Ooooo! Good question, Grey! Thank you, I’m glad you think so.
I’m not talking the most powerful, nor the one that’s the flashiest, most plot centric or whatever. Heck, I’m not even talking about D&D game stat coolest (‘cos we all know that it’s the two-bladed sword in 4e, right?). This is cool weapons in Fantasy literature.
So what’s coolest? Stormbringer, or a Dragonlance? The One Ring, or the White Gold Ring? Narsil, or those two scimitars whatsisname uses?
Enquiring minds, as they say, want to know.
magic missile!!
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That’s a hard one, but I think my answer lies not in the White Gold Ring of SRD, but the Sunbane. I can’t tell you how many times I tried to work that into my prototype 3e games…
for me it’s the soul sucking black swords, whether it be the original Stormbringer, the White Plume Mountain version Blackrazor or the ultra creepy Malazan version, Dragnipur.
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Good answers all! Keep ’em coming.
I’ve got a certain fondness for Waylander’s Crossbows. They look something like this. Ouch.
That’s one guy who’d nail Drizzt before he could move then walk over his corpse without breaking stride. Waylander is The Man! :D
My favourite fantasy weapon is Mjolnir, the sentient hammer of Thor.
It can create lightening storms, can only be used by it’s master, can hold a conversation with you, destroys Go’auld, and can be used for DIY.
Honourable mentions to Excalibur, the FF Gunblade, Andúril and Wallace’s Claymore.
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I think any of the twelve swords that Fred Saberhagen wrote about in “The Book of Swords” qualifies. Coinspinner is my favorite.
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I was also thinking Saberhagen’s Book of Swords. There’s also Castlerake from Palladium Fantasy, currently in the hands of an angry kobold chieftain, with the power to reduce the most fortified of walls to rubble…I believe that’s in the Northern Hinterlands book.
For D&D specifically, I rather liked Fragarach the Answerer.
I also had a soft spot for Thud the intelligent warhammer, who had an inferiority complex after spending a few centuries in a hoard along with another flashier, more powerful, and more arrogant intelligent magic sword.
As far as literature goes, one memorable set that I haven’t seen mentioned here yet: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Zelazny’s take on the Vorpal Blade in Amber is pretty cool, too. But my favorites are the weapons of Vlad Taltos: the soul-eating Morganti dagger and the sorcery-dispelling chain Spellbreaker. That’s one rogue whose bad side you don’t want to be on, archmage or no…
I don’t know about coolest, but Kring has a certain style. If there is trouble nearby, then this magic sword will be fighting it – even if it has to hijack the arm of a cowardly wizard and drag him into the fight to do so.
It is just a shame that, outside of a fight, Kring doesn’t know when to shut up!
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I have vague memories of there being an amusing sword in Baldur’s Gate, who used to talk about how much he wanted to kill things.
There was also a giant barbarian guy who used to carry around a miniature giant space hamster. Hilarious.
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Lightsabers.
Carlhach. A set of five ruby set golden rings from ICEs old Treasures of Middle-Earth. It enhanced all fire magics.
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Swordchucks…
Another vote for black soul eating swords – as I’m reading the Malazan books Dragnipur is always on my mind.
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It’s good to see Stormbringer & friends getting so much love. Now to work out how to turn that into a blarticle……… :D
Castlerake from palladium fantasy is the greatest of great rune weapons in existence. Not only can it reduce any fortress or stone structure to rubble by sticking the blade in the structure and commanding the sword to destroy said structure, it deals 2d4x10 damage to all beings, drains like 500 ppe (mana) on command and a few other amazing powers. It is separated into six pieces and has an IQ of 17, anyone who finds a piece of castlerake is compelled to find the other five pieces and assemble the weapon. No one has ever reassembled the sword before meeting an untimely demise.
Yes, Erick Wujcik designed Castlerake… it was great. I got the first rumor of it in his homebrew D&D game in like 1987 when asking some NPCs about swords of power. My character eventually got a hold of it and it was awesome… although as usual, Wujcik could always come up with some way to challenge you no matter how epic of stuff you had. That was his secret talent.