Changing eating habits, uncontrollable urges to do wrong, and a desire (and power) to find gems. What do these have in common? They all originate from the Gem Sword, a nasty weapon with some good and many bad traits.
A friend helped me dream up the idea for this sword (thanks Dave Konkol). I used it in my campaign many years ago and it still pops up from time-to-time. It makes for some interesting and fun gaming:
Gem Sword
Int: 17
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Ego: 34
Abilities:
Telepathy (common and language of holder)
Eat gems (of course)
Can Heal the sword holder (see below)
Detects gems (kind and value) (see below)
Finds secret doors and traps in a 60' radius.
Hit and damage bonuses (see below)
The Gem Sword is a broad sword (it has no special markings or decoration) with some rather unique abilities. The sword was created a long time ago (or course) by an unknown wizard. In recent times it was overpowered by the Staff of the Undead and given extra powers. The sword now uses these extra abilities to better serve the master of the staff (not the sword owner). It does this by storing energy within itself, which it then gives to the staff whenever the two are in contact.
To obtain power, the sword consumes gems of all kinds (including other precious stones). It eats gems by simply coming in contact with them, sucking the gems into itself in a manner of seconds. (A thief PC's eyes will bug out of his head if he sees a valuable gem being eaten by this sword!)
The sword's telepathy only works with the current sword holder and the owner of the Staff of the Undead (no range limit). The sword speaks common and the sword holder's language (after it is given time to learn this).
The ability to detect gems, heal the sword holder, and combat hit/damage bonuses change as the sword grows in power. The following chart show these abilities per the amount of gems that the sword has eaten:
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value of gems eaten |
per day |
radius |
bonus |
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At first glance this may seems a bit too powerful for a sword, but it's that way for a reason. The reason being to keep the sword holder alive at all cost, so as to eventually return to the Staff of the Undead with much needed energy. The sword's abilities are used only in the quest for gems (and the evil deeds that go along with gem hunting), not for random mayhem and the such (the sword makes sure of this).
Keep track of the gold piece value of gems eaten. These can change as the sword's healing power is used to help its holder. Each hit point that the sword heals uses up 10 gold pieces of gem power (if completely drained the sword's holder is very vulnerable). Note that the healing power will prevent the holder of the sword from drowning, burning (even magical), or from other forms of physical damage that are caused by means other than just combat. (However, the sword will not allow the character to simply ignore all danger as this would use up all of the gems that it is storing.)
The healing rate depends on the amount of damage the person is taking (the more damage, the more healing is done). The sword will use its healing power only when necessary to keep the current owner alive. Note that due to this fast healing, the holder of the sword cannot loose limbs (you can't cut off the sword arm).
The sword's ability to find secret doors works without fail on all such portals within the 60 foot radius.
Note that when the sword manages to take over a character, it will slowly change the character in a number of ways.
First, it will of course make the character search out and find gems for it to consume. This will start as slight urges, and build up to rampaging obsession. In the end, the character will stop at almost nothing to find all (valuable) gems.
Second, the character will physically change into a beast-man. This also will happen gradually over time. Some of the physical features include: slitted eyes, hair (all over of course), claws and fangs, etc. (add your own stuff as it goes, it's more fun that way).
Third, along with the physical appearance, the character's eating habits will also change. The person will start to crave meat more and more, eventually leading to a complete diet of raw meat. (cannibalism?)
The last change is of course is a gradual move to a Neutral Evil alignment (not permanently, just as long as the character has the Gem Sword).
Note that when the current character loses the sword that all physical and mental changes will slowly revert back to normal.
Once the sword has a sufficient number of gems collected (it doesn't have to be full), it will force its current holder to return to the Staff of the Undead. Once there it will take its leave of the character (what happens after that is up to the GM).
On a last note, we have the possible destruction of the Gem Sword. The sword is vulnerable to only the following magical attacks: electrical, acid, and fire based. It saves against these as per the normal saving throw charts with a +5 to the rolls (yes, it's hard to destroy this sword, but not impossible.)
If the sword does fail its save, it explodes in a violent manner, scattering gems in all directions. The gems that are expelled are the ones that the sword was currently storing, not the grand total consumed. Each character within a 120' radius of the sword will take anywhere from 10-100 points damage (depending on the amount of gems, details left to the GM).
(c) 1994 by David Flemming