Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General [Possible Spoilers]Sentient weapons in BG3

So one thing that I think flew under the radar almost entirely yesterday after Orin's reveal video was the fact the actress describes Orin as having an intimate relationship with her blades and that they feel real and personified to her...now it's easy to just think that "oh she's just a crazy woman who loves to stab people so she's imagining" but...well, probably not. Sentient weapons in D&D are a very real thing. As a matter of fact Orin's own god, Bhaal, was slain by a mortal named Cyric who wielded the god or trickery, Mask, in sword form. Now, not all sentient weapons are gods in disguise, but it does go show the range of possibilities here. I wonder if there are other sentient weapons in the game, or if we can get our hands on Orin's blades after we defeat her. Hell, those blades might even be Bhaal himself for all we know. My rogue assassin dark urge would absolutely love to have a go at wielding those blades though, I'll say that much.

Ah. I try to avoid everything that's in this video and I wish they hadn't published it. I know too much already without watching it. This may be one of those threads to include 'spoilers' in the title.

Well, I can remember sentient weapons in SoA and HotU, so why not. Perhaps, with crafting (and a little righteous murder), Naaber can be bound into weapon and given to an NPC you dislike

My guess is that one of the Legendary Items (9 I think) hidden in the game is somewhat sentient or possessed by something.

Yeah, there is a tendency to overdo the reveals in the marketing run-up to the release of recent games; and with the explosion of secondary content over the last 10 years, it tends to be difficult to avoid seeing things you subsequently wish you hadn't.

In EA, there's a sentient amulet we can find in Grymforge, so I wouldn't rule out sentient weapons in the game. As has been said, there's precedent in the Realms and in BG2 with Lilarcor.

Though like rodeolifant I'm trying to avoid as much info as I can about Orin as I think the more of a surprise she is the better and I already feel I know too much, so am not watching that vid and can't comment on whether her weapons are likely to be such items.

I hope that's right. The Elric series was on the first fantasy series I ever read and I've been fascinated by the sentient weapons ever since.

I guess it will be like grogs vampire sword in vox

Since we don't have all the details about what happened in Descent into Avernus it is possible we may bump into a certain sentient shield as well.

There are a few sentient weapons known from mythology, but I think Stormbringer (as well as Mournblade and the other demon blades) is the archetype for many subsequent sentient weapons in fantasy. Lilarcor (SoA) and Enserric (HotU) are pussycats compared to demon blades, they are more known for their comedic value than their malice. A genuinely manipulative sentient weapon would be interesting.

As for Moorcock's writing, I have to admit some ambivalence. His philosophical leanings were admirable and ahead of his time, but his tendency to write lazy pulp fiction made his own output less influential than his 30-years editing New Worlds Magazine.

Havng said that, Elric was certainly one of his better creations; perhaps I should read some of his more recent output, he might have improved in the last 40 years.

You're right. Moorcock was not the best writer. I picked up an early printing in a used bookstore and it had misspellings in it! While he's a sincere feminist the women in his books are empty shells that serve only to advance the story of the male protagonists . . .

But, for all of his failings as an author, he excelled at philosophical fantasy. He had an amazing imagination and he communicated more ideas in a paragraph that most authors presented inside of a trilogy. So much of DnD's cosmology is derived from his books - why, when you kill a devil does it not actually die but reform on it's own plane? Because Gygax stole that idea from Moorcock:

My second DnD character was largely a rip off of Elric - elven wizard / fighter wielding blackrazor and riding a griffon. I think I was 12 at the time.

Agreed 💯I would like to see a sword that was was truly manipulative and vindictive; one not made for comic relief.

I totally forgot about the talking sword in Shadows of Amn!

Yeah, that would be amazing.

As Oscar Wilde allegedly said "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness". Arneson and Gygax may have evolved the basic ideas around an RPG, by they proceeded to initially flesh it out with little regard to being inventive.

To be fair, creating detailed and consistent settings for fictional content is not a matter of a moments thought, so most great works of art or fiction build on prior art and history. The trick is to understand when you are overstepping the mark of plagiarism; Moorcock probably didn't care too much about his idea being reused, but TSR didn't get away with using Hobbits, Wargs and Balrogs for very long

So I could see an expansion where the add another Origin Character, where you play a Sentient Weapon that is piloting a meat body throughout the game, can create whatever race / class you want with the backstory / dialogs tags for the SW who is really in charge!

@Merry Mayhem. Agreed! That would lots of fun to have a companion like that.


Agreed. Might make list of what DnD took from Moorcock one day. Off the top of my head: the alignment system, the multiverse, need to kill it twice rules for demons and gods, sentient weapons, vampric weapons, elemental summoning, ships that sail on land, hand and eye of Vecna . . .

And yes you can wander into Plagarism - as was the case with the Witcher series. Amazon cancelled the Elric series because they thought another series with an inhuman, white-haired, red-eyed, sword fighting, wandering mercenary protagonist called the white wolf would confuse viewers. Grrr.

After this exchange I decided to see what Moorcock was up to these days and was surprised to see he has a new book out.

The interview made me laugh because I'm sure there's a Simon and Schuster publicist screaming into pillow right now. After talking about his health problems he says that the new book is 'pretty decent'

(paraphrasing, not actually quoting)

"I mean it's not bad there's some decent material in there for people who like my earlier style of writing . . . I mean if you like my early faster paced books and not my later, more sophisticated writings you should like it. Or you may hate it. And that's alright too, I don't mind" He then goes on to confirm that the women in the Elric books are really just plot devices and not real characters.

Made me like the guy all the more - I love the candor of the interview:

And Moorcock, in his turn, would have taken inspiriation from, say, Milton's Paradise Lost, or Dante's Inferno, along with global myth and legend, just as Tolkien was heavily influenced by his deep knowledge of NW European language and history.

It's only plagiarism when you don't bother to make changes

Yes, he was always straightforward, which is a trait I admire.

Appendix N was a good way of learning about writers and books I hadn't encounted yet

Learning that there might have been a Elric show and that it was canceled is very disappointing