[RPG] Can a creature of any alignment attune to this magic weapon in Curse of Strahd

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In Curse of Strahd, area K74h of Castle Ravenloft (p. 81), there is a certain magic weapon:

Treasure. The source of the underwater glow is a sentient lawful good +1 shortsword (Intelligence 11, Wisdom 13, Charisma 13). It has hearing and normal vision out to a range of 120 feet. It communicates by transmitting emotion to the creature carrying or wielding it.

The sword's purpose is to fight evil. The sword has the following additional properties:

  • The sword continually sheds bright light in a 15-foot radius and dim light for an additional 15 feet. Only by destroying the sword can this light be extinguished.
  • A lawful good creature can attune itself to the sword in 1 minute.
  • While attuned to the weapon, the sword's wielder can use the sword to cast the crusader's mantle spell. Once used, this property of the sword can't be used again until the next dawn.

The last bullet point describes that, if you are attuned to the weapon, you are granted the ability to cast that spell; I assume that the +1 is a "passive" ability that does not require attunement, but that casting the spell is what being attuned gets you.

My question is about the requirements for attuning to this particular weapon in the first place (i.e. my question mostly concerns the second bullet). The first bullet seems to describe an always-on effect and is therefore irrelevant to my question about attunement.

Typically, a +1 weapon does not require attunement, so we cannot rely on the generic rules for +1 weapons; we must rely on the description given in Curse of Strahd.

The second bullet describes that a lawful good creature can attune to it in 1 minute, but normally attuning to magic items (including magic weapons) takes an hour, so how should I parse this? I see two possible interpretations:

  1. That only lawful good creatures can attune to the weapon at all, but when they do, it only takes 1 minute.

  2. That a creature of any alignment can attune to the weapon, but it would take them the full hour, and only lawful good creatures get the reduced attunement time of 1 minute.

Which interpretation is correct (or is there a third interpretation)? Could, say, a chaotic evil or even a neutral good creature attune to the weapon (although it would take the full hour for them, due to them not being lawful good), or can the weapon only be attuned to by a lawful good creature?

Best Answer

The second option, with some caveats.

While Dale M's answer is technically correct, we should also consider sentient weapons' traits mentioned in DMG (p. 216):

A sentient item has a will of its own, shaped by its personality and alignment. If its wielder acts in a manner opposed to the item's alignment or purpose, conflict can arise. When such a conflict occurs, the item makes a Charisma check contested by the wielder's Charisma check. If the item wins the contest, it make one or more of the following demands:

[...]

If its wielder refuses to comply with the item's wishes, the item can do any or all of the following:

  • Make it impossible for its wielder to attune to it.
  • Suppress one or more of its activated properties.
  • Attempt to take control of its wielder.

So, while a character of any alignment can try to attune to the sword, a sentient sword might try to actively resist it, if the new wielder is not up to the weapon's taste.

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