I was reading the magic item for The Blades of Cara Fahd and it posed some questions that I am hoping people can answer or at least give their opinion on it.
The version of the item I am referring to is from the Adventure Compendium and I was planning on doing a straight port of it over to 4th edition rules (is there a 4th edition re-write of it?)
Most of the thread ranks offer bonuses to an ability attached to their group pattern. In the main description of the item, it says
Now, does this mean that, if a character has already maxed out the 5 ranks in one of the threads woven to the group pattern, any bonus they would receive from weaving a thread to the dagger cannot be applied to the maxed out group pattern thread rank? To put it another way, if the blade grants +1 to the ability and the character already has a thread at 5 ranks, the rank 5 thread cannot be bumped up to rank 6 from this bonus.The increase to a wielder’s abilities—via threads woven to his dagger—can never exceed the thread rank woven to that ability from the group’s True pattern or pattern item.
My other question is concerning thread rank 8. This thread lets the group perform a blood ritual that rips the target's spirit from their body and traps it into one of the daggers. The next text seems to be missing information:
It doesn't explain what the various magical effects are. Am I missing something?...the spirit can draw magical energy from the active threads attached to the dagger, using that energy to cause various magical effects. To use this special power, each member of the group must make a successful Willpower Test against the target’s Spell Defense. If any test does not succeed, the power does not work. The step number for the trapped spirit’s power is the highest rank among all the threads woven to the Blades.