The Soulstealer is a weapon in Wizardry V - Heart of the Maelstrom. It is a longsword, can be weilded by Fighters, Samurai, Lords, and Ninjas, grants a bonus +2 to hit, and does 4d5+4 damage per hit.
It is a cursed weapon and, like all cursed weapons, inflicts certain penalties on characters that equip it. The Soulstealer will raise the AC of any character who equips it by 4, and this is merciful considering how many cursed weapons also cause negative hp regen.
Why would you ever use a cursed weapon? Hell, why would I take the time to write an article on a cursed weapon? Well, everything comes down to invoking this very special weapon.
Invoking the Soulstealer[]
Any character capable of weilding the Soulstealer can invoke it, and it can be invoked without equipping it. When invoked, the Soulstealer decreases a character's Vitality stat by 1 and ages them 1 year. It has a 50% chance of breaking when invoked.
There is something else though, something that makes this cursed weapon worth the time, and well worth the loss of Vitality and age. From the moment the Soulstealer is invoked until the character attempts to change their equipment (if you so much as accidentally hit the "Equip" command, even if you keep the same equipment equipped), they will receive some sort of absurd bonus to their to-hit rolls and damage. I do not know what the stats are, but my Lv15 Samurai weilding a Muramasa Katana could barely manage to hit an Archdemon if given ten or more tries, and when a hit did connect, it didn't do much. I could count on a 10% success rate with hitting an Archdemon, and I expected around 40~50 points of damage. After the Soulstealer was invoked, using the same Katana and other equipment, my Samurai was hitting Archdemons 90% of the time for 450~500 damage!
This ridiculous bonus will stay with the character, even if they:
- Are removed from the party.
- Are added to the party.
- Are killed and revived in-dungeon.
- Cast Spells.
- Use Items.
- Buy Items.
- Sell Items.
- Trade Items.
- Exit the Maze.
- Enter the Maze.
- Sell equipped items in Boltac's.
- Are killed and revived out-of-dungeon.
- Moved into an anti-magic field.
The bonus will be removed if a character:
- Uses the "Equip" command, even if their equipment is kept exactly as is.
Moral of this story: Invoke the Soulstealer!
Kcrescenzi (talk) 00:43, December 12, 2012 (UTC)