I think, in the spirit of 4e, we should break this baby down into it's essential parts and rebuild.
According to Wikipedia:
The Rod of Seven Parts, when whole, is a 5-foot-long pole. The command words for each piece are "Ruat," "Coelum," "Fiat," "Justitia," "Ecce," "Lex," and "Rex," which collectively make up a Latin phrase that translates into "Though heaven fall, let justice be done. Behold! Law is king."
The rod is used to imprison Mishka the Wolf Spider, so whatever the powers the ultimate one should be teleporting something away to some pocket dimension.
1e power, according to someone's post in the Wizard archives
o join the parts you just have to touch them together, but if you do it out of order the higher # part teleports 1d10x100 miles away. And it always points to the next higher # part when you concentrate on it.
As soon as you join 3 pieces together you can't let go of it for as long as you live, or until you finish it. The powers are all cumulative, plus when you finish it you get a slew of other powers. Whenever you use a type V power, though, there's a 5% chance that all the pieces separate and teleport away.
Parts joined
1-2: III
2-3: I
3-4: I
4-5: IV
5-6: II
6-7: VI
Whole thing grants, in addition,
1xI 1xII 2xIII 2xV 1xVI
Note that 1st edition used mix-n-match powers for artifacts (a method I still like), so there were huge charts of class I powers, class II powers, etc. A couple samples of each:
I: Minor Benign
detect evil/good at will; tongues when held; immune to fear, etc.
II: Major Benign
true seeing 1/day; better of +2 to AC or AC 0; fear by touch, etc.
III: Minor Malevolent
(all affect user) hair turns white, sex change, -2 on saves vs. magic, etc.
IV: Major Malevolent (NASTY!!!)
(all affect user) perm. -1 con, must sacrifice human/pc to activate item for one day, user perm. shrinks 3" each time Prime power is used, etc.
V: Prime (GROSS!!!)
finger of death w/no save 1/day, x2 duration time stop 1/week, all user's ability scores perm. raised to 18, etc.
VI: Side Effects
user becomes ethereal under stress, user becomes lycanthrope, user has limited omniscience and can ask dm 1 question/day, etc.
Someone's 3rd ed version of the 2e stats
Command Words:
4-inch-piece: Ruat
5-inch-piece: Coleum
6-inch-piece: Fiat
8-inch-piece: Justitia
10-inch-piece: Ecce
12-inch-piece: Lex
15-inch-piece: Rex
For the other command words, just combine the single words of each
contributing segment.
Beyond the minor and major powers found also in the Arms and Equipment
Guide there are also "Resonant" Powers for having all the pieces from
start:
1+2: Fly Speed 24
1-3: Air influence: Protection from Air Elementals, Wind Wall 1/d
1-4: Charm Air Elementals, Air Walk 1/d
1-5: Chain Lightning 1/d
1-6: Create whirlwind 1/d, MV: 9-18, 6 persons can ride the whirlwind
1-7: Can do True Ressurection which shatters the Rod.
Sinc it's an artifact, it also has some _Side Effects_ for the bearer:
1 Piece: bearer becomes orderly and clean. (+1 Cha) becomes lawful
(Will DC 17).
2 Pieces: no more ramdom decisions.
3 Pieces: Never break any known law. Refuses to give up his segments of
the Rod. (+2 to s.thr vs. Charm)
4 Pieces: Never tells a lie. Always saying the literal truth. (Every
lawful creature instinctively knows this) Law becomes more important
than good or evil.
5 Pieces: Cannot tolerate emotions (immune to fear (incl. Phantasmal
killer, taunt and emotion spells) becomes lawful neutral.
6 Pieces: Takes everything literally. No deeper meaning is understood.
(follows charm commands to the letter without saving throws)
7 Pieces: Champion of Law. Radiates fearsome, icy law in 20' radius.
Anyone not sharing his view is an enemy.
To assemble the rod, some glyphs are needed to be inscribed on the
pieces, otherwise the larger one teleports away:
Brush: made of hair from a lawful good and a lawful evil creature (6
HD+), that gives the hair freely.
Pigments: diamond, iron, lead, several others.
Scribing: as 6th level spell scroll (Base price: 25*6*CLV => Cost to
create: 75*CLV gp, 6*CLV XP = ~900gp, 72 XP); takes 1 day per glyph
Success chance: 70% +1% per caster level, +5% if brush self made, +5%
for calligraphy, forgery or painting related skill. Failure results in
the larger piece teleporting away.
Time to fit pieces: 1d20 Minutes
Can't find my A&EG right now, can someone post the official 3e stats?
