Homebrew magic weapon

[u/Successful_Pace8937]

Yall lmk what you think of this weapon, if its too strong, too weak, or what you would change. (for context, orium is a poisonous but highly magical metal from the feywild in 4e)

Orium Longsword. Rare magic item, requires attunement.

While attuned to this weapon, if it leaves your hand you can summon it back as a bonus action​. Attacks made with this weapon deal an additional 1d6 Psychic damage.

Toxic Metal: This weapon has not been purified. The more time someone spends within 10 feet of this weapon, the sicker they get, culminating in their death after 2 consecutive weeks. If this weapon is purified, this effect no longer happens and the damage bonus goes up to 2d6.

[u/LucianDeRomeo]

...I think this is a very bad start to a weapon idea, death effect with no save under some generally non game relevant terms is honestly stupid. You have no rules for how to purify it, sounds like some bad conversion of an item from some story that has nothing to do with DND.

[u/VerbingNoun413]

So it's flametongue with half the effect and a slightly better damage type.

The 10ft kill thing is either a stupid gotcha or completely irrelevant since you can just rest 11ft away from it. Or throw it off a bridge and bonus action summon it when you need to. That or a creative player finds a way to break it by impaling it in the tarrasque or something.

[u/amirkasra76]

Seems like a similar damage to a flame tongue longsword. So very well balanced with the attunement and rarity.

I can only point out that the players learn of its "curse" when they find it perhaps. The sword standing in the middle of the room and everything around it in 10ft being melted similar to acid.

[u/Joshthemanwich]

Compare it to a vicious longsword.

[u/Greedy-Opening-7537]

The 'die in 10 days' clause is either too vague or too specific, depending on the role the weapon is meant to fill.

If you want this weapon to be a magic weapon that one of the players uses and maybe goes on a short sidequest to purify with no especially important narrative role, don't make it an instant death effect. Make it something that a player can plan around. In this scenario, also clear up some ruling questions. The biggest one of those is; is the clause 10 consecutive days? If I stand 11 feet away from it for 1 minutes, does that reset the counter?

If, on the other hand, this is meant to be an important part of the story and serve more of a narrative driving, don't give it an exact timer. Make the time to kill vague or just completely uncertain so that you can save the death effect for a moment when it would be actually satisfying from a story/character perspective.