Your party sets off into an ancient vault, delving into the ancient black depths...


Advice


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in order to investigate the odd rumor on the off chance that this is actually the home of the fabled Gladio, a mysterious and powerful wizard whom nobody has ever seen in person, but always seems to be behind the latest catastrophe.

Through winding corridors and empty hallways, the party finds what they believe to be the central room, as evidenced by the general structure of this dungeon. As they enter, they find not a wizard, but an abandoned weapon set in a stone pedestal, watched over by an inanimate statue. A dusty plaque is set on the front of the stone, carved with ancient magical runes. Your wizard blows the dust off the plaque and starts to decipher the runes on the plaque. As he reads, the letters begin to emit a ghostly white aura, and the words he reads echo unnaturally into the chamber. "Here lies the pedestal which once held the evil blade Gladio. Let this stone serve as a reminder to the evils that this abomination committed."

As the adventurers puzzle out the meaning of the message, they suddenly realize that the inscription suggests the pedestal should be empty. With a gasp, one adventurer points at the blade, which begins shaking free of the pedestal. An evil aura surrounds the blade, and unnatural lights shine from artificial cracks of the weapon. The light begins to pulsate as the weapon begins to speak, as if in time with the weapon's words. "I am Gladio, bane of gods and slayer of kings. Who dares intrude upon my resting place?"

As it speaks, a red light begins to emit from the nearby statue's eyes. Cracks form in the long-inert stone as the statue begins to animate, and Gladio floats into the open hand of the statue.

"Stand behind me!" shouts the paladin. "This is not an opponent we can take lightly".

----

Just an idea I was inspired with recently. What if there was an intelligent weapon that was the big baddie of an entire campaign? Has it been done before? I feel like it would be a really great twist.

What about the base mechanics? Do the rules of intelligent weapons allow you to make a weapon that can somehow manipulate his surroundings to be a threat to an experienced party of adventureres? if not, how much should or would you houserule to create such a villian?


With the Ego rules that intelligent items have in place, I could definitely see it happening, and they can gain some pretty powerful abilities, especially if they're working toward a specific purpose, which obviously falls right into villain territory. Plus, it'd just be cool.

For example, just give it the ability to fly and to cast Animate Objects at will, and you already have what you just described. It'd be able to fly to its statue, animate the statue, and fight that way, and if anyone attempts to take possession of it, its Ego would let it attempt to dominate the will of the attempted possessor. Already something I wouldn't want to face.


There's actually a couple ways to play this, depending on what you want.

The first and by far the easiest is just to make it as a custom monster. Animated object, probably. You can also create a whole new monster or take some existing monster, file off the serial numbers, turn it into a construct, and use that. I say this is easiest because it's by far the easiest to make. Balancing it is probably hard. Still easier than the next one.

The second method is to use the intelligent object rules. Here they are if you still need them. You'll notice you can increase ability scores, give it SLAs (they all follow the formula 2000xCLxSLx(uses/5) if you want something not on the list), give it visions, give it skills, give it movement modes, there's quite a bit you can use. The big issue? Automatically shut down by anti-magic field. Also the vision maxes at 120 feet, everything outside that is literally invisible. Oh, and balancing is literally non-existent because you can guess the price to buy/make it, not how powerful it would be.

Now, which of these you pick also depends on what you want. An intelligent sword that waits somewhere and fights them? Use the first method and treat it like a monster. An intelligent sword that forces people to do its bidding? Use the intelligent object rules and ego checks. The main difference is between whether it needs a wielder or whether it works by itself.


I would have some sort of servant to wield it that has been drained of energy and debilitated and distorted over the years ala Gollum in Lord of the Rings. Therefor the weapon would have a need for a new - stronger host to carry it.


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Wait, this isn't a play by post? I was gonna ask to sign up.


Me too!
Nice opening, good DM.


Love the idea!

The weapon's goals may be very non-obvious, particularly if it has to get all its information from the people it controls. (Imagine what happens if a "I want to defend my people" weapon falls into the hands of someone who honestly believes that everyone wearing green is "my people" -- or if an ancient Roman gladius were to be discovered in modern Rome; what would it think of present-day Italians?)

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If the sword is of artifact level, and as the BBEG why would it not be, an antimagic field has no effect upon it.

Great concept, OP. Definitely worth pursuing.


I have no experience as a DM, but I think this is something I would do if I ever end up running my own campaign.

DungeonmasterCal wrote:
Wait, this isn't a play by post? I was gonna ask to sign up.

haha, that's kinda what I felt like when I was writing it up, but I just wanted to set the setting for what the very clear mental image the idea had given me.

Dorian 'Grey' wrote:

Me too!

Nice opening, good DM.

Well... I do have some experience in writing, but none as a DM. I might be able to pull it off but I've never had the opportunity.

Bob Bob Bob wrote:
Now, which of these you pick also depends on what you want. An intelligent sword that waits somewhere and fights them? Use the first method and treat it like a monster. An intelligent sword that forces people to do its bidding? Use the intelligent object rules and ego checks. The main difference is between whether it needs a wielder or whether it works by itself.

Hmm. I find it hard to decide which method. As zylphryx suggested, is there merit in making an intelligent item and elevating it to artifact status to get around the antimagic field? He wouldn't be much of a BBEG if one spell could destroy him forever. One thing I can see is using a bit of both spells. If perhaps one adventurer decided he was going to grapple the weapon and wield it for himself, he would quickly learn the error of his ways as he falls prey to the weapon's massive ego.

I have a question for this, though. Can an intelligent weapon be given multiple "special purpose item dedicated powers"? because that's where I feel like I'd find all the stuff that makes it dangerous.

On the flipside, what do you guys think about basically attaching the magus class to the self-sufficient construct version of this idea? It'll be able to spellstrike, which feels just oh so very right for a floating weapon that can do magic.


Totally a great opener for a BBEG Boss Battle.


From 3PP, various offerings from Rite Publishing offers intelligent weapons, cursed weapons and haunted weapons that could all function like that. Imagine a bladebound magus's black blade becoming cursed or haunted, it already intelligent and able to leap from its user's hands in its normal state. I could see a black blade continue to follow an agenda and animate even with its user killed off.


gamer-printer wrote:
From 3PP, various offerings from Rite Publishing offers intelligent weapons, cursed weapons and haunted weapons that could all function like that. Imagine a bladebound magus's black blade becoming cursed or haunted, it already intelligent and able to leap from its user's hands in its normal state. I could see a black blade continue to follow an agenda and animate even with its user killed off.

A Stormbringer-like artifact would be perfect.


Hmm. I see no problem with using 3PP, since the GM has the final say anyway.

Could someone link to the rite publishing content on d20pfsrd? I can't seem to find that specific content.


This might help, but there are only two specific weapons mentioned.

Rite Publishing and other 3rd Party Magic Weapons

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You can make it however you want to make it. It is your game after all. If you want it to have multiple dedicated powers, do it.

There could be something as well to having the weapon use individuals of great power, for what purpose is up to you. As soon as the wielder is slain, the weapon animates and attempts to "grapple" the PC who made the killing blow (that is, it tries to work it's way into the PC's grip). The PCs do not need to know who the true puppet master is until the final reveal ...

Quote:

"We did it! We killed the Evil Warlord of Warlordiness!! Great hit there Bob!!"

<sword flies up to Bob, hilt first and gains control of this new worthy bearer>

"Uh, Bob, why are you looking at us with that disturbingly familiar grin?"


Great opening scene.

The Pathfinder Tales novel Liars Blade by Tim Pratt has a protagonist with an intelligent sword. They face off against another intelligent sword controlling its master in one scene.


I think having it be an artifact that possesses people would be pretty cool. I also think that at first it should appear that the sword itself isn't the bad guy. There should be rumors that the sword is needed to perform some kind of terrible ritual, with no one knowing that the sword is forcing its wielders to perform the ritual against their will.


So an object should be able to have multiple "special purpose" powers. Again, all of the intelligent object powers are just priced using the standard magic item guidelines. The "special purpose" doesn't actually give a discount over the normal powers. It's just a balancing method so you don't get at-will higher level spells. And sure, you can make it an artifact so it's not shut down by antimagic field, again, balance was thrown out the window a while ago. Though "artifact" wouldn't protect it from disjunction. Also you'd need to include whatever special ritual is required to finally destroy it, though that's probably more on the "pro" side than the "con" side.

So as I said, there's lot of ways to play it. The opening example I would make an intelligent sword with an at-will Animate Objects spell and a room full of handy-dandy humanoid statues to wield it. Then whatever spells you wanted it to be capable of throwing around. For added fun throw in an inability to be put in an extradimensional space and "must be destroyed in the fire of Mt. Doom" so the party has to make a trip while the sword tries to bring everything around them to life to stop them.

Now if you're enamored of the magus thing you can go with a Black Blade... who is its own Black Blade. Might want to make sure it can move and talk though, so it can actually cast spells. You can also go with a Black Blade that gives magus levels to whoever wields it so it can hop from person to person and grant them powers. Powers it forces them to use for its own nefarious ends. Makes a great recurring magus villain who the players can murder the @#$% out of and they might not realize it's a recurring villain. Especially since without the magus it's just a masterwork weapon.

I saw somewhere (don't remember where) an idea for a recurring villain who was actually an intelligent item who would possess people and force them to do its bidding and fight the party. Similar to the Black Blade above but something more innocuous like a gold piece. Give it a super high ego score so it can dominate whatever commoner it gets handed off to and some kind of "signature" so the players might eventually be able to piece it together. Play up the SLAs like the commoner it's possessing is casting them. The movie Fallen is a pretty good watch if you want to do something like this.


There was a Ravenloft island of terror (mini domain) back in 2e, where its domain lord was an intellent sword, formerly a paladins weapon, that had become cursed - so this is not without precedent.

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I sent my players to the city of a homebrew race that reveres constructs, giving them the same respect as though they were living creatures. The party got framed for the murder of their high priest, revealing a massive plot involving the corruption of the city's grandfather-like patriarch that lived for hundreds of years inside the monolithic building at the center of the city. The party's investigations reveal that an imposter staged the murder and commissioned a staff capable of changing the alignment of constructs and intelligent items. Believing the patriarch in peril, the party stormed the central building, bested the traps, and defeated the imposter to discover that the patriarch is a gigantic intelligent item. The party freed the patriarch from his curse and destroyed the staff that caused it.

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Back in the days of 2nd Edition, the ranger I DMed for eventually got 2 intelligent magical swords that were married to each other.

If you end up possessing a PC for a long period of time, make sure that player has a back up character so they can continue to play and not just watch.


SmiloDan wrote:

Back in the days of 2nd Edition, the ranger I DMed for eventually got 2 intelligent magical swords that were married to each other.

If you end up possessing a PC for a long period of time, make sure that player has a back up character so they can continue to play and not just watch.

Hmm. If I possess a PC, I think I would do it in a way that the player doesn't lose complete control of the character. Perhaps let him in on it, and he could roleplay an evil guy setting boundaries for the possessed guy for what he could and couldn't do, and finally releasing the possession when the party unwittingly plays into his hands and allows him to move on to whatever plans he has in store. I don't really like the idea of automatically taking a PC away from a player.

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Or just have him occasionally role a will save and if he fails tell him the action he is making the next round. You don't need to fully control a PC's actions to scare the hell out of them.

When they ask why they are making will saves, just tell them they are not sure, they just felt an overwhelming compulsion to do it, or their "little voice" told them to do it and it ended up seeming like a good idea. If they item is unveiled as the controller, then have it take possession of the PC, pull the Player aside and tell them to motivation of the item and have them run their PC for that resulting encounter.

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Or maybe even more diabolically, have them make an Int or Wis check and make a suggested action, like if the fighter is possessed, "You notice the rogue is about to backstab the cleric! Do something to stop the rogue!" and then have the fighter decide on how to deal with the supposed betrayal of the rogue. Or use Sense Motive, but apply the result to the item's Bluff, but make it seem it is to notice the rogue's action.

Stuff like that.


Keep up the good writing. DMing is just writing an outline to a story, allowing the pc's to act out their script, along with your scenery.

I would like to be sitting at your table, as a player, to experience this tale.
Good luck...DM!


Dorian 'Grey' wrote:

I would like to be sitting at your table, as a player, to experience this tale.

Good luck...DM!

I totally agree with Dorian. This would be a great game starter and I think you'd do a wonderful job going forward from there.

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