The Green Destiny


Movies


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I just watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the first time in quite a while and damn, it's still a great movie!

Something I wonder about; does the Green Destiny grant its wielder added magical expertise, or a lot of confidence due to its age and history or is it just the fact that the Green Destiny is a REALLY well made weapon?

What do you think?

Liberty's Edge

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Tequila Sunrise wrote:

I just watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the first time in quite a while and damn, it's still a great movie!

Something I wonder about; does the Green Destiny grant its wielder added magical expertise, or a lot of confidence due to its age and history or is it just the fact that the Green Destiny is a REALLY well made weapon?

What do you think?

Well, each + of any magical weapon grants the user a degree of magical expertise, as it makes the user that much more likely to hit what (s)he's swinging at. If it were in my campaign, the Green Destiny would be at least a +3 weapon (apart from any other powers it might have).


Well I think in the movie (and in the comic) they made it pretty clear that the main characters were way beyond normal fighters. The Chun Wu Fat character has been described as thte prototypical fighter sorcerer. The same could probably be safely said of all of the flyers - maybe rogue sorcerer.

The sword itself - I would make vorpal, +5, bonuses to sunder, and defending. It was presented as basically an artifact level item in the movie - but thats to translate it into D&D 3.5. IMHO of course.

Of course the other thing is you cold take those attributes more or less and have them scale with the wielders level. I like doing that - that way the weapon is (more or less) always appropriate to the user.


Kyr wrote:
Well I think in the movie (and in the comic) they made it pretty clear that the main characters were way beyond normal fighters.

A comic of CT,HD? I thought that it's an ancient legendary saga. Anyway, I wasn't so much wondering about the Green Destiny's properties in the D&D context; more within the context of the movie itself. In other words, there is absolutely no purpose to this thread other than the wanderings of my own vague mind...


Kyr wrote:
The sword itself - I would make vorpal, +5, bonuses to sunder, and defending. It was presented as basically an artifact level item in the movie - but thats to translate it into D&D 3.5. IMHO of course.

Yes it is at artifact level, based on its power from the movie. I won't give it vorpal, but i wonder how strong would its sunder bonuses be! It sunders everything, can cut in half two metal weapons in a single strike, weapons trying to sunder it got sundered instead. It is a crazy weapon. Also it seems it is light enough for a wielder to use Weapon Finesse with it, and doesn't need strength but technique to cut other things. I always wondered how could this item be built for a game... and, if done, how to not to allow any any PC to put her hands on it xD.

I'd give it a different balance, so a user must be a monk or spend a feat to use it as an exotic weapon.

Kyr wrote:
Of course the other thing is you cold take those attributes more or less and have them scale with the wielders level.

That way the PCs could put their hands on it.


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And Netflix has a sequel coming out!


Some of column A, some of column B. It's at least a very well-constructed masterwork blade, exceptionally well-balanced and sharp. Someone probably used Master Craftsman to make it. That said, I doubt it's very magical at all, maybe +1 at the most. It's history, based in part of just how awesome it is (especially in a world without overt magic) and therefore the awesome things great swordsmen have done with it, is also a huge confidence booster to anyone holding it.


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Cerberus Seven wrote:
Some of column A, some of column B. It's at least a very well-constructed masterwork blade, exceptionally well-balanced and sharp. Someone probably used Master Craftsman to make it. That said, I doubt it's very magical at all, maybe +1 at the most. It's history, based in part of just how awesome it is (especially in a world without overt magic) and therefore the awesome things great swordsmen have done with it, is also a huge confidence booster to anyone holding it.

Or it's one of those systems where weapons become magical because of the legend that grows as great swordsmen do awesome things with it.


thejeff wrote:
Or it's one of those systems where weapons become magical because of the legend that grows as great swordsmen do awesome things with it.

I think it is not the case. That weapon is not magic. It is a very, very, very, very well made weapon. That kind of items men made just once in a millennium; and the secrets of their making fade away in the sands of time.

Liberty's Edge

How is that not magic?


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Pretty much. Whether or not it's actually "magic" in world depends on the setting logic. Since I don't recall anyone using anything like "Detect Magic" in the movie, it's quite possible there's no way to tell.

Regardless, assuming that a very well made weapon, or maybe a very, very well made one, is masterwork, I'd say the best way to represent one much better than that in PF would be the magic item rules.

Dark Archive

If one were to put it into Pathfinder or a Dungeons and Dragons Campaign I cant see how it would not be magical. Just the ability for it to cut through anything much like a vorpal blade so I get Kyr's suggestion of vorpal. I wonder if it might give bonus to hit and damage similar to a bard ability inspire courage. That way it also gives a bonus against fear and charm effects to show that it is boosting moral of the user. But I would wonder if the sword might stack with the bard ability. But he sword's ability is only for the user of the sword.
What sort of metal do you imagine the blade is made from?
For some reason mithril comes to mind because of its light weight. I wonder if the sword does sonic damage to items that ringing sound it always made makes me think of that to allow it to do extra dmage when striking other items.


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Bonus to Sunder?

Scarab Sages

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I'd make it a unique starmetal that counts as both mithral and adamantine.


I think of it non-magical: Just the right material (a very obscure alloy, made with another obscure technique) used in the right weapon (a very few realized this is the material for that jian sword) crafted by the right technique (another obscure one) by the right craftsman (or craftsmen) (of a very long tradition with obscure secrets in their art) in the right forge (a few particular forges had very very unique features allowing the sword to be made, in other places it would end in a failed project).

In the mind of the common adventurer it is a magical weapon, but some experts would say it is not, but they had to admit the secrets behind the weapon are beyond their own knowledge and mastery. No one knows how to make it.

In game terms: An allow granting it mithril/adamantine characteristics, many sunder bonuses, the stats of a jian sword, masterwork qualities, many special qualities, monk among them to allow wielders to use their ki with it, maybe the technique used in crafting it allows it to vibrate causing it to make sonic-like damage on top of its insane sunder bonuses, some kind of damage reduction...

Liberty's Edge

In other words, magic.


Krensky wrote:
In other words, magic.

Nope, as creatures able to drain magic from a weapon would not drain the features of the Green Destiny, the same way they cannot drain the lightweight from mithral or the sharpness of the katana.

Scarab Sages

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cablop wrote:
Krensky wrote:
In other words, magic.
Nope, as creatures able to drain magic from a weapon would not drain the features of the Green Destiny, the same way they cannot drain the lightweight from mithral or the sharpness of the katana.

Or be able to drain the magic from an Artifact. What you are describing is an Artifact. It's more powerful than a magic weapon, it can't be destroyed like a magic weapon. It doesn't matter if it wasn't created by "magic". It is magic.


cablop wrote:
Krensky wrote:
In other words, magic.
Nope, as creatures able to drain magic from a weapon would not drain the features of the Green Destiny, the same way they cannot drain the lightweight from mithral or the sharpness of the katana.

Or maybe they could? It's not like we saw any such creatures try to drain magic from it. Or even anyone cast Detect Magic on it.

We all agree it's got a bunch of features generally represented in PF by magic weapons. I suppose we could introduce a new category of "weapons that are just like magic weapons except that they aren't magic", but I'm not sure it's necessary.


Well, Imbicatus, i don't know if artifacts exist or not in PF, in 2E they did...

And i agree with thejeff, weapons are not only magic, i guess as there are psionic items and now psychic items, we can just say there are highly engineered items too.

Just to put in context, when the romans tried to conquer Syracuse, Archimedes managed to burn their ships afar from the city, just using mirrors! He performed more amazing feats against them. From the romans eyes that was magic, when in fact it was just science, unusual science that got lost during the dark ages and was found again during the renaissance. I think, according to the little known about the series of novels where Crunching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes from, that this is an item made in a similar fashion, trough engineering and science. Our current tools, screwdrivers and alike, would be considered magic at the time, just because some are magnetic, corrosion resistant, use special alloys to be hard to break and so on.

Liberty's Edge

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The Green Destiny is a magical sword. So are Excalibur, Gram, Durendal, Kusanagi, Honjo Masamune, Joyuse, Zulfiqar, Kladenets, Tizona, Colada, Narsil, the Vorpal Blade, etc.

Put the game books down for a moment and read some mythology and legend.


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+1 to Krensky for knowing about the Hanjo Masamune, the Just Blade. Very likely destroyed by occupying American forces shortly after the official end of WWII.


Vorpal doesn't help an item sunder anything except necks, and the movie doesn't heavily feature severed heads rolling around, so I'd skip that.

Being able to sunder stuff, and not getting sundered in return = adamantine.

If you wanted to give it an enhancement bonus on top of that, so be it.


Krensky wrote:
Put the game books down for a moment and read some mythology and legend.

Well, putting books down... we also get highly engineered weapons. Well... maybe i feel kinda disappointed for PF being tooooooo magic focused and non magic classes and things are just second class citizens in the game.

Back to fantasy: we cannot adapt Wolverine's claws or Predator's for aliens hunting weaponry without making them magical weapons... sad again.

OMG! Nice tale about the Honjo Masamune... And maybe it is not destroyed, but stolen. And again, in real world terms it is not a magic weapon, but one of the finnest manmade swords of all times.


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Yeah, it could be just lost, but if someone has it and knows what it is, likely, it would stay that way, as sad as that is.

the show Myth Hunters actually has an episode dedicated to the Hanjo Masamune, well worth watching.

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