Heads Up! New Ways to Decapitate Your Enemy... [D&D 3.5, PEACH]

[Ertier]

The Vorpal Sword. Some would call it the quintessential weapon of D&D. After all, what is cooler than being able to cut off an opponents head on a successful critical hit. However, short of this, there are no ways (outside of perhaps the DM description of a kill) to feasibly cut someone’s head off. So, may I present, a new weapon, and a feat, formulated to excite you to the point of decapitation.


NEW WEAPON

Wire Blade 1000 gp
Exotic Light Melee Weapon (Reach)

Damage: 1d4 S, 1d6 M
Reach: 15 ft (treat as a Spiked Chain)
Critical: 19-20/x3
Damage Type: Piercing or Slashing
Special Qualities: See Text

A Wire Blade resembles a Short Sword blade attached to a long, thin, steel cable. It possesses no hilt or guard, and generally has no fullers. However, due to its construction, it has a high cost for a non-magical weapon (Wire Blades are always Masterwork). In order to use effectively (or at all), the wielder must not only posses the required proficiency feat, but also Weapon Focus (Wire Blade). Failure to meet these requirements renders the weapon unusable as anything other than a Masterwork Short Sword. However, when the prerequisites are met, the Wire Blade is a formidable weapon indeed. Like a Spiked Chain, it can strike adjacent foes in addition to ones far away. A Wire Blade can also be used to trip (similar to a Spiked Chain) and grapple at a distance.

Stranglehold:
Rolling a natural 19 or 20 on a grapple attempt with this weapon indicates the wire of the blade has wrapped itself around the target’s neck instead of it’s body. Treat this as strangulation. If at any time during the process of strangulation, should the wielder roll a natural 20, they may attempt to confirm it as though it were a critical hit. If successful, the target is decapitated (and presumably killed).

Other Uses:
A Wire Blade can also be used as a grappling hook in conjunction with a Use Rope check if the wielder meets the weapon’s requirements. Using a Wire Blade grants a +2 to trip, sunder and grapple attempts made with it.

NEW FEAT


Vorpal Unarmed Strike
[Epic]
Prerequisites: Stunning Fist, Improved Unarmed Strike, STR 25, DEX 25

Effect: Expend one use of Stunning Fist to treat your Unarmed Strikes as Vorpal for a number of minutes equal to your Character Level (multiple expenditures do not stack). In addition, expending all uses the of Stunning Fist, rather than just one, (must have maximum uses remaining) automatically confirms any critical hit/Vorpal confirmations for a number of minutes equal to your character level in addition to the normal effect. Using this feat leaves you exhausted.

Special: Vorpal Unarmed Strike can be taken as a Fighter Bonus Feat

[Debihuman]

Vorpal is "magic weapon special ability," not one that should be given away cheaply. 1000 gp is far too cheap for this ability.

Debby

[Drolyt]

I don't think the weapon is unbalanced. Assuming normal WBL it takes a while to get and it's not as powerful as a vorpal weapon. As for the feat, I coulda swore that there was already an epic feat that did that. All in all pretty cool.

[Mulletmanalive]

From a personal point of view, there is too much random chance involved here; then again, I've used the idea that Vorpal Weapons only work against things with 5 fewer HD than the character wielding it [we're always been under the oppinion that insta-kills are boring, hence the lack of wizards too...]

Beyond my own oppinion, this wouldn't be balanced in a normal campaign. On the other hand, it would be fine if you were to use it in a campaign where Sundering were reasonably common.

I still think that there's rather a lot to do with this weapon that has nothing to do with skill in using it though.

[Drolyt]

From a personal point of view, there is too much random chance involved here; then again, I've used the idea that Vorpal Weapons only work against things with 5 fewer HD than the character wielding it [we're always been under the oppinion that insta-kills are boring, hence the lack of wizards too...]

Beyond my own oppinion, this wouldn't be balanced in a normal campaign. On the other hand, it would be fine if you were to use it in a campaign where Sundering were reasonably common.

I still think that there's rather a lot to do with this weapon that has nothing to do with skill in using it though.

I disagree. There is a lot of random chance, and I don't like that, but it is hardly unbalanced.

[Milskidasith]

Vorpal is "magic weapon special ability," not one that should be given away cheaply. 1000 gp is far too cheap for this ability.

Debby

It's not a vorpal weapon. It's a weapon that if you crit twice in a row while preforming a specific type of attack (grapple) you get to roll to confirm a decapitation. That's kind of like a level 1 wizard spell where if an enemy fails two saves with a natural one and fails a third normal save, they die. Sure, it has the instadeath ability of later spells, but it's so unlikely to ever happen it's useless.

Plus, it's two feats invested for the one in 200 chance you ever get to decapitate somebody. That's not useful at all.

[Drolyt]

It's not a vorpal weapon. It's a weapon that if you crit twice in a row while preforming a specific type of attack (grapple) you get to roll to confirm a decapitation. That's kind of like a level 1 wizard spell where if an enemy fails two saves with a natural one and fails a third normal save, they die. Sure, it has the instadeath ability of later spells, but it's so unlikely to ever happen it's useless.

Plus, it's two feats invested for the one in 200 chance you ever get to decapitate somebody. That's not useful at all.

Yeah, there should be like a high level feat that lets you use it more consistently. I still like it though.

[Ertier]

Yeah, there should be like a high level feat that lets you use it more consistently. I still like it though.

Thanks. You can still kill someone with the strangulation too (after a handful of rounds), if you roll a 19 or 20.

[Gorgondantess]

This is too powerful. Not because of the vorpal thing, that's fine, but because it has 15 foot reach, and can attack adjacent foes. Spiked chain, which has 10 foot reach and can attack adjacent foes, is already considered cheesy.
It also has a 19-20/x3 crit threat range, which is statistically better than either x4 or 18-20/x2.

[Drolyt]

This is too powerful. Not because of the vorpal thing, that's fine, but because it has 15 foot reach, and can attack adjacent foes. Spiked chain, which has 10 foot reach and can attack adjacent foes, is already considered cheesy.
It also has a 19-20/x3 crit threat range, which is statistically better than either x4 or 18-20/x2.

This guy has a good point. If nothing else make the reach 10', the crit rate should either be changed or made so you can't improve it with magic.