Evil weapons?

[Ashtal]

Alright, so there I am struggling through a chest cold while I DM "Rappan Athuk" for my slap-happy group, when they go and slice and dice Mr. Saracek of the second floor. Whackity, Whack.

I go through the treasure that's there, including his really nasty blade, a +2 evil greatsword of wounding.

Okay, I get the +2, the greatsword, and the wounding part.

What the heck does evil mean?

I've found 'unholy' as a weapon qualifier, but not evil. Mr. LN Fighter is thinking of keeping it. (To which I go, WHA???) But we have no idea what the evil means. Is it intelligent? Is it a synonym for 'unholy'?

And how about the Holy Shield in the back room? Can my PCs use this to bash for additional damage, or wha?

So very confused...was it me, the chest cold, or the text? HELP!


Ashtal

 

[hong]

It would seem that the good folks at Necromancer Games aren't particularly fussy about sticking to canon.

The only way a weapon can be "evil", unless it has the unholy enchantment, is if it's an intelligent weapon. Intelligent weapons usually have a swag of other abilities, besides just an alignment. You could give the sword the unholy enchantment, but that would make it pretty powerful (IIRC Rappan Athuk is meant for characters below 10th level). Similarly, there's no such thing, according to the core rules, as a "holy" shield.

My guess would be that the designers intended for these items to be usable only by characters of the given alignment. What I'd do is just apply a couple of negative levels to anyone who tries to use these items and doesn't fit the alignment restriction. The negative levels disappear when they drop the item, but aren't restorable otherwise.

 

[CRGreathouse]

"Evil" isn't a weapon ability; I agree with your guess that "unholy" was the intent. It could mean that the weapon is intelligent, though. Perhaps you should base it off the NPC equipment value:

An intelligent +2 greatsword of wounding costs from 42,350 gp to 122,350 gp.
A +2 unholy greatsword of wounding costs 72,350 gp.

 

[Crothian]

Here's a thought, what if the evil means only usible by an evil person? Pg 243 of the DMG has rules for items that can only be used by a particuliar alignment.

More then likely, I think they meant Unholy. But you never know.....