Topic: Magical items

[Newbie]

Just a question for those interested...

What is the most interesting/handy magic item you/your players have come up with?

I'm wanting to put some interesting gear into my game and am curious to see what the boards will throw up.

Please note that these items do not need to be rules as written created, I'll be happy with "it was made with better magic in ages past" kinda stuff too

[PhillipAEllis]

It depends upon the players, their characters, and their vanities. I had a chap play a succession of vain characters who, like him, were vain about their hair. Enter the explosive polytrix: just like the ordinary polytrix, it sends its owners bald, but suddenly and with wafting results in the immediate vicinity.

First time I ever saw a grown man on his knees, crying aloud "My hair! My beautiful hair!"

[Newbie]

Thats a neat little item of frustration...

Also anything goes really, no items need to be specific for use, just simple inspirational seeds

[PhillipAEllis]

I like the idea of useful items, such as, speaking in power point terms, spell adders and the like, but with caveats.

So, as I've done elsewhere for Rolemaster, a breviary that's a spell adder, but for a specific list when the user has been reciting aloud the relevant texts, in much the same way you'd expect priests to chant their prayers to cast a spell.

[GrumpyOldFart]

What is the most interesting/handy magic item you/your players have come up with?
I'm wanting to put some interesting gear into my game and am curious to see what the boards will throw up.
Please note that these items do not need to be rules as written created, I'll be happy with "it was made with better magic in ages past" kinda stuff too

A lot can be done just by looking at your own world building process and comparing it to the existing list of magic items available. Given the cultures, the needs and desires, the resources available among "your people", there are probably several instances of "there should be an item that does _____" that aren't on the list, and often are glaringly obvious once you look at it from that point of view. As an example, if you have magic using halflings living in canyon oases in the middle of a howling waste, items having to do with water, erosion engineering and soil fertility are going to be common, and items found amid the ruins of such a culture will reflect that... but your basic random magic item generation list will not unless you amend it.

If your people live along the Nile, the Mississippi, the Amazon or in Venice, everybody who is anybody has a magic boat in his pocket that will go against the wind and current. In the Gobi, the Mojave, the Sahara, the Himalayas... not so much.

[sunwolf]

I have created an order of Warrior Mages that give all of their initiates Soft Leather Armor that is also a +1PP Adder and a Spell Focus Item.  As they advance in the order they can get better armor with slightly more +'s for the PP Adder, lets them actually try and cast spells in Armor without making it too easy.  The soft leather +1PP adder and focus item is available to starting characters for 20 DP, everything else requires impressing the order enough to earn it.

[jdale]

My character (RM, but this is pretty systemless) has made great use of a pouch out of which a random small animal (mouse, beetle, lizard, sparrow, etc) can be drawn three times per day. Many ended up as testers for magical traps... many more were eaten when we were starving and trying to stretch the last of our rations. 

I also have three spheres which trigger on sudden impact. One is a blinding flash of light; one cases everyone within 10' to be spun around multiple times ending up facing the opposite direction, disoriented and dizzy; and one causes sensory overload. Essentially they are reusable (1/week) stun grenades -- reusable if they are recovered that is (the light one actually was lost a few years ago). My character used the spin one to train himself to get used to magical disorientation.

There are other items in the party that are more potent but those are my favorites.

[GrumpyOldFart]

My character (RM, but this is pretty systemless) has made great use of a pouch out of which a random small animal (mouse, beetle, lizard, sparrow, etc) can be drawn three times per day. Many ended up as testers for magical traps... many more were eaten when we were starving and trying to stretch the last of our rations.

Long ago back in the day one of my favorite things to throw in was called a "Bag-O". It's basically just that, a pouch out of which things can be pulled. You had to be careful though, you never knew what you were going to get when a bag showed as magic, and it's important to remember that just because they came from your bag doesn't make them your friends. We had a Bag-O-Rattlesnakes for a while. I think we had a Bag-O-Giant Spiders for a bit, which was... interesting. My favorite was the bag of random creatures. It could be anything, as long as it could fit through the neck of the bag. Most of them are normal creatures, no big deal, and you start accepting that as typical.... but it only takes one minor demon, wolverine or vorpal bunny to make you paranoid about it for years afterward.

Stay away from the garbage-bag-sized sacks that show as being magical, though. Bag-O-Berserkers isn't as much fun as it sounds like. 

[GrumpyOldFart]

Oh, and I mustn't forget one of the long standing "standard non-standard items" of my games: The sticky light.

A sticky light is a ball of pine sap, tar, honey, anything sticky, covered by a dried clay crust. Breaking the crust activates a low level light spell centered on it. Great for lighting up distant passageways in dungeon crawls (yes, there is a reason to learn skill in Sling). Bad news if you're sneaking in darkness and trip and fall on your bag of sticky lights, though.

It's especially good if you can manage to stick one to a foe. 

[Luxferre]

I created the "Bag of Herbal Enhancement" (like the Clerics' spell)
If you put in your freshly found herb for 24hours, it is anhanced as per the spell with no further scaling.

[ironmaul]

A small model longship that when given the command grows to a life sized self powered long ship. My players held that as one of their most valuable magical items.

[JUNKdeLUXE]

That sounds amazing Ironmaul.

The group I'm playing with once (before I joined) had a huge mechanical mithril eagle with arbalets in it's mouth, living quarters etc.. I have no idea if it's from the books or if their twisted minds spun that one up

[ironmaul]

Thanks, I like the magic items that are more utility than for combat, I believe you get more GM miles out of them. That eagle sounds awesome...reminds me of the tardis like tents in Harry Potter, they where cool, although not as awesome as your eagle

[PhillipAEllis]

What do you think of magical items that are in essence akin to the alien artifacts in something like Roadside Picnic?

[GrumpyOldFart]

Well it's not exactly the same, but for many years I've tried to have a certain percentage of my "cursed items" be what I call "alchemist's errors." The trick to figuring it out is figuring out what it was supposed to do and how it's "broken."

+20 Battleaxe of Dragon Healing. 

An item of Teleportation, that works perfectly the first time... but it doesn't shut itself off, it keeps teleporting you at random every round, until you realize what the deal is and make another Attunement roll to turn it off. Have fun finding your way home.

The "Eternal Shoola" that was intended to do a coldball on impact and not actually break, instead teleporting back into your pouch... only they got the sequence wrong, it teleports back and then coldballs you...

[PhillipAEllis]

I'd love to give that battleaxe to a gamer I used to know.

I remember a certain game where, in a crate marked petroleum jelly, was a quantity of jellied petroleum.

[Cory Magel]

I don't know as if many people can truly come up with something fully unique.  But a few of mine...

There are multiple variations of this throughout our gaming history, but essentially a weapon that gains powers as you defeat other people with a similarly functioning weapon.  In one game it was Warlocks, in mine it's sort of the equivalent of medieval gunslingers (Duelists) that compete with each other - I won't go into super detail as this one is in a Guild Companion article.

I have weapons of an elemental nature that must be exposed to said element to be 'charged'.  I also created a 100 effect wand of wonder.  You'll find examples of those in the first two RMQ's along with several other weapons (one being a 'Sword of Mercy' that is intended for healer types).

I created a set of five six sided that have effects similar to the "Deck of Many Things" from our DnD days.  It basically works on a "poker hand" type structure to determine the effects.

I have a magical tent that is essentially like the Dr Who's Tardis in that it's bigger on the inside than on the outside (no other special features though).  I don't think this is really anything original though.

A more mundane, but possibly more original one is a medallion that causes submerged balls to glow when close enough.  This is used for a group of Pirates to be able to navigate through an extremely treacherous maze of reefs in order to reach their home port.

I know there's more... but that's enough for now.

[Old Man]

My players came up with and got the best use out of a plain pair of rings, bound to the same spirit, with constant Converse spells imbedded to chat with the spirit. The side effect being both ring wearers can hear the conversation so they can essentially "talk over" the spirit to each other.

Otherwise, non-magic but useful, "disk frames" and "disk craft" for use with ROCO II's Flying Disk spells.

[Newbie]

here is a small list of what i have seen in my time of role playing.

Intelligent loincloth able to speak verbally and cast a few defensive spells - great when the large barbarian starts talking to his crotch....... and it talks back!

A shield when activated causes a frontal blinding light attack.

Sword that could create/control all illusions/phantasms within a 20 foot radius - to the untrained eye makes the wielder appear as a walking reality warp 

Staff of fire bolts - designed to look like a 6 foot pole has been aggressively inserted into the nether regions of a bunny rabbit - added bonus of making the fire bolts shot from it to be formed as a screaming rabbit made of flames

Large eggs that when placed on the ground and activated hatch a large air elemental shaped as a giant eagle - great for travel arrangement

Thats it for now

 

[Turbs]

a miniature Iron Golem (about 3ft tall) that is completely empty and bound to whomever can master it.
it worth become apparent as a money storage unit.  You command the Golem to "deposit" your coin-loot and it begins a complicated whirring-clanking noise s you pour your pouch of coins into its mouth. add steam bursts from its ears for additional steampunk flavour.

when you need money you command the golem withdraw however much you need at which point the same cacophonous process begins again only this time the coins clatter onto the ground from the golems nether region.

As it is a golem all effects still apply and since it is 1/3 of the size you can give it combat stats at 1/3rd of a normal golem.

in effect its a self defensive money box, the downside is its embarrasing to use and completely overt when you do so