Vorpal: DMs, Players, Games, and Snicker-Snack

[Stalker0]

In general its certainly not worth it. In general, by the time you actually take a head it would have been better to do all of that extra damage (+4d6 energy type damage and then toss something else on the mix).

On the other hand, it can let you take down the baddest BBEG with a single swing.

It was too strong in 3e because it unbalanced crit threats and multipliers. 19-20/x2 and 20/x3 are supposed to be equal (they aren't, but close enough), with vorpal they aren't. 3.5 version makes it balanced again, but vorpal should be cheaper (probably a +4, that way you can get it before its in the epic range of weapons category).

 

[dagger]

We once fought a Marilith in 1e with 3 Sharpness and 3 Vorpal weapons.....nasty.


Ring of Regeneration came in handy...

 

[Humanaut]

I've made a HUGE mistake

In 2e i let in a two handed sword, vorpal and later on a ring of Vampiric Regeneration... both wound up in the hands of the 1/2 orc fighter who went to town on BBEG and mooks alike... kinda fun at first, then he had the knack of chopping off the heads of BBEG that were central to larger story arcs... including an great wyrm Red Dragon... he was enlarged at the time which i had ruled was the only way he'd have a chance. ugh. It was a mighty battle though... but that tale is for another time...

Don't know if i'll ever use it again.

 

[GAAAHHH]

A Vorpal Blade would make an excellent quest item when you need to slay a rampaging Jabberwock.

I would say that vorpal weapons cannot be purchased. They have to be found while adventuring (This would be true of most high-powered magic items and artifacts). And the only reason I would allow them to be found is if that is the only item that can defeat the BBEG at the end of the campaign.

 

[brainstorm]

Timely true story

Funny I just saw this thread. In my game yesterday, the party's fighter and cleric were going up against the BBEG. The fighter rolls a 1 and drops his vorpal sword. The next round the BBEG rolls a 1 and drops his sword. The party cleric picks up the BBEG's sword and takes off with it. The BBEG then picks up the fighter's vorpal sword and rolls a critical hit, chopping off the fighter's head with his own vorpal sword.

True story. I couldn't have dreamed this up if I tried.

 

[Hussar]

As far as pricing goes....

The problem is, it IS an instant death effect, even if it doesn't come up all that often. If you dropped it to like +2 or +3, it's way too powerful. But, because it only comes up less than 5% of the time in 3.5, it's too much for a +5 effect. Honestly, I'd remove the vorpal effect and come up with something that just does heaping great damage but more often.

Say, a weapon that, on a critical, quadruples your critical damage. So, a greataxe on a crit would do x7 damage. Something like that.

 

[Particle_Man]

I think it would be good as a Chaotic aligned weapon. A small chance of a very powerful effect, as opposed to the more lawful static increase.

By that logic, maybe it should be +2 and replace the anarchic +2d6 (which seems kind of boring for a chaotic weapon).

 

[wildstarsreach]

In 1st ed I had a F/m-u/T drow that aquired one. We were fighting some skeletal warriors, they all had had Vorpal swords. My character had fumbled and dropped his weapon, the skeletal warrior fumbled as well. I picked up it's sword and rolled a 20 and off went it's head. My character wasn't visible to the other fighters in the party at that time. The skeletal warriors they were fighting fumbled with them. They tried to say that the chuck their weapons and pick these vorpal weapons up but the dm ruled against this. They were killed the next round as they picked up the sword and rolled a 19 and a 20. The skeletal warriors were then toasted by our wizard. This was one of 2 characters that I have played that had a vorpal weapon. It was very powerful in 1st but in 3.5 is not worth it.

Here is my suggestion

+2 Bonus for only on a 20
+3 Bonus for only on a 19-20
+4 Bonus for only on a 18-20
+5 Bonus for only on a 17-20

Depending on the weapon and feat taken such as Improved Critical.

Let's say a weapon that has a 19-20 crit range is enchanted with the +5 version. Unless a fighter has the improved crit feat, he can not use the the greater range representing his more effecient use of his weapon. Then again a weapon could be enchanted with lesser power to differentiate between more or less powerful swords.

I agree with a previous poster that wounding weapons should receive a higher plus and brilliant energy should be I think one less.

 

[Dioltach]

In a 2e campaign I ran a few years ago, one of the players heard of the vorpal concept, and got excited about it. So I gave the party a vorpal 2-handed sword.

The sad thing was, the party consisted of a druid, a cleric, two magic users, a halfling thief, and a beastmaster ranger. Once they realised no one could use the sword, they started throwing things at me.

 

[Li Shenron]

Vorpal has some similarity with save-or-die spells, the mechanic is not the same but the effect is to potentially end the encounter in a single blow.

I'd say that it is really problematic only when the encounter is supposed to be dramatic (hence, fun) and it gets spoiled by ending up being too short.

Vorpal kills the BBEG in round 1 = terribly boring
Vorpal kills one of the minions in round 1 = who cares?
Vorpal kills 10 minions in a row = fun!

That's the problem in my opinion. Maybe Vorpal should be restricted to work only against opponents whose CR is equal to your character level or less. In such a case, probably even the 3.0 version is fine.