Create EPIC custom weapons for your D&D players 

One fun way one of my characters received their ancestral weapon. He didn't have any noble lineage or anything like that, but he befriended a old swordmaster. As he mentored my character they formed a strong bond, and as he later died he handed that sword over to my character. We had the rule that ancestral weapons could only reach their full potential when passed down the family, and my character and the old swordmaster weren't blood related at all. Yet the swords powers activated for my character, and at first my character thought it was because they were secretly related. But after alot of investigation into the bloodlines it turned out they weren't related, and the old swordmaster had come to consider my character as a son. It was a strong moment, as the sword didn't discriminate between blood relatives and found family. It showed that the family you find is equally valid to the one you were born into.

We had a character die in game and the DM imbued some of his essence in the long sword he use to wield. Now once a day it cast spirit guardians in the form of our deceased friend. Now the sword has a story to it and its ours....:)

Puns usually aren't my cup of tea but I really saber the flavour of this video

I thought of this idea a year ago, though it wasn't nearly as developed as this. Basically, instead of having the players _find_ a +1 sword, the players should have their starting equipment (likely an heirloom) get upgraded in a moment of heroism or as a quest reward. Maybe a sword becomes a _dragon slayer_ when it's drenched in dragon's blood, or a paladin's sword becomes a _holy avenger_ when he finally defeats an evil overlord and the archbishop blesses his blade. Or the spirit of an ally could possess it, or an angel could touch it, or a fire giant could reforge it, or any other number of awesome ways. I've found that at _least_ 50% of the fun of a magic item is the story behind it, so I highly recommend a system like this.

"So Ginny, how many different swords do you have?" "Yes."

I bow to you, queen of the puns. Thanks for the reminder about this! I bought this a while ago when I was a pc, but it kinda got buried in the 100 other things I've bought from them. Would be excellent to incorporate for my druid player's staff and paladin player's greatsword.

This would be a great addition to the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian! Imagine inheriting a weapon passed down the family line doing different feats and resetting with each new wielder. This is giving me such Fables 3 vibes and I'm here for it!

Sword of Gryffindor is a perfect example of a non bloodline ancestral weapon. Also, the way it disappears and appears is a very convenient dm/author tool.

We're back! And we're back with a great topic to boot. I love weapons that are a greater part of a character's identity. There is a reason why looters are so popular, people love their loot. There is a very real sentimental value to the weapons you use in a game and if a game's mechanics reflect that, you can carry that sentimentality to your own game. Player investment is a major part of what makes a game great and having another avenue for that investment (I.E. an Ancentral Weapon) can make your game all the better.

Of all the examples you gave, the Skywalker lightsaber is the closest to fitting both thematically and mechanically. Lightsaber crystals are alive and they grow and change through their bond with the wielder and can even influence them, and some have even gained interesting abilities as a result of certain events

I could adapt some of these to be things other than weapons. Like a ring with Deathward, or a circlet with Will of Ancestors.

For those familiar with the Moonblade in the DMG, it's basically the Moonblade but waaay more versatile. It's good!

One member of my group in DnD had an ancient very powerful knife. The hook: The knife got stolen when she got banned from her thieves guild. Moreover a Big Bad Guy used it against our group while we were travelling. This was definetely a very thrilling part of the story which showed the power of the dagger - although she never got her hands on it because our group had to split up for different reasons.

Really great way to make the mechanics of the moon blade match the lore.

Yay!! I’m like a kid at Christmas when there’s a DM-focused vid from Ginny Di!!

Some well hammered-out ideas 👌

Hi Ginni, I used the book to create a ancestral set of plate mail for the pally in my game. You can use the rules in this book to make anything ancestral with just a little effort.

I have a player who inherited a broken sword, I think I'm going to be using this in my game for them once they repair it, changing over time with a weapon is such a cool idea and I think will slot nicely with the family history they will discover in the campaign

I love the Ancestral Weapons book. A friend introduced it to me and is such a great way to give people items that are both narratively significant and mechanically significant.

Ah yes, the moonblade that DMs actually know how to incorporate

I love the sound of this, I'll check it out! I made a home brewed ancestral weapon recently for my Bladesinger, but factored in some mystery from the beginning by saying that my character refuses to attune to or Identify the sword (which he took as a child when fleeing the site of his mother's murder by an unknown group) because he's still rebelling from his mother's heroic legacy and feels that if he used the sword's special abilities it would imply willingness to step into her shadow and become a hero like she was. I asked the DM to include his mother's killer as one of the minor boss fights in the game, after which my character will have to make the decision to either take on the mantle of responsibility she left behind, and wield her sword proudly to its full effect, or forever walk away from that life, and leave the sword behind as well.

Your storytelling is always immaculate, I struggle to believe that you play every character in your videos sometimes. Great work :D

best custom weapon we had in a campaign was a sentient sword named Gramklinge. or Tristan. the player literally had to pull it out of a sword in a dungeon designed to test him by the Red Lady. it was battle-hungry and played Blind Guardian whenever it was used in combat. in one of the final battles, Tristan sacrificed himself to defeat a strong entity sent by Shar. in more recent campaigns, our DM tends to give us powerful magical weapons which, upon identified, come with their stats as well as the info that there's greater power within them, which can be unlocked through great effort. this allows for interesting character choices, as well as artifacts which scale with our progress.

This reminds me a lot of Matt Mercer's vestiges of divergence which also have a mechanic for growing with the character and I don't think it would be difficult to rework those to also work as starting equipment. Although the ancestral weapons would have most of the homebrew leg work already done for you

She does make a great point

I've always liked meaningful magic weapons, but have always struggled to make them myself, since the DMG doesn't have the best means of it. So thanks the initiative on the inspiration, Ginny Pun.

Can confirm this is pretty great. Can also be used in conjunction with "The Complete Armoer's Handbook" as a viable gold sink and for non-ancestral weapons. I use both in my campaign and they're fantastic

I enjoyed custom magic weapons that level up with the characters. This was my 3.5 days, but the idea still stands. Weapons of Legacy a 3.5 book had a published system for such a system.

Omfg, I own the first sword she drew. I bought it around 15-20 years ago

The mid-part cutscenes or w/e you want to call it were really well done. I liked them

I once gave one of my better RP'ers a senile sword. He would often have to beat on the wall to wake it up so it would use its power. The sword would periodically make cryptic or rude remarks.

This is an awesome addition. I can see using it for deity/fey/devil created weapons. Think the Daedric artifact weapons of Skyrim. As you do heroic things that further their cause on earth, the champion's weapon becomes even more powerful. God of light creates sword for his champion. At first it glows blue in the presence of undead..then it gains the power to rebuke undead, does fire damage to undead, grants immunity to level drain. Or as the badge of belonging to a holy order, paladins are given this simple sword at second level, and carry it as they go become great heroes in the world, the sword and their legend growing with them

As an avid multiclasser, this is just one more way for me to obsessively overbuildbuild my character, and I am 100% here for it.

The base concept behind this book reminds me of the base concept that existed in the Weapons of Legacy book for 3.5. Love it.

I know this pdf, I used it to make a Long sword with the ability to cast the Tidal wave spell. I like the idea of magical weapons for Monks.

"Whatever, I'm hilarious!" is the energy I hope to take with me throughout life.

this sounds really great! we are playing CoS atm and my DM wanna introduce an "item breaking/repairing" system. My chqracter, Ashton is an aasimar bloodhunter (fallen, order of the ghostslayers) and his only belonging is the greatsword he trained before running away from the cult now that i really love the design we came up with it, i asked my DM if i could use this "repair" system to make my weapon magical when we get a little downtime activity like enchanting it with some divine/necrotic power or making it a moontouched greatsword (and later improving in it)

In our current campaign, my urchin barbarian's heritage was discovered, and after a few session of slowly gaining more details on his heritage, his father weapon was reviled in possession of a boss. It was so so satisfying to beat the boss, reclaim the fathers greataxe and then discover it is an ancestral weapon. Huge rp moment for my character, who now has a purposeful tie to his roots. I love dnd for these moments.

I really recommend Weapons of Legacy from 3.5 too, it has awesome rules for weapons that evolve with your character and that have powers that unlock when you complete certain tasks or uncover some lore

The dramatic interludes in this video are even more excellent than usual.

I really like the new (I think?) character introduced in this video! She just seems neat.

I wonder if Mark Hulmes used this or his own homebrew for Katie's characte Aila in High Rollers. Her Howling Gale warhammer would definitely resembles an ancestral weapon. It was gifted to her by her (adopted) clan when she went out into the world, and has grown along her in her travels with the Stormchasers.

This is perfect for my upcoming Hexblade/ Sword Bard character coming up!

As a reminted DM, I find your videos very useful.

Love that this is a thing because I've been doing it for years. The fact that my players don't fight over loot because they're building their own unique gear makes game sessions a lot more pleasant, and the player gets to build weapons and armor they become attached to and interested in, rather than just jumping from random weapon drop to drop. In my world, you have a variety of ways that this happens. A monk in my world would unlock mystical tomes that would reveal new ways to utilize their ki, enhance their physical properties, etc. My barbarian had a weapon made out of a mercurial kind of magical metal that could alter its properties, letting the player shift bonuses between accuracy and damage, as well as shift the type of melee weapon itself (shifting from a dagger, to a greatsword and everything in between)! As they go, they find new pieces of the puzzle that is their weapon's final form. So a new ingot of this mercurial metal would be of far less use to another player than it would be to the player who can add it to their weapon, enhancing its properties. Same with the mystical monk tomes...unless you really think you'd gain more out of it than you know, the monk? Then you probably won't be arguing about wanting it for yourself!

One of the few RU-vidrs who's videos I "like" within 5 seconds, regardless of what comes next. Love the puns, and nice rapier!

My dm revealed that the sword i stole from my father was actually an ancestral sword in an epic battle against my personal bbeg and somewhere exists a video of me falling out of my chair sobbing as it came to life. It was the best experience and I'm excited to see if he does something more with it

I've had this in my campaign for a couple of years now. Players like it because their weapons "level up" with them, and it feels more natural than constantly buying new ones.

Dude you made me cry with some of the character lines that was amazing

I picked this up around the same time I picked up the Adventurer's domestic on Ginny's recommendation. This is wonderfully full circle.

I've done almost exactly this before and my players loved it. A big part of setting out was to find her brother's sword, taken when her family home was attacked by Giants. In times of dire straits I had her roll a D20, and on a Nat 20 when everybody else was down it became a flame tongue. Do recomend.

I was literally thinking this morning about something like this for an aasimar I'm building. Though I was thinking more along the lines of over the campaign finding pieces of an ancestral weapon until eventually the weapon could be restored under the blessing of the character's divine ancestor. This might be an interesting idea too. Carrying a weapon from session one that is effective but grows more powerful as the character regains the connection with his/her ancestry.

There’s so many great ideas in here!! As a barb main, having a DM who’s super into doing weapons homebrewing work has been SUCH a treat, you’re right on that it makes all the difference in the world for martial classes!

I love DM's Guild and I actually picked up Ancestral Weapons to create a proper weapon for our Black-Dragonborn Paladin.

So glad this book got covered, been using this for a while and I absolutely love it

I read a similar system called "heirloom weapons" that was part of a LotR rpg based on 5e. Buy those weapons just grew with character levels.

To give your players a taste of power without committing to it, they could find an old powerful ancestral weapon that is trying to find its way back to its ancestors, granting your players temporary guardianship/power so long as the blade feels the players are helping it get home.

Just saw you on the DnD channel. Congrats on getting to the big stage, well deserved.

This is awesome! I love seeing backstory, narrative, and mechanics combined so effectively.

I absolutely adore how you deliver your puns with such confidence

I love the way that Ginny formats her videos, I'm obsessed with the examples that she gives

Wonderful all around. I purchased to support you and your advertisers.

Great video! Thanks for the preview/review!

Absolutely need this, saving it, thanks queen

This is great! I've got a Triton Bard who wields her mother's trident and turning it into a powerful ancestral weapon was something I've been wanted to do! Super helpful!

Great idea. Especially LOVED the puns

I love how you use your characters to illustrate and rise to an amazing level of instruction.

this video could not come at a better time! I've been struggling with homebrewing an ancestral weapon for my knight for ages, and this is exactly what I need!!

What a great quality video dude. Loved this whole thing

This is an awesome recommendation. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! Bought mine and can't wait to use it in my game!

Absolutely love your videos and your style, you're just so unique :D One of my favorite DnD youtubers!

I picked up Hew, a magical Axe, when we played Phandelver. I like it so much that I came up with an idea that if my current character dies, the great-great-grandson of the Dwarf that forged Hew would come looking for it and he would be my new PC

Everything about the video was so good. The content was fascinating. Your humour was on point. The music was so beautiful and the little character videos were so beautiful.

Thanks for pointing me to this resource! When we played Lost Mines as our first foray into D&D my then first time DM and I very quickly came up with basically the same idea, but we didn’t introduce a currency for upgrades. Instead we made the upgrades milestone events. I have been fiddling with our vague mechanic ever since I donned the DM hat for our second campaign, but haven’t formulated anything robust yet. I will definitely get the PDF and salvage the parts that I like.

great puns! pretty cool product idea. always find spellbooks everywhere, it'd be nice to find as many interesting weapons

"Perhaps they are pleased with me?" Gut punch to the feels. Well done.

Thanks for the video! Now I have another book to read, and some ideas to write for my campaign in progress. The inspiration never ends when I see a video of yours Ginny Di

This sounds like an awesome supplement! Great video

Thanks, I picked up the weapon guide and a few other things

Just found your channel and I find your little skits quite entertaining and your information very well thought out.

I'm doing something similar. I have a player named Farmy that has a dwarven family axe that get's special properties the more he levels up. At level 5 it became a +1, at level 8 he learned that it was originally made from the metal of an ancient Dwarven multitool and can shrink and grow to fit his needs as it did for his warrior ancestors. It started as a greataxe, and it can take the form of a battleaxe for when he needs a shield, a handaxe that returns to him when he needs a ranged attack, and a halberd when he wants reach. He's a Battlemaster and this has helped him have just that extra bit of variety in combat.

This just gave me a huge burst of inspiration!!!

Easily one of my favorite parts of DMing. Great advice all around!

Sounds fun and thematic! I loved legacy weapons in 3.5! Can't wait!

Always like these dms guild videos, your suggestions always hit home

I looooove this! Where have you been all my DnD life?!

This is absolutely my jam. I love the idea of legendary weapons. I'll definitely be picking up this book and having a few ancestral weapons as loot in my players' next dungeon

Ginny Di you're always informative and hilarious I love your content

Ginny - THANK YOU! This is perfect timing! I am currently putting together a campaign to run for several streamer friends, and a couple of the players wanted to have special/ancestral weapons! I was going to wing it - but this will make it SOOOO much easier!! Thanks again for pointing out this awesome find!!!

One of my players in my sadly short lived first campaign (we only made it thru 2 sessions before we had to stop 😭) had the soul of the man who murdered her family inside of her sword. I hadn’t really decided what all the sword could do yet, but I had plans to make it more and more powerful as she leveled up. I hope i get to use that idea again, i was super excited for it!

I've been thinking about this kind of concept for a long while now. Glad someone already did it and did it well. Thank you for the video!

I was looking for something like this for a while now. I got myself a copy with your code for our group, Thanks Ginny!

I LOVE this supplement!!

always enjoyed your videos but you're skits on this are awesome, keep up the awesome job :P

These sword puns give me such joy.

Thanks just bought the ancestral weapons book from your link. I'm excited to check it out

Providence, I was literally today working on an ancestral magical weapon for a character today. Thanks for this, it's amazing!

LOVING THE PUNS!!! Quite the nice collection, as well!

Thanks Ginny , this is realy interesting, just asked my DM and I'll be adding them to my World no doubt