Mercurial Greatswords, Rule of Cool weapons

[martinl]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

That said, we have two ways to take this: realistic and cinematic/ethnic cool. As others have stated, the realistic version of this is probably going to be worthless with breakage issues.

I'll add a third: alchemy/magic. Quicksilver is associated with all kind of magical chicanery in RL, and it might was well be true in DF.

Maybe there's a way to make weapons that grant movement college magic more cheaply if they have running mercury in them. (Or even on them - it's magic!) Stops working if knocked down to -40F - an fun magical quirk for the ice wizard or gadgeteer to exploit.

I once had an idea (in a game that never really took off) for "Quicksilver Sword" that was shape-changing - it was ALL mercury, and could shift into any weapon between 2-5 lbs the user envisioned. Of slaying lycanthopes. PCs could track down the secretive doppelganger doppelsöldners that had their own special martial art for using them for extra bonuses. (Too bad it slowly drives most races mad for some poorly understood reason...)

Yes, that last idea was based on disappointment about how Githyanki Silver Swords actually worked.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by malloyd

What?! You could spin multiple sharpened hula hoops at once, and get multiple attacks, preferably while wearing your belly dance costume. That's way cooler than some slight damage increase from something you can't even see.

Cooler than Xena's chakram.
"Legitimate" reason for dervishes to whirl.

Prestige class for cleric fighters. :)

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Mercury compounds can be obscenely lethal.

Mercury compounds, yes, but elemental mercury's toxicity is apparently a function of releasing mercury vapor. The Wikipedia page for mercury itself indicates suicide attempts involving injecting mercury tend to fail.

Originally Posted by martinl

I'll add a third: alchemy/magic.

Yeah, it may indeed be appropriate to make quicksilver-containing items have special metaphysical properties. You'll still need to determine if the handling of the item aside from these properties covers the realistic or cinematic tract. That is, does your Broadsword of Haste's internal reservoir of mercury improve its damage at all, or just make it harder to use and more prone to breakage?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

"The toxicity of dimethylmercury was highlighted with the death of the inorganic chemist Karen Wetterhahn of Dartmouth College in 1997, months after spilling no more than a few drops of this compound on her latex-gloved hand."

And watch out for sugar - you know it's a deadly poison because botulism toxin is made from the same elements plus some extra ones.

Dimethylmercury is an organometallic compound first made in 1858. And there isn't a lot of reason to think its toxicity even has much to do with its mercury content. Mind you it's hard to tell how toxic its analogs in other elements are, since they burst into flame on contact with air and may explode on contact with traces of water vapor.

It is certainly quite toxic, but a lot of concern about it is from scare tactic press from presence in trace amounts in contaminated fish, and from "terrorism" warning studies. There isn't a particular shortage of very poisonous organometallic compounds. Iron tetracarbonyl is a rather toxic organometallic liquid with a substantial vapor pressure too. This doesn't indicate iron is especially toxic.

[Flyndaran]

Then if only talking about pure mercury, it's a pretty poor toxin if you could literally drink a pint of it and never suffer any effects for the remainder of your life.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Then if only talking about pure mercury, it's a pretty poor toxin if you could literally drink a pint of it and never suffer any effects for the remainder of your life.

Pretty much. It almost HAS to be inhaled to be lethal, and even that takes years.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Pretty much. It almost HAS to be inhaled to be lethal, and even that takes years.

And with heavy metal tolerance being extremely different for different people its effects aren't that predictable.

It probably would be a nasty toxin to give to a pregnant woman carrying a valuable heir. Screw up a dynasty but be long gone by the time the plan came to fruition.

[DanHoward]

I'd like to know how you are supposed to make one of these using TL4 technology and not have it break the first time you hit something with it. From a functional point of view, as has been said, the conservation of momentum law means that you'd derive no benefit from it, but you'd lose accuracy by screwing around with its balance. I suppose it could have an entry in Fantasy Tech.

[Disliker of the mary sue]

Hm if we're okay with bringing other weird weapons from the dnd exotic weapon list from obscure books, from the same place that brought the stupid idea for mercurial great-swords comes...

Gyrspike: a weapon that is a long sword on one end and a flail on the other end.

whip dagger: A whip that has barbs runs on it length and a pointed dagger like tip.

Triple dagger...not even sure how to describe it...the pictures seems like it one dagger hilt holding three dagger blades on it if that makes sense...

Manti: A shortspear with four additional spear heads that project vertically from the shaft.


The double hammer (not from this book but from the dnd warrior sourcebook) it a battle hammer with a hammer head on both sides. ...seriously I thought this was just a joke from spoony's videos.

[gilbertocarlos]

Originally Posted by Anders

Aren't poisoned bullets banned according to some convention or other anyway? I imagine that poisoned swords would be banned in the same way.

So, what you mean and that above all it's illegal? That's another cool modifier.

Originally Posted by Disliker of the mary sue

Hm if we're okay with bringing other weird weapons from the dnd exotic weapon list from obscure books, from the same place that brought the stupid idea for mercurial great-swords comes...

Gyrspike: a weapon that is a long sword on one end and a flail on the other end.

That's a huge sword-nunchuk

Originally Posted by Disliker of the mary sue

Triple dagger...not even sure how to describe it...the pictures seems like it one dagger hilt holding three dagger blades on it if that makes sense...

Do you mean like a Sai that's was used IRL?

Originally Posted by Disliker of the mary sue

Manti: A shortspear with four additional spear heads that project vertically from the shaft.

Sounds like a magnified boar spear.