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Athreeren
Learned Scribe
192 Posts |
 Posted - 08 Dec 2025 : 10:18:17
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Elves of Evermeet claims that touching a moonblade inflicts 5D8 points of damage, plus a save vs. death for evil characters. Elaine Cunningham says this is not enough, that the Moonblade should outright kill one who is not its owner. On the one hand it makes sense: if claiming your inheritance has a risk to hurt you, you should prepare for being hurt and train to maximise your chance of survival; whereas if the moonblade is going to kill you no matter how strong you are, you might as well get it over with before you even come of age. The fact that so many experienced elven warriors died when the moonblades were introduced shows that a functioning moonblade is indeed a death sentence to one who is not its proper owner (but maybe Evermeet: Island of the Elves should not be taken literally. Maybe Danilo presented a myth as historical fact, and things did not actually happen that way. I imagine that the Sun Elves would have directly executed Ethlando for giving them blades that would kill anyone who isn’t a moon elf like him).
On the other hand, having an item that is certain death to anyone who touches it, no matter how powerful is insanely strong, and we should wonder if there is any point in the moonblade as an object: even 5D8 is more damage that most moonblades would inflict in a normal hit, so wouldn’t it make more sense for the wielder to hold it by the blade, and try to hit opponents’ hands with the hilt? If that is the best way to use them, surely Ethlando could have come up with a more convenient shape to receive this magic.
Also, moonblades are so rare they are virtually unknown among non-elves, and their specific powers certainly are a mystery. So how can the DM fairly communicate the fact that the magic weapon the party just came across will kill them if they touch it?
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
8045 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2025 : 18:34:37
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There's also no requirement for D&D game rules and D&D novels/fiction/etc to blindly adhere to each other.
D&D authors often like to create unique new things which work in unique new ways, not quite understood by or explained by the normal rules. And they often like to keep these things uncertain, vague, and mysterious so that their functions within the narrative are less like simple equipment or tools or props, more like magically wondrous and unpredictable items. Moonblades in particular are supposed to be treated more like characters than like items, each with their own experiences and opinions and personalities and motivations.
In other words, whatever you read about moonblades or about particular examples and situations involving particular moonblades in the novels are simply what occurred in the novels. There is no requirement for these moonblades to comply with the game rules, and there is no requirement for any moonblades in your games (or stories) to comply with those in the novels.
You could always put your questions directly to Elaine. Though she no longer seems to be very active online.
http://candlekeep.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1888
If you can't get answers directly from Elaine then you've got to get them from someone else or come up with them yourself.
It seems to me that an intelligent, thinking, feeling magical item should be able to choose what sort of attack or response it inflicts onto anyone who touches it.
A good guard dog will bark and growl and snarl to warn others away. It will threaten with small bites, perhaps some snapping jaws or some torn clothing. It will perhaps bite down on hands and fingers but not really require blood or really give serious chase if the intruder just leaves. It will even have some compassion towards wayward children and innocent trespassers, driving them away with bark but without bite.
It won't immediately go for the throat or attempt to deliver serious injury and death against every invader. Killing the intruder is supposed to be the final option, after escalating through all the other options has failed, it shouldn't be the automatic go-to first option.
But if it does automatically, unthinkingly go straight for the throat every time ... then the real fault is not the animal, it's the owner who trained it badly.
And so it seems to me that an intelligent, thinking, feeling magical blade should also use some judgement and discretion towards protecting itself. It shouldn't automatically, unthinkingly disintegrate every fool who happens to touch it. It shouldn't even murder those it senses are acting with Evil alignments, especially in a setting filled with charms and curses and illusions which can impose or disguise false alignments onto others. Indeed, it's not even reasonable to "outright kill" a thief who covets the blade when a simple heat metal would be enough to "punish" him with a seriously burnt swordhand and to force him to quickly discard his stolen loot. It's certainly not reasonable to utterly slay every curious child or errant peasant or friendly drunkard who accidentally brushes against the blade or foolishly strokes it in admiration.
And the moonblade should also be held accountable for any needless death it causes. Just like any other "person" would be held accountable.
If this accountability doesn't fall on the blade then it should fall upon the blade's maker. Or upon an assigned guardian/babysitter for the blade (someone other than the nominal wielder/inheritor of the blade) who is solely responsible for preventing others from getting too close to the moonblade's murderous overkill proximity.
A sword is meant to be an instrument of death but elves (at least those elves who are most worthy to rule) supposedly view all life as sacred and all evil as potentially redeemable - it would be uncharacteristically reckless for them to manufacture a blade which is so dangerously lethal without imbuing it with enough intelligence to control itself intelligently.
There are all sorts of tales about master weaponsmiths who are ultimately slain by their own weapons and weaponized creations after arrogantly ignoring all thought of safety and control in their creations ... but these are not supposed to be the sorts of tales which describe moonblades. |
[/Ayrik] |
Edited by - Ayrik on 08 Dec 2025 18:48:53 |
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How do you use moonblades in game?
