I just made an DMPC/NPC like this a couple of weeks ago. My version: Name: Edgelord "Edgy" McGuffin Race: Whatever the PC is, for Physical Stats Class: Warlock (Hexblade) Level * Background: Dual Soul or Small God (Homebrew) Alignment: Lawful Evil Backstory: Edgy was crafted by Bel (deposed ruler of Avernus) as a forgery of the Sword of Zariel (current ruler) - he was a super-intelligent Hexblade with most of Bel's powers, and a few shapechanging-type abilities. Edgy's mission was to get himself into Zariel's hand, act as her real sword, but to give her just enough bad advice that she'd become unworthy of her position and Bel could reclaim his throne. When Edgy actually met Zariel, however, he told her the whole plan and made a deal to be sent to the Material Plane (Toril). He was then found stuck in a big rock at the edge of a failed farmer's field, and promised the loser dude wealth, women, and fame (etc) to get him out. So that's how they came to join the party - the human commoner is now an adventurer so Edgy can make good on their Pact. *For leveling, I added 2-3 different "forms" at each rarity of magic sword (3 uncommon, 3 rare, 3 very rare, etc) to the sheet's Inventory. Each more powerful form/ability can be unlocked by a Warlock spell slot of appropriate level. One of his early-level Forms is "Dancing Sword" (so, a Fly Speed), and his unlocked "Final Form" has all the class features of a Level 20 Warlock. I'm using the Sword of Omens from Thundercats for Edgy's appearance, so the cat-like Eye of Thundera in the hilt is his actual eye - when a PC Attunes to him as their Hexblade, the wielder's eye nearest to their sword hand becomes identical to the sword's Eye (and gives Edgy depth perception, haha). I have Edgy's character sheet set to Public on D&D Beyond if you want to check it out.
New idea for a hexblade warlock: You're the weapon, and your "race" is just the poor soul you've managed to snatch their body from. Maybe with an arrangement from your DM, you can say that every time you get killed, it is only the body, and now they'll have to make a full quest to find you another perfect vessel for you to fill (otherwise you'll be stuck with that NPC's physical stats) If the DM is willing, add that, with every body you snatch, those strong enough will have their minds/souls trapped in there with you (or viceversa?), kinda like soul jar, but with roomies.
“Warrior…use me…I am the blood letter. Destroyer of the unjust. Annihilator of Enemies. We… Shall become…one. Feed me mortal and I shall grant thee …POWER! May your enemies bathe in endless rivers of BLOOD!” BloodBlade of Dis
This gives me an idea. A litch gives up their litchdome and places most of their soul inside a magic weapon, becoming one of these intelligent weapons, in order to escape a group of adventurers who almost destroyed them. They basically gave up their old phylactery to make people think they were destroyed, and are biding their time as a magic weapon until they can find someone they can dominate to help them make a new phylactery and regain their litch form.
You could put your soul in a bunch of things? maybe a book, a snake, What about a Child, we could call him the chosen one... and make him live under the stairs.
This is a concept I’ve talked about with friends a lot. We once theory crafted the logistics of playing a Paladin who has trapped a extremely powerful demon inside of his blade and another PC plays the sword. It was super tricky to try and work out so we never managed to get it to the table, but this video is inspiring a revisit.
I've always wanted to run a god killer campain like God of War using the book of theros odesy as a refrence. I think putting in a living weapon would make it that much more interesting
I really like this concept. I got a few ideas while watching; - Sentient druid staff: Could be a tree spirit carved into the form of a staff, or a very long lived druid that willingly became a tool to aid others in the name of nature. Mechanically, you could be able to cast spells at the end (or start) of your wielders' turn using charges that refresh every day. Maybe starting with 10 charges, cantrips costing 1 charge, 1st level 2 charges, 2nd level 3 charges, etc. Spells you're able to cast would involve buffing, rp, and generally not too much involved since you'd be the weapon. Spells like Mending, Resistance, True Strike (Giving your wielder the benefit, as if they cast it, making it reasonably useful), Detect Poison and Disease, Plant Growth, etc. Levelling could be from key rp points, or prerequisites, like using the essence of a treant, then escalating to the heart of a green dragon. But be the same as normal weapon enchantment levels instead of player levels i.e. up to +3. Starting at no bonus, 10 charges / +1, 12 charges / +2, 15 charges / +3, 20 charges. With spells your able to be cast decided by the DM. You could even have a special ability that if no one is attuned to you, you can expend half your max charges to create a temporary creature that wields you, such as a fae or elemental, for up to an hour. Not as a way to solo things as a weapon, but as a 'shits gone wrong gtfo' escape plan. If you go really into rp, you could be only attunable by good-aligned characters, or if attuned and they do something you would see as 'evil', you automatically cast Wrath of Nature on your wielder. - Straight up cursed sword: Being a cursed weapon, you would have inherently harmful affects to anyone that wields you. However, that wouldn't necessarily mean, you, the soul inside was evil. You could be someone who was cursed yourself and put into an already cursed weapon. The curse on the weapon might not even be a strong one, or over time you found loop-holes in it that you use to your advantage. All of the 'benefits' of the sentient weapon could also just be derived from curses, such as (under certain conditions) inflicting the wielder with extreme hunger, giving them slight bonuses, however taking damage or gaining exhaustion if they don't eat within an hour. The one playing the cursed weapon also gains levels, using the pretext of getting better and more efficient at controlling these curses over time (essentially gaining warlock levels), being able to use different abilities like Hex, Crown of Madness, Incite Greed (As you, a valuable weapon, as the target), and Remove Curse as 1/day features that you or your wielder can activate (If you are willing and let them). You could also gain some unique abilities depending on who's attuned to you and what their class is. - Divine weapon: A shield? That seems cool. Maybe even a holy symbol blessed with its own consciousness. Or maybe a holy flagpole imbued with the will of a long-dead hero, that when planted grants buffs, as well as periodically casting aoe spells centered on itself. I don't know anymore, I didn't sleep...
@@Rookzer0 Yeah, reading back on them, most could just be pretty cool magical weapons/artifacts. Personally, I think warlock levels fits the theme of a weapon PC the most, but you can really find justification to take levels in anything, like a druids staff, holy weapon, or even a bard's instrument. Or just using a homebrew levelling system that fits the party/campaign more.
So in my campaign we have a type of sentient weapon race called “Blade Spirits”. They essentially are a modified version of the blade spirit race from 3.5 homebrew that I found. These spirits have the ability to make a projection of themselves. That projection can look like anything and damage to the projection affects the “home”. Their “home” is the weapon that is their true body. They only have physical stats as the projection otherwise it’s purely mental stats. I also created a table of random racial abilities that they can have. These range from the ability to fly teleport or have the projection wield the weapon, to glowing, making noises, or acting as a lightning rod. These abilities along with the standard ones allow for fun and random creature that are fairly good cohorts or companions for player characters. I have yet to convince one of my players to play as one though.
I played a sentient weapon in a game once(pathfinder). in pathfinder there are a lot of different upgrades/abilities that sentient weapons can have, including the ability to see and speak. so it was much closer to playing a normal character who just can't move or fight on his own very easily. i chose the magus class and held initiative to take my turns on my partner's initiative and cast touch spells into the enemies that he attacked. i mostly chose spells without somatic components until i got the metamagic feat that let me ignore that component, and i used a hollow pommel as a spell components pouch. Because both my partner and i had full turns there was no frustration from wanting to do different things, but when we used teamwork if felt good instead of forced.
I'm actually sort of doing this already with an idea of playing AS the sealed "warlock patron" for my "warlock" powers. Okay so to explain the quotes, the idea is it's a higher ranked Modron from DnD lore. It went rogue but the interesting thing is Modrons maintain their rank even when they defect. So this one wanders off with a platoon or whatever to serve it, runs into a bigger fish so to speak (thinking a fiend), gets sealed inside an object as torture and left there unable to do anything but feel isolated and helpless Well, turns out one of the Modrons it had been commanding managed to survive and picks the item up. The "patron" realizes it can still exert influence on the "warlock" and boom that's the character.
W vid, but I think the way I would do this is basically just have the player playing the weapon just possessing the person that owns the weapon. You would essentially become a curse on the possessed individual, and if your possessed person dies you just sit in the weapon until someone claims you. Perhaps you have your party pick you up, and find someone for you to possess, whether they realize that is what they are doing or not. Perhaps you can reach out to someone in their dreams and they are drawn to the weapon.
Oh god! Yeah, so im basically a hexblade right? But, me being a weapon, i can become the weapon and be weilded by other players. They basically become their character + the spellcasting, cantrips and invocations i have. However, we need to make an agreement: my powers in exchange for something. Depending on the seriousness of the situtation, i get to decide how high the price is.
@@Rookzer0 so far i havent done a deal that lasted more than a fight or two, but im waiting for the perfect oportunity to have a permanent bond with somebody and take their sight whenever im not near or something like that
What about a pc playing as a sentient weapon that functions like the spell "Magic Jar" (for reference go check out Runesmith's video "5 evils spells for DnD 5e") where you can attempt to possess any NPC or player who is close enough/picks you up, after a charisma save, the victim will either be possessed or won't be able to try possess them again for 1d4 hours. When possessed, it'd work like you described except you'd be in control of the wielder but if they are incapacitated, killed or put in a state where you are not in their hands, they are no longer possessed, but will have +1 difficulty to any of your attempts to possess them again, if you are knocked out of their hands after this, it will +2, then it will stop at +3. Idk if this made sense I am sleep deprived from a cold rn and it's 23:52 here XD
I like the concept, There's a class called a medium in pathfinder that you willing let spirits take over your body to gain there power so I think its right on track for this kind of shinianagians. Keep up the good work.
Dumb idea which I prob didn’t explain well : The user of the weapon gains stats like a normal character, but when they die they take the physical stats with them, leaving only what the weapon learned with the weapon So if the user dies you keep your intelligence, charisma, and wisdom but loose all physical stats, gaining new ones with the new user, which is leveled up until they die, rinse repeat
I remember a RPGA tournament module I played at a Con back in ... '88? '89? ... where all the players were intelligent magic items belonging to a missing NPC, who we were looking for. I have always liked the idea of playing a sentient item since then. (Though I didn't make into the final round of the tournament and never learned how it ended.) Might be fun to have a short campaign with really only one independent PC, and everyone else was somehow dependent on the character. Maybe have the PC be the homebrew Ettin race I saw, two players control the heads, but only one can move the body. An intelligent item or two. And a familiar or animal companion. Action economy and teamwork would be key, but the party bickering about it would be amazing.
Interesting point, Is that noted somewhere in 5e? I know magical weapons bypass some DR in pathfinder making and their hardness is massive compared to non magical weapons.
i feel like should be able to cast magic as a sentient weapon or item your basicaly a warforged in a sword and warforged could cast magic and also if a character wields the sword it will get a the dex strenght and constitution of your sword pc and you will also get they’re stats
im playing a Champaign with an idea like this! from Fisbins we get the draconic shard! now im not playing as the "shard"with its statblock no...the dragon i was horded technology! and before died a special warforged was build for him! the warforged is alive but has no soul.... it only activated when I'm (a sword) in its hand and thats how i communicate and play! through a normal charecter race with normal levels(attached to the body) im in on it with the DM! the idea is that i betray the party after the bbeg dies! than ill use the shard statblock for the bossfight ;) out of noware boom
