From: hsu_wh@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (William H Hsu)
Newsgroups: rec.games.hack
Subject: Suggestions I: Weapons
Date: 22 Jan 1993 21:58:59 -0500
Organization: Homewood Academic Computing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md, USA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu


	I vote to get rid of dinky named weapons such as Grimtooth and Cleaver.
Do they have any literary origin?  I suspect Grimtooth is just a balancing out
of Orcrist and Sting.  If so, why not use this little table?  These weapons
would be added to the existing ones, possibly replacing Grimtooth and Cleaver.

Weapon alignment ->	Lawful		Neutral		Chaotic

Small			Glamdring	Cat's Claw	The Stiehl

Medium			Anduril		Sword of Leah	Mournblade

Large			Dyrnwyn		Grayswandir/	Black Sword of Beleg
					Werewindle

    ^
    |
Weapon Size

	Suggested weapon types:

1. Glamdring -- elven short sword
2. Anduril -- elven broadsword
3. Dyrnwyn -- two-handed sword
4. Cat's Claw -- dirk (knife if the Dev Team doesn't care to add a type)
5. Leah -- long sword
6. Grayswandir and Werewindle -- dwarvish mattock (my best approximation)
7. Stiehl -- knife / orcish dagger (whichever is bigger)
8. Mournblade -- elven broadsword (like Stormbringer)
9. Beleg (I seem to recall some other name) -- two-handed sword


Obtaining the goodies: Cat's Claw should be the only auto-christenable weapon
among these. Stiehl should be granted at chaotic altars only following a human
sacrifice conversion (i.e. when there's no demon lord). Leah should be
creatable by dipping into a fountain and (assuming you didn't get Excalibur)
zapping it with a wand of death (fire? see _The Wishsong of Shannara_ for
details). I have never tried dipping in a pool/moat -- that would be a more
accurate depiction of the process. Too bad you can't engrave weapons with
wands -- I don't know how the second step can be implemented.

	The literary references are:

1. Glamdring -- J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Hobbit_, _The Lord of the Rings_
2. Anduril (Narsil) -- J.R.R. Tolkien, _Lord of the Rings_
3. Dyrnwyn -- Lloyd Alexander, _The Book of Three_, _The High King_
4. Cat's Claw -- Fritz Lieber, _Ill Met in Lankhmar_ (et cetera)
5. Leah -- Terry Brooks, _The Druid of Shannara_
6a. Grayswandir -- Roger Zelazny, _The Guns of Avalon_ (et cetera)
6b. Werewindle -- Roger Zelazny, _Knight of Shadows_
7. Stiehl -- Terry Brooks, _The Druid of Shannara_
8. Mournblade -- Michael Moorcock, _Elric of Melnibone'_, _Stormbringer_
9. Beleg -- J.R.R. Tolkien, _Unfinished Tales_

	Some powers should be:

1. Glamdring -- similar effects to Excalibur (as per "foe hammer")
	NB: Glamdring is _definitely not_ a war hammer.
2. Anduril -- 2x damage to orc, troll, undead
3. Dyrnwyn -- unwieldable by non-lawfuls; 2x damage to demon, shape changer
4. Cat's Claw -- 2x damage to demon, shape changer
5. Leah -- 2x damage to undead, demon; magic resistance
6. Grayswandir/Werewindle -- magic resistance; damage bonuses same as Excalibur
7. Stiehl -- warning; 2x damage to everything hit (it's only a knife)
8. Mournblade -- drain life (as Stormbringer), defend
9. Beleg -- 2x damage to dragons, giants

	I know there isn't much evidence to support Glamdring's being a short
sword, but judging from the slim sword Gandalf wields in the animated LoTR
(first half), I guess it's plausible. It's definitely not a 2-handed jobbie
like Orcrist (couldn't wield a staff with it).

	Has anyone brought up the idea of implementing the Swords of Fred
Saberhagen's _The Book of Swords_ mythos?

	My motivation for suggesting these weapons is that with these
higher-powered weapons, there won't be an urge to build a collection (I once
sacrificed megatons of carcasses trying to get Mjollnir and was granted
Trollslayer and Sunsword first), and not all ascensions will read "+7/+8
Excalibur" -- BOR-ING.