Needs the weapon's Int, Wis, and Cha scores, (and thus the Ego score, which should be damned high)
The Soul Drain ability seems a mite restrictive and hard to pull off- maybe a bonus that slowly decreases if one doesn't kill repeatedly? Giving anyone a +19 weapon seems very narrowly useful and broken in irritatingly rare circumstances.
The sleeping thing is a nice touch... does the possessee get a benefit from that rest, or not?

I've only played III, so this might be off, but I'd think Shards would be an interesting variation- Power up an existing weapon in exchange for corruption.

You're doing Calibur next, right?

>>312834
The Int Wis and Cha are 14, 18, and 24 respectively. Soul Edge is very, very, VERY good at convincing others to empower it.

It's ego score? Not sure what to do with that. It's been ages since I looked in a 3.5 book.

As for sleep benefits: The possessee regains spells, power points, etc, but is considered Fatigued.

The Soul drain can be redone to do the drain on slaying and critical blows. It should also be unable to soul drain things immune to critical blows, with the exception of liches, who lose thier phylactery if slain with the blade.

>Shards
Instant +1, weapon gains Evil alignment, and the user feels a distinct urge to find more. Each shard used on the same weapon inflicts half a point of damage to Cha, with a maximum damage total of 12.

>>312835
Almost forgot:

Upon weilding the blade for the first time and discarding it at last (pass two will saves of DC 15 + Soul Edge's magical plus) the user gains a temporary negative level. This negative level ceases to be in effect when:
-You are acting to preserve the blade
-When you are actively hunting down living creatures, and
-three hours after Soul edge has used its Soul Drain.

The negative level for giving up the blade does not lose effect unless a cleric uses wish, remove curse, or if the former weilder willingly weilds the Soul Calibur magical weapon.

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Intelligent_Items

Separately, I'd work out the Soul Drain (again, this is from playing III a bit) something like this:
The weapon is a +* Vicious CE Intelligent Weapon that deals +2d6 Vile damage on each hit. Slaying a creature of at least 1/2 your level in HD increases the enhancement bonus by one for one day per HD of the creature slain. Note that increasing the Enhancement bonus also increases Soul Edge's Ego score. When Soul Edge has an enhancement bonus of +13 or higher, get out your ravenloft-style DM rapin' hat.

Shards: Fragments of the evil sword, each one has the power to corrupt and strengthen weapons. There are 13 shards, and weapons are affected as per the following table:
1 shard- Counts as Evil-aligned, +1 per shard bonus on crit confirmation rolls. Detect presence of other shards in 60ft.
2-4 shards- +2 Vile damage on a successful strike. Detect presence of shards for one mile per shard.
5-7 shards- Gains the Wounding quality. Cast Locate Object 3/day to locate nearest shard on the same plane.
8-10 shards- Deals 1d4+1 vile damage on a successful strike. May change weapon to any other weapon that deals the same type or types of damage. (e.g., fullblade to shortsword, but not mace to morningstar or mace to dagger.)
11-12 shards- Wielder does not need to eat as long as the enhancement bonus on Soul Edge is one higher than yesterday. Wielder may begin to develop physical or mental abnormalities. Add 1d6+1 vile damage to any successful strike.
13 shards- The wielder now holds the Complete Soul Edge, and the previous weapon is gone forever. Note that attempting to fuse the shards of Soul Edge to Soul Calibur may result in getting Force-choked, bitchslapped, or facepalmed at.

Random other stuff Soul Edge should reasonably get: Immune to sundering except by Soul Calibur. As an evil intelligent weapon, the DM is free to mess with your head through this medium. I'd say the sleepwalking thing only happens when one doesn't feed it.

Rather a different direction than you were going... Objections or suggestions?

Alright. I'f found s DM's handbook.

Soul Edge, +* vicious intelligent neutral evil polymorphing fullblade
19 Int (it's the first weapon, and it's had sentience for half its lifetime.)
10 Wis (Despite its age, it is not very wise, preferring to sacrifice wielder after wielder in massive bloodbaths.)
24 Cha (Soul Edge is very capable of turning its weilder to evil, making dark promises and soft reminders of deeds they have done. It is perfectly willing to keep a paladin in their alignment, so long as he continues to seek out stronger and stronger creatures to slay.)

Soul Edge is a massively evil blade that eats the souls of both its wielder and the souls of those it slays. It is rumoured to be massively powerful, even though these rumours might have been spread by the blade itself, it does not care what the alignment of its foe is. It will happily slay them nonetheless.
Soul Edge deals an additional 2d6 vile damage if it's wielder misses a normal attack but would have hit touch AC. If it hits normally, it deal 3d6 vile damage. Upon slaying anything 1/2 the HD or greater of its weilder, it gains enhancement bonus equal to the HD of the one slain. These additional enhancement bonuses leak away at the rate of 1 every year, until it only has a bonus of +1.

Soul Edge has two lesser powers, two greater powers, and one dedicated power, which is also a new spell: Soul Shred.

Lesser Powers:
Detect living (constant effect, but only in 30 feet)
detect good 1/day

Greater powers
Drain 3/day
Death ward at will (on weilder only)

Dedicated power: Soul shred as a 20-level spellcaster.

Soul Shred
Necromancy (Evil)
Wiz/Sorc 9
Components: V
Casting time: 1 round
Range: Close (25 ft + 5/level)
Target: One living creature vulnerable to critical blows
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial (see text)
SR: No

A line of spectral organic matter flies from your finger to the centre of your target, then writes about as your foe screams in agony and terror.

You must succeed at a ranged touch attack to strike a target.On a successful attack, the foe's very soul is shredded, tearing apart their being and identity. The enemy must make a Fortitude saving throw or immediatly die, impossible to resurrect. If they do save, then they take a number of negative levels equal to 1/2 your caster level. These levels cannot be regained through spells, they must be earned by experience to return.
If cast by a living weapon, it gains an enhancement bonus for every HD a creature owns who was killed by this spell. For example, killing a 3 HD human with this spell would give an intelligent weapon an additional +3.

>>312838
The shards are good. Next up, Soul Calibur.

How do I shot trip?!H508X.HbJ6 2009/11/12(Thu)22:05 No. 2840 ID: 6faa8c
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>>312839
>Soul shred as a dedicated power is 1/day
>intelligent weapon in Soul Shred's spell desc

This virtuous weapon glimmers with the great deeds done by its past weilders. It seems to stare into you, judging whether you are worthy of its power.

Soul Calibur, a +10 holy intelligent lawful neutral polymorphing rapier
14 int (Soul Calibur is younger than Soul Edge, and is very dedicated to the hunt of its 'brother' blade.)
12 wis (Soul Calibur was created and at first weilded by a group of monks, who have influenced its preferred form and values)
26 cha (Coul Calibur has a soft, gentle voice, and will nudge the wielder gently onto the path of its purpose, offering insightful advice and only the most minute of reminders of the evil blade that lurks the world.)

Soul Calibur is a sibling blade to Soul Edge. Crafted from a piece of the demonic weapon, and imbued with great deals of holy magic, it seeks the destruction of Soul Edge at any cost. It recognizes evil wherever it is, however, and will happily allow its weilder to go on any mission, so long as the sum total of evil in the world is reduced as a direct result.
Soul Calibur grants the wielder a bank of temporary hit points equal to one-half the wielder's level + their constitution modifier. This bank of temporary hit points regenerates any time the user rests for five minutes, but never during combat. The weapon also protects from effects that directly harm the life of the wielder, protecting from level drain, soul shred, and any spell that ends life instantly. On saving throws against these, Soul Calibur grants a bonus to the saving throw equal to its enhancement bonus.

It has one lesser power and three greater powers.

Lesser powers
Death watch - constant effect.

Greater powers
Death ward 5/day
Detect evil - constant effect
this weapon cannot be destroyed except with a wish spell. if a wish spell is cast to destroy it, then the wish gains the evil descriptor.

Stranger 2010/09/13(Mon)17:34 No. 4239 ID: 0707fe
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This kinda thing is relevant to my interests. But, wasn't Nightmare the one who gave Ivy the final bit of power she needed to complete her own living sword? And what of Kilik's artifacts and other magical weapons from the game?

>>312838
Actually, the canon ending of Soul Edge shows that Soul Edge was sundered by Sophitia, so a powerful paladin or other user of holy power would be able to sunder it. Of course, sundering it doesn't 'destroy' it permenantly, and the resulting explosion is quite deadly.

Damn, I guess I really laid out how much of a nerd I am for this game series. At least you didn't bring up KOF...

>>314239
>Actually, the canon ending of Soul Edge shows that Soul Edge was sundered by Sophitia, so a powerful paladin or other user of holy power would be able to sunder it.

An interesting point. I'd even be willing to say that if a Paladin uses his Smite against the blade, it no longer counts as magical for the purpose of damage reduction, just a normal, basic weapon made of steel, of its type.


>>314239
>>But, wasn't Nightmare the one who gave Ivy the final bit of power she needed to complete her own living sword?

Those who weild the sword typically begin to take class levels in a class that allows or encourages Evil actions, such as one of the nonmagical martial classes (Rogue, fighter) or magical classes that outright encourage it (assassin, Blackgaurd). It's not hard to imagine such classes being able to imbue other weapons or people with power.

>And what of Kilik's artifacts and other magical weapons from the game?

Kilik's artifacts aren't fully explained, to my knowledge, such as the pendant, but his staff counts as a +3 quarterstaff. Feel free to add another quality, if you like, such as Thundering or Speed.

The Mekki-Maru has some effects similar to the Shard abilities, since it's imbued with demonic power.

It counts as a +2 dagger of speed that adds +1 vile damage on a strike. If the user deals sneak attack damage, then this counts as Vile as well.

>>312840

Actually, judging from IV, Soul Calibur is a pretty Knight Templar sword, which depending on the ending may or may not have encased the entire world in crystal. You might want to think about that.