Intelligent Swords

I've done a little research. I had completely forgotten that the DMG has intelligent weapons. Of course, that is the full-on 1E treatment, which is a little more than I was looking for, but it did help. Interestingly, even though using intelligent swords was meant from the beginning to be the fighter's niche, 1E completely raped the fighter over it. Not only was the ability to wield swords spread liberally, any weapon could be intelligent under those rules. That's neither here nor there for my purposes, just something that caught my eye.

Anyway, I've roughed up some new intelligent sword tables. For now, everything except my tables remains as it is in Monsters & Treasure.

Step One: Roll Alignment
01-30     Lawful
31-90     Neutral (-10 on INT roll)
91-00     Chaotic

Step Two: Determine Intelligence
Roll     INT     Powers                                             Communication
01-75           ------ None ------
76-87    9        One Primary                                          Empathy
88-94   11       Two Primary                                          Empathy
95-99   13       Two Primary                                           Speech
  00      15       One Primary/One Extraordinary          Telepathy


Step Three: Purpose
01-90     None
91-00     Special Purpose

Modifiers
+(INT)
+1 per Primary Power
+2 per Extraordinary Power
-10 if alignment Neutral

Step Four: Determine Ego

Ego equals:
INT
+ each "plus", if additional pluses vs specific opponent, only highest plus is used
+1 per Primary Power
+2 per Extraordinary Power
+4 if sword has Purpose
+2 if sword is Lawful or Chaotic

To test Ego roll a standard check, d10 + Sword Ego vs d10 + PC CHAR + Level (Fighting-Man only)

As a corollary to this, with the Fighting-Man not relying on intelligent swords to empower his class ability, it becomes much easier to allow Clerics and Magic-Users to use any weapons, including swords. That explains the fact that only Fighting-Men add level when making an Ego check. Only Fighting-Men are fully capable of controlling the most magical of blades.