Hornblade (weapon property)

Hornblade was a magical weapon quality that allowed a weapon to be comfortably wielded by halflings or gnomes despite not being correctly sized for them.

Description
The earliest hornblade weapons were fashioned from real animal horns and antlers, hence their name. While later examples were more conventionally crafted, many were still adorned with pieces of horn or designs reminiscent of horns. The majority were short swords and longswords with curved blades, and occasionally they were spears.

Ability
When wielded by a halfling or a gnome, a hornblade weapon seemed much smaller or lighter than it really was. For example, a human-sized longsword would normally need to be wielded in two hands by a halfling, but if it had a hornblade enchantment, it could be wielded in only one hand, but was still a longsword in all other respects. It could be used as normal by a human and members of other larger races.

Creation
Along with skill in crafting magical weapons, the creator needed access to the shrink item spell.

History
The original hornblade weapons were created by a halfling wizard—thought to be a lightfoot, given their more common possession of them—to give the hin an edge in battle by letting them wield larger weapons. Both halflings and gnomes developed them further.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Year of Rogue Dragons (The Rage, The Rite, The Ruin)