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I pulled together some homebrew rules to better enable being wielded by another player when playing as an Intelligent Weapon from Roll for Combat's Battlezoo Ancestries line.
The default rules give you two options:
1. Enter "inanimate" mode and pretty much leave the table because you're restricted to extremely limited effects you have to buy with ancestry feats or performing Seek or Recall Knowledge checks.
2. Play as pretty much a normal intelligent weapon with no real PC build options, no physical stats, and extremely low agency overall. Essentially an option you'd give to your 5 year old nephew so they can pretend like they're helping.
I wanted to be much closer to a full party member balance-wise, even if you are hoping to play primarily as a wielded item. (Potentially even a non-weapon, like a magic ring). So far, these rules have been working fine at our table though we're a relaxed, non-powergamey group. These rules aren't perfect, but I thought I'd share them since I took the time to write them up, and they're pretty fun.
Modified Rules for Being Wielded or Equipped by Another PC
You can choose to allow yourself be wielded by another PC (or equipped, if you chose to be a non-weapon item). While equipped by another PC:
* You only gain 2 actions each round, and cannot perform typical physical activities utilizing your item body such as striking, moving, or performing a combat maneuver.
* You can perform assistive actions, such as preparing to Aid your wielder to make an attack, reloading yourself on behalf of your wielder, as well as other minor actions allowed by your GM.
* If you Ready for two actions to guide your wielder's hand, your wielder can spend an action on their turn to grant you two actions which may include physical activities such as making Strikes.
* You can perform mental actions such as Recall Knowledge and Seek, as well as performing spellcasting actions. However spells that would cause you to move automatically fail, and spells that target self are not conferred onto your wielder. When casting spells or otherwise performing obvious magical effects, outside observers may recognize that you are the source of the effect, and may decide to target you separately from your wielder.
* You use the same offensive and defensive statistics you would ordinarily possess while operating independently via whichever heritage option you picked.
* Your wide magical aura makes you easier to hit than normal held or worn items. For the purposes of targeting, you are considered a separate character sharing a space with your wielder.
* You share a single HP pool with your Avatar, Possessed Body, or Symbiotic Partner, depending on your choice of heritage, even if you are far apart.
Modifications to Intelligent Weapon Ancestry to Enable Being Wielded
HP damage suffered by an intelligent weapon is primarily borne by the vital essences that animate it. Upon death, an intelligent item ceases to be a sapient creature, leaving behind a normal item possessing only the enchantments and runes it was inscribed with. Any other consequences of the loss of the items’ mind and soul are left to the GM’s discretion.
Modifications to Intelligent Weapon Heritages to Enable Being Wielded
Animated Weapon
While being wielded, the energies you typically employ to propel yourself are freed to perform telekinetic manipulation of your surroundings. You gain access to two invisible hands that can be used to perform Interact actions or athletics maneuvers, despite the normal restrictions while wielded. You can retrieve and use items you have Invested or stored in your Enhanced Storage as though they were worn, and you can use those items for the benefit of your wielder even if you would ordinarily not be able to. For example, you could retrieve a stored shield for one action, and raise it to provide you and your wielder its shield bonus to AC.
Possessing Weapon
While being wielded, you partially relinquish control of your possessed body to your new wielder. Your possessed body can be Commanded as a minion by your wielder, but can only Stride, Step, Strike, or perform Interact actions, though you can deny any action you do not wish for the body to take. You can choose to take actions using either your possessed body or your item self. In addition, more of your vital essence remains stored in your possessed body; attacks and effects targeting your item form and not your possessed body that bring you to 0 HP do not cause you to begin dying, instead you remain stable and unconscious.
Projecting Weapon
The same reservoir of magics or technology that allows you to project an avatar allows you to store a small number of items in an extradimensional space, limited to a set of armor, a set of tools, a spellbook or formula book, or any other items necessary for the basic functions of your class. The combined bulk of these items cannot exceed your unencumbered carrying capacity. Any creature with access to your item body can access your extradimensional space as though it were a bag of holding. You can select the Enhanced Storage feat in order to increase the flexibility of which items you can store. All items in your extradimensional space are treated as worn, and when you Project Avatar your avatar appears equipped with whichever items you have stored that you wish. When you unmanifest your avatar its carried and equipped items return to your extradimensional space, up to your light load limit.
While being wielded, you can Project Avatar to manifest or unmanifest your avatar, but it appears adjacent to your wielder.
Symbiotic Weapon
Symbiotic weapons are extremely unlikely to allow another player character to wield them as long as their usual wielder is still capable of fighting, as this would undermine the intended narrative this heritage seeks to represent. In dire, life-or-death circumstances, the symbiotic weapon’s wielder might decide that giving their weapon to another character may be a necessary last-ditch measure. If you decide to have your wielder give you to a different character, your original wielder becomes a copy of your character with a permanent untyped -5 penalty to attack rolls, Perception checks, saving throws, and skill checks until you are reunited, maintaining your current hit points and any ongoing effects. They can take one action a round on your initiative as they reel from their sudden disconnection from you.
Your newly reclaimed power can temporarily be directed to your new wielder, granting them an untyped +1 bonus to attack rolls, Perception checks, saving throws, and skill checks for one minute, or until they no longer wield you, whichever happens first. This bonus can only be granted once per day. You cannot be targeted separately from your new wielder, unless by effects that would normally target items.
If you do not return to the hands of your wielder within 10 minutes, when you do reunite you will be afflicted with an untyped -2 penalty to attack rolls, Perception checks, saving throws, and skill checks for a length of time equal to the time you were separated.
Justification
One of the major attractions for playing an item is to be able to be used by another player, which is a novel, fun way to approach play. The default rules harshly discourage this capability, either relegating you to a tool lacking agency or a modified intelligent weapon without anywhere near the value of a full player character. The Intelligent Weapon ancestry is already one of the more complicated ancestries ever written for PF2, so it was reasonable to decide to make conservative decisions to ensure it functions at the widest number of tables, however this left many hopeful players unsatisfied.
This set of modifications seeks to make being wielded a viable option when the situation calls for it or potentially even a character’s sole focus, which also allows a player to create a character similar to something like the One Ring, by becoming a buffing accessory.
This houserule modification to the ancestry should be reasonably balanced for those who are willing to accept the risk of additional potential edge case issues or inconsistencies. The following are some reasons by which the houserules can be expected to be relatively limited in power:
* Being wielded sacrifices one action out of three for the intelligent weapon player
* While the intelligent weapon gains the benefit of the movement of their wielder, this benefit is no stronger than having a mount companion
* Being wielded prevents the use of many martial capabilities, severely limiting the value of the additional movement.
* The intelligent weapon is more vulnerable to area of effect attacks, since they share a space with another player character and may have another body on the field
* The best intelligent weapon to wield would be a buffing caster, who would prefer not to be carried by the front-line martial (who they benefit the most from buffing) and risk being targeted
* Martial characters wielding the intelligent weapon do not gain flanking bonuses from their equipped team member
* Unlike the default rules, the intelligent weapon can be specifically targeted if they draw enough attention to themselves