Legendary item at 3rd level? Yeah, that's abusive. Instant kill on a nat 20 against the majority of creatures. As I doubt you want to keep them mostly fighting weird stuff that does not die when it's heat get's removed (plants, constructs, multi-headed creatures) for the next ten or so levers, lets balance it out.
But the traditional way to balance the overpowered magic weapon is "IT'S ALIVE!"
Make it sentient, give it some MORE powers, along with detrimental abilities and an alignment/purpose that does not fit with the players. Now you have an enemy spy in their mists rather than a problematic magic item. It uses those extra powers AGAINST the party. Could be obviously, could be secretly. Pick your additional powers do not roll for them. I personally love the "No one near you can take a short or long rest, except for you" rule.
Extra powers I suggest you use to screw with the players:
Faerie Fire 1/day - under the control of the sword, not the wielder, unless he manages to win the Charisma Check
Chop off a head grants you 1 Temp hit point per CR of the creature - BUT when you come out of initiative/combat you instantly gain a level of Exhaustion per head chopped off.
Weapon can modify your speed by +/- 10 ft.
Weapon grants a 30' Fly speed - but it is control of where you go.
Weapon speaks any language known by the creatures whose head it has chopped off (assume all standard languages). And it loves to warn anyone you fight.
I would suggest pick no more than 3 of these. My personal choices would be Faerie Fire, Fly and speak.
My favorite is to make it sentient. The personality is that of a very angry druid. "They're cutting down the trees!!!!!" and the wielder is now running into the woods to stop the lumberjacks...
Just make it decapitate the wielder on a natural 1.
LOL, well that'll end the use of the weapon in 20 swings or less.
Give the weapon to a lucky halfling, I understand! 😊
Still the 1/400 chance, but yeah, there's several methods of at least partially compensating (always attacking with advantage, such as a barbarian using reckless attack, also helps, or you can just give it to a disposable carrier, such as animate dead).
Is recommend just not. Longsword of sharpness (apologies, I dont know how to link it) it has a similar theme, and makes encounter design easier, and minimizes the problem of the vorpal sword wielder being stronger than the rest of the party
If you talk with the player, they will hopefully understand that a legendary item at level 3, especially one as powerful as that one, was not a great call and makes encounter design limiting. Just swap it for a sword of sharpness
I agree with DKMagic, you should definitely have a talk with your player and explain the potential issues the item could pose at such a low level. You could go with a sword of sharpness or perhaps do something a little special. It could be a +1 weapon against al enemies, but against certain enemies it becomes a +3. Like if it has history as an orc slaying sword, it could be +1 against everything but will act like a +3 against any enemy considered an orc.
Vorpal blades in the hands of Low-levels break the power ceiling? yes, yes they do unequivocally.
Our Dm pitted our small party of five lvl4's with no healer against a Gargantuan Roc (full stat sheet no nerfs or balances). We were on an ancient airship that flew by magic with a dwarven pilot and ignored physics to do so. there were ballistae onboard that existed to prove to us that we were outmatched (AC15 and 248HP minimum with advantages on the 3 major save rolls and a +4 to perception saves to us low levels it's a damned winged fortress)
First volley of Bolts 4/5 shots hit home for negligible effect...except one of those 4 bolts was modified to grapple the Roc to the airship should it embed itself. Upon inspection of the roc now that we could see it clearly (Haha we were in so much danger) MULTIPLE vorpal weapons were embedded in the Gargantuan moonstrocities body. This was yet another less than subtle hint from our DM to run away because the Airship and our party are toast otherwise, he even indicated that there was an escape route available and a one of our party had featherfall.
Nope we used the rope to "board" the enraged Roc with 2 of our party taking catastrophic hits and the Pilot being bloodmisted in the process, spells, bolts,arrows nothing was working. and then our barbarian climbed onto the struggling Roc (now grounded after the crashing airship pulled it down). The Barbarian rolled a 20, twice and cut the Bus sized head off the Roc. Needless to say our DM has to prepare a whole new route for our campaign haha
Might be worthwhile to speak to whole party. One player out of X party members has a weapon of mass destruction, the novelty might wear off for everyone else who doesn't have a superweapon then jealousy, envy, boredom, sets in, which if not for the characters at least for the Players. Then no one is having as much mutual fun as otherwise could be. Speak to everyone, lay out the reality, ask if an adjustment can be made, but at least then everyone gets a opportunity to speak up now rather than later. That's if you're leaning towards retconning the weapon.
Possibility of instakilling one monster at a time (5% likely) actually doesn't change much in my opinion when there are hordes of minions to handle; flying creatures, kobold shooting arrows from across the ravine, etc. aren't at risk to a melee attack anyway; there are many ways to design an otherwise ordinary encounter when a longsword won't even be useful. To quote the weapon's properties, "A creature is immune to this effect if it is immune to slashing damage, doesn't have or need a head, has legendary actions, or the GM decides that the creature is too big for its head to be cut off with this weapon." This would include ochre jellies, black puddings (which in fact, will Split in two if subjected to slashing damage; whoops, made the situation worse!), boss enemies with Legendary Actions (adult dragons, even a Unicorn!) still immune from the instakilling property, so even with a bit more likelihood to hit and plus damage, isn't going to dramatically change an overall encounter b/c you can always just beef up the HP slightly above the monster stat block.
But, every now and then, one party member can decapitate a Giant, which can still seem pretty cool for everyone at the table. That's if you press forward with the weapon staying with all things considered.
I'm not gonna call giving your player a vorpal sword a mistake. Not my place. It does make some meaningful encounters potentially a bit more challenging, but also gives you an opportunity to stretch out your creativity and to scrutinize monster stat blocks a bit closer because not everything would be susceptible to the pinnacle property. Some great suggestions and insight provided by others already, but altogether you should be on your way to making an informed decision
Yeah, you have definitely given them a mighty gift. Doing a straight up retcon is a bad idea: the player will feel aggrieved. I think that making it sentient (have it begin to awaken as the player takes off heads) and have it slowly begin attempting to dominate the wielder's mind. Give it a curse that means it can't be removed except by some epic means, and it can become a party goal.
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I'm running a campaign, and I gave one of my Players a Vorpal longsword. Is that a mistake, and how should I balance my encounters?
Legendary item at 3rd level? Yeah, that's abusive. Instant kill on a nat 20 against the majority of creatures. As I doubt you want to keep them mostly fighting weird stuff that does not die when it's heat get's removed (plants, constructs, multi-headed creatures) for the next ten or so levers, lets balance it out.
But the traditional way to balance the overpowered magic weapon is "IT'S ALIVE!"
Make it sentient, give it some MORE powers, along with detrimental abilities and an alignment/purpose that does not fit with the players. Now you have an enemy spy in their mists rather than a problematic magic item. It uses those extra powers AGAINST the party. Could be obviously, could be secretly. Pick your additional powers do not roll for them. I personally love the "No one near you can take a short or long rest, except for you" rule.
Any suggestions for the extra powers?
Hyrdas.
Extra powers I suggest you use to screw with the players:
I would suggest pick no more than 3 of these. My personal choices would be Faerie Fire, Fly and speak.
Just make it decapitate the wielder on a natural 1.
LOL, well that'll end the use of the weapon in 20 swings or less.
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Just the threat of that would make me find a volcano to throw it in.
My favorite is to make it sentient. The personality is that of a very angry druid. "They're cutting down the trees!!!!!" and the wielder is now running into the woods to stop the lumberjacks...
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D&D Beyond FoundersGive the weapon to a lucky halfling, I understand! 😊
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"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Still the 1/400 chance, but yeah, there's several methods of at least partially compensating (always attacking with advantage, such as a barbarian using reckless attack, also helps, or you can just give it to a disposable carrier, such as animate dead).
Is recommend just not. Longsword of sharpness (apologies, I dont know how to link it) it has a similar theme, and makes encounter design easier, and minimizes the problem of the vorpal sword wielder being stronger than the rest of the party
I exist, and I guess so does this
If you talk with the player, they will hopefully understand that a legendary item at level 3, especially one as powerful as that one, was not a great call and makes encounter design limiting. Just swap it for a sword of sharpness
I exist, and I guess so does this
I agree with DKMagic, you should definitely have a talk with your player and explain the potential issues the item could pose at such a low level. You could go with a sword of sharpness or perhaps do something a little special. It could be a +1 weapon against al enemies, but against certain enemies it becomes a +3. Like if it has history as an orc slaying sword, it could be +1 against everything but will act like a +3 against any enemy considered an orc.
Vorpal blades in the hands of Low-levels break the power ceiling? yes, yes they do unequivocally.
Our Dm pitted our small party of five lvl4's with no healer against a Gargantuan Roc (full stat sheet no nerfs or balances).
We were on an ancient airship that flew by magic with a dwarven pilot and ignored physics to do so. there were ballistae onboard that existed to prove to us that we were outmatched (AC15 and 248HP minimum with advantages on the 3 major save rolls and a +4 to perception saves to us low levels it's a damned winged fortress)
First volley of Bolts 4/5 shots hit home for negligible effect...except one of those 4 bolts was modified to grapple the Roc to the airship should it embed itself.
Upon inspection of the roc now that we could see it clearly (Haha we were in so much danger) MULTIPLE vorpal weapons were embedded in the Gargantuan moonstrocities body.
This was yet another less than subtle hint from our DM to run away because the Airship and our party are toast otherwise, he even indicated that there was an escape route available and a one of our party had featherfall.
Nope we used the rope to "board" the enraged Roc with 2 of our party taking catastrophic hits and the Pilot being bloodmisted in the process, spells, bolts,arrows nothing was working. and then our barbarian climbed onto the struggling Roc (now grounded after the crashing airship pulled it down).
The Barbarian rolled a 20, twice and cut the Bus sized head off the Roc.
Needless to say our DM has to prepare a whole new route for our campaign haha
thoughts to consider:
Might be worthwhile to speak to whole party. One player out of X party members has a weapon of mass destruction, the novelty might wear off for everyone else who doesn't have a superweapon then jealousy, envy, boredom, sets in, which if not for the characters at least for the Players. Then no one is having as much mutual fun as otherwise could be. Speak to everyone, lay out the reality, ask if an adjustment can be made, but at least then everyone gets a opportunity to speak up now rather than later. That's if you're leaning towards retconning the weapon.
Possibility of instakilling one monster at a time (5% likely) actually doesn't change much in my opinion when there are hordes of minions to handle; flying creatures, kobold shooting arrows from across the ravine, etc. aren't at risk to a melee attack anyway; there are many ways to design an otherwise ordinary encounter when a longsword won't even be useful. To quote the weapon's properties, "A creature is immune to this effect if it is immune to slashing damage, doesn't have or need a head, has legendary actions, or the GM decides that the creature is too big for its head to be cut off with this weapon." This would include ochre jellies, black puddings (which in fact, will Split in two if subjected to slashing damage; whoops, made the situation worse!), boss enemies with Legendary Actions (adult dragons, even a Unicorn!) still immune from the instakilling property, so even with a bit more likelihood to hit and plus damage, isn't going to dramatically change an overall encounter b/c you can always just beef up the HP slightly above the monster stat block.
But, every now and then, one party member can decapitate a Giant, which can still seem pretty cool for everyone at the table. That's if you press forward with the weapon staying with all things considered.
I'm not gonna call giving your player a vorpal sword a mistake. Not my place. It does make some meaningful encounters potentially a bit more challenging, but also gives you an opportunity to stretch out your creativity and to scrutinize monster stat blocks a bit closer because not everything would be susceptible to the pinnacle property. Some great suggestions and insight provided by others already, but altogether you should be on your way to making an informed decision
Boldly go
Yeah, you have definitely given them a mighty gift. Doing a straight up retcon is a bad idea: the player will feel aggrieved. I think that making it sentient (have it begin to awaken as the player takes off heads) and have it slowly begin attempting to dominate the wielder's mind. Give it a curse that means it can't be removed except by some epic means, and it can become a party goal.