Intelligent Magic Swords? (2e AD&D)

[Voadam]

The only AD&D intelligent weapons I remember off the top of my head from modules was the three from White Plume Mountain.

Scanning some of my PDFs I see there is one in the Temple of Elemental Evil. GDQ has two in the hill giant part and adds two for slave lords (that were not there in the original modules). Desert of Desolation has none.

I generated a number of random magic items for NPCs and starting higher level PCs in AD&D and don't remember ever doing an intelligent sword. I don't think I rolled on the 1e intelligent sword chart when doing so. Looking back at it, putting that in its own section instead of the general magic swords part really obscures that it is supposed to apply as a chance for all random magic swords.

 

[James Gasik]

On a tangentially related note, I noticed in the 1e DMG there is a table for randomly determining an artifact, but I can't see any way to generate one as treasure. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think you should be able to generate artifacts randomly, and they should always be placed by the DM, but the existence of "Table III.E Special" (page 124) is just weird.

 

[Celebrim]

On a tangentially related note, I noticed in the 1e DMG there is a table for randomly determining an artifact, but I can't see any way to generate one as treasure. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think you should be able to generate artifacts randomly, and they should always be placed by the DM, but the existence of "Table III.E Special" (page 124) is just weird.

Table III Part 1 Miscellaneous Magic (3% of magic items) gives a 1% chance of a random Artifact appearing (on a roll of '17'). So in theory 3 in 10000 items in a random horde should be artifacts or relics, although I think there is a note warning the DM to be careful about placing artifacts.

 

[James Gasik]

Table III Part 1 Miscellaneous Magic (3% of magic items) gives a 1% chance of a random Artifact appearing (on a roll of '17'). So in theory 3 in 10000 items in a random horde should be artifacts or relics, although I think there is a note warning the DM to be careful about placing artifacts.

Oh thanks, I don't know how many times I pored over those tables and didn't see that!

 

[Voadam]

It is also referenced on page 136

"Items are listed alphabetically. Artifacts and relics are listed (1%) on table E.1., directing the reader to E. Special for enumeration. These items are detailed after all other miscellaneous magic. If you do not desire such an item to occur, substitute a bag of beans, or the next item on the table."

 

[nevin]

As I've pointed out many times as I stood in flames. DND was never designed to be a low magic or low resource game. Back in the day (70's 80's)if you went to a gaming club and played a game it was almost gaurranteed someone would have an intelligent sword. Which usually sucked because it had it's own agenda that didn't always line up with the party.

 

[Ben from Periapt Games]

I think some DMs conveniently overlooked the rules because they're a bit of a hassle to manage with only a moderate payoff: there's some fiddly initial setup and then you have another intelligent entity around to track.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think some DMs conveniently overlooked the rules because they're a bit of a hassle to manage with only a moderate payoff: there's some fiddly initial setup and then you have another intelligent entity around to track.

It feels like the kind of thing that's good to do once per campaign, but unless you're playing things for laughs, I can't imagine anyone, players or DM, wants a half dozen magic items sharing their opinions, trying to get people killed, attempting to force the mortals into battle, etc.

One cool intelligent item at a time is probably best.

 

[James Gasik]

I can agree that nobody really wants a ton of Intelligent swords laying about the campaign. 25% seems awfully high, and while I know Gary intended for them to be a "cool thing" for Fighters, they seem to be more hassle than they are worth, having to track when the sword's personality might be able to dominate the Fighter's- a powerful sentient weapon can be a real monkey's paw.

I was just struck by the fact that the game is like "oh yeah, intelligent swords are more common than magic battle axes", which didn't quite match my experiences.

 

[Orius]

More fun facts, alignment isn't evenly distributed across intelligent weapons either in AD&D. Randomly rolling alignment most often gives NG and TN weapons followed by LG, while CG, CE, and NE ones are rare. And since neutral weapons except for TN can be used by any character of the non-neutral part of the alignment, they tend to be toys of good warriors.