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Keinnicht
2011-01-20, 04:14 PM
So, I've always found vorpal weapons vaguely ridiculous. "This is a sharp weapon. When you get a really good hit on someone, you cut their head off."

I realize why this is good from a rules perspective, since you don't normally decapitate people with swords unless you dealt enough damage to kill them anyways.

I guess the question here is, what's the explanation behind a vorpal weapon's magic? For example, a flaming weapon makes sense. It's magically on fire, so it does more damage. Are vorpal weapons supposed to be incredibly sharp? Do they guide your hand? Do they just magically make the creature's head fall off, even if you stabbed them in the arm?

I personally like the last explanation, but I hope there's a different one.

Although, IIRC, doesn't the word "vorpal" originate in the poem "The Jabberwocky," where it meant nothing? Is there actually reasoning behind this?

Keld Denar
2011-01-20, 04:15 PM
There is no rhyme or reason. It just is.

Also, the command word to activate the Vorpal property of a weapon is "snicker-snack".

Worira
2011-01-20, 04:16 PM
I guess the question here is, what's the explanation behind a vorpal weapon's magic? For example, a flaming weapon makes sense. It's magically on fire, so it does more damage. Are vorpal weapons supposed to be incredibly sharp? Do they guide your hand? Do they just magically make the creature's head fall off, even if you stabbed them in the arm?


They go snicker-snack.

EDIT CURSE YOU NINJA

Ravens_cry
2011-01-20, 04:23 PM
To be more informative then the jokers here, The Vorpal sword is based on the sword mentioned in this nonsense word filled poem. (http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html)
And D&D combat doesn't have the granularity to specifically strike an arm.
In fact, the vorpal sword is one of the few places specific body part targeting is mentioned.

Lateral
2011-01-20, 04:28 PM
I once wrote a short song about zombies with vorpal teeth.

One of the lines went something like, "They're the vorpal-toothed zombies/They'll drive you insane/They'll whiffle out of the graveyard/And snicker-snack on your BRAINS! :smalltongue:

@V: All three. They vorpal bite your head off, then suck your brain out through your and I don't really want to puke up my lunch. :smallredface:

Ravens_cry
2011-01-20, 04:32 PM
Would teeth be piercing or slashing damage? Vorpal weapons have to have the Slashing damage type.:smalltongue:

Worira
2011-01-20, 04:36 PM
All three, actually. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#naturalWeapons)

Urpriest
2011-01-20, 04:36 PM
Would teeth be piercing or slashing damage? Vorpal weapons have to have the Slashing damage type.:smalltongue:

Bite is cool in that it covers all damage types, probably due to the different tooth shapes.

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-20, 04:40 PM
A vorpal weapon magically aims for the neck.

I mean, come on. What else would it do?

Urpriest
2011-01-20, 04:48 PM
In order to answer this question, I must ask a question of my own:

So, Keinnicht: how does a +5 weapon work?

raitalin
2011-01-20, 04:51 PM
2e also had the Sword of Sharpness, which would sever a random limb on a crit. Yeah, I'm thinking it's just super-sharp and it magically homes in on the neck.

Dr.Epic
2011-01-20, 04:52 PM
I guess the question here is, what's the explanation behind a vorpal weapon's magic?

A wizard did it!

I don't know. Maybe the weapon magically guides its blade to the neck of your enemy.

Kurald Galain
2011-01-20, 04:53 PM
Are vorpal weapons supposed to be incredibly sharp? Do they guide your hand?

They work on the power of Plot.

Ravens_cry
2011-01-20, 04:56 PM
All three, actually. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#naturalWeapons)

Bite is cool in that it covers all damage types, probably due to the different tooth shapes.
Heh, cool, now I want to see a T-Rex with Vorpal teeth. But only as a GM, never as a player.

Shpadoinkle
2011-01-20, 04:58 PM
I guess the question here is, what's the explanation behind a vorpal weapon's magic?

It's magic.


Are vorpal weapons supposed to be incredibly sharp?

They're magic.


Do they guide your hand?

It's magic, so if you want to go with that, sure.


Do they just magically make the creature's head fall off, even if you stabbed them in the arm?

Whatever floats your boat.

I don't understand why people get so worked up about how magic works. There is literally no explanation for how magic works because it's magic. That's what magic means: something you can't explain logically. If it had a logical explanation you could understand and diagram and detail, it would be called science, not magic.

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-20, 05:00 PM
D&D magic is in fact very scientific.

This is not One More Day. Magic actually makes sense here.

Kurald Galain
2011-01-20, 05:00 PM
It's magic.

Some people like verisimilitude in their magic (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA). That means it can't just do "whatever I like" every time as a cop-out.

The Vorpal Tribble
2011-01-20, 05:03 PM
I always fluffed it so that it's attracted to the most vital organ to which the cutting would mean instantaneous death, which, in general, tends to be the brain stem.


Bite is cool in that it covers all damage types, probably due to the different tooth shapes.
*grins widely*

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-20, 05:06 PM
Cutting the brain stem doesn't result in instantaneous death.

It takes a couple seconds.

The Vorpal Tribble
2011-01-20, 05:09 PM
Cutting the brain stem doesn't result in instantaneous death.

It takes a couple seconds.
:smallannoyed:

*ponders a practical verification of this factoid*

SilverClawShift
2011-01-20, 05:10 PM
Also, the command word to activate the Vorpal property of a weapon is "snicker-snack".

I'm not even close enough to call it ninjutsu, but I literally only came in this thread to say that. So I'm still saying it darn it.

"A vorpal weapon works via snickersnack"

There, I feel better.

*edit*


:smallannoyed:

*ponders a practical verification of this factoid*

This courtesy of wikipedia.


The following report was written by a Dr. Beaurieux, who experimented with the head of a condemned prisoner by the name of Henri Languille, on 28 June 1905:
Here, then, is what I was able to note immediately after the decapitation: the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds. This phenomenon has been remarked by all those finding themselves in the same conditions as myself for observing what happens after the severing of the neck …

I waited for several seconds. The spasmodic movements ceased. […] It was then that I called in a strong, sharp voice: "Languille!" I saw the eyelids slowly lift up, without any spasmodic contractions – I insist advisedly on this peculiarity – but with an even movement, quite distinct and normal, such as happens in everyday life, with people awakened or torn from their thoughts.

Next Languille's eyes very definitely fixed themselves on mine and the pupils focused themselves. I was not, then, dealing with the sort of vague dull look without any expression, that can be observed any day in dying people to whom one speaks: I was dealing with undeniably living eyes which were looking at me. After several seconds, the eyelids closed again […].

It was at that point that I called out again and, once more, without any spasm, slowly, the eyelids lifted and undeniably living eyes fixed themselves on mine with perhaps even more penetration than the first time. Then there was a further closing of the eyelids, but now less complete. I attempted the effect of a third call; there was no further movement – and the eyes took on the glazed look which they have in the dead.[18]

Keld Denar
2011-01-20, 05:14 PM
A wild SilverClawShift has appeared!

/wave

Jair Barik
2011-01-20, 05:18 PM
Hmmmm
Do you think a wizard would be able to cast a still/silenced spell in the round after being hit by a vorpal blow then? They haven't actually been reduced to -10 hp, theyve only been decapitated. It is an important difference.

Skaven
2011-01-20, 05:19 PM
Vorpal weapons install a magical high tensile spring into the targets neck.

wayfare
2011-01-20, 05:20 PM
I've always hated the lack of fluff behind vorpal weapons, so I did what any sane DM would do made up my own.

A Vorpal weapon is:

1) Always made of adamantine, and bypasses dr in that way
2) Is super sharp and can cut through anything. On a critical hit, the vorpal weapon doesn't slice through the head, it simply bisects the opponent.

Lateral
2011-01-20, 05:22 PM
Cutting the brain stem doesn't result in instantaneous death.

It takes a couple seconds.
One round is six seconds, so the death is instantaneous for D&D purposes.

Hmmmm
Do you think a wizard would be able to cast a still/silenced spell in the round after being hit by a vorpal blow then? They haven't actually been reduced to -10 hp, theyve only been decapitated. It is an important difference.

No, because they're dead. :smallannoyed:

Lapak
2011-01-20, 05:22 PM
Some people like verisimilitude in their magic (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA). That means it can't just do "whatever I like" every time as a cop-out.Verisimilitude does not have to mean that everything is explained as long as everything is consistent. It doesn't matter whether a vorpal sword physically redirects your arm as you swing or creates a razor-sharp force field projection when it comes near a neck or creates an inter-planar gate to separate the enemy's head from their body.

If it follows the mechanical rules consistently, "it's enchanted to behead people, flavor that however works for you" is quite sufficient, which is what I think Keinnicht was saying.

(And it's equally true that some people don't like verisimilitude in their magic, and actually prefer magic which works differently every time and breaks its own rules unpredictable. D&D isn't the best system to try to do that in, but there you are. :smallsmile:)

mootoall
2011-01-20, 05:23 PM
Hmmmm Do you think a wizard would be able to cast a still/silenced spell in the round after being hit by a vorpal blow then? They haven't actually been reduced to -10 hp, theyve only been decapitated. It is an important difference. That's like saying "What stops a fighter from fighting after reaching -10 hit points? There're no rules for dying!" Sometimes RAI is necessary ...

Keinnicht
2011-01-20, 05:24 PM
In order to answer this question, I must ask a question of my own:

So, Keinnicht: how does a +5 weapon work?

Presumably by magically making you better at wielding the weapon, or at least that's what I always figured.


Hmmmm
Do you think a wizard would be able to cast a still/silenced spell in the round after being hit by a vorpal blow then? They haven't actually been reduced to -10 hp, theyve only been decapitated. It is an important difference.

They'd probably be too shocked to act. Maybe if they made a concentration check with a humongous DC.

Jair Barik
2011-01-20, 05:25 PM
Pah!
I'm pretty sure I read about a fighter killing the party wizard by throwing his brain at him on these boards...

Lateral
2011-01-20, 05:28 PM
They aren't too shocked to act, they're DEAD. Reduction to -10 HP≠dying. When you're at -10 HP, you're dead, but not all death is caused by reduction to -10 hp.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#dead: (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#dead)

Dead
The character’s hit points are reduced to -10, his Constitution drops to 0, or he is killed outright by a spell or effect. The character’s soul leaves his body. Dead characters cannot benefit from normal or magical healing, but they can be restored to life via magic. A dead body decays normally unless magically preserved, but magic that restores a dead character to life also restores the body either to full health or to its condition at the time of death (depending on the spell or device). Either way, resurrected characters need not worry about rigor mortis, decomposition, and other conditions that affect dead bodies.

SilverClawShift
2011-01-20, 05:29 PM
A wild SilverClawShift has appeared!

/wave

I been postin ya'll!

Jair Barik
2011-01-20, 05:32 PM
You'll have to present more than claer logic and definitive proof to convince me I'm afraid.

Lateral
2011-01-20, 05:36 PM
You'll have to present more than claer logic and definitive proof to convince me I'm afraid.

Wait, what?

Urpriest
2011-01-20, 05:42 PM
Presumably by magically making you better at wielding the weapon, or at least that's what I always figured.


Ok, then think about this: what if a vorpal weapon magically makes you better at wielding the weapon?

Now you might say, wait a minute, then why would it have the specific effect of cutting off things' heads? Well, think about this:

When Fighters get better at wielding their weapons, they get more attacks.

When Warblades get better at wielding their weapons, they get higher level maneuvers.

When Factotums get better at wielding their weapons, they get more Iajitsu dice or something.

Point is, most characters get better at wielding their weapons through other methods than just getting higher attack/damage bonuses. So higher attack/damage bonuses don't model skill with the weapon in any kind of absolute sense, they simply model one effect of increased skill with a weapon. Y'know what else a person more skilled with a weapon does? Kills things more often. Particularly when the weapon is supernaturally sharp, this might well be reflected in cutting off heads. So there's your answer. Vorpal works the same way +5 works, it's just another way to represent it.


Pah!
I'm pretty sure I read about a fighter killing the party wizard by throwing his brain at him on these boards...

No, you read about a barbarian killing a psion. Sheesh.

The Vorpal Tribble
2011-01-20, 05:46 PM
This courtesy of wikipedia.
It was a threat of decapitation in jest...

However, yeah, possibly could still be alive for a few seconds, but then aside from totally blowing their head to bits, there's not much of a faster way.

Jair Barik
2011-01-20, 05:47 PM
Wait, what?

Sorry I can see why my post is confusing. What I meant to say was this.

'You'll have to present more than clear logic and definitive proof to convince me I'm afraid.' :smallwink:

Keld Denar
2011-01-20, 05:50 PM
MFin Vorpal weapons, how do they work?

Ravens_cry
2011-01-20, 05:57 PM
Even if you are still aware during the few seconds it takes for you to lose conciousness after your head is lopped off, you are not connected to the body more. No somatic or material components, no verbal as you are literally out of breath and may even lack vocal cords depending where cut. And having your head cut off and tumbling to the ground would be disorienting , so make a concentration check to even potentially cast the spell.
I am open on the subject, but mostly no.

Jair Barik
2011-01-20, 06:02 PM
Silenced, still fireball with eschew materials?

Alternatively just for the sheer awesomeness of it something like wail of the banshee or blasphemy would be a pretty cool way to go.

Lateral
2011-01-20, 06:11 PM
Besides, it's not your turn. It's the other guy's turn, and you're dead before it ends.

Also, you CAN'T TAKE ACTIONS BECAUSE YOU ARE DEAD. YOU ARE A CORPSE AND THEREFORE ARE AN OBJECT AND INANIMATE OBJECTS DON'T TAKE ACTIONS.

Besides, not only does D&D not use physics, PHYSICS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!

Yeesh, it's like it's raining dead catgirls. Please, think of the catgirls. :smallmad:

@V: Sorry. My :smallfurious: neurons have been working overtime lately, and my :smalltongue: receptors are malfunctioning. :smalltongue:

Jair Barik
2011-01-20, 06:15 PM
Poor catgirls...
I'd ignore jair if I were you Lateral, he rarely makes any sense if you ask me.
Also this thread really makes me want to run a campaign with a Jabberwocky as the villain (cannot be killed except by a blow from a vorpal weapon)

Ravens_cry
2011-01-20, 06:24 PM
Poor catgirls...
I'd ignore jair if I were you Lateral, he rarely makes any sense if you ask me.
Also this thread really makes me want to run a campaign with a Jabberwocky as the villain (cannot be killed except by a blow from a vorpal weapon)
I am a Level 1 ranger with Favoured Enemy: Humanoid (Catgirl).
Oh, but those things are so < expletive redacted/> useless. Occasionally, they will destroy plots, but are mostly just, not any better then a +1 sword.

DeMouse
2011-01-20, 08:04 PM
Enchanting a sword with the vorpral property reconstitutres the steel into handwavium, handwavium acts however you think makes most sense

dgnslyr
2011-01-20, 08:49 PM
My two cents on Vorpal Weapons:

On a natural 20, the blade of a vorpal weapon seems to guide itself, as if moved by an unseen hand. This force compels the blade to seek the neck of the target, sharpening the blade to unimaginable sharpness long enough to land the decisive strike.

When a weapon is enchanted with Vorpal and you get a natural 20, it's not so much you swinging the sword anymore as it is the neck-hungering energies that reside within the blade lunging towards the neck.

Captain Six
2011-01-20, 09:13 PM
As there are no rules for called shots in D&D it can be assumed most people in the D&D world are not blessed with the notion of a lethal hit location and vorpal weapons magically bestow "neck-awareness" upon their wielders. Only when the vorpal weapon is drawn and swung will it dawn on the wielder that necks do, in fact, exist and that it would ruin his enemy's day if he were to aim for it. After the weapon has finished its swing the notion leaves the wielder's head before it can be documented.

Amiel
2011-01-20, 10:10 PM
It was a threat of decapitation in jest...

However, yeah, possibly could still be alive for a few seconds, but then aside from totally blowing their head to bits, there's not much of a faster way.

Bizarrely and perhaps amusingly, there was a documented case of a real-life chicken who survived, nay thrived for two years without a head.
"On 10 September 1945, a plump young cockerel in Fruita, Colorado, had his head chopped off and lived. Incredibly, the axe missed the jugular vein and left enough of the brain stem attached to the neck for him to survive [...] Mike (as the chicken was known) was fed and watered using an eyedropper. In the two years after he lost his head, he put on nearly six pounds and spent his time happily preening and 'pecking' for food with his neck."
He finally succumbed after a fit of choking.

Psyren
2011-01-20, 10:16 PM
One round is six seconds, so the death is instantaneous for D&D purposes.

Actually, in D&D it takes a couple of days (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/decerebrate.htm) :smalltongue:

Cerlis
2011-01-20, 11:30 PM
the reason for weapon damage range and HP is that every attack isnt the same. you swing your sword and the dice account for misteps, misses, bouncing off armor, hitting barely, hitting deep near misses. all without having to worry about rules. the randomness of the dice represents all the thousands of variables.

So say you attack witha longsword. you deal one damage, you probably cut his arm. If you roll 4 damage, you slashed a deep wound in his thigh, side, shoulder. If you roll an 8 (that should be enough to kill all lvl 1 commoners) then you pierced his heart, his gut, cut off his head. fatal wound.

HP accounts into this because a move that might kill an unexperienced person wont kill a expert. If all the variables aline correctly a swing from a commoner with a longsword will kill a commoner. but the level 10 paladin is an expert at warfare. Despite the Good hit, the paladin manages to dodge enough to turn the attack that would have sliced his face open, into a slice on the cheek.

Simular, a dagger, its harder to kill someone with it (well) with a normal cut. the blade isnt big enough. However a critical hit (such as slicing an artery, throat or stabbing in gut face or chest) you will notices DOES do enough damage to kill someone.

Critical hits are critical hits, they represent hitting a vital spot. this can overlap with lethal damage of course. Say you are using a Scimitar which is better at slashing, well suddenly that slash across the chest is a deep serious would rather than a shallow cut. That arrow shot or sneak attack hits a large area of blood vessels rather than empty flesh.

So since Vorpal happens ONLY on an automatic hit crit. it is reasonable to assume you hit the monster expertly. That it is in a vital spot.

It would be good fluff to say it just instant kills something with a true anatomy, so you can kill stuff by running it through the heart.

But since a critical hit, or just high damage roll can represent a variety of examples, i believe it is assumed and reasonable to to say that when that critical time comes, and your sword realizes it has the opportunity to destroy the enemy completely (the stars aline to make a critical hit) it fills with power and guides your hand and enforces itself to slice off the creates head.

-------
Long story short, its not as if you slice its leg and it flies up 4 feet and cuts off the guys head. It was never assumed you sliced his leg in the first place, you cut off his head, so obviously you sliced at his head.

The variables are to complicated. If you want to look at how damage and combat actually works, look at the damage first and then figure out what it represents.

AxeD
2011-01-20, 11:39 PM
Heh, cool, now I want to see a T-Rex with Vorpal teeth. But only as a GM, never as a player.

It might be a good idea not to try (as a GM). If you open up that door, doesn't it mean that the players will also get an option to try that?

Otacon17
2011-01-20, 11:59 PM
I always sort of assumed that vorpal weapons were imbued with very, very powerful magic, and most creatures couldn't handle it. So when you stabbed someone with a vorpal weapon (on a natural 20, anyway) their body overloaded with magic and it made their head pop off.

...well, probably not, but I kind of like the idea of cutting someone's arm so hard their head flies off. It's delightfully silly, which seems closer to the spirit of The Jabberwocky than the more mundane 'it magically guides your blade' explanation.

Hm. Y'know, Hercules vs. the Lernaean Hydra would've been much more entertaining if he'd had a vorpal sword...

Cerlis
2011-01-21, 12:57 AM
I always sort of assumed that vorpal weapons were imbued with very, very powerful magic, and most creatures couldn't handle it. So when you stabbed someone with a vorpal weapon (on a natural 20, anyway) their body overloaded with magic and it made their head pop off.

...well, probably not, but I kind of like the idea of cutting someone's arm so hard their head flies off. It's delightfully silly, which seems closer to the spirit of The Jabberwocky than the more mundane 'it magically guides your blade' explanation.

Hm. Y'know, Hercules vs. the Lernaean Hydra would've been much more entertaining if he'd had a vorpal sword...


hmm, but I'm not sure if it was the original description or a description of a magic weapon in a dragonlance book. but i read somewhere a magic sword (a +X weapon) being described as helping the weilder. As in the magic in the weapon isnt just some mundane magic. but a magical force that aides the weilder and the intent of the item by guiding the arm, deflecting strikes you might have barely missed and all that jazz.

Indeed what you said was fun. All i'm saying is that the image i got from whatever that description was seemed very satisfying. It went with a lesser form of the whole Magic is alive, animated items have personality (i.e. harry potter), if its magic its special and not just a ancient version of a lightsabre stiche.

Zaq
2011-01-21, 01:42 AM
Well, duh. When you get a nat 20, it goes one-two, one-two, and through and through. You know the rest from there.

dgnslyr
2011-01-21, 01:44 AM
Actually, in D&D it takes a couple of days (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/decerebrate.htm) :smalltongue:

Wait, if it removes a portion of the brain stem then why does it specifically cite inability to perform voluntary actions, when the brain stems main job is to deal with involuntary actions? My neurology is not particularly outstanding, but something doesn't seem right about that description.

Greymane
2011-01-21, 06:43 AM
Heh, cool, now I want to see a T-Rex with Vorpal teeth. But only as a GM, never as a player.

Take Versatile Unarmed Strike.

Somehow enchant your fists.

Fist of the North Star.

Mercenary Pen
2011-01-21, 08:54 AM
It might be a good idea not to try (as a GM). If you open up that door, doesn't it mean that the players will also get an option to try that?

Warning: The suggestions beneath are homebrew-based ideas and have no relation to RAW.

Silly interpretation of vorpal: Perhaps they do, but now every time they eat, they have to hope they don't bite their tongue (set a DC or similar for this), just in case they manage the auto-crit and kill themselves... makes me wonder how vorpal tribble has managed for so long...

Sensible interpretation of vorpal: I'd wonder here how much stress being enchanted as a weapon would place on the humanoid anatomy, considering that human flesh has significantly different qualities to most if not all weapons materials- I'd suggest there is a high possibility of damage to the person whose teeth were enhanced by this process

Clovis
2011-01-21, 09:11 AM
The sharpest weapon has to be the scythe of Death in Discworld. He whittled the blade with light. It was so sharp that it cut single photons thereby sparkling faintly in a dim room. That's vorpal!

bokodasu
2011-01-21, 09:21 AM
I'd wonder here how much stress being enchanted as a weapon would place on the humanoid anatomy...

Necklace of Natural Weapons (Savage Species). Take it off before trying to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Killer Angel
2011-01-21, 09:47 AM
I don't understand why people get so worked up about how magic works. There is literally no explanation for how magic works because it's magic. That's what magic means: something you can't explain logically.

I don't agree.
Magic works on very specific rules, based on logical and "scientific" principles.
Only, to understand 'em, you must be naturally gifted, or having proper ranks in Knowledge arcana / spellcraft.
Ah, if only my character could explain those rules also to me... :smalltongue:

SilverLeaf167
2011-01-21, 09:53 AM
Kind of silly (like most of my stuff), but I'd fluff it as sending a wave of energy through the enemy's body, making their head EXPLODE. You know, when you die (especially at that level) it doesn't really matter whether your head falls off or explodes.

Killer Angel
2011-01-21, 10:08 AM
The sharpest weapon has to be the scythe of Death in Discworld. He whittled the blade with light.

To be fair, I remember that Discworld light, is described as slow and lazy... :smalltongue:

Sebastrd
2011-01-21, 11:00 AM
In the novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll, Alice reads a poem entitled "Jabberwocky". The poem is famous for Carroll's use of seemingly nonsense, made up words. For example:

Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe

In the poem the protaganist slays a fierce beast, the Jabberwocky, by chopping off its head with the vorpal sword which makes the sound "snicker-snack":

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

The vorpal sword, like such things as ogres, trolls, rings of invisibility, etc., is simply another piece of folklore that made its way into D&D. There is no simple explanation for how vorpal swords sever heads; that's simply what vorpal swords do.

Vicril
2011-01-21, 02:06 PM
This is probably far from everyone's mindset of a vorpal weapon, but I also started developing this idea when I was young and my grandma read me Through the Looking-Glass.

I always took more to the "snicker snack" detail then the head cutting off bit. So when I was older and developing my own fluff for my game I took the vorpal blade and gave it my own relevant fluff and definition. That being said my idea behind a vorpal weapon:

A weapon that is at all times incredibly sharp, even if it appears to be dull. When the weapon's edge makes contact with target it makes a series of crackling sounds ("snicker-snack"). The magic infused in the weapon bends space around the edge of the weapon, severing anything it touches (within reason so magically indestructible things are out, tough metals are hard to cut, etc.).
Also the weapon seems to have an intelligences as to when it will hit a viable target and will only be sharp when it deems it necessary to be so (This is to represent the feeling of it being guided to the target and keep it from eating through sheaths and accidentally killing PCs while their just walking about with it hanging on their backs or waists).

Like I said, it's a kind of homebrew idea I made long before playing anything like DnD, but I've always kept it around because I like the fluff and the idea (or possible dilemma) of giving a player an incredibly dangerous weapon that they themselves are afraid to wield. And yes, I've made vorpal war hammers with the same definition, but rather then them being sharp, they rend and shred. Picture a blender's blades spinning full speed on the striking end of the hammer.

Keld Denar
2011-01-21, 02:22 PM
Someone around here had a quote in their sig that said:

"I once had an intelligent vorpal sword, but all it said was snicker-snack."

I thought it was funny.

EagleWiz
2011-01-21, 06:20 PM
If the sword just makes the wielder hit the neck FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE autokill then how can a gnome kill a collosal dragon with a vorpal sword? Thats like an ant killing a human with a magic toothpick.

JaronK
2011-01-21, 06:30 PM
One of the lines went something like, "They're the vorpal-toothed zombies/They'll drive you insane/They'll whiffle out of the graveyard/And snicker-snack on your BRAINS! :smalltongue:

Wow, now I want to see the rest of this poem. It's awesome!

Anyway, I've always assumed that since Vorpal is such a powerful enchantment (it takes +5 worth of bonus) it's actually guiding the blade towards the neck. After all, it's worthless against Lumi and others with no necks. So a Gnome fighting a Giant with a Vorpal Blade might suddenly find that he's jumped up 20+' in the air and hacked the giant's head off. Perhaps the blade even elongated temporarily to be just long enough to take off the head.

And of course this makes a nice snicker snack noise. I imagine it snickers as the blade senses a neck and moves towards it, and then the head pops off with an audible "snack."

JaronK

Shpadoinkle
2011-01-21, 06:32 PM
Thats like an ant killing a human with a magic toothpick.

MAGIC being the operative word here. All things are possible with magic. Yes, even incredibly stupid things, because it's magic.

JaronK
2011-01-21, 07:02 PM
It's more like a man sized creature taking down a giant sea god with a sword, if you ask me. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sS6U7pTrvs&feature=related)

JaronK

Cerlis
2011-01-21, 11:26 PM
If the sword just makes the wielder hit the neck FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE autokill then how can a gnome kill a collosal dragon with a vorpal sword? Thats like an ant killing a human with a magic toothpick.

I always imagined it as manifesting some sort of magical blade extension (think video games) tha extends out the sword.

It is a +5 enhancement. Thats half the magic its physically possible to put in a weapon. Sounds reasonible to me.

tyckspoon
2011-01-22, 12:10 AM
To be fair, I remember that Discworld light, is described as slow and lazy... :smalltongue:

Specifically, it's slower in an area of high magic. Which is basically the entire Disc, and then you get the areas where the magic itself pools, causing dawn to take noticeably longer to cross those areas. A photon, however, is still a photon (as best we know), no matter how delayed it is, and so cutting up bits of light would still require something with an impossibly fine edge.


One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

Curiously enough, that doesn't actually say the sword cut off its head. It says he killed it and took its head back, which is a pretty common method of proving a kill regardless of what the actual killing blow was.

Archpaladin Zousha
2011-01-22, 12:58 AM
Poor catgirls...
I'd ignore jair if I were you Lateral, he rarely makes any sense if you ask me.
Also this thread really makes me want to run a campaign with a Jabberwocky as the villain (cannot be killed except by a blow from a vorpal weapon)

The Pathfinder Bestiary 2 actually has stats for a Jabberwock. It can be killed by conventional means, but it has a weakness against vorpal weapons.

AslanCross
2011-01-22, 01:25 AM
If the sword just makes the wielder hit the neck FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE autokill then how can a gnome kill a collosal dragon with a vorpal sword? Thats like an ant killing a human with a magic toothpick.

There's probably many legends out there that involve the use of an innocuous item to slay another. In the Mahabharata, the warrior Ashwatthama invokes a divine, creation-erasing weapon into a blade of grass.

grimbold
2011-01-22, 02:23 AM
There is no rhyme or reason. It just is.

Also, the command word to activate the Vorpal property of a weapon is "snicker-snack".

that last bit made my day
i always thought it was ridiculous that we had a blade named after what was pretty much a nonsense poem

i think that the sword is guided by magic and lets you kill people that way.

Hironomus
2011-01-22, 02:35 AM
I once read a description of the vorpal sword (not just any vorpal sword THE vorpal sword) in action that I rather liked.
It was written as though it took control of you for an instant and guided the blade to the opponents neck. It also said something about even the most unskilled warrior being unable to fail at decapitating even the most fearsome foe (on a critical hit of course).
I really wish I could remember which book I read this in but alas I cannot be certain.
Try the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde or perhaps the Fable series of graphic novels.