D&D 5E [Let's Read] The Sentient Weapon

Libertad

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There’s always been a demand among a subset of players desiring to play as less conventional species in the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. “Monster-lite” races such as tieflings and warforged were PC-friendly versions of common creature archetypes, to say nothing of more involved projects such as parental couplings of wildly different varieties or making every creature in the Monster Manual a balanced PC race.

But there is one type of being that’s been so far overlooked, yet no less iconic to classic fantasy: the legendary weapon that has a mind of its own! In a weird way I can see the appeal, for intelligent weapons have been a popular type of rare treasure in modules. In fact, one could argue that they become impromptu members of the party once one or more PCs bond with them. But what if a player wants to be the weapon instead? This is the goal of the Sentient Weapon, which provides a new race and class for becoming your very own Whelm/Stormbringer/Anglachel!

The first chapter opens up with discussion of common story origins for sentient weapons, encouraging the player and DM to come up with a reason for the PC’s creation. We then follow up with the “racial” aspect of the Sentient Weapon’s traits. It is a construct of either Small or Tiny size depending on whether or not they have the heavy weapon trait. Ability scores work differently: Strength and Dexterity have minimum values of 13 for whether or not the PC can have the form of a heavy or ranged weapon respectively, and when wielded by an NPC the sentient weapon’s values determine their to-hit and damage rolls. Sentient Weapons are conventionally indestructible, treated as objects instead of creatures, and have no hit points, so Constitution is primarily used to determine concentration checks as well as an NPC bearer’s maximum hit points. Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma all function as normal, and one of them is chosen to be their spellcasting ability at character creation.

Sentient Weapons gain +2 to one mental ability score and +1 to another mental score. They have darkvision out to 120 feet but are blind beyond this radius, and barring unique traits or magic they are immobile and thus have no speed and auto-fail Strength and Dexterity checks and saves. They also cannot do conventional actions requiring physical manipulation such as Attack, Use An Object, and so on. They also can be stunned or incapacitated when hit by anti-magic effects and cannot multiclass. On the plus side, Sentient Weapons have the typical construct immunities, require only 4 fours of meditation for a long rest, and in addition to speaking and reading Common can silently conduct telepathic communication with its wielder.

The Sentient Weapon class is basically a support character with partial spellcasting going up to 5th level spells. At the beginning of play, the player has the option of either having the Sentient Weapon be wielded by another PC as its bearer, or an NPC is assigned to be the bearer. One has to attune to the weapon in order to gain the benefits of being the “bearer,” and while so attuned they grant a variety of unique benefits. The weapon’s spells that have a target of self can target the bearer instead, the weapon counts as a spellcasting focus for the bearer, and the weapon must make Constitution saves to concentrate on a spell if the bearer is damaged. If an NPC is chosen to be the bearer at the start of play, they have Commoner stats but are modified as we’ll cover below.

The Sentient Weapon can find other prospective NPC bearers via searching around population centers, but they’re limited to a Small or Medium Humanoid with a Challenge Rating equal to or less than the Sentient Weapon’s level divided by 4. The text doesn’t state if this is rounded down or rounded up. An attuned NPC uses the Sentient Weapon’s ability scores and proficiency bonus, gains the weapon’s proficiencies (all weapons and armor, Wisdom and Charisma saves), and languages, and they calculate their hit points via a 1d10 Hit Die per class level.

The Sentient Weapon’s other major feature is its spellcasting. They don’t get up to 9th level spells like a primary caster, but unlike the Paladin or Ranger they have cantrips and can cast spells from 1st level onwards. They gain spells known as a spontaneous caster like a Bard or Sorcerer and their spell list is pretty broad. There’s a good mixture of direct offense, battlefield control, and defense and enchantment spells. For instance, their cantrips include your typical damage-dealing ones like Sword Burst and Vicious Mockery, but also include Guidance, Light, and Prestidigitation. Their leveled spells include the wide variety of Detect X option, healing such as Cure Wounds, Goodberry, and Aura of Vitality (but they don’t get Revivify or Raise Dead), and battlefield control such as Wall of X, Black Tentacles, Resilient Sphere, and Web. Some spells that would be no-brainer options for a martial wielder like Armor of Agathys, Shield, and Warding Bond aren’t present, but overall the default spell selection is pretty strong.

For level-based class features, a Sentient Weapon’s subclass is its Origin, determining what species or civilization built it. We have 20 such Origins to choose from in a chapter of its own. At 1st level they can Aid Attack, which is basically a once per turn Help but only for advantage on attack rolls when someone (not just the wielder) uses the Weapon in battle. The sidebar points out that it differs from standard Help in being more restrictive but can grant advantage on ranged attacks and has improved features at higher levels. At 2nd, 9th, and 17th level the Weapon gains a stacking +1 enhancement bonus. At 5th level the Weapon can grant the benefits of Extra Attack to their wielder if they are an NPC, and their Aid Attack can grant advantage to two attack rolls made rather than one. Their 20th level capstone feature turns them into an artifact for the purposes of anti-magic effects, gain a flying speed of 30 feet, and can make attack rolls using themselves as a weapon and using their spellcasting ability modifier to determine attack and damage rolls.

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Properties are the other customizable progression-based feature besides spells that the Sentient Weapon gets over the course of leveling up. There’s 25 Minor Properties and 29 Major ones, and 13 of the Major ones have level-based prerequisites. As you get 2 Minor ones at 2nd level and a single Major one at 3rd level, a Sentient Weapon can become a pretty valuable magic item in its own right that would ordinarily be found as treasure several levels higher. While this may sound a tad powerful at first, keep in mind that the Sentient Weapon is effectively a full PC for their presence in the party.

The Minor Properties are nifty features and benefits, overall not too unbalanced or role-defining. Some of the more interesting ones include Adamantine (critical hit on objects), Disguised (can’t be targeted via divination or magic sensors unless allowed, can make subtle changes to their appearance as an action), Gleaming (never get dirty, shine light as a bonus action), Opening (cast Knock once per short or long rest), Secret-Detection (three times per long rest use an action to detect presence of nearest secret door or trap within 30 feet), Sentinel (choose one non-humanoid creature type or two humanoid subtypes, glow faintly if they’re within 120 feet), and Temperamental (can prevent creatures from attuning to you and can end an attunement).

As for the Major Properties, they tend to have extra oomph in the abilities provided, and nearly half have a level-based prerequisite. The lowest such prerequisites are 7th level, and a few extended into Tier 3 (11+) and two need you to be 18th level minimum to take. Some of the notable ones include Channeling (bearer and you ignore half cover when making spell attacks and can add Enhancement bonus to spell attack rolls), Ethereal (always-on See Invisibility that affects you and bearer, can hit targets in the Ethereal Plane), Intellectual and Ogre Power (11th level, bearer’s Intelligence or Strength is 19, respectively), Lightened (if you have the heavy property people can ignore it, if you’re one-handed melee weapon you are treated as light for purposes of two-weapon fighting), Scrying (15th level, can cast Scrying at will), Slaying (7th level, choose a creature type and deal +3d6 damage when bearer damages them with you), Vorpal (18th level, as weapon property but the 6d8 bonus damage is of the damage type of your weapon type), and Weave Bound (once per long rest can expend a spell slot to give your bearer that restored spell slot).

Thoughts: Even though this class is more of a support role in that it can’t do much directly on its own, the Sentient Weapon is quite versatile as to what exactly it can do in both its broad spell list and various Origins and Properties. Ironically they can be passable skill-users, especially of the scholar/diplomat types. If a PC opts to wield them they don’t have to rely on their own Strength or Dexterity for determining attack and damage rolls made with them, allowing the Sentient Weapon to focus on increasing their spellcasting stat during level-ups. As for NPC wielders, the process feels a tad cumbersome in that you’re altering large portions of default stat blocks, and while I understand wanting to still have a sense of progression I feel that it could’ve been done better.

The Properties vary quite a bit in overall usefulness. For instance, Booming is a Minor one that lets you carry your or your wielder’s voice clearly out to 300 feet, which is situational. Or Harmonious, which lets a creature attune to you in 1 minute rather than the 1 hour default. Or Linguistic, letting you learn two languages. Contrast these all to Compass, which lets you always know which way is north and while underground you always know how far you’re below the surface and know the location of the nearest path leading upward. Compass is going to be much more useful in most campaigns in comparison to these earlier choices. While most of the Properties have some useful features and few are what I’d call no-brainers, quite a few will be more situational than others.

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Sentient Origins is our next chapter covering the 20 subclasses of the Sentient Weapon. The subclass benefits kick in at 1st, 6th, 10th, and 14th levels and grant a bonus language in line with their creator, but some choices are open-ended enough to let you pick one language of your choice. Additionally, each Origin grants bonus spells known at particular levels in line with the Origin’s role.

It goes without saying that covering all 20 in-depth would be a tad lengthy, so I’m going to call out notable features specifically and be general for everything else.

Aberrant is one of two origins that grants the Sentient Weapon a speed without the need for a bearer or summoned servant, the other being Drow. It’s still a mere 5 foot walking speed so you’re probably going to be carried regardless. Its other features are appropriately mind-affecting and creepy-crawly in nature, such as a nifty adding of 5 feet to the bearer’s reach if a melee weapon, not suffering disadvantage on attacks due to adjacent enemies if ranged, letting an ally add a d6 to a mental saving throw in exchange for suffering a randomly-determined temporary madness effect, and being able to charm targets who touch you for 1 hour and being able to see through their eyes and ears for the duration.

Abyssal focuses heavily on offensive destruction such as melding to the bearer’s flesh and making them impossible to be disarmed, the option of making bearer explode in a fiery blaze if they’re reduced to 0 hit points, and can grant the bearer resistance or vulnerability to an elemental damage type as a reaction if they’re harmed by that type. As for why one would choose the latter option…I can’t really think of most circumstances, unless the weapon is trying to indirectly kill the bearer and thus explode them earlier than usual.

Arcane turns the Sentient Weapon into more of a spellcaster such as granting them additional Wizard cantrips, the ability to cast certain spells as ritual, recover a limited amount of expended spell slots on a short rest once per long rest, and spending a reaction to dispel a magical effect on a target the bearer hits you with.

Celestial is paladin-lite, having a lay on hands at touch-range, can spend spell slots to smite, cast Revivify once per long rest, and dead humanoids within 30 feet of you don’t age for the purposes of resurrection spells.

Draconic can be summed up as “you’re at your best when your foes are at their worst.” You have some utility effects such as heroic tales that work similar to a Bard’s Song of Restoration or the ability to detect precious metals and gems, but your combat stuff includes things like dealing bonus damage to targets with 50% hit points or less, or an AoE frighten effect when you crit or kill a target.

Drow is heavily themed around darkness and poison, such as being able to see in magical darkness, an attack that can impose the Poisoned condition on a struck target, transforming into a spider twice per short or long rest, and being able to summon tendrils of restraining shadow in dim light and darkness. This Origin has a peculiar drawback where you can’t cast spells if exposed to sunlight, a callout to how drow-crafted equipment became useless in sunlight in older Editions.

Dwarven is very heavy on utility, with features such as advantage on Intelligence checks to recall lore about various creatures that have a history with dwarves (ranging from other dwarves, elves, and dragons as well as monstrous humanoids like orcs), the ability to spend spell slots to conjure dwarven alcohol that can be drunk to gain temporary hit points or used as holy water, and casting the Symbol spell once per long rest. This last spell still needs a costly consumable material component to use, so it’s not exactly that exciting of a capstone ability.

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Elemental is quite variable in that several of its features are dependent on which of the four elements you choose for your Primordial Core. This determines your bonus spells, Primordial dialect, and what kind of elemental servitor you can summon that can serve as a bearer. Its features are heavily based around offense and defense, such as spending a reaction to cast one of your elemental cantrips when your bearer attacks with you, spending a reaction to halve elemental damage dealt to your bearer, and as a capstone can target a single creature to lose immunity or resistance to your chosen elemental damage type if they fail a Constitution save.

Elven is heavily combat-focused, with its major utility features being its bonus spell and 1st-level ability to always see the stars in the sky regardless of weather conditions. Its offensive features include increased speed for your bearer whenever you cast Blade Ward or Sword Burst, flashing brightly as a bonus action to blind nearby creatures, learning Shield as a bonus spell, and letting your bearer reroll one attack roll when attacking with advantage.

Entropic focuses heavily on debuffs and necrotic/erosion style effects. Its 1st level feature is a utility pseudo-Augury that instead gives a premonition of how whoever is holding them will die but otherwise is pretty much flavor. Its other features include a Bane-like debuff of spreading salt in the wounds of a struck target, giving your bearer advantage on the next attack roll if they miss with you, and forming a pseudo-black hole that can draw in and damage nearby creatures.

Fey is heavily utility, and while many of its features can be useful in combat, a lot of them can be used in more peaceful situations as well. Features include such things as being able to change into another simple or martial weapon type as a bonus action,* spending a reaction to cause your bearer to actually be an illusion when attacked and thus make the attack miss, or using an action to choose 1-4 nearby creatures to act like exaggerated storybook archetypes if they fail a Charisma save (for example, a Villainous Mastermind will stall for time while monologuing). Like drow it has kind of a debuff where the bearer has disadvantage on Wisdom saves, but only against spells cast by the Sentient Weapon. I suppose this is meant to reflect the deceitful nature of most fey.

*A great way to get around heavy/ranged limitations due to insufficient Strength or Dexterity!

Giant is exclusively combative, with its sole utility features being some of the higher-level spells. Its features include making the bearer grow to Large and eventually Huge size category and gaining benefits from said size, a Goliath-like ability to reduce oncoming damage as a reaction, and increased Strength and resistance to non-magical physical damage.

Githyanki is a pretty broad-minded Origin, having a variety of effects associated with the race and their history. For example, you can spend an action to detect nearby aberrations, fiends, or undead, deal extra psychic damage as a reaction when your bearer hits with you, can cut the silver cord of a target if fighting in the Astral Plane, an AoE selective deafen attack, and can cast Mind Blank once per long rest that affects both you and your bearer.

Gnomish are versatile tech-based things, such as having tiny mechanical arms that grant you bonus equipment and double proficiency in a single tool type, can transform into two weapons during a rest and your bearer chooses which one to attack with, an AoE steam vent emitted as an action after you cast a leveled spell, and the ability to build a clockwork bearer to wield you.

Infernal is heavily social and its major mechanics focus around gaining a large amount of bearers by sacrificing their souls through their deaths while wielding you. You gain double proficiency in a Charisma-based skill, and when your bearer dies you can siphon their soul in exchange for gemstones or restored spell slots. Said gemstones can be attuned to by humanoids, letting you detect their general location and communicate with them like the Sending spell. While the boons from souls are randomly-determined and you’re still limited by what kinds of bearers you can ordinarily have, I can see some devious parties exploiting this. Like convincing their enemies to attune to the Sentient Weapon before killing them

Kuo-toa can be summed up as an underwater martial subclass. You can see into the Ethereal Plane up to 30 feet, can conjure a suit of magical crustacean armor that lets your bearer swim and breathe underwater, can spend a reaction when your bearer is struck in melee to cause melee weapons to stick to the armor and thus effectively disarm enemies, and an AoE lightning attack.

Royal is heavy on the utility side of things. Its 1st level features include being able to learn an Ideal, Bond, or Flaw of someone holding you, can enhance leveled spells with Edicts that impose small buffs or debuffs such as conjuring restraining shackles or restoring hit points, granting yourself and your bearer advantage on Charisma checks when you’re visibly displayed, and a capstone feature where you can cast Divine Word once per long rest.

Sylvan is different from Fey in that it’s more closely tied to plants rather than fairies in particular. What’s notable is that you can create a plant NPC bearer as a 1st-level feature, whereas other Origins have such a thing at 6th or 14th level instead. The other features include Poison Spray and Thorn Whip that you can cast as reactions if your bearer doesn’t move that turn, can spend an action to turn into a 60 foot tall tree once per long rest (doesn’t say the duration you can remain in this form), can deal piercing damage as a counterattack to foes attacking your bearer in melee, and as a capstone grant your bearer resistance to all damage if they’re at 50% or less hit points.

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Undead is the other Origin that grants the option of having a unique bearer at 1st level, being an undead servitor. Your other features include restoring hit points to your bearer when you or they deal necrotic or poison damage to creatures, can cause your bearer to drop to 1 hit point instead of 0 once per long rest, and can cast Soul Cage on a living creature you slay and you use yourself as the material component.

Warrior’s Soul is basically the Battlemaster subclass of the Sentient Weapon. Quite literally, as it teaches you Routines that your bearer can use that are effectively maneuvers, down to the amount that are learned by level and the use of “Veteran Dice” which are spent in their use. All of the Routines are renamed maneuvers from the Player’s Handbook, and fancier ones from newer sources aren’t present. The other features include adding half your proficiency bonus to ability checks to things you or your bearer aren’t proficient with, can spend an action to end the charmed or frightened condition on your bearer provided you aren’t also so impaired, letting your bearer take an action as though it were their turn when you spend a reaction once per short or long rest,* and the capstone lets your bearer attack three times instead of twice when they take the Attack action. And Aid Attack grants them advantage on all three of those rolls!

*Provided you use Aid Attack or otherwise command your bearer as an action.

Thoughts: When it comes to the Origins, the ones that look to be the most potentially powerful and useful are Arcane, Celestial, Royal, Undead, and Warrior’s Soul. Arcane’s magical dispelling on struck targets is incredibly broad in function and useful at all levels, and being able to cast spells as rituals* opens up some unexpected mobility. You see, Unseen Servant is a ritual spell that can interact with and carry objects. The rules text in this book calls out Sentient Weapons as objects, meaning that you can use a ritual to move by yourself if for some reason another party member or ally cannot. Mage Hand isn’t part of the Sentient Weapon’s default list of cantrips, but it can be learned as one of the bonus cantrips via Arcane Origin. That being said, the Servant requires a bonus action to command and moves 15 feet per round, and while the Mage Hand can move 30 feet it has a much shorter duration, so there are limits to your mobility.

*The Sentient Weapon isn’t a ritual caster by default.

As for Celestial, you know how Paladins are notable burst-damage characters in 5th Edition? Well your Divine Smite more or less does the same thing. But as it costs your reaction instead of your bearer’s, and that bonus radiant damage adds onto the bearer’s attack, a Paladin PC wielding you can effectively double-smite if you both got the spell slots for it. And since you’re effectively always touching your bearer, your Lay on Hands is a good means of healing them.

Regarding Undead, the ability to heal your bearer whenever they or you deal necrotic or poison damage is pretty exploitable given that it’s not limited-use. The healing is equal to half the damage dealt, so even if you strike a very weak target with a high-damaging spell or attack, your bearer can still restore a lot of hit points. Thus, this subclass could plausibly be abused via the classic Bag of Rats trick. That being said, the Sentient Weapon doesn’t have any cantrips by default which deal these damage types or Properties that can deal such damage at will. But with that in mind, this is something to watch out for if an enterprising player finds out a way around this…like with the Magic Initiate feat from the Player’s Handbook!

It’s a common house rule online to give Fighters the benefits of the Battlemaster subclass and let them choose another subclass. Well, Warrior’s Soul pretty much does this for its bearer, and I can see it being an incredibly attractive subclass due to this. Additionally, spending an action to end charmed or frightened on the bearer isn’t limited-use, which is useful at all levels and gives warrior-types an ace in the hole against a wide variety of mind-affecting effects.

Royal is good for diplomancer builds and its Edicts are broad enough to help all sorts of caster builds. Castigate deals bonus force damage which is the least-resisted type, while Grace heals hit points. While in-combat healing is suboptimal, Grace is good in that you don’t have to spend actions or bonus actions casting Cure Wounds/Healing Word.

Regarding the other subclasses, Aberrant has some nice low-level features, albeit the succeed-a-save-at-a-cost 6th level feature feels like a poor man’s Warrior’s Soul. Abyssal is a pretty nice subclass whose offensive utilities are useful at all levels. Draconic feels a bit unfocused in theme but it does have some nice effects at low and mid-levels.

Some of the Origins are situational or come with particular penalties or playstyles. Drow more or less gets nerfed whenever you’re above ground or traveling by day, so it’s not going to be picked for a lot of campaigns. Infernal more or less requires the Sentient Weapon to find multiple bearers to eventually die in order to make use of their best features, so the typical “kill enemies before they kill you, revive allies with Healing Word” tactics actually nerf the PC. Kuo-Toa is pretty much optimized for melee and close-range builds, and you wouldn’t put it on a ranged weapon. Same for Sylvan regarding its counterattack and bonus short-range cantrips. Elemental appears quite strong offensively, but I can’t see many people picking something like fire or cold over acid and lightning unless they’re going for backstory and flavor, given how often the former types are resisted.

The “create your own bearer” features feel way too situational, only really coming into play in worst-case scenarios where everyone else in the party is KO’d or MIA. Even so, they still require an hour to create, so you can’t make them in the middle of battle or most crisis situations. They also don’t grant access to non-Humanoid NPC bearers, so for anyone thinking of getting an Air Elemental to wield you once you hit 20th level, I must put the kibosh on your dreams. That being said, I should note that the Small/Medium Humanoid-only requirement doesn’t apply to PC bearers.

Thoughts So Far: I really like the concept of this book, and it’s unique enough to stand out from the thousands-strong crowd of third-party races and classes for 5th Edition. While many of the Sentient Weapon’s features look playable in conventional campaigns, I still have concerns regarding balance. Even discounting the highs and lows of certain Properties and subclasses, the Sentient Weapon cannot be “defeated” in typical fashion given its lack of hit points and being an indestructible object instead of a creature. While future chapters cover alternative “loss” conditions, as a Sentient Weapon cannot be knocked out, what’s preventing it from continuing to cast damaging cantrips on an enemy that captures or attunes to it? Toss it in a Bag of Holding or Antimagic Field? Perhaps, but it would feel too artificial if every enemy in the campaign had easy access to such options.

Join us next time as we cover the rest of the book, from new Backgrounds and spells to campaign advice!
 

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Wow, this looks really cool so far. I'm going to go buy it on the DM's guild now. I have a campaign I'm planning that this would work well in.

I suspect it'd be best for someone who doesn't care so much for the tactical aspects of the game. All you have to do on your turn is cast a spell or do Aid or whatever, and not worry so much about maneuvering and your hit points. The sword seems like it has plenty to offer in terms of being a full talking party member for the social and exploration pillars.

Abyssal focuses heavily on offensive destruction such as melding to the bearer’s flesh and making them impossible to be disarmed, the option of making bearer explode in a fiery blaze if they’re reduced to 0 hit points
This seems pretty good for an evil campaign. Find minion, trick/coerce them into wielding the weapon, charge the enemy, and if your wielder fails, kaboom. Peasant Fireball.

Thanks for posting this.
 

Caleb here, supporting author of The Sentient Weapon! (Michael was the main mastermind, but I helped develop, word, and structure the traits and base class features in the project's initial phases.)

Amazing overview! And some great insights into areas for improvement. Thank you for spending so much time diving into, breaking down, and spreading the word about it!

I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on the Non-Player Bearer rules, if you're open to sharing more. That was one of the trickiest parts to design and I, personally, have still never been totally satisfied with the results. You mentioned that it was cumbersome to alter large portions your bearer's statistics. Which parts are the most cumbersome, and what do you wish it were or could be like instead?
 

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Given that the Origins of Sentient Weapons are technically their Backgrounds, the mechanic usually used for representing a PC’s pre-adventuring occupation and lifestyle is reflavored to be something else. Thus, a weapon’s “background” represents a preferred mindset in regards to their ideal bearers and how they go about finding them. There’s five such options here who more or less adhere to Background rules. Each one grants the Sentient Weapon two bonus languages of their choice, save for Partner which only grants one.

The Beguiler is our first, representing Sentient Weapons who prefer letting their bearers take all the glory, acting as a subtle helper pushing would-be wielders in the right direction. Their unique Feature lets them sow rumors around a population center, where after 8 hours it becomes the common consensus that the Sentient Weapon doesn’t truly exist.

Creator represents Sentient Weapons who turn their bearers into extensions of themselves, being little more than mindless automatons. They’re usually created servants of the weapons, and their Feature lets them put their bearer to work during downtime, earning 2 gold per day.

Guide represents weapons that have a reputation preceding them, a willful being sending out the call for worthy bearers to take up the call to greatness. Their unique Feature makes the weapon a celebrity, and population centers where their legends are known allow the adventuring party to obtain free lodgings.

A Partner is one who treats their bearer as an equal, a trusted confidant who bonds with them on an emotional level. Their unique Feature allows the Sentient Weapon and bearer to freely share memories between each other while in physical contact.

A Tyrant is a weapon who holds themselves above others. Like the Creator, their bearer is magically enchanted to not have a will of their own, but the Creator prefers to use artificial servitors rather than treating everyone else as tools. Their unique Feature gives them a contact in each major population center to share news and provide favors.

Thoughts: The bonus skills given by the Backgrounds are all broadly useful with a preference for Charisma and “detection” stuff like Insight and Perception, with Creator being the odd one out in not getting purely social skills. And given that all but one of their Features tend to involve some kind of social connections in populated areas, this helps give the Sentient Weapon a reliable pool of backup wielders. Partner excepted, who is more about having a bond with “the one.” I think that these Backgrounds are fine and do the job, albeit Tyrant having one broad kind of contact in each town is a bit more generally useful, narratively speaking, than the others. Creator’s 2 gold per day won’t be enough to be useful for most campaigns and is the clear loser.

Earlier Clarification: Sentient Weapons ignore somatic and material components for spells of their class. Which should mean that the Symbol spell from the Dwarf Origin shouldn’t require costly material components, and thus would make its capstone a lot more useful.

In fact, the material components waiver can be a useful money saver for “base building” and downtime spells, as its spell list includes a few with consumables. These include Hallow, Magic Circle, Nondetection, and Planar Binding for the base class. For Origins, Githyanki and Warrior’s Soul have Protection From Evil and Good, Dwarven and Giant have Glyph of Warding, Dwarven also has Legend Lore, Celestial can cast Revivify at 10th level once per long rest, and Arcane has Teleportation Circle. While Scrying’s component isn’t consumable, it costs 1,000 gold and the Sentient Weapon has a Major Property at 15th level letting them cast it at will.

Spell List, Spells, and Items covers all things magical for the Sentient Weapon. We already went over the default spell list, so here we’ll cover 3 new spells and 5 new magic items. The new spells aren’t on the Sentient Weapon’s spell list and are available to all of the arcane classes. Create Sentient Weapon is a 7th level spell that makes a Sentient Weapon as per the race and class, but it starts with a +1 enhancement bonus. It requires an amethyst worth 2,500 gold to consume and a nonmagical weapon to be enhanced. If cast at 8th or 9th level can start it out with a +2 or +3 bonus but is more costly.

Intellect Mirror is a 1st-level ritual where the caster imparts a copy of their mind into a Tiny nonmagical object, letting it speak telepathically with the caster while on their person and can recite information known to them, granting advantage on Intelligence checks made to recall such knowledge. As the default casting time is 1 hour, there’s little reason not to cast it as a ritual given there’s precious few times where this gap in time will matter in campaigns. It also lasts until dispelled and requires a consumable material component worth 10 gold, so a mage can make many such Intellect Mirrors if time and gold permit.

One might wonder if such Intellect Mirrors can be made to serve as a personal camera network, but besides the personal telepathy and previously-known knowledge they aren’t mentioned as having any senses beyond that. They do have an Intelligence score equal to the caster, but no mention is made of other mental ability scores. The spell reads to me that they’re more of a magical photographic memory databank rather than a self-aware computerized clone of the caster’s mind.

Sunder Attunement is a 4th level spell that can target an object within 60 feet. If it’s a magic item attuned to a creature, it loses said attunement if the creature fails a Charisma save.

The new magic items center around use with weapons, and not just Sentient Weapons. Bracers of Weapon Skill are rare items that grant +1 to weapon attack rolls while worn, and since they don’t cost attunement they’re a pretty good item to have and the best of our new ones.

Case of Displaying magically preserves whatever object is placed inside to be unaffected by the ravages of time, and the user can cast Dancing Lights and Arcane Lock on the case.

Officer’s Knot is tied to a sword hilt and requires attunement, granting advantage on Charisma checks made for “high society” stuff like negotiating treaties and social interactions at formal events. It also lets friendly creatures take a weapon attack as a reaction if the wearer spends a bonus action to command them.

Ruby Scabbard requires attunement and can magically adjust to let any weapon fit within it. When a weapon is drawn from it, the wielder can make one extra attack with it as part of the Attack action, and this ability has a cooldown rate of 10 minutes rather than per-rest or per-day.

Silk Ribbon is an attunable item that is telepathically controlled by the user, capable of reshaping itself into various forms. If tied to the wielder’s weapon-bearing arm they get advantage on checks and saves to avoid being disarmed.

Thoughts: Create Sentient Weapon is actually a pretty cheap way to get multiple NPC weapon companions at high tiers of play, as at 13th level most parties can afford to part with 2.5k gold. The only drawback is that the weapon’s starting level isn’t specified in the spell description. Intellect Mirror is rather limited for reasons I outlined above, and Sunder Attunement is a very situational spell given that most NPC and monsters don’t have attuned equipment in their stat blocks. It’s the kind of thing a PC would save for a rainy day when fighting an archvillain or other big-time baddie, where it would make sense for them to have magic items on their person. The new magic items are nothing really to write home about, save for the Bracers which are really good due to bounded accuracy.

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Extending the Rules is a short chapter of optional rulesets, most of which involve examining how Sentient Weapons interface with facets of the system that more bipedal, living PCs wouldn’t think twice about. One such rule lets the Sentient Weapon absorb attuned magic items into their body in order to “wield” them as a means of overcoming their lack of motor functions. Another rule grants alternative traits for other kinds of Sentient Items, such as a Shield which adds its enhancement bonus to Armor Class and at 5th level can impose disadvantage on an adjacent enemy attacker as a reaction.

When it comes to feats, the book gives a list of ones that are plausible for a Sentient Weapon, and those outside this purview need special consideration. Generally speaking, feats that don’t require or represent physical exertion are permissible.

Two house rules that give the Sentient Weapon a bit of a power boost include the ability to let their bearer spend spell slots on the weapon’s behalf in order for the latter to cast spell, and another rule where the weapon can swap one known non-Origin spell for another whenever they finish a long rest.

For those using the Sidekick rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, a new class called the Weapon Sidekick is provided for those gaming groups who want to elevate the talking swords they find in treasure hoards to real party members. The rules differ in that this Sidekick class doesn’t use a default stat block from an existing creature type and determines mental ability scores via the “roll 4d6, discard the lowest” method. Otherwise, it’s like a more streamlined, less powerful version of the Sentient Weapon class. It does gain some Properties as well as an Origin, but only the bonus spells are given when it comes to subclass features and they only go up to 4th level spells rather than 5th. Their 20th level capstone ability lets them add 2d8 bonus damage once per turn when their bearer attacks with them, and said damage ignores all immunities and resistances.

Thoughts: Some of the new rules don’t feel optional so much as covering edge cases that can reasonably pop up during a campaign. The non-weapon forms such as shields and magical foci are cool ideas, and actually work pretty well given that a good portion of class features, spells, and Properties don’t require a weapon form or attack. That being said, this may not be suitable for all Origins given that many specify some weapon-based ability, so it’s more of a starting point than a holistic alternative set of rules.

The Sidekick class is a reasonable compromise for gaming groups that may not be gung-ho on the Sentient Weapon as a fellow PC, but still like the idea of such an item growing in power along with the party. In fact, it’s tailor-made for a support role!

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Concerning Campaigns, different settings have their own history and themes. This chapter groups the various Origins by related subjects, such as ones most suitable for straightforward heroic PCs, which ones are best for social-oriented campaigns, and which ones are strongly tied to certain races or planar realities. The chapter goes on to give advice on how to incorporate Sentient Weapons into existing campaigns, such as a deceased PC’s soul inhabiting a weapon or a living one being transformed into one as temporary punishment. Furthermore, a few adventure ideas mention certain party arrangements, such as every PC save one being a Sentient Item and the odd character out is wielding the rest of them as a highly-equipped hero.

As for Failure Without Hit Points, this was actually covered in a sidebar back in the first chapter, but I feel it’s most appropriate to cover here instead. Basically it presents to the DM alternate loss scenarios for a character who doesn’t have to worry about death in the conventional sense. A Sentient Weapon who gets separated from their bearer is at a disadvantage and needs to rely on the rest of the party and/or allies to retrieve them. Additionally, since even artifacts can be destroyed via specific means, the same can hold true for a Sentient Weapon, such as being digested by the Tarrasque or plunged into the River Styx.

Our book closes with an Appendix of Spells Referenced, drawing from non-core yet official spells found in other WotC sourcebooks. Such spells are either added to the Sentient Weapon’s default spell list or are given by certain Origins. As this is material that exists elsewhere, I’m not going to cover it.

Thoughts: The final chapter feels rather bare-bones. I don’t really need to be told that Drow, Dwarven and Githyanki Origins are racially-themed, and the sample adventure and campaign ideas are more skeletons for a DM to fill. I was expecting more general advice and concerns for Sentient Weapon PCs like in the Failure Without Hit Points sidebar. I feel that examining possible problems and the like for a very unconventional PC class and role would be of more use to gaming groups than setting-based theorycraft.

Final Thoughts: When it comes to very off-beat race and class ideas, most such works don’t care much for balance and detailed rules. The justification is often that the concept is either a joke and thus more of something to read rather than play, or are only suitable for very specific types of campaigns and don’t think of how to include them in more conventional adventures. The Sentient Weapon has far more care put into it to make the race and class justifiable for typical campaigns without needing particular setups.* The detailed rules for bearers, recruiting and building your own NPC wielders, and alternative movement types such as transforming into a spider make it so that other PCs won’t have to worry about needing to lug around the Sentient Weapon. Or use it in combat themselves in case they have their own incompatible fighting styles. Beyond just spells, the Origins and Properties are versatile enough to avoid cookie-cutter builds, and help different Weapons feel truly distinct in tactics and playstyle. Having a good amount of non-combat options is also appreciated, for a less imaginative designer may opt to make a Sentient Weapon a combat-focused class first and foremost and call it a day.

*Barring the Drow Origin’s sunlight weakness.

The Sentient Weapon rates highly for me for these reasons. There are several parts of the product that I feel can use some tinkering or a second readthrough, such as being unclear about NPC bearer’s Challenge Ratings rounding up or down or balance concerns like Celestial’s double-smite. But those have been the exception and haven’t been frequent enough to impact my enjoyment. I recommend this product for those looking for unconventional class and build choices, for those odd times when a player may want to be a legendary sword rather than wield a legendary sword.
 

Caleb here, supporting author of The Sentient Weapon! (Michael was the main mastermind, but I helped develop, word, and structure the traits and base class features in the project's initial phases.)

Amazing overview! And some great insights into areas for improvement. Thank you for spending so much time diving into, breaking down, and spreading the word about it!

I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on the Non-Player Bearer rules, if you're open to sharing more. That was one of the trickiest parts to design and I, personally, have still never been totally satisfied with the results. You mentioned that it was cumbersome to alter large portions your bearer's statistics. Which parts are the most cumbersome, and what do you wish it were or could be like instead?

It's nice to hear from people who worked on the original book. I'm always happy to showcase third party products, particularly when they try something interesting and novel.

As for the parts I felt were the most cumbersome for NPC bearers, it's more in that certain things are reworked rather than added onto. Compare this with how Sidekick classes in Tasha's add onto existing stat blocks without significantly revising core features such as starting hit points.

For an NPC bearer, Hit Dice are calculated by Size, not class. Small have d6, Medium have d8. The hit points of a bearer are a d10 and recalculated based on the Sentient Weapon's level, and thus recalculate NPC health. While in many cases this can be an improvement, there are some times where it can give the bearer less hit points than they originally had. Take the Thug who is CR 1/2 but has 32 hit points (5d8+10). A 2nd level Sentient Weapon with a 14 Constitution would change their hit points to 20 (2d10+4, max at 1st and average result at 2nd).

Furthermore, the NPC bearer uses the Sentient Weapon's Strength or Dexterity for to-hit and damage when wielding them (sidebar in page 6). However, the text specifies that the bearer uses the Weapon's ability scores and proficiency bonus instead of its own (page 10). When I initially read the product, I presumed that the NPC will use their original ability scores when fighting with other weapons. This can feel incongruous when a bearer ends up with very different modifiers when fighting with weapons that are otherwise similar to the Sentient Weapon. However, it seems that the ability scores are outright replaced rather than altered, so this may not be as big a problem as I thought. Still, the wording could be clearer.

Strength. Your Strength score measures your mass and durability. It determines the size of the weapon you can become, and a moderate Strength score allows you to take the form of a heavy weapon. If you have a nonplayer bearer, your Strength affects its melee attack and damage rolls using you.

Dexterity. Your Dexterity score represents your flexibility and accuracy. A moderate Dexterity score allows you to take the form of a ranged weapon. If you have a non-player bearer, your Dexterity affects its ranged attack and damage rolls using you.

Statistics. While a creature is a non-player bearer for you, it uses your ability scores and proficiency bonus instead of its own. It also gains all proficiencies you have and knows all languages you know.

Additionally, the use of a PC or NPC bearer really affects player build and thus the assignment of ability scores. While I figure most Sentient Weapons are going to prioritize mental stats regardless, making a low Strength/Dexterity Scimitar PC wielded by another PC can't decide to switch to an NPC bearer for plot reasons without suffering in effectiveness. And if a Sentient Weapon prioritized making those stats high when starting with an NPC bearer, if they later decide to have a PC wield them then their score will no longer be useful if the wielder has a higher value.

Edit: As for what I wish the NPC bearer could be like instead, I would've gone with something akin to a default stat block template that improves in level that serves as a baseline. Or pick from a limited list of existing stat blocks (Guard, Thug, etc) that serve as general-purpose bearers who instead get simple increases while attuned, like "add flat bonuses to proficient stuff as they increase in Tier." Those are just ideas off the top of my head.
 
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I'm not entirely clear what the value of the 6th level Sylvan weapon feature is. You turn into a tree as an action, but there's no listing for AC or HP, and I can only assume it takes an action to turn back from a tree into a a weapon. What is this good for? The space restrictions make it unlikely to be useful as a "Wall of X" to block a pathway.
 

I thought about publishing an AMV but the anime may be too violent for this.


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Dragonlance had got the feeders of knifewyrms.

There is a videogame, "Boyfriend Dungeon".

 

It's nice to hear from people who worked on the original book. I'm always happy to showcase third party products, particularly when they try something interesting and novel.

As for the parts I felt were the most cumbersome for NPC bearers, it's more in that certain things are reworked rather than added onto. Compare this with how Sidekick classes in Tasha's add onto existing stat blocks without significantly revising core features such as starting hit points.

For an NPC bearer, Hit Dice are calculated by Size, not class. Small have d6, Medium have d8. The hit points of a bearer are a d10 and recalculated based on the Sentient Weapon's level, and thus recalculate NPC health. While in many cases this can be an improvement, there are some times where it can give the bearer less hit points than they originally had. Take the Thug who is CR 1/2 but has 32 hit points (5d8+10). A 2nd level Sentient Weapon with a 14 Constitution would change their hit points to 20 (2d10+4, max at 1st and average result at 2nd).

Furthermore, the NPC bearer uses the Sentient Weapon's Strength or Dexterity for to-hit and damage when wielding them (sidebar in page 6). However, the text specifies that the bearer uses the Weapon's ability scores and proficiency bonus instead of its own (page 10). When I initially read the product, I presumed that the NPC will use their original ability scores when fighting with other weapons. This can feel incongruous when a bearer ends up with very different modifiers when fighting with weapons that are otherwise similar to the Sentient Weapon. However, it seems that the ability scores are outright replaced rather than altered, so this may not be as big a problem as I thought. Still, the wording could be clearer.

Additionally, the use of a PC or NPC bearer really affects player build and thus the assignment of ability scores. While I figure most Sentient Weapons are going to prioritize mental stats regardless, making a low Strength/Dexterity Scimitar PC wielded by another PC can't decide to switch to an NPC bearer for plot reasons without suffering in effectiveness. And if a Sentient Weapon prioritized making those stats high when starting with an NPC bearer, if they later decide to have a PC wield them then their score will no longer be useful if the wielder has a higher value.

Edit: As for what I wish the NPC bearer could be like instead, I would've gone with something akin to a default stat block template that improves in level that serves as a baseline. Or pick from a limited list of existing stat blocks (Guard, Thug, etc) that serve as general-purpose bearers who instead get simple increases while attuned, like "add flat bonuses to proficient stuff as they increase in Tier." Those are just ideas off the top of my head.
Ah, that does shed some light on things! Thank you!

We've been interested in revising the book for a v2 for a while, and while we still have no timeline, we'll definitely consider making changes to address these issues.
 

I'm not entirely clear what the value of the 6th level Sylvan weapon feature is. You turn into a tree as an action, but there's no listing for AC or HP, and I can only assume it takes an action to turn back from a tree into a a weapon. What is this good for? The space restrictions make it unlikely to be useful as a "Wall of X" to block a pathway.
I believe the original intention was to mimic a Staff of the Woodlands, but yes, it definitely seems to be missing things, such as the action economy required to revert, and needs an overhaul.

Possible use cases include:
  • Creating total cover to an ally
  • Creating something to climb to scale walls and cliffs
  • Creating a place to hide
However, I agree, the space restrictions make it pretty situational.
 

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