Intelligent Items question

[Imperious3]

What is a good base bonus value (+2, +3, etc.) for a powerful intelligent weapon? It's a short spear with an ability to animate corpses.

[Buri]

It could be +1 with a hellaton of abilities and be considered powerful. That said, I would probably go with a +3 or +4 if you're talking about a spear of destiny type item.

[Skylancer4]

Ask yourself two questions. When do you want the PCs to get access to the weapon? And depending on the stats (low point buy especially) do you want the weapon to possibly control the character (more +'s and abilities means higher Ego score)?

[Major_Blackhart]

It depends on where the campaign is taking place as well.
If Varisia or any place where ancient Thassilon held sway, cover that bad boy in runes of greed, maybe grant Ray of Sickness as a spell x number of times per day, and maybe some protection against undead, like unintelligent undead don't see you, or something wierd like that. Maybe even act as a metamagic rod when it comes to necromancy abilities.

The possibilities are really endless for intelligent weapons. It's one of the reasons I love them. I had one that was an incredibly jealous and possessive falchion that housed the soul of female anti-paladin of Calistria. Once in a while, the weapon would try and take control of the male wielder, a half-orc unbreakable fighter, and try to force him to attack any individual, group member or otherwise, that the sword saw as a threat to her influence over the half-orc. Weapon had a story of its own. Was actually an Aasimar, etc, etc.

But that reminds me: the weapon should have a background and a story. Not necessarily one pertinent to the game you're playing, but it adds to the flavor certainly. Maybe the weapon will slowly, over time, corrupt the wielder as mine did me, maybe it grants powers to the wielder as it learns to trust that individual. It could easily be a scaling weapon (i.e. it's the primary weapon of the wielder, and the more he uses it, level after level or after a specific part of the campaign is completed, the weapon grants access to certain other abilities, maybe even feats).

It could be you have an incredibly powerful but distrusting weapon. Also, you should think about what it's made out of. Depending on what it's intended creation was, Noqual might be a good choice, maybe Abysium that actually protects the wielder from sickness. Hell, the weapon could be a +3 Defending weapon that also grants some sort of +4 bonus to AC.

[Imperious3]

I have a back story for the spear: It was used by a necromancer to help build an army of undead that he used to attack a city. He was stopped by a couple of powerful feuding summoners in some badlands when he encroached upon their territory war.

Spear:

Syron NE
-Shortspear driven to create undead
-Smoked glass haft with jagged obsidian tip
Ego: 11
Int: 12 Wis: 10 Cha: 13
Languages: Common, Goblin
Communication: Empathy, Telepathy
Cost: 36,900 GP

Casts "Animate Dead" 1/Charge* (To use, must impale corpse through the heart. Standard action)
*To recharge, must kill a powerful caster or several weaker ones (total of CR 15)

When Syron judges that it's wielder has a similar endgame, unlocks extra powers: Cause Fear, Waves of Fatigue