Your favourite weapon in an RPG?

I was cleaning out some memory sticks today and discovered a lovely quartet of screenshots from an old Icewind Dale game. I'd used them in a thread on Gamebanshee entitled "How to kill yxunomei in two seconds". Looking at them now, they remind me of why Icewind Dale is such a fun game, and also why RPGs can be such fun games when done right.

Firstly, when a really nice weapon is found, the game has to communicate this with the correct level of graphic:


It's no good if every weapon looks awesome, it only works if the graphics extend to the correct ratio of awesomeness of the weapon and it has to be a proper in-game graphic, not just a profile graphic:


And it has to have a great write-up, a weapon with a story all of its own. And it can't just be a ROFLSTOMP weapon that's always awesome, it's just got to have that… little extra something:


And it's got to be able to actually function when it matters. There's no point having a weapon that annihilates skeletons but is then useless on the end boss, that's not awesome, that's just a fast forward button, noooo, this weapon has to be able to function with equal severity against the hardest opponent possible for it's appropriate level in the game (that yellow circle is where yxunomei was standing, the flying debris is yxunomei succumbing to the sword as she is shattered):


I got the 50/1 hit and I managed to hit the pause button just in time to record my joy for eternity!

The sword is not a guaranteed drop, it's a random drop from the Temple and it's the random moments like this that make Icewind Dale such an awesomely replayable actioner.

(please ignore the dead rogue, he was just imported in as a level 1 rogue to remove some traps prior to the big fight).


So what's your favourite weapon ever in an RPG? And what made it so special?

Easy one. The hammer from Lady of Pain maze in PST is my best weapon ever. What's even better, since you can switch your class, you're not totally restricted with the ruleset and can have full "stars" on hammers while being a mage or a thief. A mage specialized in hammers in a d&d game? A dream come true.
Yea… Entropy blade could pose as a hammer but it doesn't look as fancy as this hammer.

My second favorite weapon in RPG is the crazy visual effect staff in TW2. Whoever said you can't wield anything but two swords in TW2 didn't play that game or is a liar. Okay, true, maybe just didn't take the route with Roche…

And my third favorite weapon in RPG is Umbra Sword from Oblivion.This weapon is practically a symbol of crap design where devs believe leveling of endless respawns is more important than keeping the game balanced through other means. You can get it easily very early and you need no other weapon in the game to win.

More? Okay. The fourth one is PEPS from DX:HR. When you do care for life, when you're trying not to kill anyone and shit hits the fan, the only way to take a group of mobs down is that nice thingie no reviewer ever tried and then DX:HR couldn't be GOTY to them.

The fifth one should be chakram. Of any kind. As they don't know how to properly code it in RPGs. Or elsewhere - that weapon is rarer than Haast's eagle.
Sadly, it's near useless in Arcanum and I've seen how fancy it moves only on vids from Amalur - still can't persuade myself to play that game.

its a tie between Lord British's fork, and two weapons from Wizardry: the Blade Cuisinart and the Blue Ribbon

Artistically my favorite RPG weapon is the plasma rifle from Fallout and Fallout 2. But in terms of actual using the weapon in a 3D world, I really like the laser rifle in the newer fallout games.

I've always been partial to that gigantic cannon bringing down the wrath of Mechanus in Planescape: Torment.

Too many to mention, really. But the one that immediately came into my mind was King's Sword of Haste from Diablo.

1) Lightsaber: "Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age."

-When Kyle katarn locates Rhan's Lightsaber from his fathers hiding place (JK1)
-when Luke Skywalker returns Kyle his old lightsaber. (JK2)
-when your jedi training is complete and you craft your own light saber (kotor1)
-when Exile finds the last part of light saber design and rebuilds his lightsaber (kotor2)

Those moments literally changed the way you played the game. An iconic moment which defined your path

2) Carsomyr +5. Slay the dragon, save the day and join the most noble order of radiant heart. Nows thats a very definition of great adventure!

Carsomyr is a weapon of legend, perhaps one of the most powerful blades ever forged on Faerun, though its origin and history is thought purposefully forgotten, such that the sword itself never overshadow the importance of the struggles that must be fought today. It is infused with the very essence of virtue, and requires as much from any paladin that would hope to wield it. The evils of the Realms must truly stand aside when this weapon is brought to bear, their magic dispelled with a word, steadfastly resisted with ease. Carsomyr also harbors a special distaste for the forces of evil and chaos, and such creatures must fear additional damage from its touch in battle.

Click to expand...

3) Magic ore blade which you get to buy as you become a paladin in gothic 2. However this swords true potential could be unlocked through prayer in the monestary of Innos… And later on you could bless it further with the help of tears of innos. Your holy blade would be upgraded into the Wrath of Innos

4) Chrysamere (morrowind).

5) Sword of Ianna unlocked by runes of power (blade of darkness) Ah I can still recall the epic music when hero is finally chosen By Ianna to wield her sword to defy the forces of darkness….



ps. As you can see, I really like paladin swords

My Samurai's Muramasa Blade in Wizardry games.

Hoe of Destruction from U7.

I second Carsomyr +5. Actually I liked a lot of weapons in BG2 - loved description of each weapon, I used to pause the game and spent a lot of time reading them. On top of my head, other favourites were Celestial Fury +3 (gogo stun!) and Flail of Ages (it eventually ends up +5). Oh, and also Blade of Roses. Why? I loved the name and also buff up my charisma by 2

EDIT: And Silverblade... insta kill is awesome

The Fork of Horripilation, naturally!

I can't say many other weapons really stick out in my mind as being cool, just vaguely useful or occasionally so overpowered as to be a requirement to playing. The one that really sticks out in my mind is Varscona, a sword from BG1 that you can pick up fairly early, and I think that's just because it was a standard D&D weapon, but with a minor secondary bonus (rare in those days) and an actual backstory (even rarer). As time went on, particularly in the D&D games that came after, this became so common and you were so loaded down with enchanted stuff that it ruined the magic, but at the time it was pretty cool.

The Vorpal Blades from Secret of the Silver Blades come to mind first…beheading and chance to instakill for the win!

I also loved the Longsword+3 Frostbrand from Curse of the Azure Bonds. The title itself really captured my imagination at the time way back when and I've always had a soft spot for ice damage over fire as a result.

Glass Swords from Ultima must get a mention, especially from IV/V.

Whilst none of the Baldurs Gate weapons come to mind immediately, (save those you build from BG2 as others have mentioned) I really appreciate the well crafted back-stories for weapons from the Infinity Engine games.

Edit: Oh one more! The Cattleprod from Fallout. Combat description amusement-city.

purpleblob said:

I second Carsomyr +5. Actually I liked a lot of weapons in BG2 - loved description of each weapon, I used to pause the game and spent a lot of time reading them. On top of my head, other favourites were Celestial Fury +3 (gogo stun!) and Flail of Ages (it eventually ends up +5). Oh, and also Blade of Roses. Why? I loved the name and also buff up my charisma by 2

EDIT: And Silverblade… insta kill is awesome

Click to expand...

I'd say Lilarcor takes the prize in my book. Always team that one up with Minsc, without fail.

I'm not coming up with much from standard RPGs, really… but MMORPGs….

Asheron's Call - the Lugian Mace. Lugians are a race of giants so this mace is basically a five foot long pole with a foot long metal cylinder at the end. The thing is terribly heavy so you can't carry much else when you've got the mace. You'll be able to swing it maybe three times before your stamina gives out, too. But when you hit something with it, it STAYS hit! I had great fun with it.


Jurassik's hammer in City of Heroes wasn't one players could use but it could be used ON them. Well… I say hammer… actually it was a car stuck on the end of some metal support beams. With practically all our RPGs stuck in a fantastic past or future, I loved seeing simple, modern day items used to make a giant's hammer!

Saints Row is almost an RPG and it had a shark gun. I love shark guns. Spray an enemy with it and, a couple of seconds later, a shark jumps out of the ground and eats them! It gets old eventually but it takes a loooooong time!

That reminds of the little thing I created for NWN when tilemagic was introduced, an addition to the DM Ring - Drop a House on a Player.

Player griefing trouble? Drop a house on him.

Use the ring, select the target, choose the option, house appears over player's head, house falls on player, player falls to the ground, player takes all hit pointed except 1, house turns into a burned house, house disappears, empty red shoes named "Dorothy" run away in the background. It was a quite a sight to see.

Never submitted it to the Vault for some reason.

Probably the Celestial Fury from BG2.

I liked Carsomyr too, ands is better with the +6 version from ToB, the only problem is basically the PC must be a paladin to use her because the only paladin NPC doesn't stay in the party until the end.

Love all types of bows too, especially in games which uses some stealth system. Sniper rifles and silenced firearms are nice too (I remember playing a good portion of Fallout 3 using a basic silenced 10mm pistol + stealth)

And of course the lighsabers from KOTOR

Lilarcor.

And, Fallout's .233 pistol.

The first rusty 2-H-Sword in Gothic 1.

For named weapons, you can't go wrong with the Cane of Corpus from the Wizardry series. Any time a weapon can be universally recognized merely by its initials, you know you're on to something.

Still, my favorite weapon in general comes from NWN (possibly others, I suppose, but I don't know of any off hand). I loved being able to use scythes. The whole Grim Reaper feel was tremendous fun. Built a half-orc scythe specialist and just had all kinds of fun.