I was curious if anyone had the habit of giving their weapons names? Perhaps not your non-magical javelin or favorite cold iron dirk, but the first time you get a powerful weapon that could really change your character's life.
I'll go first: My half-orc Inquisitor's first magical GreatAxe was called Axe of Contrition (it was almost Axe of Kindness, but the Contrition seemed to fit better with an Inquisitor).
Anyone else?
My martial-minded characters do. Malisai, my tiefling magus, named his scimitar Doomwhisper. Lylette, my half-elf rage prophet and self-proclaimed knight-errant devoted to the Eldest, named her longsword Unmaker. On the other hand, Lanlis, my elf alchemist and follower of Nethys, could not be bothered to name a mundane weapon.
My Kensai gave her weapon her own name, because it's supposed to be an extension of her body. She's also kind of full of herself, so I guess that's also a factor.
I have as well.
I had a fighter that called his Sword of the Planes Banisher.
And a Berserker with a +2 Radiant Scythe that he called Demon Breaker.
My bard has taking a liking to a morning start he found and calls it the Skulldugger. Fits I suppose.
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I had a comical braggart of a Samurai that named each and every one of his many katanas. I took the names off of popular Beyblade models so they ended up being called stuff like GRAVITY PERSEUS and DARK FLAME DRAGO.
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My barbarian welded a greataxe known as the "BADAXE". It was the most BADAXE weapon around.
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As treasure in a multi-plane campaign, I handed out a +2 flaming burst, elf-bane waraxe named Elfblack. It was constructed of a single, solid piece of blued adamantine, the handle securely wrapped in leather. It's inscription read:
"Upon this charred edge shall suffer
the mortal children of fey
For I am elfblack
and all my wrath upon them."
There was a lot of inter-party conflict, and at one point during a battle with drow, the high elf wizard used Cone of Cold and accidentally hit the invisible half-orc rogue point blank. The rogue responded by critting the wizard with Elfblack. Funny thing is, it actually got worse after that.
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I don't name my weapons but I'll often times reflavor an item to make it more fitting to my character. For example, my street tough Martial Artist who has never seen a monastery in her life has a Monk's Robe I've renamed "The Punk's Overcoat".
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I had a fighter who named his sword "Miss Caroline"
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I have a fighter with a tetsubou named Zetsubou (despair). It's a heirloom weapon though, so she didn't name it herself. And I don't usually name weapons (the only other named weapon any of my characters have is intelligent and told me its name), I just couldn't pass up that chance.
It depends on the character really. Most of my characters don't although the occassional one will. I fondly remember a dwarven warrior who called his axe "diplomacy" and would sometime sheft his axe and say "don't make me get diplomatic on you"
I've done similar with a katana because it's fun to say "I use Diplomacy" then roll an Attack.
I had a fighter who named his sword "Miss Caroline"
That's almost a Neil Diamond song. Neil Diamond is totally a mythic shaitan bard from the Elemental Plane of Earth.
Why not name your sword something like "Fluffy Bunny"? Fluffy Bunny has a free +4 on Intimidate checks vs. vengeance demons.
It depends on the character really. Most of my characters don't although the occassional one will. I fondly remember a dwarven warrior who called his axe "diplomacy" and would sometime sheft his axe and say "don't make me get diplomatic on you" and then wonder why the intended victims did not realise it was a very tangible threat indeed.
When questioned about this he would say "what? Some words don't translate well into your topsider tongue. Diplomatic is the closest thing to what I was trying to say isn't it?"
I love it. Next weapon, with your permission, I shall name "Diplomacy"
When I DM I'll come up with a name for certain items, but only things of enough significance to warrant it.
As far as players naming their own gear, I haven't seen it in any of my games.
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My Goblin Feral Gnasher named his jaw Chop-Chomps... he wasn't all that bright...
My Ulfen Pathfinder named his falchion 'Dammerclaugh'.
I gave my Players a pit fiend powered sword called 'Vollenvader'.
I once had a combination horn of blasting/chime of opening called 'The Horn of the Ibex'.
I love it. Next weapon, with your permission, I shall name "Diplomacy"
That was the name of one of my former party member's crossbow. It was the mascot of our team, ironically named "The Diplomats", because most of our battles began with Diplomacy.
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Roll double 20's in battle, and there is a 10% chance per +1 enhancement that the weapon awakens and becomes self-aware.
Roll double 1's and there is a 10% chance per +1 enhancement that it becomes cursed.
My half-orc inquisitor of Desna refers to his admantine heavy pick as 'the can opener' but when the campaign ends he might go with something like Piercer of the Shadows or Butterfly's Sting.
I've got a dagger with "Slickjaw" (the character name) and "Your Name" on it so that I can say "my dagger has your name on it". Sadly, fell out of use due to finding a superior magic dagger.
EDIT: In a 20th level OD&D campaign a played in, I used the hilariously broken symbol spell to create the Scroll of Fate, which had the symbols despair, pain, sleep, fear, and something else - which at the time, where all infinite use - scribed on it.
Isoulde was the name of the +1 adamantine, keen, giant-bane falchion was my giant-slayer weapon. It was named after his lady love. Then again he slept with that sword more then the name-sake. ;)
My barbarian welded a greataxe known as the "BADAXE". It was the most BADAXE weapon around.
Ha, I actually have a gnoll ranger named Bad Axe.
My Paladin had an Eath Breaker Hammer Called Zahain. Each generation of his family who wielded it took on the name Zahain as well.
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Yes here are the 3 that I have with characters
Heavens Wrath (Ten no Ikari) - +5 Axiomatic Evil Outsider Bane Holy Longsword (Also intelligent, was the conscious of an angel that was tortured in the Abyss now sealed into a sword and dedicated to killing all demons)
Doiteain - +1 Dragon Bane Flaming Longsword
Dhiogha bais - +1 Evil Outsider Bane Holy Longsword.
As a GM, I tend to name many of the magic weapons in my games. My players, less so. I have one player, though, who comes up with funny names for things all the time, and tends to enjoy randomly naming various objects and even tries to name every group of PCs after his own character.
For instance, if he has a character named "Joe," he'll start calling the party "Joe's Heroes," or some such. Of course, everybody just rolls their eyes and continues on as if nobody's said anything.
I don't do it as a player, as most of my characters would find it a weird thing to do. As a DM I like to create named weapons however.
A few of my PCs do -- mostly stuff they've crafted themselves, although one PC had Blackrazor.
It never comes up, but Queen Violetta named her mithral buckler "full moon," although she calls her animal companion "the stag" and her talking vardo "the vardo." Until story reasons forced him to switch, her bard/paladin husband wielded the "Cruel Sword of Justice," an adamantine keen cruel longsword.
Tsunade the barbarian/summoner created "the Demonkiller," a furious, evil outsiderbane, elfbane bardiche. (It had the demonbane before the elfbane, and anyway, "Elfkiller" seemed kind of rude.)
Other PCs of mine barely have names... I've yet to come up with anything for a catfolk shadowdancer better than "Simone Simon," let alone anything for her claws or wakizashi.
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Roll double 20's in battle, and there is a 10% chance per +1 enhancement that the weapon awakens and becomes self-aware.
Roll double 1's and there is a 10% chance per +1 enhancement that it becomes cursed.
Interesting idea..
Maybe I'll take it one step further.
1) Double 20's or double 1's can cause weapon awakening (%). 1's cause the weapon to have a personality that doesn't work so swimmingly with that of the wielder, while 20's will align themselves with the wielder.
2) Sentient weapons have names. If the weapon had a name before, that name's meaning will influence its personality when it awakens. If you didn't name the weapon before it woke up, the personality will be more random.
3) Additional powers a weapon gains due to waking up are calculated aside from WBL and weapon enhancement bonuses and such; they're more powerful for the same price, but require a bit of handholding now and then. It should make them desirable though.
4) (Optional) as a weapon's fame and legend increase, so does its sentient powers. A nearly-forgotten weapon will be weak, but actually spreading your weapon's legend (which may involve bribing some bards) will make it more powerful. Note that this somewhat resembles the way in some setting gods receive power from the prayers of their worshipers...
I had a fighter who named his sword "Miss Caroline""Good times never seemed so good," I'll wager.
as a joke, I started singing "Ba Ba Baaaa" every time I threatened a crit.
In game, my character had a bit of a southern drawl and manner of speaking. The sword was an adamantine greatsword he picked up when he was young. He named it then too, when he thought that was cool and as he got older, he didn't regret it per se.. but you can't unname something so.. it stuck.
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My regular players got into doing that some time during 3.5 and they still do it now. Sometimes they will change the name of a weapon, such as the cleric in my Wrath of the Righteous game changing the name of her +1 morningstar from Rat Smasher (the name the mongrels gave it) to Skull Crusher, which is what she does with it when her dice keep rolling 20s.
I named my gunslinger's starting pistol "Wanda", as a tribute to a certain "Vera".
My Dwarf barbarian wielded a +1 Furious Undead Bane Adamantine Greataxe named Bonesplitter. He spent almost every copper he had on that damn axe, but it was brilliant.
Once my Bard and Inquisitor get a nice +1 weapon or so, I will be naming them.
Rapier: The Minstrel
Crossbow: Pharasma's Judgement