The Vorpal blade

[Cake Mage]

Since the Pit Fiend wields a mace now, this brings up the question of whether the classic Vorpal Blade will be in or out of 4th ed. My group and I have a small place in our hearts for the magical blade of doom.

The Jaborwocky
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

-Lewis Carroll

 

[bording]

The balor wields a vorpal sword, not the pit fiend:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/demon.htm#balor

So, nothing to worry about yet.

 

[ThirdWizard]

You know, one of the things I didn't like about a lot of weapon enhancements released post-Core in 3e was that many effects would be tied to a static save. So, yeah, maybe your weapon stuns, but it does so on a Fort 10 save, making it pretty useless. Now enter 4e mechanics, where it makes more sense to have a scaling attack roll. Now perhaps you'll end up with something like "on a successful attack, make a follow up attack against Fortitude" or something along those lines.

Now, back to Vorpal. I haven't used the Vorpal quality in 3e. In fact, it was one of the first things I HRed out. It was toned down in 3.5 because you couldn't vorpal on a 12 anymore, but it stayed out anyway. Perhaps with something along what I said above it could be more balanced than before, meaning something I might actually consider using in the future.

Just a thought.

 

[Dragonblade]

I'm not sure how vorpal swords will work without being too tough, but I definitely want to see Holy Avengers and Sunblades make the transition in some form or another.

 

[Doug McCrae]

D&D should have stats for jabberwocks and bandersnatches.

 

[Darrius Adler]

Well given the removal of Save or Die, I would guess the vorpal weapon will not have the ability to one hit behead foes. Perhaps it will be made sort of like the lightsaber, ignores all hardness/DR and weapon materials will be less important.

 

[Darrius Adler]

D&D should have stats for jabberwocks and bandersnatches.

I could have sworn I have stats for both of those in my 2e books somewhere.

 

[Incenjucar]

I could have sworn I have stats for both of those in my 2e books somewhere.

Jabberwock is in the same annual monster book as the amber dragon, as I recall.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Jabberwocky originally appeared in 1E, in EX2, if my senility is correct.

 

[WyzardWhately]

Hmm. I could see it existing, you'd just have to make it sick hard to actually get somebody's head off. You'd have to crit, make a successful follow-up attack roll against a different defense for some spiffy additional effect, then follow that up with an attack at a third defense for the insta-kill. And the bad guy might have to be bloodied in the first place.

What I'm saying is, you could probably make enough hoops to jump through that it's not actually overpowered for what it costs, but that's not the same thing as being balanced. The problem is that it makes combat more unpredictable, which strikes against the whole "expected combat experience" thing. So, it's going to have to be both expensive and usually not actually insta-kill if it's going to match up with WotC's apparent goals for 4E.