D&D 5E Lesser Vorpal Sword

[Lakesidefantasy]

Update: The sword, called Llyselyn, rolled a 20 on the first attack, confirmed the attack, and decapitated the barbarian. Unfortunately, the barbarian is,...was being played by our new player in her sixth ever session of Dungeons and Dragons. I feel I need to make amends.

 

[Lanefan]

Update: The sword, called Llyselyn, rolled a 20 on the first attack, confirmed the attack, and decapitated the barbarian. Unfortunately, the barbarian is,...was being played by our new player in her sixth ever session of Dungeons and Dragons. I feel I need to make amends.

You've got that player off to a fine start!

Seriously, that'll probably be a story that player tells for the rest of her gaming career, ideally with a laugh. And, you now have a measure of what kind of new player you've got: if she laughed it off and dove right into rolling up her next PC, you've got a real keeper. Conversely, a bad reaction might be a red flag that future bad things happening to her characters aren't going to go over well, which isn't good for anyone.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Option B: the character returns as a Dullahan (headless barbarian) - make sure to add rules for the head falling off when they’re hit hard.

 

[Horwath]

maybe add that the target(after dealing critical damage) must be under 50% HP(bloodied) or even under 25%(near death) to have decapitation activated.

this will still give nice feeling to players and speed up combat a little or little more, depending on HP limit, but prevent super easy combats where you get 20 in the 1st round on the "boss".