How much should this sword cost?

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello Everyone,

I have a rather unusual sword in one of my games that I wouldn't mind assistance in pricing. In terms of general costing in my game, magical items are a tad more expensive than the DMG3.5 and collectible items that are unusual or difficult to find are normally 150 to 200% book price. I would consider the following item to fall into that category. However, I think a range of opinions on a standard DMG3.5 price would be suitable as a base to work from so if you guys could help me out, I would appreciate it very much.

"The Hunter"
- Steel Longsword

Abilities:
- The sword has no pluses to hit or damage
- The sword bypasses any Damage Reduction, Magical or Ethereal protection or effectively anything that would prevent a normal hit from having its normal damage effect. (Armor or natural qualities of an opponent are not bypassed by this ability.)
- The sword imitates the qualities of whatever the primary melee weapon an opponent is using against the wielder. For example, if they are using a +3 Keen Battleaxe, The Hunter imitates this +3 Keen quality while it is being used against this opponent.
- The sword also has an enchantment upon it so that it reflects the lineage and history of a particular Elvish Clan on its guard and pommel. This is represented by different colored leaves on a metallic vine wrapped around the parts mentioned. It is normally the signature weapon of the Clan Leader of Elaris (the Elvish Clan mentioned).

Effectively, it is known as a sword that can hit anything as long as the wielder is skilled enough. It has quite a lengthy history to it as well which skilled Elvish and Human bards would know of.

Any suggestions?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[EtherHulkRending]

- The sword has no pluses to hit or damage
this doesn't change market price

- The sword bypasses any Damage Reduction, Magical or Ethereal protection or effectively anything that would prevent a normal hit from having its normal damage effect. (Armor or natural qualities of an opponent are not bypassed by this ability.)

Bypassing ethereal miss chance would count as a +3 enhancement(ghost touch)
I'm assuming it also ignores concealment, that's another +1 (seeking)
bypassing DR magic would effectively make it a +1
you could say ignoring material DR would be another +1 or +2 enhancement
you could say ignoring alignment DR would be another +2 or +3 at least

This part so far has anywhere from a +8 to +10 item enhancement for cost purposes

- The sword imitates the qualities of whatever the primary melee weapon an opponent is using against the wielder. For example, if they are using a +3 Keen Battleaxe, The Hunter imitates this +3 Keen quality while it is being used against this opponent.

this part is up to you to decide because this ability can be useless if just fighting monsters to very powerful if fighting magicked up nasties, this is also going to vary greatly depending on what your party usually fights

- The sword also has an enchantment upon it so that it reflects the lineage and history of a particular Elvish Clan on its guard and pommel. This is represented by different colored leaves on a metallic vine wrapped around the parts mentioned. It is normally the signature weapon of the Clan Leader of Elaris (the Elvish Clan mentioned).

this doesn't have any correlation in the books, it would be up to you to assign a flat cost to it, depending how important that clan history is in your particular campaign.




You're looking at a very expensive weapon, by the book it's at least 128000 gp and could easily be a 200,000+ gp item


EHR

 

[Saeviomagy]

Hello Everyone,

I have a rather unusual sword in one of my games that I wouldn't mind assistance in pricing. In terms of general costing in my game, magical items are a tad more expensive than the DMG3.5 and collectible items that are unusual or difficult to find are normally 150 to 200% book price. I would consider the following item to fall into that category. However, I think a range of opinions on a standard DMG3.5 price would be suitable as a base to work from so if you guys could help me out, I would appreciate it very much.

"The Hunter"
- Steel Longsword

Abilities:
- The sword has no pluses to hit or damage
- The sword bypasses any Damage Reduction, Magical or Ethereal protection or effectively anything that would prevent a normal hit from having its normal damage effect. (Armor or natural qualities of an opponent are not bypassed by this ability.)
- The sword imitates the qualities of whatever the primary melee weapon an opponent is using against the wielder. For example, if they are using a +3 Keen Battleaxe, The Hunter imitates this +3 Keen quality while it is being used against this opponent.
- The sword also has an enchantment upon it so that it reflects the lineage and history of a particular Elvish Clan on its guard and pommel. This is represented by different colored leaves on a metallic vine wrapped around the parts mentioned. It is normally the signature weapon of the Clan Leader of Elaris (the Elvish Clan mentioned).

Effectively, it is known as a sword that can hit anything as long as the wielder is skilled enough. It has quite a lengthy history to it as well which skilled Elvish and Human bards would know of.

Any suggestions?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

It's almost certainly an unpriceable artifact. No, really, it is. In ideal situations it could be the mightiest of epic weapons, and in the worst, it could be a normal longsword.

For the purposes of balancing out characters, I'd value it the same as a higher-end weapon appropriate for level.

For buying and selling, it'll either be
a) Worthless if it's unidentified. Maybe worth a bit for it's historical value, but certainly no more than 1000gp.

b) Off the charts if it's identified - it's a one-off item that will be absurdly useful for anyone who wants to buy it.

 

[nameless]

I disagree with the notion that it is absurdly powerful. Most opponents do not have extremely significant damage reduction/concealment/incorporeality/etc. It is a niche enhancement, and certainly less powerful than vorpalness.

The imitation ability I would ad hoc at a +4, which is the same as an extra attack or the ability to ignore armor bonuses.

The no enhancement bonus and the clan lineage flavor elements shouldn't cost anything. Maybe even say that the sword resists attempts to add an enhancement bonus to mitigate the unique powers and emphasize the drawbacks of the weapon.

Using rough estimates, I would put the weapon's equivalent at +8, which costs 128,000 gp. For your rare magic game, maybe an even 200,000 gp would be fair.

IMO YMMV, etc... of course.

 

[LGodamus]

its definate that its into minor artifact territory here.......its good against high level monsters..( it kicks DRs butt) and high level npc ( the tougher their weapon is the tougher yours is) its basically the ultimate equalizer..