Special Purpose

You can give a sentient item an objective it pursues, perhaps to the exclusion of all else. As long as the wielder's use of the item aligns with that special purpose, the item remains cooperative. Deviating from this course might cause conflict between the wielder and the item, and could even cause the item to prevent the use of its activated properties. You can pick a special purpose or roll on the following table.

d10 Purpose
1 Aligned: The item seeks to defeat or destroy those of a diametrically opposed alignment. (Such an item is never neutral.)
2 Bane: The item seeks to defeat or destroy creatures of a particular kind, such as fiends, shapechangers, trolls, or wizards.
3 Protector: The item seeks to defend a particular race or kind of creature, such as elves or druids.
4 Crusader: The item seeks to defeat, weaken, or destroy the servants of a particular deity.
5 Templar: The item seeks to defend the servants and interests of a particular deity.
6 Destroyer: The item craves destruction and goads its user to fight arbitrarily.
7 Glory Seeker: The item seeks renown as the greatest magic item in the world, by establishing its user as a famous or notorious figure.
8 Lore Seeker: The item craves knowledge or is determined to solve a mystery, learn a secret, or unravel a cryptic prophecy.
9 Destiny Seeker: The item is convinced that it and its wielder have key roles to play in future events.
10 Creator Seeker: The item seeks its creator and wants to understand why it was created.

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.