Our group is discussing the effect that a vorpal blade would have if the character scored the natural 20 and confirmed the hit.
According to the vorpal description "the weapon severs the opponent’s head (if it has one) from its body. Some creatures, such as many aberrations and all oozes, have no heads. Others, such as golems and undead creatures other than vampires, are not affected by the loss of their heads. Most other creatures, however, die when their heads are cut off."
The gray area, if there is one, concerns what happens to a vampire if it is beheaded in combat? Does it remain corporeal and can be finished off per the Beastiary description of staking the heart and anointing the head with holy water. OR does it drop to zero hit points, go into gaseous form and try to return to it’s coffin?
Creative Director
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There's PLENTY of flavor in movies, books, stories, video games, etc. that beheading a vampire kills them outright. Which in the case of a vampire, drops it to zero hit points and sends it back to its coffin. Beheading any other undead only annoys it... and only destroys it if the associated damage from the attack would have reduced its HP to 0 anyway.
I house rulled that vorpal was an instant kill if you submerged the head in moving water within the first 24hr. If any thing else was done to the body or head no go. PCs once achieved this feat and burned the body prior to the head trick. The vamp was back the next week and had a small army of undead to aid him. That was a long but fun combat.