Dungeons and Dragons: Intelligent Magic Items.
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- čas přidán 23. 08. 2018
- We know a very rare few magical items are infused with sentience, but the details on how this is done, and why, are sorely lacking in the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game, so, time for me to have a ramble on the subject and see if I can inspire some ideas for you.
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@AJ Pickett
There's a skip at 5:12 and again at 5:18 that obviously cut out context that help in the understanding of the scenario you're trying to communicate.
5:12 "Oh I take issue with that word.. never. Tell me a sentient potion is not a fantastic idea? Imagine if you had to convince a sentient potion of resurrection that is should sacrifice itself to restore life to a particular individual? What if the potion was actually useful in some other way? "
5:18 "Say, the sentience contained in the potion was an old sage who knows a whole lot of very important lore on something critically important to the characters? "
Also there is a skip at 4:50 "What if the undead created this thing and it actually loathes living creatures?"
Sorry for the technical errors there, I hope that helps.
A sentient boomerang which occasionally selects it's own target and prefers to return to one of the other players.
Ha ha! That is great. I want it to be named Colin and it has a habit of yelling "By Crikey!" and "Struth mate!"
@@AJPickett oh brainwave...instead of being a flaming boomerang it could also be mistakenly enchanted as a "flamin' boomerang"...with an Australian accent randomly saying "flamin' this" and "flamin' that" in and out of combat.
@@BenC...1975 *click* Noice
I am actually currently playing as a magical short sword who was abandoned on a battlefield after their last wielder was slain....200 years ago. He's had a lot of time to think about his role in the world as he started to rust, and be buried under sediment, though magic didn't allow for his movement nor freedom. Instead, he picked up on the patterns of the wandering undead (even gave them names), and learned the spells of the drow that wandered, unknowingly, over top of him.
So, now wielded by the party's rogue, Star Shatr finally has his freedom, and can *finally* see something...someone...and be put back to use in destroying the drow. To swim in the blood of one's enemies. What other joy is there possibly in...is that bread?
I made a dagger named Stabby. My group is not great with remembering details so I kept it simple. It was a normal dagger, that insulted the user and random people. They were confused by the fact it could not do magic damage (part of the joke) and later I offered a bunch of options to make him more powerful. They refused and preferred him how he was. Stabby ended being to only original member of the party as they all died and they needed to roll new ones.
@Nad Senoj go ahead. Let the spirit of stabby live on. In someone's back preferably.
The spear of indecision... Came upon it in a dungeon with a person withered and dead of dehydration in the middle of a stocked pantry. The sword was heavily enchanted but cursed so anytime you would try to make a decision you had to roll a save or be unable to function lost in endless thought of possibilities.
Flying Ax:"Hi, I needed 25 pounds of giant chicken meat, 24 eggs, some carrots......wait. Let me go chop that goblin I'll write out my list."
My favourite magic item was a sword called "Unmaker". The sword had an enchantment which applied a curse on anyone it touched. When the curse ended (wether by remove curse spell or naturally in 3 days) the subject would cease to be and disappear forever. This meant that the player who picked it up needed to touch it at least every 3 days. This also meant that many people who the player hurt with the sword wanted to steal it to preserve their own life. Another interesting thing (that I didn't expect) was that our Cleric used the remove curse spell to kill an enemy that had stolen the sword.
"Sentient poison"? That is beautiful!
You find a rotting corpse near it lies an unstoppered vial on it's side, however it's contents are not spilling out...
(Poison returns to the bottle after the kill)
Choppy the Axe "I can't do that Dave....Choppy has become self aware. Choppy doesn't want to hurt. Choppy wants to become a Broadway star."
Alexander Bahn “One day mr. Formaneli, I’m gunna be a star!”
I have actually had a character who played an intelligent necklace. She was only able to use her Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma abilities, but she did quite well at it.
My favourite item is Melvin the Magnificent's Magical Emporium. It's a multidimensional shop that exists somewhere in every campaign I run and in every world Melvin is a different creature. In one he is a sultan genie, in another a gnomish tinkerer, in a third an elven biologist. The shop is always run by a Melvin though and it always sells the strangest of items. But Melvin always sells information on magic and science too.
This was in 4e, and my very first homebrew item. I made a intelligent magic item called "The White Spear". It was a shortspear that looked more like a staff made from ivory wood, tipped with gnarled tip that resembled small dragons claw. What made the weapon special was the ancient white dragon trapped inside of it. The dragon had complete amnesia and did not remember who or what it was, and seemed to be very innocent and naive about everything. The players figured out what this thing was with some research and were scared that if this thing ever figured out what it was, it would try to break free and cause havoc to the realm. The thing was though, more the dragon spirit remembered of itself, more powerful the weapon became. It was a fun balancing act to follow.
A few magical items I had: Verbal Weapon. It was created as a joke and awarded to a whining player who kept wanting a Vorpal Weapon, but he pronounced Vorpal as "Verbal." He released an Efreet that gave him an offer "I will grant you one wish or 1001 days of service" and before he could explain the terms the player said, "I wish I had a verbal weapon!" The efreet gave an evil grin and said "Do you wish for THE Verbal Weapon? It is unique?" The player agreed. "Granted." The player suddenly had in his hand a fine quality glowing longsword with a super sharp edge. Then... it began talking. The thing never shuts up. It had a habit of taunting enemies and ruining the player's attempt to hide. Even the deaf could hear it. It granted the user the ability to teleport and fly, but it used the user's magic to do that. Whenever the player tried to get rid of it, it floated around near him. Whenever the player tried to use any melee weapon but the Verbal Weapon, it used its teleport ability to switch places with their weapon. Intelligent cursed weapon, very powerful but its shine wore off fast. Another was Face Palm Gauntlet. It was pretty much a gauntlet that made your left hand (when worn) behave like Vampire Hunter D's hand. It had a ghoulish face, could talk, and granted you some survival abilities. Considered a borderline evil item though. Another was a jeweled circlet that is worn on the head. It was given the personality of a rich noble adventurer... noble as in entitled rich pr^ck, not one being noble. Granted a lot of appraisal and treasure detecting abilities, made the player character covet the item and wealth in general. That item had different names, depending upon the campaign. The most insidious was the Sword of Genies. My players did not know the source of its power. 5 genies were infused upon it, it was a +5 item that also granted elemental attack options. When a genie icon was touched (Efreet, Dao, Marid, Djinn or Jann), it would release that genie and compel it to grant the player a wish. The personality of the genie still applied, so only the Djinn and Jann were safe to make wishes without careful consideration of the wording. When the wish was made, the genie was lost, on + was lost and so was the elemental power it infused. Veteran players always released the Jann first, merely losing a wish and a +. When it came down to 1 genie, the intelligence opened up and the weapon starts telepathically talking to the user, insisting he releases the last genie. To soften the player up, the last genie becomes exceptionally helpful and bargains. Another is Biofet's White Staff. If you are non-good and-or non-living (undead or construct), it shocks you when brandished. If you survive that, you can use it without harm until you put it down and pick it back up again. It puts thoughts into your head when held, like destroying the mocery of life beings and healing the living. Using it regularly, if you are undead, eventually cures your undeath... not so great if that makes you powerful. Also, if you are non-good and use it regularly... you eventually alignment shift to good. It had a lot of awesome healing powers and granted the ability to Turn Undead (or boost it if you can do it already). If used as a weapon, it was like a Mace of Disruption. The player who found it and refused to give it up was a thief free-will vampire. His original goal was to destroy a rival vampire. He eventually became a good Cleric that was once again among the truly alive. Never lost the fangs though. These are just a few magical intelligent items. I had loads of fun with them my whole gaming life. Stuff I thought they would go out of their way to ditch, they kept and made it fun. One item was "Kings' Weapon". It was a little bauble you attach to your weapon. It infused your weapon with magical capabilities and was the mind and soul of an old magical ruler of the land that just wanted to restore his kingdom to its former glory and honor. That one manipulated through empathy, truly telepathicly spoke to you once it saw you were worthy.
As you attune to the axe you find yourself greeted by a voice inside your mind:
"Oi! Yu da new boss? Roight. I'm da choppa. I chopp da gitz stoopid enuff to scrap with da boss. O needz a stompin'?"
And now I have ideas forming in my head... as the barbarian just got a new magic longsword.
This video makes remember a cartoon from Dragon Magazine Where the fighter's friend says"Don't worry many fighters have a sword that is more intelligent than they are." Thanks AJ.
Oh lord, now I really REALLY want to RP a warforged whose best bud is his sword. Like go "BROOOOO" whenever they make a really good hit and fist-bump after encounters.
Pommel bump.
Considering the fact the Awakened spell gives a form of sapience to a living creature, I can see Sentient magic items being far more complex to make especially since there are few in the monster manual that aren’t artifact level. Speaking of which, I think items like The Wand Of Orcus and the elven blade (moonblade?) are good examples of items that revolve around being very purpose driven. Or you can always have a bag of devouring that is sentient since apparently those go to the dimensional stomach of some big creature in the astral plane.
My boss caught me geeking out to this video this morning, I had no way to explain my joy than to say it's a video I was waiting for.
curse of averus + claptrap personality and voice
make it give the character a huge speed boost like +200 speed
then beacase of clap trap -100% stealth
oh and its soul bound
so there stuck with it till they die
if they where to drop it, throw it, have it taken off of them
it will return to there hip where it will be magicly stuck
and it will say I think you droped me :)
evry time they slight of hand steal something
it will ask out loud "what you get?"
when they try to sneak it will proclaim repeatedly "I am very sneaky "... " we are completely invisible" etc.
Love magic items discussions So many avenues of how it can effect game play
One misfortune one of my player's mages was gaining the ownership of the Black Razor from the old S-2 serires -- White Plume Mountain ..he was lawful neutral but the need for the sword to gain souls caused a huge alignment shift until he could finally will himself away from it...to wit he put it in a bag of holding and forgot about it...years and years later his daughter found the bag and opened it -- it lept out stiking the first living creature it could find... causing the mage to go insane with grief until his wife - could pull him back from dispair -- Aren't I a mean DM .. LOL
Here's a Magic item with a few personalities that would be easy to make.
Ranger's Cloak:
The Ranger's cloak looks at first like a full length fur trench coat but it is one for which no animals were killed. It is basically a net shaped like a trench coat on which a few dozen small animals of the same type can hang onto so the species must have some level of prehensile fore paws. The animals chosen vary by the culture from which the Ranger derives, as elves are prone to using mink, but goblins often use the rats. The magically endowed rope cloak gives a psychic link between the wearer & the animals making it up as well as giving additional bonuses against Cold environmental effects. The animals making the cloak still will need to be fed & get the occasional rest/bathroom break. The animals on the cloak will scatter if combat begins taking the cloak with them until they see it is safe to return. If the owner is in dire need however they will return as a summon vermin spell to get him out of trouble provided he has been taking good care of them & are called, frequently a "Boys come help, Mommy needs you!" will be enough to get them scampering back if you have been feeding them well.
Cloak of the king rat. You and every rat you see has a mutual curse of avorus. The coat wispers the will of the rats to you and visa versa. It will lie if it suits the coat regaurdless of what the rats want. It is a twisted advisor.
"Do you guys even know how much fun can you get beeing an axe stuck in a shelf in a empty room FOR 150 FREAKING YEARS!? NOT SO MANY!. Now move your lazy limbs and TAKE ME OUT OF HERE!"
-Chappy the grumpy Axe.
Thanks for the vid A.J.not too long my party had a possessed glaive and could swap abilities with the paladin inside. So the weilder could use his smite evel etc, but there was a price. They could only do so for their con bonus in rounds or age 1d10 years for every turn they went over. It was great!
Ohh, that is a nice little twist!
Bob the skull from the Dresden files
@Aj Pickett This reminded me of great short story about a sword called soul drinker I read a long time ago in dragon magazine. It was supposedly evil , it stole life force to heal its wielder. It became good friends with its wielder though and ends tragically. It uses it's own soul to heal him during a raid on the town he retired in, and since he was noble and refused to let it steal souls well... thanks for the memory, hadn't thought about that in years.
In the French tv series Wakfu the demon are called Shushus (shoo-shoos), and the Shushus are imprisoned in armor, items, and weapons in order to imprison them and exploit their powers. This video made me think about a magic map that is inhabited by a Shushu that one has to threaten or flatter in order for the Shushu to make the map show the person what the need to see.
The group I run are up against a bad guy who is the embodiment of duality and so has a "damage now heals field" so I invented "the bed side manner" a larp sword that heals for its damage. I thought it would be a great way for the trigger happy fighter to at least do something in the fight but now he has the dream of becoming the best healer in the world by putting his action surge to good use
My favorite magic item is the Decanter of Endless Water, because it is so so so easy to change it into a plot item or freakish tool. Imagine a decanter that poors an endless supply of glowing sap, it's poisonous but can be a marker for where you've been and a light source that won't attract as much attention as a flame. Or endless blood, can be used as a bargaining chip against a powerful vampire or can be used to contaminate an immense water supply in a truly frightening fashion. Endless icor, oil, toxic sludge, ink or maybe there is a leak that cannot be stopped by physical means. Burying it would slowly turn the land around it into a marsh that is slowly growing bigger every year. Maybe there is a city that depends entirely on one of these for all its water, but they don't realize it until it is stolen by adventurers that left town a week before you arrived. When you finally find them, they have discarded it in the desert claiming it didn't work, and you find that instead of responding to words it responds to being placed in its pedestal within the city. Then they kiss and live happily ever after.
I had a cursed version of that in one of my games. Once opened it couldn't be closed with anything less than a full wish. The volume of water was on par with opening a dimension door at the bottom of the Marianas Trench (Which pretty much was how it functioned.)
They couldn't stop it after they opened it and had to abandon the area, which then became a small inland sea. In about a year it flooded tons of farmland, displaced families. They were still in "hot water' for years of gaming time later.
It was a hoot.
I would make a weapon with Mickey Goldmill from Rocky in it "you're gonna eat lightning and crap thunder". For motivation of course
*evil chuckles* I recall the few sentient items I've dealt with or put into my players' campaign.
Oh boy was there hilarity and madness.
A greatsword that desires to drink blood of enemies to increase its power, but at the cost of slowly but surely drains the INt and WIS of the wielder should they fail either of those saves.
A pair of gauntlets that offer resistances to charm and mental effects because... well they like to 'touch' things and hate to be told not to touch or be told what to do by anyone not the wielder.
My personal favorite was... the talking gold coin. Oh did we all had such funny adventures with that gold coin... till our Gnome decided to toss it into the well for a good luck wish.
Damn it Gnome!
My fave item was a set of goggled a wizard used when experimenting with bright lights. As a reward for rescuing her daughter the party could chose any item she had and my Deurgar picked those to nulify his sunlight sensitivity. now he has cool shades
Now I want to work Litchbows into a game some time. Either have to be fed souls to keep their autoloading and magical weapon stats, or are custom made by a creepy craftsman for each person - out of necromantic parts of the same species as the owner. With the players realising over time its made from either themselves from the future - or a clone.
One of my all-time favorite magical items that a DM gave me was a "bag of regurgitation" (And no, NOT vomit). It was a portal that linked to other BoH and at random, for lack of a better term, regurgitated 1d6 items from another BoH. This ranged from alien coinage to once it spit out a pager that was in mid beep. It was a truly interesting and at times comical item.
Sentient cursed magic item made by a player character:
Ring of mind shielding held by a Great Old One Warlock of level 14 or greater. The player dies & their soul becomes trapped in the ring. They can communicate telepathically with any person who holds the ring or wears it. In addition, they are always touching the person who is wearing them. B/c of the create thrall feature of the level 14 great old one warlock, they can also enthrall anyone who falls asleep while wearing them. :D
Imagine your PCs bedding down for the night. One wakes up to the warlock sitting at a table, and it’s the soul in the ring controlling the sleeping PCs body. Like having an additional PC in the party who is only present while the other one is asleep.
Good Morning AJ, really enjoyed waking up to this video. I dont know how much AD&D you got play back in 80's. I remember when a magic item "talked" either out loud or just in that characters mind. After a short while, the user of the magic item had to make "EGO" save. And if that character failed there saving throw they would no longer be controlling the magic item, but the magic item would be controling the character to do what the magic item wanted to do. It made for great fun AJ. Plus nothing beats seeing that look on a person face when they realize that they are the item being wielded. Mawhahaha it can loads of fun to be the DM. Thanks AJ for the video & have a great day.
They were certainly very, very rare in our old campaigns.
I love this concept. 👍
One of my favorite intelligent items we used was flamebrand sword that had the soul of a curse barbarian warlord in it. It couldn't talk but would push the character to be more distructive and give them great pleasure to put anything on fire. It could also cast fireball once a day but it would always aim it's fireball to catch the most things and people on fire when directed to do so.
Here's a idea make a lich's phylactery a magic item of some kind and possesses the lich's good side he(or she) is super helpful has a lot of knowledge of all kinds of things and has really good powers but to kill the lich permanently the players have to destroy a friend and helpful item I can smell the drama now
Nice:)
I use modular items a lot. Inserted a phylactry inside an Amulet of protection. Some noble is wearing it lol. And if it gets stolen or passed on, no problem:) and always a fresh body to take over if needed muhaha
I evil DM cackled several times
Magical shrunken heads that can cast the last spell that they remember interesting concept
Let's make leather armor made from a patchwork of various skins from humanoids, each of the pieces having their previous owner's soul bound to them. And they are all self-aware and scream from time to time, forming little faces on the surface, always appearing to be in immense pain.
Slaad would love that sort of garment, as would any demon.
In the game I run the hexblade warlock's sword was given to him by a corrupted brass dragon. And the sword has taken on some of the aspects of the dragon. So far it has only really been jealous of the other weapons he uses, but in the future I think it may start playing pranks on the party
I like magic items that don't stop being useful.
In 5e the magic items are tiered in such a way that the +1 Longsword your PCs found at the start of the campaign, which they've carried with them across 6 months of weekly game sessions, is no longer useful when it comes time to fight the final boss. Along the way they'll either have to trade up that bog-standard +1 longsword or find something better just before going off to fight the BBG. Unfortunately, the player has it in their mind that when it comes time for statues to be erected of their characters it's that +1 longsword that they are holding, not the Dragon Slayer, because that +1 weapon is what they've most associated with their characters.
So I like to introduce weapons that grow and change with the characters. One example is 'Invictus Dei': unattuned it's a rapier that's magical only for the sake of overcoming magical resistance. When attuned to by a Paladin of 1st to 4th level the paladin can speak its name and the blade transforms into a +1 longsword, gaining the versatile property. When the character reaches 5th level paladin the sword becomes +2 and can become a great sword. At 11th level paladin it becomes +3, and at level 17 paladin charges can be used to cast the various Smite spells. At 20th level (or at the end of the campaign) the Paladin feels driven to take a squire and hand the sword off to the new paladin so that the cycle can begin again. In that way it's an iconic weapon the player closely associates with their character, and it gives role playing opportunity especially if another player rolls up a Paladin in the next campaign (you can have a hand-off scene between the old and new paladins, or maybe the sword has fallen into the hands of an Oath Breaker and there's a quest to retrieve it), or it could show up being worn by a young Paladin NPC just for continuity.
Granted, this kind of quest would probably work best in a one-on-one session as some players don't want the same OP magic items showing up.
I created a magic weapon that had the mind of a cultist imprinted in it's creation process, it would also increase in size and category according to how much blood it absorbs. Things got out of hand. It went from dagger to two-handed sword and flew out of the player's hands and killed the visiting diplomat from a neighboring kingdom....... The main villain recovered it for his own personal use shortly after that event, guess who had to make it right? The PC's of course.... Good times......
Im adding that crossbow to my next loot table!
Geezer here....
On the axe... Or any "intelligent" magic item...
Consider the idea of "feeble mind" effect..
We did a campaign years back.. Holy Sword needed to be "restored" before the thing could be used, something the party needed to put down the big bad.
Also letting someone "play" an item led once in my experience to a great time. Took the right player and it was a one shot.
Game on.
Feebleminding a sentient item...whoa. That's fantastic, thanks for that idea!
The cloak of shifting forms. An aberrant artifact that would randomly cycle between the cloak of the manta ray, bat, and arachnida. But, when you used it, your physical form would shift, and you would be able to interact with lovecraftian nasties existing in a parallel reality. It attuned to my player and never let go. I think they are a high priest of hhrykur, the shapeless now
The best magic item I have seen so far have been the Zanpakutou of Bleach. The sword by itself is just a sword. It has a rudamentary intelligence, but it's intelligence and power are linked to the wielder. Ichigo wanted nothing but to protect his friends and family. Thus Zangetsu, his sword, wanted to protect him in return. The more powerful he grew, the more powerful the sword grew and the more abilities it unlocked. The key to these things is that the personality of the blade itself is an aspect of the wielder, not the maker. When the wielder dies, the sword goes back to its neutral, near animalistic sentience.
what's more, you couldn't just swing the sword a few times and be good. you had to develop a relationship with the sword. you had to earn its trust and respect. the more power you have the more powerful the sword but that doesn't mean its just going to LET you have the power. you have to EARN it. For Ichigo, he had to prove he was powerful enough to defeat the avatar of Zangetsu in his Soul World. For others like the little clumsy healer dude he just had to show he had good heart. Still others were stuck with theirs, like Matsumoto because she had trouble getting along with it. It was the vain aspect of her own personality, but it takes this aspect and ramps it up to 11 and she hated that about herself. Oemaeda was arrogant, abrasive and selfish, but he and his zanpakutou got along great because they both thought the other was the only other awesome person ever. These things had nigh infinite possibilities.
Hell the best one of all *SPOILERS SPOILERS FOR BLEACH* was Zaraki's sword. He couldn't speak to his zanpaktou, or so he though. Once he finally gained access to its true power, he realized that the young girl that had been traveling with him the whole time, Yachiru, WAS his sword. She was the manifestation of its sentience as the sword (and therefore he) had so much power it was able to manifest a presence outside itself when ever it wanted to. once he unlocked it's full power, when he wanted to use it, she disappeared and went back into the sword.
I potion with an alchemist mind in it that helps them by telling the party about uses of collected herbs.
I like to imagine sentient magical items being animated robot versions of the items they represent, able to see and hear and maybe have small mechanical limbs for limited motion.
Staff of the Loyal Apprentice: it contained the soul of a particularly evil necromancer who trapped himself in it to escape death. When carried by a skeleton, it had the hit points and spell casting abilities of a 17th level necromancer. The staff was the big, bad evil that wanted to overrun the world, killing everything he came across as revenge for his death, because the kingdom that executed him had long since crumbled to dust.
The players finally got wise to it after several encounters where one skeleton would hand off the staff to another periodically. They buried it in a consecrated cemetery where only priests of the god of the dead (not death) were buried, preventing it from ever being carried by a skeleton again.
A long sword that holds the fighting skills of a epic weapon master. When drawn by a wizard it auto casts a tensor’s transformation variation takes control and wields its wielder as a weapon master
I had an item called bond stones they functioned like Ioun stones (only more power options) but instead physically fused with the first piece of living flesh that touches them causing a constitution penalty. They can be broken, causing a powerful shock (much damage) to the host but will regenerate overtime. There was also a "buffer stone" another type of bond stone that mitigated the constitution penalty of using a certain number of bond stones.
I remember years ago my DM put into our party campaign a flying talking Blue Ash but only my character the Barbarian could hear. The rest the players thought I was mad because I was constantly talking to an axe they couldn't hear and wouldn't talk to them if they tried to pick it up. In addition to that it turned out that it wasn't actually a magic axe but a polymorphed gem dragon that was using the party for its own ends which was hilarious.
My players were sent to meet a massive ancient faerie dragon in the feywilds last night to get answers about the BBG, and my girlfriend (a pheonix pyromancer) was given an upgrade to her pheonix feather that she’s had the entire campaign, and she can now activate it and turn it into a flaming scythe once per short rest. I have soooooo many ideas on how this could be fun, especially since a faerie dragon enchanted it.
I did create a intelligent item potion flask that could change what kind of potion or poison based on the need of situation. The potion could only be drank once a day but the flask could change the type of potion from moment to moment. So much fun.
Hey AJ . Can we get a Video on joke magic items ? For example , a staff of disintegration that when used turns to dust and blows away, or a truly immovable rod that becomes a fixed object in space forever and flies off into space as the planet moves . I've found they can be fun
There will be more magic item rambles :)
And 3rd Edition I made a character with very little Kombat capability but everybody around him could fight and we're very good at it but what he excelled at what he really excelled at was making magical items enchanting weapons making armor stuff like that he was a wizard with very little offensive capability and very little defense of capability but his true power was in the ability he had to make Enchanted items but whenever combat would start he would run behind the meat Shields he called allies
My player has recently come into possession of a magic dancing Rapier. He was told that it contains the soul of a great Draconic Bard.
But perhaps things are not as clear as they seem. He'll Learn soon.
My favorite magic item in literature is Nightblood from Brandon Sandersons stories.
Its basically an intelligent magic sword that was awakened with the instructions of DESTROY EVIL. which is all well and good but its a sword with the world view of a sword so its constantly trying to convince its owner that everything is evil and needs to be destroyed. Kind of like a hammer assuming everything is a nail.
very fun.
Nice discourse on intelligent items, the use of the art of Wen-M was a great idea too, love his work!
A variant on your magical axe: the item contains the sagely aspect of a retired adventurer. The axe itself is in an advanced state of disrepair and is useless as a weapon. When the axe meets a youngster it sees as having potential it lends them its wisdom in the form of a 1 d12 slashing natural attack and a 30 foot fly speed.
The You Could Be A Great Axe
The Axe of Random Kindness. It's a true good intelligent battle axe that likes to get to know people and compliments them. It doesn't like vertical wooden things and must make a will save to resist attacking them outright...
A pacifist cursed to be trapped in a battle axe, every time you use it in combat it cries out: "No, please stop, we don't have to do this, there are better ways to handle conflict" and other such things.
You are right
Proceeds to sell the axe to a lich.
How about a magic item with multiple personality disorder? It would be fun to have players roll on a random table to see what personality and powers manifest at any given time.
i ran a campaign with a warforged with a magic sword that they ended up in love with each other was a heck of a lot of fun
I think I can see a use for this idea.
The party fins an old blank scroll in an old tower. The parties spell caster tries to divine if its blank, faded from time or has a spell making it look blank. Only to have it yell at him! The scroll then spins a tale about it having been a pirate who's soul was locked this scroll after he angered the towers former resident. The Pirate says he'll give you the location of his "Treasure", if you can free his soul. But that requires killing the one who imprisoned him, a lich who hasn't been seen in some years.
The Pirate in turn can be used as both a map and guide for any where he has been. The catch is since he has been in that scroll for an untold amount of time, Any info he shares are out of date.
Wow this is amazing… just the imagination fuel i needed while my games are on hiatus for the first three months of new baby hell.
One of these days i should write up the lessons i have learned from you and regale you with stories from my first year as a DM. If you are interested that is.
I started listening to you during my lunch hour. I really like it. I've wanted to play a character with a sentient weapon of some type for a long time, but I've never had the opportunity. The one ring is a great example and the sort of thing that got me interested in playing a character holding such an item.
If you've ever played the CRPG Dark Sun, one of the magic items you could get was a sword called El's Drinker which was a longsword that iirc siphoned hit points to the bearer. I don't recall that item actually being sentient in the game but i do remember that i ended up playing riskier and riskier with the bearer, a Thri-kreen. Then it broke in the final battle and she fell immediately, totally derailing the combat strategy. Since the item seemed like a despoilers item it was always fitting for it to betray us in the final battle against all the Ravagers and other despoiling type bad guys.
So an apprentice who lost focus could accidently create a magic axe of bread slicing?
Item is discarded, found decades later by party who have no idea. When thrown it circles back and goes for bread in bag. If players figure it out they can have rogue stuff bread in enemy's hat etc to give axe guaranteed hit.
I like to think that a lot of what grew to be cursed items started out as failed enchantments.
In the Forgotten Realm books there is a story where some Harpers and a pair of twin Tiefling sisters finds a Netherial library with a sentient book in it that plotted and planned to use them to escape while probing every ones minds and copy their language.
Great video! Mmmh just from the top of my mind, two of the best magic items i've made:
A sentient rapier with the mind of a doctor. He/It helped the PC to identify how some npcs were dead during an investigation, thanks to his medical knowledge, and also many of the times the wielder hit with it he/it said things like "straight into the deltoid!" or "I belive two weeks of rehabilitation for this fella, after this"
A hand crossbow that made the wielder believe to be invincible (not sentient and no advantage of sorts)... incredible, the pc charged inside of a bunch of orcs and survived. I mean, they rolled really low and he really high, and after that the player was in doubt if the thing was a joke or really effective LOL
Epidodes apart, i usually love to put inside magic items not identifiable extra effects.
From powers comes a cost, my players discovered it in time.
Like a magical staff that lets the mage regain 1d6 slots, BUT for do that it consumed his hit dices... the player face was umbeliveable when he went to take a short reast 'cause he was low healt and i said "no Hit Dices left, apparently you used them for make more slots" (thing that i've expressed when happened by description like "when you active the staff you can feel your life energy spring in reaction" and so on...)
Or a violin who let the pc roll advantage in persuasion agaist a disadvantaged insight, one time for each npc... and it was a devil's violin. Suddently the party found that all the npcs who they took advantage of with the instrument they were "marked" by a fiend...
Or a potion made with "ghost blood" that let's the pc see spirits but make those unfriendly to the party.
Or a medicine that heal all the wounds but will cause so much pain that you need to pass a fortitude test or become mad for a while.
I can go on for hours with still-not used idead but let's stop :P
Now that i'm thinking about that... why not give a permanent collateral effect even to the classical cure potion? Like a % to become dependent... suddently old heroes can be a social problem 'cause addiction...
I just gave my players a padlock with permanent magic mouth on it, it has the voice of Oliver Twist (basically), and is an expert on finches. It was locking a door in the Great Library in the finch annex of the aviary wing of the Library for decades. And one of my players wants to have a blacksmith make him into a flail.
Could a lich have their phylactery become a sentient magic item? A second layer of defense as if the item is particularly valuable then it's less likely that those who find it be destroyed.
I gave one of my players a sentient sword of vengeance that could grow in power by absorbing the powers of other magic items. Of course, the save dc got harder and the rage it induced was also made more violent with the level of the item. It was an executioner’s sword containing the collective most deceitful and vile parts of the people it killed. It wanted its wielder to become a world renowned hero, then it would have its wielder kill all of his friends and become a dictator. It also got jealous of more powerful magic items. The pc loved it very much.
Had a character wizard that retired as a sword once!
Fabius Maximus definitely makes for a future campaign twist!
Fabius Maximus I DMed a game hell must of been 17 years ago,where a small group of good pcs went after a lawful good arch/Greater Mummy casting at 26th level,with the rest of her lesser mummys she crushed the party of three.....using a sentiant weapon (m.star)....snicker snicker as a DM i enjoyed the encounter greatly as failure resulted in multiple epic bad rolls on the part of all three! Lolx2
You know what, I will include a magical item from a story I have been writing. it is made a fully unknown alloy. Essentially compressed magic till it became metal, then mixed with titanium. The mind inside the weapon was born when they compressed the magic to metal, more as a consequence of the metal being made then a property. It felt all the forging and fire it went though, we well as tempering. From time to time, mid combat it gets weaker if it feel's like fighting with you will make you overcome the obstacle without trouble. It's unique power is that instead of the metal that actually went to building it, unlike others of its kind, it is pure thc. The people who forged it are really confused by this, it is essentially unlimited drugs, for the use on other's or yourself.
The personality of this sword is a bit strange. due to its limitless drug potential, it will often refuse the killing blow. If vaporizing 1% of it's current mass would kill, it will not do so at all. It can also not be used to clash swords, as at best it will shatter, and if the sword does not like you, turn to oil. This sword is given freely to everyone who wants it, as a single shard can remake the sword and this dragon keeps it in his belly for some clear reason's and will hand out a shard as asked to anyone, although not without a warning that this could kill the user if over used. The only person who currently wants to have one is for the most part a pacifist, He will defend himself but refuses to kill.
I have named this the primal humanity blade, because nothing about yourself can you hide when under its effects. It was the first blade of it's kind and is by far the strongest weapon in the story. The only weapon with truly unlimited power. You can break it in to shards and have each shard become a sword controlled by the user, no need to be in hand. Essentially meaning you can vaporize the entire blade, make each vapor a blade, then vaporize again. It will not do this unless it thinks that it would be useful to do so. I like this blade, the draw backs are extreme but it is helpful to the story. Often the wielder needs to negotiate with him and whoever he is fighting in order to come to a way to work things out if he does not want to use another sword.
I was DM of a game and it had a cursed vorpal sword. To make it more fun, I gave the sword the personality of a viciously aggressive fighter (who went by the name Berserk) my brother had played in a previous game. Using the sword was voluntary, but if the character decided to draw the sword, the other personality took over until the sword was removed from their hand. So in drawing the sword, the player had to play as if they were that fighter. The real fun was having them ask my brother, who was in the game, for suggestions and pointers on how would he play the situation. If the character decided to draw the sword, she developed the habit of yelling "That's it, I'm going Berserk!"
For magic weapons especially, I find the use of lifedrinking to maintain the magic in the weapon. It has a precedent with real world folklore, and it could even be what made the weapon in the first place, scraps of life collaged together to create some mimicry of sentience
@FlyingAxblade and if they're a true amalgam, then you have the moral quandary of either risk unleashing a powerful evil weapon onto the world, or risk an ailment shift by killing Neutral or even Good aligned creatures to create a more neutrally or good aligned weapon
That was an awesome video I hope to see a video about your unique magic items. Sounded really fun
AJ, as always - great topic. You brought up a few things that I would like to address though articles that I have posted online already. There's a series of articles on the Nerdarchy website called "Out of the Box Encounters". Sentient items are a fun aspect of a few of these.
"Shatterfell" - Shatterfell is an intelligent spear spawned from a splinter of Gruumsh's spear. Gruumsh blighted several lands to give his Orcs a homeland (an old dragon magazine article had a great image of this), and in doing so, small bits broke off and formed one spear in each of these blighted lands. Shatterfell is but one of five. The encounter takes the group into a pocket dimension where Shatterfell awaits in a circle of spears and a series of challenges occur to judge if a person is worthy. Only an Orc or Half-Orc can truly unlock it's abilities, but non-elves can gain some benefits is they survive the challenges.
I have a player who possesses this item in my campaign and he loves it. It's taken him over once, but only because he got possessed by something else.
"Stick in the Mud" - This was the first encounter in series 2 of Out of the Box, and it features an intelligent mace made from the skull of a victim to a cult to aberrations. "Chatterbonk" talks all...of...the...time... Imagine Leo Getts from Lethal Weapon or Luis from Ant-Man. This ruins stealth checks but has the added benefit of being able to ask Chatterbonk questions. Expect, as they say in Ant-Man And The Wasp, to "pay your dime, now you have to hear the whole song". There is a strap attached to shut him up, but it reduces his combat effectiveness.
"Drinking Problem" - This is an encounter where I applied the "animated object" concept to a potion, in effect turning it into a tiny ooze. This ooze will try to bond/attune to a person and will try to crawl down their throat. It acts like a symbiote for a time, granting the effect of the potion for it's normal duration (unless it's an instant effect, like a Healing potion, in which it behaves differently). The person then loses a turn gagging the Living Potion back up, where it then tries to crawl back into a container until the next day. The origin to this one is still in the air - it may just be neglect and fermentation, Wild Surges, or other experimentation.
I encourage you to check these out for your own entertainment, and I welcome your opinions and critique.
Excellent stuff Mike, Nerdarchy is certainly a treasure trove of contributing creators.
Warforged finds an intelligent weapon that's a warforged limb installation.
That works.
While researching homebrew creatures i could use, i found a D&D porno. to quote my lord and savior HP lovecraft, "some things arent meant for mortal eyes"
I was going to ask if it at least just had humanoids in it but then I read your comment again and stopped on the word "creature". Suddenly, I felt like I was standing on the edge of the Abyss or maybe a portal to the Far Realm and I realized I should just turn back with the small amount of sanity I have left and just pretend like the nightmares I felt encroaching on my mind were just that... now excuse me as I ponder the merits of drinking until I forget. :P
I was thinking about a magic orb that contains a hero party's souls and anybody can use the orb because it's inhabitants are ancient heros of different disciples
Oooo... that would be amazing for a single player & DM game, the orb could confer the powers and skills of a different character class each time the orb is used, so one character, five different character sheets!
Mt favorite magic item of all time: Jorvas, a rapier with a beholder willingly imprisoned inside. He talks to people holding his sword, and sometimes people nearby, telepathically. Whenever he makes a hit in melee, you roll a d20 and one of a number of effects can happen. Sometimes extra fire damage, frequently an odd food craving (after our last fight, my wizard is just dying to try some seaweed), and at least once he's turned his wielder into a donkey... I got better...
I'm toying with the idea of a sentient Driftglobe that communicates by projecting it's emotions and changing color. I'm also thinking of giving it some extra powers based on how it feels:
Happy- it glows blue and bobs around happily working as normal.
Scared- it has a chance to detect an encounter before the players, if it does it turns yellow to warn them, gives them advantage on their initiative, and makes it's owner and their allies which it likes immunity to being surprised.
Worried- when it's owner or one of their allies which it likes drops below half HP it glows green and generates a 10×10 healing zone around it which would heal creatures by some ammout, probably a hit die, each round they stay in it (I have yet to decide if the zone would heal enemies that entered it).
Angry- whenever it's owner or one of their allies which it likes takes a critical hit it glows red and casts scorching ray at the enemy that dealt the crit, it then reverts back to whatever mood it was in before the crit.
Thank you again for taking the time to do these. You are just helpful in so many ways with this stuff.
I need to join your discord and share my ideas.
Nice work as always AJ, thanks again!
Michiel, no looksies!
I have a Hexblade Warlock player that doesn't know who his patron is.
I decided that his patron is the Shadow dragon Shadraxil who was locked in the Shadowfell by Cormyrian knights. He has started the campaign with a necklace with a strange symbol on it (related to the patron and he mysteriously got that symbol tattoed on his hand), and he has since then discovered one more identical necklace. He knows as well that there is someone, or a group of people, also devoted to this being, I was thinking Shadar-kai.
They will find a sentient magic item in the next session which will be able to talk to him, as his patron.
I'm looking for ideas on what his patron wants, how he can escape from the Shadowfell, and what kind of things I can have him tell or ask of the player.
They don't know.(but secretly they do) The group send him on adventures that have hidden knowledge for him. But when these items are all collected it releases the dragon! Each time he returns to the group there is another adventure where the player procures another item that give explanation for the previously found item, but not all the info. So the player has to return to the group.😁
Hmmm... I like the idea of him having to collect different items to release him :D Thanks for the idea!
Just my two cents...When the dragon was imprisoned, his power was locked away in those symbols. The cult worshiping the dragon copied the symbol, but they hold none of the dragon's power. If the warlock ever collects enough of the real symbols, he either becomes a doorway or is possessed by the dragon. Either way the warlock is lost. As he gathers more of the real symbols, his patron can speak to him.
A wizzard hat that breaks the weilders consontration but also remembers a few random spells for them.
A great example of an intelligent magic item from another work of fiction was in a book by Terry Pratchett. It was made by Leonardo De Qurirm's invention to demonstrate chemistry & physics that ended up being called the "Gone." As he actually had invented a Gun, it be had the urge to be USED. Adding one firearm to a society that uses swords & wants to go on some kind of spree.
Weapons Of Legacy had the creation method of the weapon simply gaining the personality & some powers by it's user making it part of their legend. Kind of an Excalibur without King Arthur would try & mold anyone who found it into becoming like Arthur.
About the sword that let you switch places with the consciousness of the sword.How about this order that stores their old masters in swords(or othere weapons like staffs) as trainers for their recruits. Suddenly when your master teaches you how to do a certain move it all makes so much more sense, as you dont just see it but feel the movement of every swing because you are the blade.
One thing I did was have a spirit that was "haunting" a PC. They would enter items they were using and make them more or less useful depending on their whim. Entering armor for extra AC, a sword to make it a +1 or add 1 if it's already magical, enter a hammer to make the PC hit their thumb, ect. Not exactly a sentient weapon, but it has some similarities.
Awesome. Have at it. lol
My character transposed his animalistic dragon rage on a sword artifact made from his own bone. This assisted in getting rid of the madness that comes with it (and prevent becoming an npc ..).
The "curse" of the sword is apparent, it WANTS to fight, savagely until no more enemies are in sight, losing control of it means you'll eventually end up getting killed.
My favorite incident along the lines of what you talked about with the consumables - there's a spell in Magic of Incarnum called "Adept Spirit", which is basically just a short-term buff for yourself or one of your fellow spellcasters. But it's a buff spell with a PERSONA, and the +1 to caster level or whatever that it gives you can be *roleplayed* in the form of talking to the wizard's player, explaining some of what you the DM think about how spellcasting works, and then rewarding the player for listening faithfully to your worldbuilding lecture.
Another such idea of mine: I'm also tired of how the intelligent items are usually weapons, so I came up with an intelligent Bracers of Armor +1. Which was wildly insecure about the fact that it's an almost worthless object, giving just the tiniest possible benefit to AC, which almost every character will wear for a short time early in their campaign, and then replace with either a larger magic armor bonus or with actual armor. These bracers had an overwhelmingly clingy personality, desperately wanting someone to accept it and commit to it forever; for this reason its name was "The Arms of Love", and one of my NPCs had bonded with it, and was using it to explore the Item Familiar rules (an earlier version of the Weapons of Legacy system) - this useless magic item would slowly become more worthwhile over time, but only because someone was first willing to wear it, even though it seemed worthless.
Had a character that in the course of trying to train himself in the use of ice magic and developing a new spell all his own accidentally fused a small part of his own mind into a psi-crystal. As he was a arcane spell caster this made things...interesting.
Create a living shopping list that seeks out the remaining items one the list.
I ran a Game lately, where the whole Campaign Story is about a Magic Weapon with 2 personalitys in it. One, is a noble human fighter and two is a Ork-chief who wants all humans to be dead. After the war drained the lands out of their recourses, the gods bannished all human and orks on another plan so that the real world could regenerate. The players are now sucked from time to time into the world of the sword and have to decide to allie with the orks or the Humans.
I'm really loving those Rittik-Design swords. I wish I were in charge of some fantasy publishing company, so I could offer that person a job.
they really are outstanding, I hope somebody watches this vid and does reach out to the artist with a job offer.
I think it would be neat to have a sword or spear that has intelligence of a general and could read a battlefield and give the character advice what to do.