Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 159-OGL 1.2 and Intelligent Magic Items

Episode Date: January 22, 2023

The One Ring in Lord of the Rings, The Singing Sword in Bugs Bunny, The Luggage in the Rimworld novels by Terry Pratchett.  We've seen intelligent magic items in media and you'd like to bring one into your game world.  What's the best way to do that?  Are there any tips?  Does an animated bear rug poop in the woods? Seriously...do they?  I have no idea. #OpenDnd #OpenRPG #Pathfinder #OGL #DnD #DungeonsandDragons   Resources: Dungeon Dudes:  How to Homebrew Sentient Magic Items. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1H5oK_GGmI  

This week on the Taking 20 Podcast. Intelligent magic items aren't just smarter versions of dumb weapons or armor or cloaks or rings or whatever. They're more akin to people than they are things. Thank you for tuning in to the Taking 20 Podcast, episode 159, all about intelligent magic items in your campaign. I want to thank this week's sponsor, eggs. It seems like the price of eggs have been on the news a lot lately. And frankly, the constant news is leaving me egg-xosted. Sorry, that was a really bad yolk. Do you have a topic idea for a future episode? Even if it's just a half-formed question,

please send it to me via direct message on Insta or Facebook or email it to feedback at taking20podcast.com. I would love to hear what you want to hear. Also, the feedback form for OGL version 1.2, just released by Wizards of the Coast, is up. I would strongly encourage you to go read that new version of the OGL and make your own judgment about the suitability of that license going forward. I am choosing to stand in solidarity with more than 1,500 publishers and countless other content providers by throwing my support

behind the development of the OpenRPG Creative License or ORC. I believe in an open tabletop role-playing landscape where content producers have rights to their own creation. I personally canceled my D&D Beyond account and I plan on playing a lot more Pathfinder and other game systems in the coming months. If you disagree and you think the new OGL license is just fine and you want to keep playing 5e, you're not going to get any flack from me. Play what you want, support the companies that you want. The horizon is plenty big for us to disagree and still play at the same table. Magic items are magic items, right? Well, mostly. Yes, a plus one shield is a plus one shield. Rings of invisibility are generally the same the world over. But every now

and then, something special is created, lost, and then maybe found again in the world. A magic item with a mind and a will of its own. An intelligent magic item. So what the heck are these things? The vast majority of magic items are just normal items that have been imbued with arcane or divine power. Some sorcerer, bard, wizard, cleric, druid, whatever, paid a lot of money to have a really nice item crafted and then poured some of their magic into the item to give it some sort of advantage. A sharper or harder version of a weapon, more resilient armor, a wand or staff that can cast spells, cloaks of protection, rings of invisibility, fins of swimming, they come in a hundred different

varieties and many are listed in your favorite game rulebook or third-party add-on product or rings of invisibility, fins of swimming. They come in a hundred different varieties, and many are listed in your favorite game rulebook or third-party add-on product or website. Plus, DMs are encouraged to craft their own magic items in just about any game system that you can think of. Hell, one of my favorite third-party products is called the Griffin's Saddlebag, and they publish books containing hundreds of custom home-brewed magic items. But this episode ain't about those kinds of items. By contrast, an intelligent magic item isn't just a tool to be used, a weapon to be wielded, or cloak to be worn. They have intelligence, wisdom, charisma scores. They are, in almost every sense of the word, charisma scores, they are, in almost every sense of the word, alive. So if the item, like a sword,

is alive and has its own mental stats, that means it has a will of its own. Given the item's capabilities, it could refuse to perform a certain action, use a certain power, or be helpful at all to its wielder. The DM or GM should always be the one speaking for the intelligent magic item. It is alive, for lack of a better word, and it's not this mindless thing that heedlessly follows the whims of the... owner feels wrong somehow. Holder? Possessor. Let's go with possessor. It won't mindlessly follow the wants of the possessor of the item unless the possessor is trying to fulfill the goals, desires, or missions of the intelligent item in question. Imagine sometime in your past, the paladin Dugrolin... Wait, wait, wait. There's a typo here that says Dugroin. Okay, that's the paladin's name now. Dugroin was a powerful paladin who slayed many demons and undead and was a forceful

champion of everything good and right in your world. As they lay dying, they begged their goddess to please allow them to continue the fight against evil, despite the fact that his body was broken. So the goddess placed their mind into a powerful longsword to allow them to continue to aid the destruction of undead and fight extraplanar forces of evil. The sword passes from hand to hand until it winds up in a dragon's horde. Okay, so if the dragon is slain by, I don't know, the holy paladin Dugrip, who picks up Dugroin and wants to use it to slay undead, then Dugroin wields power in the hands of

Dugrip, and also Dugrip wields great power with Dugroin in his hands. And the two go on mutually beneficial, wonderful undead slaying adventures together. But what if Dugrip wasn't a paladin? What if Dugrip was an evil rogue who didn't want to slay undead, and instead the rogue wanted to use this intelligent sword with the mind of a holy paladin named Dugroin to kill the good and make himself rich? Dugroin could refuse to use this intelligent sword with the mind of a holy paladin named Dugroin to kill the good and make himself rich. Dugroin could refuse to use any of its powers to help Dugrip, and since this is unwanted and inappropriate touching by Dugrip, Dugroin could contact DuhR and file a DuhSexualHarrasment complaint.

Okay, that went a little bit off the rails. I apologize. Back to live action. Intelligent magic items aren't just smarter versions of dumb weapons or armor or cloaks or rings or whatever. They're more akin to people than they are things. So for my first tip, intelligent magic items should be generated the same way you do NPCs. There are a ton of different ways to generate NPCs, and that's not the purpose of this episode. The three-line NPC, OGAS, which stands for Occupation, Goal, Attitude, and Stake from How to Be a Great GM. The NARS system, Name, Attitude, Role, and Situation, and many, many more. Whatever system that you use in your campaign, use that same system for an intelligent magic item.

But one thing you definitely need to do, by the way, anytime you have an intelligent magic item, is to give the item an alignment. In roleplay heavy campaigns, the personality and alignment of the item needs to show in the way the item interacts with the wielder, holder, wearer, possessor. For example, an intelligent evil dagger in the hands of a neutral or evil character may very well encourage that character to do more and more despicable acts, gradually shifting their alignment more strongly towards evil. An intelligent breastplate with a frontline fighter type personality and protects its wearer from physical damage by reducing the amount of damage taken will likely encourage the wearer to wade into the thick of battle,

even if that's not the most tactically sound decision. If you decide you're going to include an intelligent magic item in your game, give it a personality and roleplay it as an NPC. Give it a goal, personality, quirks, and make it interesting. Even in games where roleplay takes a back seat, the GM should at least give the item an occasional voice urging the possessor to take or not take some action in support of whatever the mission of that item is. Also, if the alignment or purpose of the item and the possessor align, the item should be a boon to the

character, help them whenever it can. But if there's some sort of misalignment, an undead slaying dagger in the hand of a necromancer, for example, then the item can be a minor or even a major thorn in the character's side and may even seek to rid itself of the character and find a new wielder. There are some differences between intelligent magic items and generic NPCs, though. People tend to be wrapped up in the day-to-day. It's hard to focus on solving worldwide crises or serving some deep-seated belief when you haven't eaten in two days and your husband's lying in bed with a bad case of scurvy. Magic items generally don't have those day-to-day worries of eating, breathing, working,

or making sure that your child grows up to be a productive member of society. So intelligent magic items can obsess over their purposes. They have grand plans and plots and purposes as their primary focus of their reason for existence. Examples include ridding the world of all bugbears, reclaiming the original creature's soul from imprisonment on another plane, the murder of a particular person or thing that slayed a previous possessor, or maybe to advise wearers on the safest travels through the abyss. Plus, since they probably don't have to sleep, they'll happily wake you up at 3am because they think it's

time to go bring justice to those never-do-wells at the thieves' guild. Speaking of which, intelligent items have the ability to communicate with their possessors. There are different levels of communication they could have, and they may be capable of, for example, empathic communication, where they can send primitive messages that boil down to, I like that, I don't like that, and that's neutral. Or the item could communicate through urges, like you suddenly, every time you pick up the sword, have the urge to attack the fire elemental first, and the sword begins to hum in your hand and grows cold to the touch. The item could speak into the possessor's mind like telepathy. Only the wearer hears the urging of the protective cloak with a glory-seeking personality to hang back, save your spells, and only get involved when your allies are hurt and need you. And at the top end of the communication spectrum would be a magic item that has full speech capability.

It can talk out loud such that the possessor and others around them can hear what's being said. Needless to say, talking magic items are rare even compared to other intelligent magic items. So, use with caution. One last note here. items, so use with caution. One last note here. Magic items with telepathic or speech capabilities will know a range of languages that are appropriate for when and where it was made. Imagine a magic ring that you're wearing that can communicate telepathically with you, but it was made in England in the 15th century. It would speak Middle English, and you might not understand it at all because English is undergoing constant change and revision, so there may be some communications issues that have to be resolved.

Also, intelligent magic items may or may not be able to see and hear around them, maybe only when wielded or worn. They may even be able to watch 360 degrees around them at all times and can alert the wearer before someone would get a flanking attempt. around them at all times and can alert the wearer before someone would get a flanking attempt. For my second tip for intelligent magic items, their powers should generally support their purpose. If the armor is built to slay dragons, maybe it grants advantage or a bonus to saving throws against dragon breath. Or if it's a weapon, maybe it grants additional damage dice against a certain creature type. These powers should be something that would help the possessor accomplish the item's purpose. So if it's a doctor's mask that had been blessed

by the Florence Nightingale of your world, maybe it grants bonuses to medicine checks to heal and perform surgery and grants resistance to disease for the patient being worked on. Meanwhile, the sword of Sith Lord Slaying maybe can absorb force lightning effects and channel it into additional damage. For the best example of intelligent magic items ever to put to film, see the One Ring from The Lord of the Rings. The ring was intelligent, knew it belonged to Sauron, and waited for the right time to attempt to return to its master. It could turn its wearer invisible, extend the wearer's life, and telepathically send messages to the wearer or holder speaking to its desire to use the ring for

its own ends. The protection of Minas Tirith and the strength of Gondor to Boromir. Become a powerful dangerous queen to Galadriel and of course Smeagol who over hundreds of years would become the pitiful creature Gollum. The One Ring had a will of its own and wanted to accomplish its own ends. Think about Bilbo's eleventy-first birthday. When Bilbo is standing before the crowd, giving the speech with the wonderful line, I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

When he finally takes the ring out of his pocket behind his back, he mutters, I've put this off for too long. That was the ring imposing its will on Bilbo to leave the Shire because it wanted to return to Sauron. Intelligent magic items are as rare as you want them to be in your world, but for my third tip, I strongly recommend making them extremely rare. Not every sword out there can sing and dance on its own because it was possessed by the spirit of a former ballet dancer. I've DM'd in one form or another for more than three decades now, and I think I've had, at my last count, four intelligent magic items in my game, and all four were tied to the plot in some way. I ran one campaign centered around a special set of magic items,

and only one of them was intelligent. It was called the Angel Fall Bow, an evil-aligned weapon that generated its own ammunition, had double the range increment of a regular bow, and could paralyze creatures that were in the air when they were hit. Fun item. It was a newer player who claimed it, so I didn't make its urges as insistent as I could

have. But if there were flying creatures on the battlefield, including, for example, allies, the possessor had to make a will save to attack anything else besides the flying creature. Allies, by the way, mostly stayed on the ground after a mishap or two. Intelligent magic items are one of a kind, and it takes a special event to create them. Further, they're only created for that specific reason or purpose that I talked about the item having earlier. A random blacksmith in Sandpoint can't just decide he's going to make an intelligent magic item one day. A random sorcerer from Galt can't just imbue a magic item with part of her will. you a magic item with part of her will. It takes extremely powerful magic, a complicated ritual,

and possibly the influence of a god or creature from beyond to create them. The Angel Fall bow, for example, was crafted in the Nine Hells by a powerful archdevil who poured the essence of her high-level general into the bow. Creatures struck by the bow and failing their save were paralyzed and saw the visage of a devil's head taking them into its mouth, rendering them immobile. So for my fourth tip, if you want to introduce an intelligent item to your game, give it a history and a name, even if the player never uncovers it. how it was created, who created it, and why will help ground you in your role play of that item and make it easier to understand the item's motivations for wanting or not wanting something. It shouldn't just be a plus one poisoning dagger. It's flesh rend. It's the cape of the satrap. It's the guiding flame. The name of the item should tie to its purpose and history. A brief list of how these types of items could be

created are just off the top of my head. Directed intervention of the divine like a god or goddess, possession or haunting by a creature, powerful magic ritual, or some right or wrong on an extremely powerful scale. Like the sword that cut off Sauron's hand, or maybe an altar where the blood of a thousand innocents was spilled. A dagger that a widow wielded as she wandered into a holy site deep in the desert to beseech the gods help to avenge her family. This is the armor, the ring, the boots that were used when X happened. You need to know what X was. Fifth tip. Intelligent magic items should have a thorough description. This is not the time to say, yeah, the dagger glows when you cast detect magic. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is the time to pull out some wordy description that you write ahead

of time. The sword reflects your torchlight with an iridescent sheen immediately drawing your eye. Your detect magic spell makes your ears ring as the sword glows with the brightest magical shimmer you have ever seen. And then once they pick it up, as your hand closes around the fine leather-wrapped hilt, the sword seems to jump in your hand and a purple rune glows briefly on the hilt

and you hear a voice quietly in your head say, oh, hello, and who might you be? For example, when the ranger of my campaign fired the Angelfall bow for the first time, I told him he could feel it pulling and adjusting his aim to have a better chance of hitting the target. The bow telepathically told him to relax and let me help you, as he unleashed a volley of arrows against a harpy queen, paralyzing her and dropping her to the ground for the melee fighters to finish off. It was a plus three intelligent bow and was happy to use its powers to help the ranger,

as long as the ranger was helping it in kind. Lastly, and I think obviously, intelligent magic items should be powerful as shit. An angel is not going to use the souls of diva and faithful followers to make a plus one longsword. No. Look at some of the powerful magic items and artifacts in your game and give them powers on par with that. My general rule of thumb is I give one power that can be used at will, like detect undead or light, a couple of powers like advantage on certain saving throws that can be used a certain number of times per day or per long rest, and one power that is extremely useful and extremely powerful that can be used once per day or maybe even once per week. For example, maybe once per week the possessor can beseech the goddess that created the warhammer and cast a

spell like augury to get a hint from the Divine Realm about the next course of action to take. Okay, let's briefly talk about specific game system rules about this and where you can find them. In 5th edition, 5e calls these items sentient magic items, and most of the rules for these things are spelled out on page 214 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. On those pages are rules for creating the items, giving them abilities, communication methods, senses, alignment, characteristics, purpose, and properties. The DMG even includes some handy tables to roll on,

but it and I encourage you to make your own. In Pathfinder 2E, intelligent items are spelled out starting on page 88 of the Game Mastery Guide. It does a good job of discussing something I've alluded to, but not stated directly. So my sixth tip is that your intelligent magic items have control over their own powers and can grant or withhold them at will. and can grant or withhold them at will. An assassin wielding a dagger that poisons those it attacks can withhold that poison on the damage if the dagger is being used in a way that the dagger doesn't like. There's a ton more I could say about intelligent magic items,

but for the sake of brevity, I'm going to link to a great YouTube video on the subject by a channel called Dungeon Dudes about how to homebrew sentient magic items. They have a lot of great advice on the subject, and I would love it if you would stop by and say hi to them. Intelligent magic items can really bring a unique feel to a game you're playing and running, but should be done with caution. Make them closer to NPCs than items. Give them their own goals, desires. Give them a personality and a backstory. Make them extremely rare. Give them

powers that support their mission or purpose, and give them a reason to either use or not use those powers for a particular character in any situation, and I bet you and your players would have fun doing it. If you liked the episode, please consider sharing it on a social media platform of your choice. Help me spread the word. I would be greatly appreciative. Tune in next week when I'm going to talk about designing your own dungeon maps. The good, the bad, and the railroad. Before I go though, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Eggs. I realized I've been eating omelets almost every day for breakfast. I guess I've become kind of an egomaniac. This has been episode 159, all about intelligent magic items.

My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production. Copyright 2023. References to game system content are copyrighted by their respective publishers.