Day of the Vorpal Sword

[FireLance]

Ya, but the DM better be sure and giver everyone a heads up on that house rule before play starts

Why bother? The heads down will be enough of a clue.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

We have now 11th level AD&D party. For a long time another warrior (npc one actually) has had vorpal great axe (or whatever that two-hand axe is called in AD&D). It has been funny surprise at time, even if dm uses the most broken (IMO) rules for warrior types, I don''t even know what book he gets some of them. Like weapon spesialization that rises sword damage to d20. Is there rule like that somewhere or did he just make it up? It doesn't bother me, I just would like ot know.

I don't even own options books might be something there.

Anyhow generally speaking, even without uber damage warriors ad&d monsters have quite few hp:s compared to 3.x. It's kinda irrelevant but funny special effect death at this level. Lv 5, it might be more game breaker. Character got his axe lv 9 in our game. Random loot naturally.

I am more bothered by my luck in dm rolls. I manage to disintegrate/charm/feeblemind way too often. My character was shocked when she hit that blue dragon (death's ride module) with disintegration and *buff*, dust. It failed magic resistance and save. As for beholder that first got feebleminded and then charmed.

Well dm rolls really badly as player too, but still, this is kinda getting unreal.

If your game is dungeoncrawly let party have fun with their find. Just put there few mob groups if too much beheading happens. Givrd you excuse to create some "headless undead" types to face them off when they make return trip. That is imo great wey to rematch with main villain if it gets beheaded round one.

 

[SteelDraco]

I've only seen one vorpal sword in all my years of gaming, a sentient scimitar named Judgement of the Sultan. It was a Lawful Evil weapon that was wielded by the party's assassin-type. It was a scheming thing, it had its wielder pretty well controlled and manipulated my PC by playing to his politics.

I don't recall balance issues with it; this was a long time ago, at the tail end of Skills and Powers-era 2e.

 

[The Red King]

I just gave my PC's a sword I swiped from a China Mieville book with some modifications of my own.

It is called the Possible Sword.

It has up to 42 charges. With each attack you can spend a charge and roll 3 attack dice. Each one that hits is real, and damage is rolled normally. The sword is magical/alchemical. It has wires that run up an armored sleeve and down to a belt pack containing batteries. The sleeve keeps you from wearing it with any armor that has sleeves. It can only be recharged by a lightning bolt. Either natural or magical. (So they wont waste charges in every fight, the wearer is the target of the bolt) and if it becomes too powerfull, it will be fragile and hard to repair.

If that dosent work, a thief can always come after it.....

 

[amerigoV]

Don't get sick of it; just follow the campaign element/thread to its logical conclusion. I.e. as news of the character's weapon spreads, every baddass in the world will be after a piece of the action.

Everybody wants a vorpal weapon. It'll be more trouble than it's worth.

I like that one - esp since the PC is 5th level.

 

[the Jester]

We have now 11th level AD&D party. For a long time another warrior (npc one actually) has had vorpal great axe (or whatever that two-hand axe is called in AD&D). It has been funny surprise at time, even if dm uses the most broken (IMO) rules for warrior types, I don''t even know what book he gets some of them. Like weapon spesialization that rises sword damage to d20. Is there rule like that somewhere or did he just make it up?

He might be using Players Option: Combat & Tactics rules for uberspecialization, but I don't recall exactly how they work. I think- I think- one of the high levels of mastery gave a die size increase to your weapon attacks, but wouldn't swear to it.

 

[MerricB]

He might be using Players Option: Combat & Tactics rules for uberspecialization, but I don't recall exactly how they work. I think- I think- one of the high levels of mastery gave a die size increase to your weapon attacks, but wouldn't swear to it.

It certainly was part of the Basic D&D Master Set - that specialization system was incredibly powerful. I can't remember if C&T gave the possibility of going to d20 damage - I'll have to look it up.

Cheers!

 

[El Mahdi]

One of my friend has a good house rule to avoid problems with Vorpal Sword : on a fumble you behead yourself.

I can garanty that fighters tend to think twice before using their vorpal sword !!

With this ruling, yo ucan't get sick of vorpal swords.

In that case, I'd play an Ettin...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Or a Learnean Hydra...

 

[MerricB]

Those things are fun! I'll have to put one into an upcoming adventure.

Cheers!