Cool Weapons

[RangerWickett]

Describe some cool weapons, magical or mundane, from your games.

On a humble note, I was thrilled the first time my 6th level character got ahold of a quiver of silver crossbow bolts. First, silver looks really pretty, and it's stylish. Second, we were fighting were-rats, and it was great to see their shock when we hit them.

On a more epic scale, the Torch of the Burning Sky. It was created by the fusion of a demon's soul, an angel's soul, and the soul of a dragon child, trapped in a demon's thighbone, effectively a large club. Anyone slain by the 'torch' would have his soul completely consumed, used as fuel to ignite the torch. At its wielder's command, it could activate a flaming axeblade to appear from the torch (turning it into a greataxe), or it could summon a pillar of fire from the sky to pluck the bearer and his allies into the sky, and carry them to whatever destination desired. It could only function during daylight however. The Torch was used by a cruel emperor to conquer the world, carrying his armies with him to wherever he needed to strike.

 

[drunkmoogle]

Well, I once had an idea for intelligent +1 vile damage(!) caltrops that can move 5' per round. When given a command word, they would place themselves on a square within 30' of the owner or return to him.

I decided that this was one thing I didn't want the party to have.

 

[BASHMAN]

Cool Magic Item

The Coolest "magic" item that I ever had was a shortsword that I made from the tooth of a Bullette I had slain. My character had a belief that Bullettes were unkillable, and charged it while telling the party to run and save themselves. Surprisingly, I criticaled it, and managed to kill it a few rounds later (after nearly being chewed to death).

I was still in awe of the sheer power of the creature. Using some acid from the party thief, I removed one of its teeth. Then, one of the other party members with the stone-carving NWP (this was in 2nd Ed) carved a scene of me battling the thing on it, and carved out space for a handle at the base.

Later, a cleric cast continual light on it. Because I believed so strongly that this was indeed a magical weapon, on occassion, it would work as one. (we were playing planescape, a system that uses "belief points". I used them to strike things with this weapon rather than using my +2 sword!)

I really liked that weapon!

 

[Ferret]

Shiney. Shiney weapons are cool.

All I can do is point you into the Art room, where Tetsubo draws the best weapons you've seen.

Honestly I haven't played long enough to get anything really shiney, so I can't say.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Well, I did get a positive reaction from my players for Raider, the +2 short sword that could create 20 +1 short swords for 24 hours (3 chgs). This was before Magic Weapon spells existed, of course.

My favorite was Judgement of the Sultan, a +3 Vorpal Scimitar with a LE intelligence. The fun came from role-playing it - it clearly was manipulating one of the PCs, but it kept talking the good-aligned party out of doing anything about it.

 

[Sejs]

They'd be like Bruce Lee meets Musashi, only better!

 

[Staffan]

I haven't actually used it in a game yet, but I got inspired by one line in the Firefly episode "The Train Job" to make a magic weapon. The line in question: Do you know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go and get and beat you with 'til you figure out who's in ruttin' command!

So, of course I made the chain of command: a +1 merciful spiked chain with two spell-like abilities: command (DC 11) when you hit someone (only once per round) and a version of charm monster (DC 16) when you've beaten someone unconscious. Only instead of charming the victim, it instills a sense that you're the boss in it.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The helm of the spitting viper - helmet with a snake ready to strike on it, at command word the snake would spit poison into the eyes of foe. Very short range.

 

[DaveStebbins]

One of the best reactions I got was to an on-the-spot weapon I made up. It was about 20 years ago and I was DMing a low-level 1E AD&D party (maybe 2nd or 3rd level). At one point they found a +1 sword and it just hit me that, after years of DMing, I was tired of giving out +1 swords. So I tried to think of something original, but relatively minor. So I said the sword was named Gleam and it bestowed the power to double the number of attacks for one round per day.

I figured it it would be nothing major, and in game terms it never was. But the player who took it as treasure was ecstatic. He always loved having that extra attack when crunch time came. He really got into his paladin having a special weapon for defeating the worst of his foes. This guy had been gaming for years, but the weapon really struck a chord with him and his PC. He would talk to opponents during battle telling them how screwed they were because of his amazing magical blade. His enthusiasm was contagious and games with those characters were always more fun.

It was a great lesson for me, both as a DM (make everything a little special when you can, even if it means nothing more than giving an item a name and a history) and as a player (when the PC is having more fun, the players probably are too), and I've remembered it long after I've forgotten most things from those days.
-Dave

 

[Evilhalfling]

Coolest weapons so-far
A Stone Great sword - with dwarvish runes, it turned out to be the ledendary sword that would begain ragnerock, made for frost gaints, and bound by dwarven magic. It would cap out as an Huge intelligant + 3 frost blade. They picked it up at 4th lvl and the wards slowly began to fade as it was used. The players got nervous and tied it to a pony, then polymorphed them into a hedgehog. Giving it to an NPC, an established merchant mage, uncle to a PC, but telling him only to take good care of it.

A PC had a swordsmith concept, after reaching 12th level he spent close to a year working on a specialized blade, but no matter how many times he folded it a streak of darker metal remained in the blade. When finished he enchanted it to +2 but when he wields it the blade feels thirsty. Since we havent returned to the campaign he still doesnt know what it will do.