[3.5] More Intelligent Item Powers

[Thurbane]

So, I only just became aware that A&E guide (p.149) has some Magic Item powers that don't appear in the 3.5 DMG.

This is kind of big for me - the only other place I found additional official Intelligent Item powers was a handful of weapons in BoED.

There's some really decent stuff on there too: use of feats (Blind Fight, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative etc.), Uncanny Dodge (as a Barbarian 5), Evasion etc.

Would you allow these in your games, or does the 3.5 DMG table supersede and remove these powers, in your opinion? Some of the powers that appear on both tables have had their prices changed, as well.

- Cheers, T.

[Feantar]

In general, unless it is updated somewhere, 3.0 content is 3.5 content. So, the only ones who are changed are the ones that have been repriced. The rest are fair game.

Now, there are some reasonable exceptions, like that amulet which gives 8 hour polymorph, because 3.0 polymorph lasted hours. While legal, it is very . . . suspect. That being said, even that is somewhat replicated in the 3.5 skin of Proteus (and should be half-price since skin of proteus doesn't take up a slot), so even that might also be legit.

PS: Just be very careful with items granting feats; that can escalate extremely quickly.

[Biggus]

Those powers all appeared in the 3.0 DMG; the only difference is that Rary's Telepathic Bond in the second table was written as Telepathy in the DMG (I think the DMG entry is an error, although it was never errata'd: the 3.0 PHB didn't have a spell called Telepathy in it, but it did have RTB).

As the table in the 3.5 DMG doesn't include those powers, it seems likely they were intentionally removed. That said, most of them don't look particularly game-breaking.

The 3.0 SRD is still available here: http://www.dragon.ee/30srd/

[ViperMagnum357]

Most of them seem fine, except for Disintegrate and Slay Living. Even at minimum level and restricted to a special purpose, having at-will Disintegrate or Slay Living on contact with every attack with an intelligent weapon could get out of hand; potentially forcing the DM to remove specific enemy types from encounters or watch a cunning PC cut through them like a hot knife through screaming butter.

[Feantar]

Most of them seem fine, except for Disintegrate and Slay Living. Even at minimum level and restricted to a special purpose, having at-will Disintegrate or Slay Living on contact with every attack with an intelligent weapon could get out of hand; potentially forcing the DM to remove specific enemy types from encounters or watch a cunning PC cut through them like a hot knife through screaming butter.

Eh, slay living at minimum level is effectively the same as a Melee Specialist wielding a vorpal weapon. The first attack from one of them at high level almost always hits, and minimum level slay living means a terrible DC, so in each roll you have a 5% chance of killing a living creature (The fighter has a 4.75 chance, since the confirmation roll has to -not- be a 1, but I don't think we'll argue for a 0.25% percent difference).

Disintegrate is... different. At worst, it adds 5d6 force damage on each attack which is significant. And, at minimum level, if they don't succeed, it adds 22d6 which is insane. So, yeah, disintegrate is broken as an on hit effect.

[Morphic tide]

Given they're attached to rules for precisely controlled crafting of intelligent magic items that received no competition in 3.5 (where it's "pay for your basic statline, then roll like it's random loot"), they're possible to "grandfather in" as crafting rules. Since it prices rolled-for-under-3.0-rules Int/Wis/Con as free for 10s , Speech at 3,000 GP, and you can decline having any Powers, you could use it to justify anything under 1,000 GP being a talking item still inside the Legacy Founding limits.

Which can be amusing for a Phylactery of Faithfulness giving running commentary on what deities would disapprove of the user's current course of action, caring absolutely nothing for the fact it almost exclusively refers to ones nobody in earshot has ever heard of. With the reason it does this being that it's Modal based on what deity the user follows, and it likes finding out what it does for obscure cults. Perhaps have it made by an at-that-moment Chaotic Neutral mad Chameleon who floated Heretic of the Faith, shredding a religion with the resulting doctrinal drift, backed in no small part by the thing's Legacy powers covering remaining Cleric properties nearly perfectly.

[Saintheart]

Which can be amusing for a Phylactery of Faithfulness giving running commentary on what deities would disapprove of the user's current course of action, caring absolutely nothing for the fact it almost exclusively refers to ones nobody in earshot has ever heard of. With the reason it does this being that it's Modal based on what deity the user follows, and it likes finding out what it does for obscure cults. Perhaps have it made by an at-that-moment Chaotic Neutral mad Chameleon who floated Heretic of the Faith, shredding a religion with the resulting doctrinal drift, backed in no small part by the thing's Legacy powers covering remaining Cleric properties nearly perfectly.

Just as every barbarian is Minsc at heart, every intelligent item is really just Lilarcor.