Headman's Blade (Greater)

[Arcanemuses]

I think the Headman's Blade is one of my favorite weapons out of the ACG. Here is my greater version. I am guesstimating the price/cost.

Headman's Blade (Greater)

Price 68,000 gp; Slot none; CL 9th; Weight 8 lbs.; Aura moderate necromancy and transmutation

DESCRIPTION

This scalpel-sharp greatsword has a simple black handle and crosspiece, and is made of unusually dark steel etched with an organic wave pattern. Once per day, the wielder of this +5 vorpal greatsword can attempt to assassinate a target, per the slayer advanced talent of the same name. If the wielder is not a slayer, he must spend a full-round action studying the target before attempting the assassination, and the target's DC to avoid death is 20. In the hands of a slayer, the sword's enhancement bonus on attack rolls is 2 better against a studied target, and the DC to avoid death from an assassination attempt increases by 2. Additionally, if the assassination attempt is successful, the target is decapitated instead of merely slain. The decapitated head animates into a beheaded (see Bestiary 4) after 1 minute. The beheaded remains under the wielder's control until the weapon or the beheaded is destroyed, or if the wielder loses possession of the blade for more than 24 hrs. The wielder can create and control in this way a number of beheaded equal to their Charisma Bonus X 2.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS

Cost 34,000 gp; Feats Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Spells keen edge, slay living, cirle of death, animate dead

[Aelryinth]

Uh, a +5 Vorpal Greatsword is going to START at 200,000 gp, as a +10 Equiv item. And you're tacking on stuff.

You've basically got a minor artifact there.

==Aelryinth

[Arcanemuses]

Aelryinth wrote:

Uh, a +5 Vorpal Greatsword is going to START at 200,000 gp, as a +10 Equiv item. And you're tacking on stuff.

You've basically got a minor artifact there.

==Aelryinth

I meant it only as a +5 weapon (a base price of 50,000 gp), not a +10. Vorpal is a +5 bonus, right?

Anyway, how do you like the flavor?

[Braingamer]

Disclaimer: I'm trying to help. Apologies if anything sounds harsh - it's probably poor word choice on my part.

The idea is interesting, but I don't think it would get much use. The ordinary headman's blade is nice for a slayer, but the extra bit you added on (the animating head thing) won't really have much of an effect in-game.
By the time you can afford this kind of weapon (going by your estimated price range), a CR 1/3 monster isn't going to be even close to effective.

Pricing:
It would need to cost at least 72 350 gp if you want vorpal on there - a +1 vorpal greatsword is a +6 equivalent weapon (the enhancement bonus is added to the equivalent cost of the special properties).

From the Headman's Blade, it looks like they priced the extra ability at 5500 gp. You've increased the save DC by 5, and also added on a limited animate dead ability. Given the cost of the original ability, I'd probably price the DC increase at around 1k-2k. The animate ability, though... I'd rework it.

Suggestions:
I'd probably drop the vorpal - it already has a decapitation ability. Instead, step it up to at least 3/day, or even unlimited uses.

Assuming you're going for something in the 70k range, a +4 keen greatsword might make a good base (+5 equivalent, or 50 350 gp). Add on a 3/day assassinate with increased DC for around 20k (quick-and dirty 3x to 5500, add some bonus for increased DC to bring it up to a nice round number), and you're at 70 350 gp. Now if you want to add your undead animation ability, you'll want to add a little more oomph.

If you want to stick to creating undead, I'd pick a different monster or give them some serious bonuses. Maybe you can create headless zombies instead?

Side note: you refer to the number of beheaded, not the HD, which is unusual. For consistency's sake, I'd change that.
Also, can you create variant beheaded with this? They count as having higher HD for purposes of control, another reason to list the control cap as HD rather than number. Also, since the sword will have a fixed CL, maybe you should refer to that as the cap. (Side-side note: In your draft, vorpal has a CL of 18th, which would make the weapon's CL 18th as well. A +4 keen weapon would have CL 12th)

[Cyrad]

I'm not crazy about having items give feats/talents, but I really like the flavor and how the head animates.

And yes, a +5 vorpal weapon has the price of a +10 weapon. If you did not intend to invest the price towards enhancement bonuses, it needs to be a minimum of a +1 vorpal weapon (price of a +6 weapon). Also, you need to add the price of a masterwork greatsword (350 gp) to both the price and cost. In other words, a +1 greatsword should have a price of 2350 and a cost of 1350.

This stuff tripped me up, too, when I working on entries to RPG Superstar.

[Arcanemuses]

Thank you, Cyrad and Braingamer for the ideas, feedback, and tutorial on how things are made.

I think that beheaded and crawling hand undead are cool monsters. Auto-creating them via necromantic weaponry seems like a fun way for martial characters to gain their own mini legion of undead.