All the discussion about magic items for sale in said thread got my brain a-whirlin', thinking about new magic items or customized ones.
Now, obviously, mechanics for such vary from game to game but converting should NOT be too hard for a pack of grognards like ourselves.
So I'll start:
Dwarven cursebreaker (miscellaneous, expendable)
A dwarven cursebreaker is a baton about three feet in length, no thicker than a dwarf's thumb, and made of either wood or bound fungus-stalk fibers and dipped in resin. Painted or incised along its length are dozens of the angular Dwarf runes, and anyone who reads Dwarven can at least perceive these as prayers of restoration and abjuration. Identify or read magic will allow the caster to determine the item's true nature.
As its name implies, a cursebreaker is used to break curses or enchantments. Its use is deceptively simple: a wielder strikes a victim with the rod. At this point, several things occur:
a) the victim takes 1d6+Strength modifier in nonlethal/subdual damage. This damage does not overflow if it reduces the target to 0 HP.
b) all malign magical effects are targeted by a dispel magic or break enchantment (depending on your system). Regardless, if a check is called for, it is modified by the amount of subdual damage dealt to the victim as a bonus. Each effect is checked once, starting with the highest DC and working its way downward.
c) the cursebreaker shatters and is no longer magical.
A cursebreaker only breaks if the target is actually under the effect of a malignant spell. Otherwise, it has hardness and durability equivalent to a three foot steel rod (use steel longsword stats if someone is trying to sunder it)
Thoughts?
Quote from: Ghostmaker;1142349Dwarven cursebreaker (miscellaneous, expendable)
A dwarven cursebreaker is a baton about three feet in length, no thicker than a dwarf's thumb, and made of either wood or bound fungus-stalk fibers and dipped in resin. Painted or incised along its length are dozens of the angular Dwarf runes, and anyone who reads Dwarven can at least perceive these as prayers of restoration and abjuration. Identify or read magic will allow the caster to determine the item's true nature.
As its name implies, a cursebreaker is used to break curses or enchantments. Its use is deceptively simple: a wielder strikes a victim with the rod. At this point, several things occur:
a) the victim takes 1d6+Strength modifier in nonlethal/subdual damage. This damage does not overflow if it reduces the target to 0 HP.
b) all malign magical effects are targeted by a dispel magic or break enchantment (depending on your system). Regardless, if a check is called for, it is modified by the amount of subdual damage dealt to the victim as a bonus. Each effect is checked once, starting with the highest DC and working its way downward.
c) the cursebreaker shatters and is no longer magical.
A cursebreaker only breaks if the target is actually under the effect of a malignant spell. Otherwise, it has hardness and durability equivalent to a three foot steel rod (use steel longsword stats if someone is trying to sunder it)
Thoughts?
This is a great item, one I would covet as a player. It seems best to solve the "charmed friendly" dilemma. I might even give it a few charges before shattering, just to keep it in the campaign a little longer.
Honestly the image of some dwarf beating a guy's brains out to cure him is really funny.
Buddy Pastry/Ale - Enchanted perishable food with a variant one-shot Friends spell. Whoever eats it after activation (often a simple verbal command or semantic gesture) becomes friendly and credulous of others, assuming they are among friends. Lasts 1d4 minutes. Does leave the target vaguely suspicious afterwards. Easily reappliable with more consumption.
A favorite common enchantment of halflings, who are rumored to have perfected its cooking cost to nigh-mass production levels. ;)
Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1142454Honestly the image of some dwarf beating a guy's brains out to cure him is really funny.
That was the image I was aiming for. I figure dwarf abjuration/healing magic is often... muscular.
Here's another idea.
Elven memory crystal (miscellaneous)
Elves, with their long lifespans, often find it difficult to organize their thoughts and memories to consider a specific issue (a problem exacerbated by their chaotic tendencies). To counter this, elves will often copy memories into a crystal, and then use it as a meditative focus before attempting certain tasks. In more modern terms, they're copying memories onto a solid-state drive for easier retrieval.
An
elven memory crystal gives off enchantment auras, and is typically about the size of a thumb. Such crystals are placed on chains for easy handling. To gain the benefits, the user simply sits in meditation for ten minutes. Once this time is completed, the user is dazed for 1d6 turns from the influx of alien memories (elves and psychic classes reduce this to only 1 turn).
A crystal may hold up to 10 ranks in skills, spread any way the GM sees fit. While under the effects of the crystal, the user also treats those skills as class skills. A crystal may also hold up to 10 levels in arcane spells, and a spellcaster using a spellbook may transcribe them to their spellbook, or even memorize them from the crystal if they can cast them (the dazing effect still applies, since having spells directly blipverted into your brain is not how most wizards learn to memorize spells). Skill ranks last for 1d4+4 hours, while spells last until the next time the spellcaster memorizes spells. Crystals cannot hold both spells and skills; it's one or the other.
A crystal can only be used once a day.
Quote from: Ghostmaker;1142499That was the image I was aiming for. I figure dwarf abjuration/healing magic is often... muscular.
Shovel.
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-weekly-roll/ch-15-cantrip-schmantrip/viewer?title_no=358889&episode_no=17
Quote from: LiferGamer;1142954Shovel.
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-weekly-roll/ch-15-cantrip-schmantrip/viewer?title_no=358889&episode_no=17
Erin Palette had a
heavy pick of wall bane on her website at one point. Interestingly, there doesn't seem to be a magical modifier for sunder checks in 3.5E/PF.
Because I am not going to post without adding something else...
Underhill cider (miscellaneous, expendable)
Halflings like to joke about how 'there's an Underhill in every family', as the name is so common it's almost become a cliche. The name of this elixir is a play on the same joke. If a group of people share a drink of
Underhill cider (typically, one bottle serves six doses), then for the next eight hours they enjoy the following benefits: all drinkers enjoy the effects of a
status spell, with the information disseminated among the party -- every party member is aware of everyone else's state of well being. While the elixir does not grant telepathy or even empathy, it DOES grant an instinctive ability on how to best assist another member; assist other checks grant a +3 rather than +2 bonus, and flank bonus is increased to +3 from +2. The effects last for one hour. The rumor that all affected party members will answer to the name of Mister or Mrs. Underhill is, the halflings assure buyers, just a gnomish prank -- maybe.
Obar's Dome: A clean white human skull that will register on "Detect Magic" but not on "Detect Holy or Unholy" or on "Detect Undead." It will speak aloud, audible to anyone in earshot, to anyone who picks it up. It will speak one true thing about that person that the person did not know. It will never address the same individual twice but every time it meets a new person it will babble on.
Avaethen - True Tongue or True Speech Amulet
Considered a simple and 'cheap' amulet in the height of Blaenevon's glory days, the True Tongue was popular amongst the elite Elvish families.
It quite simply polishes the rough tongue of the 'lesser races' giving them the ability to speak and understand elvish fluently. Many of these are found and traded around from the ruins of the elvish cities, it DOES NOT allow reading or writing of the elvish tongue.
(The elf kingdom in my campaign were LN douchebags)
Quote from: LiferGamer;1143456Avaethen - True Tongue or True Speech Amulet
Considered a simple and 'cheap' amulet in the height of Blaenevon's glory days, the True Tongue was popular amongst the elite Elvish families.
It quite simply polishes the rough tongue of the 'lesser races' giving them the ability to speak and understand elvish fluently. Many of these are found and traded around from the ruins of the elvish cities, it DOES NOT allow reading or writing of the elvish tongue.
(The elf kingdom in my campaign were LN douchebags)
Wow, that's snooty as hell. I like it! Especially since it only gives 'listen/speak' -- if your elves have streetsigns, the party's still dependent on them for translation (or a
comprehend languages spell).
The Skull of Argoth The Unwavering (artifact, miscellaneous)
The
skull appears to be a preserved human skull sans jawbone, painted with various prayers over the course of centuries. Detection magic will barely sense it as having some abjuration effect when it is not active.
To activate the
skull, it simply needs to be uncovered. It cannot be hidden in a bag, or under a cloth, for it to work. It must at least be partially visible. Once active, the
skull generates an
anti-magic field in a double-strength range (20' radius from the skull). Every turn it is active, the radius increases by 20', to a maximum of 800'.
Within this field, no spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability of less than deific rank can function. Period. Summoned outsiders are immediately banished (no save), while called outsiders are the target of a DC36
banishment effect, every round, until they leave the area of effect or are returned to their home plane. Any entity suffering from an existing malign spell effect (such as a curse) is targeted by
greater dispel magic as well, every round, as if cast by a 20th level caster. This can affect spells that normally would require
break enchantment or
remove curse (and as a note, those spells are temporarily negated by the
anti-magic field anyways). This only targets malignant spells, however; benign effects are merely suppressed within the field.
To deactivate the
skull, it simply needs to be covered or hidden. Once this is done, the
anti-magic field immediately ends.
Unsurprisingly,
mage's disjunction does not work on the
skull properly. It takes one
disjunction to deactivate the
anti-magic field, and then a second, targeting the
skull itself. Even then, this only suppresses the
anti-magic field for 1d10 hours.
Destruction: In life, Argoth was a martial master who detested magic and trickery. To permanently deactivate the skull, someone must travel to the plane of eternal Law, Axis, find Argoth's soul, and convincingly argue the merits of sorcery and magic. Should they succeed, the
skull's abilities fade and it becomes simply a relic.
A unique item that one of my players really liked.
Stillness - elven made short-sword. +2 sword, +2 to initiative rolls. When unsheathed, creates a silence 5 foot radius centered on the wielder. The player quickly found out that she effectively had move silently, but at the same time couldn't shout or cry for help in combat.
Quote from: Vic99;1143503A unique item that one of my players really liked.
Stillness - elven made short-sword. +2 sword, +2 to initiative rolls. When unsheathed, creates a silence 5 foot radius centered on the wielder. The player quickly found out that she effectively had move silently, but at the same time couldn't shout or cry for help in combat.
Ooh, me likey. Those sort of double-edged effects are always fun.
Tonah's Temazcal
When conjured a small round mud hut (about 4 1/2 feet tall with a radius of 4 feet) with a small door (you have to crawl on your knees to get inside)and a smaller window on top (no wider than 2 inches) appears, whoever goes inside has 1d4 + caster level spiritual taint/poison cleansed if the "patient" is healthy it might just soothe it's muscles or induce visions 2/6 which might include a spirit journey 1/6, said visions have to be interpreted by the Shaman.
Edited to add:
It's the Aztec version of a sweat house, inside there's a coal fire heating a pot with water and herbs.
One of my favorites from a long time ago:
Gravity Control Boots. These stylish, royal purple, boots come up to your calf. By making a magic check (put whatever works for your system here), the wearer can define the direction of gravity for himself and his equipment. Gravity does not change for any other living thing carried by the wearer.
Ideally, you set the check such that the character can make it more often than not. The first time I used it, the wearer had about a 80% chance. For most players, this will cause cautious use at first, then more repeated use, until they stumble across some of the problems. For the first guy, he realized that he could define gravity at a 90 degree angle and thus walk on walls, up near the ceiling in the dungeon, which would make it easier for him to sneak and harder for monsters to reach him (it was an ancient hall with 12 to 15 foot ceilings). Then he missed seeing a side tunnel which for him was a very deep pit. Fortunately, he made his check to reorient before falling very far, but you should have seen the look on the player's face when he was rolling. One of the few times I've seen a player go pale. :D
Signature link, category: Magic Items.
Coming hopefully Q4 as an illustrated book.
Quote from: GeekyBugle;1143551Tonah's Temazcal
When conjured a small round mud hut (about 4 1/2 feet tall with a radius of 4 feet) with a small door (you have to crawl on your knees to get inside)and a smaller window on top (no wider than 2 inches) appears, whoever goes inside has 1d4 + caster level spiritual taint/poison cleansed if the "patient" is healthy it might just soothe it's muscles or induce visions 2/6 which might include a spirit journey 1/6, said visions have to be interpreted by the Shaman.
Edited to add:
It's the Aztec version of a sweat house, inside there's a coal fire heating a pot with water and herbs.
Clever. Especially if it's a collapsible item, like the Instant Fortress.
Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1143552One of my favorites from a long time ago:
Gravity Control Boots. These stylish, royal purple, boots come up to your calf. By making a magic check (put whatever works for your system here), the wearer can define the direction of gravity for himself and his equipment. Gravity does not change for any other living thing carried by the wearer.
Ideally, you set the check such that the character can make it more often than not. The first time I used it, the wearer had about a 80% chance. For most players, this will cause cautious use at first, then more repeated use, until they stumble across some of the problems. For the first guy, he realized that he could define gravity at a 90 degree angle and thus walk on walls, up near the ceiling in the dungeon, which would make it easier for him to sneak and harder for monsters to reach him (it was an ancient hall with 12 to 15 foot ceilings). Then he missed seeing a side tunnel which for him was a very deep pit. Fortunately, he made his check to reorient before falling very far, but you should have seen the look on the player's face when he was rolling. One of the few times I've seen a player go pale. :D
Oh, the possibilities, especially in the hands of a ranged combatant...
Quote from: Ghostmaker;1143645Clever. Especially if it's a collapsible item, like the Instant Fortress.
Think of Leomund's tiny hut, but it's a sweat house.
Quote from: bat;1143622Signature link, category: Magic Items.
Coming hopefully Q4 as an illustrated book.
Reminds me of Daily Bestiary, and in a good way.
Quote from: Ghostmaker;1144076Reminds me of Daily Bestiary, and in a good way.
Thank you! I made it daily for the first three years. Then cracked. Took a break. Every other day now, rain or storm.
Quote from: bat;1144310Thank you! I made it daily for the first three years. Then cracked. Took a break. Every other day now, rain or storm.
To misquote Dirty Harry, people gotta know their limitations. :)
Bottled Time (miscellaneous)
"If I could save time in a bottle..."This vial appears to be made of some form of bone or ivory, and is opaque with a thick cork in the neck. The bottle is almost invariably empty when found, though it radiates transmutation and conjuration magics.
When it is left out and opened, it draws in the 'time' around it in a 10' radius. Anything within that radius is subject to a
temporal stasis effect. This effect activates 1d4 rounds after the bottle is uncapped and set on a flat surface. The bottle draws up to twelve hours of time, and when it is 'full', the stasis effect ends. Nothing outside the effect can enter the radius when it is siphoning time.
Thereafter, the holder may 'spill' some time, creating a
time stop effect. Since playing with
bottled time is something of an inexact science, for every use of this ability the number of hours expended is 1d4+3. It is impossible to tell how much time is left in the bottle, only if it is empty or has some time left. Regardless, the user may always create a
time stop effect if there's at least one hour left in the bottle.
Alternately, the bottle may be upended over a person entirely. This immediately dispels and reverses any unnatural aging effect upon the target, though it grants no additional lifespan. This empties the bottle, however.
Using bottled time is risky. Every time the bottle is charged, there is a 5% chance it will attract the attention of a bythos aeon. Such aeons take a dim view of this device, and sometimes the safest course of action is to simply surrender the bottle. Slaying the bythos only buys a temporary respite, and a bythos that is only driven off will most certainly return with reinforcements.
How appropriate, I'm necro'ing my own thread with a necromantic item.
Bone Chair (miscellaneous)
The bone chair appears to be an elaborately constructed chair made entirely from various bones (mostly humanoid) and minimal padding (most living creatures using one add a pillow or cushion). It radiates strong necromancy and transmutation magics.
Upon the use of a command word, the chair unfolds four to six legs which lift the seated person up approximately a foot and a half, while two skeletal hands clasp around their waist to prevent them from falling out easily.
Hereafter, the chair will carry the seated person (requires a move action) at a speed of 20' per round. It is not terribly quiet (-2 to any Stealth check, due to the clacking of bones), but it does act as a steady platform (+4 CMD versus combat maneuvers to trip, bull rush, or otherwise knock it over, and a +2 to any saving throw involving unstable footing). The chair is not a living creature and thus does not suffer fatigue, however it can only move as fast as its maximum 20' speed and cannot forced-march.
The chair is not a particularly durable item, and if it suffers more than 20 points of damage (use standard hardness for magical items, bone material) it stops functioning. Bone chairs can be repaired with spells like make whole but will require a supply of bones to replace damaged components (as a rule of thumb, one complete skeleton is sufficient for 2-3 repairs).