Making Vorpal worth it

[Irreverent Fool]

Some time ago, my party acquired a +1 Vorpal Longsword (at a dear cost) and after a period of time drooling over it and being excited, we realized nobody in the party would want to use it. As cool as 'vorpal' is, the reduced enhancement bonus turned anyone who could use it effectively off to the idea of actually using it.

So, it was stashed with all of our other

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incredibly-powerful-but-just-not-what-we-were-looking-for-that-we-can't-sell-either-because-it-would-be-a-bad-idea-or-we-can't-find-anyone-with-that-kind-of-cash-on-hand

stuff and forgotten about by the party... well, except for my character... the party arcane caster.

I toyed with the idea of giving it to his simulacrum, but it seems that it might both draw unwanted attention, be useless, and get the poor thing killed. I'd rather not lose the simulacrum and the stuff it's been outfitted with in addition to a vorpal sword.

It seems the best way to make this item useful would of course be to find some way to get the maximum number of attacks in a round with it to maximize the chances of rolling a natural 20. Is there some way by use of spells or constructs to accomplish this end? I'm not looking for some optimized melee combatant build, as we couldn't really introduce a new character just to use the sword (leadership included :P). So I'm looking for a spell, series of spells, or something one could manage to create via item creation feats to make this beautiful little toy as deadly as possible.

[Bag_of_Holding]

There's a luck feat in CSc that allows you to treat the roll of 1 as being natural 20, iirc.

[Zincorium]

5th level cleric spell surge of fortune, lets you treat a single attack roll as a natural 20. It's in complete champion, so yeah, I think they know how outright broken it is. Also has some other positive effects. No expensive material component either, so you get to use it as often as you have slots for 5th (or higher) level spells.

And anything which is vulnerable to vorpal dies automatically. So essentially a 2 round combo, or one round with a rod of quicken, can quite possibly end a fight. Get something that helps with confirming crits, something to eliminate miss chances, and many enemies will cease to be a problem.

[tyckspoon]

There's a cleric spell (Surge of Fortune?) that gives luck bonuses and can be discharged early to make a roll count as a natural 20. There was a thread here about it a while ago; much of the thread ended up being about working out ways to make it work really well with Vorpal.

.. figures I'd be ninja'd on that. Shouldn't have stopped for a sammich.

[jcsw]

What you need is a vorpal falchion.

With improved critical.

15-20 Threat Range anyone?

[The Rose Dragon]

Making Vorpal worth it? He's already worth it! Have you seen the guy's homebrews?

...

Oh, you're talking about the weapon enhancement. Carry on, then.

[Tengu]

What you need is a vorpal falchion.

With improved critical.

15-20 Threat Range anyone?

VORPAL DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!

[Cuddly]

VORPAL DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!

Anymore. Used to. Still does if you're using 3.0 core books.

Coup d'grace works that way, though.

[Project_Mayhem]

Anymore. Used to. Still does if you're using 3.0 core books.

hmmmm, my DMs not too hot on obscure rules ... I might be able to trade in my great axe for an obscenely broken falchion ...

[Zincorium]

hmmmm, my DMs not too hot on obscure rules ... I might be able to trade in my great axe for an obscenely broken falchion ...

Bladed gauntlets: 17-20 crit range.
Disciple of Dispater, 8th level: 9-20
Improved critical (specifically stacks with DoD): 5-20
Weapon master, 7th level: 3-20

Disciple of dispater is from the book of vile darkness, weapon master and bladed gauntlet from sword and fist. Yes, you can dual wield them. Now, getting both 7 levels of weapon master and 8 levels of disciple of dispater into a 20 level build requires 2 flaws as well as being a human fighter for a minimum of 4 levels, but it is theoretically possible. Just going disciple of dispater at level 7 will net you 5-20 by level 14.

Getting away with this? I doubt it, but hey, it's your DM. Follow it up with whirlwinding a bag of rats and using the cleave attempts on the BBEG.

Edit: if I misunderstood you and you weren't trying to break the rules in a 3.0 game, I'll just delete this.

[jcsw]

Aah, right. Misread the description on vorpal.

[leperkhaun]

its....usefull. combined with a flesh ring of scorn (auto confirm crits)...... iv had a couple BBEG die really quick because of it.

on the other hand, its only 5% of the time.

[Project_Mayhem]

Edit: if I misunderstood you and you weren't trying to break the rules in a 3.0 game, I'll just delete this.

Well sort of - we use a mix of 1 or 2 earlier supplements and more 3.5 ones - I was trying to trick the DM into thinking that that was the current definition of vorpal. Andd the combo looks neat, but firstly the only part I have access to is improved critical, and secondly, we dont have a wisard, so all magic items are what we find.

[Person_Man]

The only vorpal combo I know of is for Fighters (or anyone else with a huge number of feats).

Buy two kukri (or any other high threat range weapons).
Enchant them with Vorpal and Aptitude (ToB, let's the weapon you're using count towards feats which require a specific weapon).
Get Keen or Improved Crit.
Take Lightning Mace (free extra attack whenever you threaten a crit)
TWF tree (extra attacks, pre-req for Double Hit)
Double Hit (Miniatures Handbook, whenever you make an AoO, you can make an off hand attack as well).
Karmic Strike (AoO when enemy hits you in melee).
Robilar's Gambit (AoO when enemy swings at you in melee).
Combat Reflexes + retardly high Dex.

You get plenty of base attacks. Whenever an enemy swings at you, you get 2 attacks against them. Whenever an enemy hits you, you get a total of 4 attacks against them. Every time you threaten a crit (30% of the time), you get a bonus attack at the same to hit bonus.

It's not a good combo, because it requires so many feats to work, and it ties up all of your resources into one melee combo. But there it is.

[technophile]

As cool as 'vorpal' is, the reduced enhancement bonus turned anyone who could use it effectively off to the idea of actually using it.

You don't have anyone who can cast Greater Magic Weapon?

[Tsotha-lanti]

You don't have anyone who can cast Greater Magic Weapon?

Seriously. Who even gets weapons with enhancement bonuses higher than +1?

[Stapler]

Ask your DM if there is some sort of way you could animate it and fly around on its own.

[Irreverent Fool]

You don't have anyone who can cast Greater Magic Weapon?

Seriously. Who even gets weapons with enhancement bonuses higher than +1?

The party barbarian's player does not seem to appreciate weapons without large enhancement bonuses and the party cleric's player... even after 15 levels... does not really know what she's doing. I rarely play a melee combatant (or anything that has to make attack rolls, really), so I don't really know the best line-up of abilities on a weapon. I think it's just that he (the barbarian) would rather use a weapon that is effective pretty much all of the time rather than having a 5% chance (less when you throw in confirmation) of lopping something's head off.

I like the Surge of Fortune use. Now I just need to figure out some way for Mr. Unspecified Minion to make sure he confirms. I don't think the flesh ring will work, since it seems to only function for an evil outsider.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys! I'm particularly fond of Person Man's mention of the too-many-attacks fighter. I don't know if I can do anything with it, but I still like it.

[Chronos]

the party cleric's player... even after 15 levels... does not really know what she's doing.

Then just tell her. If she really doesn't want to "waste" the spell slot, a Pearl of Power III is cheap. Now your barbarian has a weapon that's reliably cool all the time, and head-choppingly awesome some times.