Vorpal Sword = death effect?

[Pax]

I personally houseruled Vorpal until it worked fairly.

How, you ask?

Simple: on a critical hit, the Vorpal weapon does automatic maximum damage (a hefty benefit in and of itself) ... and then, the attack functions as a (free) Coup De Grace attack. IOW, fort save or die.

...

At least, of course, you GET a fortitude save.

 

[Berk]

Death Ward protects against Vorpal Weapons is my interpretation.

I would allow a Death Ward to protect against any magic item that had a special instant kill effect that was based on a magic spell that involved death (Circle of Death, Finger of Death, Death Spell, etc.).

On the other hand, if the magic item just TK'd 2 million pounds onto your character and squashed him flat, I wouldn't allow death ward to do anything.

Likewise, if the evil baddie used a keen sword to hit you with a very nasty critical hit that took you to -10 hp, you are out of luck.

Tom

By this interpretation anything that caused death would be stopped by death ward. One could theoretically live forever just by having death ward cast on them repeatedly before the last casting ran out.

 

[AuraSeer]

By this interpretation anything that caused death would be stopped by death ward. One could theoretically live forever just by having death ward cast on them repeatedly before the last casting ran out.

I think you misread Endur's post. He said that he would not allow DW to protect against damage, like heavy objects or weapon hits.

 

[Berk]

I think you misread Endur's post. He said that he would not allow DW to protect against damage, like heavy objects or weapon hits.

No, I didn't misread the post. He is letting death ward protect a character from vorpal weapons but not from massive damage. I was replying in my own dry sense of humor.

When someone dies from a vorpal weapon it isn't because a death spell just got cast on them, it is because they lost their head. His own post contradicts himself. You can die and not be protected from death ward if you get hit for 500 points of damage. But, atleast you won't be able to be decapitated, and in effect die, if you have death ward cast on you.

 

[Sejs]

Things that would be prevented from death ward include: circle of death, destruction, finger of death, slay living, power word kill, the death ray of a catoblepas or beholder, a banshee's wail (or the spell of the same name), an assassin's death attack, or anything else with the [Death] descriptor.

Death Ward wouldn't protect against an assassin's Death Attack, because it is in no way magical. An assassin can Death Attack his target in an anti-magic field without hinderance as long as he can meet the prereqs (3 rounds of study, target unaware of assassin, or unaware assassin is a thread). Part of the problem is that the ability is named poorly, given how they handle some descriptors in 3e. Call it something like Lethal Strike, and it'll allieviate some of the confusion.


Basically the evidence suggests that spells that have the [Death] tag are all attacks on the target's life-force, instead as on their body, or mind, or what have you. Death effects screw up your life force, which is why you can't be Raised if you were killed by a death effect, but the more powerful spells (Res, True Res) can reconstitute your body and soul so they can bring you back. So Death Ward protects you from attacks on your life force - [death] tagged spells, banshee wail, catoblepas gaze, beholder death ray, etc. - it should not protect you from head chopping (Vorpal sword) or being scared into having some kind of heart attack / stroke / fear-based biological misfortune (Phant. Killer)


^_^

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

You can't. Until the errata comes out, there is absolutely nothing we can do. We're totally helpless.

Sad but true.

"Help us D&D 3.5. You are our only hope."

 

[jlhorner1974]

Sejs: You are right, I misread Death Ward and missed the fact that it only protect against magical death effects.

Even though the SRD doesn't mention if the assassin's death attack is Ex or Su, I presume it is Ex, which would mean Death Ward does not help.

I think all of the other examples are good though.

Quivering Palm is Su, so it is magical (does not work in anti-magic field), and since it is save or die, I assume you would agree that Death Ward is effective against it?

 

[zorlag]

-

Just had an idea about spell that would enchant weapon so that if you kill someone with it, it counts as a [death] effect in regards of raise dead and such spells...

Z.

 

[ruleslawyer]

I personally houseruled Vorpal until it worked fairly.

How, you ask?

Simple: on a critical hit, the Vorpal weapon does automatic maximum damage (a hefty benefit in and of itself) ... and then, the attack functions as a (free) Coup De Grace attack. IOW, fort save or die.

...

At least, of course, you GET a fortitude save.

That's the precise rule that I use, except for the fact that I don't throw in the max damage thing... unless you're a weapon master and decided to go for ki damage.

But yes, IMC, a crit with a vorpal weapon = a CdG, with the slight difference that a failed Fort save means that your head's chopped off. Better in some ways, worse in others.

 

[Hypersmurf]

There's a 5th level spell in the BoVD called "Charnel Fire", that consumes a corpse in, well, charnel fire, and prevents Raise Dead or Resurrection from working (although TR still works).

There's also a magic item called, from memory, a Charnel Axe... that automatically casts the spell on any creature it kills.

Expensive, though.

-Hyp.