In the north the legends of the ancient kingdom of Tel Ammon are still whispered rather than spoken aloud, and never at night. Their enormous ruins, tombs, and broken statues still dot the north, and the darkness pooling in those tombs and in the shadows of those ruins is unquiet.
Still more is whispered of the Ammon mage Kammorachû, a bitter and black-hearted man, who deep in his cavernous lair beneath the city of Akh-Ammon forged the Bladeless Blade.
The Bladeless Blade, has, as the name tells, no blade; it is hilt only. Just a hilt. Useless. But for the gifted, those in the know, the Bladeless Blade is also a cage. It can capture spirits. It can capture spells.
When Kammorachû wielded it in battle against the southern birdmen the blade sizzled and thundered; some spells of water and lightning where intertwined there. It soaked and electrocuted the enemy simultaneously.
When the foul mage wielded it during the Ammon Kinstrife it sputtered and flared like oily flame. Fire and grease was on it. It set the enemy in flame as if they had been drenched in lamp oil.
When he cut off the head of the leader of the third slave rebellion, he had no spell on the blade at all. It is said that the Bladeless Blade caught the soul of the slave leader; sucked it right out of his heart, and used it as blade and that afterwards, the invisible blade screamed in anguish as it cut down its former comrades.
He wielded it with a spell of Cutting against the mountain hordes. Its blade was invisible but cut through sword, armour, and flesh as if it was nothing.
Rumour has it the dark one, Kammorachû, assassinated his own king and usurped the throne with the Bladeless Blade, using some vile curse set in the blade. He cut the king by stealth; the blade was mere hilt, after all, and easy to conceal. The curse could not be seen, nor did the king feel anything when he was cut; but it bit deep, and worked its way inside the king for 50 years, while Kammorachû waited patiently, till at last he died of some sudden illness - which the race of Ammon does not suffer. The Fifty Year Sword it is also called because of this. Deep its bite can be, but slow the blood to run...
Yeah it's a hilt you can put a spell on and I mean any spell. This is gonna fuck your game up.
As a mage, you can invest at most two spells into the Bladeless Blade. You do this by succesfully casting the spell/s on the Blade. You cannot cast these spells from memory or from spellbook anymore; these spells are on the Blade now.
You must invest spell dice into the Bladeless Blade; at least one, for the blade to work; a maximum of two. If you invest two spell dice or two spells, the Bladeless Blade must be wielded with two hands.
When you cut someone with the Bladeless Blade, you roll for Attack as if with a melee weapon.
This has obvious advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, you've got a bad ass flaming sword now. It also frees up a spell slot! And, the Blade can be used indefinitely as a sword. However, the Blade really has its spell effects, and should be treated with caution lest you accidentally burn your robe (you can't sheathe it). And you've lost one to two spell dice, nerfing your utility as a wizard.
Ok, so how does it really work?
Some numbers:
The Bladeless Blade without a spell deals no damage. However, if the foe has less than 20% of it's HP left, it must make a save. If it fails this, the Bladeless Blade cuts as if through butter, and the foe's soul is installed as blade. With a soul as blade, the Bladeless Blade functions like a normal sword; 1d6 + STR damage.
So a Bladeless Blade with a Fireball spell on it for 1 dice does 1d3 + Str + 1d4 fire damage, as well as set the enemy on fire (and look fucking metal).
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| By MD-arts |
Now, a Bladeless Blade invested with Fireball and Grease will splash a foe in flammable oil and set him on fire! 1d3 + Str + Grease (no damage) 1d4 Fire damage (DOUBLED because of Grease!) Furthermore, the next rounds of being on fire will also do double damage.
If you invest the Bladeless Blade with Gust of Wind it will do 1d3 + Str + 1d4 damage and the enemy must save or be fucking blown away, like when Sauron is whipping the Last Alliance in the prologue of Fellowship. Throw a Fireball spell on it, and its a wind of flame.
It's a little bit overpowered, but only slightly moreso than a regular sword. The experiments though, hooo the experiments.
What if the Bladeless Blade is invested with Knock? Or Lock? It will certainly open doors, but does it Open enemy anatomy; i.e., split them with gore? Or do they open their stomach and puke? What if its invested with Light, or Darkness? What about Unseen Servant? Or Mount? What about Comprehend Languages? The Mount Blade, does it turn people into horses? The Light blade, does it do damage to vampires or other evil creatures?
What if I use both Mount and Fireball? Does it turn people into flaming horses? What about if I use Comprehend Languages and Gust of Wind? Will I be able to make a whole group of enemies understand me? What about Comprehend Languages and Knock??? What about et cetera et cetera.
This is so broken it's probably not playable. If you remove the two-spells-at-the-same-time thing, it should work easy though.
Yet there's some really interesting room for player experimentation here, if the DM feels up to it.
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