A Five Foot Vorpal Sword vs A Ten Foot Neck
- Thread starter Diamond Cross
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Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
So ... what happens when you crit a beholder with a vorpal sword, anyway?
StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
Well, I can think of two possible ways to handle it as DM:
1) Absolutely nothing.
2) The PC slashes diagonally, then turns to face away from the enemy, sheathes his sword, and says something cool in Japanese. Then a moment later all the Beholder's eye stalks simultaneously fall off of the central eye, all with perfectly clean cuts severing them.
Theo R Cwithin
I cast "Baconstorm!"
A big, bald dead beholder on the ground and 10 really surprised eyestalks floating in mid-air?
Amphimir Míriel
Explorer
I fully endorse this option, although the one-liner need not be in Japanese, it could very well be said while doing a Schwarzenegger impression:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxn0Xfqkgw[/ame]
More examples of these post-kill one-liners here
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pawsplay
Hero
That's about 4 feet thick, about the same as the very largest dinosaurs ever. If a 20m apatosaurus has a 1m thick neck, I would guess that a creature with a 3m neck might be around 60m long, or when drawn to scale, larger than a Chessex erasable game mat (1" = 5 feet). Even a stockier creature, built more like a T. rex, would be about half the length, or three times the length of the Tarrasque.
JediSoth
Voice Over Artist & Author
I didn't read through this whole thread, so I apologize if I'm redundant.
But, you could visualize it like the beheading of the giant snake in Conan the Barbarian or the beheading of the fell beast by Eowyn in the Return of the King, if you have trouble with a blade of insufficient length cutting through a neck that thick. In both case, the first blow was definitely fatal, the second blow was just to clean up the cut (plus the fell beast reared back at just the right moment, popping the head right off).
But, you could visualize it like the beheading of the giant snake in Conan the Barbarian or the beheading of the fell beast by Eowyn in the Return of the King, if you have trouble with a blade of insufficient length cutting through a neck that thick. In both case, the first blow was definitely fatal, the second blow was just to clean up the cut (plus the fell beast reared back at just the right moment, popping the head right off).
From the d20 SRD:
Vorpal
This potent and feared ability allows the weapon to sever the heads of those it strikes. Upon a roll of natural 20 (followed by a successful roll to confirm the critical hit), the weapon severs the opponent’s head (if it has one) from its body. Some creatures, such as many aberrations and all oozes, have no heads. Others, such as golems and undead creatures other than vampires, are not affected by the loss of their heads. Most other creatures, however, die when their heads are cut off.
I'd say beholders are among the aberrations that have no heads. Or, no bodies to sever the head from. Or something.
Right up there with Denis Leary's undead headless Irishmen for ignoring vorpal weapons.
Our children are leaving and we have no heads... we drink and we die and continue to drink...
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