Need help making an equivalent of a Vorpal Sword for bludgeoning and piercing weapons

[supergoji18]

In my campaign, I intend to have a metal called Vorpal Steel. This will be an extraordinarily rare metal that can be used to forge armor and weapons of the highest quality. I intend to give weapons and armor made from this material some very powerful bonuses.

Any weapon that does slashing damage will become a Vorpal version of that weapon (+3 bonus to attack and damage rolls, cut off a creature's head on a crit). I need something equivalent for weapons that do bludgeoning and piercing damage. I also need something for the armor. I'm thinking of combining the effects of a +3 armor and an armor of invulnerability (minus the action that grants you immunity).

What do you think?

[hellgrammite]

For bludgeoning, roll a d6. On a 1 you crush a head, on a two or three you crush an arm, on a four or five you crush a leg. On a 6 its a normal critical hit. Crush an appendage leaves them with a permanent condition.

Piecing - Instead of doubling dice on a critical hit, you quadruple it.

I would downgrade the vorpal sword to require a saving throw to get your head chopped off. It is insane.

[Contrast]

Why does the effect need to be different?

Vorpal decapitates you but the actual effect is an instakill (assuming they're vulnerable).

So just have a bludgeoning weapon inflict a particularly devastating blow which completely crushes the victim, killing them instantly, which a piercing weapon plunges straight through the opponent, killing them instantly.

Maybe throw in a caveat that they need to have internal organs to pierce/crush or something like the decapitation one requires a head?

Edit - armour, I'd just use adamantine armour personally.

[Easy_Lee]

Lethal concussion from bludgeoning, and pierce the brainstem for piercing. That said, I dislike swingy mechanics such as these, and vorpal weapons are subject to abuse. Imagine a vorpal blade on a warlock when combined with Elven Accuracy, granting approximately a 15% chance per attack to instakill humanoid targets from darkness.

[Nettlekid]

The piercing version should skewer and remove the heart of the target, and the bludgeoning version should maybe pulverize the skeleton.

For the armor, perhaps whenever a critical hit is scored against the wearer the wearer then rolls a d20, and on a 20 the critical is negated and damage is rolled normally. It won't come up a lot, but it'll be crazy when an enemy's Vorpal crit is cancelled by your own Vorpal armor.

[Yuroch Kern]

Had a club in good old AD&D 2ed. It was called the Club of Severing. Did everthing the old Sword of Sharpness did, except it was...graphic. My barbarian didn't care, though. Same thing here. Crushes/knocks off extremity. Impales/skewers off body part. The only real difference is damage type, gore factor, and group tastes...you guys like splatterhorror movies?

[supergoji18]

Why does the effect need to be different?

This is the exact question I started asking myself halfway through coming up with ideas after posting this XD

[Randomthom]

I'd start by making (slashing) vorpal itself less ridiculous, tone it down & there's a lot you can do with the 3 damage types.

My suggestion;
Slashing - Evisceration - on crit: +1 damage die & all dice are maximised (e.g a crit with a longsword (1h) now deals 3d8 on a crit maximised for 24 damage before modifiers).
Bludgeoning - Thundering - on crit: +1 damage die & Constitution saving throw DC = 10 + ½ damage dealt or be stunned for 1d3 rounds.
Piercing - Shredding - on crit: +1 damage die & a) bleeding for 2 damage die per round for 1d6 rounds OR b) Strength/Dex saving throw DC = 10 + ½ damage dealt or be immobilized for 1d4 rounds.

[mephnick]

Just keep the general effect the same and change the fluff.

Piercing - Heartseeking Weapon: Crit = autodeath by perfectly piercing most vital organ. Does not work on monsters without organs.

Bludgeon - Same thing as vorpal but it explodes a dude's head.

[Vogie]

I think the best way to balance things is by making them more niche - limit the vorpal excellence effect to a certain class or body part.

That way you can divvy up the effects in a more interesting manner.

The existing "vorpal" is now errata'd as "Slashing-Vorpal (neck)"

Other existing Slashing-Vorpal options include

Slashing-Vorpal (limb) (+3 bonus to attack and damage rolls, cut off a creature's limb on a crit).
Slashing-Vorpal (Weapon) (+2 bonus to attack and damage rolls, bisect a creature's weapon on a crit).
Slashing-Vorpal (Missile) (+2 bonus to damage rolls, and you can use your reaction to bisect missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon attack, or when a missile passes within 5 feet of you. When you do so, the damage taken from the attack is reduced by 1d20 + your Dexterity modifier).



You can then reapply similar niches to other vorpal

Bludgeoning-Vorpal (Skull) (+3 bonus to attack and damage rolls, smash a creature's skull on a crit).
Bludgeoning-Vorpal (Head) (+2 bonus to attack rolls, the creature is effected by Confusion (as the spell) on a crit).
Bludgeoning-Vorpal (Limb) (+3 bonus to attack and damage rolls, crush a creature's joint or limb on a crit).
Bludgeoning-Vorpal (Armor) (+1 bonus to attack and damage rolls, destroy a creature's shield (or reduce AC by 12) on a crit).
Bludgeoning-Vorpal (Gravity) (+2 bonus to attack and damage rolls, on Crit you either knocking medium or smaller creatures 20+2d10 feet away or knock a huge or large creature prone).
Bludgeoning-Vorpal (Existence) (+1 bonus to attack, +2d10 damage rolls, on Crit you knock the creature out of the plane of existence (as the spell Banishing Smite)).
Piercing-Vorpal (Head) (+3 bonus to attack and damage rolls, punch a hole in a creature's head on a crit).
Piercing-Vorpal (Heartseeker) (+2 bonus to attack and damage rolls, pierce a creature's heart on a crit).
Piercing-Vorpal (Gutseeker) (+2 bonus to attack and damage rolls, pierce a creature's lower intestines on a crit, causing the target to bleed for 2d20 per round for 1d10 rounds).
Piercing-Vorpal (Armor) (+5 bonus to attack rolls, punch a hole in a creature's armor on a crit, reducing their AC by 2d10).
Piercing-Vorpal (Hand) (+2 bonus to attack rolls, pierce a creature's hand on a crit, forcing it to drop one item of your choice that it's holding).
Piercing-Vorpal (Foot) (+2 bonus to attack rolls, pierce a creature's foot on a crit, dealing 2d8 damage and reducing the creature’s speed to 0 feet until the end of your next turn).
Armor-Vorpal (Melee) (18 AC, When a creature misses you with a melee attack roll, you may, as a reaction, cause that attack to hit one creature of your choice, other than the attacker, that you can see within 5 feet of you)
Armor-Vorpal (Ranged) (16 AC, you can use your reaction to deflect a missile when you are missed by a ranged weapon attack, causing the attack to hit one creature of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of you.)
Armor-Vorpal (Snagging) (18 AC, when hit by a melee attack roll, the attacker must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, it drops the object you choose. The object lands at its feet.)