to hold the gems or stones for easy access.

Uses & Powers: The gems and stones. used as 'ammo' for the crossbows, are enchanted in the same way that magical arrows and bolts are. (example: Gem enchanted as 'Arrows of Fire' produce bolts with the same properties.) The two larger crossbows can hold multiple gems, so the type of bolt desired must be spoken to the crossbow. (example: 'Ice' gem and 'Lightning' gem in the Lawgiver II. "Ice" must be spoken to get an 'Ice' bolt.) When the bolts are created, they are automatically notched into the crossbow. This process increases the ROF of all three crossbows to when using the gems. Otherwise the crossbows operate as normal.

Gems: The gems must be worth at least 100 gp to be used for enchantment. The process for the enchantment is the same as with creating the arrows normally. A gem worth more than 100gp provides more charges than normal. A chart below details this cost-to-charge ratio.

(The exception to this table is the stones used for +1, +2, and +3 bolts. These can have only 10 charges apiece.)

Once the charges are used up, the gems and stones crumble to dust, their enchantment spent. It takes one action to replace/change gems. The gems can be created with unlimited charges. This process requires a 5000gp gem and a 'permanency' spell at the end of the enchantment. Since this is a costly process, it is rarely done. The most common enchantmented gems and stones are listed below. The crossbow would normal be found with 1d4+2 gems or stones. The color listed is the common color of each gem or stone type.

Restrictions: The crossbows will not fire bolts from any gem enchanted with the following; slaying, wounding, targeting a specific race, or magical arrows named after someone. Any such gem placed in the crossbow will automatically turn to dust. However, any magical bolt could be placed into the crossbow and fired normally.

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Original content ©1999–2001 Brian D Swedorski. New content ©2025–2026 Jeff. User-submitted material remains the property of its respective authors.