Homebrew Animated Weapon Species Details

Living Metal

Animated Weapons are Weapons that can move by floating 5 feet off the ground and speak on their own in others minds, seemingly unburdened by gravity. Their weight and size, as well as their design and material, are up to their creator. While metal is most often used, anarmors composed entirely of stone or animal bones are not uncommon. Magic is often used to bring the Weapon to life and keep it from falling apart.

Though they may not have any sensory organs whatsoever, magic ensures that they can perceive what is around them. They can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste just as well as a human can. They can speak as well, magic guiding their artificial consciousness. Their Blade handle and sheath acts as their skin, and any damage inflicted upon them is taken as damage to what would be their physical form. Should they sustain enough damage, the spell holding them together will dissipate, leaving them to fall to the ground mabey never to move again.

Amazingly, healing potions and spells can bring them back , even if it's only a little at a time. At low health, animated Weapons often find that there blade will become less effective. Fortunately, there blade is able to block other weapons with no damage taken; Only striking the hilt or sheath will cause physical harm to an animated Weapon.

To hide the fact that they are living weapons as opposed to a lifeless weapons, anapen will chose someone to weld them to hide the fact that they are a living weapon.

Dormancy

Normal weapons usually last as long as their material does, the elements hazing it until it eventually rusts over and crumbles to pieces. With animated weapons, however, the game changes. If magic is used to bring a weapon to life, another spell is usually cast on the weapon to make it more durable. The stronger the spell, the longer the weapon lasts. A typical anapen can lie dormant for 700 years before losing its magic. The maximum lifespan of an animated weapon is unknown, as a powerful enough spell could potentially keep one alive forever, but none have been known to keep their magic for more than 1,500 years.

Unlike other creatures blessed with long life, anapens don't actively pursue goals outside of what they were created to do; if a particularly animated weapon was created to protect a castle, it will stay in the castle, silently waiting for an intruder. That said, they can leave their posts or occupations if they wish, but most are not given a good enough reason to, remaining dormant until someone finds them. Unless they are doing their job constantly, they will become as still as a statue, waking only when a certain stimulus triggers a response.

When they do awake, animated weapons often find that they are in a world far different than the one they know. To them, time passed by without them, leaving them lost in a strange and mysterious future. A time gap as small as fifty years can be enough to confuse an anapen, but if they are intelligent enough, they will catch on to present-time customs fairly quickly, Still, some refuse to change their ways, speaking in forgotten tongues or using overly-wordy and poetic speech.

Reawakening and Rebirth

Anapens usually fall dormant at the post given to them by their creator, waiting for something to bring them back into consciousness. If their creator happens to die before or after they enter this state, their purpose will no longer be explicitly defined. When they regain consciousness, most anapens stick to their prior orders, carrying out their tasks without complaint. But some, rather than do a task that is now impossible, pointless or both, defy their creator's magical programming and seek out a new purpose. Others forget their purpose altogether, wandering around aimlessly until someone decides to claim them. Many times, an adventurer will stumble upon a long-forgotten animated weapon and convince it to join them on their travels. Others are reactivated only to find that the thing they were meant to protect has been destroyed somehow, and seek vengeance. In this way, anapens can be anything from loyal companions and protectors to destructive avengers and mercenaries.

Souls in Weapons

Generally, people see animated weapons as threats. The thought of a Floating, talking weapon terrifies them, though not to the same capacity as a tiefling. They are often likened to ghosts in armor, and many villages have their own tales of menacing suits of armor that move of their own volition. Because of this, anapen that float into unsuspecting towns are usually avoided completely, the only words spoken of them being whispers. Those who know better than this see wandering anapens as potential companions, workers, or servants. Some are ambitious or crazy enough to try and capture them by force, often to no avail.

That said, an anapen will usually try to avoid being discovered, unless a quirk in their personality programming says otherwise. They'll use companions and litraly attach to there hip to blend in. They'll stay away from crowded places, speaking only when apsolutly nessesary to and never causing too much of a scene. On the rare occasion that an animated weapon is welcomed or even worshipped by the people of a village, some merely serve the community as a guard or sentry, while others take a more commanding role, like a war chief or even a deity.

Animated Weapon Names

An animated Weapons name is usually bestowed by its creator. Sometimes, however, they forget their names. When this happens, a name can be given to them by a new owner or partner, or they can come up with a name themselves. When an anarmor comes up with a name for itself, it's usually something simple, something they see around them or remember from their past. Really, any name will do, whether it's based on their function, their appearance, or their surroundings. Some are based on the creator's native tongue, whatever that may be.

 

Animated Weapon Traits

A Weapon that is given life through magic and is assigned a task. Often they are left behind by their creators, left to lie dormant for hundreds of years only to wake up and seek out a new purpose.

Ability Score Increases

choose any one ability to increase by 2 and choose any one ability to increase by 1

Size

Though Weapons vary in size and shape, an animated weapons's height is based on the race it was designed to be used by while its weight corresponds the weapon on which its subrace is based.

Antimagic Susceptibility

You are incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field. If targeted by dispel magic, you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against the caster's spell save DC or fall unconscious for 1 minute.

Blindsight

You can perceive your surroundings without relying on sight within a specific radius. You have a blindsight range of 60 feet but are blind beyond this radius.

Construct

You are a suit of armor made of a variety of durable materials. Your creature type is Construct. Spells like cure wounds don't affect you as you are a construct and spells like crown of madness or dominate person you are immune to due to them specifically targeting humanoids. You are immune to poison damage, being poisoned and diseases. You do not need to eat or breathe, and any food you do attempt to eat falls through your space where your head would be at the bottom of your armor. Instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.

False Appearance

While the weapon remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal weapon.

Mendable

When the mending spell is cast on you and you have 0 hit points you become stable. Alternatively, as part of the casting of mending the caster may expand any number of spell slots(minimum 1) causing you to regain a number of hit points equal to 1d8 + their spellcasting ability modifier. When you do this using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 1st.

Soul Transfer

You can transfer your consciousness into another weapon over the course of a short or long rest. During that time you or another creature performs an hour-long ritual. Over the course of that hour, you must remain within 5 feet of the weapon or the ritual fails. This change may alter your subrace accordingly, based on the desired weapon type. If you are not proficient with the weapon you transfer yourself into you receive all the detriments that someone normally would by using a weapon they are not proficient in.

Languages

You can speak, read and write Common, as well as in the language of your creator. Given that animated armors are often created by wizards, the exotic languages of magic such as Draconic or Primordial are commonly known.

Arcane Hand Movment

You have no way of moving other than the spell arcane hand. you know arcane hand as a cantrip but it can only be used to wield you for things like movmint attacks and throwing you. the second it loses contact with you it disapates. when used for moving places you have a movment of 30ft and when used for throwing you must have a target.