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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 2552444" data-attributes="member: 1879">Sure it's nasty, no one is pretending otherwise. OTOH Thaniels point is that you could be dipped in a vat of the stuff and while it might take a year or two off you life it isn't going to kill you on the spot. That's why all the entries about chronic effects are there. Heck there's a cult in NYC that insists on eating mercury filled gelcaps. Stupid? Yep. Long term effects? Yep. Instantly lethal? Nope. Mad as a hatter is indeed a phrase coined from the negative effects of long term mercury exposure. Nevertheless it was slow enough that hatters kept getting apprentices, and it remained a profession. If the stuff killed instantly on contact it probably wouldn't be inside the thermostat in all of our houses. So, a mercurial weapon is not a deathtrap waiting to happen, it's merely stupid. And in any event it wasn't invented by or for DnD, it's from The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe where the torturer Sevarian uses one for ritual executions. With proper technique for a single designed stroke it helps him sever heads in one blow. It was never a weapon designed for combat, and when he does have to fight with it, it does indeed shatter, although that might have had something to do with the other guy having a sonic mace.Hijack done now?</blockquote>