I got an intelligent shield named Letharge once. I think the DM just randomly rolled on a table somewhere and came up with it. Like all crap rolls. It had crap stats and crap abilities but I loved it. It had like Detect Thoughts of like ten feet. We sort of joked our way into a slow drawl for it. Then made it a turtle shell. It was our late warning system at night when we were camping that saved our lives a couple of times, and pissed the DM off when he forgot about it.
It was a piece of crap, but it was my piece of crap and loved it like no piece of crap has ever been loved before, LOL. I love it. Sometimes it those little things that make all the difference. -Nerdarchist Dave
"I hear volcanoes are a great way to get rid of unwanted intelligent items." Yeah, and if you're too lazy to throw them in yourself, you can get a couple of halflings to do it for you!
I had a statue in a Githyanki Monastery in Limbo that was creating a time-stasis field around it, that prevented anyone from getting near it or affecting it with magic. The players had to figure out to use the ability in Limbo to control objects with your mind, to knock it off the pedastal. The statue then began to talk to them and was very impressed and wanted to go with them cause it was bored by the monks :)
The DM of a game I'm in now gave me the option of a sentient brooch that made it so I could summon a higher level dragon with the find familiar spell. One of the downsides is that I would always smell like burning meat.
In the 1990s there was a successful french roleplaying game called bloodlust with for concept to have the player be both a human and a magic weapon with a mind of its own. The weapon were actually gods in this sentient artefact form granting powers to the wielder. The human would in exchange need to satiate the lust of the god-weapon (fame, violence, sex, power...) including to gain game XP. The concept of symbiotic relation between a weapon that need a wielder to be "alive" and experience things and an human receiving godlike power in exchange was so central that you could play either the human, the weapon, both at the same time or have some player as the human and the other as the weapon... In 5e, that could be a fun character concept for a reskined warlock. You just have the pact of the blade to be made with the actual blade. All it takes to work is a level 3 start. After that you can use a variant of the ritual that allow you to make any magic weapon youre new pact weapon. Using it to feed youre pact weapon with the magic weapon instead ( so the +1 longsword become a normal longsword and youre pact weapon gain the +1). I kinda like this variant better anyway and you can balance it by sacrificing the ability to change the type of youre pact weapon. It's a cool variant for when you go polarm master warlock or monk-warlock and youre DM throws you a magic greatsword... and it makes a lot of sens if youre patron is the actual blade.
Never used sentient magical items, which is sad since I have been playing as long as Dave. Anyways I did one time in AD&D use a bag of devouring and shockingly the player failed his save. So with tears in his eyes lol (we were like 12), I completely winged an adventure from him being devoured. Instead of him dying the bag acted like a demi-plane that had a large creature that fed on whatever the bag devoured. The PC found refuge with a handful of others stranded there. The PC had to figure out what they were skilled at, formulate a plan using their skills together to kill the creature. They succeeded and when the creature died the demi-plane died with it and all the survivors were ejected from the bag hanging from the hip of the man that tricked them all into the bag in bad business deals. So all the survivors were able to get revenge as a part of their escape.
Poetic justice for the imprisoned characters. Way better then him simply being eaten. As far as intelligent weapons- it is never too late to start. They can be the evil who twists characters, the light that keeps them on the path, or at the very least comedy relief gold.- Nate the Nerdarch
Cool story death doesn't need to be the end, but perhaps the beginning of a grand adventure instead. I recently started our family session over the weekend. We are three sessions deep and on the first session I TPK'd them. My wife her 1st game, my 14 yr old son who's new to gaming, and my 10 yr old daughter. Needless to say I saw no benefit to killing them all the 1st session and potentially driving them away from gaming forever. I also didn't want them not learn anything from the fatal encounter. So I dream sequenced them and they got to do the encounter again. They performed way better with tactics the second time around. It has also affected ho they recat to other encounters as well. -Nerdarchist Dave
i have a sentient item in my campaine the guy who has it ignores it so eventually it stopped letting him pull it from the scabbard until it is appeased .
I kinda prefer the more easy-to-create True Magic Items of 13th Age - they only consist of a bonus and a quirk, and if you wear too many of them, their egos overwhelm you and force you to play out the quirks... I only remember one particular magic item: A crossbow in which the soul of a goblin hunter was imprisoned. Since the soul only allowed you to use the item's magic abilities if you were fighting goblins and since the soul couldn't see what was going on outside of the items, most fights consisted of dialogue like this: Crossbow: What was that? What are we fighting against? PC: Well, we are obviously fighting Goblins! Dragon: ROAAAAAR! Crossbow: That didn't sound like a Goblin! PC: That because... uhm... that's the Goblin Tribe Matriarch! And she's mighty pissed right now because our filthy shoes are making her cave dirty. *bluff* Crossbow: *insight miss* A Goblin Matriarch? KILL HER DEAD! Fortunately the soul wasn't all that bright and our Rogue had a very high bluff check...
I like the sentient magic items. I got one for my dragonborn monk. He stole the hilt of his ancestors sword from his home before he was banished, and then reforged the blade into a monk weapon. Once he was done forging it though, his ancestors spirit awoke, and has now charged him with uniting all the dragonborn clans. All from a dragonborn who barely stands above 5 feet tall and shuns brute strength in favor of precision.
I had a DM who had a world... Thing... that was sort of sentient magic item, part setting, and part plot pandering. Basically, an old necropolis would send out merchant carts to buy and sell goods, seeking specific things for components and rare materials. We would just find these ghost carts slowly wandering through random locations, and you could ask for items and different lanterns would light up if it had them for sale. If you had something it wanted, the front lights would shine and it became a minor Monty haul scenario, as it would offer to shower you with things to get whatever it was looking for. Always stuck in my mind as a cool dressing to the setting.
On the Twitch chat for The Escapists D&D session we came up with the idea of a clean freak sword, "urrrgh, i'm covered in gore, why did you stick me in there?" or one just deathly afraid of combat
David Friant I really like the idea of less intelligent ones that act more like animals (like the "of devourer" hunting for food or black razor hunting souls)
I am actually running a 5e campaign revolving around a group paid to collect and suppress cursed items/weapons. I am about to add a sentient object soon, should have a blast with it!
The factory thing at the beginning made me think of Johnny 5. The random refill potion bottle made me think of Bob from the first couple Dresden novels. The hammer made me think of Flint The Time Detective.
i also created a true neutral, indestructible intelligent tower that communicates verbally. It has no purpose but has frustrated many of my players to no end with its neutral ness
I gave my nephew a sentient battle axe, it was magic for the purpose of overcoming resistance but it basically did battle cries when swung, and would spit and sputter when ever it was soaked in gore.
I love intelligent magical items, some of my favourite games have been played in a relatively low magic setting where just about all the M.I.s were unique intelligent items, it made them feel very special and allowed for some cool plot twists , i.e. our party ended up facing a bunch of powerful demons that looked way too powerful for us to deal with (we did try and run away!) until a previously "normal " magic sword revealed itself to contain a demon hating sentient force, also lead to a cool conclusion of the adventure as the sword broke and released the being after we had defeated this particular demon foe, very enjoyable adventuring! I feel it really adds to the game where every magical item actually feels special and unique, even items without personalities should never be just "the +2 sword" it should be a blade finely crafted by the dwarves of wherever and enchanted at the hands of mage X , (the items from dwarf fortress can be great inspiration!), helps keep the players and GM in the world rather than concentrating on the mechanics of the game, just my $.02 anyhoo. Keep up the great content, this nerd is loving it!
Blacrazor sounds very much like Stormbringer from the Elric of Melnibone series by Micheal Moorecock. In the first book Elric (basically a Fiendish Pact Blade Warlock) talks to his patron who gives him this sword. Elric is normally very sickly and requires a ton of drugs to keep him healthy, but Stormbringer sustains him.
I think the archtypical examples of inteliigent items are Stormbringer, a soul drinking "sword" demon that slays Elrics girlfriend and destroys the world, The One ring, which housed a part of Sauron's soul and corrupted the user and Tom riddles diary, which possessed it owner and unleashed a plot to destroy Harry potter. I think Intelligent items should at least be as bad as they are benefical. I also think that the madness tables in the DMG could be a source of inspiration as to what it does to the PC's.
I don't feel like every intelligent item has to be the bane of the characters existence. I think a nice mix is good to keep the players on their toes. -Nerdarchist Dave
I think Intelligent items have one of three jobs: 1. comic relief 2.make the pc jump through a hoop 3. be a bane to the pc 4. or be an intergral part of the new quest arc, that inspires the party in the story
I just had a great idea for my party's sword. If he gets it upgraded again, it'll just become sentient/sapient/whatever. "So... we improved your sword but... well... just, come and see..." *fighter goes to where his sword is* Sword: "DADDY!"
Nerdarchy In one of my current campaigns we have no healers so when you guys were talking about it I thought wow that would be one hell of a way to do Healing Surge. So I wrote him up, thought you guys would get a kick out of Swilly. Swilly the Swell LN Sentient potion flask Swilly produces a healing nectar which uses the hosts own metabolism as a catalyst. A character may use an action to take a swig from Swilly. When they do so they expend one hit die as if used during a short rest. If the drinker does not have any hit dice left to expend Swilly’s nectar still has the same effect except that the drinker suffers a Con drain of 1d4. The Con drain is applied before the healing takes effect. If a character is reduced to 0 Con they are dead. Drained Con returns after a period of long rest. Swilly can produce up to three servings of nectar per period of long rest. The amount Swilly will produce depends on how well he likes his companions. Swilly also has complete control over the taste, smell, consistency and color of both himself (material, condition ect) and his nectar. Once Swilly has struck an accord with his companion he may offer up the suggestion of feeding him various reagents which can add additional effects to his nectar. Swilly himself is a bit of a sniveling aristocratic whom is incredibly shy. Swilly uses disguises to avoid the gaze of would be nectar thieves. He often appears as a plain brown bottle that perhaps spent a few years at sea and a few more buried in rich soil. He wears a rotting hemp cord wrapped around his neck and a dry rot cork. Though Swilly takes great pride in the magnificent flavor and pristine hue and consistency of his nectar he will often turn the amber fluid black and bitter just as it leaves his belly. He takes particular delight in doing so when he feels the drinker has not shown him the proper amount of respect.
Nerdarchy Ya, the way I see it is they will get a nasty surprise once and then hopefully will have a difficult decision on their hands. I introduced Swilly last night though he has not spoken yet. The party found him on a petrified Orc (cocketrice). They know he is magic because he was the only thing on the Orc that had not turned to stone but that's all they got so far. I'll let ya know how things go in a couple weeks. -Nick
Jaxi the Soul Blade from the Dragon Blood Series by Lindsay Buroker ( excellent author, btw) I think is a fantastic example of a sentient magic item and a great idea for an origin story for such an item.
I might remember wrong, but in the novels I read, back in the day, if a Moonblade didn't like you, it would just fry your brain. Kinda sucks after staying up for 24 hours with it :)
Hey guys, great vid as always. When you were talking about Blackrazor, I was thinking it would make a very awesome IMI to have a weapon or whatever that consumes souls like Blackrazor, but is kind of like a "Soul connoisseur", where every soul has a different flavour and it comments on the soul's texture and how it feels on the palette etc.
In one DM's 1st edition campaign a fighter got an intelligent frostbrand. After several sessions he did something to royally p**** the sword so it started yelling "Here, dragon, dragon, dragon. Here, boy. I got a treat for you!"
I mainly play evil characters, my first character was actually a half-orc cleric of gruumsh. Anyway in 4e I got my hands on the book of vile darkness campaign. I took a binder printed out pictures and put duck tape on like mummy bandages so it looked like the actual book, and as the player flipped the book the campaign continued and gave him power. such as on the next page it showed a map of were to find hidden treasure, then he killed a lawful good angel +5 to attack rolls and damage with the book.Anyway I ran into an issue of the player not wanting to role play being corrupted by the book, he agree to kill people just so he didn't get screwed over by book. he agreed to help the book until the end when he had the option of destroying or keeping the book and he decided to destroy the book so he wouldn't become evil, up to that point he said I will help the book but in his head he's like how do I get ride of this cancer. Then I said OK you destroy the book. There is no more magic in the universe and you unleashed a Tarrasque. Then they were like wait time travel point from the previous DM. they go back and undo the decision, I allowed it to be nice. but the player was like "I don't want to be Evil" his face was so sad like I took away his puppy, I said if you keep the book you must be evil. Then I did my EVIL laugh. Saying yes finally I corrupted somebody and turned them evil, but everyone went home sad like I did a total party kill, just because he turned evil.
I like the idea of very mundane, but sentient items, like a music box that sings (badly) or a hand mirror that compliments or nags. A small bag for money that chastises for spending, etc.
I'm running a pathfinder campaign called Skulls and Shackles which is pirate themed. I only have three players, so to help them I gave them an intelligent battleaxe with the voice and personality of Barbosa from Pirates of the Carribbean. It wants to make the half-orc stronger, so it can attrmpt to take her over and reign as the Hurricane King
My DM of 20 years ago made 2 other swords to oppose Black Razor. 1 being of LG alignment and the other of NE alignment. He put nasty additions to the weapons when they fought each other. This was kool, but deadly.
I recently made a sword that was to oppose Blackrazor. It's a comedian and is of NG alignment. Eventually, I'm going to make it so that they are both reforged to Artifact level.
I made an intelligent *hat of devouring*, When attuning to it you had to make a charisma saving throw, if you make it the hat allows you to wear it and acts as a +2 to initiative due to it whispering. if you fail... well... you get devoured
Love the video guys been a Long time since iv played due to the fact me and my bf moved and cant seem to find a group again. Keep it up nerd for life!!!
Thanks! If you are willing to play through google hangout (Nerdarchist Dave does that a lot) there is the one shot RPG group on facebook. People DM for players at all different times there. -Nate the Nerdarch
10:00 You give the idea of giving a warlock's tome of shadows intelligence. What about their sword? Since similar to the tome their patron is embodying the weapon, but what would happen if the sword was already an intelligent item? would the patron kill the weapon's mind, would they both be in the weapon (maybe fighting each other) what do you think?
I was a rogue whose primary weapon was a bag of devouring once, Id sneak up on people and stick the bag over their heads and pray to the gods it would eat them, was oddly effective:)
I can't seem to find the PSA about D&D. What would it be listed under. And I just want to say that you four have become my go to for D&D sources. Keep up the great work.
Awesome for us. Maybe not so much for you, because we F up the rules all the time, but hey we have fun doing it. D&D PHB PSAs th-cam.com/play/PLA28CC7D10659B703.html Warning this may suck away a good portion of your life. -Nerdarchist Dave
I had a petty magic sword once that hated to be dirty. I want to make armor that is a total pervert, talking about caressing you every curve. I also have an idea for a headbanger warhammer.
An extremely powerful sword that won't come out of the sheath unless it has it's ego fed by it's owner CONSTANTLY and that won't shut up about all of it's "achievements" and how great and powerful it is to the pint where no one is willing to use it no matter how powerful it may be
What about magical beasts as an item? Gave a player a salamander that functionally is a brooch of fire resistance, but he gets a little parasitic shoulder pet with the personality and intelligence of about a golden retriever. And I am pretty sure if a villain ever Ray of Frosts the little guy that would create a nemesis.
I gave one of my players an ion stone with +2 strength, but every time he swung his sword he had to roll a d4. If he rolled a "1" on either die then his attack resulted in a critical failure because the ion stone (a former court jester who pissed-off his king) would hit the fighter in the face, distracting him. He hated the critical failures but the +2 STR was too lucrative to do without.
I want a mimic that looks like a bag of holding have him hold my stuff inside him if someone else reaches in he gets to eat them. Symbiosis he gets food and I have a safe place for my goods
Uhmmm sentient bag of devouring from the Far Realm Bwahhahaha! Love it , stealing it . Compulse player to feed it with stuff ...like strange reagents. But what will happen when its all fed up . :) Maybe the potion want to be drink ,then tranforming the player into some sort of Mr Hyde :P Like alway , excellent video guys! :D
maybe the potion turns you into another potion with the same mindset or when you are drinking the potion your mearly switching places with the potion having your soul put into the bottle while it uses your body?
When the barbarian's sword is smarter than he is, things get...Interesting. or something like the Coward Sword from YAFGC - it has the power of teleportation, but only uses it to teleport itself and its wielder out of combat. yafgc.net/comic/2930-gertrude-strikes-off/
I broke my first intelligent weapon. Which in turn since I no longer had this special weapon , the party all died. I hate rolling 01 with percentage dice, twice in a row.!!!!!
i dmed a marvel zombie type game once and had the players each pick an item from the marvel universe which each had the soul of said hero one of my characters foolishly chose thors hammer and so for like half the campain i had the hammer float along side the character until he tries to use it and then it just drops to the ground and yells you are not worthy .....
Just ran White Plume Mountain and gave half the party sentient magic items. Will Blackrazor, Whelm and Wave get along, or will they sow discord amongst the party?
i gave my friend a ring of fred. it drops his int and wis by two and raises str by two. it is a mentally challenged not so intelliget, intelligent item. he doesnt really care but he likes shiny things and has terrible ideas
In my game there are these magic pools everywhere that if something falls into it it has a chance of becoming enchanted and one of my players ended up with a flaming sword...as in it's very very gay and loves to hit on any other swords it sees.
I got an intelligent shield named Letharge once. I think the DM just randomly rolled on a table somewhere and came up with it. Like all crap rolls. It had crap stats and crap abilities but I loved it. It had like Detect Thoughts of like ten feet. We sort of joked our way into a slow drawl for it. Then made it a turtle shell. It was our late warning system at night when we were camping that saved our lives a couple of times, and pissed the DM off when he forgot about it.
It was a piece of crap, but it was my piece of crap and loved it like no piece of crap has ever been loved before, LOL. I love it. Sometimes it those little things that make all the difference.
-Nerdarchist Dave
"I hear volcanoes are a great way to get rid of unwanted intelligent items." Yeah, and if you're too lazy to throw them in yourself, you can get a couple of halflings to do it for you!
LOL yea everyone knows halflings love to go on road trips to volcanoes.
-Nerdarchist Dave
+Nerdarchy if the stories I've heard are any indicator, I'll just give it to giant eagles and have them fly it there.
Makes sense, they get to reroll failed save throws to magic corrupted effects. ^^
+ntbaker86 Hope they don't get shot down by angry peasants or thousands of Orcs along the way.
I had a statue in a Githyanki Monastery in Limbo that was creating a time-stasis field around it, that prevented anyone from getting near it or affecting it with magic. The players had to figure out to use the ability in Limbo to control objects with your mind, to knock it off the pedastal. The statue then began to talk to them and was very impressed and wanted to go with them cause it was bored by the monks :)
The DM of a game I'm in now gave me the option of a sentient brooch that made it so I could summon a higher level dragon with the find familiar spell. One of the downsides is that I would always smell like burning meat.
In the 1990s there was a successful french roleplaying game called bloodlust with for concept to have the player be both a human and a magic weapon with a mind of its own. The weapon were actually gods in this sentient artefact form granting powers to the wielder. The human would in exchange need to satiate the lust of the god-weapon (fame, violence, sex, power...) including to gain game XP.
The concept of symbiotic relation between a weapon that need a wielder to be "alive" and experience things and an human receiving godlike power in exchange was so central that you could play either the human, the weapon, both at the same time or have some player as the human and the other as the weapon...
In 5e, that could be a fun character concept for a reskined warlock. You just have the pact of the blade to be made with the actual blade. All it takes to work is a level 3 start.
After that you can use a variant of the ritual that allow you to make any magic weapon youre new pact weapon. Using it to feed youre pact weapon with the magic weapon instead ( so the +1 longsword become a normal longsword and youre pact weapon gain the +1). I kinda like this variant better anyway and you can balance it by sacrificing the ability to change the type of youre pact weapon. It's a cool variant for when you go polarm master warlock or monk-warlock and youre DM throws you a magic greatsword... and it makes a lot of sens if youre patron is the actual blade.
Never used sentient magical items, which is sad since I have been playing as long as Dave. Anyways I did one time in AD&D use a bag of devouring and shockingly the player failed his save. So with tears in his eyes lol (we were like 12), I completely winged an adventure from him being devoured. Instead of him dying the bag acted like a demi-plane that had a large creature that fed on whatever the bag devoured. The PC found refuge with a handful of others stranded there.
The PC had to figure out what they were skilled at, formulate a plan using their skills together to kill the creature. They succeeded and when the creature died the demi-plane died with it and all the survivors were ejected from the bag hanging from the hip of the man that tricked them all into the bag in bad business deals.
So all the survivors were able to get revenge as a part of their escape.
Poetic justice for the imprisoned characters. Way better then him simply being eaten. As far as intelligent weapons- it is never too late to start. They can be the evil who twists characters, the light that keeps them on the path, or at the very least comedy relief gold.- Nate the Nerdarch
Cool story death doesn't need to be the end, but perhaps the beginning of a grand adventure instead. I recently started our family session over the weekend. We are three sessions deep and on the first session I TPK'd them. My wife her 1st game, my 14 yr old son who's new to gaming, and my 10 yr old daughter. Needless to say I saw no benefit to killing them all the 1st session and potentially driving them away from gaming forever.
I also didn't want them not learn anything from the fatal encounter. So I dream sequenced them and they got to do the encounter again. They performed way better with tactics the second time around. It has also affected ho they recat to other encounters as well.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy
Ah the old
"Oops, ..... um....
you all awaken with a start. Cold sweat lines your forehead and your palms are sweaty."
badguy5
exactly.
-Nerdarchist Dave
i have a sentient item in my campaine the guy who has it ignores it so eventually it stopped letting him pull it from the scabbard until it is appeased
.
I kinda prefer the more easy-to-create True Magic Items of 13th Age - they only consist of a bonus and a quirk, and if you wear too many of them, their egos overwhelm you and force you to play out the quirks...
I only remember one particular magic item: A crossbow in which the soul of a goblin hunter was imprisoned. Since the soul only allowed you to use the item's magic abilities if you were fighting goblins and since the soul couldn't see what was going on outside of the items, most fights consisted of dialogue like this:
Crossbow: What was that? What are we fighting against?
PC: Well, we are obviously fighting Goblins!
Dragon: ROAAAAAR!
Crossbow: That didn't sound like a Goblin!
PC: That because... uhm... that's the Goblin Tribe Matriarch! And she's mighty pissed right now because our filthy shoes are making her cave dirty. *bluff*
Crossbow: *insight miss* A Goblin Matriarch? KILL HER DEAD!
Fortunately the soul wasn't all that bright and our Rogue had a very high bluff check...
I like the sentient magic items. I got one for my dragonborn monk. He stole the hilt of his ancestors sword from his home before he was banished, and then reforged the blade into a monk weapon. Once he was done forging it though, his ancestors spirit awoke, and has now charged him with uniting all the dragonborn clans. All from a dragonborn who barely stands above 5 feet tall and shuns brute strength in favor of precision.
I had a DM who had a world... Thing... that was sort of sentient magic item, part setting, and part plot pandering. Basically, an old necropolis would send out merchant carts to buy and sell goods, seeking specific things for components and rare materials. We would just find these ghost carts slowly wandering through random locations, and you could ask for items and different lanterns would light up if it had them for sale. If you had something it wanted, the front lights would shine and it became a minor Monty haul scenario, as it would offer to shower you with things to get whatever it was looking for. Always stuck in my mind as a cool dressing to the setting.
On the Twitch chat for The Escapists D&D session we came up with the idea of a clean freak sword, "urrrgh, i'm covered in gore, why did you stick me in there?" or one just deathly afraid of combat
Both of those would be hilarious. There is a lot of fun to be had with intelligent magic items.
-Nerdarchist Dave
David Friant I really like the idea of less intelligent ones that act more like animals (like the "of devourer" hunting for food or black razor hunting souls)
DevDeedSquire
Also a cool take.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I am actually running a 5e campaign revolving around a group paid to collect and suppress cursed items/weapons. I am about to add a sentient object soon, should have a blast with it!
The factory thing at the beginning made me think of Johnny 5.
The random refill potion bottle made me think of Bob from the first couple Dresden novels.
The hammer made me think of Flint The Time Detective.
i also created a true neutral, indestructible intelligent tower that communicates verbally. It has no purpose but has frustrated many of my players to no end with its neutral ness
I gave my nephew a sentient battle axe, it was magic for the purpose of overcoming resistance but it basically did battle cries when swung, and would spit and sputter when ever it was soaked in gore.
I love intelligent magical items, some of my favourite games have been played in a relatively low magic setting where just about all the M.I.s were unique intelligent items, it made them feel very special and allowed for some cool plot twists , i.e. our party ended up facing a bunch of powerful demons that looked way too powerful for us to deal with (we did try and run away!) until a previously "normal " magic sword revealed itself to contain a demon hating sentient force, also lead to a cool conclusion of the adventure as the sword broke and released the being after we had defeated this particular demon foe, very enjoyable adventuring!
I feel it really adds to the game where every magical item actually feels special and unique, even items without personalities should never be just "the +2 sword" it should be a blade finely crafted by the dwarves of wherever and enchanted at the hands of mage X , (the items from dwarf fortress can be great inspiration!), helps keep the players and GM in the world rather than concentrating on the mechanics of the game, just my $.02 anyhoo.
Keep up the great content, this nerd is loving it!
Blacrazor sounds very much like Stormbringer from the Elric of Melnibone series by Micheal Moorecock. In the first book Elric (basically a Fiendish Pact Blade Warlock) talks to his patron who gives him this sword. Elric is normally very sickly and requires a ton of drugs to keep him healthy, but Stormbringer sustains him.
Great series. I'm afraid I've forgotten more than I remember though. I have such horrible retention. It's a curse!
-Nerdarchist Dave
I think the archtypical examples of inteliigent items are Stormbringer, a soul drinking "sword" demon that slays Elrics girlfriend and destroys the world, The One ring, which housed a part of Sauron's soul and corrupted the user and Tom riddles diary, which possessed it owner and unleashed a plot to destroy Harry potter.
I think Intelligent items should at least be as bad as they are benefical.
I also think that the madness tables in the DMG could be a source of inspiration as to what it does to the PC's.
I don't feel like every intelligent item has to be the bane of the characters existence. I think a nice mix is good to keep the players on their toes.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I think Intelligent items have one of three jobs:
1. comic relief
2.make the pc jump through a hoop
3. be a bane to the pc
4. or be an intergral part of the new quest arc, that inspires the party in the story
Alexander Maxwell
Note self DO NOT pick up an intelligent Item in Alexander's game.
-Nerdarchist Dave
lol
that would be one cautious team and a lot of identify spells...or however it interacts.
I just had a great idea for my party's sword. If he gets it upgraded again, it'll just become sentient/sapient/whatever.
"So... we improved your sword but... well... just, come and see..."
*fighter goes to where his sword is*
Sword: "DADDY!"
they are pretty cool. Borderlands 2 has a couple guns that talk, one was a Robot that becomes a Shotgun. that quest was fun and funny.
I loved the intelligent potion vial idea. Particularly when Ted gave it a voice. Evoked the old Disney Beauty and the Beast cartoon.
Yea we get silly sometimes, but hey I think it's part of our charm.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy In one of my current campaigns we have no healers so when you guys were talking about it I thought wow that would be one hell of a way to do Healing Surge. So I wrote him up, thought you guys would get a kick out of Swilly.
Swilly the Swell
LN Sentient potion flask
Swilly produces a healing nectar which uses the hosts own metabolism as a catalyst. A character may use an action to take a swig from Swilly. When they do so they expend one hit die as if used during a short rest.
If the drinker does not have any hit dice left to expend Swilly’s nectar still has the same effect except that the drinker suffers a Con drain of 1d4. The Con drain is applied before the healing takes effect. If a character is reduced to 0 Con they are dead.
Drained Con returns after a period of long rest.
Swilly can produce up to three servings of nectar per period of long rest. The amount Swilly will produce depends on how well he likes his companions. Swilly also has complete control over the taste, smell, consistency and color of both himself (material, condition ect) and his nectar.
Once Swilly has struck an accord with his companion he may offer up the suggestion of feeding him various reagents which can add additional effects to his nectar.
Swilly himself is a bit of a sniveling aristocratic whom is incredibly shy. Swilly uses disguises to avoid the gaze of would be nectar thieves. He often appears as a plain brown bottle that perhaps spent a few years at sea and a few more buried in rich soil. He wears a rotting hemp cord wrapped around his neck and a dry rot cork.
Though Swilly takes great pride in the magnificent flavor and pristine hue and consistency of his nectar he will often turn the amber fluid black and bitter just as it leaves his belly. He takes particular delight in doing so when he feels the drinker has not shown him the proper amount of respect.
Test3891
LOL that's great. The using of him when you are out of healing hit die is brutal it may do more damage than it heals.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy Ya, the way I see it is they will get a nasty surprise once and then hopefully will have a difficult decision on their hands. I introduced Swilly last night though he has not spoken yet. The party found him on a petrified Orc (cocketrice). They know he is magic because he was the only thing on the Orc that had not turned to stone but that's all they got so far. I'll let ya know how things go in a couple weeks.
-Nick
Test3891
Cool you'll have to keep us informed on that one.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Jaxi the Soul Blade from the Dragon Blood Series by Lindsay Buroker ( excellent author, btw) I think is a fantastic example of a sentient magic item and a great idea for an origin story for such an item.
I might remember wrong, but in the novels I read, back in the day, if a Moonblade didn't like you, it would just fry your brain. Kinda sucks after staying up for 24 hours with it :)
Hey guys, great vid as always. When you were talking about Blackrazor, I was thinking it would make a very awesome IMI to have a weapon or whatever that consumes souls like Blackrazor, but is kind of like a "Soul connoisseur", where every soul has a different flavour and it comments on the soul's texture and how it feels on the palette etc.
LOL, Yea that wouldn't be creepy at all.
-Nerdarchist Dave
In one DM's 1st edition campaign a fighter got an intelligent frostbrand. After several sessions he did something to royally p**** the sword so it started yelling "Here, dragon, dragon, dragon. Here, boy. I got a treat for you!"
I mainly play evil characters, my first character was actually a half-orc cleric of gruumsh. Anyway in 4e I got my hands on the book of vile darkness campaign. I took a binder printed out pictures and put duck tape on like mummy bandages so it looked like the actual book, and as the player flipped the book the campaign continued and gave him power. such as on the next page it showed a map of were to find hidden treasure, then he killed a lawful good angel +5 to attack rolls and damage with the book.Anyway I ran into an issue of the player not wanting to role play being corrupted by the book, he agree to kill people just so he didn't get screwed over by book. he agreed to help the book until the end when he had the option of destroying or keeping the book and he decided to destroy the book so he wouldn't become evil, up to that point he said I will help the book but in his head he's like how do I get ride of this cancer. Then I said OK you destroy the book. There is no more magic in the universe and you unleashed a Tarrasque. Then they were like wait time travel point from the previous DM. they go back and undo the decision, I allowed it to be nice. but the player was like "I don't want to be Evil" his face was so sad like I took away his puppy, I said if you keep the book you must be evil. Then I did my EVIL laugh. Saying yes finally I corrupted somebody and turned them evil, but everyone went home sad like I did a total party kill, just because he turned evil.
I so would of let the terrasque be unleashed and kept my conscious clear.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy
They still fought it and destroyed it because of the book, and a catapult.
I like the idea of very mundane, but sentient items, like a music box that sings (badly) or a hand mirror that compliments or nags. A small bag for money that chastises for spending, etc.
I'm running a pathfinder campaign called Skulls and Shackles which is pirate themed. I only have three players, so to help them I gave them an intelligent battleaxe with the voice and personality of Barbosa from Pirates of the Carribbean. It wants to make the half-orc stronger, so it can attrmpt to take her over and reign as the Hurricane King
rule 1) always treat your magic items kindly, rule 2) always check for sentience.
My DM of 20 years ago made 2 other swords to oppose Black Razor. 1 being of LG alignment and the other of NE alignment. He put nasty additions to the weapons when they fought each other. This was kool, but deadly.
I recently made a sword that was to oppose Blackrazor. It's a comedian and is of NG alignment. Eventually, I'm going to make it so that they are both reforged to Artifact level.
Kool.
The names of the other swords are Hellrazor and Stormrazor
I made an intelligent *hat of devouring*, When attuning to it you had to make a charisma saving throw, if you make it the hat allows you to wear it and acts as a +2 to initiative due to it whispering. if you fail... well... you get devoured
Love the "Don't Drink Me" Healing potion idea XD
Love the video guys been a Long time since iv played due to the fact me and my bf moved and cant seem to find a group again. Keep it up nerd for life!!!
Thanks! If you are willing to play through google hangout (Nerdarchist Dave does that a lot) there is the one shot RPG group on facebook. People DM for players at all different times there. -Nate the Nerdarch
Three more people and you've got a group so close. If you look around I'm sure you'll turn up some gamers or convert some newbies.
-Nerdarchist Dave
10:00 You give the idea of giving a warlock's tome of shadows intelligence. What about their sword? Since similar to the tome their patron is embodying the weapon, but what would happen if the sword was already an intelligent item? would the patron kill the weapon's mind, would they both be in the weapon (maybe fighting each other) what do you think?
Hey guys, love your videos, keep up the good work
Thanks we don't plan on stopping anytime soon.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I was a rogue whose primary weapon was a bag of devouring once, Id sneak up on people and stick the bag over their heads and pray to the gods it would eat them, was oddly effective:)
this just inspired me to add a cursed sentient potion vial to my game
I can't seem to find the PSA about D&D. What would it be listed under. And I just want to say that you four have become my go to for D&D sources. Keep up the great work.
Awesome for us. Maybe not so much for you, because we F up the rules all the time, but hey we have fun doing it.
D&D PHB PSAs
th-cam.com/play/PLA28CC7D10659B703.html
Warning this may suck away a good portion of your life.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy thank you. Once again I love the channel. If I can I watch it daily.
I had a petty magic sword once that hated to be dirty. I want to make armor that is a total pervert, talking about caressing you every curve. I also have an idea for a headbanger warhammer.
I have a sentient hammer named borax skull crusher who was a paladin at some point and now craves the death of evil
Dave do you still have a Christmas tree up that I see? LOL! Great vid as always.
Ted's Domo tree has not come down yet. So you are correct your eyes do spy a Christmas Tree.
-Nerdarchist Dave
A sentient potion bottle that refills randomly. Oh my god yes. Stealing immediately.
I have my Rod of Lordly Might in my fist right now..seems .happens almost every dyay when that happens it changes into amagical long sword.
Talofa Nerdarchy, I was just wondering is it possible to create a magic item that levels up with its character???
that would be great but it will lose its levels if the current owner dies or something
dragongrandmaster I never thought about that, thank you : )
An extremely powerful sword that won't come out of the sheath unless it has it's ego fed by it's owner CONSTANTLY and that won't shut up about all of it's "achievements" and how great and powerful it is to the pint where no one is willing to use it no matter how powerful it may be
Gaspar Peralta Sooooo Excalibur from Soul Eater?
What about magical beasts as an item? Gave a player a salamander that functionally is a brooch of fire resistance, but he gets a little parasitic shoulder pet with the personality and intelligence of about a golden retriever. And I am pretty sure if a villain ever Ray of Frosts the little guy that would create a nemesis.
A daily refillable box holding six sentient health potions
9:45, so your book would be like Riddle's Diary?
One of my players found a sentient stick. They haven't gotten far enough in, to figure out it's story.
I just made up my own stuff for my intelligent sword I made in 3.5 screw the table and charts
I gave one of my players an ion stone with +2 strength, but every time he swung his sword he had to roll a d4. If he rolled a "1" on either die then his attack resulted in a critical failure because the ion stone (a former court jester who pissed-off his king) would hit the fighter in the face, distracting him. He hated the critical failures but the +2 STR was too lucrative to do without.
The lure is to great. Interesting mechanic for sometimes this thing is awesome other times not so much.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I want a mimic that looks like a bag of holding have him hold my stuff inside him if someone else reaches in he gets to eat them. Symbiosis he gets food and I have a safe place for my goods
Uhmmm sentient bag of devouring from the Far Realm Bwahhahaha! Love it , stealing it .
Compulse player to feed it with stuff ...like strange reagents. But what will happen when its all fed up . :)
Maybe the potion want to be drink ,then tranforming the player into some sort of Mr Hyde :P
Like alway , excellent video guys! :D
Glad you enjoyed it. We had fun doing it. I like what you've added on with the bag of devouring and potion vial.
-Nerdarchist Dave
maybe the potion turns you into another potion with the same mindset or when you are drinking the potion your mearly switching places with the potion having your soul put into the bottle while it uses your body?
When the barbarian's sword is smarter than he is, things get...Interesting.
or something like the Coward Sword from YAFGC - it has the power of teleportation, but only uses it to teleport itself and its wielder out of combat. yafgc.net/comic/2930-gertrude-strikes-off/
can you link to the jony bravo sword ?
Try this
th-cam.com/video/6CZdka4c4t8/w-d-xo.html
-Nerdarchist Dave
well... there is that one magic artifact that requires the positive energy plain and the headless body of a human hero....
Interesting
Sentient potion of devouring?
I broke my first intelligent weapon. Which in turn since I no longer had this special weapon , the party all died. I hate rolling 01 with percentage dice, twice in a row.!!!!!
Potions are People! spread the good word!
How would one in game make a intelligent item?
I made a cursed dagger of healing
an Intelligent Vorpal sword....with a penchant for mischief. just think about it.
speaking of which....what about the Gith?!
Gith what gith. So now we've had multiple requests for Gith so we'll have to do vid on those creepy looking dudes.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Potions are friends not food
i dmed a marvel zombie type game once and had the players each pick an item from the marvel universe which each had the soul of said hero one of my characters foolishly chose thors hammer and so for like half the campain i had the hammer float along side the character until he tries to use it and then it just drops to the ground and yells you are not worthy .....
Ok, what is the big difference in intelligent magic items between editions.
I'm just imagining a sentient item as a familiar!
Pact of the Blade Warlock? Technically anyway.
pretty much :)
JG R me and my DM switch places for a couple sessions and he played my characters half orc cousin now he his a brass dragons familiar
Just ran White Plume Mountain and gave half the party sentient magic items. Will Blackrazor, Whelm and Wave get along, or will they sow discord amongst the party?
Meseeks box
sack of devouring...throw it over enemy heads
i gave my friend a ring of fred. it drops his int and wis by two and raises str by two. it is a mentally challenged not so intelliget, intelligent item. he doesnt really care but he likes shiny things and has terrible ideas
I had a sentient bow that had a child in it. My character basically became a mother of a cowardly child. Not fun.
Potion lives matter.
In my game there are these magic pools everywhere that if something falls into it it has a chance of becoming enchanted and one of my players ended up with a flaming sword...as in it's very very gay and loves to hit on any other swords it sees.
hairline?
Zzzzz
a cloak of invisibility that has narcolepsy and snores.