Strongest Item you were allowed to play with . Hail DM

[Pugwampy]

My Favorite Dungeon Master was both drunk and very guilty about my character having literally been stripped of all my magic goodies after a digestor hosed us all down with acid . I moan to this day about how could acid dissolve magic items but leave you with all your HP intact .

I was given a +8 Katana , Bane Earth elemental and Bane stone golem .

It was nice weapon for a 20 str half orc barbarian who knew about holding exotic weapons in 2 hands as a martial weapon having had his +3 warmace recently melted ...

Naturally i only got to enjoy it for 4 to 5 sessions . I bought locked gauntlets for it so the DM monster could not do the grab the weapon and run away trick. I am annoyed i did not fight harder to hold onto my Precious .

What was your strongest magic weapon or item you got to enjoy ? Did it annoy your DM ?

[Chronos]

Way back in 2nd edition, the DM was using random treasure tables, and I ended up with a +4 intelligent sword (with a few extra abilities I can't remember any more)... at level 5. Oh, and also a Rod of Lordly Might.

That was Teenager D&D, though, where everything is overpowered, so maybe it doesn't count.

[pabelfly]

My previous character had a Ring of Solar Wings. 150ft fly speed each round for a melee character is as great as it sounds.

[SimonMoon6]

For me, it was probably the artifact known as the Shadowstaff.

At first glance, it might not seem that great, but it fit my character perfectly. I was a 3.0 wizard using polymorph (other) to become a marilith which meant I had lots of large-sized hands to hold stuff. So, I could easily just hold onto the Shadowstuff with one hand without worrying about it taking up one of my important hands.

Plus, this particular wizard was specializing in improving armor class as much as possible (not because that's the most efficient thing to do but just because it was fun). So, with all the possible AC boosters I could find, I was running around being incredibly hard to hit. And then along comes the shadowstaff. It gives an extra +4 to AC that says it stacks with everything, which is just enough to push a crazy AC up into "you can't touch this" territory. Like, a creature from the epic level handbook needed a natural 20 to hit me (and if it did hit, I would probably die, but hey, you do what you can).

But best of all, just being an artifact was really great because a wizard with tons of buffs only really fears one thing from a DM who prefers to run modules rather than prepare encounters for his particular party: Anti-magic fields. I wasn't worried about dispel magic and I definitely wasn't worried about Disjunction (no module would have it and the DM wouldn't craft an encounter with it). But AMF was everywhere. One AMF turns my incredible tank into a 98 pound weakling on the beach about to have sand kicked in his face. But... AMF doesn't affect artifacts.

So, if needed, the Shadowstaff would still let me turn into a shadow to get away... although this particular situation didn't ever happen.

[Quertus]

(Checks forum) in 3e? Gosh… the only thing that comes to mind was having a character literally holding another character’s soul in their hands.

[NichG]

Hmm, maybe the stopwatch capable of unlimited Time Stop, but it would randomly freeze you for an equal amount of time later on at the GM's discretion... There was also a bunch of quantitatively ridiculously strong stuff in that game, as well as things that were more abstractly potent but wouldn't really make sense outside of the campaign at all.

[King of Nowhere]

not exactly an item, more like a plot-related blessing, but my character was given the ability of shapechanging into an earth elemental of equal hit dice.
and my character is a monk. it deals 12d8 damage.
however, it only lasts one minute per level, and my gear gets melded into the form unless i take it off and put it back on afterwards. so i can only use that shape if i am prepared for a big fight. or i can use it in a pinch to escape with earth glide.

as a dm, i gave the players a weapon with the following stats:
mutating: can take the shape of any weapon. damage 1d8 if one handed, 2d6 two handed
crit 18/20 x3
+10 enhancement bonus
cut the weave: it can dispel one spell with a touch attack. you can mix dispelling attacks and normal attacks as you choose in a full attack
evil aura: all enemies in an 18 m radius are shaken unless they pass a DC 30 will save. if they fail by 10 or more, they are panicked instead. furthermore, all creatures (allies included) are sickened, and must pass a DC 30 fort save to avoid being nauseated. you can focus this second effect on a single creature (thus sparing your allies), in this case it needs to save against DC 35 to avoid being nauseated.

although it was supposed to be the ultimate artifact weapon, bestowed on the party - with a bunch of other artifacts - as a last resort to stop an unstoppable villain, and the party had to earn it. it was also a high power campaign where the enemies also hit very hard. this weapon was strong, but it didn't break balance.
no, it was the bunch of other artifacts i gave - giving all the party a +8 enhancement to armor, shield, deflection, natural armor, saving throws, wisdom, constitution, dexterity, plus other things - and the +4 to all stats due to absorbing the power of a dead god, that threw the numbers completely off the rails.

[Fero]

Our DM dropped a large treasure on us at the end of a high level adventure arc before giving us 1 year + of down time. I already had most of the gear my wizard (illusionist) needed. Therefore, I decided to use my share of the treasure to craft an intelligent Mirror of Mental prowess that only responded to commands phrased in rhyme. Good times.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I (DM) once randomly rolled the coolest bow ever for a hollow-glacier-dwelling lich's treasure hoard near the end of a high-level campaign.

I'd rolled a composite longbow, rolled 'special ability and roll again' five times before landing on +4.
The special abilities rolled were Thundering, Bane x2, Holy, and Unholy. I wasn't going to make it an epic weapon, so something had to go.
For the first Bane I rolled evil outsiders. At that point I decided to make the other Bane for good outsiders, and dropped thundering.

I named the bow The Destroyer of Heaven and Hell, as it strikes as a +6 (epic) weapon against good and evil outsiders so it can overcome every type of damage reduction (with special arrows, if needed).

Only a character who's neutral on the good/evil axis can safely wield it. One player always plays neutral bruiser-types, so he chose to keep that as his ranged weapon for when he needs one. I don't think he ever used it, as there was just one more short adventure left in the campaign after that, but everyone thought it was the coolest weapon they'd ever found.

[Crake]

I once had a DM allow my character to practically deus ex machina the annulus out my butt. Not literally, the character basically disappeared for a session, and came back with it at the end to threaten the demon that had kidnapped the party with death, in exchange for their release from hell.

That was a bit of a silly game though, it was filled with deus ex machina shenannigans.

[Biggus]

no, it was the bunch of other artifacts i gave - giving all the party a +8 enhancement to armor, shield, deviation, natural armor, saving throws, wisdom, constitution, dexterity, plus other things - and the +4 to all stats due to absorbing the power of a dead god, that threw the numbers completely off the rails.

Deviation?

I once had a DM allow my character to practically deus ex machina the annulus out my butt.

annulus?

[Chronos]

"Deviation" is probably a mistranslation of "deflection", as in the kind of bonus to armor class that a ring of protection gives. Note that the poster also uses meters, and so is probably not American.

"Annulus" is presumably the name of some artifact, though I don't know that one specifically.

[King of Nowhere]

Deviation?

deflection. i had a lapsus on how it's translated

Note that the poster also uses meters, and so is probably not American.

i almost managed to forget that there's people who actually use the original foot measures

[Crake]

annulus?

"Annulus" is presumably the name of some artifact, though I don't know that one specifically.

It is indeed, it's a psionic artifact that has the power to basically be an anti-psion, and the character in question was also a psion themselves. Can be found in the xph p 179 if anyone's curious

[Samael Morgenst]

*Scepter of Intolerable Munchkinism**

Aura: Overwhelming (various schools), Evil; CL 20th
Slot: Held
Price: 1,780,065 gp (not including the cost of special material) + 12000 gp (aurorum metal)
Weight: 12 lbs.
Description: Crafted from pure Aurorum and adorned with intricate engravings, this ornate scepter radiates an overwhelming magical aura. It's truly beautiful, gleaming bright with varying hues of pink and indigo. Despite it's appearance, it's an utterly Evil item and any not-Evil creature which tries to hold it will not be able to use any of its powers. Any good-aligned creatured that voluntarily touches it must pass a Will save (DC 32) or receive 2d6 Wisdom damage.
It provides the wielder countless powerful defenses and abilities, including but not limited to:

- +6 enhancement bonus to all ability scores
- seven +5 bonuses to AC (deflection, natural armor, luck, insight, competence, dodge, profane)
- six +5 bonuses to Saves (resistance, luck, insight, competence, morale, profane)
- +8 armor bonus (like a pair of Bracelets of Armor)
- Spell Resistance 32
- Damage Reduction 5/adamantine
- Energy Resistance 10 (fire, cold, acid, electricity, sound)
- 24 temporary hit points (renewed daily at dawn)
- Immunity to disease and poison, including supernatural ones
- Immunity to gases and suffocation
- Constant Fly, Evasion, Freedom of Movement, Mind Blank, Spell Turning, and True Seeing effects
- The wearer leaves no traces or scent whatsoever and is undetectable through the Scent ability

Additionally, the wielder can cast Miracle at will, once per round, as a 20th-level spellcaster, with the limitation that it cannot duplicate spells with an Experience Points cost or a material component that costs more than 100 gp.

Used as a weapon, it functions as a +5 heavy mace of Transmutation. After its wielder successfully hits a creature that has damage reduction, with the normal effects, over the next round, the scepter transforms itself, taking on the properties required to overcome that creature's damage reduction.

The aurorum scepter has the same hardness (15) and hit points (25) of a +5 heavy mace made of normal steel, but if sundered or damaged in any way it can be reformed by bringing together its fragments (a full-round action). The broken pieces bond quickly and seamlessly, restoring the item to its previous state.

---

But to be fair, it was a joke session.

[Pugwampy]

(Checks forum) in 3e? Gosh… the only thing that comes to mind was having a character literally holding another character’s soul in their hands.

Any edition bro . I doubt magic items are very different in any case .

[Jay R]

I had a DM who believed that any natural 20 should be rewarded, even on skills. I eventually figured out that if my Ranger rolled a 20 on a Search Check, and there was nothing there, the DM would invent some small item – a gem, a small magic item, something. So I made search checks on the slightest pretext, because I knew that 5% of them would produce something valuable.

[Any player knows the basic rules. A good player knows the supplements. A great player knows the DM.]

So at about 8th or 9th level, he found an armband that added Strength +8, Diehard, Greater Diehard, Toughness, and +1d6/size category additional damage to creatures large and above. Not bad for searching a place that had no treasure.

---

Another time, I was in an epic game, and the DM let us start with one epic item. My pixie ultimate magus had a Rod of Excellent Magic. He used it with True Creation to always have the expensive spell components he needed. Any day he didn’t need that, he had one free Limited Wish. He also had a Vest of the Archmagi.

---

For a short time, my 13th level wizard had a gem that would add empower spell and maximize spell to any fire spell. It could also keep an entire village warm in the Frostburn. Using that gem always burnt his hand and arm badly. I tried building a nonconducting holder for it, and even holding it telekinetically, but nothing worked.
---

Those are the most powerful I’ve had in 3.5e. I once had a Ring of Power in Chivalry and Sorcery.

In a game of original D&D, one of my characters found a Crystal Ball that would let my character cast the spells of a 27th level wizard. It would also try to take him over. So I eventually cast shapechange with permanent spell, and then left the crystal ball in an anti-magic field. At that point he was a 2nd level magic-user with a permanent shapechange. [The rules had no limits on which spells could be made permanent.]

[Elkad]

Not an item.
1e.

Using the table at the back of the DMG, it says an orc is worth something like 27xp+4/hp.

So if we killed an orc, we got 27xp, and +4 permanent hitpoints.
Kill a dragon and you might get a couple dozen hitpoints...

We leveled kinda slow, but we soon had thousands of hitpoints...

[Jay R]

Not an item.
1e.

Using the table at the back of the DMG, it says an orc is worth something like 27xp+4/hp.

So if we killed an orc, we got 27xp, and +4 permanent hitpoints.
Kill a dragon and you might get a couple dozen hitpoints...

We leveled kinda slow, but we soon had thousands of hitpoints...

That's ... not what it meant. First of all, an orc was 10 XP+1/hp.
That meant an orc was worth 10 XPs p!us 1 XPs per hit point.

So a 1-hp orc is worth 11 XPs, a 2-hp orc was worth 12 XPs, etc. You don't get extra hit points for killing them.

I can see how you'd get lots of hit points that way.

[Elkad]

That's ... not what it meant. ...

Yes, I'm well aware of that.
I even tried to correct the DM (after I snuck a look at the table in the back at the gaming store, because "The DMG is for DMs only!"), but I got outvoted about 8:1, so I shut up.

Not like you run off and ask the Internet in 1979, so whatever interpretation a crowd of 11 yr olds around the table in the school library come up with is the one you roll with.

[glass]

I played the Shattered Star AP, and in the last chapter...

Spoiler

Show

...you get to use the titular artifact. It give bonuses for bouncing it around the party, so everyone got to play with it. That was pretty fun.

Before that, I remembered playing in a deliberately OTT 27th-level gestalt 3.5 game. My character was relatively tame (for a sorcerer//paladin that was basically a dragon-centaur-theing due to free template shenanigans), but one of the other guys had a sword that did 1d100 con damage on a hit!

Also from that era, I once played a game where the GM wanted us to find a proper dragon's hoard (like in the Hobbit films, although this was before that). We offed this dragons, and there was literally millions of gp - mostly in coins but with a few choice magic items and objet-d'art. The GM figured it was in the middle of nowhere and we could not move it all by ourselves, so we'd have to hire porters, wagons, etc, and word would get out. So we'd only get to keep a portion of it in the end; still a generous haul but not the full amount.

Unfortunately, he had forgotten that we had recently acquired both a castle and a pair of ring gates, and one of the latter was conveniently in the vault of the former. TBF, he went with it, and it made for an interesting dynamic. So not a singular item, but there aren't too many 11th level Wizards with a +6 cloak of charisma!

[Metastachydium]

a proper dragon's hoard (like in the Hobbit films, although this was before that)

You just made me immeasurably sad, do you know that?

[Kurald Galain]

Staff of the Magi. And yes, I ended up breaking it.

Some kind of holy artifact weapon that we recovered from Candlekeep, and that actually had worse stats than a random sword I had found in a dungeon earlier. Whoops.

+4 sword with swappable energy damage, that was also intelligent and ended up taking over my character for some time. So I got to play as a living weapon that was highly confused by all those weird mammal behaviors.

Elixir of Immortality. My lawful but jaded and rather paranoid character decided that he would not trust anyone else with it, so he ended up drinking it himself.

Scroll of Wish.

[AnonJr]

You just made me immeasurably sad, do you know that?

Would you prefer they refer to the 1977 Rankin/Bass animated version? Despite being before my time, I have fond memories of having the VHS in the rotation when I was home sick.

[eBarbarossa]

My arcane hierophant once got offered a +9 quarterstaff with +9 to Wis and Int and the ability to restore 9 spells per day of up to level 9.

Unfortunately it was offered by Tzeentchc, and our characters were well aware of who he was, so I declined. Still tempting though....

[Coventry]

Not an item.
1e.

Using the table at the back of the DMG, it says an orc is worth something like 27xp+4/hp.

So if we killed an orc, we got 27xp, and +4 permanent hitpoints.
Kill a dragon and you might get a couple dozen hitpoints...

We leveled kinda slow, but we soon had thousands of hitpoints...

Oof. I made a similar mistake as a DM back in 1e ... except that I thought that fighters gained 2d10 hit dice at second level, 3 more at third, etc ...

[Metastachydium]

Would you prefer they refer to the 1977 Rankin/Bass animated version? Despite being before my time, I have fond memories of having the VHS in the rotation when I was home sick.

Honestly,
1. that one's rather charming and works a lot better as an adaptation; and
2. as points of reference go, I would prefer pretty much literally anything to the whole "Your Mother Loved You, Double-Chin Legolas Trilogy".

[Lorddenorstrus]

Customized artifacts he stat with us and we all got to design for ourselves. Was an incredibly fun campaign. I made a Thorns ish Type character (think D3 thorns) and designed my character around forcing people to attack him or he smacked them. AoOs etc what not. But attacking him caused you to take damage.. Now I'm the DM and never get to play. Doing something kinda similar to this atm for my current players. I recently lost 2 players and gained 2 different ones and the partys optimization/capability sky rocketed. They can actually handle non lobotomized enemies at last. So as I get to throw stronger sh*t at them. They will get access to interesting things themselves.

One of them found a fragmented Lichs Phylactery from a failed ritual, where his Soul instead got trapped nearby. I decided to let the player repair the destroyed phylactery and transfer the slivers of the Lichs soul into it. Considering it isn't a complete soul but fragments of the person he won't reform. I haven't fully decided yet how to shape the boon relating to this. Just more pleased the player asked to do such a ballsy thing. it amused me.

[glass]

You just made me immeasurably sad, do you know that?

It made me feel old!

[AnonJr]

Honestly,
1. that one's rather charming and works a lot better as an adaptation; and
2. as points of reference go, I would prefer pretty much literally anything to the whole "Your Mother Loved You, Double-Chin Legolas Trilogy".

I completely agree on both counts.

When I saw it on sale from Amazon streaming, I picked it up along with Return of the King.