Sidebar: Adventure Seed (Levels 6 to 10

Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/two levels) Target: One intelligent item Duration: Instantaneous Saving Throw: Will negates Spell Resistance: Yes

You give an intelligent item one malady ofyour choosing, as described on page 55.

Charm Item

Enchantment (Charm) [Intelligent Item-Affecting] Level: Brd 1,Sor/Wiz 1 Components: V,S Casting Time: Standard action Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/two levels) Target: One intelligent item Duration: One hour/level (D) Saving Throw: Will negates Spell Resistance: Yes

This charm makes an intelligent item regard you as its trusted friend and ally.Ifthe item is currently under threat or attack by you or your allies,however,it receives a +5 bonus on its saving throw.

The spell does not enable you to control the charmed item, but it perceives your words and actions in the most favorable way.You can try to give the item orders,but you must win an opposed Charisma check to convince it to do anything it wouldn’t ordinarily do (retries not allowed).A charmed item never obeys self-destructive or obviously harmful orders.Any act by you or your apparent allies that threatens the charmed item breaks the spell.Note also that you must speak the item’s language to communicate your commands,or else be good at pantomiming.

Dominate Item

Enchantment (Charm) [Intelligent Item-Affecting] Level: Brd 4,Sor/Wiz 5 Components: V,S Casting Time: Standard action Range: Medium (100 feet + 10 feet/level) Target: One intelligent item Duration: One day/level (D) Saving Throw: Will negates Spell Resistance: Yes

You can control the actions ofany intelligent item. Through this spell you establish a telepathic link with the subject’s intelligence.Ifyou share a common language,you can generally force the item to perform as you desire,within the limits ofits abilities.With no common language,you can communicate only basic commands,such as “come here,” “go there,” “fight,” “stay still,” etc.You know what the subject is experiencing but receive no direct sensory input from it.

Subjects resist this control,and those forced to take actions against their natures receive a new saving throw with a bonus of+1 to +4,depending on the type ofaction required.Subjects do not carry out obviously self-destructive orders.Once you establish control,there is no limit to the range at which you can exercise it,as long as you and the subject are on the same plane.You need not see the subject to control it.

Magic circle against evil or a similar spell can prevent you from exercising control or using the telepathic link while the subject remains so warded,but it does not prevent the establishment of dominate item or dispel it.

Adventure Seed (Levels 6 to 10)

A pair of chaotic wizards have captured one of Vabrin’s intelligent items, but they cannot convince it to work. Meanwhile, Vabrin asks the PCs to retrieve the item. The wizards attempt to perform a magical ritual that will put the item under their power. When the player characters bust in on their plans, things go askew and each of them must make a Will save; the first to fail becomes inadvertently fused with the intelligent item as described in the Fuse With Item feat. The PC must learn to live with it or find a spellcaster powerful enough to cast Mord’s disjunction to get rid of it.

Grant Mobility

Transmutation [Intelligent Item-Affecting] Level: Sor/Wiz 3 Components: V,S,M Casting Time: Standard action Range: Touch Target: One intelligent item Duration: 1 round/level (D) Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless) Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

An intelligent item that you designate can move as ifit had the Float† item feat (see page 53).It can also make attacks as ifit had the Attack† item feat (see page 51).

Material Component: A feather

Grant Senses

Transmutation [Intelligent Item-Affecting] Level: Sor/Wiz 2 Components: V,S Casting Time: Standard action Range: Touch Target: One intelligent item Duration: One minute/level (D) Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless) Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

An intelligent item that you designate now can see and hear.

Grant Speech

Transmutation [Intelligent Item-Affecting] Level: Sor/Wiz 2 Components: V,S Casting Time: Standard action

Range: Touch Target: One intelligent item Duration: One minute/level (D) Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless) Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

An intelligent item that you designate now can speak, using any language that you know.

Stun Item

Enchantment (Compulsion) [Intelligent Item-Affecting] Level: Clr 2,Sor/Wiz 2 Components: V,S Casting Time: Standard action Range: Touch Target: One intelligent item Duration: 1 round/level Saving Throw: Will negates Spell Resistance: Yes

You stun an intelligent item,preventing it from taking any actions or allowing another to use its powers.A magic sword is still a sword,however,and can be used as such.

Intelligent Items

Intelligent items are magic items ofany kind (weapons, staves,rings,and so on) with their own sentience.These items think,feel,and possess all the traits you would expect to see in a person.

Intelligent items are inanimate objects given intelligence but not locomotion.Still,they are ofthe construct creature type and are not affected by spells and other effects that target only items,such as Mord’s disjunction. The intelligent items described here are meant to be used more like NPCs than simply as equipment.They have personalities,goals, objectives,wants,and fears.DMs should play friendly items as they would any NPCs that accompany the party—or,in the case ofunfriendly items,as any other foes.

For example,an intelligent bow interested in furthering the cause oflaw might fire willingly only upon chaotic opponents, although the archer might convince it to fire on neutral foes that threaten them.An ancient,intelligent ring with the ability to speak might have some interesting information to offer about the origins ofthe demon-dragon a group ofheroes must face,but only after they complete a quest the ring gives them.

The ultimate goal with this set ofrules is to create magic items that grow with a character.A character can start at a relatively low level with an intelligent item,and keep the item while advancing in level,valuing it as much at 16th level as at 6th.The item remains balanced because the character must continue to devote experience points to it.

Malhavoc Speaks

Some of the individuals with whom I have seen most eye-to-eye, so to speak, have actually been intelligent magic items. Without the needs and urges of the flesh, an intelligent item is free to focus on the true arcane path. Magic literally powers them and gives them life. While that may not be true for myself, it is how I often feel, so they seem like kindred spirits.

Communication and Perception

Ifan item is intelligent,it is first important to determine what it can perceive and understand.A typical inanimate object, presumably,perceives and understands nothing.Intelligent items have one or more ofthe following types ofperception:

Perception Additional Creation Cost

None None Intuition 100 gp +4 XP Hearing 200 gp + 8 XP Sight 1,000 gp + 40 XP Sight with darkvision 2,000 gp + 80 XP Blindsight 5,000 gp + 200 XP

None: The item cannot sense what is going on around it on its own,but ifit can communicate,it can still take actions based on others’ descriptions ofthe events taking place.

Intuition: The item can perceive only very general sorts of input.It knows when someone picks it up or uses it,when it gets hurt,the temperature around it,whether or not it is moving,and so on.

Hearing: The item can hear like a human,with a Listen bonus equal to its Wisdom modifier,plus any skill ranks. Items with hearing become vulnerable to auditory effects like a harpy’s song ,which normally affect only creatures.

Sight: The item can see like a human,with a Spot bonus equal to its Wisdom modifier,plus any skill ranks.Although it has no eyes,it must focus this sense in one direction or another,the same way a person “looks around.” Items with sight become vulnerable to gaze attacks and other sight-based effects (like color spray) that normally affect only creatures.

Blindsight: The item has a special sense ofeverything around it,up to 60 feet.While not as detail-oriented as actual sight,it does allow the item to sense invisible objects. The item has a Spot bonus equal to its Wisdom modifier, plus any skill ranks.

The object also has one ofthe following types ofcommunication:

Communication Additional Creation Cost

None None Pulse 25 gp + 1 XP Empathy 50 gp + 4 XP Speech 200 gp + 16 XP Telepathy 5,000 gp + 200 XP Super-telepathy 10,000 gp + 400 XP