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The accepted answer to Are there any guidelines in place governing the extent to which magic items can resize to different-sized users? only shows that "worn" magic items are supposed to resize to fit the wearer - not weapons.

I am interested whether the properties of the following artifact demonstrate that magic weapons also resize to fit the bearer.

The Sword of Zariel is found by players towards the end of Descent Into Avernus. Its previous wielder was the angel Zariel - who is (at the time the players find the sword) a Large fiend, and used to be a Large celestial (a Solar). Since this is an artifact weapon that literally bears her name and was thus presumably made bespoke for her, it seems safe to assume the weapon is sized well for her former angelic self - and thus is sized well for a Large creature.

Furthermore,

Players can (if worthy) attune to the sword. Its stats are presented in the book; it is a longsword, and neither in the stats nor elsewhere in the book is it suggested a Medium/Small PC would have difficulty wielding this sword due to their size.

Given these two facts, must it be true that this artifact weapon can resize to best fit its wearer, whether Small/Medium or Large? And if so, does that mean that all magic weapons can do this?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Was the Sword of Zariel specifically a long sword in Zariel's hands? \$\endgroup\$
    – Mark Wells
    Jun 14, 2020 at 5:43
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    \$\begingroup\$ I think it can be debated if a sword named for a character is "presumably made bespoke for her", or if it merely earned its name because she wielded it to great (or terrible) effect. So a possibility to consider is that it's a normal sized longsword and no resizing is necessary. \$\endgroup\$
    – Blckknght
    Jun 14, 2020 at 5:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ 1d8 is slightly less than 2d4 - so it it were true Zariel wielded it as a normal sized longsword, it would probably have been called the Dagger of Zariel. Illustrations in the book also suggest full longsword size relative to her when it shows them together. \$\endgroup\$
    – Vigil
    Jul 24, 2020 at 9:37

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Nothing in the descriptions of the magic weapons in the DMG mention anything about changing size. Since the DMG does say this about magical armor and worn gear, the lack of such a property suggests they cannot. The Sword of Zariel is an artifact. Not only are artifacts more powerful that the "average" magic weapons, it is not unusual for them to have special properties, in this case (implied) size change.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Good answer - I think you could support the notion that this artifact can do unusual things not explicitly mentioned in its stat block with one or more examples of other powerful properties the Sword has that aren't mentioned there - e.g. its capacity to create the location it is found in, or the unique role it can play in one of the endings of the module. \$\endgroup\$
    – Vigil
    Jun 14, 2020 at 10:28

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