One of the questioned that troubled me in my youth: if only magic-users can create magic swords, and the creation of magic items is vastly expensive in terms of time and coin, why would there be so many magic swords?
Reflecting on this as an adult, the answer seems obvious. It's the answer to so many questions in D&D: wizards are dicks. They're a cantankerous and vengeful lot, who go to extraordinary lengths in pursuit of petty vendettas.
If I had spent more of my youth reading Vance than Hickman and Weis, this would have been obvious to me.
This also explains why intelligent magic swords are dicks, more interested in their own (i.e. their creator's) agenda than the life of their wielder.
That magic-sword +1, +2 vs lycanthropes, with an 8 ego? Some magic-user was sick of his potion garden getting torn up by werehares, and wanted a local lughead to take care of the problem for him.
