If this is the case, I'd assign a difficulty to the ritual dependant on the toughness of the target (It should be harder to create a Dragon Slaying sword than a Chicken slaying one, for instance).
Assuming the ritual is succesful and we have created a Trollbane Sword
(which starts a score of 12 - HW:RiG p233 - and can be improved as a
mundane skill) how do we use it?
My favoured approach would be to treat it as a skill spirit - that is the score could be used directly in place of a combat ability, or used to augment normally. When used to augment, the abilities AP's are added as a followers
So if Rurik has Close Combat (Sword) 1W and Trollbane Sword 12 then
when fighting Trolls, his total skill would be 2W (1W +1 augmentation
(strictly the rules suggest you roll for skill sprirts and get passion
spirits automatically, but I'd go for reducing the amount of rolling
needed...)) and his AP's would be 34 (22 for starting skill + 12 from
the ability as a follower). I'd treat the swords augmentation as a
"free augment" - taking no actions to invoke, so long as the sword is
in use, so Rurik may be able to push this even higher if he gets a
chance to use Magic or a "mundane" augment before combat.
If the sword were picked up by Kallai the Peaceful, who has no Close
Combat at all, he would be able to use it against Trolls at a score of
12, with 12 AP's. If the trolls sat back and sent there Giant Spiders
(or even there Giant Ham Beetles) in to get him he would be stuck with
the "non listed skill" default of 6...
The alternate approach appears to be to treat it as a Mystic Strike - Bid all your AP's and hope to drive the victim below 0 AP...
Taking Rurik above, and sticking him in combat with the sample Uzko from AR. Under these rules Rurik has just his 21 AP from Close Combat, and the Troll has much the same (I'd give him an "automatic" +2 augment for his Strong 5W, so we'll call it 23).
Rurik chooses to use the Troll slaying power of the sword so bids 21 AP in a mystic strike (so there will be a ^12 to whoever wins...). It would seem unfair to the Troll not to let it defend a Trollslaying Sword with it's close combat, so 12 vs 3W gives Rurik just over a 41% chance of succeeding - a Marginal Victory would cost the Troll 34 AP - taaking it to -11 and causing it's death - a Minor Defeat (the single most likely result) would cause Rurik to loose 68AP (down to -47!) According to the Mystic Strike rules he will also loose 2 points in the swords Trollslaying rating - but to be honest I doubt he will get chance to care!
In either case the sword acts exactly as a normal sword when used against any non-Troll...
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