Powerful Weapons

[GT]

I don't think that we've done this one before: What is the most powerful non-artifact weapon in your campaign? Then, if you want to list artifacts that's alright too... In the UA, I think the most powerful listed is the +6 (+12 to damage CE) Holy Avenger, although the Vorpal Sword would be up there too.
In my campaign, I have a +7 Saintly Avenger (+14 damage to CE) of which only seven were made. It has the standard Holy Avenger powers, plus its wielder is immune to life energy-draining while it is held, and may bestow one Heal each day. One of these was used for a paladin's quest in my campaign back in the late '80s before he faced a poweful demonic foe. I estimate 1E value in excess of 60,000 GP...

[Scott]

A party found a holy avenger and a sword of sharpness, but nobody in the party could use either.
One character had a sword of answering, but it ended up, along with the character, falling into the boiling mud in white plume mountain.
Gary's character has a +4 sword with some special abilities that is one of the best swords a character has had in my campaign: The sword Varatani, which means ‘Strength of Man' in Old Oeridian, was forged in Rauxes c. 50
CY for General Ovarus after he led the armies of the Great Kingdom to several major victories that resulted in the acquisition of much of the land that would make up the Viceroyalty of Ferrond. The sword was created to assist the general in further conquests in the northwest, where strange and terrible creatures were taking a heavy toll on the armies of the Overking. Eventually Ovarus settled, constructing a stronghold on the sizable tract of land he had been granted north of Dyvers. Varatani became a family heirloom, being passed down for several generations until it was lost when the last heir of Ovarus disappeared while exploring in the Cairn Hills.

Varatani is a +4 long sword. It's alignment is neutral. The sword has an intelligence of 13 and an ego of 12. The sword can communicate with its bearer empathicly. Varatani can detect traps of large sort within 10'. It can also cast a strength spell once per day. The sword was created with the purpose of defeating all non-human monsters*. To assist in this task the sword grants a +2 to all saving throws and a -1 to all damage sustained while fighting these creatures.

*Generally, non-human monsters include all creatures not affacted by a hold person spell.

[geneweigel]

I can't think of any new standard magic items that I've added. The new stuff that I add is usually artifact scale and I keep the standard limits of UA that you mention but the vast majority is original DMG scale (+5 for a sword).

[Scott]

Tucked away in my campaign is a vorpal holy avenger, just waiting for a paladin to find it.

[GRWelsh]

The standard magic item that always amazes me with how powerful it is, is the Rope of Entanglement. It's a killer.

[Scott]

Yes it is. DJ's magic-user has one, and it has snagged quite a few monsters up.

[geneweigel]

Just to clarify when I said "standard magic items" I was referring to standard magic weapons as in straight out of the book plussed weapons. I've added countless magic items of other sorts but weapon-wise its either something rolled up or some devised minor/major artifact.

[Scott]

I also have a character with a mirror of mental prowess, and one of the players has a ring of regeneration, and there's a cube of force out there too.

[GT]

A cube of force is a "good" thing!!!! ^__^

[Scott]

Yes, it's the same character that has the rope of entanglement and a ring of regeneration, my cousin DJ's magic-user, Maylin. He's currently 9th level, but he's been around longer than that would indicate. He made it to 8th level previously, was taken down to 4th level during a very bad encounter with undead, and then had to work his way back up. He's also survived much longer than most of his original adventuring companions, so he's inherited a lot of goodies from other dead PCs.

[GT]

I was thinking back... I had a Neutral Evil demigod called "Karbosh" who was described as looking like Harvey Corman with horns; he assembled the Evil group called the Watchers (this was between '81 and '83). They opposed Iuz and (later...) the Slave Lords as competitors; and were fought by a group of good known as the Guardians. At any rate, Karbosh had a Stormbringer-clone (as per Deities & Demigods) called "Ebondoom", so that was probably the most powerful weapon that PC's ever actually "saw"... ^__^

[ariochelruin]

The most powerful weapon ever used in a campaign I was involved in was the hammer "Stormbreaker," sometime around 1984 or 1985 (I was 10 at the time).

If you were a fan of the Marvel Comic Thor you would recognize Stormbreaker has the alien Beta Ray Bill's hammer. BRB defeated Thor in the comic and in reward Odin made BRB an identical copy of Mjolnir. BRB flew around in a spaceship called "Skuttlebutt." Our DM decided that the ship from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was the crashed Skuttlebutt.

While our PCs were exploring the crashed ship we discovered Stormbreaker and BRB's copies of Meginjord and Jarngreiper (sp?). The DM decided that our Thor worshiping cleric (the DM's brother, btw) was worthy of wielding Stormbreaker. When we later discovered BRB held in stasis and freed him, BRB tried to recover Stormbreaker. A fight ensued by the now super powerful cleric easily kicked the crap out of BRB.

IIRC his attack and damage bonus with Stormbreaker, Meginjord, and Jarngreiper was +15 to hit (+5 Stormbreaker, +3 for Gauntlet of Ogre Power (Jarngreiper), and +7 for Girdle of Titan Strength (Meginjord)) and +25 to damage (+5, +6, and +14). Plus with Stormbreaker he could attack 3/round and do 10-100 points of damage +25 as listed above. It also could fire 100d6 lightning bolts.

Needless to say Stormbreaker had a game breaking effect on our campaign. But as a 10 year old I thought it was really cool.

[Scott]

I don't really have any active powerful weapons in my game now, but the main PC is a magic-user. He still has his rope of entanglement, mentioned above, and a censor of controlling air elementals, but no big gun items. I placed a few for him, but he never found them.
According to Frank Mentzer, the 'rope' is supposed to make a 'to hit' roll, but that might be a retro tone down.