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Ancestral Weapons

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Ancestral Weapons contains rules for scaling heirloom weapons and quick-building magic weapons.

A noble blade wielded in the blood wars, an axe used to protect the great city of Mirabar from orc invasions, or a powerful staff passed down by great sorcerers through the aeons. Ancestral Weapons are iconic within roleplaying. These weapons embody a character’s family, story, and history.

Ancestral Weapons are powerful heirlooms gifted through the generations that scale up in power as your adventurers perform heroic deeds. As these weapons grow, they unlock new and more powerful upgrades such as inflicting damage caused by the elemental energy trapped inside, causing a foe to flee in fear when struck, or allowing you to deflect even the fiercest of blows. 

Due to the Spirit Point mechanic used within this system, you can also quickly develop new and thematic magic items to hand out to your players. Players can also use this system to let their heroes forge balanced and fun magic items with the included crafting rules.

Inside the pages of this supplement you will find:

  • Rules for using scaling Ancestral Weapons in D&D 5e

  • Over 130 weapon upgrades, to make your weapon as unique as your character

  • Rules to quick-build magic items for your campaign

  • The Spirit Point Crafting System allowing players to forge unique and thematically appropriate weapons

  • Tables to randomly generate thematic ancestral traits and epic weapon history

  • 4 example Ancestral Weapons, developed by our playtesters, each with 4 iterations used in their campaigns

  • 4 example non-ancestral weapons, built using the spirit point system

The product is supplemented by fantastic artwork, with an evocative cover by Fernando Gregory Milan, and heroic chapter art by Kostic Dusan.

Ancestral Weapons carry the weight of expectation, physical reminders of generations of epic feats. Can your hero carry the weapon in its next grand chapter?

Ancestral Weapons Cover  Ancestal Weapons Contents  Ancestral Weapons Chapter 1  

Ancestal Weapons Page 10 upgrades  Ancestal Weapons Chapter 3  Ancestral Weapons Chapter 5  

Follow Dungeon Rollers on Twitter: @DungeonRollers

Other products available from Dungeon Rollers:

Treasures of the Underdark - 40 Magic Items from this malicious and cruel realm

Treasures of the Mad Mage - 50 Magic Items inspired by the denizens of the Undermountain, and Halaster Blackcloak himself

Quest Spells - Rules for epic, divinely granted magic. Rules and spells updated from the 2nd Edition Tome of Magic

The Perilous Pact - A one-shot adventure set in Waterdeep. Follow a trail of deceit, heartbreak, and devils.

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Reviews (38)
Discussions (63)
Customer avatar
Casey B November 04, 2024 11:45 pm UTC
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Are there any plans to update this for the new dnd rules?
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Patrick B November 05, 2024 1:44 am UTC
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Dont’t think of it. The writer haven’t replied to any questions and suggestions made on this thread. Lots of typo and mistakes. Need more balance and stuff.
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Patrick B November 05, 2024 1:44 am UTC
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Dont’t think of it. The writer haven’t replied to any questions and suggestions made on this thread. Lots of typo and mistakes. Need more balance and stuff.
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Derek B September 10, 2024 10:38 am UTC
Looking over the preview for this and Nautical Upgrades, I didn't see any mention of curses. I could see some ancestral weapons having minor or major ones, similar to what we see for legendary items and artifacts. Could be to fulfill an ancestor's hope, cursed to fight a particular enemy (ie. undead like the Vampire Killer), the curse we see on the Sword of Vengeance from the DMG, etc. Maybe it could be something for another pdf, but would you say that a curse would add points? Say 1-5 additional points based on how powerful the curse is, and whether or not the curse can even be removed. Just something I had wondered if it was considered and what kind of point add-on they'd be.
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Jason D May 26, 2024 12:28 am UTC
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I love this and I'm currently using it in my campaign. Does anybody have any step-by-step guidance on how to implement this with D&D Beyond? I assume I'll have to make a homebrew item with the specific traits that are unlocked. Which is fine, but any help on how to actually do that would be appreciated.
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Richard W April 19, 2024 1:32 pm UTC
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Why do spells granted by the weapons have such low attack modifiers and save DC's? Would it be too unbalanced for them to use the wielder's proficiency and abilities? +4 to hit at tier 2 is incredibly low.
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Ashley B January 28, 2024 6:15 am UTC
PURCHASER
I would love to see a version or alternative to this that was ancestral armours or ancestral vestments, something other than just weapons, there are so many more item types other than weapons that are totally ignored.

If this already exists please please please steer me in the right direction
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Nethar 6 April 17, 2024 8:22 am UTC
the book is called "ancestral Weapons" but the rules in it can be used to craft any magic item you want. Making armor, bracers, cloaks, or other with it is just as making magic weapons
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Patrick B April 17, 2024 8:08 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Yes and no ! The perks are mainly for weapons. My players used it on their primary weapons. But one managed to 'create' a 'trinket weapon' with perks on it. This Ancesrty thing could have been effectively pushed forward to create other things than weapons. But unfortunately it haven't been playtested enough to get rid of the label/typo problem. And the sorting is aweful ! ... But... It's a good start to homebrew your own stuff.
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Ryan K August 22, 2023 3:58 am UTC
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Love this book, use it in nearly all of my 5e games. Is there any chance you plan on doing something similar for Pathfinder 2e?
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Michael H July 28, 2023 8:48 pm UTC
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Fantastic product!
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Radosław T July 09, 2023 9:17 am UTC
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On Page 22. there are two typos. When you throw dice for the weapon's material (both wood and metal used), the guide tells you to throw d10, but there are only 8. options. I suppose it should be d8, so correcting this in the next version would be good.
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Connor T June 04, 2023 6:23 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello, i was wondering on the fire and cie greataxe what did the elemental attunement (fire) mean? is it meant to be an upgrade or something else? also the overpowered (ice) bit on the same weapon also.
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Liam M November 10, 2022 7:18 am UTC
PURCHASER
I really like this resource and the concept behind it. My only slight gripe is that I think the ‘ancestral’ requirement is too restrictive. Why should the knight paladin get access to an ancestral weapon but the urchin rogue not?

They way I have gotten around this is to allow characters to use this system to build their own legendary weapons. After using a weapon to defeat a land the killing blow on a boss monster/npc they may then name the weapon, and begin collecting spirit points to upgrade it.

This way the weapon grows with them as a character and reaches legendary status/and power around the time the characters start to become famous in the campaign setting themselves.

I also encourage them to come up with their own upgrades and features based on their battles which we then balance and assign spirit point values to. For example, a character who used their weapon to slay a phase spider queen wanted to the sword’s blade to be slightly out of phase with this reality....See more
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Marcus D November 05, 2022 10:42 am UTC
PURCHASER
any chance someone could tell me what the difference is between Indomitable (Level 1) and Indomitable (Level 2) other than cost? They appear to be the same ability with a 2 Spirit Point cost disparity..
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Andrei P November 18, 2022 7:19 pm UTC
Making an attack and taking the Attack action are slightly different. Taking the Attack action can potentially mean multiple attacks, depending on the level of the character. The barbarian or fighter for example start taking two attacks as part of the Attack action at lvl 5.
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Harry L October 28, 2022 8:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello. Love the PDF definitely my favourite magic weapon making tool. I would love to know if you're planing on doing a PDF for Magic Armour or other Misc. magical items?
Customer avatar
William S September 22, 2022 11:52 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I bought this PDF and it's full of great and creative ways to have a weapon progress with the character, which I personally love! However it's quite hard for me to explain stuff to my DM or my players whenever questions are asked about it, are you allowed to share this PDF with your party through google docs upon purchase? I'd love to be sure as I don't want to hurt sales of the product as I really love it! If it was a physical product it was of course no problem to just lend your book out, but as a PDF it's a little different. Only making sure!
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Christopher P September 10, 2022 10:50 pm UTC
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So I bought this book and it charged my bank account twice saying San Jose drive through and I never got the book wrf I'm rather upset like if your gonna steal extra at least give me what I bought
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Patrick B September 10, 2022 11:21 pm UTC
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I think it’s a dmsguild’s buying system problem. The author has nothing to do with this. Contac dmsguild and explain your issue. They will surely refound you.
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Patrick B September 10, 2022 11:22 pm UTC
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I think it’s a dmsguild’s buying system problem. The author has nothing to do with this. Contac dmsguild and explain your issue. They will surely refound you.
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Philipp L July 22, 2022 10:37 am UTC
Hi, are there any chances, I can get this in german and since I'm new on this page: If I purchase smth, will I only get a PDF or will I receive a printed version?
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Philip N July 20, 2022 8:05 am UTC
PURCHASER
I really enjoy the concept of customizable ancestral weapons that grow and scale with the players, which adds mechanics to the flavor that I've had players want to implement in the past. I'm writing a long-term 5e campaign right now and planning to allow my new group access to this material, and I think it'll be a lot of fun.

One small issue/typo I found while reading through the upgrades and examples in Chapter 2 was the twin-headed greataxe example "Fire & Ice", which states it has "Elemental Attunement (Fire), Overpowered (Ice), and Spell Storing (Level 1 - Absorb Elements)".
However, the first two of these upgrades don't exist in the list of upgrades available. I'm not sure if they were replaced with new names and the description on the greataxe is wrong, or if the upgrades are simply missing from the chapter. Would love to see this fixed!
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File Last Updated:
March 24, 2019
This title was added to our catalog on March 01, 2019.