For this series of posts I will be using the free PDF of the
Labyrinth Lord rules that can be found Here at Goblinoid Games
This is the twentieth part of a series, here are the links to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,
6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th parts
6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th parts
Sapient Swords
Thats the heading of where I am starting in the page and boy does it make me smile. The first step to making one of these brilliant blades is rolling its intelligence. A simple roll of a 1d6 decides how smart it is from 7 to 12 or basically 1d6+6. The most basic thing this score decides is how it communicates with the world and more specifically the players. If 7 to 9 then the knowledgeable knife can only commune with its wielder. More interestingly at 10 to 12 it can communicate verbally and knows its alignment language plus a number of other languages determined by the roll of a d20. Also along with just being able to talk at 11 and 12 it can Read Magic and because of this can read any of its known languages.
Next up is to figure out the alignment for your clever cutlass. This is perticuarly important as a person can only wield one with the same alignment as themselves or they take damage every turn they hold it depending on how big the difference is. While the alignment is determined randomly there is a 70% chance of it ending up lawful, 20% neutral, and thus only 1 in ten will be chaotic so most parties will be able to use one when they find it.
Now to decide the Psyche and Willpower of the enlightened epee or basically how easily it is for the sword to take over a player. The Psyche is 1d12 and Willpower is just that added to Intelligence with a bonus of +1 for each spell like power the smart scimitar happens to have. Simple right? Anyway on to the fun part. Every time a few circumstances happen the sword will attempt to take control of its wielder and this is called an influence check. They happen the first time a wielder touches it, when the swords motivation comes into play, someone of differing alignment touches it, another shrewd saber is found, and finally the wielder has lost 50% of their HP. The check itself is just comparing the its Willpower with the wielders which is determined by adding their Strength to their Wisdom and subtracting 1d4 if they are wounded but greater then 50% HP or 2d4 if equal to or lower then 50% HP. The sword also gets a bonus 1d10 if the person wielding it is of a different alignment. If the wielder loses then the foxy foil gets control of the character for an amount of time determined by the DM and will cause them to do something related to its goals such as ignoring the new shiny or go into combat. The control will generally only last a couple rounds but that should be enough to get what is needed done like causing the party to fight a group of orcs instead of just hiding from them.
Now for motivations to be decided. there is only a 5% chance that there is a specific motivation and if the witty weapon has one its intilligence is boosted to 12 right away. You roll a 1d6 to determine the motivation, all of which are to destroy a certain type of creature. The above example where the party is forced to fight orcs could occur on a roll of 6 which is to destroy a certain monster type which in the example would be orcs. There are also a few added quirks depending on the alignment itself. If its lawful and is used to fight something in its target group that is chaotic it will stun the oppenent while the reverse situation will actually stone the opponent though they do get a saving throw versus spells. The neutral side is most interesting as it provides a bonus of +1 to all saving throws for its wielder when combating opponents of its motivation type.
Last but not least are the fun goodies. There is the choice of detection powers and spell-like abilities. The detection powers can only be used once a round and vary from simple things like detecting good in a 20' area to detecting sloping passages though I am slightly disappointed at the available variety as it is clearly missing the detect meal and what kind power which was present in OD&D and is the power I would want because of all the interesting uses it has. Now to segue into the spell-like abilities I will mention that on a roll of 98 to 100 on the detection table you get a spell-like abilities instead. Abilities of which only a bright brand with an intelligence of 12 will always have are usable 3 times a day and go from a simple double damage for 1d10 rounds to Teleportation. All of the abilities barring the double damage and regeneration are based straight off of something else, most generally a Magic User spell though a few are from magic items. This mostly wraps up this scintillating post though I would like to mention that by the book it is slightly more "broken" then in OD&D as you can get all the detection powers and all the spell-like abilities as many times as you like because the rolls that let you roll on the tables again are not restricted though as the DM is the person that should be rolling these up it should not be any problem at all.
Next up is to figure out the alignment for your clever cutlass. This is perticuarly important as a person can only wield one with the same alignment as themselves or they take damage every turn they hold it depending on how big the difference is. While the alignment is determined randomly there is a 70% chance of it ending up lawful, 20% neutral, and thus only 1 in ten will be chaotic so most parties will be able to use one when they find it.
Now to decide the Psyche and Willpower of the enlightened epee or basically how easily it is for the sword to take over a player. The Psyche is 1d12 and Willpower is just that added to Intelligence with a bonus of +1 for each spell like power the smart scimitar happens to have. Simple right? Anyway on to the fun part. Every time a few circumstances happen the sword will attempt to take control of its wielder and this is called an influence check. They happen the first time a wielder touches it, when the swords motivation comes into play, someone of differing alignment touches it, another shrewd saber is found, and finally the wielder has lost 50% of their HP. The check itself is just comparing the its Willpower with the wielders which is determined by adding their Strength to their Wisdom and subtracting 1d4 if they are wounded but greater then 50% HP or 2d4 if equal to or lower then 50% HP. The sword also gets a bonus 1d10 if the person wielding it is of a different alignment. If the wielder loses then the foxy foil gets control of the character for an amount of time determined by the DM and will cause them to do something related to its goals such as ignoring the new shiny or go into combat. The control will generally only last a couple rounds but that should be enough to get what is needed done like causing the party to fight a group of orcs instead of just hiding from them.
Now for motivations to be decided. there is only a 5% chance that there is a specific motivation and if the witty weapon has one its intilligence is boosted to 12 right away. You roll a 1d6 to determine the motivation, all of which are to destroy a certain type of creature. The above example where the party is forced to fight orcs could occur on a roll of 6 which is to destroy a certain monster type which in the example would be orcs. There are also a few added quirks depending on the alignment itself. If its lawful and is used to fight something in its target group that is chaotic it will stun the oppenent while the reverse situation will actually stone the opponent though they do get a saving throw versus spells. The neutral side is most interesting as it provides a bonus of +1 to all saving throws for its wielder when combating opponents of its motivation type.
Last but not least are the fun goodies. There is the choice of detection powers and spell-like abilities. The detection powers can only be used once a round and vary from simple things like detecting good in a 20' area to detecting sloping passages though I am slightly disappointed at the available variety as it is clearly missing the detect meal and what kind power which was present in OD&D and is the power I would want because of all the interesting uses it has. Now to segue into the spell-like abilities I will mention that on a roll of 98 to 100 on the detection table you get a spell-like abilities instead. Abilities of which only a bright brand with an intelligence of 12 will always have are usable 3 times a day and go from a simple double damage for 1d10 rounds to Teleportation. All of the abilities barring the double damage and regeneration are based straight off of something else, most generally a Magic User spell though a few are from magic items. This mostly wraps up this scintillating post though I would like to mention that by the book it is slightly more "broken" then in OD&D as you can get all the detection powers and all the spell-like abilities as many times as you like because the rolls that let you roll on the tables again are not restricted though as the DM is the person that should be rolling these up it should not be any problem at all.
Labyrinth Lord rules that can be found Here at Goblinoid Games
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