Sentient items: Ideas/experiences/examples/stories

[The Shadowdove]

Hey forum-lurkers,

I'm considering giving my 3 player party a sentient item for roleplay dynamics and potential DM instigated events.

As such, I'd love to hear any experiences you've had involving sentient items. If you've no experiences with them, what kind of ideas do/have you had?

What kind of items?
What kind of personality?
How often should/did it speak?
Item properties?
How was the item found?
Were they useful?
Anything else.

Thanks in advance,

Really looking forward to see what you've come up with or experienced. Sentient items seem to have the ability to really sway the game events or do a lot of nothing.

-Dove

[Cap'm Bubbles]

Parasitic dagger.
Nothing too out of the ordinary: the dagger was reserved and thirsty, and would occasionally mock the user.
Didn't speak more than twice per in game day, and had no reason to hold a conversation.
In the opening session, I included as loot this dagger in a chest with 99 other bloody but normal daggers. Whenever the user attacked a hostile creature, they regained health equal to the d4 roll of the dagger.

The catch was, if the dagger was ever used to stab its user (which of course happened), it would be Awakened. It would steal from the user's intelligence score, adding to its own. It also drained the total damage of the strike from the user's maximum hitpoints, increasing its base damage and minimum health regained by a similar amount.

As these two features were curses, the dagger automatically attuned to a single user, so it would not be exceptionally useful to any other character. Self stabbings (critical fails) would repeat the effect until the dagger reached enough intelligence to learn spells like mage hand, and would then attempt to kill its user and float off on its own.

It mostly acted as a tempter to violence for the character, occasionally complaining of being thirsty, and sometimes mocking the player as the gap between their intelligence shrunk.

The poor guy that got stuck to this thing was struggling with around 30 health at level 7 due to the siphoning effect, but could recover more than half his health with a single successful hit. Fortunately, he was a cleric, and had other ways to sustain himself and remain important in combat.

I would have regretted this item if it fell into a fighter or barbarian's hands, but most of those classes wouldn't bother with a dagger.

[JellyPooga]

JP's Rules of Sentient Items

1) Don't take control of PC's. Seriously, don't do it. Possessing NPC's is cool; an unexpected role-reversal when an NPC gets his hands on a sentient item is gravy, but when it happens to a PC, it usually only causes arguments. If you do plan on taking control of a PC, make sure the Player in question is on board with it and make sure you've got something important or awesome planned for the occasion; random possession is just annoying...which brings me to;

2) Don't be annoying. Lilarcor in Baldurs Gate II was amusing with his witty banter, but it got tedious after a while and as good a blade as he was, I ditched him pretty sharpish to retain my sanity. Don't be repetitive, don't be cliche'd, don't be random...which in turn leads us to;

3) Give it Soul. A sentient item is more than just gear; it's an NPC in its own right. Give the sentience an actual personality and make it one that makes sense; is the sentience derived from a formerly living being or was the item crafted with an "AI" inherent to it? In the latter case, it's personality should reflect it's function and role; protective items should probably want to, you know, be protective, for example. In the former case, there is more room for juxtaposition (an axe inhabited by the soul of a saint, for example). Either way, give the thing goals (probably long term ones, given that it's functionally immortal), desires, flaws and so on and so forth. Don't just let it become "the Fighters +3 sword with some funky additional effects".

[Mith]

I still think my favourite sentient item I read about was a magic throwing axe that liked flying through the air. The fighter would throw it and here a telepathic voice go "WHEEEE!! This is fun!"

I think it also returned to hand after being thrown. It was a table favourite.

[Specter]

Party kills evil arcane trickster and takes his +2 rapier. Amazing! The paladin takes it for himself.

The next day, the sword tells him: "where's the other?" He says: "Dead." Sword: "hmm. Who will we kill today?"

Basically, it was a chaotic evil weapon that wouldn't leave him alone unless he killed someone. They hated it, but at the same time really wanted the bonus. Good times.

[Ugganaut]

JP's Rules of Sentient Items

1) Don't take control of PC's. Seriously, don't do it. Possessing NPC's is cool; an unexpected role-reversal when an NPC gets his hands on a sentient item is gravy, but when it happens to a PC, it usually only causes arguments. If you do plan on taking control of a PC, make sure the Player in question is on board with it and make sure you've got something important or awesome planned for the occasion; random possession is just annoying...which brings me to;

2) Don't be annoying. Lilarcor in Baldurs Gate II was amusing with his witty banter, but it got tedious after a while and as good a blade as he was, I ditched him pretty sharpish to retain my sanity. Don't be repetitive, don't be cliche'd, don't be random...which in turn leads us to;

3) Give it Soul. A sentient item is more than just gear; it's an NPC in its own right. Give the sentience an actual personality and make it one that makes sense; is the sentience derived from a formerly living being or was the item crafted with an "AI" inherent to it? In the latter case, it's personality should reflect it's function and role; protective items should probably want to, you know, be protective, for example. In the former case, there is more room for juxtaposition (an axe inhabited by the soul of a saint, for example). Either way, give the thing goals (probably long term ones, given that it's functionally immortal), desires, flaws and so on and so forth. Don't just let it become "the Fighters +3 sword with some funky additional effects".

I agree with Jelly, especially no.1 - don't take control of PC's.
We've recently converted our 4e(lvl12) campaign to 5e(lvl8), and our DM said we can choose 1 uncommon item(close to something we already have), and a rare item type he'll make up.
He likes non-mundane items to be rare, and gives them a detailed history and function. He said he wants magic item creation not only to be rare due to cost, but because components are very difficult to come by, in particular the "power source". The most common is a living soul, either donated willingly, or not. So a Paladin might give up his life so the cleric can create a sword to protect <insert something>, and the evil wizard might trap an ogre to create Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Although our DM's items are rarely that generic.
Most are empathic, as opposed to telepathic/speech. Most have a minor drawback.
Our Life Cleric wanted a maul, with the property of it granting proficiency. So the history of the item, is a Red Wizard of Thay captured a barbarian, enslaved him to his maul, and gave it to his guard -thats the short version. His original plan was that whenever the wielder took damage, they had to make an easy Wis saving throw or the "barbarian" took over going into a Rage for one round. He assumed the cleric would make most saves, but as Jelly mentioned, you don't take control of PC's. The Life Cleric had no interest in an item that was going to stop him from his primary purpose in the group - healing. I have a feeling the items will unlock powers as we level, to keep the number of items low.
I might actually post the other item's, I'd love to hear peoples feedback. I like them, they are interesting, flavorful, but don't take over too much of the game - see Jelly's point 2.

Edit: Posted the other 2 items (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?514685-Sentient-Empathic-Magical-Items-Request-Feedback&p=21688600#post21688600).

[sir_argo]

How about a quiver full of intelligent +2 arrows that don't want to die. Every time the character fires one, they scream in bloody terror and cry for their short, pathetic lives.

"Don't shoot me, bro!"

[Foxhound438]

I picked up the hazerawn as a paladin in HotDQ

I'd ask it "what do you think we should do"

and it'd say "slaughter the innocent and drink their blood, then perfor-"

and I'd say "shut up hazerawn"



Anyways, it was fun for me, but I think my DM hated the RP a sword aspect of it.

[Fishyninja]

Hmm Sentient Items. I've never had one in a game but I've read multiple books and stories that inlcude them. I am always a little cautious with them, especially when it takes on the shape of a weapon because normally (in my experience) the personality is either 'Holier than thou' protector or 'kill the weak and drink their blood' maniac.
Some have been done very well (I think back to the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson).

I would like the idea of a non-combat based item for example a gold purse (like a bag of holding) that act's like an accountant and berates you for spending gold on frivolous things and wants you to invest your gold.

Or a Wooden shield that doesn't want to be a shield because when it was awoken it realised it could feel pain or it saw a wooden statue and wanted to be used for something beautiful.

[Cespenar]

For breaking out of cliches, do a cursed but good-natured one. It could have been made by a good-aligned cleric as a means of punishment/lesson for an assassin.

Or a powerful, evil one with proper manners. "I'd say let's kill them all and sort them later, but your call. You can always drop me and use a plain, boring longsword anyway."

[Fishyninja]

one with proper manners.

Dreadfully sorry sir but I'm going to have to perforate you now. Most Sorry!

*Stab*

[The Vanishing Hitchhiker]

My wife's warlock has a talking tome. It hasn't spoken much after its recent introduction, and the warlock hasn't revealed it to the rest of the party yet, but it'll likely serve as the character's subplot NPC as the game (and his pact) goes on. Thus far it mostly critiques his aliases. I'm tempted to do a talking spellbook myself sometime, but no concrete plans yet.

If you're worried about overexposing your players to the thing, definitely go with something less combat-centered than a weapon. Otherwise you'll have to account for its presence during every fight (unless it's just cranky and doesn't talk much). Talking pieces of jewelry, or a spellcasting focus, seem like good ideas too.

[Cybren]

Back in 3.5 my friend and I created a sapient magic item, Xzardulox, the Returning (...eventually) shuriken. If you threw it, at some point in the future you will find it again, be it in a few minutes when you pick it up, or a few months later when ninja come to assassinate you in your sleep

[Mith]

A thought on vocal Magic Items: you hand a player a telepathic weapon, give it the rough character idea, and then they decide on how vocal the item is. That way, everyone gets the exposure they want to the item.

If the item has information, just give it to them as a brief communication of "you gain a memory that is not your own."

This will allow you to give the player more information as they become more familiar with the item in question.

[Sir cryosin]

Give them Excalibur from Soul Eater. Hahahahahaha
Sorry I couldn't resist

[Sigreid]

The sultry personality of a passionate and jealous lover.

[Fishyninja]

My wife's warlock has a talking tome.
I went back to my childhood and thought of UBOS for a moment there!



A thought on vocal Magic Items: you hand a player a telepathic weapon.
Hmm I had a thought here. I noticed on this forum someone posted a thread about having a mute spellcaster and how that would work. If you had a vocal weapon that had a telepathic link to the Character (I wanted to help), theoretically could the caster get the weapon/object to do the verbal component of a spell.

[BW022]

Shadowdrove,

Great question. I've seen a number over the past 25 years. IMO, the best which I have seen are:

a) Items specifically put in place as a plot device. I had one large published adventure where the item was a person turned into an item. The quest was to remove the 'curse' and allow the person to defeat a great evil. I found this worked better than just giving the item to a person.

b) You put in a specific item to help the PCs. In one case, I had a small group without a rogue. I put in an intelligent dagger who had a number of trap finding skills, spells, etc. and it would give the PCs (if they asked) good advice at opening things, bypassing traps, etc. Only... it couldn't see, so the players had to describe things to it. A few times, it helped out with plot... once after the PCs didn't do well in an ambush and ended up captured... the dagger took control of one of the bad guys and started a fight with a passing mercenary group -- allowing the PCs a chance to escape.

I find most players are only interested in the powers of the item and it is a lot better if the item has some actual use in the players interacting with it. I would also make them extremely rare. They are hard to play and if they aren't worked into the game and thought about... they tend to just be forgotten most of the time.

[Robvox]

Two Face, a magical Dwarven Hammer with a face carved in each side of it. It has a split personality and is constantly arguing and contradicting itself. Loads of fun. It can be powerful or not, but it is good RPing.

[VertDeLion]

In a campaign I was a player/rule lawyer for, for plot reasons, Scyllas (who was from a Fate campaign) had survived the 200 year difference between his campaign and our campaign, up until he was killed by the main villain(who was a child he had let live after killing his father in front of him). As a later subquest, Ezuri (monk) took his ashes back to the elven kingdom and they forged him into a Moonblade for my other character, Rhys, who was also carrying his Cowl of Many Faces which let her disguise self.
My current character I played (Rhys, blood hunter) was chaotic neutral, and whenever I had to make decisions that had logic behind each decision, I would roll for chaos to determine my character's state of mind (plot and roleplay reasons, I won't go too much into detail). She was originally balanced out by Ezuri (yes I played two characters at once) who kept her sane most of the time.
When she received the Moonblade, his personality started to seep into her, making the DC of sane actions slightly higher. At the end, when we defeated the main villain, we had a chance to absolve and forgive him or kill him (he turned back into a baby). At that moment, the Moonblade's emotions towards this character was so strong that his magic seeped into the Cowl of Many Faces that Rhys wore and she took on his personality and face, and attempted to kill the child, which was thwarted by the rest of our group.

Sorry to ramble like that. I'm now first-time DMing my own campaign, and I've drafted two sentient items for my party thus far. The first is a sword I just gave them (they're 9th level) but they cannot communicate or attune with it until it deems them worthy:
Guinevere
Legendary Longsword (requires attunement to a lawful or good alignment that isn't chaotic or evil)
1d8/1d10+3
+3 to hit
Guinevere is a sentient sword, reminiscent of a high class lady of the court. She has STR+0/DEX+0/CON+2/INT+4/WIS+4/CHA+4 and is proficient in the Persuasion skill (+10). She has blindsight up to 20ft and is aware of magical presence within 80ft. She can communicate to her wielder through heat in the grip or vibrations in the sword, conveying simple emotions telepathically. If you attune to her, any attunements with other weapons are severed, and you cannot attune to another weapon until you unattune with Guinevere.
Whenever a creature successfully strikes you Guinevere deals retribution in a flash of blinding light. That creature must make a Charisma saving throw (DC:18) or take 3d12 radiant damage as Guinevere's reaction, or half as much on a successful save. She can do this a number of times equal to half of your charisma modifier (min: 1), and recovers after a long rest.

The other sword I had set up was actually an adjusted concept of one we found in the homebrew wiki. This one is more fun because when I get to play as the sword, and while it says there's a percentage chance on her active ability, its actually based on if Erika feels like it or not.
Erika
Legendary Longsword (requires attunement to any chaotic alignment)
1d8/1d10+3
+2 to hit
Erika is a sentient sword, reminiscent of a young adolescent female, rebellious at heart. She has STR+0/DEX+0/CON+1/INT+3/WIS+4/CHA+3 and is proficient in the Performance skill (+9). She has blindsight up to 40ft and can sense what the weather is like. She can communicate to her wielder through heat in the grip or vibrations in the sword, conveying simple emotions telepathically. If you attune to her, any attunements with other weapons are severed, and you cannot attune to another weapon until you unattune with Erika.
On hit, Erika deals an additional 1d6 lightning damage. Whenever you attack with this weapon, there's a 35% chance that Erika will discharge lightning. The target creature and all creatures within 10ft of it must make a DEX saving throw (DC:18), with the initial target rolling at disadvantage. On a failed save, those creatures take 4d6 lightning damage, or half as much on a successful save. After discharging, Erika no longer deals additional lightning damage on hit, but regains her charges back after a long rest.

[The Shadowdove]

Awesome items.

Some of your stories make me envious of those experiences.

My coworker just told me of an item he had in highschool.

It was a sentient rapier that could revert to its natural form, a pack donkey fully equipped with rope leash.

He was very enthusiastic about how useful it was and that he loved having a pack animal on occasion.

[CaptainSarathai]

Last campaign, my Warlock grabbed a spell book from a Nothic, because face it, getting a failed necromancer's creepy spellbook seems cool for a TomeLock. Anyway, it was kinda meant as a way to creep the party out and maybe generate a little conflict, but they were all just bored.
DM decides that the pages are blank. Ooookay, that's useless to me. So I do the lame, Harry Potter thing and start writing into the book, and sure enough, it writes back.
Yay. <- sarcasm
So I write back and forth with the book for a while, and then it laughed and flashes me 'Exploding Runes,' which causes me to throw it across the room. Turns out I have an annoying, smart-a** talking spellbook.
Yay. <- still sarcasm
The book isn't funny, isn't helpful, and basically just tried to d*** me over all the time. So eventually I realize that if your Book is ever destroyed, your Patron will magically give you a new book. So I spent the next couple weeks in game, pulling pages from the book and using them as toilet paper. The book/DM was not pleased. When I'd finally finished off the book and my diet of beans, booze, and black coffee - I burned the empty husk of the book and got a new, non-speaking tome from my patron.

Seriously, do not put a sentient item into the hands of a player unless they have agreed to take on the burden. Especially if the item is going to be an annoying bit of "comic relief" and tell jokes or pull pranks that nobody but you finds funny...