help! the sword needs to die!!!!!!

[Jack Simth]

Hey now! Magic Circle Against Evil is a veritable necessity for the assorted Planar Binding Spells! How else do you keep those Demons, Devils, and elementals contained? (Need Magic Circle Against Good for the assorted Angels)

Also, this may seem counterintuitive, but Magic Circle Against Good / Protection From Good would work just as well, as all versions prevent mind control, which is the main issue with destroying the Dark Blade.

Edit: He can't? Oh well.

Oh, and with Extend Spell, that same Sorceror can cast Extended Magic Circle Against Evil 10 times, for 200 minutes each, and there are only 1440 minutes in a day.

Edit 2: 8 times; I was looking at the wrong line, for 1600 minutes of coverage; still more than 24 hours that way, and he still has all his 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level slots.

 

[irdeggman]

I wouldn't know where to lead you since this is obviously a heavily house-ruled situation.

I say this because none of the following seems to have bee applied

From the SRD

Any character whose alignment does not correspond to that of the item (except as noted by the asterisks on the table) gains one negative level if he or she so much as picks up the item. Although this negative level never results in actual level loss, it remains as long as the item is in hand and cannot be overcome in any way (including restoration spells). This negative level is cumulative with any other penalties the item might already place on inappropriate wielders. Items with Ego scores (see below) of 20 to 29 bestow two negative levels. Items with Ego scores of 30 or higher bestow three negative levels.

ITEMS AGAINST CHARACTERS
When an item has an Ego of its own, it has a will of its own. The item is, of course, absolutely true to its alignment. If the character who possesses the item is not true to that alignment’s goals or the item’s special purpose, personality conflict—item against character—results. Similarly, any item with an Ego score of 20 or higher always considers itself superior to any character, and a personality conflict results if the possessor does not always agree with the item.

When a personality conflict occurs, the possessor must make a Will saving throw (DC = item’s Ego). If the possessor succeeds, she is dominant. If she fails, the item is dominant. Dominance lasts for one day or until a critical situation occurs (such as a major battle, a serious threat to either the item or the character, and so on).

What I mean is you never mentioned any negative level effects only a subtle drawing towards the dark side.

Also I would have to guess as to why the item can effect the other party members if it isn't wielded. That is pretty much the implication from the item versus character text and the negative level loss - that is the item must be handled in order to effect these issues or the item's will/ego.

I should clarify some of my statements -

It appears as if this weapon is a storyline/plot device and as thus has a "different" reason for being then would an intellegent weapon. What you seem to be asking is a for a rules reason (or means) to allow you to negate a story/plot device. Seldomly does this work since the story/plot devices have an entirely different rational for being around (totally up to the DM).

 

[werk]

Bury it out back, in the box, in the bag, and put a big rock on it.

 

[Gez]

1. Buy every bags of holding you can find. 2. Toss into each of them little bits of meat. Eventually, with a bit of luck, one will turn out to be a bag of devouring. 3. Feed the sword to the big baggy mouth.

Note that if you use Retain Essence on a cursed intelligent item, you have a chance for the DM to go all rat-bastard on you and have the item possess you once you transferred its magical essence into yourself. Then you'll be cursed again, and you would not even have a nifty sword. (Yes, it's not in the rules about retain essence. There's nothing about using it on cursed items. And a DM can perfectly add a bit of house rules to a class ability that otherwise would turn inconveniences like cursed items into sweet freebies. I know that's what I would do, personally, so I'm warning you.)

A mindless creature would be immune to its attempts at possession. If you can buy (or rent!) a shield guardian, let the SG wield the sword, and you control the SG through the necklace.

Then you can command the SG to bash the sword as hard as possible against a solid lump of adamantine, again and again and again again. The sword will break, unless it's artifact-level.

 

[moritheil]

What I mean is you never mentioned any negative level effects only a subtle drawing towards the dark side.

Most DMs I know of would never be so foolish as to outright mention a negative level as a result of a cursed item like this. They would just mentally adjust all scores, hit points, etc. downward and let the player notice his decreased effectiveness if he can.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Most DMs I know of would never be so foolish as to outright mention a negative level as a result of a cursed item like this. They would just mentally adjust all scores, hit points, etc. downward and let the player notice his decreased effectiveness if he can.

A negative level is a 'loss of vital energy', according to the Glossary. I'd rule that a creature notices a 'loss of vital energy' when it happens!

-Hyp.

 

[moritheil]

A negative level is a 'loss of vital energy', according to the Glossary. I'd rule that a creature notices a 'loss of vital energy' when it happens!

-Hyp.

Right, but that's astoundingly open to interpetation. After all, the character already "doesn't feel himself," and all the DM needs to do in most cases is tell the player "you feel tired" more often than usual. The character will typically have been fighting and slaughtering things almost nonstop, and in large quantities, so of course he feels tired! How will the player be able to tell that's what the DM is alluding to, rather than the increased activity?

At the DM's option, he won't.

Although I will note that you seem determined to be a fair DM

PS: In this particular case, the sword appears to have some funky "variant rules" mojo, so perhaps something akin to the succubus rule for stat drain is in effect? Or perhaps, as a previous poster suggested, it is A PlotDevice (TM).

 

[irdeggman]

Also when you gain a negative level you lose hit points, and specifically any spells that are not appropriate to your "new" level. So these are very much a "known" thing IMO.

Negative level is pretty much the same as level loss only generally only temporary at least IMO.

And if the DM mentally notes the changes then he will most likely need to ask the player for his character sheet so he can adjust the spells, etc. This in itself would be a huge indication for the player that something is up. Besides this doesn't apply to cursed items only to intelligent ones, it jsut happens that this item is both intellegent and cursed. {Still read to be an awful lot like an artifact to me vice a "standard" magic item.}

 

[geflin]

Here's What I Learned...

okay, here's what i learned in monday nights game session...

1. the sword radiates magic... so i'm GUESSING its not artifact level...

2. the sword communicates via magical telepathy, not psionic. (is there anyway to move this thread out of the psionic area?) so once again, i'm GUESSING that if lead affects scrying (which is a normal magic function) that telepathy should be affected by lead.


someone mentions a shield guardian... where are the rules for those? (i'm at my day job right now, so i don't have access to my books... but i'm curious...

THANK YOU again to all who evdevor (sp?) to help...

 

[irdeggman]

Just because the sword communicates telepathically doesn't mean it affects a character. That is it uses its ego to overpower the character.

from the SRD

The item can use either communication mode at will, with language use as any speaking item. It can communicate telepathically with the wielder

Note the use of the term wielder here. The closest thing to magical telepathy in 3.5 is Rary's telepathic bond (which doesn''t include the annotation that lead blocks it only that being on different planes does, distance has no effect).

The character must possess the item in order for it to work this was. This is the important issue here. Who possesses the item. Since the curse was broken and your PC managed to relinguish the item, I would say you no longer possess it.

While not explicit I still fall back to the intent of possess in this case seems to be physically handle.

If the item is capable of exerting its ego over a distance (which is what you seem to be afraid of) then I fall back to my "its a storyline/plot device" and is no longer bound by the rules. It would appear that your DM is trying a Tolkien "my precious" style of play here.