I recently had my party meet with the Emperor of the nation that they are in (who they have unknowingly been working for until now). Previously, the Emperor's daughter, a political dissident and rebel, attacked the PCs and attempted to steal a holy relic. She failed and now they have been tasked with finding out how his daughter knew were the relic was. Both he and his daughter are vampires, and the sun has been blacked out in my work. This leaves only one way to truly kill a vampire: decapitation. After making an impressive diplomacy roll along with a rather convincing argument, the (anti)paladin asked the emperor for a weapon capable of killing his daughter if need be. I decided that given that is was the paladin who is in the service of emperor who had just saved his faith's most (un)holy relic, the emperor granted his request and gave him his own ceremonial sword (a +1 Vorpal Scimitar).
Now, here is my problem. Why isn't the sword Unholy? I've kind of created a plot hole that I'm trying to fill but I'm at a conflict of rules and story. A vorpal weapon is a +5 enhancement, already making it a +6 weapon total worth 72,000 gold. The character/party is level 8 with about ~15,000gp worth of gear already, in addition to the 60k gp I already game the 5 member party. I have specified that the weapon is sacred (as the emperor is both the political and religious leader, so Pope and President), so shouldn't it also be Unholy? But that causes the weapon to break the rules (max of +5 property bonus) and makes it worth almost double that and 4 times what he should have for this level.
Have I gone too far? I have stated that only a faithful member of the Paladin and Cleric's order can wield the weapon and any attempt to do so by a non-member will kill them and immediately raise them as an undead in the emperor's service (baring our barbarian or anybody else from wielding it). Should I add the Unholy quality?
It should also be said that I have blatantly broken the rules on a different weapon. The sword wielded by the emperor's daughter is a +1 Holy Undead-Bane Vorpal Scimitar (+9 total). However, the vorpal quality exists exclusively for vampires (officially or unofficially, either way. I'm not going to use it on a PC) and the weapon is a "corrupted" (un)holy relic that is/will be a plot point.
Since the vorpal works only on vampires, you could reasonably houserule that it's a lesser enchantment (maybe +3 instead of +5), and add a bit more. If it only works on one creature, it seems closer to a bane enchantment than the actual vorpal.
Since the vorpal works only on vampires, you could reasonably houserule that it's a lesser enchantment (maybe +3 instead of +5), and add a bit more. If it only works on one creature, it seems closer to a bane enchantment than the actual vorpal.
I think I'm going to just go with that as an official bit. It justifies adding the Unholy quality and gives me a plot to expand on. Why does the emperor, a vampire, carry a weapon that is specifically designed to kill vampires?
I'm imagining that he uses it as a form of execution of dishonorable, traitorous, or inept leaders in the church and senate (all of which are vampires).
One of the church leaders is a actually a traitor and has assisted the emperor's daughter. So once the party discovers that this archbishop (a lvl 14 Cleric) is the source of the problem the emperor (a lvl 20 cleric) can "bring him to court" by combat. The ultimate end of which will be the traitor's death (and thus the end of this chapter).
This makes me wonder, what happens when a cleric changes their religion (officially)? This particular cleric is a vampire who was taken captive by rebels around 175 years ago along with 3 other archbishops. Over time, the other 3 were eventually executed, but the 4th converted in order to save his life (so weak...). Now he serves the rebels who worship the same god but in a vastly different form (I use a duotheistic pantheon with multiple religions worshiping various aspects of those gods in different ways an interpretations).
I would guess the deity change would work like a paladin's fall to antipaladin (though probably less "striking" since they might be going evil-neutral rather than LG-CE). I dont know the official stance, unfortunately.
Vorpal is stunningly overestimated value-wise as a magical property, considering it's 5% chance of maybe doing something if you attack a creature with a head.
...so no, you haven't gone too far, and this sword will likely barely even affect the game that you put it in - so long as the party doesn't realize they are better off selling it to buy more practical items.
the thing is--royalty never gives things away--ESPECIALLY not powerful artifacts that can be used against them. were they to sell the sword the emperor would likely learn of it and break ass.
Make it intelligent or a minor artifact with an evil alignment, its purpose is to kill vampires that betray the emperor. Now you can just make up rules willy-nilly for what it does. Won't ever betray the emperor, can be as powerful as all heck and won't have a real value. Make it silver to double up on the vampire hate.