A player wants to play as an intelligent magic weapon

[SangoProduction]

It's not every day that you get asked this. In principle, I have no problem with it, as long as they work with another player pregame to be together. Especially with that new Spheres book that featured the....spectre...? The one that I remember being able to possess weapons and such. Just fluff the 'possession' as 'being' and boom instant intelligent magic weapon.

But it does present an interesting question. How would *you* play an IMW as a player character? What sort of personality would you give them? What'd be their history? Also...what feats would you take? lol.

[DeTess]

But it does present an interesting question. How would *you* play an IMW as a player character? What sort of personality would you give them? What'd be their history? Also...what feats would you take? lol.

Well, obviously the weapon was created to fight evil. It's also a sentient chunk so metal, so it doesn't have a clue what evil is, leading to exchanges like:

IMW: Hey, that guys evil, we should kill him.
Fighter: Nope, that's just a farmer.

IMW: That's a band of evil bandits, let's go!
Fighter: Those are city guards, doing their job.

IMW: That guy's super evil. Come on, let's end him!
Fighter: That's the high priest of Pelor. He's NOT evil!
*later*
Fighter: Okay, that's the leader of the cult of Orcus, let's kill him.
IMW: Oh, that guy? you said he wasn't evil before. Something about being the high priest of Pel-something?
Fighter...I did not see that coming.
IMW: Yeah, you really should listen to me more often. Do you have any idea how many arch-cultists you could have killed if only you listened to me?

In all seriousness though, intelligent weapons make for the best comedic heroic sociopaths (like Belkar). The party can easily reign them in, it makes sense that their worldview is that way (if all you are is a hammer...), and they can present their ideas in a cheerful, carefree way that no flesh and blood being could do.

[stack]

The sphere class is the wraith (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DZmfPEE8Ux84mcgLOid-Hdp3BIjrD40I2uT9mV6DfP4/edit?usp=drivesdk) and the document has an armorist archetype, the spirit blade, that can take the form of a weapon. There is an alternate rule for being locked in that form.

As to how you play, depends on the setup. How were you made? Purely a construct, giving you an alien perspective and loose grasp of society? An ancient weapon that was awakened through centuries of great deeds by mighty wielders? An innocent victim trapped in the weapon to empower it by an evil wizard?

[stack]

This (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/183860) also exists. I haven't read it, so can't give comments good or bad.

[Galacktic]

I've actually ran a game for a player who did this. They played Cadence, a former villainess who turned her foes to objects with her magic song using Skillful Magic and Object Transformation, along with the permanent change advanced talent. She was a powerful threat to the country at large, but the group of heroes who fought her used a Ring of Spell Turning and turned her own magic against her, turning her into a sword.

She was left in an anti-magic altar hidden near a backwater village where the other two players were, and by that point, a full few generations had gone by and the adventurers who had sealed her (who were human) were all on their last legs or already dead. But they still kept tabs on her.

One of the players was a Spheres of Might based Paladin, who wielded Cadence (which I allowed via the Transformation feat and a bit of homebrew to allow her to use the Object Transformation option for the feat) to allow her to stay in sword form all the time. She had a few tricks:

Telekinesis to move -herself- around if she wasn't being wielded
Tons of Alteration, as expected.
Enhancement to buff herself so that our Paladin could beatstick harder
And Mind so that she could communicate with people.

She was built to fight and cast in melee being wielded by someone else - her concentration checks were through the roof, and she had tons of HP and was shockingly durable when that combined with the hardness she got from being a sword. Generally, even if she was dry on SP, she was still -useful- as a sword by concentrating on an Enhancement effect to keep herself at a +3 or so.


Play-wise, she had mellowed out a ton in her time in the altar and was more interested in just seeing something, anything other than the cave/shrine she was stuck in. She was all too happy when the Paladin had found her, and despite still being LE, she didn't rock the boat for him. She had her own goals and she -always- recommended the more vicious or evil path when things were ahead of the party, but she rarely had the power or agency to act on them herself until later.

She viewed herself as a mentor to the two boys who found her, and honestly got kind of doting on them. She always checked on them, made sure they were eating and drinking well while traveling, etc. She also tutored them on sailing and other things that she learned how to do before she was slighted by the Emperor of the land they were in and decided to act against him.

It was, honestly, one of the best games I've ever ran for players and myself but it eventually died a steady death when RL intruded and we couldn't run it for several months.



E: Her feats were:

Noble Scion of War
Extra Talent
Extra Talent
Transformation
Disarming Transformation
Wild Casting
Additional Traits




She also had four of these (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/h-l/ioun-stones/dull-gray-stone-ioun-stone/) that she used to transform into dragons when we needed extra manpower/breath weapons in combat.

[denthor]

Here is the problem as I see it. He has no motion so he is dependent on another player.

Solution: You can give him his own initiative, to cast spells. I suggest daily from a clerical list of deity domains.
This allows him to contribute a little.

Blind sense up to 60 feet.

Know alignment at will. This can still be fooled

Do not give detect magic or any other identify magic item magic.

Downside alignment must be enforced on both players. Otherwise you end up with the item being rendered useless. This straight out of the DM Guide

All in all if this player wants to really be controlled by another player. Be a familiar to a mage much better choice. How this happens

Outer planer being of appropriate alignment. There are both good and evil. Stuck on this plane former mage was killed by a soul sucking blade so the soul is still "alive" they can not leave the plane by contract. But free to roam since eating is a thing. Then they can be "bonded" to another. Use stats right out of monster manual.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I'd probably play an astral legion psicrown item familiar. Fudge the rules a bit to allow the psicrown to manifest on its own, and give it Constructor levels. Pretty funky.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Fiend of possession would be great for this, especially at higher levels. That way, if the player wielding the weapon finds one s/he likes better, the consciousness of the FoP could move to the new weapon (or another item, if s/he is so inclined).

Alternatively, I suppose you could pull something off with a properly magically/psionically enhanced psychoactive skin of proteus. You might want to customize one at a much lower manifester level than is normal (say, ML 1, but still otherwise functional as metamorphosis, despite being too low of level). Add weapon enhancements to the skin that apply both to any weapon the character turns into as well as any natural weapons s/he has in another form.

Both allow the magic item player to do other things as needed, and they will be less likely to get bored by mitigating their ability to act as a creature.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

There's stats for Battleloths(sp?) in dragon 306. A race of demons with the ability to turn into weapons for other creatures to use. Might work, even as just a jumping off point.

[SangoProduction]

Interesting.

[gooddragon1]

Well, obviously the weapon was created to fight evil. It's also a sentient chunk so metal, so it doesn't have a clue what evil is, leading to exchanges like:

IMW: Hey, that guys evil, we should kill him.
Fighter: Nope, that's just a farmer.


...
IMW: Clearly he's evil for he planteth... THE GRAPES OF WRATH! Now let him reap what he has sown! For grape justice.

[unseenmage]

Be aware that intelligent magic items can activate their own item superpowers. Meaning if they have access to the right spells somehow they can be pretty mobile things.

The 3.0 Flying weapon enhancemrnt let's a magic weapon become an animated object, there's a 3.5 version of the same name that's assumed to replace the 3.0 version but for me they're both mechanically different enough that they can coexist.

You'll also want to rule about the item character and how it interacts with the MIC magic item upgrading rules. Also weather it can be a Weapon of Legacy, an Item Familiar, or similar.

Additionally, intelligent magic items RAW count as Constructs so deciding if the 'Constructs are Magic Items' rules interpretation is at play could be important.
Hitting the Int. Magic Item with the Greater Humanoid Essence spell and afflicting it with Lycanthropy or Vampirism could be funny. Same goes for Mineralize Warrior.

Arms and Equipment guide has prices for putting feats into magic items. This doesnt necessarily mean the item could use these feats itself but if the feat had a superpower attached with GM permission the item could theoretically activate that power.


As for how I'd play an intelligent magic item...
Me personally?
I'd play as an Ancestral Relic, Item Familiar, Weapon of Legacy and be a Warforged Embedded Component to my hireling (and later Leadership cohort) Warforged buddy.

Would also make use of the 3.0 Flying weapon enhancement, the Sacred Guardian template in Bestiary of Krynn Revised, and be a non-magical magic item via Devices in Ravenloft Legacy of Blood.

IIRC Animated Objects got a 3.0 LA in an old Dragon mag so I'd probably use that via that Flying weapon enhancement to actually get class levels, not to mention as a creature I'd have chakra slots to wear other magic items of my own.

As for material, Obdurium or Thinaun Steel with Oerthblood Alloy and Dwarvencraft sounds like a good start.

So yeah, it'd be fun times.

[Ashtagon]

Stat him our as a fighter (or whatever preferred class) of NPC who "wields" him. Make the NPC have low mental stats so they are easily dominated by the PC weapon's personality. Then the PC is effectively the magic weapon dominating the NPC wielder most of the time.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Check out the Syntrofos class from Xefas’ “mythos” homebrew project. It’s a class for intelligent weapons. Might need a bit of updating to Pathfinder but otherwise those classes are solid

[SangoProduction]

Check out the Syntrofos class from Xefas’ “mythos” homebrew project. It’s a class for intelligent weapons. Might need a bit of updating to Pathfinder but otherwise those classes are solid

Aside from being basically a not-so-walking buff for a single person, that's a really interesting read.

[the_david]

Stat him our as a fighter (or whatever preferred class) of NPC who "wields" him. Make the NPC have low mental stats so they are easily dominated by the PC weapon's personality. Then the PC is effectively the magic weapon dominating the NPC wielder most of the time.This was my initial thought as well. Let him play a low wisdom PC that wields an intelligent magic weapon. There's the Bladebound archetype for the Magus that does this.

Edit: Or the Spirit-Wielder archetype for the Fighter. This one is from Spheres of Power.
Players neglecting their familiar/companion/eidolon is actually one of my pet peeves. Your player just wants to play his magic weapon. That's kinda new to me.

[gorfnab]

Oslecamo's Improved Monster Classes: Intelligent Item (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=14039.msg244356#msg244356) is a decents homebrew base class if you want to play an intelligent magic weapon.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Aside from being basically a not-so-walking buff for a single person, that's a really interesting read.

To be fair, a talking buff is what most Bards are, no? And if the Fighter wielding a party member is a problem, take the mythos that make you a cursed weapon and attach to an NPC.