This large sword is of masterwork quality and etched with runes. Some cultures would call this type of sword a fullblade.
The Foolblade was crafted by a wizard blackmailed into forging the weapon. The first recorded use of the Foolblade was against the crafter herself, whereupon her "added" abilities saved her life and ended that of her assailant.
To this day, the blade is sought out for its combat prowess. Unfortunately, the curse that goes with it is rarely spoken of, as it magifies a known weakness of fighting sorts. And due to its appearence, it is only rarely that both spellings and meanings of its name are taken into account (Full Blade vs. Foolblade).
While wondrously powerful in combat, it has a detrimental effect upon its wielder's mental ability. To the point where the wielder is easily manipulated to the point of becoming a fool.
Magical Properties:
Generally speaking, Foolblade is enchanted to be incredibly sharp, and its wounds cut deep, leaving permanent damage. It leaps into its wielder's hands, almost unbidden, whenever combat rears. In addition, Foolblade can temporarily increase the strength and fortitude of its wielder.
The drawback to the sword is that its wielder is rendered a fool, due to an amazing drop in intellect, common sense, and personal magnetism. Coupled with this drop in mental faculties comes a desire to use the Foolblade regardless of the tactical situation or sheer folly of doing so. Lastly, the only known means of being rid of Foolblade is through permanent death or powerful magic.
Not surprisingly, its generally freed up by death.
In D&D terms:
Positive traits:
The wielder has the Quickdraw feat in regards to using the Foolblade.
The weapon itself is forged of adamantine and is +3, with the wounding and keen abilities.
The Foolblade wielder can cast Bull's Strength and Bear's Endurance on himself 1/day each, as if cast by a 15th level caster.
Negative traits:
The wielder suffers a -6 penalty to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores while carrying this blade.
Upon claiming the Foolblade, the wielder ALWAYS tries to use it in battle, even when sound tactics or common sense would dictate otherwise. It just appears in his hands.
Once the Foolblade is claimed by someone, the only method of getting rid of it is through permanent death (no coming back), wish, or a miracle spell.
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? Responses (11)
Boring background. Ooh, a wizard made it! No drama.
So.... What is the 'Quickdraw' feat? What does '+3' mean? 'Wounding and keen abilities'? What are Bull's Strength and Bear's Endurance, and what would a 15th level caster be able to do with those?
It's fine that you give these powers, and I could probably figure it out, if I wanted to, but the point I mean to make is that this is a non-system site, and if you intend to include D&D stats, please don't make them the main focus. You could just as easily have given us the abilities of it and then provided D&D numbers in parentheses.
3/5.
Well, Captain I don't think that the '+3' part is hard to figure out in any way. Other than that, you're propably right.
Magical weapons just are created by mages, you must face it. But yeah, the background could do with boosting. Why was he blackmailed to do it? Why did he do a sword like that? What were the consequences of making the said sword, if there were any?
I liked the cross-translation part.
3/5
Well I guess - someone say captured the wizard's familiar, a tiny pet demonette, an easy target, much unlike the wizard himself. It might have been a burly warrior, always ready to chop something down.
Well then, wrote to the mage: 'You, crafty sage, make me a sword, a good one at that, make it swift, or your demon is dead.'
So the wizard, true to word, made a blade, made it a sword, fit to take on an orcish horde, or plundering the dragon's hoard.
Yet speak he did, so secretly 'a fool you were, a fool you'll be, a wondrous fool, for all to see.'
Well, according to DnD stats this is VERY powerful, and such a powerful item'd deserve more than a few lines of text.
Moral of the story? Don't anger wizards unless you have to. It tends to get ugly.
Revamped the salient abilities in general terms while leaving D&D stuff there.
My fiction writing needs work, apparently. Though I like EchoMirage's poem.
I'll think on it and keep you posted.
I play D&D so i understand what it does. Shouldn't be that difficult to make your own version: a very powerfull magic sword that weakens the mind of the user. Your story however is weak. Maybe combine it with the Hero's Blade also in this list? It is indeed a fitting cursed item, especially if the character trough circumstances is forced to use the item. On the other hand, i know enough 'role'players who would use this sword even if they know the curse....
Oops, sorry: 4.2/5
I see angry power hungery PCs in the near future.....
As others have said, it is a decent enough item with a negligible backstory. Better then a generic cursed sword, but could have been a lot better.
This isn't a bad item, but there are some things about it that I would change.
I would prefer to make this item scale with the power of the warrior wielding it. In the hands of a novice swordsman, it might display its lesser powers, only coming into its full abilities when in the hands of a legendary hero.
The reason that I would want its power reduced is that I would also prefer to reduce its curse's potency. While a potent curse of idiocy is interesting, I prefer curses that can be overcome with heroic effort. It shouldn't be easy to defeat the curse, but having a curse that can't even be broken by the wielder's death seems a bit harsh.
the better the swordsman/woman the stupider the blade should make them, so the best swordsman in the country ends up as stupid as Bush.
After reading thru the comments and all, I think this is an okay idea. However, in the actual reading, I was misled into thinking into someone blackmailed a mage into making a Foolblade with its current curse set in which confused me. It wasn't until I read the comments, I realised that what happened was the mage was blackmailed into making a weapon and she put in the curse to pay the person back. Therefore, 0.5 points deducted, making this 2.5.
*Commented on for the Commenting Challenge