Sword of the Planes vs. Extraplanar?

[Ogrork the Mighty]

From the SRD:

Sword of the Planes: This longsword has an enhancement bonus of +1 on the Material Plane, but on any Elemental Plane its enhancement bonus increases to +2. (The +2 enhancement bonus also applies on the Material Plane when the weapon is used against elementals.) It operates as a +3 longsword on the Astral Plane or the Ethereal Plane or when used against opponents native to either of those planes. On any other plane, or against any outsider, it functions as a +4 longsword.

Strong evocation; CL 15th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, plane shift; Price 22,315 gp; Cost 11,157 gp and 5 sp + 893 XP.

What happens if the target is a creature with the Extraplanar subtype? Anything? It seems kinda weird that you could have a fiendish creature with the Extraplanar subtype but the sword would remain just a +1 weapon (assuming it's on the Material Plane).

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

That does seem a little wierd, doesn't it?

You could house rule that the bonus increases by +1 (to a max bonus of +4) against extraplanar creatures.

 

[kanithardm]

If it isn't a special case as mentioned, then it is +1.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

The only thing I can think of is that the Extraplanar subtype basically translates into being an extraplanar "traveler" of sorts, which doesn't necessarily say anything about the creature's origins. A human native to another plane would be extraplanar when visiting the Material Plane, but wouldn't be an Outsider. So maybe the sword isn't attuned to such "travelers", but rather to creatures of specific origin/type.

I dunno, that's my best guess. It is kinda weird though...

 

[Shin Okada]

By RAW, this sword has no special bonus against extraplaner creatures which is not outsider and not native to Astral or Ethereal plane.

IMHO, some of the authors are still not understanding the strict difference between "outsider" and "extraplaner creature". And often using the "outsider" to indicate "creatures from other planes". So, if you house rule,

On any other plane, or against any outsider, it functions as a +4 longsword.

Reading this part as "On any other plane, or against any extraplaner creatures, it functions as a +4 longsword" could be a reasonable house rule.

 

[HeavyG]

I think they tried to simplify it because new DMs would not necessarily know how the planes work and so on...

Reading this part as "On any other plane, or against any extraplaner creatures, it functions as a +4 longsword" could be a reasonable house rule.

Not quite, because then it would mean that if two primes travel to the plane of earth and duke it out, their swords are going to be +4 against each other, right ?

In my game, I would rewrite it like so :

Sword of the Planes: This longsword has an enhancement bonus of +1 on the Material Plane, but on any Inner Plane or when it is used against natives of these planes, its enhancement bonus increases to +2. It operates as a +3 longsword on the Astral Plane or the Ethereal Plane or when used against opponents native to either of those planes. On any Outer Plane, or against any native of an Outer Plane, it functions as a +4 longsword.

Basically, that's what it was like in former editions. Simplification is often a good thing, but sometimes you lose the essence of the simplified thing...

 

[Saeviomagy]

I believe that in 2nd ed, any magical item removed from it's plane of origin would suffer a penalty to it's enhancement bonus. Thus, a +3 weapon forged on the prime would be reduced to a +1 weapon on an outer plane for instance.

A sword of the planes was merely a +3 item FORGED ON AN OUTER PLANE. Thus it functioned at full strength on the outer plane, but was reduced to a +1 item on the prime.

That said, I'd guess the weapon operates at full strength against elementals and outsiders because they're formed of the stuff of the plane - therefore being in them counts as being on the plane perhaps.

There IS no type that is directly associated with the astral or ethereal planes however. Which makes things a bit difficult when it comes to slaying creatures that are heavily associated with those places.