Favourite Unorthodox Spellcasting Focus/Item

[Bannan_mantis]

So what spellcasting focuses have you seen used in games or have you used which were just very different from regular norms? What I mean by this are things besides your regular staff, wand, lute or etc. Was it something from a real life or mythology or was it something you made up for the game?

To give a starter, I remember once seeing a bard on my tables play a bit of a shaman type. He used a lot of necrotic spells along with nature abilities too and to round it of he had something called the aztec death whistle for his arcane focus which, if you don't know, is a skull shaped instrument you can blow into and creates a sound that's like someone screaming out in pain. Overall it was something I hadn't seen before and really cool.

[Leon]

Had a Cleric in 2e that had his holy focus tattooed on his upper arm and kept it covered with a bandage when not needed.

[ZeroGear]

Played a character that was a Warlock/Cleric/Erdrich Disciple of Haalal (dragon goddess of luck). His focus was a shovel. It talked. And was his GPS because he kept getting lost in a straight line.

[Phhase]

Perhaps not exactly in line with OP, but I have a Thri-Kreen warlock. Having four arms means I can grapple/wield my racial double weapon (Gythka) and cast at the same time!

[GrayDeath]

Well, the weirdest was a pair of Sunglasses shaped like cheap Suns in cheap gold used by a Sun Street Shaman in Shadowrun (he wore them at Night, of course, but since he didnt go out at night, noone knew he could be cool, all the others saw were his yellow clothes and his uncool sunglasses^^).


The most grisly was my brothers Elven half Shaman/Half Archer using the result of his first crit (namely an eye he shot out of an Ogre) as focus for Archery improvement spells.


Oh, and I built a never played Warforged Wizard using his body to keep his spell book stored in single sheets of paper, callable via built in Rolodex controlled by pushing his forearm.

^^

[bc56]

Although this isn't a tabletop game example per se, in Planescape Torment, Dakkon had a set of interlocking metal rings that he used as a spellbook and arcane focus. When you learned spells from him, you had to twist the rings into different configurations to learn the story of the Gith and Zerthimon.

[Kitten Champion]

One of my Clerics was given the heraldic standard used by her religious order's founder as her holy focus. This was undoubtedly an honour, as the standard was tied up directly into his legend and it was rarely even displayed to anyone short of high-ranking nobles and members of the clergy. The flag shone heavily with supernatural power, maintained its exact appearance for over eight centuries, and represented the honour of their faith.

Thing is, my Cleric was a young woman who'd have trouble wielding anything heavier than a farm hoe, and this was roughly three times her height and about her own weight. Besides that, its height made navigating any kind of tight space rather difficult, and... well, imagine entering any public building with a flag that blazed like the setting sun and that was as well known in her world as the Sistine Chapel is in ours.

My Cleric was very enthusiastic about her mission at first, so she tried to muscle-through with sheer vigour. Eventually she detached the flag from the pole and let her party deal with the heavier part while she reverently stuffed the flag in a sack.

[Jay R]

In a superhero game, I had an electricity and magnetism based character who channeled all powers through an ornate six-foot metal staff.

The staff had ever-changing lights and slight movement. He always carried it. He would occasionally walk away from it, but when he did, it stood by itself, and had a force field so nobody else could touch it. Eventually, he would hold his hand out and it would fly into his hand.

The secret is that it was not a focus; it was a decoy. It contained no powers at all. He used it because if the villains ever knock out a hero who shoots lightning bolts out of a staff, they will take away the staff. But if he can shoot them out of his hands, they will cut of his hands or kill him.


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Gwystyl is my gnome illusionist who has an Ancestral Relic -- a gnome's hooked hammer.

Yes, I know -- a hooked hammer carried by a gnome is not that unusual. But it is his staff, not a weapon. He deliberately wears traveling clothes, not robes, so that, carrying the traditional gnome's weapon, he does not look like a caster.

I was developing the character when I heard about Alan Rickman's death. So the DM and I built the hammer's history as a tribute.

I know (and Gwystyl does not) that the original owner of the hammer is his ancestor Grabthar, who became a hero while fighting a battle with the dwarf king Warvan and his sons. Someday, when (if) Gwystyl ever learns the entire truth, I hope to finally bring my Alan Rickman tribute to fruition by having Gwystyl swear, "By Grabthar's hammer, by the sons of Warvan, you shall be avenged."