Sword of the Einherjar (5e Equipment)

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Weapon (great sword, long sword, great axe or battle axe), Artifact (requires attunement)

The Einherjar are the chosen dead warriors of the Norse god Odin. The only reason they are allowed into Valhalla and allowed to live this life is because they died valiantly for their cause with a weapon in their hand. Each is given one of these swords thus making them Einherjar. Occasionally the god will bestow this artifact in the form of an axe rather than a sword.

Prerequisites

  • Norse Deity - To use this sword, you must worship a good-aligned deity of the Norse pantheon (see PHB p. 299).
  • Great Warrior - To use this sword, you must be at least 5th level. You must be a paladin, ranger, barbarian, fighter, war domain cleric, or militant homebrew class or subclass. or...
    • The sword will also consider you a great warrior if you have the war caster, weapon master, mounted combatant or other obviously militant feat and are of at least 5th level. Generally feats with the word war, combatant or weapon in the title are considered militant.
  • Ancestry - To use this sword, you must have at least some dwarven, human, undead, or celestial ancestry.
    • Alternately you may use the sword if you were killed in battle and you have been brought back to life with a raise dead, resurrection, or wish spell.
  • Free, Unattuned - To use this sword, it must not be attuned to another person.
Attunement
If you try to use the sword in battle and you meet the prerequisites, the sword accepts you and you become an Einherjar receiving all of the features below. When this happens, the sword attunes to you and will reject all other wielders until you are dead.
  • If you try to use the sword in battle and you do not meet the prerequisites, the sword causes you 2d6 points of necrotic damage and you lose your grip on it.
  • If it rejected you because someone else is attuned to it, you know the direction to the other person for the next hour after you tried to use it.

Features

  • Hit Dice - Your hit dice rise (or fall) to 1d10, adjusting your hit points if your hit dice were not already 1d10.
  • Proficiency - If you did not already have it, you gain proficiency with all swords and axes.
  • Bonus to Attack - The Sword of the Einherjar is a magic weapon which adds a bonus of +2 to attacks, and +3 vs giants.

Path of Valr

If you are male, you gain the Undead Vigor feature. If you are female, you may choose either the Undead Vigor feature or the Valkyrie feature.

Undead Vigor
Your type is undead. You are immune to poison and disease. You do not need to eat or breathe. At 5th level, when you hit with a weapon attack you can spend 10 hit points. The attack adds extra damage equal to 1d10 + your constitution modifier necrotic damage to the result.
Valkyrie
You gain a fly speed of 60 ft. At 5th level, you can cast raise dead on a humanoid that died fighting an evil creature of a CR at least equal to the target's level (or CR). You may do this once per day after the end of along rest. That humanoid may subsequently use a Sword of the Einherjar without having to meet the other prerequisites.

Alf Seiðr

You may cast the faerie fire, heroism and cure wounds spells once per day after the end of a long rest.

Valhalla

You may use this sword to enter or leave Valhalla from the material plane.

  • You must hold your sword straight up in the air for one minute and yell your battle cry (you do have one don't you?).
  • Lightning appears in the sky above you. During this ritual, you gain 1 inch in height per turn. Anyone clutching you will go with you to Valhalla.
  • Anyone left behind within 100' will take 2d6 points of thunder damage. Upon arriving in Valhalla, you are one ft taller than you are on the material plane.

The same ritual will bring you back to the material plane. Upon your return, your height drops back to normal.

  • If you have the Undead Vigor feature, you will return in the midst of an ongoing battle somewhere in the world.
  • If you have the Valkyrie feature, you return to a battle field covered with dead and dying warriors.

As an Artifact[edit]

Even though the Sword of Einherjar is an artifact, it differs from other artifacts in being fairly common and relatively easy to destroy. There have been a few hundreds created by Odin and the other Norse gods over the centuries, and a few dozen have been destroyed, mostly in the bellies of ancient red dragons or through direct attempts at destruction. For example a dwarven artificer of 15th level or higher can destroy one of these in a process requiring 1 week.


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