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Old 06-03-2021, 06:32 AM   #54
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: [DF] A Portal Fantasy within a Dungeon Fantasy: Where's Alice?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tymathee View Post
Vorpal Blade

"One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
"

A small hilt of a sword made with a strange silver-looking metal with a sky-blue hue to its shine, set with three crimson rubies, one at each end of the guard and one set in the pommel. It weighs about 0.5 lb. The hilt somehow feels “right” in your hand, as if you were intimately familiar with it. May be used with any sword skill at no penalty. By taking a Concentrate maneuver, a solid beam of magical lightning that is two feet long (Reach 1) in length comes forth from the hilt. Another Concentrate maneuver will make the beam disappear. Attacks will do 3d-1 burning damage. Treat metal armors as having only DR 1. Can parry. A target dealt damage must roll HT at -1 per 2 HP lost or be stunned. They may roll against HT each turn after to recover. The wielder of the hilt may see all things that would emit a magical aura within their field of vision, as well as any item or entity invisible to the mundane eye.
I like it, it's certainly a different take on the weapon. Are the Detect Magic and See Invisible effects present so long as it's in your possession, so long as you're holding the hilt in your hand, or so long as you're holding the hilt and it's activated?

Quote:
Originally Posted by maximara View Post
Generic Universal Eggplant did a write up of the spell and the sword:

*Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Only on cutting weapons, -40%; Advantage, Vorpal Weapon, +100%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [18].

*“Vorpal Weapon” is Cutting Attack 3d (Accessibility, Only on neck hits, -40%; Follow-Up, This weapon, +0%; Magical, -10%; No Blunt Trauma, -20%; No Knockback, -10%) [5] + Higher Purpose (Cut necks with this weapon; Magical, -10%) [5].
That's also pretty good. I'd be tempted to add another Limitation that the damage only applies if it would kill the target (that is, roll the bonus damage, and if the target dies, you're fine, but if not the additional damage is retroactively lost), but it's already at -80%.

Note that, as I mentioned before, nothing in the original poem indicates the Vorpal Sword had any special abilities to decapitate the target - the hero slew the Jaberwocky with the weapon, then brought the head back as proof (or as a trophy), but that could have easily been a case of stabbing it through the heart (or eye, or slicing it until it collapsed from blood loss, or cutting its haunch and backing off until the Vorpal Sword's magical venom slew it, or...) then decapitating the corpse.
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