New version of Vorpal

[Crothian]

That is a good point. The high damage weapons with the greatest threat range are the most powerful vorpal weapons.

 

[kreynolds]

Using your Vorpal, a scythe activates much less often than a falchion, but deals the same amount of damage from the enhancement.

It's not the same amount of damage. With our Vorpal enhancement, you deal normal critical weapon damage and the x4 vorpal damage.

That is a good point. The high damage weapons with the greatest threat range are the most powerful vorpal weapons.

That's the way it was meant to be, a point I made a couple of times. I just don't want ya' to think that I overlooked that. Here, I'll quote them so you don't have to go back an reread all the posts...

Also, I kept in mind that the bigger the weapon, the more damage it will deal.

...and...

Also, I stuck with the premise that the bigger the weapon, the more it'll hurt. For instance, a dagger can only deal so much damage (+4d4 vorpal damage), whereas a greatsword will deal far more (+8d6 vorpal damage). Then there is also the factor of monsters that possess such weapons. For example, there is a Balor in one of my campaigns that I beefed up, and he's now a Huge creature, so imagine how nasty his Huge Vorpal Greatsword is.

So, taking into account how much of a difference weapon size/damage makes, including the ability to smack the hell out of a construct, ooze, undead, ghost, etc, these are reasons why I limited the damage to x4 and kept the cost at +5. Considering all that, are you guys sure that you want to lower the price?

I still like the idea of x8 damage though. Sure, at low level, our Vorpal is lethal, but so was the original Vorpal, even at high levels. At least with our version, it doesn't inifinately improve. Meaning at high levels, our Vorpal surely won't be as powerful as it once was, but the same could be said about the burst enhancements, and the bigger weapons also perform better with burst as well.

 

[Kosh]

Are strength, +'s, and other extra damage sources included in the x4 (or x8)?...

For example, an 18 str fighter with weapon spec and a +2 vorpal (x4) longsword wielded in two hands scores a critical... does he do 6d8+60 damage or 6d8+20 damage?...

4d8 is 20 damage on average... +5 for 20 extra damage on a crit doesn't seem right to me... 8d8 is 40 damage on average, which seems better to me...

I suggest either making the multiplication x10, allowing other souses to add to the crit damage, or lowering the price to +3...

x4 for +5 is a pretty weak...

 

[Crothian]

To clear up this confusion could you post a few examples, I'm not sure I'm following what you are saying. Maybe it's the humitidy, maybe it's the hour, but at any rate a few examples would be nice.

 

[kreynolds]

To clear up this confusion could you post a few examples, I'm not sure I'm following what you are saying. Maybe it's the humitidy, maybe it's the hour, but at any rate a few examples would be nice.

Not a problem at all. Here ya' go, but keep in mind, these examples are of the original (x4) method:

Vorpal Longsword: On a critical hit, 2d8 (critical damage) + 4d8 (vorpal damage) + strength mods + misc modifiers (not multiplied).

Vorpal Greatsword: On a critical hit, 4d6 (critical damage) + 8d6 (vorpal damage) + strength mods + misc modifiers (not multiplied).

Vorpal Dagger: On a critical hit, 2d4 (critical damage) + 4d4 (vorpal damage) + strength mods + misc modifiers (not multiplied).

I'll try expressing the vorpal damage in another way. When I say Vorpal does x4 damage, I don't mean x4 of the total damage. What I mean is that Vorpal deals x4 of the original weapon damage. I didn't explain that because I already addressed that in the thread I linked to, but I probably should have anyway. My bad.

So, if Vorpal deals x4 weapon damage, just find your weapon's original damage (shortsword 1d6) and multiply it by four (shortsword 4d6). This is the amount of Vorpal damage you will deal on a critical hit, and it's Force damage to boot.

Here's another way to express it:

Frost: +1d6 (cold damage)
Flaming: +1d6 (fire damage)
Vorpal: +(x4 original weapon damage, in Force damage)

Make sense?

 

[kreynolds]

Are strength, +'s, and other extra damage sources included in the x4 (or x8)?...

4d8 is 20 damage on average... +5 for 20 extra damage on a crit doesn't seem right to me... 8d8 is 40 damage on average, which seems better to me...

I suggest either making the multiplication x10, allowing other souses to add to the crit damage, or lowering the price to +3...

x4 for +5 is a pretty weak...

Remember though, that the 4d8 vorpal damage from a longsword will harm creatures immune to critical hits, and there are no immunities or resistances that creatures can rely upon to protect themselves. However, Crothian and gamecat already suggested that +5 was too high for only x4 damage, and instead of dropping the price, I would much rather raise it (maybe x8) in order to preserve the lethality of the original Vorpal enhancement.

For example, an 18 str fighter with weapon spec and a +2 vorpal (x4) longsword wielded in two hands scores a critical... does he do 6d8+60 damage or 6d8+20 damage?...

Your fighter would deal 6d8+16 (not 20, unless I'm missing something) damage. Here's the breakdown of that damage: 2d8 (standard x2 critical weapon damage) + 4d8 (vorpal force damage) +8 (standard x2 critical strength damage) +4 (standard x2 critical weapon enhancement damage) + 4 (standard x2 critical weapon specialization damage).

 

[Crothian]

In the above exaple the longsword is welded in two hands, interesting.

Ya, that makes a lot more sense, thanks.

 

[kreynolds]

In the above exaple the longsword is welded in two hands

Damn. I feel like a frickin' idiot.

 

[Crothian]

Damn. I feel like a frickin' idiot.

Happens to the best of us. It was a little odd that he had it welded in 2 hands though, easy miss. In almost 2 years of d20, never had a PC weld a longsword two handed.

 

[kreynolds]

Happens to the best of us. It was a little odd that he had it welded in 2 hands though, easy miss. In almost 2 years of d20, never had a PC weld a longsword two handed.

All of my fighters wield longswords 2-handed, until they hit 6th level anyway. Then they buy another one.