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what mean magic items have you or your DM come up with during gaming?
I remember that in the very first time I played the game, some twenty years ago, we ended up finding a +4 sword (at first level).. but whoever claimed it would have a 50% chance of dying doing so, and serious negative bonuses unless it was worn together with a specific amulet... but our mission was to go and destroy that particular amulet.
I also once encountered a +1 armor of friendly fire.
it worked perfectly fine as a +1 armor, but if someone, especially an ally fired an arrow in its general direction or at someone engaged with it's wearer in a melee fight, it would be an automatic hit.. on the wearer of the armor. of course the DM never told us that until much later in the game when some high level NPC cast a spell to identify an object held by the wearer of said armor
do you have particular magic items that have caused much anger or laughter to you as a player or to your players?
do share!
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"Waspinator not want to be destroyed! Waspinator has plans!"
-Waspinator, Transformers Beast Wars
"When was it that the twerps were chosen for this mission?"
"It was when the mission became scary!"
-Team Rocket, Pokemon
"It's not like chess, where choosing to play black or white dictates your entire strategy. Also, chess doesn't have steam cannons."
-Dragonmech designer
At one point in my campaign the fighter's player was offered one boon by a Slaadi Prince (a high-level Death Slaad). He could have said anything: a sweet mount, servants, a summer home in the outer planes, whatever. Sadly the player suffered a total loss of imagination and basically said "you choose" to the Chaotic Evil outsider.
So he got a +2 Vicious, Wounding Large Greatsword. 4d6+2+1 Con base damage, 1d6 vicious damage to the user. And it had Reach. Of course the more the sword damaged the character, the more it slowly changed her. I got a good chuckle the first time the character took off her armor and realized the flesh along her back had become rubbery, black and ridged like some kind of insect's. It kept spreading as long as she used the sword, plus some extra eyes forming in the flesh of her arm. Eventually if she'd kept using it, I'd have had to have her go full-blown Starspawn. Now I just tease him constantly about pussing out of Real Ultimate Yogsothian Power. XD
Recently in a game I was in, we decided to try out some discount magic rings (the phrase "discount magic item" can only ever end in stories worthy of this)The DM rolled for what they were, and then rolled based on some other system, where things like "it worked too well" and "it worked, BUT..."are the main conflict resolution results. Both times, he got a 3 "it worked too well". a UMD check identified one as a Ring of Super Jumping:jumping with it on would send you sky-high, no featherfall effect. The other was a ring of Super Animal Magnetism:it starts attracting all the animals to be next to and on you. We have yet to use either of these other than to find out what they did, but we have a few ideas (since one of us can glide, island-hopping (literally) has been considered).
This is a story from when I was an inexperienced DM. Back then, I didn't let players buy their equipment during downtime in towns. They RP'd through it. This was never an issue until one particular session... seven hours, I kid you not. Constant shopping (I changed my ways after this). One player in particular was being rather difficult.
Shopping for magical items in my game usually went a certain way:
player: Hello shopkeep, what magical daggers do you have in stock?
shopkeep: Hello player, I have these four magical daggers in stock.
shopkeep lays four daggers out on the counter, I describes the appearance.
player: What do these daggers do?
shopkeep: Let me show you.
shokkeep demonstrates magical capabilities of the daggers.
player buys a dagger, or doesn't.
Well, around comes the session, now only known as "The beginning of the end of the evil campaign" I've been juggling the players, (who all went to different shops), thinking up lots of different magic items on the spot, and eventually, one player is at a magical clothing shop... and asks for a... well, let's just call it a "Suit of Evard's Menacing Tentacles". The player was sorta sick-minded, and his character was very sick minded. The shopkeep had a magical watch.
player: What does the magical watch do?
shopkeep: Try it on.
player tries it on.
DM: Make a will save.
player: does a 15 save?
DM: Not one bit. You feel compelled to do whatever the shopkeep tells you to do. You leave the watch on, leave all of your money with the shopkeep, and head back to the party.
^meanest magical item I had ever created. The player harbors no ill feelings, and didn't take it personally (took the entire event as the beginings of a side quest, and vowed OOC to return once he rids himself of the curse. Although sick... he had a decent attitude)
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[GENERATION 17: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig and add 1 to the generation. This is a social experiment.]
The Bag of Infinite Deliciousness
Inside the bag is a cupcake. If you eat the cupcake, another cupcake appears. To refuse to eat the next cupcake, you have to make a DC5 will save. Another cupcake appears. DC6. And so on, and so on, and so on. The addiction never breaks as long as the item exists.
What does eating the cupcakes do other than that? Well, one cupcake will sustain you for a single day. After 5 cupcakes, you begin to get fat and sluggish and start to take CON and/or DEX damage. It'll never drop you below one CON, but it will render you immobile due to obesity.
It's pretty evil, but fortunately the full mechanic was only experienced by the previous owner, whom I dubbed "Morbidly Obese Black Dragon" (picture the Empress of Blood except far more sympathetic...and whose wings don't work. Or legs.)
MOBD: FINALLY! I CAN BEGIN MY TAIL EXERCISES TO BURN OFF THIS WEIGHT!
Journeyquest's Sword of Fighting has this written all over it. The sword is sentient and can verbally communicate with everyone around it, cannot be lost, and can take control of its wielder if it thinks its wielder isn't good enough in a fight. Oh, and it's a violent hateful sociopath who nerded out over killing an angel, and routinely tries to kill Perf.
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Earrings of Ringing. They were enchanted earrings that looked like bells. They'd ring whenever someone within so many feet was lieing. The intensity of the ringing equated to how untruthful the lie was. The character wearing them went deaf for a day after a casual stroll through a local market. The character later went permanently deaf after the party started a long series of collective lies to get the BBEG to spare their lives. He ultimately broke the chain because he didn't hear any of the lies after about 3 rounds in, so when he was asked what he thought, he replied "WHAT!?"
Shortsword of Crap - This +2 Shortsword is brown and pitted, and smells awful. Upon picking up this sword, the character is cursed, and cannot permanently get rid of this sword. If the owner of this sword ever tosses it away, at their next bowel movement, the sword returns to them, painfully, exactly how you expect.
(The meta-game explanation: The 3rd level fighter a opened a magic chest, found some gold, gems and a +2 shortsword. He then vehemently said "Shortswords are crap!"
So, being the rational, totally-not-petty 14 year old DM that I was, I cursed him.)
A later player received this sword and intentionally sent himself to prison to cause as much chaos as possible.
Shortsword of Crap - This +2 Shortsword is brown and pitted, and smells awful. Upon picking up this sword, the character is cursed, and cannot permanently get rid of this sword. If the owner of this sword ever tosses it away, at their next bowel movement, the sword returns to them, painfully, exactly how you expect.
Get the Nipple Clamp of Exquisite Pain. Serves the dual purpose of negating the pain, and potentially making your DM vomit.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Emperor Tippy
By level 20 though, you aren't capturing a wizard. A character lives to level 20 by being the most ruthless, lucky, capable, and paranoid bastard around. A wizard is throwing around a 30+ Int score and has, entirely in character, planned contingencies for his contingencies. He may well be running around with flat out total immunity to harm, he does not walk outside without an entire bevy of defensive magics around him and enough magic items to buy himself a nation.
This story is from way back in my early DM-ing career back when I was a kid in high school. Occasionally, I'd run rules-light games that didn't involve rolling dice much since I'd be running games with a single person at school or over the phone (looking back, I'm actually surprised at how much I did this and with how many people).
Anyway, it really wasn't a mean magic item per se. It was just a magic item that allowed the user to teleport. The player decided he'd use it to go to Hell (I forget what the reason was; it's been almost 30 years), so I told him he could try but: there was only a 1 in 4 chance he'd end up in Hell, there was a 2 in 4 chance nothing would happen, and there was a 1 in 4 chance that he'd die instantly.
Well, naturally, he tried it. Nothing happened.
And then he tried it again. It worked!
And then he started freaking out about "OMG, I had a 25% chance of dying! And I tried it twice!"
I once gave a very serious, quite low level NE Dwarven fighter a suit of Adamantium Plate Mail.
Decorated in a pink hearts and flowers motif.
Any attempt to repaint, remodel etc to make the aesthetic less embarrasing would warp to make it even more so. An attempt to repaint it bone white resulted in the paint flowing during the night to form girlish frills.
It would play the theme tune to "Happy Days" everytime the wearer commited an evil act. And "Stars and Stripes Forever" everytime the wearer failed a move silently check.
More recently, I've inflicted somebody with a +5 travellers outfit glamoured to look like a very skimpy chain mail bikini.
I pulled a "sentient ring is actually a lich's phylactery" once.
It was The Incredibly Shiny Ring. The wearer could make a bluff check with a +4 circumstance to distract everyone with line of sight, once per person per day, but had a massive penalty to sneak and couldn't remove the ring. The Barbarian happened to be the first one to try it on. The party had some great, plot derailing fun with that ring.
Then the lich moved into the barbarian's body.....
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"Of course, some vitally important key is going to break before i finish this sentience. see/1/1 never fails.'
Gloves that send the wearer to hell for 24 hours. If the wearer survives, they gain a level.
Gloves that turn the wearer to solid platinum.
How is this mean? Once you know how they work, you win D&D.
Use the first set, cast Plane Shift (or be a servant of Hell). Free levels forever. Also a handy escape mechanism.
Tell people the second set are Gloves of Dexterity, and harvest their platinum. Free cash forever.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Emperor Tippy
By level 20 though, you aren't capturing a wizard. A character lives to level 20 by being the most ruthless, lucky, capable, and paranoid bastard around. A wizard is throwing around a 30+ Int score and has, entirely in character, planned contingencies for his contingencies. He may well be running around with flat out total immunity to harm, he does not walk outside without an entire bevy of defensive magics around him and enough magic items to buy himself a nation.
Last edited by Slipperychicken : 04-11-2013 at 10:41 AM.
How is this mean? Once you know how they work, you win D&D.
Use the first set, cast Plane Shift (or be a servant of Hell). Free levels forever. Also a handy escape mechanism.
Tell people the second set are Gloves of Dexterity, and harvest their platinum. Free cash forever.
They could be fixed by having them only work once. I'd do it by house ruling that if you put a powerful enchantment on an item that is too mundane or low quality, it can't hold the enchantment well enough to be reusable. Like a scroll.
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"Of course, some vitally important key is going to break before i finish this sentience. see/1/1 never fails.'
A Ring of Three Wishes is why you put points in Profession (Lawyer).
__________________ The OmegaDex, the complete index to just about everything related to Star Wars Saga Edition.
"Waspinator not want to be destroyed! Waspinator has plans!"
-Waspinator, Transformers Beast Wars
"When was it that the twerps were chosen for this mission?"
"It was when the mission became scary!"
-Team Rocket, Pokemon
"It's not like chess, where choosing to play black or white dictates your entire strategy. Also, chess doesn't have steam cannons."
-Dragonmech designer
The Spoony Sword - Sword that granted +2 Competence bonus to all Dex rolls...so long as the wielder was singing as he used it. I made the bard RP it. He was an assassin in a game about stealth and subtlety.
Other item was the Amulet of Hieronymus the Vile. It granted its wearer halved damage/duration against all magic. All Magic. Even friendly. And it was more or less a Horcrux for an undying Wizard. And the person who put it on was a Monk with all high physical stats and a will save in the negatives.
Suffice it to say that when he did try to remove the amulet, the rest of the party was less than amused fighting a spellslinging Hulk who could run circles around them.
Player says " I want to buy a philter of Crap talking"
I was a little literal and explicit when I described what happened when said PC drank it. But I got one player to vomit so i consider it a well spent night.
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I as the DM once put an Apple of Eternal Sleep in a dungeon. Knowing it was a magical apple but thinking it was something beneficial, our Elf Witch PC ate it. She failed her Will save (DC 19, I think?).
The campaign ended before she woke up.
In another campaign, the player who played the Elf Witch is the DM. That DM used a Ghoul Touch spell on my Dwarf Fighter, so he was paralyzed the entire combat :(
At least I got him back for that (:
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We recently came across an evil suit of fullplate. It won't resize to ful the dwarf fighter so only our cleric can wear it (who is also evil) but he refuses to even try because the dwarf got sickened when he atempted to wear it.
That said this is a low-magic/loot game so we aren't parting with it just yet.
I don't think I've ever really made a mean magic item, but I've made a down right cruel location. Several, in fact.
One was a tower. Just a plain old ordinary tower that happened to have the soul of a very power demon in it. The demon would trick people to go in, and then make the door disappear. The walls were incredibly strong (Str check 40-something to break) and you couldn't teleport out. And there was a sign that said "The only way out is up". Only, the stairs went up forever. And there was a constant voice in the back the player's minds telling them how stupid they all were and encouraging them to kill themselves. No mind altering effect at all, just the demon telling them they should kill themselves because it entertained him. It took them awhile to try to go down through the floor.
There was also a hotel the players had to go through where they had to get an object from a specific room, and then get out. They knew where in the room it was, the floor and the hallway. Only, the building frequently rearranged itself, changing the floor based on the staircase they took, rearranging the hallways based on the time of day, and rearranging the rooms within the hallways based on frustrated they were. There was a lot of other mindscrew in that hotel, such as windows you could only see from the inside, and being able to follow a single hallway from the 3rd to 1st floor without going down any steps or passing through the 2nd floor.
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Zahhak's guide to PC generation: Anything worth doing is worth doing serious and unneeded research into.
I as the DM once put an Apple of Eternal Sleep in a dungeon. Knowing it was a magical apple but thinking it was something beneficial, our Elf Witch PC ate it. She failed her Will save (DC 19, I think?).
The campaign ended before she woke up.
Wait, what?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Water_Bear
That's RAW for you; 100% Rules-Legal, 110% silly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hamishspence
"Common sense" and "RAW" are not exactly on speaking terms
Anyone knows blue is for sarcas'ing in · Use of gray may indicate nitpicking · Green is sincerity · "Take 10 SAN damage from Dark Orchid"
I often hop into threads for just one thing
Immunity to magic sleep effects is one of those things you just kind of glaze over when reading a statblock. Like when my Sorcerer Sleep'd a Doppelganger because the DM forgot they were immune to it.
Also, it might have been DM-fiat immunity-bypass. I've seen it before. Bad DM's hate having PCs immune to their homebrew. Like one of my DMs had a Dominate effect bypass Mind Blank because "it's weird", and commented that my Elf's sleep-immunity wouldn't have applied if we ran through his railroady no-save dream-illusion sidequest.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Emperor Tippy
By level 20 though, you aren't capturing a wizard. A character lives to level 20 by being the most ruthless, lucky, capable, and paranoid bastard around. A wizard is throwing around a 30+ Int score and has, entirely in character, planned contingencies for his contingencies. He may well be running around with flat out total immunity to harm, he does not walk outside without an entire bevy of defensive magics around him and enough magic items to buy himself a nation.
Last edited by Slipperychicken : 04-11-2013 at 07:45 PM.
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Once you know how they work, you win D&D.
