Do intelligent weapons sleep? (and more)

[Damon Griffin]

(1) Do intelligent weapons sleep? More precisely, do they have inactive, or "unconscious" periods, whether those periods are called sleep, meditation, the "inanimate cycle" or whatever?

Physically they don't have the need for it, as they have no way to become fatigued, but the need for sleep is more mental than physical anyway.

It seems harsh to have intelligent weapons continuously awake -- what's a thinking sword to do, sitting in its sheath for days, perhaps weeks on end, no one around to draw it?

(2) Can intelligent weapons see? This may seem like a stupid question, but obviously they can hear; at least, any of them with Speech as a mode of communication can hear. Many of them will have 'detect' powers, which (if they duplicate the spell effects) act as targeting senses, telling the weapon not only that there is magic within 60', but where it is. That may be more like bat sonar than like sight.

(3) For those intelligent weapons that have telepathy as a mode of communication, what are the parameters of that? It does not appear that telepathy is a spell, or a psionic power (it's a class of psionic powers.) In the MM it is listed as a (supernatural) characteristic of some monsters, but apparently both the range and the "power level" of the telepathy vary from one monster to the next, so how would it be determined for an intelligent weapon?

 

[Staffan]

(1) Do intelligent weapons sleep? More precisely, do they have inactive, or "unconscious" periods, whether those periods are called sleep, meditation, the "inanimate cycle" or whatever?

Intelligent weapons are considered constructs, and thus do not need to eat, sleep or breathe.

(2) Can intelligent weapons see?

If you look at the table "ITEM INTELLIGENCE, WISDOM, CHARISMA, AND CAPABILITIES", you'll see that it specifies what sort of sensory abilities the weapon has: ranging from "30 ft vision and hearing" to "120 ft darkvision, blindsense and hearing."

(3) For those intelligent weapons that have telepathy as a mode of communication, what are the parameters of that?

From the footnotes to the same table: "The item can communicate telepathically with the wielder."

 

[Damon Griffin]

Intelligent weapons are considered constructs, and thus do not need to eat, sleep or breathe.

Hmmm... so I need to work out how many Hit Dice, or fractions thereof, a Mighty Masterwork Composite Longbow has, and give Vere [see previous thread on EGO contests with intelligent weapons] an appropriate number of skill points.

Looks like a +2 projectile weapon of any sort should have a Hardness of 7 and 7 hit points. With a 16 INT, that should come out to 20 skill points, and a maximum of 4 points that could be spent on any particular skill.

Or, if this weapon counts as a Small construct, rather than Tiny, she'd get 10 bonus hit points (I'm referencing the detailed description for the Construct Type in MM 3.5), making her a 2 HD construct, and giving her 25 skill points rather than 20, and a maximum of 5 points that could be spent on any particular skill.

As far as I can tell Vere is not entitled to feats, but all the Construct Type description has to say on the subject is "...most constructs are mindless and gain no skill points or feats", immediately after describing the number of skill points available to any construct with an INT score. I'll check with my DM and if he allows her a single feat, it'll be Alertness.

If you look at the table "ITEM INTELLIGENCE, WISDOM, CHARISMA, AND CAPABILITIES", you'll see that it specifies what sort of sensory abilities the weapon has: ranging from "30 ft vision and hearing" to "120 ft darkvision, blindsense and hearing."

Ah! Okay, it's on the table in DMG 3.5. The corresponding table in DMG 3.0 makes no reference to normal sensory capabilities; the Senses column isn't there. (We're still running a 3.0 campaign, so we haven't used the 3.5 books for much, but in this case I'm sure my DM will okay it.)

From the footnotes to the same table: "The item can communicate telepathically with the wielder."

Yeah, two questions about that:

(1) The footnotes appear to use the terms 'possessor' and 'wielder' more or less interchangeably. To me, 'wielder' implies I'm at least holding, if not currently employing, the weapon, whereas 'possessor' merely designates me as the owner. So if my intelligent bow is unstrung and tucked away in my Quiver of Ehlonna, can it communicate telepathically with me? What if I'm not wearing the quiver, but it's sitting in a corner of the room 20' away? What if the bow is strung and ready for use, but momentarily lying at my feet while I dig something else out of my backpack?

(2) The statement "The item can communicate telepathically with the wielder" is part of footnotes 2 and 4. Footnote 2 applies to Speech, so if this isn't a typo, it may suggest that only the wielder can hear the weapon's "voice." Has this been covered in errata somewhere?

 

[AuraSeer]

IIRC, an intelligent item doesn't follow the regular rules for creating a construct. It don't have any skills, unless it has one of the special abilities that grant ranks.

 

[Vorith]

Its just best not to use intelligent items.I personaly dont want a sword talking smack to me

 

[Lord Pendragon]

IIRC, an intelligent item doesn't follow the regular rules for creating a construct. It don't have any skills, unless it has one of the special abilities that grant ranks.

I agree. You can equate an intelligent weapon to a Construct for purposes of determining its physical needs, but it is not actually a construct, with HD-granted feats, BAB, and skill points. It's an intelligent weapon, which does not gain skill points save with those powers which grant them.

Re: telepathy, I agree that you'd have to be actually touching the weapon.

Re: speech, we've always played it that the voice could be heard normally by anyone in the area.

 

[Chimera]

Sure, just what you need. In intelligent, talking sword with an attitude problem. Or a need for gossip.

"hmmmm..mmmm..mmmmm.....hey, are you sleeping?"
"Hey, WAKE UP! I'm bored. I want to talk!"
"Laalaaalaaalaaa! bored bored bored...."


Or worse, you're sneaking down a hall when the sword gets bored and decides to sing...

 

[xazil]

Also remember that each plus on a weapon, shield or armor grants +2 hardness and +10 hp. So your +2 bow isn't quite so easily sundered.

I know if I was a magic weapon I'd be insisting on getting more pluses added and imagine how much nagging something that doesn't have to sleep can do.

 

[Damon Griffin]

Also remember that each plus on a weapon, shield or armor grants +2 hardness and +10 hp. So your +2 bow isn't quite so easily sundered.

Sadly, that's not true. Our campaign pre-dates v3.5 and we did not make the switch in mid-game.

[SIZE=-1]
+2 projectile weapon stats under 3.0 3.5
_________________________________--- ---
_______________________Hardness___7___9
_____________________Hit points___7__25
[/SIZE]

 

[babomb]

Do intelligent weapons sleep?

Perhaps the better question is: do intelligent swords dream of metallic sheep?