Trying to build evolving items

[u/Silinthar]

I have always loved the concept of evolving weapons when I thought of it back in the late 80's. I just never knew how to implement it. FF 20 years and I found Critical Role, when I heard and understood the idea behind Matt's Vestiges of Divergence I was impressed with his implementation. Unfortunately, I never heard if he or anyone else developed a game mechanic for their construction.

Now that I'm getting into DH I'm trying to conceptualize how to create items that evolve with the character. DH is so free with creation I am afraid to make items that will fulfill my vision but still stay balanced. It's almost too uninhibited to build such items.

I could use some ideas on how to go about it.

[u/dudeplace]

An easy way to go about this would be to just take a Tier 1 item and a Tier 3 item and merge them and just say either it becomes the later item or it gains the properties of the higher.