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Zergrusheddie
2009-05-10, 03:34 PM
Last session, our group of Bugbears discovered a strange metal rod in a tower of some obscure devil prince. When the Mystic Theurge touched it, he instantly took 1d6 of fire damage from the item searing his flesh. The DM asked his alignment. Thinking that you couldn't be Evil, I tried it and promptly took 1d6 damage. We decided to leave the so-called Rod of Searing on the ground to get some sleep. Both me and the MT got no sleep, because we were haunted with the need to hold the thing. Luckily, he had prepared a Remove Curse and was able to stop himself from fighting me to the death for the pleasure to hold something that felt cool to the touch but was still dealing 1d6 every round. Though I came extremely close, I did not die.

Apparently, it was used to torture prisoners. The guards would give it to someone, they would touch it, and drop it. A few hours later, they would be found completely fried to a crisp with a death grip on the thing. We decided to take the rod with us. Our logic: "It's just too damn cool to leave behind!"
I am not sure what we will use it for, but the first thought that came into our mind was to kill giants or dragons. The ultimate Trojan Horse! :smallbiggrin:

So, what kind of cool items have you encountered as a player or as a DM giving them to your players? I am looking forward to a few of these stories. Best of luck y'all!
-Eddie

Assassin89
2009-05-10, 03:49 PM
The only item that was of interest to me was a magical book found in a tomb. Reading it gave my half-elf cleric max ranks in knowledge: History, the leadership feat at level 4, and the ability to remove fear once a day.

Two other magical items of note were a different magical book and an intelligent bastard sword, which are both in possession of the Psychic Warrior. The magical book attacks anything, but the Psychic warrior is trying to test out its capabilities. The second thing it was tested on was a NPC, as I was the first due to Miko Miyazaki type behavior along the lines of "no stealing". It didn't hurt me, but the book nearly killed her. It did get the group information about a thief's tomb. Intelligent item is a Lawful Good +4 keen bastard sword that has continual death watch active. The Psychic Warrior is testing its capabilities, and he has found out that it has the ability to create walls whether they are illusions has yet to be found out.

Baalthazaq
2009-05-10, 04:03 PM
As a DM to my players:

Naughty gloves: Gloves that would cast silent portal on any portal, and mending, both continuous.

Inversion potion: 5 drops of a potion that inverted whatever it was put in. (If put in water, the water dehydrated the drinker). They put it in alcohol to win a drinking competition, and I gave the drinker super sobriety. He remembered everything from the night in supreme detail, being able to go back and relive the next 5 hours at will ala groundhog day but not interacting with the world.

I used it to give the players information, as each day he'd visit someone else in my world and see what they were up to. He discovered a plot to rob a bank, he discovered one of the party members was a spy, and he discovered one of the assassins they were hunting.

Invisible throwing knife: The first attack of any round treats the opponent as flat footed.

Cantrip amulet: An amulet you can cast any two cantrips, or a single 1st level spell into. Once there, you can cast the spell at will. In addition any effects of the spells can be applied to any other spell you cast.

So you can arcane mark everyone you ever attack with spells for example. Touch of fatigue is also nice.

Simplest is obviously just tagging it with a magic missile so your fireballs deal an extra 5d4+5. Be careful giving this item to your party. I had a very specific player in mind for this and for very specific reasons. It is clearly not designed for balance outside of a specific set of circumstances.

Scroll of living spell: Only your familiar can cast this spell. It transforms the familiar into a living spell variant of the last spell you cast. This will only occur in an emergency (I.e. When the DM says). From then on your familiar is that living spell.

Amulet of concentration Choose one spell at upto level 2. You never need to concentrate to maintain that spell. Cannot be changed.

Glamered Armour Armour that appeared to look like clothes, when it was actually full plate. (Technically it was on an awakened dog and looked like Fur but you get the idea).

AslanCross
2009-05-10, 06:21 PM
One of my players has a rogue who is greatly enjoying his bag of boulders. You can take a pebble out of it and throw it with a range increment of 50 ft. On impact, it strikes like a catapult shot. Sneak Attack is lots of fun with this.

Rhiannon87
2009-05-10, 07:30 PM
Well. In one of our games, the party is carrying around the following:

- +1 Axiomatic Spear of Exit Wounds. Intelligent, with telepathic powers. We're not sure what else it can do, other than massive damage to chaotic enemies. Lawful Neutral. Being carried by the LN fighter.

- The World's Greatest Treasure Chest. It looks like an ordinary chest, but it has a false bottom. Remove the false bottom, and there are stairs. Down the stairs is a 15x15x15 pocket dimension. Plus, whatever you put in there gets sorted. Weapons on weapon racks, books on shelves, coins in smaller chests, corpses of party members in meat lockers... It's awesome.

- Fake Longsword of Wounding. It's really just a longsword hilt, but when activated, it appears to have a blade that appears to deal real wounds. No one's ever hurt by it. We haven't had a chance to use it yet, although me and the crazy wizard do have a vague plan for staging fake assassinations once we get back to Neverwinter.

- +2 Morphing Metaling Sizing Weapon. Originally found as a rusty dart, we found that by passing this weapon around from person to person, we could change it into any melee weapon of any metal we wanted. Originally it was random (we drove our DM mad when we first figured it out, because we kept passing it around and he had to keep rolling d% to see what it turned into and what it was made of), but we then realized that we could concentrate and control what it turned into (weapon and metal).

Along with some more "mundane" artifacts and legacy items unique to the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft adventure, a pile of awesome weapons and armor and magic items, including a cursed bag of holding and the ivory goat wondrous figurines.

AslanCross
2009-05-10, 07:54 PM
I forgot to mention the darklight. Being able to raise and lower the level of ambient light as you please to whatever level (anything from total darkness to painfully bright) for 24 hours at the cost of only 1 psionic power point (one point gives you free use for 24 hours) is quite useful---and potentially opens up some interesting options to creative players.

Zaq
2009-05-10, 08:13 PM
Everyone in my group, myself included, tends to be bad at inventing new magic items that 1) benefit the entire party (without showing obvious favoritism to one character) and 2) stay somehow within game balance. That said, there was one campaign where the GM decided to screw game balance and go with what was cinematically awesome, ramping up the challenges to match.

So in a nutshell, we were stuck with an overpriced carriage (just like you can find in the PHB... nonmagical, not special, we just got charged way too much for it by a shady trader who took advantage of a desperate situation) and no way to get a refund. So, long story short, we called in a few favors (both real and Suggested, since we had an Enchanter on our team) from some arcane artisans, and pimped our carriage. The result was a crazy artifact-level item that defined the rest of the campaign... way overpowered, but really, really fun.

I forget all the details, but it had a great move speed, the ability to do "tricks" like overrun or sort of a turning smash attack thing if the player at the helm made Ride checks, a bunch of fun buttons we could push to make nasty effects happen (such as the Scorching Ray headlights, caltrops, oil slicks, ejector seats, etc... basically, if James Bond's car could do it, so could ours), enough room on top to have a battle even with the Large member of the party, amphibious capabilities (which we never got to use, sadly), the "random hurl" button which could be used to fling a random item out of its storage space (we had one of every non-enormous item in the PHB in there), a "potion tube" which could let the car "drink" potions and gain their effects, a collapsible and spring-loaded mast with sails (go go gadget SAIL!)... a few other things as well, but that was the base of it. Then we took the body of the HD-advanced Bulette we killed and had it welded to the chassis, giving it a ton more HP and nat armor. We called it The Bowsermobile.

We ended up joining a no-rules illegal street racing circuit with it (other contestants included similarly modded carriages, the halfling-on-a-permanently-Displaced-motorcycle, a druid who wildshaped into a cheetah and some kind of crazy bird, some cocky dude on a flying broom (we never got to see what he could do, since we dropped him too fast), a warforged made specifically for the situation, and I don't remember what else, I think an airship. That was very possibly the most awesome session of D&D ever. We won the race by killing everyone else on the track... good times. We kind of rode off into the sunset after that, but man was that fun.

So yeah, I guess that kind of counts as an item.

strawberryman
2009-05-10, 08:23 PM
- +2 Morphing Metaling Sizing Weapon. Originally found as a rusty dart, we found that by passing this weapon around from person to person, we could change it into any melee weapon of any metal we wanted. Originally it was random (we drove our DM mad when we first figured it out, because we kept passing it around and he had to keep rolling d% to see what it turned into and what it was made of), but we then realized that we could concentrate and control what it turned into (weapon and metal).

My DM gave something like this to me in a game I'm currently in, though was on hiatus from thanks to some... player drama... But, anyway, in its natural form it's a set of 30 silver coins, and as such it's always silver instead of being able to change metals; But, anyway, he made a system where it takes a certain number of "coins" to transform into weapons or attack, and you can "recharge" it as a move action every turn (or swift with rapid reload). It's +7, Unholy, and Chaotic (high-power game), can maintain a +5 animated shield for 10/30 "coins", and the DM hinted that it can take the form of other things, too. Like, a trumpet. I jokingly asked him if it could be transformed into a rad motorcycle, too, and he did not seem adverse to the idea.

rampaging-poet
2009-05-10, 09:06 PM
- The World's Greatest Treasure Chest. It looks like an ordinary chest, but it has a false bottom. Remove the false bottom, and there are stairs. Down the stairs is a 15x15x15 pocket dimension. Plus, whatever you put in there gets sorted. Weapons on weapon racks, books on shelves, coins in smaller chests, corpses of party members in meat lockers... It's awesome.


That is the world's greatest treasure chest. Consider it snagged.

As for cool item's I've encountered, the top one would have to be a magic circlet my party found in a cave. It gave true seeing or somesuch when you wore it, but also caused you to see in black and white.
Oh, action figures of the PCs animated with prestidigitation are pretty cool too.

Shpadoinkle
2009-05-10, 10:54 PM
The blue-green bottle. A tiny bottle made of blue-green glass. Touch the mouth of it to something blue, and it turns green. Touch it to something green, and it turns blue. That's it. That's all it did.

The curly stick. It was a quarterstaff. When it got wet, it curled up like a spring. As it dried out, it gradually straightened again. Again, that's all it did.

Revanmal
2009-05-10, 11:22 PM
A set of long-john thermal underwear that gave +5 cold resistance.

A pair of light crossbows that would turn their bolts into spears mid-flight. Dual-wielded to great effect.

During one particular side-quest, our Warforge was captured by an insane engineer since her player couldn't make it that session. We freed her, but not before the guy had painted her red and removed her arm, only to replace it with a wicked-looking claw that could shoot an intense beam of red light that did many d10's worth of damage, once per day. Both the player and the DM are big fans of Code Geass. :smallamused:

Farlion
2009-05-11, 03:59 AM
The blue-green bottle. A tiny bottle made of blue-green glass. Touch the mouth of it to something blue, and it turns green. Touch it to something green, and it turns blue. That's it. That's all it did.

The curly stick. It was a quarterstaff. When it got wet, it curled up like a spring. As it dried out, it gradually straightened again. Again, that's all it did.


That's exactly my style of magic items!

Farlion my chaotic neutral wizard carried around a bag of junk. In it were tons and tons of old magic items he somehow collected/stole/found during his explorations. Here some of them:

Grandar Bradbeards jerry: A skillfully crafted jerry with a cushioned rim. What ever is dropped into the jerry, dissappears. (We never found out where all the stuff went, but seriously, we didn't really want to find the place)

The old ladies cooking pot: A medium sized black cast iron cooking pot which has the capability to constantly stirr whatever is inside it. All you need is to add a spoon, and it starts stirring.

Satinas flute: A very powerful magical artifact that made an awfully high pitched noise when blown into. Yeah... that's all it did. (Lore: It used to summon a dragon, but the dragon is long dead, so actually nothing happens if you blow into it, but it is still highly magical!!!)

So you see, my wizard had a magic item for every occasion.

Ah, not to forget my favourite item: Bottle of Smoke! Just awesome to crash parties, flee from bars without paying and so forth.

Cheers,
Farlion

bosssmiley
2009-05-11, 05:00 AM
Taichara's Fluid Edge (http://hamsterhoard.blogspot.com/2009/03/magic-item-fluid-edge.html): a magical hilt that makes a blade out of whatever liquid you dip it into. Said blade taking on properties appropriate to the dipped liquid.

"I'ma cut you! With the tears of orphans!"

That said Taichara's is just replete with good stuff.

Hawriel
2009-05-11, 05:16 AM
Ever smoking jacket.

This is a cursed item that was sold to one of my players by a traveling merchant wagon. It had a random chance of porring out thick black smoke as if it was from a large fire. The curse hit when the party was fighting two shambling mounds inside a small one room shack with only one entrance. Two party members succomed to smoke inhalation. The barbarian ripped the jacket off the wizard which caused it to explode into thick ash. The ash was two feet deep. My group really liked that item.:smallamused: No really they loved the encounter.

Coidzor
2009-05-11, 07:39 AM
During one particular side-quest, our Warforge was captured by an insane engineer since her player couldn't make it that session. We freed her, but not before the guy had painted her red and removed her arm, only to replace it with a wicked-looking claw that could shoot an intense beam of red light that did many d10's worth of damage, once per day. Both the player and the DM are big fans of Code Geass. :smallamused:

Plus, y'know, the Red wuns go fasta! :smallfurious:

Hmm, I haven't encountered any kickass magical items just yet, but that.... that World's Greatest Treasure Chest(tm)... man... Just... Wow.

SoD
2009-05-11, 08:48 AM
Good Book: which is a really good read, and changes to suit the person reading it.
The Magic Maker: Gives an object a magical aura for 1d6 minutes.
Hat of Misguise: Like a hat of Disguise, but only affects the hat.
Draw on Anything: A pencil which can draw on anything solid.
Eyes of Greyvision: Goggles which make things appear in shades of grey.
Auto-Scriber: Put it somewhere, and it'll record what's said in writing.
Unpleasant Truth Teller: Only tells you what you probably already know, but don't want to hear.
Etc.

Haven
2009-05-11, 09:13 AM
Apparently, it was used to torture prisoners. The guards would give it to someone, they would touch it, and drop it. A few hours later, they would be found completely fried to a crisp with a death grip on the thing. We decided to take the rod with us. Our logic: "It's just too damn cool to leave behind!"
I am not sure what we will use it for, but the first thought that came into our mind was to kill giants or dragons. The ultimate Trojan Horse! :smallbiggrin:

Wow, it's a magic item capable of affecting the players! :D

Shpadoinkle
2009-06-27, 10:02 AM
Anyone got any others? Specifically I'd like ideas for items that are obviously magic but dont' do anything most people would consider useful, like a quarterstaff that you can stand on it's tip, and will keep itself balanced, but has no other properties.

woodenbandman
2009-06-27, 10:24 AM
I asked my DM for a Robe of Wardrobe to start the game, and not a lot else. I asked him for Quote: "A robe that contains every conceivable type of clothing. Like a bag of holding full entirely with clothing, each one more prized than the last." So I got it. :D

The ranger has a cursed sword called Nightbane which houses a demon, and grants him telekinetic wielding but turns anything killed by it to a fiery zombie and turns you evil. We were very chagrinned when we had to kill that dragon a second time. Very hardcore, but very very very chagrinned.

The priest of Grumbar has no less than 40 billion obscure items, any one of which may or may not be magical. Oh and a lot of magic rocks. A lot.

Our fighter has a helmet which apparently protects him. Don't know much about it, it was stolen, and we're kinda looking for it.

Cedrass
2009-06-27, 01:01 PM
The Rogue in the last campaign had a rope that could transform into a Quarterstaff... The staff wasn't magic or anything :smallmad:. But we managed to find a use for it, he used the staff-mode (tm) to make a balance check and go past a hole in a dungeon's floor!

I also had an incredible item one time. It was a blank book, and when I wrote a question in it, any question, it would answer me, but only one time. It had 5 charges in it so I let my team mates use it too. It managed to save our lives and warn us (cause I asked) about an attack on our Keep.

Also had an amulet that let me talk while Shapeshifted. The Druid sucked tho, with LA race and I pretty much screwed around cause I wanted to have fun.

I once gave one of my player a pair of boots that put her on a permanent slow effect, she couldn't run but could do everything else normally. It was pretty funny when a gang of Goblins attacked them and they tried to run :smalltongue:.

bosssmiley
2009-06-27, 01:21 PM
Kneel before ZOD! (http://hamsterhoard.blogspot.com/) There is some serious good stuff there.

Kris Strife
2009-06-27, 01:50 PM
A celestial motorcycle, forged by Moradin himself, using evil as fuel and chaos as oil, converting them into good and law respectively, for use as a paladin's mount. Imagine the most awesome motorcycle you can, turn the black leather and plastic to white, the chrome to gold and make the exhaust pure white light, and you've got a pretty good idea of the appearance.

This was in a standard D&D setting too.

Mind you, we all got some pretty neat items at the time, but that was my specific prize. Unfortunantly the campaign ended after that session since some of us had to leave after that...

TheThan
2009-06-27, 02:30 PM
The tomahawk of diplomacy +4
The tomahawk grants you +4 to your diplomacy checks when you hold it.
the imagery is the best part of this item


The sandal of spell empowerment
When worn, it empowers any spell (four charges per day) you choose to cast. You get to choose which spells get the empowerment.

boomwolf
2009-06-27, 03:08 PM
+2 Longsword of the Necromancer
Anytime you slay someone with it, you can instantly use any necromancery raising spell on it without the matirial cost, but you may only do it at that given moment, and there is a 10% chance it won't be under your control.

Bag of Bugs
A bag you can pull infinite amounts of bugs from, 1d4 bugs per round. not very useful, but can be used in creative ways.

Explosive Mirror A mirror that sets off explosive runes like effect on anyone who looks at his image at it.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-06-27, 06:05 PM
Schroedinger's Sack. It has every mundane item of reasonable cost in it. For the player who normally starts the game with every mundane item in his Bag of Holding anyways.