As a sentient sword myself using my thrall to write this comment i say mind your own business. Cursed? you dare use such slurs? How dare you. Good day sir!

I want a dagger that whispered conspiracies to its owner making them paranoid enough to backstab anyone. And a war hammer that is sentient enough to long for being used by the blacksmith that made it to hero forge new tools and weapons despite it not being able to be used at a forge effectively.

I really like terry pratchetts take on this concept. in one of his discworld novels, a firearm is fashioned for the first time ever. the person using it goes mad with the power it provides and tries to re-establish the old monarchy. when the protagonist gets a hold of it, he also finds himself struggling not to use it, simply BECASUE OF HOW EASY IT WOULD BE(the gun does seem to talk, but the way it´s written it almost makes it seem like its words are the characters own thoughts, stirred on by rage and panic). he controls himself and fights against its influence, deciding that "killing should never be easy" honestly my favourite interpretation of the "bloodthirsty weapon" trope, it´s just much scarier if you don´t know how much of the eveil stuff is yourself.

"Hello" a strange voice said in his mind "would you like to destroy some evil today?" I like the idea that sentient items don't necessarily understand what life even is or how it works, you can get a lot of contrast and banter by having the weapon be cooperative but just not understand why one method is okay while another isn't.

I've read a bunch of cultivation novels that do sentient swords and other tools really well. In a cultivation novel typically any object, if used to perform a task for long enough, will eventually develop a spirit that reflects it's use. One story has a demonic sentient sword reforged into a plow, it's deep desire to cut turned towards the earth; another with a sentient forge, awakened being passed through a long line of smiths, gains sentience and assists it's owner in producing legendary weapons.

I think the lack of Sentient Armor in fantasy comes down to the fact that most often a sentient suit of armor falls more into the category of a Creature than a piece of equipment. A Spirit inside of a suit of armor will more likely than not be an entire character unto themselves moreso than a magic item. The Animated Armor and Helmed Horror from D&D, The Dullahan of Celtic folklore which in some cases just has no head but in others is full-on a suit of armor, Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, The Black Knights & Ruin Sentinels of Dark Souls Fame, The Isle of the Dead from Sinbad and the Seven Seas and its warriors which are, once again, suits of armor, and basically everything TV tropes lists as "Animated Armor" It seems that due to armor having a more "Human" shape, it's far more common for a sentient suit of armor to be a Character or a Creature moreso than a Magic Item in the most traditional sense. Science Fiction tends to have a lot more sentient armor because the idea that a suit of powered armor would have some kind of Onboard Computer or Artificial Intelligence working with its pilot comes up as a specific intentional feature of the design.

I think it's important is to go in to the reason why the object is sentient. A) the master craftsman is just so good the best objects he makes can talk and have a personality. B) the object or a part of the object is made from something that had a soul. C) the object became Sentient when a soul went in to it due to a event, from killing someone, emotional trauma, or some desire. D) the object became Sentient because the object was a extension of the great warrior or big bad, that when the warrior or big bad was killed a part of him lingered on, perhaps hoping to bring him back or turn the new owner of the object in to the big bad. E) the object only looks like a object but actually is something else with a personality. F) the object was kept in a location for too long and now it pick up a personality from the location. G) a ghost that can leave the object to go do stuff, likes hanging out in that object. H) the nature of the object means it is expected to have a personality naturally, like a robot with a Ai personality or a genie in a bottle. I) the object is a vampire object that drinks souls and combines them in to a unique personality. at first the warrior thinks it's only the souls of his enemies but then the warrior learns it's him as well and now must quest to gain back what he has lost but at the same time free all those he trapped. J) for a joke the object has a personality that is contrast to the object. like a feminist sword that refuses to penetrate anyone, and makes jokes about "swords". hopefully this gives everyone some ideas, remember to put any I missed.

I remember the "Bane" in Borderlands 2. A cursed weapon that goes YEAHYEAHYEAYHEAHRATATATTATAAIAIAIAIA every time you shot it. There was also a gun that yells profanities.

"Hello! Would you like to destroy some evil today?" Fun fact about Tyrfing: In the Poetic Edda, it was forged by a pair of dwarves: Dvalinn and Durinn, two of the many dwarves from Norse mythology Tolkien named characters after (Dwalin and Durin in this case).

It reminds me of an idea I read about somewhere regarding magic items and such, the worldbuilding and story implications of having to bind a spirit to an item in order to make it magical, the types of interaction you could have with an item would vary depending on the type of spirit used for such a thing and work a bit like a Paladin's oath or Warlock's pact, the spirit could have its own wants and needs, and if you fulfill certain conditions could even grant additional powers meaning items could scale with you as you empower the spirit and form a strong bond with it. Of course some spirits would be jerks or be uncooperative, like boots of swiftness inhabited by a spirit of travel that wander off on their own if you don't use them enough and cause the spirit to get bored.

There's a sentient magic sword in the game I'm currently running. It's called the Mayor, because it's the Mayor of a small town. It's stabbed into an anvil in the town square so that the residents can always go and talk to it. It's also a very good mayor - it's basically incorruptible, it wants not for money, food, sex, or other material things, so it can't be bribed. It's had it's fill of glory, and so doesn't want anyone to wield it in anything other than the defence of it's town. It just wants the town to thrive. It does own a single magic item: a pair of gloves that are always gripped around it's handle, which allow it to have a pair of Mage hands active, so it can sign official documents etcetera. When the players met it they instantly assumed it was evil and distrust it intently. That was quite fun.

I actually ran a sentient halberd as an NPC in the hands of a PC who had a drastically different outlook. The wielder was Lawful Good and the halberd was Chaotic Evil. I was eventually allowed to bring the concept of a sentient halberd into another campaign and got to play as a version of this character, but in this one he was an artificial intelligence created by an ancient lost high-tech civilization.

and then you have Shishou from Reincarnated as a Sword whose goal is just to be a good dad for Fran.

In my setting, there's a weapon known as the Dragon's Eye which is a shape-shifting blade that chooses its wielder and takes whatever form is most fitting to their skills (often a sword). It was forged from the scales of a celestial dragon to defeat a great evil in the ancient past. It's also known as the Blade of Ruin, because its wielder tends to become haughty and overconfident, which inevitably leads to their undoing. It's not explicitly sentient, but it is rumored to contain a fragment of the souls of its past wielders.

Also on the practical angle of Swords vs other weapons in Fantasy, it's worth noting that many fantasy stories center around individuals rather than standing armies. For an Adventurer (Which, as the "Grungeon Master", and the guy who argued for Adventurer's Guilds being realistic, I'm sure you know plenty about them), keeping a sword at your side might be more practical than keeping a 10 foot pike at the ready at all times. This can be DOUBLY true in a very small group of independent actors such as an adventuring party, A Sword being an extremely versatile and defensive weapon will be seen as valuable.

A sentient quiver and her 10 sentient magic arrow daughters that always return to her at dawn.

The Black Sword of Kullervo is definitely the most influential one, as it is clearly something which was used as the template for Stormbringer, Mournblade, Blackrazor, Soul Edge, and many others.

To be fair, I think there is an argument to be made for the fact that swords being sidearms makes them easier to write around than most other weapons. It's a lot harder to bring a spear into any sort of social situation than a sword. As someone writing a character who is a sentient sword (kinda? Her situation is kinda vague lol), this video shall be a good source of inspiration. :D

Sentient hide armour posessed by the monster it was made from. It gives you a bonus to unarmed strikes, strength saves, perception checks, and athletics checks, and makes you count as a monstrosity when targeted by "hold person"

I always want to throw in a sentient magic rope of climbing and give it the personality of a Disney sidekick.

"Sentient arrow" XD. Riordan ahead of the game! Love the arrow of dodona

I'm waiting for the story of a guy who thinks he has a sentient sword, but it's just a normal sword, and the guy is just crazy.

I'm currently building a setting that uses an animist cosmology like pre-conquest rome. In this setting, *all* magical items are sentient to some degree, and ritually feeding and healing the spirit is a necessary step in maintaining or repairing the item. For example, you make a flaming sword by transforming the innate spirit of Bronze within it into a spirit of flame (or fusing two separate spirits into one). Now you have a flameblade. *But* this also means that if you want to repair a damaged flameblade, you need to use spicy incense, rubies or volcanic rocks, and appropriate prayers.

Cannot explain the joy I feel each time I see a new video of yours in my feed. Especially since I'm considering a sentient weapon in my campaign!

"The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak."

Your voice is so calming, it can put me to sleep whenever I’m tired. Keep up the good content!

There's a few sentient helms, some are actually good, like in DC with the helm of nabu. Of course that has it's own problems like completely possessing the user if it feels the need. Or the helm of damnation in WoW. Of course that also ties in with Frostmourne. You don't want to wear those of course.

There are two examples that spring to mind, one is Kill la Kill's Senketsu and the other is the liveships from The Rain Wild Chronicles. Kill la kill's Senketsu kind of fits your idea of a non-sword sentient item used for combat that isn't divine or demonic. Its a sentient outfit that drinks its user's blood in exchange for power that is produced from an organism that assimilates worlds, but it isn't evil and instead fights against the source used to create it. Meanwhile, liveships are made from the cocoons of dragons They eventually develop awareness and inherit the memories of the dragon. With them being able to manipulate their ship bodies to some extent, like using the ship's figurehead as an avatar, or one boat that has a tail and legs tacked on that it can control.

Next sentient firearms & sentient nuke?

I think swords get chosen a lot because they're _personal_ weapons. A spear is common, and usually fairly cheap (it's mostly a wooden pole, with just a point at the end), and while axes are also often personal weapons, they require a bit of strength to use properly.

I currently have a player carrying around a weapon that loves to be used and is a major battle junkie. It has some minor abandonment issues after having been lost on a battlefield and then put into a museum as a table leg after it's previous owner had died fighting against the tide of demons. It's so unwilling to be left aside that it will willingly change itself to match its current owner's preferences, at great mental strain and pain, accepting any runes it's owner would think would make it better for them. It's owner can feel its emotions and the weapon can pick up on the ambient emotions in a room. It sleeps for most of the time but the instant a fight seems to be on the horizon it starts perking up and pretty much flies into its owner's hand in excitement.

I've crafted a few sentient weapon concepts, and put them to use in my own games. One is a prideful gravity/portal gun, always insistant that it is the best weapon crafted by the best wraponsmith, despite the fact neither of those statements are true. Despite its unique powers, the weapon was actually forgotten pretty fast, abandoned up until the events in the story. Another is a sentient nanomachine cloud that possesses weapons; it's a twist on the take of 'machine ghosts'. Finally, a big maul that speaks in small and simple sentences. However, despite the seemingly Hulk-like nature of the weapon, it was still every bit the wise and well-travelled sentient greatsword that it was in its past life. The maul simply just wanted to be something new. With sentient weapons, what I love to focus on first is the dynamic between the wielder and the wieldee. Each of them is supposed to complement each player in my game, just not in a way that's sterile/boring. I like interesting stuff!

There is a whole album about Elric and Stormbringer called "The Chronicle of the Black Sword" by the 70s band Hawkwind. It's amazing.

In one campaign i was running the setting was post apocalyptic in a magical society. The apocalypse is Ancient history that most don't remember, and another lesser apocalypse has happened since. This society was a psionic society. The character got a 'Boot of Levitation'. The boot was sentient but only repeated one line, "This boot is the property of Sslareth Silverblood." It wasn't until the boot understood how long of a time had past since Sslareth had died did it finally begin to introspect again. The sentience was a rudimentary psionic AI whose sole job was to assist in allowing the elite soldier incredibly fast and nimble flight. But over the course of over a thousand years it was clinging to the name of it's lost owner to protect it's own sanity.

The song "The Arizona Sword" tells a story story about a sword imbued with a spirit of the open desert that will kill its user if they attempt to use it for Tyrannical purposes.

It is my great honor to be the first to bring up the best sentient sword of media If it can accurately be called a sword, it's more of a tool, interface or.. brush I'm of course talking about The Transistor, from the game Transistor A device that can shape the world, slow time for the user, and create borderline magical effects at the will of it's User, using the Trace (soul) of people it has collected Which it can collect either in the act of killing, or by holding it near a dying person Oh, and if you know one of the people it's collected, they can talk to you through the Transistor What makes it so cool isn't really what it does, but what it is. The writers made it more integral to the story than any divine sword you can mention, and did it without shoving it in your face. It's also arguably a god Which puts it a step up above mere divine swords, demon swords, or even the draconic shards of d&d Which are another really badass thing that you probably shoulda mentioned

One weird variation on this would be Panzer Spirit, by Tom Townsend. The Nazis end up using magical metal to make a tank destroyer, which gains sentience and learns from its commander.

You hit the nail on the head with the most interesting weapon/wielder relations having contrast over conflict. The contrast I found most enjoyable was from differences in personality or motivation. Anime seems to always have the person as the source of power and not the weapon so as to make the person the weapon figuratively, but two stories jump out in my mind that feature this literally: Soul Eater and Norigami. In fact, most of the drama and comedy in Soul Eater come from weapon/wielder relationships. Maybe it's not that your sentient weapon is simply tired of it all and wants nothing more than to stay warm while gently resting above the mantel, but that the imprint or spirit granting sentience is from a different alignment, class, or something you want to drive the plot forward with for that character. I wouldn't default to a polar opposites, thought. If sentient weapons are common, then they're just going to abandon your new DM tool for shaping the story because of the hassle it would be to listen to the "old battleax" nag every combat. I love the videos, Tom. Have you considered a Discord community or other shared discussion space?

The Vampire Killer from Castlevania is also a sentient weapon. A once alchemical whip in Lament of Innocence, it's first wielder was forced to kill his own wife while she was in the process of being turned before it gained its legendary power. And as seen in Portrait of Ruin, it houses the echoes of previous users dwelled within the whip. And if wielded by someone not of Belmont blood, it drains the life force of its wielder unless the echoes within fully accept the new wielder by a test of combat in the spiritual core of the whip.

i cant believe you mentioned nightblood as an example of the cliched “evil sword” trope but not the shardblades as an example of spirits in pain because they’re trapped in the shape of a sword, or the spren as an example of the “buddy cop” dynamic! they have to be some of my favorite variants on the trope, especially with how they play into the plot and world building of the series.

I had a fun dynamic with one weapon I ran in a campaign. A female warrior wielding a blade that was once used by a paladin Paladin of a deity; felled in battle and became dormant. When he finally awoke, he realized that his wielder was a woman, and due to his chivalrous tendencies, would be at odds with a "maiden fighting on the battlefield". Since this female fighter was physically the strongest party member, ironically, it made her the best choice for who could use this sword. The spirit residing in the sword also had several regrets, making him somewhat passive-aggressive about dying prematurely. He would spin tales of his skill and prowess... and if the female fighter ever fell for an illusion or got significantly hurt in battle, she'd get a "Well if I was ALIVE.. I would have been able to..." (this is what let her be resistant to fear effects). It led to a lot of bickering back and forth which the player found fun. By the end of the campaign, the sword had recognized her as a true successor to his sword-even if he was still a bit peeved about ya' know... being dead.

Now I’m imagining a sentient weapon that longs to be used but, rather than having a bloodthirsty personality or mind controlling powers, it calmly argues for the myriad of tactical benefits to charging headfirst into battle.

Imagine a sentient armor that is a ma-

Sentient swords are now a species with how many there are.

In my world some Mages can transfer souls into a certain kind of Crystal-Stone thus called a Soulstone. At the heart of every Golem is such a stone. Sometimes the Soulstones are integrated to a Sword or a Shield or Armour or even to a Carriage.

A mercenary that was irreversibly transformed into a sentient halberd. He hits unerringly if you pay him 10 gold pieces per turn.

You inspired me to sketch a rudimentary double pick resembling fangs as a new version of Blooddrinker.

Really interesting video, I like the historical tone your channel has!

I like the idea of sentient items that hate being used as they were intended. Examples: An arrow that's afraid of heights A scrying orb that's bashful of the way people look at it A lazy rope that wants to kickback and unwind A prideful shovel that refuses to "get its hands dirty" A wand that doesn't believe in magic A depressed gold coin trying to lose weight

Thanks Tom, great video, as always your insights feel unique.

I rather like the idea that it's an internal dialogue with a projection of that sword's supposed personality. As my wife notes, I have been spending a lot of time alone in my car, so I ended up talking to it 😅

Didn't think this was going to touch on metal music but glad it did.🤘💀🤘

Off the top of my cranium: 1. A scalpel that contains the soul of a surgeon. It can take over a user to operate on a patient or surgically slice open an enemy. 2. A suit of hide armour made from the skin of a monster. It gives the wearer the abilities of the monster, but sometimes the monster takes over the wearer and drives the person to go on a killing spree. 3. An anvil that contains the spirit of a dead smith. Anyone using it can draw upon the knowledge and skill of the smith, but beware, he may take over your mind and compel you to work until you die from exhaustion. 4. A cauldron that was used by an ancient coven of witches. This item has 13 separate intelligences inside of it, each with a different personality, alignment, goals, and powers. Users can seek to commune with these spirits to gain knowledge of spells and formulas for potions. But if the wrong one possesses the user, the spirit may compel the user to create cursed or poisonous items or force the user to commit vile crimes.

One non-sword example that came to mind while watching this is Karla from Record of Lodoss War. She was a sorceress, transferred her consciousness into the crown she wore, and then dominates whoever wears the crown so that she can continue to interact with the world. If sentient items are created this way, then they'll have similar attitudes and goals of real people (since they effectively are people). However, I always imagined sentient items created as items (not from the souls or minds of people) as having goals and interests different from people but still familiar enough that we can relate to them. Perhaps a sword who refuses to come out of its scabbard unless it's for a really interesting fight, simply because it's already fought in so many battles that it's bored of "normal" fights now. Or one terrified of water because it can't stand being rusty. A wooden club could certainly be scared of fire, if fire could actually damage it. I was also amused by a talking torch from the Zork game that was afraid of the dark. A weapon might be so famous that others seek it out to aid in a war, but that weapon doesn't understand worldly politics (or maybe doesn't care) and so the advice it provides would lead to world peace or perpetual warfare instead of the one side winning the war. I typically think of personality quirks first before determining what kind of sentient item I'm going to add to a campaign or story. If the item is very old, you can ask the same questions as you would for long-lived creatures regarding how it would see the world. Perhaps it is jaded, culturally antiquated, or misinformed due to the passage of time. Maybe it's suffering memory loss due to being very old. Or maybe it's memory is perfect and knows so much history that it's kept locked in the treasury so only specific people can ever talk to it.

I like Bleach's take on living swords. Them kind of being the weilder's soul.

Albert the cursed shovel.

Now I want to make a sentient sword that is the servant (and the phylactery) of a great Lich Archmage. Every time the PC who uses it kills an NPC, it is fed with their soul. Or a sentient greataxe that is just a tree-cutting axe who really likes to fell trees. Yes, war axes are smaller & lighter than wood choppers.

Great dive into the possibilities and origins of sentient weapons!

If the sentience is created when the weapon is forged it could be a child whose powers and personality will be shaped by the wielder, how they use it and what they want. The evil swords in the world have been nurtured as such. There's also weapons where the sentience is more of an outreach of a being that exists somewhere else. The staff an angel can speak through. An artifact from a destroyed town that lets you connect to dead from the disaster. The webcomic Oglaf has a fun one of a sword a demon watches through that goes terribly for the demon.

There is an artifact sentient ax I created for my games. Tauron-i-edain is a stout woodcutter’s ax with a handle that appears grown, not carved. The name comes from the elves who first recorded its existence. It means “forester of men” in their language. The history of the ax is ancient, even to the elves. Its stout flint blade never needs sharpening, it has held an edge for thousands of years. It was dropped by the men who felled a dryad’s tree so long ago that the trees don’t remember it. The handle was grown from a branch of that sacred tree so that the dryad would always have her home, even while she was avenging the destruction of it. She destroyed many villages of men before being felled herself. Her soul has been trapped in that handle for thousands of years, always whispering to whoever wields it to cut down men like cord wood. It strengthens their arms until the blade tastes wood and then even their own strength abandons them. The Forester of Men is a battle axe +5 that gives an additional 1d8 damage against humans. If the blade is ever used on wood, it becomes a battle axe -5 with no additional die of damage. It contains the soul of the dryad, still crazed with bloodlust for the loss of her tree. It has all of the spell-like powers of a dryad. The only way to destroy it is to plant its handle in the ground, cast Plant Growth on it and water it with the blood of a man every day until the tree grows large enough that the blade is absorbed into the heartwood of the tree, which takes between five and seven years without the spell. When the blade is fully absorbed, the tree will die, killing the dryad as well. The only being who knows how to destroy it is Grandfather Oak, the Seelie treant who helped to grow the handle.

In the Finnish cultural circle, all objects and things have been thought to be somehow sentient and aware and also to have a soul. Not just swords. For example, it was thought that the simple door, or some broom, or some tree or even the stone follows and listens to what you do and could get hyper angry (or their spirits) if you treated them badly or ignorantly. And even though modern Finns now know that objects are not alive and sentient, we still treat them as if they were, for example, we talk to them like a normal person and we don't even think about it. Researchers call this a remnant of old animistic thinking which was much more common in history. But the sentience of objects depends on the flavor of the local culture and the abundance of sentient swords and other objects innfiction may still be strange for cultures where it was not as common belief.

I enjoy when sentient weapons are largely or wholly unable to understand any idea except through the lens of their own nature as a weapon. They aren't necessarily evil but when you _are_ a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

There is so much you can do with sentient weapons, like a weapon which contains all the souls of its dead wielders, or maybe just the ones that died holding it, I'd call it Valhalla. Or you could go with something not divine or cursed but rather alien, the wielder can hear the weapon's thoughts but cannot understand any of them. Is the "mind" within the weapon able to withstand being a inanimate object(Assuming it can't move on its own), does it go mad, try to keep its wielder alive so that it has company, seek its own destruction, try to posses its wielder, sing songs to make sure it is always found, become a chatterbox so it doesn't have to think about the fact that it is unable to do anything else. Then you could also have an individual whose flesh was reshaped into a weapon by a crazed magical blacksmith, a literal dragon sword. Bows, staffs and hafts all made from the same tree could become an extension of the Dryad of that tree, tools through which to observe the changing world.

Regarding your last point, I feel the manga/anime Soul Eater does a decent job of emphasizing the weapon-wielder relationship (though it should be noted the weapons in setting are rather different from typical sentient weapons, being more like people with the power to turn into weapons).

Fun idea, feel free to steal: A country ruled by a council of sentient swords. "Bearer of the sword" can be an honorary position. If the swords, however, dont have mind control powers then you can have political shenanigans were the bearers lie or whatnot despite the sword being a handcrafted perfect ruler.

The samurai never had swords as main weapons of war, as they were mainly warring as mounted archers and lancers, the fencing craze of the reinessance barely made it to the battlefield as some nation's sidearm (italy, france and parts of spain mainly), with vast majority going for sabers, and the dopplersoldner were actually most of the time pikemen (just in the front, for which they got the double pay), the zweihander being a non-standard, even if glorified weapon. Most sword or sword-like weapons of war are of the antiquity, and gladius is borderline dagger that is the topic of many debate (current mainstream is that it's a "short sword"). The celts, germans and supposedly the bretons were much prevalent sword users, from which the roman spatha, a much obvious sword was evolved from (first for cavalry use, then in place of the gladius, though at that point the "romans" were starting to use spears in mass formations like everybody else. Supposedly asian cultures have used swords more on the battlefield as their main armament, such as the chinese or the koreans, but I'm not knowledgeable on the topic to make an informed claim. However, swords were ALWAYS expensive to make, being mostly made of metal and needing either a sharp point or blade, so even the cheapest ones were 2-3x more expensive to purchase. This lead to most cultures (if not all) connecting sword to wealth, nobility, perfection, or whatever good traits the culture seeks the most, so their prevalence in mythology is not at all unexpected. This is also throught all ages, not just medieval times. They are also supposedly more aesthatically pleasing, however I'd argue that is BECAUSE it's mythical connotations in a given culture, and not because they actually look better than other forms of weaponry. I'd also argue that metal has more to do with axes, especially the double headed variety, but that's no more than an opinion, haven't researched the iconography of metal bands for obvious reasons. On the other hand I'd like to see too other weapons, and items in general given the treatment in fantastical works. Whilst swords do need both the damage potential of a magical blade and the mentoring of a timeless entity trapped in it to be on par with other weapons, especially polearms, variety wouldn't hurt, and it makes more sense to enchant a weapon of already better capabilities. Well, unless these weapons would change how people fight to utilize it to their maximum potential. Then form follows function. And a talking necktie, whilst wouldn't be the first of it's kind, would be still hilarious to see elsewhere.

Closers online actually has several sentient weapons in the game. Only one of which being a sword. The others a a pair of clawed Gauntlets, a lance, a Shield a book and there maybe more I'm not aware of. Anime also has shown several sentient armors. High School DXD and Akame Ga Kill to name a few.

I remember hearing a while back about a DM, who created a magical shield that had a fetish for being hit in battle. Basically whenever the shield was hit by a weapon it would moan really dirty phrases into the wielders mind. Does anyone else remember that story?

Another gem for my personal collection of worldbuilding considerations :) Would you perhaps consider making a video about consuming powers of slain beasts (bathing in dragon blood, eating unicorns, etc)? It seems like a very underutilized story telling device, mechanic, and also worldbuilding concept. Would love to hear your thoughts on it's implications and complications, as usual 😂😂

Garon Whited’s Nightlord series has a pretty interesting sentient sword which is essentially a dragon’s soul that’s been placed inside of a magical longsword. It can speak using telepathy and read the minds of those around it and relay information to the user and it has a unique personality. It’s an amazing series and those books are LONG. Definitely getting your money’s worth.

As a Smith, it is said that every time you forge, you put a piece of your soul into what you make. It was commonplace to put spells and commands on your weapons and armor to give it some sort of magical program to obey. A darker version of it are the Qaji magesmiths of the Caucasian underworld who made magic items with the souls of humans and animals. One famous example is the qaji armor, that gives you powers when you wear it, but runs away if you don't tie it down.

In one of my campaigns sentient weapons and other artifacts are a byproduct of a predation. I have an archlich - a creature that subsists on taking magical potential of common liches. The catch here is that they are "eaten" through the magical ritual that doesn't destroy the phylactery of the prey. His victims often put up quite a fight or have their phylacteries stashed away so thoroughly, that ritual leaves traces of their magic and personality intact. Combined with the properties of the phylacteries, this often leaves weapons that feed on souls and have shards of will still in there. So far my players have seen only two such weapons, but I am currently thinking about grimoirs and crowns of this kind scattered around the world.

One of my players is literally an intelligent sword. The weapon was intelligent before his character first found it, and the soul in the sword swapped places, between campaigns. Now he is on a quest, using an alternate body controlled through the sword, to get his body back. And, if he designed his character to use hammers, or axes, or spears, the weapon would have been just that.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Soul Eater. The Soul Eater universe has a whole sort of... race? i guess, called Demon Weapons. They are humans fundamentally but they have magical DNA that lets them transform into magical weapons (in a variety of fantastical types) that then can be wielded by a suitable partner. The Demon Weapon are full-blown characters, they have their own arcs and inner conflicts just like their wielders (refered to as Meisters). It sets the core concept of the Soul Eater universe as being one of mutual cooperation and sympathy as being more important than raw individual skill or power. It also posits a world where instead of a character dreaming of pulling the sword from the stone they want to be that sword itself, and come from a long line of swords... just a magical sword family out there living their lives.

There's a Slingshot from a game I think is called Dark Cloud 4 something or other. His name was Steve and he would just not shut up. As an extroverted individual, I loved this.

First, way to laser-target a video concept at the Thundercats kids. Second, if you've run a game and NOT made a PC's sentient weapon a character unto itself, I promise you are missing out on the *most* fun. (The Chaotic Good elven sword mage comes down for breakfast. "What do you want?" Sword- *THE BLOOD OF THE WICKED.* Player- "A bagel." Sword- *NOOOOOOOOO* Player- " *Two* bagels.") Third, some of the mentioned concepts in this video are fantastic starting points for sentient items. From armor in SciFi, an excellent example is Guyver. Techno-organic suit, tremendous lethal power and multiple weapobs, etc. The usual anime fair, comlete with responding to should-be-terminal injury by switching into a 'self-defense' mode that just murders anything possibly hostile in the area. Notably not 'better' than the wearer might have done it, but certainly more feral. The useful key detail, though, is that the armor in question only functions this way because it's attached to a *human*. The species that made it used it explicitly for basic hazardous environment suits. On them, it does none of this, at least not at near the same scale. There are reasons the suit reacts differently to humans, but in your story how might a similar item respond to different species? Do powers of perception suddenly scale beyond any expectation when attached to an elf? Powers of durability in the face of injury turned to something astonishing on an orc? You can use the Bionoids in D&D as a jumping-off point for this concept, since Guyver is where they *came* from. The Sword of Omens in Thundercats is tied to the titular species as a whole. The power ostensibly comes from the crystalline eye in the hilt, but at least once the whole weapon is shown melted down and perfectly reforged, 'crystal' included. It behaves like less of a divine messenger and more of a low-grade divinity itself: it has almost any power that's needed at any given time, but it will not allow itself to be used for malicious harm or selfish reasons. Even attempting to use the weapon against an innocent or 'good' person will make it break, not out of a flaw in the weapon but because IT refuses to be used as such, even if the wielder doesn't know what they're doing. And though less effective, it can be used by other good people outside of the Designated Bearer or even a member of the same species, so long as their intentions are right. Got a paladin struggling with following the tenets of their faith? There you go. What about that Halloween episode of Young Justice? "The sword demands someone be pure of heart. It did not specify pure good." Hell, one more from anime, and more a power source than an object. But imagine a weapon that *only* works if the wielder is not just 'good', but has a true and fervent desire to make the world a better place? You can build an entire plot leading up to *that* revelation.

I think I remember the MCU versions of Mjolnir (Thor's iconic hammer) and its own Stormbringer (an axe that is added to Thor's arsenal in Infinity War) being sentient, or at least the flavor that doesn't talk but does respond to communication to a degree (and MCU Thor's time with them gets increasingly relationship coded the further down the timeline you go for some reason).

I’ve been writing a Novel about the birth of a new-born race of dwarf in a fantasy setting about to all into a great apocalypse. The dwarf’s I’ve developed aren’t born but are first made as an item. Then once submerged in dwarvern blood the item moulds itself into a new born dwarf. The Dwarfs of my setting often sport metallic or thick skin and take many attributes of the items they originally were into their bodies and personality. For example: A flute that’s been played by a band for over six years will create a dwarf that has innate talent in music and will often have a personality that’s jovial and outgoing since the Flute was commonly used in a tavern band by well minded people. However, if you kill a dwarf with one of these items and blood gets on it the item will be cursed or possibly become sentient. Personality traits for these items will vary wildly and the level of the items power or intelligence will change and adjust over time.

I suspect that the sword being the most popular sentient weapon is because it is a side arm. Yes you go into battle with something like a spear as a primary weapon, and you use it and replace it, but the sword is the one you buy once and use for a lifetime. It's probably also the one you are going to spend money on as a status symbol. With Daemon weapons, I think it's worth remembering the animistic origins of that word. I personally think the most fun you can have is when the player character doesn't know the source of the sentience, the weapon might claim it comes from the gods - but should you take it's word for that.

Thanks for the ideas, buddy. I'm going to steal all of it. 😎

In my campaigns, if something has enough sheer magical power, it just sort of becomes sentient.

Just felt like mentioning a few other sentient weapons. Swords and daggers seam to be the go to as most people view them as a single whole unlike pole arms, axes, etc that have very distinct handles and heads. The arizona sword is in a story I remember listening too. It's set in a more modern period. It ends up killing the warlord who commissions its creation when he holds it aloft and exclaims to take the lands while giving a speach. The sword Need in several of Mercades Lackey's books is filled with the soul of the mage smith who created it. It was made to slay evil mages. It protects and teaches the wielder as it goes until they have outgrown the sword and can pass it on

I have an idea I am working on for a nine-ring dao with three different consciousnesses. The use of magic rings allows for a concentration of magic that would otherwise require a legendary smith to bind into a single item, but on the other hand, this degree of magic concentrated into an item tends to produce spontaneous consciousness, and in this case the magical components maintain an unusual degree distinction from each other. As a result, there are three individuals all in one sabre (I have given them the placeholder designations of the Monk, the Paladin, and the Wizard), and each will only grant the powers it has control over to the wielder if it is pleased with what he is doing at the moment. Between the contradictory desires of the three consciousnesses, it seems nearly impossible to have all nine powers of the sword available simultaneously, and often it will only be three powers.

I can see that sea leviathan egg mace/flail complaining about being jarred or motion sick every time it's used in combat.

Reminds me of a dnd story i heard on yt a while back. Think it was someones backstory where they were an orc and weren't their typically evil alignment because they had attuned with a magic sword containing the soul of a paladin who made them do good things

Dragonfable has some interesting sentient weapons called doom weapons. They tend to be evil, but can actually be used by a good character and usually have a lot less autonomy, but still speak. You can get a staff which laughs gleefully sometimes when you fight as an example. There's also a sword held by the first main villain which sometimes argues with him, and MAJOR SPOILER ahead... There's a doom axe which gets embedded in the body of the innkeeper in Falconreach, and the spirit inside the axe making it a sentient weapon actually takes over the body, making it a host for the weapon. That one was a lot more unusual, and clearly shows how sentient weapons can be done in very original ways.

One reasons swords may have been picked is also because they were sidearms. They're the weapon you constantly carry with you, not the one you leave at home because it's polite or leave at camp because it's awkward.

Tom, it’s true that the sword has been a secondary weapon for most of history, but for a very long time it’s loomed larger in people’s minds than its military importance justifies - long before the Romantic movement. The Bible often mentions kings ordering their enemies slaughtered “with the edge of the sword” even though most of the killing was really done with spears or arrows, and it has Jesus saying that he came “not to bring peace, but a sword.” Even though the knight’s most important weapon was his lance, from the earliest times a lord made a man a knight by belting a sword to his waist (the more famous sword laid on the shoulder came later). The cruciform shape of the sword was considered to reflect the knight’s duty to God in the Christian faith. Maybe this outsize importance of swords in culture and literature reflects its uniquely murderous purpose. Axes and knives are simply tools adapted to killing; bows, crossbows, slings and spears all started as hunting weapons. But the sword’s main purpose has always been man-slaughter; while there are examples of “hunting swords,” their only purpose was to finish off prey animals already downed by other weapons. Perhaps this is one reason why swords are likelier to be sentient than other weapons: if they thirst particularly for human blood, a sword is much more likely to taste that than an animal’s blood, a tree trunk, or onions and turnips in the kitchen. Also, it’s possible that sentient weapons particularly crave being near their wielders, even if only to manipulate them rather than to enjoy their company. And while a knight would only wear armor or carry a shield when battle was imminent, he might carry a sword at all times, to immediately defend his honor from a perceived slight, or simply to advertise his status; similarly, in bakufu Japan, samurai usually wore the daisho swords all day to show their status, and at some times were even required by law to wear them. So this helps explain why sentient swords would be more common than sentient shields, armor, axes, or bows. Sentient daggers, in contrast, could be very common indeed, as people wore daggers even more often than swords. A final question: just what senses does a sentient sword have? In almost every version, they can hear and understand their wielder. Probably bloodthirsty swords can taste blood and enjoy it. Can they see? How far? Can they sense touch? Smell? Imagine a touch-sensitive sword berating its wielder: “Ouch! Parry with the goddamn flat of the blade, jerk!” You mention that the sentience of the sword may reside in one particular part, but could it possibly “hear” with one part and “taste” with another?

I prefer the chinese version of swords where the swords are forged and after someone or multiple someone's use of it it manifests as a sword spirit capable of hauling itself around and it's users simply leave their imprint upon the sword so they manifest a body looking like an amalgamation of all who wielded it before.

I have a sentient sword in my current campaign. It does not communicate. Instead, it tries to dominate the wielder when drawn, and depending on the result of the roll, will give different abilities. In its basic form it's an Impact weapon that hates orks. In the two instances that it was drawn so far (save failed both times), it caused the character to try and walk off to an ork stronghold to fight the boss there, and gave him Immune to Psychology, Must Pursue and Hatered against orks. The sword constantly hums obscenities in a dead dialect.

I once played a warlock with a shapeshifting sentient weapon that was kind of an edie brock venom relationship they were great freinds and kept bickering, ocasuonally hed be a different tool then what i needed and it was a bit if a wind up moment

In my fantasy world, an ancient alliance of morally varied species was sealed by creating a set of sentient magic staves, whose immortality would ensure the pact is remembered as infinitum. The staves are neutral, largely, with one having been gained by the party from a villain that wielded it against them. The staff couldn't care less which side of the conflict it is being used by, so long as its (neutral) core values are upheld

i haven't encountered many in all the media i've read. But I do have a couple i think in my writing notes. Of greater importance is the writing quality.

Dryad bow huh? 👀 Makes me wanna tinker with the idea of a bow or staff with this idea, and explore a little how they'd respond to different types of weapons they might be made into. Like with your question about whether sharpening a blade hurts. Does the dryad feel everything you do with/to the weapon? Would they feel it when you hit something with the staff? Is the dryad in the bow used to being treated like a bow and thus sensitive to shocks like dry-shooting and using the bow as a striking implement? Does the dryad in the staff become bloodthirsty as they get used to being used to hit stuff? Would they consider it an insult if you tried to haft a blade on the staff? (if it's an axe blade, I think definitely, but a spearhead might be different; maybe they take it as you don't think they're deadly enough as is, or they don't want to be used to kill, or the bloodthirsty dryad gets excited at the perceived upgrade, or a dryad tired of being a striking implement takes it as being a well-earned break)

it's a common misconception that the katana was the primary weapon of a samurai, they would actually use bows, naginata, and guns as primary weapons

I have an entertaining idea for a sentient weapon, a sentient arrow born from a sentient bow The bow being the mother who is constantly telling it's arrows to hit perfect every time and the arrow being sentient not wanting to hit or hurt anyone upon being loosed that final time The arrow now always misses its target but gain some sort of healing power where it strikes the ground a radius of healing happens though this arrow never breaks because it never hits its target it is always doomed to break if it ever did hit its target to lose its sentience and that is why it never wants to hit its target. if ever loosed by the mother bow it would then be forced to hit its target so there is a myth or legend written around the bow where the bow is constantly looking for its daughter arrow The one arrow that will always hit its target and always kill its foe but the one arrow who never hits its target from any other bow and heels those that are nearby it's strike. when placed into the quiver it hides itself indistinguishable from the other arrows as to hide from its mother. and the poor heroes stuck in the middle who must find either the arrow to slay some enemy that cannot be slain and the heroes bow constantly demanding it find it's daughter arrow for it to function properly like a bow should. or vice versa the hero running around with this arrow that has amazing healing properties thinking it's some intelligent quiver instead because the arrow keeps coming back to the quiver hahide once it misses its target, and the only way to find this arrow is to empty the quiver to but one arrow never missing with all the other strikes in all the other arrows and just the last arrow who is destined to always miss and always heal being chased by some malevolent evil who is looking to find the one arrow that can kill anyone outright.

Magic Spoon really missed the perfect opportunity for sponsorship

There should be more!

First, the Polearm outdid the Swords because of grand scale Warfare. It does NOT outdo it historically for lonely or tiny bands of Travellers like a band of adventurers. Swords are indeed way more convinient to wield and bettr to use in one on one combat. And they are even more beneficial in a World like dnd with huge cavesystems, and the underdark. Also Shields are great too in many circumstances, so there is nothing wrong or unlogical with the sword and board adventurer.

Thank you for making Mondays better. Also, with as much intellectual riggor as you put into these videos, I'm kinda surprised you're using "sentient" as a descriptor rather than the more correct "sapient."