A kinder, gentler vorpal weapon.

[Crothian]

I didn't mean evil as in Evil (hence the quotes around the word in my post above). I simply meant we all remember how deadly they were in 1e (1e DMG, page 166).

And now I think they may be even deadlier.

 

[Whodat]

I didn't mean evil as in Evil (hence the quotes around the word in my post above). I simply meant we all remember how deadly they were in 1e (1e DMG, page 166).

Ahh...

I stand corrected.

And, yes. I believe Crothian may also be right.

*gulp*

 

[Guilt Puppy]

Personally, I'd just borrow the rules from coup de grace, and lift the restrictions that enemies must have heads. Still powerful enough to be deadly on almost any critical, but makes it scale eventually against the tougher creatures.

 

[Avatar28]

We ran into the same problem of a vorpal being overpowerful. One of the players doesn't have the books, so another player rolled up two extra characters for our beginning 20th level campaign. One of them wasn't really intended for a PC character, though, and was powergaming to the max. Barbarian/Weaponmaster with a maxed out improved critical and weilding a keen vorpal scythe giving a crit threat on 16-20. With all the plusses to hit, a crit threat becomes almost a sure thing. He had, I think +30 something or more to hit.

Anyways, it was to be a short session, so the DM just really planned about one combat to try out our characters. So Reaper (the name of that character, appropriately enough) gets init and goes first. Attacks and sure enough rolls a 16 and backs it up. Instakill on the 400+ HP slaad we were fighting. Really doesn't make for a very fun session.

 

[Al]

I used the instant coup de grace on a critical hit. It's still almost impossible to save against, particularly with heavy-hitting high-critical fighters, but it is just about possible. A nice corollary is that the big threat range weapons have a low multiplier, and are easier to save against as a result. The vorpal falchion is now not necessarily better than the vorpal scythe (mmm...vorpal scythes), so just expanding the threat range is no longer viable.

I tend to be unsure about the whole '+X damage' option. Bearing in mind one could make a weapon of flaming, icy burst and shocking burst for the same amount, which does +3d6 on any hit and +3d6+2d10 on a critical, so it is important to ensure that Vorpal is not nerfed in comparison with the elemental weapons.

 

[Al]

I used the instant coup de grace on a critical hit. It's still almost impossible to save against, particularly with heavy-hitting high-critical fighters, but it is just about possible. A nice corollary is that the big threat range weapons have a low multiplier, and are easier to save against as a result. The vorpal falchion is now not necessarily better than the vorpal scythe (mmm...vorpal scythes), so just expanding the threat range is no longer viable.

I tend to be unsure about the whole '+X damage' option. Bearing in mind one could make a weapon of flaming, icy burst and shocking burst for the same amount, which does +3d6 on any hit and +3d6+2d10 on a critical, so it is important to ensure that Vorpal is not nerfed in comparison with the elemental weapons.

 

[DonAdam]

The problem with increasing the multiplier is that it favors swords more than axes.

Never, ever, increase the crit multiplier.

 

[Gunslinger]

We ran into the same problem of a vorpal being overpowerful. One of the players doesn't have the books, so another player rolled up two extra characters for our beginning 20th level campaign. One of them wasn't really intended for a PC character, though, and was powergaming to the max. Barbarian/Weaponmaster with a maxed out improved critical and weilding a keen vorpal scythe giving a crit threat on 16-20. With all the plusses to hit, a crit threat becomes almost a sure thing. He had, I think +30 something or more to hit.

Anyways, it was to be a short session, so the DM just really planned about one combat to try out our characters. So Reaper (the name of that character, appropriately enough) gets init and goes first. Attacks and sure enough rolls a 16 and backs it up. Instakill on the 400+ HP slaad we were fighting. Really doesn't make for a very fun session.

That's even more deadly if you're using a falchion instead of a scythe. The weapon master can move, then whirlwind attack as a standard action, great cleaving on every oppenent whose head he cuts off(threatenting on a 10 or higher).

 

[Kae'Yoss]

The problem with increasing the multiplier is that it favors swords more than axes.

Never, ever, increase the crit multiplier.

One of my versions of vorpal is that the crit multiplier is tripled. So the longsword has x6, the axe x9, and the scythe x12. So it is useful to every weapon.

 

[Spatzimaus]

One of my versions of vorpal is that the crit multiplier is tripled. So the longsword has x6, the axe x9, and the scythe x12. So it is useful to every weapon.

The problem, as I think DonAdam was trying to point out, is that this isn't quite balanced mathematically. A weapon increases its average damage by (threat range size * (multiplier-1) * 5%). A 19-20/x2 weapon and a 20/x3 weapon each increase the average damage by 10%, unless the threat range is larger than the hit range size (i.e., if you threaten on a 12-20 but need a 15 to hit).

Tripling the multiplier would increase a longsword to 150% of its normal damage, but the axe would only increase to 140%. They may be close, but it's not the same any more. We're not even counting the "overkill" factor.

To avoid this you'd want to triple (multiplier-1), and then add 1. That is, x4 longsword, x7 axe, x10 scythe. That'd give you 130% damage for both sword and axe. Or, some similar pattern (5/9/13, 6/11/16, X+1/2X+1/3X+1, etc)