Sentient Weapon, variant (5e Class)

Sentient Weapon, variant

A New Existence

You are dead. Congratulations! This is the way of things, all creatures die eventually. But then something happened, the reason for which is not yet comprehensible, even to the sharpest minds. Your soul did not pass to an afterlife based on its prerequisites. Nor were you completely erased from existence, embracing oblivion (thankfully!) You instead experienced a rebirth... of sorts. Though the means are as shrouded in mystery as the reason, your soul is now bound to a weapon. Your consciousness, along with shreds of memory from your former life now reside within a sword, or hammer, or axe or any handheld tool of combat. But you are not content to merely remain a thinking but unable to act object. Thankfully you have options. It took some doing, but you were able to psionically manifest a constructed body in the image of your former self. Held together by will and and the strange magic that gave your soul a new existence among the living, you stride out into the world. Do you do so to find answers, to leave your mark or perhaps simply because you can? Whatever your reasons, you have choice and the means to exercise it, once more.

The New You

Your True Body

The weapon you choose is your "true body", the vessel which houses your soul. If it is ever destroyed, your soul is permanently lost and you are truly dead- nothing short of deity can restore you. The physical form you project is your "constructed body". When sleeping or unconscious, your constructed body withdraws into the weapon.

Your Constructed Body

Your constructed body is the image of who you used to be. This means the race and background you chose are reflected in its form. You appear as a normal member of that race for the most part, save a visual tell of your nature, which can be chosen from the chart below.

Visual Tell

d6	Visual Effect
1	Part or all of your form changes color randomly
2	Part or all of your form appears transparent/translucent, to varying degrees
3	Part or all of your form appears to be made of a material other than organic (i.e metal, stone etc)
4	Your form "flickers" when stressed, or when you take damage
5	You exude a subtle glow from the center of your being
6	Stray undeterminable particles sometimes orbit your form

You maintain your racial ASIs and traits except for the following:

• A resistance you have is changed to immunity to poison and disease. Only one resistance is converted. If you do not have a resistance, you still gain this trait.
• Your age is no longer relevant. The age you chose could be the time that has passed since gaining consciousness and control over your new form, however you effectively do not age and cannot be aged by any means.
• Your size is Medium as the constructed body but Small (or Tiny, depending on the weapon) as the true body.

Additionally, you gain the following:

• Constructed Body. Though constructed, you are still considered alive. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish. Additionally you have advantage on Constitution Saving Throws related to environmental factors like Extreme Cold/Heat.
• Object Mind. You can communicate telepathically with any creature that wields you as weapon. The creature must be holding your true body to hear you and can reply, but not initate conversation telepathically.

Background

Though it was another life, long long ago, you remember enough of who you were to benefit from the proficiencies granted by your background.

Damage and Dying

As a mere projection of your true body, your constructed body can't truly be damaged in the conventional sense. Unfortunately, an old adage holds true for you: the mind makes it real. When your constructed body takes damage, that damage is actually converted to psychic damage and your HP drops by the amount of the damage rolled. By the same token, healing magic serves to soothe your mind, even if there is technically nothing physical to heal and your HP rises by the amount of healing rolled. Similarily, conditions (except poisoned) still affect you. With time and training, you may be able to "free your mind" at least temporarily from these bindings.

Unconsciousness

When you fall to 0 HP, your constructed body disappears and you are incapacitated in weapon form, reeling from the damage you (think) you took and you're convinced you're dying. You make death saving throws as normal. Thankfully healing magic (including potions) applied to your true body "revive" you, the way they would a flesh and blood creature. Upon revival, your constructed body reforms, prone, within five feet of your true body.

Death

If your constructed body dies as a flesh and blood creature would, it immediately disappears and your consciousness is lost. The magic empowering the weapon and binding your soul is still present, allowing the weapon to retain its magical properties, but the essence of who you are can no longer affect it. Resurrection spells cast on the weapon may succeed in restoring your soul's connection to it, if the caster has some understanding of what they're dealing with. The DM can impose a series of checks as part of a resurrection ritual, or at minimum impose a DC 12 Intelligence check (DC 15, if the caster is not personally familiar with you). Otherwise normal resurrection spell costs apply.

Creating a Sentient Weapon

First you must of course, pick a weapon. The weapon cannot be a ranged weapon, ammunition, net or wand. The weapon is considered magical for the purposes of attacks and resistance. Next, though how you came to be this way may not be readily apparent, consider what "awakened" you- how did you regain your self-awareness? What motivates you now? Do you resent or celebrate your new condition, and what are you going to do about it?

Quick Build

You can make a sentient weapon quickly by following these suggestions. First, Intelligence should be your highest ability score, followed by Strength or Dexterity. You can choose any background.

Class Features

As a Sentient Weapon you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d10 per Sentient Weapon level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + Constitution modifier per Sentient Weapon level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: None
Weapons: Yourself, simple weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Intelligence, Constitution
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Stealth, History, Investigation, Athletics, Acrobatics

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) A tassel of leather, woven gold or metallic lace or (b) bronze ring on your pommel (or head of your haft).
• a turquoise, azurite, eye agate (or other gem worth 10 gp) embedded in your crossguard (or haft)

Table: The Sentient Weapon

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features
1st	+2	Constructed Body, Weapon Mode
2nd	+2	Throw
3rd	+2	Reflect, Sentient Weapon Aspect
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement, Magic Bonus (+1)
5th	+3	Extra Attack
6th	+3	Hardened Body & Soul
7th	+3	Sentient Weapon Aspect Feature
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement
9th	+4	Flying Weapon
10th	+4	Sentient Weapon Aspect Feature
11th	+4	Extra Attack (2)
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement, Magic Bonus(+2)
13th	+5	—
14th	+5	—
15th	+5	Sentient Weapon Aspect Feature
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement, Magic Bonus (+3)
17th	+6	Magical Aegis
18th	+6	—
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement, Magic Weapon (+3)
20th	+6	Extra Attack (3)

Weapon Mode

At 1st level, as a bonus action you can retreat into your weapon the way a turtle retreats into its shell. While in weapon mode, you take no damage and are not affected by conditions, however you also cannot move or take any action until you revert back into your constructed body. You can be wielded by a creature if you allow it to do so, though you impart no proficiency or additional bonuses, beyond being considered a magical weapon for attack/resistance purposes. If a creature tries to wield you against your will you can force it to make an Intelligence Saving throw or take 1d8 psychic damage and be forced to drop you. On success, it doesn't take the damage. The damage increased to 2d8 at 5th level, 3d8 at 11th level and 4d8 at 16th level.

Throw

At 2nd level, your true body gains the Thrown property for you with a range of 30/60 ft, if it does not already have it. After attacking, the weapon returns to your hand. You can also choose to use your bonus action to revert to weapon mode just before you throw it. You then automatically revert to your constructed body after the attack, in an unoccupied space within 5 ft. of the target. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Reflect

Starting at 3rd level, when a creature targets you with a spell or ranged weapon attack, you can use your reaction to reflect some, or all the damage back at them. Make a ranged attack roll, with proficiency. If your roll a critical, you take no damage automatically and you deal damage equal to 1.5 times their damage roll. If you roll a natural 1, you take damage equal to 1.5 times their damage roll and cannot reflect it. Otherwise you reduce your damage by 1d10+ your Constitution Modifier + your Sentient Weapon level and deal that same damage, provided you hit.

Sentient Weapon Aspect

When you reach 3rd level, you begin to specialize your abilities further, based on which aspect of your existence you choose to develop. Choose from the Mind, Body or Composite Aspects, detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 3rd, 7th, 10th and 15th level.

Magic Bonus

At 4th level, your true body gains a +1 bonus to damage and attack rolls. This increases to a +2 at 12th level and +3 at 16th level.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can Attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on Your Turn. The number of attacks increases to three when you reach 11th level in this class and to four when you reach 20th level in this class.

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