I'm curious what the RAW is for a PC having two sentient weapons as long as the character has met the requirements for the weapons. Not interested in what anyone would do as the DM, just if there are any rules that would prevent this?
There are no rules relating to a player's ownership of multiple sentient weapons. The only RAW things to consider are the wills of the items themselves.
If you are carrying the [Made up] blades, Arthur and Merlin, then they would likely work just fine together because they would have compatible Special Purposes and similar alignments.
However, if you were carrying Arthur and Mordred, then there would almost certainly be a conflict of interest, and either one or both would fight for control of the wielder via the Conflict rules.
Sentient Magic Items are essentially party members that you wield, so most of the drama comes from social strife.
Agreeing with Memnosyne, but also have to ask how many alternate possibly competing points of view [provided by the DM] do you really want to carry in your inventory?
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It would be entertaining, in principle, but one of the major hurdles of D&D is that intrigue is directly proportional to complexity, and that almost always means exponentially more work for the DM.
If the DM is already focused on running a dozen NPCs while building a world around 6 PCs and their familiars, then there is a very high probability that the DM will simply forget about the sentient magic items unless they are are central to the plot. More than likely, the sentient items will either just be treated like normal magic items, or the player with the magic items will be hogging so much of the spotlight that the rest of the party won't be having fun.
Good fodder for a book, or a solo adventure, but not so great for group play.
Writing as someone whose world has a brace of sentient magical weapons in their game world,* you don't need one particular player taking spotlight time to reenact Stewie taking the cast of Star Trek TNG to McDonalds. Basically echoing Memnosyne on exponential complexity. Either the blades are of the same mind, so speak, and the whole point of them being different is moot, and if the two are in conflict, exactly what is the rest of the party supposed to be doing when every major decision of the character needs to be taken up by committee to determine which arms will go along with the PC and which will resent the PC for the course of action?
But this thread calls for my all time favorite video about sentient magic weapons taking on a life of their own:
*I've taken the Blade of Broken Mirrors and sort of rewrote it where it's a reflection of the personality of Fraz Urb'luu, which I channel through Jesse Ventura's appearance on the X Files, often spouting the actual dialogue "Your scientists have yet to discover how neural networks create self-consciousness, let alone how the human brain processes two-dimensional retinal images into the three-dimensional phenomenon known as perception. Yet you somehow brazenly declare that seeing is believing!" It's a potent and knowledgeable artifact, but the party is actually loathe to unsheath it. When drawn and it opens its mouth mind, there's a collective groan with someone inevitably saying "here we go again..."
There's also Bickerblade, which is basically the Monty Python argument sketch in sword form, and its cousin Absurdity who twists its owner's sense of humor onto a very dark nihilistic path. I would not want all of them at play in the same encounter.
The other challenge with sentient weapons is they all require attunement. That means a PC with two sentient weapons can only have one other item that requires attunement which is a huge limitation.
The other challenge with sentient weapons is they all require attunement. That means a PC with two sentient weapons can only have one other item that requires attunement which is a huge limitation.
That is true, though I could see a martial being content with attunement to armor of cool stuff, and an arsenal that gives them semi-swiss army knife status, tactical Swiss army knife of course. But yeah, it does soak your attunement slots.
Though, an artificer who incorporates sentient magic items into their character concept (but doesn't make too big of a deal of it) could be kinda fun. Treat them like off-screen supporting NPCs who are content chatting amongst themselves and only interact with the PC when convenient.
One sentient item is banter
Two sentient items is drama
Six sentient items is a party. (Maybe they're playing their own game of D&D together while not in use.)
I'm curious what the RAW is for a PC having two sentient weapons as long as the character has met the requirements for the weapons. Not interested in what anyone would do as the DM, just if there are any rules that would prevent this?
There are no rules relating to a player's ownership of multiple sentient weapons. The only RAW things to consider are the wills of the items themselves.
If you are carrying the [Made up] blades, Arthur and Merlin, then they would likely work just fine together because they would have compatible Special Purposes and similar alignments.
However, if you were carrying Arthur and Mordred, then there would almost certainly be a conflict of interest, and either one or both would fight for control of the wielder via the Conflict rules.
Sentient Magic Items are essentially party members that you wield, so most of the drama comes from social strife.
Agreeing with Memnosyne, but also have to ask how many alternate possibly competing points of view [provided by the DM] do you really want to carry in your inventory?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Honestly I think it would be pretty interesting to see a character having to deal with two intelligent weapons.
It would be entertaining, in principle, but one of the major hurdles of D&D is that intrigue is directly proportional to complexity, and that almost always means exponentially more work for the DM.
If the DM is already focused on running a dozen NPCs while building a world around 6 PCs and their familiars, then there is a very high probability that the DM will simply forget about the sentient magic items unless they are are central to the plot. More than likely, the sentient items will either just be treated like normal magic items, or the player with the magic items will be hogging so much of the spotlight that the rest of the party won't be having fun.
Good fodder for a book, or a solo adventure, but not so great for group play.
Writing as someone whose world has a brace of sentient magical weapons in their game world,* you don't need one particular player taking spotlight time to reenact Stewie taking the cast of Star Trek TNG to McDonalds. Basically echoing Memnosyne on exponential complexity. Either the blades are of the same mind, so speak, and the whole point of them being different is moot, and if the two are in conflict, exactly what is the rest of the party supposed to be doing when every major decision of the character needs to be taken up by committee to determine which arms will go along with the PC and which will resent the PC for the course of action?
But this thread calls for my all time favorite video about sentient magic weapons taking on a life of their own:
*I've taken the Blade of Broken Mirrors and sort of rewrote it where it's a reflection of the personality of Fraz Urb'luu, which I channel through Jesse Ventura's appearance on the X Files, often spouting the actual dialogue "Your scientists have yet to discover how neural networks create self-consciousness, let alone how the human brain processes two-dimensional retinal images into the three-dimensional phenomenon known as perception. Yet you somehow brazenly declare that seeing is believing!" It's a potent and knowledgeable artifact, but the party is actually loathe to unsheath it. When drawn and it opens its
mouthmind, there's a collective groan with someone inevitably saying "here we go again..."There's also Bickerblade, which is basically the Monty Python argument sketch in sword form, and its cousin Absurdity who twists its owner's sense of humor onto a very dark nihilistic path. I would not want all of them at play in the same encounter.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The other challenge with sentient weapons is they all require attunement. That means a PC with two sentient weapons can only have one other item that requires attunement which is a huge limitation.
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That is true, though I could see a martial being content with attunement to armor of cool stuff, and an arsenal that gives them semi-swiss army knife status, tactical Swiss army knife of course. But yeah, it does soak your attunement slots.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
[Laughs in Level 18 Thri-kreen Artificer]
Though, an artificer who incorporates sentient magic items into their character concept (but doesn't make too big of a deal of it) could be kinda fun. Treat them like off-screen supporting NPCs who are content chatting amongst themselves and only interact with the PC when convenient.
One sentient item is banter
Two sentient items is drama
Six sentient items is a party. (Maybe they're playing their own game of D&D together while not in use.)
The Spirits of your sentient magic items quietly judging your choices.
I think an Artificer of that caliber needs a sentient item named "Ok, Computer" for verisimilitude.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.