Magic Swords

[Admin Pete]

How do you run Magic Swords in your campaign? I have run them a lot of different ways over the years. Here is the current method:

Magic Swords, unlike other magic items, are intimately tied to their master on every plane of existence. A magic sword once claimed and used by its master, then becomes the ultimate symbol of its master’s power. An unused, unclaimed magic sword starts out as a semi-sentient entity with the potential for relating to its master as a good dog relates to its dearly loved master. Magic Swords start as a blank slate and align themselves over time with the alignment of their master. A magic sword has its own life-force that it bonds with its master’s life-force when it is treated with the proper respect and care and they become intertwined over time so that they cannot be separated willingly.

To read more go here.

Let us know how you do it.

[The Red Baron]

I've never learned the +to hit on any magic swords in the games I'm playing in.

By use of identify, read magic, read languages, contact higher plane, consulting npc magic users, and empirical observation, special powers can be discerned. Some of the abilities are really cool too: I think my DM rolls up their abilities from the 2e spell lists, so a lot of times they'll have weird powers I hadn't heard of before.

[The Red Baron]

Personally, I'm a fan of limiting enchanted weapons' +to hit to a +3. (As prescribed by the table in M&T)

"Common" magic weapons have a +1 to hit, famous magic weapons like Aeglos or Narsil/Anduril have a +2, and only a few weapons such as the +3 warhammer carry a +3.

Weapons designed to kill a specific type of creature (dragons, regenerating creatures, lycanthropes, etc) have a +1/+3 to hit.

[tetramorph]

I like your description, Admin Pete.

I imagine the magic swords in my campaign to all be quite ancient and made for various purposes with varying degrees of ego and power, etc., but not necessarily bonded to only one wielder -- just bonded to their purpose and happy to be in the hands of anyone who will wield them towards those ends.

I would say that I would have about 3 +1s to every 2 +2s to every 1 +3. And, yes, The Red Baron, that would also indicate how relatively famous or famously named they are.

I don't spend a lot of time naming +1s and I would name them in English, or just let them go unnamed. +2s and +3s get special names -- I try to go Latin, Greek or a Tolkien language.

I imagine the elves / dwarves of old forged +1 as almost simply their normal weaponry. +2 were those designed for some particular end or purpose. +3 were the weapons of mighty kings, etc. I would come up with some back story and enjoy it.

[waysoftheearth]

I've recently come back to the realization that there's something "magic" about the original tables.  The issue (for me) has always been that it's just too darn fiddly to roll out magic swords on the spot, or even when you're working through it out of game.

So I wrote a script to do it for me.

Here's 40 magic swords "by the book" rolled in under one second. Well, the DD book, but hey

• Talking, Magic Reading, Telepathic Neutral Sword +1, +2 vs Lycanthropes speaks Minotaur with Detect Gold, Detect Silver, Detect Shifting Stonework, 6 wishes Dominance 25 Purposed to Slay Lycanthropes
• Talking Lawful Flametongue Sword +1 speaks Titan with Detect Traps, Detect Secret Doors, Detect Gold Dominance 24 Purposed to Slay Lycanthropes
• Inanimate Frostbrand Sword +1
• Talking, Magic Reading Lawful Sword +1, +3 vs Red Dragons speaks Centaur with Detect Silver, Detect Gold, Detect Traps, Phantasm Dominance 27 Purposed to Slay Chaotic Dragons
• Talking Lawful Sword +1, +2 vs Lizardmen & Kobolds speaks Gnome with Detect Evil, Detect Shifting Stonework, Detect Traps Dominance 24 Purposed to Defeat Ignoble House
• Inanimate Sword +2
• Talking Lawful Sword +1 speaks Dwarf with Detect Magic, Detect Gems & Jewelry, Detect Silver Dominance 24 Purposed to Defeat Ignoble House
• Talking Lawful Sword +1, +3 vs White Dragons speaks Werebear, Halfling, Dwarf with Detect Invisibility, Detect Magic, Detect Evil Dominance 24 Purposed to Slay Chaotic Dragons
• Inanimate Sword +1
• Talking Lawful Flametongue Sword +1 speaks Golden Dragon, Dwarf, Titan, Dryad with Detect Traps, Detect Secret Doors, Detect Gems & Jewelry Dominance 25 Purposed to Slay Gothrogs
• Inanimate Flametongue Sword +1
• Inanimate Sword +2
• Empathic Lawful Sword +1, +3 vs Giants with Detect Traps, Detect Gems & Jewelry Dominance 22
• Inanimate Sword +1, +3 vs Regenerating
• Talking Neutral Sword +1, +2 vs Elves & Pixies speaks Common with Detect Shifting Stonework, Detect Good & Evil, Detect Magic Dominance 24 Purposed to Slay Lawful & Chaotic Magic-Users
• Empathic Neutral Sword +1, +2 vs Enchanted with Detect Shifting Stonework, Detect Silver Dominance 20
• Inanimate Frostbrand Sword +1
• Talking Lawful Sword +1, +2 vs Androids & Cyborgs speaks Dryad with Detect Evil, Detect Silver, Detect Gems & Jewelry Dominance 24 Purposed to Slay Anti-Clerics
• Inanimate Sword +3
• Inanimate Flametongue Sword +1
• Inanimate Frostbrand Sword +1
• Empathic Chaotic Sword +1, +3 vs Golden Dragons with Detect Gems & Jewelry Dominance 16
• Empathic Lawful Sword +1 with Detect Silver Dominance 14
• Talking Chaotic Sword +1, +3 vs Giants speaks Werewolf, Hill Giant with Detect Traps, Detect Good, Detect Gold Dominance 24 Purposed to Slay Giants
• Inanimate Flametongue Sword +1
• Talking Chaotic Sword +2 speaks Gothrog with Detect Invisibility, Detect Good, Detect Secret Doors Dominance 24 Purposed to Slay Giants
• Talking Chaotic Unholy Sword +2 speaks Medusa with Detect Invisibility, Detect Shifting Stonework, Detect Silver, Detect Magic Dominance 26 Purposed to Slay Unicorns
• Inanimate Frostbrand Sword +1
• Empathic Chaotic Sword +3 with Detect Shifting Stonework Dominance 17
• Talking Chaotic Unholy Sword +2 speaks Black Dragon with Detect Traps, Detect Magic, Detect Secret Doors Dominance 24 Purposed to Defeat Noble House
• Inanimate Flametongue Sword +1
• Inanimate Cursed Sword -2
• Inanimate Cursed Sword -2
• Talking, Magic Reading Neutral Sword +1, +2 vs Enchanted speaks Minotaur with Detect Shifting Stonework, Detect Secret Doors, Detect Traps, Levitate Dominance 24 Purposed to Defeat a Noble or Ignoble House
• Talking, Magic Reading Neutral Sword +1 speaks Common with Detect Good & Evil, Detect Shifting Stonework, Detect Magic, Levitate Dominance 24 Purposed to Slay Lawful & Chaotic Fighters
• Talking Chaotic Sword +1, +3 vs Golden Dragons speaks Ogre with Detect Shifting Stonework, Detect Good, Detect Traps Dominance 24 Purposed to Slay Golden Dragons
• Talking, Magic Reading Lawful Flametongue Sword +1 speaks Halfling, speaks Elf, speaks Dwarf, speaks Titan with Detect Invisibility, Detect Shifting Stonework, Detect Gold, X-Ray Vision Dominance 25 Purposed to Slay Chaotic Dragons
• Empathic Lawful Sword +1, +2 vs Enchanted with Detect Invisibility, Detect Gold, Detect Evil Dominance 19
• Empathic Chaotic Sword +1, +2 vs Enchanted with Detect Magic Dominance 16
• Talking Chaotic Sword +1, +2 vs Enchanted speaks Common with Detect Gold, Detect Shifting Stonework, Detect Traps Dominance 25 Purposed to Slay Lawful Magic-Users

(Wow, an unlikely spate of Chaotic swords in there!)

[Deleted]

Admin Pete I think I will give this a try it looks to work really good with the dynastic campaign and seems to make a lot of sense too.  waysoftheearth by script do you mean a little computer program and if so is it something you can pass around?

[The Red Baron]

Does your script use the DD magic sword tables or those in M&T?

[scottanderson]

Magic swords (and magic staffs; I use the same tables) are A Big Moment in my games. The players roll all treasure except for the details of magic items, so it's like they are in a casino at the craps table. It's always fun even when they crap out. We do roll swords out on the spot and I tell the players enough so they can go find out all they need to know. Every sword is unique.

Later I go back and write the name and history so they can discover that lore.

[waysoftheearth]

Apr 8, 2015 12:32:59 GMT -5 The Bloody Nine said:

waysoftheearth by script do you mean a little computer program and if so is it something you can pass around?

Apr 8, 2015 12:53:36 GMT -5 The Red Baron said:

Does your script use the DD magic sword tables or those in M&T?

My treasure generator tool handles all possible treasures that can be generated from the complete DD treasure tables. It would be relatively straight forward to extend it to use the M&T tables too.

It is built on top of krusader74's Palamedes engine (written in javascript and runs in a browser) which turns out to both a boon and curse. A boon because it was relatively easy to script up all the tables and string them together. But a curse because, although it is written in javascript, Palamedes doesn't expose much of a javascript API to interact with. So, while I have a treasure tool I can use from the command line, it seems to be inordinately difficult to deliver it as an interactive web page

It is a problem that I really want to crack, so that I can ultimately publish the treasure tool as an interactive web page that everyone can use. Once I've solved the "delivery problem", then I can look at supporting multiple flavours of treasure tables

[Admin Pete]

Apr 8, 2015 17:54:00 GMT -5 waysoftheearth said:

Apr 8, 2015 12:32:59 GMT -5 The Bloody Nine said:

waysoftheearth by script do you mean a little computer program and if so is it something you can pass around?

Apr 8, 2015 12:53:36 GMT -5 The Red Baron said:

Does your script use the DD magic sword tables or those in M&T?

My treasure generator tool handles all possible treasures that can be generated from the complete DD treasure tables. It would be relatively straight forward to extend it to use the M&T tables too.

It is built on top of krusader74's Palamedes engine (written in javascript and runs in a browser) which turns out to both a boon and curse. A boon because it was relatively easy to script up all the tables and string them together. But a curse because, although it is written in javascript, Palamedes doesn't expose much of a javascript API to interact with. So, while I have a treasure tool I can use from the command line, it seems to be inordinately difficult to deliver it as an interactive web page

It is a problem that I really want to crack, so that I can ultimately publish the treasure tool as an interactive web page that everyone can use. Once I've solved the "delivery problem", then I can look at supporting multiple flavours of treasure tables

Awesome, I will be rooting for your speedy success!

[Irish Warrior]

Feb 20, 2015 10:19:48 GMT -5 Admin Pete said:

How do you run Magic Swords in your campaign? I have run them a lot of different ways over the years. Here is the current method:

Magic Swords, unlike other magic items, are intimately tied to their master on every plane of existence. A magic sword once claimed and used by its master, then becomes the ultimate symbol of its master’s power. An unused, unclaimed magic sword starts out as a semi-sentient entity with the potential for relating to its master as a good dog relates to its dearly loved master. Magic Swords start as a blank slate and align themselves over time with the alignment of their master. A magic sword has its own life-force that it bonds with its master’s life-force when it is treated with the proper respect and care and they become intertwined over time so that they cannot be separated willingly.

To read more go here.

Let us know how you do it.

Do your swords have a + to hit and a + to damage or just to hit?

[The Red Baron]

Apr 9, 2015 15:35:11 GMT -5 Irish Warrior said:

Do your swords have a + to hit and a + to damage or just to hit?

In OD&D, magic swords only have a '+ to hit' bonus. Some magic swords, however, have a damage bonus against particular enemies, and these bonuses can be significant.