Intelligent Items

Magic items sometimes have intelligence of their own. Magically imbued with sentience, these items think and feel the same way characters do and should be treated as NPCs. Intelligent items have extra abilities and sometimes extraordinary powers and special purposes. Only permanent magic items (as opposed to single-use items or those with charges) can be intelligent. (This means that potions, scrolls, and wands, among other items, are never intelligent.) In general, less than 1% of magic items have intelligence.

Intelligent items can actually be considered creatures because they have Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. Treat them as constructs. Intelligent items often have the ability to illuminate their surroundings at will (as magic weapons do); many cannot see otherwise.

Unlike most magic items, intelligent items can activate their own powers without waiting for a command word from their owner. Intelligent items act during their owner’s turn in the initiative order.

Designing an Intelligent Item

Creating a magic item with intelligence follows these simple guidelines. Intelligent items must have an alignment, mental ability scores, languages, senses, and at least one other special ability. These statistics and abilities can be improved during creation, increasing the item’s overall cost. Many of these abilities add to an item’s Ego score. Intelligent items with high Ego scores are difficult to control and can sometimes take control of their owner, making them dangerous to possess.

An intelligent magic item has a base price increase of 500 gp. When determining the total value of an intelligent item, add this value to the sum of the prices of all of its additional abilities gained through being intelligent, before adding them to the magic item’s base price.

Intelligent Item Alignment

Any item with intelligence has an alignment (see Table 15– 21). Note that intelligent weapons already have alignments, either stated or by implication. If you’re generating a random intelligent weapon, that weapon’s alignment must fit with any alignment-oriented special abilities it has.

Table 15–21: Intelligent Item Alignment

d%	Alignment of Item
01–10	Chaotic good
11–20	Chaotic neutral*
21–35	Chaotic evil
36–45	Neutral evil*
46–55	Lawful evil
56–70	Lawful good
71–80	Lawful neutral*
81–90	Neutral good*
91–100	Neutral

• The item can also be used by any character whose alignment corresponds to the non-neutral portion of the item’s alignment.

Any character whose alignment does not correspond to that of the item (except as noted by the asterisks on the table) gains one negative level if he or she so much as picks up the item. Although this negative level never results in actual level loss, it remains as long as the item is in hand and cannot be overcome in any way (including by restoration spells). This negative level is cumulative with any other penalties the item might place on inappropriate wielders. Items with Ego scores (see below) of 20 to 29 bestow two negative levels. Items with Ego scores of 30 or higher bestow three negative levels.

Intelligent Item Ability Scores

Intelligent magic items possess all three mental ability scores: Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each one of these ability scores begins at a value of 10, but can be increased to as high as 20. Table 15–22 shows the cost to increase one of the item’s ability scores. This cost must be paid for each ability score raised above 10. For example, an intelligent magic item with a 15 Intelligence, 12 Wisdom, and 10 Charisma would cost at least 2,400 gp more than the base item (including the 500 gp for being an intelligent item).

Table 15–22: Intelligent Item Ability Scores

Score	Base Price Modifier	Ego Modifier
10	—	—
11	+200 gp	—
12	+500 gp	+1
13	+700 gp	+1
14	+1,000 gp	+2
15	+1,400 gp	+2
16	+2,000 gp	+3
17	+2,800 gp	+3
18	+4,000 gp	+4
19	+5,200 gp	+4
20	+8,000 gp	+5

Languages Spoken by Item

Like a character, an intelligent item understands Common plus one additional language per point of Intelligence bonus. Choose appropriate languages, taking into account the item’s origin and purposes. If the item does not possess speech, it can still read and understand the languages it knows.

Senses and Communication

Every intelligent magic item begins with the ability to see and hear within 30 feet, as well as the ability to communicate empathically with its owner. Empathy only allows the item to encourage or discourage certain actions through urges and emotions. Additional forms of communication and better senses increase the item’s cost and Ego score, as noted on Table 15–23.

Empathy (Su): Empathy allows the item to encourage or discourage certain actions by communicating emotions and urges. It does not allow for verbal communication.

Speech (Su): An intelligent item with the capability for speech can talk using any of the languages it knows.

Telepathy (Su): Telepathy allows an intelligent item to communicate with its wielder telepathically, regardless of its

Senses and Communication

Ability

Base Price Modifier

Ego Modifier Empathy — — Speech +500 gp — Telepathy +1,000 gp +1 Senses (30 ft.) — — Senses (60 ft.) +500 gp — Senses (120 ft.) +1,000 gp — Darkvision +500 gp — Blindsense +5,000 gp +1 Read languages +1,000 gp +1 Read magic +2,000 gp +1

known languages. The wielder must be touching the item to communicate in this way.

Senses: Senses allow an intelligent magic item to see and hear out to the listed distance. Adding darkvision or blindsense allows the item to use those senses out to the same range as the item’s base senses.

Read Languages (Ex): The item can read script in any language, regardless of its known languages.

Read Magic (Sp): An intelligent magic item with this ability can read magical writings and scrolls as if through read magic. This ability does not allow the magic item to activate scrolls or other items. An intelligent magic item can suppress and resume this ability as a free action.

Dedicated Powers

A dedicated power operates only when an intelligent item is in pursuit of its special purpose. This determination is always made by the item. It should always be easy and straightforward to see how the ends justify the means. Unlike its other powers, an intelligent item can refuse to use its dedicated powers even if the owner is dominant (see Items Against Characters). The caster level for these effects is equal to the item’s caster level. Save DCs are based on the item’s highest mental ability score. See Table 15–26 for a list of dedicated powers.

Table 15–26: Special Purpose Item Dedicated Powers

d%	Dedicated Power	Base Price Modifier	Ego Modifier
01–20	Item can detect any special purpose foes within 60 feet	+10,000 gp	+1
21–35	Item can use a 4th-level spell at will	+56,000 gp	+2
36–50	Wielder gets +2 luck bonus on attacks, saves, and checks	+80,000 gp	+2
51–65	Item can use a 5th-level spell at will	+90,000 gp	+2
66–80	Item can use a 6th-level spell at will	+132,000 gp	+2
81–95	Item can use a 7th-level spell at will	+182,000 gp	+2
96–100	Item can use true resurrection on wielder, once per month	+200,000 gp	+2

Item Ego

Ego is a measure of the total power and force of personality that an item possesses. An item’s Ego score is the sum of all of its Ego modifiers plus an additional bonus for the cost of the base magic item (excluding the cost of all of the intelligent item enhancements). An item’s Ego score helps determine whether the item or the character is dominant in their relationship, as detailed below.

Base Magic Item Value	Ego Modifier
Up to 1,000 gp	—
1,001 gp to 5,000 gp	+1
5,001 gp to 10,000 gp	+2
10,001 gp to 20,000 gp	+3
20,001 gp to 50,000 gp	+4
50,001 gp to 100,000 gp	+6
100,001 gp to 200,000 gp	+8
200,001 gp and higher	+12