Vorpalizing a Weapon [3.5]

[FinalJustice]

Hello fellas, does anyone know a method to turn a weapon into vorpal that doesn't involve forking over a truck of gold? Spells, preferentially, but feats or PrCs might do.

5 Levels of Kensai or, god forbid, Soulknife are the best I could come up so far. Both are inviable to me.

Thanks in advance. ;)

[quick_comment]

The greater weapon augmentation infusion

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Why bother? Vorpal sucks in 3.5. Only works on a nat 20, not just a confirmed crit, and isn't effective vs much by the time you can get it.

[Alleine]

Leadership, get a cohort with levels in fiend of possession from the Fiend Folio. They can posses a weapon an essentially enchant it for a bonus(or equivalent bonus) as high as their FoP level.

[Korivan]

Why bother? Vorpal sucks in 3.5. Only works on a nat 20, not just a confirmed crit, and isn't effective vs much by the time you can get it.

Earlier editions:
DM: The mage identifies the weapon you picked up possessing the Vorpal qualities...
Player: YAAAAAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

3-3.5 edition:
DM: The mage identifies the weapon you picked up possessing the Vorpal qualities...
Player: Well, its still worth alot. I try to sell it...
DM: He says he doesn't want it, and no weaponsmith in town will buy it.
Player:

[Sinfire Titan]

Earlier editions:
DM: The mage identifies the weapon you picked up possessing the Vorpal qualities...
Player: YAAAAAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

3-3.5 edition:
DM: The mage identifies the weapon you picked up possessing the Vorpal qualities...
Player: Well, its still worth alot. I try to sell it...
DM: He says he doesn't want it, and no weaponsmith in town will buy it.
Player:

Blessed With Suck at its finest.

[FinalJustice]

Yeah, I know, Vorpal sucks beyond measure. It's part of a character concept and I really, really don't want to spend almost half my WBL in it.

[quick_comment]

Vorpal becomes really, really broken when you are a cleric who can cast surge of fortune.

[FinalJustice]

This may also be part of my character concept, yes. =P

(Don't worry, I don't plan to sneak around and break games, as unlikely as this may sound)

[Keld Denar]

Blessed With Suck at its finest.

DEWD!!! Sinfire...seriously? Friends don't let friends link TVTropes...

[ericgrau]

A typical high level character might hit 3-4 times around (across more attacks than that), or just once on single attacks. After about 8 rounds you'll knock someone's head off. So maybe once every fight or two. Maybe not the greatest thing, but it doesn't suck. IMO it's more feared in the hands of monsters, though, since PCs will probably kill with damage quickly enough anyway. Lucky monsters, OTOH, get "I killed a PC" t-shirts that they otherwise might have no hope of obtaining.

As for how often it works:
Yes: animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, outsider (including demons, etc.), vermin
No: construct, elemental, ooze, plant, undead

Note that creatures from each list tend to be found at all levels. I don't buy into "good stuff doesn't work at high levels b/c high level monsters are immune" arguments. Well, except with SR, which is intentionally set up this way.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

A typical high level character might hit 3-4 times around (across more attacks than that), or just once on single attacks. After about 8 rounds you'll knock someone's head off. So maybe once every fight or two. Maybe not the greatest thing, but it doesn't suck. IMO it's more feared in the hands of monsters, though, since PCs will probably kill with damage quickly enough anyway. Lucky monsters, OTOH, get "I killed a PC" t-shirts that they otherwise might have no hope of obtaining.

+5 enhancement. We're talking about adding 70K at the minimum to the price for something that kicks in once every 4 rounds at best(4 attacks from BAB, +1 haste), assuming you beat their AC, and then only works on one target that a confirmed crit probably would have killed anyways(If you're waiting for a nat-20, you're looking at x3 or better).

[Sinfire Titan]

DEWD!!! Sinfire...seriously? Friends don't let friends link TVTropes...

You may not be aware of this, but I'm a Chaos Cultist of Tzeentch. Spreading entropy is one of our jobs...

[Gan The Grey]

You can double your vorpal chances with one of the luck feats from Complete Scoundrel. I don't remember the name, but it allows you to spend a luck reroll when ever you roll a 1 in order to treat it as a 20.

[Curmudgeon]

You can double your vorpal chances with one of the luck feats from Complete Scoundrel. I don't remember the name, but it allows you to spend a luck reroll when ever you roll a 1 in order to treat it as a 20.

That would be Better Lucky Than Good. But you need two luck feats as prerequisites.

[Adumbration]

DEWD!!! Sinfire...seriously? Friends don't let friends link TVTropes...

I concur. I just got trapped for 2 and a half hours. I also found 4 references to the Giantitp forums.

[Atelm]

I concur. I just got trapped for 2 and a half hours. I also found 4 references to the Giantitp forums.

Happens to me all the time, mostly in the form of a Wiki Walk.

[Keewatin]

Was there any reason given why vorpal switched from any crit to just natural 20? I mean once they got rid of stacking crit buffs you would think that solved the issue

[Grumman]

Was there any reason given why vorpal switched from any crit to just natural 20? I mean once they got rid of stacking crit buffs you would think that solved the issue

That's still a 30% chance, with the right weapon.

[taltamir]

1. the things you are fighting at the point where you can get a +5 sword are all immune to beheading.
2. the +5 bonus is more deadly against things that aren't immune to beheading.

[taltamir]

I concur. I just got trapped for 2 and a half hours. I also found 4 references to the Giantitp forums.

i got you beat... 6 hours.

[Telonius]

Was there any reason given why vorpal switched from any crit to just natural 20? I mean once they got rid of stacking crit buffs you would think that solved the issue

I have a feeling it was due to them being worried about how many attacks you could get. For an extreme example, a Hasted Greater TWF Fighter 20 with Improved Critical and two Vorpal Kukris. (Don't ask me how he afforded that or survived to be level 20). 18/18/18/13/13/8/8/3 before Str and other bonuses. Assuming all of them hit (which is a big assumption), that's 8 hits, each with a 30% chance of being a critical. You would behead two things per full attack if it were based on crits. That's not counting any extra attacks you might get from Great Cleave, which I assume the designers thought every Fighter would want to take. Even if you went with just a single Improved Crit Vorpal Falchion, without Haste, that's 20/15/10/5. If all four hit, each with a 30% chance of a crit, you would still behead something once per full attack if it were based on crits instead of natural 20s.

[Mongoose87]

I thought Vorpal weapons severed your Astral cord or something like that, rather than removing your head?

[Eldariel]

I thought Vorpal weapons severed your Astral cord or something like that, rather than removing your head?

That's the Githyanki Silver Sword.

[ZeroNumerous]

That's the Githyanki Silver Sword.

Same effect though, just one needs to be on the Astral Plane to function.

[Kaiyanwang]

Same effect though, just one needs to be on the Astral Plane to function.

Not quite. If you have more than an head, in astral plane you are auto-killed with the Silver Sword.

[Emy]

There's always the Artificer's Retain Essence class feature.

[Spiryt]

Was there any reason given why vorpal switched from any crit to just natural 20? I mean once they got rid of stacking crit buffs you would think that solved the issue

That would unbalance things towards often criting weapons a bit, or rather, there would be no point in putting Vorpal on axe, for example.

[taltamir]

That would unbalance things towards often criting weapons a bit, or rather, there would be no point in putting Vorpal on axe, for example.

so? not everything must be the exact same thing in a different appearance.

Yea, no point of putting vorpal on an axe. Also no point of weilding most sub optimal weapons... except things like vorpal, trips, etc GIVE points to those weapons.

[Heliomance]

If you try, you can get a 9-20 crit range. You can't tell me making vorpal fire off that is a good idea.