I'm trying to design an unconventional NPC and I could use some feedback. In my campaign, the thief Tuk - a halfling - is on the run for having pilfered a gilded, egg sized emerald during a contracted heist. The emerald egg was not his target, but found in a compartment hidden inside the chest he was contracted to rob. Upon returning to his guild headquarters he discovers that all hell has broken loose and that the guild will not protect him, despite the contract. He's been on the run ever since.
Something strange has been happening with the gem in the meantime...it's been talking to him. First he heard it whispering as he lay poisoned in a wagon after failing to remove a trap needle from a chest. Suddenly he found himself cured of the poison. Next he heard it after being arrested in Hommlett, having been framed by the previous owners of the gem. An assassin came for him in his cell and he felt overwhelming panic from the gem as it was taken from him. On several occasions he has felt it urging him to keep it secret when he was tempted to discuss it with other members of the party.
So, in a general fashion, I see the gem as a receptacle of a Trap the Soul spell, containing a very old cleric/mage. Perhaps it sees Tuk as a means to recover a body, or perhaps it is avoiding some other fate by staying with an adventuring thief. It could even be that it is slowly trying to dominate Tuk. I have considered treating it like an intelligent item, following the rules as such in the DM's guide. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with sentient objects that they could share? _________________ No place is safe, only safer.
I would use either the intelligent item rule or the magic jar rule in the case of dominating the halfling. Though I would assume that the item has it out for the halfling looking to learn as much as it can about him before it springs the switch.
If the egg is solely a plot device, you do not need any rules for it at all. You make it do what you want it to do, function as you want it to function, etc. Instead, I would write up the NPC whose soul is in the egg, such that you have a perfect idea of what the soul knows and what it is.
I wouldn't necessarily set out to set up comprehensive rules to constrain what you want the egg to be able to do, but you might with to use the rules for mental control of the egg's possessor, but downgrade outright mental domination to merely being as per the suggestion spell, meaning Tuk would at lest get a saving throw. And yet, perhaps Tuk never realizes that he is being targeted with a magical compulsion effect, because it is "special egg magic". You don't need a real reason why that is, because you are the DM!
For example, Tuk is in position to be mentally dominated by the egg, as per the rules for intelligent items, but in the case of the egg that really just means he is open to a suggestion (as per the spell) from the egg, as the egg is just not as powerful as a full blown intelligent item with an ego (you might even lower its effective Intelligence and Ego; at least in regard to determining when it can exert enough metal control to throw out a suggestion to Tuk). And so the egg suggests. "Hey tuk. I know how we can get the money to finance our latest scheme. You can take it from your mother!" Unluckily for the egg, Tuk makes his saving throw vs. spell (because this suggestion is not very reasonable, as Tuk loves his mommy very much! ), and, instead of robbing his mother blind as the egg suggests, he says "No egg! I do not think it is good idea to rob my mother to pay for this latest scheme of ours. We'll have to think of some other way to get the money."
Of course there is nothing preventing the egg from giving advice to Tuk when it is unable to use its suggestion power, to the egg's (and Tuk's) overall benefit. For example, "Tuk. While I know that pudding is one of your favorite desserts, I highly recommend that you do not eat this particular pudding, as I noticed it moving earlier...on its own."
Now, it is up to Tuk whether he listens, or not. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
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), and, instead of robbing his mother blind as the egg suggests, he says "No egg! I do 