[3.5] Favourite Unique and/or Sentient Weapon

[Thurbane]

So, in your experience as either a player, or a DM, what's your favourite one off weapon in the game?

A particular artefact sword, or maybe an intelligent warhammer?

Either from an official source, or something a DM created from scratch.

Cheers - T

[Melcar]

So, in your experience as either a player, or a DM, what's your favourite one off weapon in the game?

A particular artefact sword, or maybe an intelligent warhammer?

Either from an official source, or something a DM created from scratch.

Cheers - T

Well it’s debatable whether it’s a weapon, but the Highfire Crown is such a cool artifact. The story behind its creation and the sheer power of it... so I would have to say that!

[Doctor Despair]

I'm actually working on a build predicated on acting as another character's magic weapon. I haven't quite ironed out the final ability selection, so I haven't put it fully into a table yet though. Essentially looks a little like this:

Race: Kaorti (level-drained down to one racial hitdie, then retrain the hitdie into our first class level; effective LA +2) or Divine Minion Diabolus (less on-theme, more broken, also LA +2)



HD/ECL
Class
Feats
Class Features
Notes


1/3
Ardent
Practiced Manifester
Knowledge Mantle (Call to Mind), Guardian Mantle (Deaden Blow)
The Knowledge mantle gives us a passive bonus to knowledge checks, and we can expend it for a +5 (which is very notable this early). The Guardian mantle lets us eat a melee hit for our ally by expending our focus; this one isn't quite as good right now, but it will get better. Practiced Manifester will let us advance our Ardent manifesting beyond our class levels as we advance our HD. We probably start with a masterwork spiked gauntlet; it will be important soon.


2/4
Dragon Shaman
-
Totem Dragon, Draconic Aura +1 (Vigor, Senses, Toughness)
In addition to boosting our will save, Dragon Shaman gives us access to subtle auras that can heal and defend allies in combat while boosting initiative before combat. As a no-action buff, I think this dip is very valuable. We can also add +1 to our gauntlet to help get us through these early levels.


3/5
Ardent
Heighten Power
Repose Mantle (Empathic Transfer)
The Repose mantle gives us another passive buff while focused, and another mode for expending our psionic focus. More importantly, this level gets us +5 to our will save, fulfilling the last of FoP's prereqs. Empathic Transfer allows us to heal an ally beyond 1/2 +1, or remove a disease/poison, or cure several points of ability damage. Heighten Power allows us to heighten Call to Mind to qualify for Mindbender later.


4/6
Fiend of Possession
-
Ethereal Form, Hide Presence, Possess Object
At last, at ECL 6, the build comes online with its intended functionality. We can use Possess Object to enter a very nice riverine weapon we purchase. The Guardian mantle becomes more useful here; as a riverine item, we are immune to damage, so being able to take the damage for one melee hit each time we expend our focus is invaluable. I like to imagine it as the sword jerking to the side in the wielder's hand to parry a blow. As an extraplanar outsider, we don't need to eat, drink, or sleep, so we can occupy a weapon with 100% uptime. We can also manifest from inside the object, as manifesting is a purely mental action.

With this most powerful stealth mechanism (hide presence), we are now functionally undetectable while in the weapon, too, save for a DC 25 search check. Ethereal form is a powerful ability, but we won't be needing it much unless our wielder dies or the weapon is in some grave danger we need to rescue it from; if need be, we can use it for scouting or theft, however.


5/7
Fiend of Possession
-
Curse, Magic Item
We get access to Curse, which has some interesting implications with the ability to invent your own curse, but also Magic Item. By this level, we can afford to have the weapon be +1, so we can add another bonus (or a special ability equivalent to a +1). At each FoP level (and at the designated Legacy Champion levels), we add +1 to this value, drastically exceeding the normal pre-epic limits for weapon enhancement. Notably, we ping to Detect Evil when using this ability, so we must take care not to raise suspicion (lest we be banished, dismissed, or exorcised). We can add Spellblade (Discintegrate) to our gauntlet at this level, and as we are part of the item when we possess it, that should protect us from all but disjunctions, spheres of annihilation, or rods of cancellation.


6/8
Fiend of Possession
Naturalized Denizen, Least Legacy
Control Object
Naturalized Denizen renders us immune to banishment/dismissal, but makes us a native outsider; thus, we need to purchase a ring of sustinence to sit in the weapon 24/7. We still need to sleep for 2 hours, but that window is small enough that we can slot it into downtime fairly easily and still keep watch overnight. Now we need only fear Sacred Exorcists or those with the Exorcism domain who are somehow able to detect us.

We can afford Least Legacy, too, which grants us access to two A abilities or one B ability at this level. A highly recommended ability is Unceasing Servant, as it gives us the ability to manipulate things in our area and move the sword in the absence of a wielder. Control Object doesn't do much for us here without DM fiat, sadly.


7/8
Fiend of Possession
-
Animate Object, Possess Creature
As a magical item, we sadly can't animate our weapon; however, Possess Creature potentially has a lot of utility for interrogations or spying. It requires us to leave our weapon though, which is sad.


8/9
Fiend of Possession
-
Ally or Enemy, Possess Noncontinuous Object
We can give a +4 profane bonus to an ability score of a creature we are possessing. By RAW, there's no mechanism that removes this if we stop possessing them unless we choose to remove it. By RAW, there's also nothing preventing us from using the ability multiple times (giving a +4 to EACH ability for an ally). Arguably, we can give +4 to each ability score for our ally, then return to the sword; this is obviously exceedingly broken, so your mileage may vary depending on your DM. The ability to give the semi-permanent bonus to each ability score might be a starting point for negotiations down to a semi-permanent +4 bonus to just one score while you reside in the weapon. The most restrictive reading would make it a +4 bonus to just a single ability score, active only while possessing the creature.

Possess Noncontinuous Object gives us a powerful mode to back up the party if our wielder needs help; possessing and animating a colossal pool of water or clump of dirt gives us massive physical stats. Additionally, it gives us huge opportunities for base-building.


9/10
Fiend of Possession
Item Familiar
Control Creature
We hold off on taking Item Familiar until we can control the creature we are possessing. Upon taking the feat, our weapon becomes a creature instead of an object. We can possess it to gain access to all of its abilities. It is completely loyal, so it should willingly fail the save. Each time we do this (multiple times each day), the duration will lengthen by 6 seconds. It will therefore take 14,400 uses to make it an all-day ability when used on the weapon. As we are awake nearly all the time, we will work steadily towards that. Should the weapon have a special purpose contrary to what we are doing, we can have it black out for the duration of the control. Intelligent items get a host of abilities they can use, so this is a powerful upgrade for us. Of course, we can use it on other creatures as well as need be.


10
Mindbender, Psionic
-
Telepathy (100 ft), New Power Known (Detect Remote Viewing)
As a creature incapable of speech or movement (a weapon), we now gain the ability to communicate telepathically. Up until now, we'd have to resort to charades using abilities to communicate simple ideas (making the weapon flaming to get the wielder's attention, and buff/debuffing for yes/no, for example). We also gain the ability to detect scrying all day, which is starting to be very relevant as scry-and-die becomes a viable strategy for enemies.

Additionally, our item familiar gets access to a special ability. We would probably be wise to pick Special Purpose: True Ressurection 1/month as a safety net; hopefully we won't need it more often than that, haha.


11
Legacy Champion
Lesser Legacy
Reduced Ritual Cost (Lesser), Bond of Lore
A free lesser ritual? Sign me up! Notably, this also drastically reduces the cost to repair the weapon if it accidentally brushes up against a sphere of annihilation, disjunction, or rod of cancellation.

More importantly, lesser legacy lets us grant our item much better mental stats with Intelligent Legacy, Greater, which drastically improves its (and by extension, our) abilities as an intelligent item.


12
Legacy Champion
Mindsight
+1 level of existing FoP class features, Replace Legacy Ability (Least)
+1 to duration of possession, +1 to weapon enhancement, and we can change our founded legacy choices if need be. Honestly, these levels are pretty much only for the FoP class features. Some levels grant extra uses for per-day abilities, which is nice, I suppose.

More importantly, mindsight gives us an always-on detection mode that makes it almost impossible to sneak up on our wielder.


13
Legacy Champion
-
+1 level of existing FoP class features, Extra Legacy Ability Use (Least)
See 12.


14
Legacy Champion
Transfer Legacy
+1 level of existing FoP class features
See 12. Additionally, we can transfer the use of a legacy item ability to another item (which the wielder can then use in our stead). This is notable, as we can't use many of our legacy item choices while possessing the item.

Our Item Familiar ability here lets us improve the mental stats of our item one last time, granting it an additional lesser and greater power by merit of its mental stats.


15
Legacy Champion
Legacy Focus
+1 level of existing FoP class features, Replace Legacy Ability (Lesser)
See 12. Our legacy item DCs get a little bit higher.


16
Legacy Champion
-
+1 level of existing FoP class features, Extra Legacy Ability Use (Lesser)
See 12.


17
Legacy Champion
Greater Legacy
Reduced Ritual Cost (Greater)
See 12.


18
Legacy Champion
Channel Legacy, Constant Guardian
+1 level of existing FoP class features, , Extra Legacy Ability Use (Greater)
See 12. Channel Legacy gives us a use for those per-day abilities we can't use or transfer. Constant Guardian is a drop in the bucket for our wielder by this point, but it is always on, which is nice, and is thematic.


19
Legacy Champion
-
+1 level of existing FoP class features, Replace Legacy Ability (Greater)
See 12.


20
Legacy Champion
-
+1 level of existing FoP class features
See 12. With 10 levels completed, we are now eligible to go into Epic Legacy Champion if need be.






HD/ECL
WBL
Class
Item Familiar
Legacy Item
Intelligent Item Stats
Purchased



1/3
705/2700
-
-
-
-
Starting gear purchased!

305: Masterwork Spiked Gauntlet
400: Masterwork Kaorti Resin Suit



2/4
2705/5400
Draconic Aura
-
-
-
Gauntlet is magical!

2000: +1 to Spiked Gauntlet



3/5
2705/9000
-
-
-
-
-



4/6
11271.05/13000
-
-
-
-
Indestructible spear purchased!

300: Masterwork
1266.05: Fine Riverine Shortspear
2000: +1
5000: Sizing




5/7
17271.05/19000
2
-
-
-
Spear is immune to disintegrate!

6000: Spellblade: Disintegrate on Spiked Gauntlet



6/8
26271.05/27000
3
-
Unceasing Servant, Comprehend Languages
-
Spear is a shapeshifting, stunning legacy item, awake 22 hours/day!

2500: Least Legacy ritual
2000: Changeling
2000: Sudden Stunning
2500: Ring of Sustinence

[liquidformat]

I had a kender ranger and the dm gave me my own custom set of gear called child's play there was a wooden horse, a wooden sword, and a kids set of bow and arrows with suction cups and they all had ridiculous and silly mods to them. It was a fun and silly game and I remember those magic items fondly.

[Feldar]

While definitely not sentient or awake, my favorite so far is a halfling-bane bow I put into the hand of my group's enemies. The two that charge forward the most are halflings, and the halfling bane bow was enchanted with a magic mouth that would shout enthusiastically whenever the archer hit its target.

The bow had its own distinctive voice and catch phrase.

The halflings were not happy. When the fight was over, they broke the bow up for firewood despite the loss of money to the party.

A few months later, I accidentally used the bow's voice and catch phrase together in another adventure. One of the PCs went on a blood rampage through the enemy looking for the bow. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was a mistake...

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

High-level party did a side-quest that had a lich miniboss at the end, I randomly rolled its loot. I randomly rolled a Composite Longbow +4, with Holy, Unholy, and Bane x2. I decided the two banes should be good outsiders and evil outsiders, and named it The Destroyer of Heaven and Hell. The party didn't have an archery specialist, so the neutral aligned melee bruiser decided he'd keep it in case he ever needed to make ranged attacks. That player still considers it one of the coolest items he's ever found.