BoVD: Major Artifact... I could use some help toning it down.

[Arravis]

In the Book of Vile Darkness, there is a major artifact called "Angelwing Razor". I introduced this in my now epic level campaign, and I'm seeing that one of it's abilities breaks the rules too much.

"Angelwing Razor is a +5 vorpal longsword that ignores damage reduction and hardness of any kind. It can even cut through Wall of Force or similar effect."

The only thing I have any issue with is it's ability to ignore all DR. I'd like to tone it down a bit and would love to hear suggestions. Perhaps have it always ignore the first 5 or 10 points of DR. Or perhaps it always ignores one type of DR (ie if a creature had DR 15/silver & good, then the blade acts as either silver or good). Or perhaps something else entirely.

Thanks guys!

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

There's a feat in the Draconomicon called, I think, "Sense Weakness." It allows you to treat all DR as being 5 points less (so DR 5 / X is ignored, and DR 15 / X is treated as DR 10 / X).

Perhaps have the sword grant that as a bonus feat to its wielder, and apply the benefits to hardness, as well?

 

[UltimaGabe]

So, hang on a second... you're concerned about a Major Artifact being too powerful?

 

[Sejs]

It's an artifact. Breaking the rules is what they do.

 

[Artoomis]

So, hang on a second... you're concerned about a Major Artifact being too powerful?

Not only that, but an artifact that starts with a +5 vorpal longsword . It's really fine as is - it's an ARTIFACT for goodness sakes.

 

[Li Shenron]

I disagree. Saying like that sounds like admitting artifacts are printed NOT to be used, just to be watched. That could sometimes be the case tho...

If Arravis want to use the artifact, he's well entitled to do so and to change what doesn't fit with his campaign.

In fact, I too agree that the DR feature can cause some problems. Vorpal, ignore hardness, cut through force effect: all uber-abilities, but also very much in line with the flavor image of the item "cut-through-everything".

If it was up to me, I'd just tone the DR down to make the artifact behave as Good, and therefore it would bypass DR like X/Good. If this is too much toned down, maybe give it a CHANCE of bypassing others every hit, but not automatic.

 

[Demoquin]

Why not just call it a 'lightsaber'