Sentient Weapon

Sentient weapons is a mechanic introduced in Update 37 that allows to upgrade weapons with sentience, gaining mechanical benefits (increase to various abilities) and roleplay effects (weapons commenting your actions).

The Sentient Weapon can make comments to the player as the weapon is held and used. There is a Gameplay tab option to turn off voice, text, or both.

Eligible weapons
Only minimum level 20 or higher named weapons can gain sentience. Crafted / upgradeable weapons are out (most notably Temple of Elemental Evil, Legendary Green Steel, and Thunder-Forged). An item that accepts sentience will say "Accepts Sentience" under its name if you cursor over it. All weapons that you can get from the L20 Cannith Challenge trader have the text "Accepts Sentience" on them (not tested if they actually do and what happens if you upgraded a L16 item to L20).


 * Sentient weapons cannot be placed in your off-hand slot.
 * When a named weapon is unbound (or Bound to Character on Equip but not yet equipped) the item will become Bound to Account if a Sentient Jewel is slotted into it (because Sentient Jewels are Bound to Account).

For the list of level 20+ named weapons see: Sentient Weapon/Base item‎.


 * See also Sentient Weapon/Ineligible weapons.

Creating and Modifying a Sentient Weapon
When you have both a weapon that accepts sentience (see subsection above) and a sentient jewel in your inventory, you can create a new sentient weapon. On the right hand side of your inventory panel, in the middle (above the pet stable's "paw" link), is a red square. If you mouse-hover over that a blue icon is added to it, with the words "Modify your sentient items". Open this panel (see right) and move the weapon you choose to modify to the square, top left. Then drag and add either a sentient gem (to create a new sentient weapon), or, if you have already done that, a filigree (to add to an open slot* on an existing weapon).


 * (* To open new slots, see section on sentient jewels, next)

Slotting a sentient jewel to a weapon does not change the weapon's minimum level. Unbound named items (or Bound to Character on Equip but not yet equipped) become Bound to Account if a Sentient Jewel is slotted into it (because Sentient Jewels are Bound to Account). BtCoA weapons stay BtCoA.

You cannot modify a weapon that is currently equipped. You cannot simply replace old jewels or filigrees by adding new ones - the old ones must first be removed using the appropriate tool (see subsection at bottom). You cannot add the same filigree twice (with or without rare bonus).

Sentient Jewels
Sentient Jewels are essences that carry an intelligence and personality. Slot the jewel to a weapon to awaken its sentience. You can also pry out the jewel out of an existing weapon and transfer it to a different weapon. Jewels currently come with one of six standard* personalities - Resolute, Inquisitive, Hopeful, Furious, Covetous, or Timid. Personalities have no effect on game play, nor do they modify or limit your slotted filigrees in any way, they only change the in-game vocal comments made by the weapon while wielded.


 * (* For the 12th Anniversary event, a 7th personality was introduced, Kobold, not available through regular game play.)

The name of the sentient jewel only pertains to its original personality and in-game voice characterization, and does not influence what benefits it will give you. Sentient jewel voice volume can be adjusted by opening Options ( Ctrl + o ), and then under the "Audio" tab.

Sentient Jewel Experience
Players can build Sentient Experience by feeding named items to their Sentient Jewel. You do this by opening the Sentient Item panel and dragging the item to the appropriate slot there.

All Sentient XP is tied to the jewel itself, and not the weapon. Any xp the Sentient Jewel has gained stays with the jewel when you unslot it, and is applied to a new weapon when you slot that jewel into it.

Currently, the cap of Sentient XP a jewel can hold is 61,000 sxp, just over what is needed for 7 slots. This is despite the item listing that the cost for the next (8th) slot is 100,000 xp. "Currently there are up to seven filigree slots available to unlock. It's possible we may add more in the future." (...) "The extra 1,000 (XP) is there essentially as a buffer so people don't inadvertently end up feeling like they "wasted" sentient xp when getting to the 7th slot with a high level item when they only needed 5 XP or whatever."

Sentience feed
Each named item will add a number of Sentient Experience Points (xp) to the jewel based on the minimum level required to use it. The actual numbers are as follows:


 * For example, a named item of ML 20 would add 20 Sentient XP (20 x 1), while a named item of ML 21 would add 105 xp (21 x5). Named item with a minimum level of 30 would add 300 Sentient XP, the most (currently) possible.

In addition to named items, you can win consumables from Daily Dice that can be consumed for experience:.

You can feed any named item that isn't specifically tagged as being worth 0 Sentient XP. The list of ineligible items includes, but is not limited to, the following categories:
 * Items that drop on logout, death, or leaving an area.
 * Items that are destroyed on death or logout.
 * Items that are stackable.
 * Items that cannot be sold to a vendor.
 * Any item with a duration.
 * Any item that is destroyed when it is empty/out of charges.
 * Any item that is locked with the Inventory lock icon.
 * A smattering of individual items which have specifically been decided shouldn't be able to be fed for various reasons (The three Slave Lords blank items that drop like candy and don't ransack for instance)
 * Sentient Weapons will not consume named items with Augments.
 * Sentient Weapons will not consume other Sentient Weapons slotted with a Sentient Jewel.

Costs (in exact XP and approximate # of named items) to open Sentient Filigree slots are as follows:
 * (* These values approximate a "typical" item, and are the simple numerical averages of  : items ML 1-20 average 10.5 x 1 = 10.5 XP each, items ML 21-27 average 24 x 5 = 120 XP each, and items ML 28-30 average ML 29 x 10 = 290 XP each. This is a very general estimate, and does not reflect their drop-rate in-game.
 * This means that, if a character is feeding their gem "average" items (for each category), they will need approximately 1,900 named items of ML 1-20, or 166 named items of ML 21-27, or 69 named items of ML 28-30, to reach 20,000 XP to open 5 Filigree slots - or some combination of that. And, of course, less if toward the high end of that average, or more if toward the low end.
 * And then that expensive again for each of slots 6 and 7.)

Feeding a Sentient Jewel to another Sentient Jewel will give any accumulated Sentient XP from the first to the second, plus an additional 50.

See also Sentient Weapon/Non-food for a list of items that can not be fed to sentient jewels:

Where to get jewels
You can obtain an initial Sentient Jewel by speaking to Tobar the Smith, a Vistani Trader inside the Barovia EPIC wilderness area very near the entrance. You must speak to him twice. Further Sentient Jewels can be found from a variety of different sources unique to the specific sentient jewel.
 * The first time, he will give you your choice of an ML29 Morninglord's weapon (that accepts sentience).
 * The second time, he will give you your choice of three different Sentient Jewels (Hopeful, Inquisitive, Resolute).
 * A Sentient Jewel can be found in the Epic Ravenloft Saga reward list (Furious).
 * A Jewel can also be found as a Raid reward in the new raids (Covetous).
 * A Jewel of the Timid is available in the Blue Water Inn for s.

Also...
 * A Kobold Jewel was available during the 12th Anniversary event, as a trade-in for 250 Party Favors.

Sentient Filigrees

 * A Filigree is an augment-like ingredient that you can add to a sentient weapon, assuming you have a free filigree slot.
 * A weapon can only have one of each Filigree. You cannot slot two of the same Filigree in one weapon.
 * Filigree sets have their own rarity; some sets will be less common than others. In addition, each Filigree has a rare chance to drop with an upgraded bonus, which has an additional effect on it.
 * Unless specifically noted, all bonuses listed are unique bonuses and stack with everything, including each other.
 * A single weapon can benefit from multiple Filigree Set Bonuses simultaneously.
 * Sentient Filigrees can be obtained from chests in Ravenloft for now, and could appear in non-Ravenloft chests in the future. Higher difficulty settings have an increased chance to provide Filigrees. Filigrees are unbound, and can be traded and auctioned.
 * Filigrees can be (auto-)collected into an augment bag, and can be found under "Item Augments" in the Auction House and Shard Exchange.

See available filigrees here: Sentient Weapon/Filigrees‎

Tools

 * - Destroys a Filigree or even a Sentient Jewel to open up the slot for a new piece. Simply drag the tools onto the Filigree or Jewel slot to destroy the contents and free up the slot. You can purchase destroyers for Platinum from tools vendors throughout DDO; for example in the Marketplace.
 * - Unslots a Filigree or Jewel.
 * You can purchase unslotters for DDO Points from the DDO Store: for 1,  for 5,  for 10.
 * Sentient Toolkits can be obtained from the same chests where Sentient Filigree can be found. (BtA)

You cannot destroy or unslot a jewel unless all filigrees have been removed from the weapon first.

You cannot slot or unslot Sentient Jewels or Filigree from within a quest.

PnP information

 * 3.5 SRD - http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Intelligent_Items
 * 5E SRD - http://www.5esrd.com/gamemastering/magic-items/sentient-magic-items/