Interacting with intelligent items

[lalallaalal]

Hello again all. I'm curious how people handle intelligent items and their interaction with a character. I'm in two games right now, and in my weekly game I have dwarf warrior with the hammer Whelm. In my family game my brother had a cursed sword with an obsessive hatred toward orcs. In my family game the DM didn't have the sword conversate with the player, but Will saves were thrown around orcs to have the character taken over by the sword's blood lust. In my weekly game Whelm hasn't done anything.

I guess my question is, do you let the DM handle that aspect of the game or are players given a bit of freedom with their intelligent item? I want to play up my character's bond with Whelm, but all my DM says is "it wants to kill giants". There has to be more to it, right? Am I stepping out of line giving Whelm a personality?

[LazarX]

Intelligent items are essentially NPC's with their own agenda. If the item simply has that limited an agenda. (just because it's intelligent, doesn't mean it has a rounded personality) than them's the breaks.

I know the module where that weapon came from. Of the three weapons there, Whelm was the one with the most simplistic personality.

BTW the second part of your question is phrased badly. Since you're describing the dm and the player as third parties. who is the "you"?

AS DM, I'll play the part of the intelligent weapon or possibly assign that role to a player other than the one whose character is carrying the weapon. Some intelligent weapons however aren't simply that expressive in any but the most extreme circumstances. Stormbringer would be one of those. There is also such a weapon in the Silmarillion which speaks only once and that's when the wielder asks the blade if it will take his life.

I'm not fond of intelligent weapons in general and only create one when it's going to be a particular part of a story arc.

[lalallaalal]

I meant you as in the person reading the post. That's what I figured, I'm kind of stuck with a dull hammer. Oh well, it's still loads of fun.

[james maissen]

lalallaalal wrote:

Hello again all. I'm curious how people handle intelligent items and their interaction with a character.

Think of them like NPCs with the party. Cohorts, companion creatures, etc all fall into this and so do intelligent items.

Depending upon the player you can leave any of these kinds of NPCs to them, or you'll have to either run it yourself or have it for another player to run in addition to their PC.

-James

[Dren Everblack]

lalallaalal wrote:

Hello again all. I'm curious how people handle intelligent items and their interaction with a character. I'm in two games right now, and in my weekly game I have dwarf warrior with the hammer Whelm. In my family game my brother had a cursed sword with an obsessive hatred toward orcs. In my family game the DM didn't have the sword conversate with the player, but Will saves were thrown around orcs to have the character taken over by the sword's blood lust. In my weekly game Whelm hasn't done anything.

I guess my question is, do you let the DM handle that aspect of the game or are players given a bit of freedom with their intelligent item? I want to play up my character's bond with Whelm, but all my DM says is "it wants to kill giants". There has to be more to it, right? Am I stepping out of line giving Whelm a personality?

I agree with the other posters - it's should be played like an NPC. I am using the module that Whelm comes from, and I plan to play up the Agoraphobia aspect of Whelm.

As a player in your situation I would probably do the same - a self-imposed fear of the outdoors because of the hammer's influence.