Intelligent weapon - with soul

Hi,

I have a concept for an intelligent weapon. The intelligence is that of the original owner - given licence by his god (Erastil) to aid worthy wielders.

The alignment is Neutral Good. My question is what sort of spirit is this?

My first thought was that he would be a form of ghost - but undead are negative energy and evil. So what is the best fit in canon?

guessing you aren't familiar with the prana ghost template.

I'm going to assume you are the GM, and not a player designing his own toy, and by "best fit in canon", you mean that you want it to fit well within Golarion.

With that said, if you're caught up in the "undead can only be evil" mindset, by pass that and pick something else. It could be the previous owner's actual soul or spirit, not undead, but actual life force. There are angelic spirits that inhabit helmets, why not a saint's life force lingering around a sword?

Maybe this person died, went to Erasti's realm after death, but really wanted to be a mentor and guide to others still in the material plane. He's granted his request, and now lingers in his weapon.

Remember that when you do this, you're basically adding an npc to the campaign. What does it know? What type of personality does it have? Is it opposed to certain things or actions?

If the original owner of the weapon soul is what is giving the weapon sentience that is all the explanation you need. It’s not a ghost or other undead it is the soul of a person that has been transferred into the weapon. You already have all the game information you need so all you need is a little bit of back story about how the soul got transferred to the weapon. Have Erastil be the one that transferred the soul at the request of the original owner. Make the original owner of the weapon a paladin and the weapon be a holy weapon and that is all that you need to do. Even if the weapon does not have the game mechanic holy it would still be considered a holy item by the worshipers of Erastil.

Thanks for this advice.

The intelligent item is a cohort, but I wanted something a little more 3D than a typical weapon intelligence.

For our Rise of the Runelords campaign, our Magus had the bladebound archetype, so when she found her blackblade, I had some fun with it. She slowly learned it was more than a blackblade, he had once been a living being, but was trapped in the sword. As the game progressed I added things, like how ancient he was, and how it had been an evil Runelord who trapped him, and eventually that he was a Runelord himself, before they became corrupted, and his apprentice was the one who trapped him.

So in that case he wasn't undead, just his spirit was trapped, and he felt that he needed to help after what he saw as failing his apprentice by letting him become corrupted.

I don't know if that helps, but thought it might give ideas.