The Ultimate magic Sword

[Michael Hopcroft]

If I wanted to build a sword that would be worth building an entire campaign around acquiring and weilding, just how powerful wuld that sword have to be? And what sort of power? I believe earlier on these boards I mentioned a sword that could eb only weilded by the high king. What if ownership of the sword meant that, int eh eyes of the peop,e you WERE the High King?

 

The sword was lost three hundred years ago in a quest and thet land has been in chaos since then. The only way to save the realm from self-destruction is to find a worthy weilder for the sword -- but first the sword itself must be found.

 

What is more the sword chooses who can use it to full effect -- not based on royal blood or anything liek that, but on its own standards of worthiness to lead and rule. Like Excalibur not letting just anyone draw it out of the stone, maybe this sword won;t let just anyone unsheathe it. And what is the person it chooses is from common stock?

 

Imagine the intiruge that would ensue if the sword were found by the PCs. Maybe the fighter in the party -- or the wizard! -- is the one the sword chooses. Since few advebturers are the distant kin of royalty, everybody -- na di mean EVERYBODy -- will be trying to take that sword away from them before they can claim the throne of the High King -- if they even WANT the throne!

[Damon_Dusk]

Well the points would be the easy part really. What do you want the sword to do that is so powerful? After you figure that out, just write up the powers that you want to associate with the sword with standard advantages and limitations for any other magical weapon. Once you're done with that, then I would refer you to the suggestions in FH about Intelligent and Self-Willed items (p. 279).

 

The parts about it unsheathing for certain people, etc. can easily be bought as Disadvantages. Such as: Psych Lim: Only uses powers for those it deems worthy (very common, total); Distinctive Features: Sword of the High King (Concealable, Extreme Reaction).

 

Shouldn't be too hard from there.

[Blue Jogger]

I wrote up one dwarven axe that had had no actual attack power, but had several skills based on the knowledge collected over the years. Basically had the following

 

KS: Legendary Battle Tactics

Tactics

KS: History

KS: Dwarvish Divine Law

KS: Diplomacy

Conversation

Oratory

 

Basically, it was designed to lead armies and made the wielder not look foolish doing it.

[Storn]

anytime you create a Hand Killing Attack in a FH campaign and leave OFF Strength Minimum.... you get a weapon of ferocious ability. A 2d6 HKA can get up to a 4d6 HKA. In the games I play,, 2d6 is hefty damage, 3d6 is a battle winner (15 STR w/ no STR Min). 4d6 is just sick.

 

And for really nasty, combine with Armor Piercing. Adds some levels of DCV (the weapon has a mind of its own, glows so brightly in protection of its weilder etc).... and you've got a weapon that can wade thru armies. Tack on a little Missle Deflection for good measure... so ya can block mystic bolts and arrows.

[Dauntless]

Depends on the power level of your campaign. If your base characters are only 150pts, then maybe you could make the sword alone 150pts.

 

But no matter what kind of attack power you give the sword, think about giving a whopping PRE bonus (and PRE defense) to whomever is worthy of holding it. I'd also consider giving it other defensive powers. Many Japanese believed that swords had life breathed into them by their makers (Ueshiba, the founder of aikido, often spoke of the sword as being a conduit of truth...for it already knew truth, you just had to ask it the right questions and learn to hear what it said), and they also believed many swords were cursed (Muromachi blades for instance). So you may want to think about giving the sword an INT or at least an EGO. In other words, construct it almost like a computer.

[Old Man]

Make sure to give the sword Telepathy or some such so it can determine if the person grabbing it is worthy.

 

Give the sword Multiform. Not that it can change into anything, just any bladed weapon with similar decoration or something.

 

"You manage to catch the fleeing goblin and take it out. Searching the body, you find a few silver slugs and a dagger that has seen better days"

 

"Aw lame..." *pockets slugs and junks dagger*

[Captain Obvious]

HA HA HA! Spend an hour or so writing up the stats for a super-magical sword only to have the players throw it over a cliff....

 

It could be worth a good laugh, if somehow the characters were to discover later that that was the Blade of the Gods, and had to go looking for it again....

[The Mad GM]

Potential game troubles

 

If you have a single magic item that defines the campaign, you should limit it in some way so that the players who didn't get it aren't made completely secondary to any given combat.

 

For instance, maybe it can only do its mighty thing against the demons that constantly war against the kingdom, or it is the key to undoing a major curse. Maybe it is the only ADO weapon that works on the invulnerable (desolid with special effect: impervious) dragon.

 

Or the same person can only wield it for, say, a day at a time before they start encountering problems, like becoming slaves of the sword, or losing CON and STR from its mighty burden. That way everyone gets a chance at being the uber-daddy with the weapon 'o mighty butt-kicking, but no one steals the show.

 

Maybe finding the one person who CAN weild it and installing the incompetent but good-hearted peasant NPC on the throne would be an odd twist to a campaign, but still leave the characters free to adventure.

[Chris Goodwin]

Who cares about the points?

 

It is the sword that in fable and legend has caused empires to rise and fall, to grant its wielder ultimate power and to cause him to pay a terrible price, etc. etc. No one has been able to find it for at least three hundred years, and many teams of adventurers have gone looking for it and failed.

 

The thing is, in reality its powers don't matter. Maybe it's like the One Ring, in that it has a piddly little power but slowly corrupts the wielder, making him want it more and more. Its power lies more in its legend than in its substance. It has a fearsome reputation, which is part of its power; people quake in fear in its presence, armies break and rout when facing its wielder, etc., not because of anything intrinsic to the sword but because their guts turn to water when they're facing it. (Maybe its power is to strike fear into its opponents, and it's just picked up the reputation as a result.)

[Victor]

Hmm.

 

Thinking over the concept of an animated sword, that doesn't require a hand to guide it, you could build it as an automaton with the Defenses and Body of the appropriate weapon, and a similar HKA. Maybe give it blind-fighting or spatial awareness, too. Or some of the Feats listed in the Talents section of FH.

 

Of course, such a sword may be tired of being the tool of kingmakers and empire builders, and just wants to be left alone (and quite willing to trounce any adventurers who refuse).

 

It might be quite happy wandering the world on it's own, and carving up the occasional tree into a wooden likeness of things it has retained a fondness for over the years. Perhaps it's found in the company of a simpleton (or a young child)... someone who may not be all that bright or worldly, but can at least make conversation and doesn't have ambitions that involve the sword's powers.

 

Obviously, the poor thing would have a rather large hunted, and distinctive features... to say nothing of a reputation. Limited manipulatory ability and reduced size limitation also fit.

[Old Man]

Ah there ya go...

 

It doesn't have anything except 4d6 Luck, which of course you don't tell the players about.