Intelligent Swords

Initial disposition

A reaction roll can be used to determine the sword’s initial disposition to its possessor. If the reaction is friendly, the sword may be helpful and inform its owner of its powers. Otherwise, it will expect its new owner to prove themselves first, and it may reveal its powers over time. It is able to use its powers on its own if it feels like it.

Communication

Intelligent swords do not have the “lower” communication abilities, only the one(s) listed. For example, an INT 14 sword with speech will not also have empathy and semi-empathy.1) Since INT 17 is explicitly given “speech and telepathy” and not just “telepathy”, this is a reasonable interpretation.

Detection of magic

The detect magic power of an intelligent sword is able to detect whether the magic is strong or weak (like a cleric's detect magic), but does not have the ability to detect higher at a higher fidelity like a magic-user's detect magic, nor does it have the ability to detect spell schools. Your DM may create special sentient swords that are otherwise.2) This ruling was made with only a small level of conviction. Since the intelligent sword rules don't explicitly say the extent of their detect magic ability, it seemed to make sense to make a conservative ruling, especially since it keeps magic-users (and psions) particularly useful for this task. Actually, a DM wouldn't be at fault if they ruled that intelligent swords don't even have the ability to detect strong vs weak magic, since that's not explicitly called out, but we do allow it. Anyway, perhaps some magazine or other publication has an official answer to this question.