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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9618584" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/glI8CEO.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 411px" />Y'know, there was a prior <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/lets-read-the-sentient-weapon.705703/" target="_blank">5e product</a> and a prior <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/lets-read-the-class-alphabet-for-dungeon-crawl-classics.674967/" target="_blank">Dungeon Crawl Classics product</a> I reviewed that both had rules for sentient weapons as playable options. Which is a surprisingly large amount, but I ain't complaining.Stories and adventures abound of Intelligent Weapons, from the prototypical legendary sword forged to vanquish a great evil, to souls of mighty warriors trapped within their favored instrument of war. There are all manner of reasons why magic weapons gain sapience, but what they share in common is developing a desire to go out into the world for a greater purpose or mere wanderlust. They must be careful, however, for many societies will still view them legally as an object rather than fully-fledged individuals. Many intelligent weapons often bear names assigned to them by their creator, but others may take on their own as a representation of their autonomy or bear the name of their former self if transformed into a weapon from another species. An intelligent weapon's creation can strongly inform their alignment and religious beliefs, such as holy weapons or ones forged by a creature inextricably bound to a moral code. But otherwise they have no overwhelming trends or commonalities, besides a slight bias towards deities of craftsmanship and war.Barring extremely productive artisans and civilizations capable of mass-producing magic items, intelligent weapons are rare to the point that they're not numerous enough to form their own societies. Intelligent weapons who come together often do so doing their period of wanderlust, gathering rumors and tales of others like them with similar ideals. Those weapons who form more fully-fledged ethos eventually created philosophies known as "arsenals." Three of these philosophies have 5e backgrounds: battleseekers (prize testing themselves in combat over all else), item speakers (believe that other "mundane" objects have dormant spirits and seek to advocate for these "unawakened" items), and upgraders (seek self-perfection in all its forms). The three backgroundless arsenals are the embodied (view their wielder as an intrinsic part of their identity), ramblers (seek to continue their wanderlust period and "ramble" through the world), and smiths (seek to find ways to build more intelligent weapons to create a family of sorts).Thoughts: The arsenals who have backgrounds and those who do not feel rather arbitrary to me: ramblers feel tailor-made for the adventuring lifestyle, and embodied sound the most "sociable" when it comes to aping humanoid mannerisms and social interactions. Item speakers can raise quite the number of roleplay complications given their insistence of treating all manufactured objects like living beings, while I'd expect battleseekers to be less PC-friendly given their prioritization of bloodlust.The base ancestry for animated weapons is a bit of an odd duck, to put it lightly, in that their various core features are highly dependent upon their subspecies/heritage. At the very least, they are the Construct type but in D&D, can be affected as a living creature by cure/inflict spells and poisons, and gain a bonus to Constitution and either a freely-assigned secondary ability boost in Pathfinder or determined by their subspecies in D&D. They have low-light vision in Pathfinder and darkvision in D&D, and while they have average movement speeds their method of locomotion is dependent upon their subspecies. The weapon is always Tiny size, but three of the subspecies involve being carried by a Small or Medium wielder who is also controlled by the player of the intelligent weapon PC. In such cases, the weapon and wielder are treated as a single character and thus can't be targeted separately/twice by most effects, and the wielder is more or less used to interact with the world in a way most humanoids/PCs would. Additionally, the intelligent weapon counts as a weapon for most spells and abilities that affect weapons, which in Pathfinder includes most weapon runes that don't depend upon one being an object and not a creature. Class features that grant or are connected to a weapon can have the intelligent weapon qualify itself as the triggering feature. GM Fiat is advised for edge cases and potentially broken loopholes, although there are some common-sense guidelines like disallowing properties that would make a weapon immune to all forms of damage.Intelligent weapons are proficient with themselves in D&D, but not in Pathfinder by default unless they take the Self Proficiency 1st-level ancestry feat. In Pathfinder they can only be a level 0 or level 1 simple, martial, or advanced weapon that must be Common or otherwise be a weapon whose rarity the party has access to in the campaign. Finally, intelligent weapons can voluntarily enter a state known as Inanimate Mode, where they are effectively motionless and cannot be wielded by other creatures, although they can still be carried and moved around. The book notes that this ability is expected to be rarely used, most likely in the event that a hostile target attempts to use them.Unfortunately, the Pathfinder book is not as well laid-out when going over the Intelligent Weapon's ancestry features. The traits for base ancestries are put in columns on columns to the left/right side page, and due to the rather wordy and detailed explanations the entry spills out across 4 pages. This makes it inconvenient to navigate.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/GVbFobJ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 296px" />The intelligent weapon's ancestries/subspecies are less about their origins and more about how they interact with the wider world. Animated weapons are self-propelled and float slightly off the ground. In D&D they ignore most flesh-and-blood weaknesses like magical sleep, sustenance, poison, and disease, but in both systems they can invest/attune to items by having them mold into the body as artistic designs but are generally unable to interact with objects requiring opposable thumbs. Possessing weapons subsume a physical body, who may or may not have a soul left behind depending upon its nature and origin. In either case, the intelligent weapon loses their low-light/darkvision, but gains the species traits of the wielder's ancestry. Said wielder is still a living being and requires sustenance. A projecting weapon summons a projected physical avatar as its wielder, which can be summoned and dismissed at will. This wielder type requires sustenance, but only if the summoning is maintained for a long enough period and thus can be dismissed in order to avoid this. Finally, a symbiotic weapon bonds with a wielder to partially influence them. Unlike possessing and projecting, this wielder still maintains a significant degree of self-awareness, so they are also proficient/trained in one skill or tool reflecting their old life. Symbiotic weapons cannot benefit from the traits of their wielder's ancestry, but they can spend a bonus action or single action depending on the system to temporarily gain such traits for 1 round.Thoughts: I have mixed thoughts in regards to the intelligent weapon ancestry. On the one hand, making it so that the wielder and weapon are treated as one character helps consolidate a lot of otherwise disparate rules cases. That being said, the novelty of their nature means that their rules are wordier than most ancestries in both systems, with quite a few situational and edge-case style stuff. The poor layout in the Pathfinder book will make their reading even more intimidating to prospective players, which is a shame.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/JqHtfwn.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 572px" />Intelligent weapons have 26 feats in D&D and 37 feats in Pathfinder. Several of the 1st level feats feel more like taxes or are highly situational, like the Pathfinder-exclusive Darkseer Weapon granting darkvision, Enhanced Storage letting animated weapons treat themselves as Medium instead of Tiny for carrying capacity, Reject the Unworthy dealing force damage to a creature wielding them in inanimate mode, and Self Proficiency making them proficient with themselves and gain their base weapon's critical specialization effect at 5th level.But there are some exceptions: Enchanted Weapon is a D&D-exclusive weapon that lets the intelligent weapon cast the Light cantrip, be able to detect a single creature type within 60 feet Proficiency Bonus times per long rest, and cast the Magic Weapon spell on themselves once per long rest with upcasted versions at 8th and 16th levels. Defensive Discorporation is exclusive to projecting weapons and is activated as a reaction once per 10 minutes or short rest. The avatar discorporates upon suffering a critical hit, turning the critical hit into a normal hit but the avatar must be resummoned in the normal fashion. Hidden Mind is exclusive to possessing and symbiotic weapons, and does a similar thing against a mind-affecting effect where once per short rest/once per day the weapon can reroll a failed saving throw and use the second result.There's a notable Spellblade feat tree, which grants cantrips and spells from any class' spell list to the weapon, and in 5e also grants +1 to a mental ability score of choice for each feat taken. The 1st level feat grants 2 cantrips in D&D, or 1 cantrip in Pathfinder. Spellblade Adept is an 8/9th level feat that grants a 1st level and 2nd level spell each, and Spellblade Supremacy is a 16th/17th level feat that grants a 5th and 6th level spell each. Each spellblade feat requires the prior version as its prerequisite, and while the Pathfinder "locks" the class/tradition once selected at 1st level, the D&D version is completely freeform and lets the character pick and choose from otherwise separate classes and traditions.The 4th/5th level spells start to broaden up a bit. Disguise Quality lets the intelligent weapon magically disguise its form to a limited extent, Precious Synthesis progressively incorporates materials known for overcoming damage reduction/resistance like silver (rarer ones are gained at higher levels), Guiding Strike lets them make an attack with their weapon body at advantage (roll twice, keep better in Pathfinder) and ignore cover/concealment once per day/long rest, and Wielder Synergy grants them easier access to their wielder's species traits or a bonus 1st-level ancestry feat of their wielder depending upon the system. The 8/9th level feats are more overtly magical, such as Flying Weapon exclusive to animated weapons that grants them a fly speed for 10 minutes once per day/long rest, Distant Projection exclusive to projecting weapons that lets their avatar appear within 30 feet and the weapon's instantly summoned into the avatar's hands,* and Warding Strikes where the weapon hits a foe and thus makes it harder for the target to hit them.*at-will in Pathfinder, Proficiency Bonus times per long rest in D&D.For 12th/13th level feats, Dilating Projection is unique to projecting weapons and lets them summon different-sized avatars from Tiny to Large. Storm of Duplicates can be used once per short rest/hour where they create a variable (cone, line, or emanation) damaging AoE effect.There's significantly more mid-level (9th and 13th) feats in Pathfinder than in D&D, such as Merciful Weapon (9th level) adding a selective nonlethal trait, or Self Repair (9th level) which lets the weapon use Crafting on itself to Treat Wounds and can heal hit points automatically while resisting for 10 minutes. Adamantine Synthesis (13th level) has the weapon treat itself as adamantine for weakness/resistance and similar effects.Some feats are achievable at different tiers by system. Insidious Weapon (possessing and symbiotic exclusive) makes the weapon divert divination spell effects targeting them to the wielder instead. Soaring Weapon grants a permanent fly speed to animated weapons. Both are attainable at 13th level in Pathfinder and 16th level in D&D. Damage Threshold/Animated Hardness is the reverse, attainable at 12th level in D&D and 17th level in Pathfinder. The feat lets the weapon subtract 5 damage from any damaging source, as long as they're above half their maximum hit points or until they suffer a critical hit. But as the book says that the benefits are restored once the weapon's back up above 50% hit points, what if they get critted and are still above half? Do they recover immediately after taking the critical damage? I presume so, but the text could afford to be more clear on this.The 16th/17th level feats have the aforementioned Spellblade Supremacy plus Wall of Duplicates, which unlike Storm of Duplicates requires the Flying Weapon feat as a prerequisite. In D&D the feat grants a once per long rest casting of Blade Barrier but deals the damage type of the intelligent weapon's construction. In Pathfinder it doesn't directly copy any spell, instead being a once per hour 3-action ability that has a similar effect in being a wall-shaped damaging AoE. And like the 9th and 13th level feats, the Pathfinder book has some feats unique to the system, such as Orichalcum Synthesis (treated as the weapon for weakness/resistance/etc purposes) and Perfect Attunement (once per day grants itself +3 to attack rolls with yourself for one minute and can make a strike with itself)Thoughts: Spellblade starts out as inferior to the PHB Magical Initiate feat in giving out fewer spells overall, but the 8th and 16th level feats can grant them access to some choice spells for a patient player in it for the long haul. Flying and Soaring Weapon are also highly appealing to animated weapons, and Enchanted Weapon and the Synthesis line of feats are nigh-mandatory for making a dent in more resilient monsters. There's quite a few feats that look weak or situational to certain builds. Like Disguise Quality only applying to a few situations where it would be relevant; or Damage Threshold applying directly to the weapon itself rather than the wielder, which means it's going to be of most use to animated weapons; or Distant Projection's short-range teleport is rather weak to spend a full feat slot on in D&D, given that Misty Step does the same thing but better. Storm of Duplicates and Wall of Duplicates are my favorite of the feats due to the cool factor. My only wish is that they kicked in at lower levels given that most campaigns don't last past 10th level. One thing I'll say in this section's favor is that each of the "subspecies" gets an equal amount of love in exclusive feats.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/4E67fjY.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 441px" />This section rounds out with the Just a Weapon, Not a Species entry, positing alternative mechanics for a PC who is just a weapon and carried around by another PC. It's basically its own set of alternate rules using the ancestry as a baseline, but to sum things up they can basically only do actions and abilities granted by feats or are purely mental, and in the case of Pathfinder they increase their item level and item DC upon leveling up. Needless to say, this is more limiting than the default ancestry in this book, and while I can see it working for some builds I don't know how appealing this will be to most players.Thoughts So Far: While intelligent weapons have been a mainstay in D&D since the beginning, they typically aren't thought of as monsters, so they don't feel like a "classic creature" in that sense. These rules look more approachable than the Sentient Weapon standalone product I linked to above, which gives points in its favor. Letting it be a race/ancestry of its own rather than a class allows for more diversity in build options with existing classes. That being said, it too has balance concerns, particularly in regards to the feats and their relative difference in situational uses.Join us next time as we review another not-really-an-object ancestry, the Mimic!</blockquote>

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