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View Full Version : Useful "Useless" magic items.



Kulture
2009-10-31, 11:46 AM
I've created this thread with the express purpose of compiling the playground's favorite understated magic items that are remarkably useful.

My personal favourites have to be the rod of surprises
Which functions as a 60 foot pole which can support 800lbs, a variety of +1 weapons both simple and martial and a dictaphone with a built in magic mouth recording device, all for 6,000 gold.
And the fan of furious flame which, for 18,000 gold (hefty, I know) causes all flame based fire sources within a 60ft cone to explode, doing damage in an area between 5 and 10 feet varying from 1D4 to 1D12, 3 times a day, and the flames are then immediately exstinguished.

Invaluable to an assassin, especially in a city with invisibility purging lanterns.

So, have fun and share some of your favorites. :smallbiggrin:

Rhiannon87
2009-10-31, 12:37 PM
One that we've got is a Longsword Hilt of Fake Wounding.

It looks like the hilt of a longsword without a blade. When activated, a regular-looking blade appears, and it can be wielded as a longsword. Any wounds dealt by the sword are illusions; someone might look like they've been sliced up, but in reality, they've taken no damage. Handy if you ever need to lay a trap where it looks like you're fighting your allies. (That's how we got the item, fell into a trap like that.)

gallagher
2009-10-31, 10:08 PM
Bag of caltrops+glass marbles (obvious scooby-doo ability)

cast a shatter spell at the marbles, make them explode on the fallen people who fail the reflex save on marbles

not really a magic item, but it uses magic in a creative way that is good in a pinch

AslanCross
2009-10-31, 10:12 PM
OP, where are those items from? They sound awesome.

herrhauptmann
2009-10-31, 11:46 PM
One that we've got is a Longsword Hilt of Fake Wounding.

It looks like the hilt of a longsword without a blade. When activated, a regular-looking blade appears, and it can be wielded as a longsword. Any wounds dealt by the sword are illusions; someone might look like they've been sliced up, but in reality, they've taken no damage. Handy if you ever need to lay a trap where it looks like you're fighting your allies. (That's how we got the item, fell into a trap like that.)

Is that from a specific book? If so, what book, and what price?

Brendan
2009-11-01, 06:57 PM
Perhaps a ring of cure minor wounds 1/hour. in light negatives, you will be up and running soon. well, after a night's sleep. Also, fully stabilized.

Gorbash
2009-11-01, 07:29 PM
Everfull Mug. 3/day conjure 12 ounces of water, cheap ale, or watery wine. Priceless. :smallbiggrin: But it actually costs 200 gp.

Xenogears
2009-11-01, 08:28 PM
The Mug of the Ogre Magi (or something like that) from the Dragon Compendium. It is basically a +1 weapon blah blah some useless abilities and then the cool part. IT NEVER SPILLS! I can fill the tankard up to the brim, turn it upside down and nothing will come out. Smash someone in the face? Still got a full mug of booze.

Lycanthromancer
2009-11-01, 08:31 PM
These two are only useless sometimes. Both in the MIC.

Ring of the darkhidden: For 2000 gp, you become constantly invisible to darkvision (but not to normal sight, blindsight, or anything else). Basically, very useful in the Underdark, but not generally elsewhere.

Heward's fortifying bedroll: Useless to mundane classes, but invaluable to casters. Renew your spells after 1 hours' rest 1/day. I believe it's 1000 gp.

technophile
2009-11-01, 09:08 PM
Heward's fortifying bedroll: Useless to mundane classes, but invaluable to casters. Renew your spells after 1 hours' rest 1/day. I believe it's 1000 gp.

Unless, IIRC, your DM enforces the sleeping in armor rules and likes to spring midnight encounters on you.

taltamir
2009-11-01, 09:13 PM
Unless, IIRC, your DM enforces the sleeping in armor rules and likes to spring midnight encounters on you.

it is also useful in cases where time is on the essence. Where you don't have 9 hours downtime to refresh spells.

Foryn Gilnith
2009-11-01, 09:20 PM
Ring of Sustenance to the rescue! And Restful Crystal, at that. Sleep for 2 hours in whatever armor you want. Try IHS if you need to remove fatigue and are cheap (or stranded w/o the MIC)



invaluable to casters.

it is also useful in cases where time is on the essence. Where you don't have 9 hours downtime to refresh spells.

Hooray for repetition for emphasis.

Lycanthromancer
2009-11-01, 09:37 PM
Unless, IIRC, your DM enforces the sleeping in armor rules and likes to spring midnight encounters on you.

I never wear anything over light armor, which one can sleep in anyway. That, and I try to have some way of casting rope trick. Great for those 1 hour power-naps that are so refreshing.

technophile
2009-11-01, 09:55 PM
It must be great never to play a tank, I guess. :smallamused:

Foryn Gilnith
2009-11-01, 09:57 PM
Iron Heart Surge as a standard action after waking up from heavy armor gets rid of fatigue. Or you can use a Restful Crystal from the Magic Item Compendium to sleep in any armor without fatigue.

Lycanthromancer
2009-11-01, 10:04 PM
It must be great never to play a tank, I guess. :smallamused:

I can tank using a psicrystal, totally unarmored. Which, mind you, only has half the hp of the d4 psion. (That's also half-Con bonuses, too.) Doesn't do too well as a straight tank until level 7, except I can AssassinHate using nasty poisons until then.

taltamir
2009-11-01, 11:55 PM
Ring of Sustenance to the rescue! And Restful Crystal, at that. Sleep for 2 hours in whatever armor you want. Try IHS if you need to remove fatigue and are cheap (or stranded w/o the MIC)

Hooray for repetition for emphasis.

Heward's fortifying bedroll allows you to regain spells with less sleep. The rest only reduce your sleep amount, but you still need 8 hours of rest. An elf for example naturally only "meditates" 4 hours a night instead of sleep. But they still need the same 8 hours of inaction before they can prepare a spell.
The only exception I ever came across is Heward's fortifying bedroll which explicitly allows you to recover it after 1 hour of sleep/rest.

Foryn Gilnith
2009-11-01, 11:56 PM
I was responding to technophile, who implied that the hypothetical character was a non-caster.

Ravens_cry
2009-11-02, 12:06 AM
The only exception I ever came across is Heward's fortifying bedroll which explicitly allows you to recover it after 1 hour of sleep/rest.
And it's only a 1000 gp? That's beyond 'useful useless' that's even beyond just plain useful. That gives you, if you can hide away for 1 hour, which is often possible, at least in the games I play, twice your spells each day.
Wow.:smalleek:

Lycanthromancer
2009-11-02, 12:15 AM
And it's only a 1000 gp? That's beyond 'useful useless' that's even beyond just plain useful. That gives you, if you can hide away for 1 hour, which is often possible, at least in the games I play, twice your spells each day.
Wow.:smalleek:

I just double-checked. Complete Mage, pg 132. 3000gp. Still not a bad deal.

Coidzor
2009-11-02, 12:42 AM
And it's only a 1000 gp? That's beyond 'useful useless' that's even beyond just plain useful. That gives you, if you can hide away for 1 hour, which is often possible, at least in the games I play, twice your spells each day.
Wow.:smalleek:

Rope Trick!

lsfreak
2009-11-02, 12:47 AM
And it's only a 1000 gp? That's beyond 'useful useless' that's even beyond just plain useful. That gives you, if you can hide away for 1 hour, which is often possible, at least in the games I play, twice your spells each day.
Wow.:smalleek:

Not quite. Even with it, all spells cast in the last 8 hours cannot be re-prepared. This seems to be something that a lot of people overlook - preparing after only a short rest is all well and good, but there's nothing that overrides all spells cast in the last 8 hours from counting against you now.

sofawall
2009-11-02, 12:49 AM
Not quite. Even with it, all spells cast in the last 8 hours cannot be re-prepared. This seems to be something that a lot of people overlook - preparing after only a short rest is all well and good, but there's nothing that overrides all spells cast in the last 8 hours from counting against you now.

And what everyone seems to be overlooking, you can only do it every few days.

starwoof
2009-11-02, 12:52 AM
It's still ridiculously good.

sofawall
2009-11-02, 01:34 AM
Unless you have a Hewards Handy Haversack full of Hewards Hardy bedrolls.

And that still does not work.

Akal Saris
2009-11-02, 01:39 AM
Well, there's always Roy's Bag of tricks, Rust. Though I absolutely love the Bag of Tricks, Tan (the 6,300g one that summons rhinos and whatnot) ever since a module I did at living FR.

We were all 1st-2nd level except for 1 guy who was 4th and who had spent ALL his money on a bag of tricks - we beat the module in ~30 minutes with a quick succession of tigers, bears and rhinos (oh my!) to our opponents' faces, while the party of full level 3's in a game of the same difficulty had a TPK after 3 hours of playing :D

taltamir
2009-11-02, 02:10 AM
Not quite. Even with it, all spells cast in the last 8 hours cannot be re-prepared. This seems to be something that a lot of people overlook - preparing after only a short rest is all well and good, but there's nothing that overrides all spells cast in the last 8 hours from counting against you now.


And what everyone seems to be overlooking, you can only do it every few days.

1. buy a bunch of them.
2. Go to sleep in one at 12am for 1 hour. Prepare spells for 1 hour.
3. Between 2am and 10am cast all your spells.
4. Sleep in another one (not same one as before) of those from 10am to 11am, prepare spells for another hour.
5. Between 12pm and 8pm cast all your spells.
6. Sleep in a third bedroll between 8pm and 9pm, prepare until 10pm...
... and so on.

unless, does it specifically say you can only use A SPECIFIC bedroll onces every few days. or ANY bedroll only once every few days.
Even if it has such a limitation it is still a ridiculously good item. For 3000gp, replenish all your spells once a day... how much would pearls of power that replicate that cost? (a whole freaking lot!)

sofawall
2009-11-02, 02:28 AM
1. buy a bunch of them.
2. Go to sleep in one at 12am for 1 hour. Prepare spells for 1 hour.
3. Between 2am and 10am cast all your spells.
4. Sleep in another one (not same one as before) of those from 10am to 11am, prepare spells for another hour.
5. Between 12pm and 8pm cast all your spells.
6. Sleep in a third bedroll between 8pm and 9pm, prepare until 10pm...
... and so on.

unless, does it specifically say you can only use A SPECIFIC bedroll onces every few days. or ANY bedroll only once every few days.
Even if it has such a limitation it is still a ridiculously good item. For 3000gp, replenish all your spells once a day... how much would pearls of power that replicate that cost? (a whole freaking lot!)

Like I said above, does not work.

jindra34
2009-11-02, 07:02 AM
1. buy a bunch of them.
2. Go to sleep in one at 12am for 1 hour. Prepare spells for 1 hour.
3. Between 2am and 10am cast all your spells.
4. Sleep in another one (not same one as before) of those from 10am to 11am, prepare spells for another hour.
5. Between 12pm and 8pm cast all your spells.
6. Sleep in a third bedroll between 8pm and 9pm, prepare until 10pm...
... and so on.

unless, does it specifically say you can only use A SPECIFIC bedroll onces every few days. or ANY bedroll only once every few days.
Even if it has such a limitation it is still a ridiculously good item. For 3000gp, replenish all your spells once a day... how much would pearls of power that replicate that cost? (a whole freaking lot!)

The bedroll specifies that one person cannot benefit from a bedroll more than once per 48 hours. Even though its powers work every 24 hours.

Blackfang108
2009-11-02, 12:15 PM
Ring of Sustenance to the rescue! And Restful Crystal, at that. Sleep for 2 hours in whatever armor you want. Try IHS if you need to remove fatigue and are cheap (or stranded w/o the MIC)
The ring specifically doesn't lower the time you need to rest to renew spells.

EDIT: spelling.

Lycanthromancer
2009-11-02, 12:18 PM
The ring specifically doesn't lover the time you need to rest to renew spells.

No love for the sustenance? :smallfrown:

Anyway, it does no such thing. It provides ALL of the benefits of 8 hours of sleep (which includes rest, since you always get full rest while sleeping).

Sinfire Titan
2009-11-02, 12:32 PM
Helm of Essentia. At the cost of your Crown chakra and Helm slot, you get to max out one Soulmeld/Feat/Class feature for X rounds 3/day. It would be a must-have if it had more charges/day (but you can buy multiples of it). Only a handful of characters will ever need it though.


Rod of Rope, Complete Mage.

Rod of Many Wands, also from Complete Mage. Only Artificers/craft-happy players will ever use it constantly, but if used as an emergency Shotgun there's nothing wrong with it.

Blackfang108
2009-11-02, 12:34 PM
No love for the sustenance? :smallfrown:

Anyway, it does no such thing. It provides ALL of the benefits of 8 hours of sleep (which includes rest, since you always get full rest while sleeping).

I can swear I saw something that mentioned this.

This is going to bug me.

Saph
2009-11-02, 12:38 PM
Anyway, it does no such thing. It provides ALL of the benefits of 8 hours of sleep (which includes rest, since you always get full rest while sleeping).

Yup. It does not, however, allow you to break the spells/day limit of a caster, nor does it bypass the 8-hour recent casting limit.

You still only get your normal allowance of spells per day, and you still can't regain any spell slots you've used in the past 8 hours - this just lets you get more work done during the night-time.

Tyndmyr
2009-11-02, 12:41 PM
Yup. It does not, however, allow you to break the spells/day limit of a caster, nor does it bypass the 8-hour recent casting limit.

You still only get your normal allowance of spells per day, and you still can't regain any spell slots you've used in the past 8 hours - this just lets you get more work done during the night-time.

Exactly. Which makes perfect sense, since those rules are seperate, and not tied to sleep.

Very useful in dangerous places where sleeping is a bad idea.

jiriku
2009-11-02, 01:01 PM
Hmm, bag of devouring. Everyone else in the party was disappointed to find out that we didn't have a bag of holding, after all. I gladly took the bag of devouring for my share of the loot. It's great for disposing of inconvenient corpses and indestructible cursed items, and the threat of its use has discouraged the party rogue from purchasing a chihuaha.

taltamir
2009-11-02, 01:07 PM
Exactly. Which makes perfect sense, since those rules are seperate, and not tied to sleep.

Very useful in dangerous places where sleeping is a bad idea.

the 8 hours of rest are NOT tied to sleep, they explicitly state that even creatures that sleep less than 8 hours or not sleep at all must rest for 8 hours to prepare spells.

While fortifying bedroll can only be used every other day, it is still a very very nice item. Vastly superior to having 50 pearls of power of various levels.

subject42
2009-11-02, 01:29 PM
Survival pouch. AKA "Sack of Infinite Donkeys"

Saph
2009-11-02, 01:34 PM
While fortifying bedroll can only be used every other day, it is still a very very nice item. Vastly superior to having 50 pearls of power of various levels.

Pearls of Power let you regain spells already cast, thus letting you actually cast more spells per day. Fortifying Bedroll doesn't do this. It just lets you prepare your day's allotment of spells without resting 8 hours beforehand.

CockroachTeaParty
2009-11-02, 03:15 PM
Rod of Rope, Complete Mage.

I love the Rod of Rope. It should actually be in Complete Scoundrel, if you ask me. No daring, swashbuckling, skill monkey-ing character should be without it. Who cares if you can cast fly on me? I've got a grappling hook gun like batman.

Ormagoden
2009-11-02, 04:05 PM
453: I am not allowed to fill my bag of holding with Marbles, Pebbles, Boulders, Dirt, Water, Frogs, Metal ingots, Copper coins, Forks, Daggers, or Gnomes for the express purpose of dumping it on NPCs Towns I don't like. And portable hole filled with torches is RIGHT OUT!

taltamir
2009-11-02, 07:30 PM
Pearls of Power let you regain spells already cast, thus letting you actually cast more spells per day. Fortifying Bedroll doesn't do this. It just lets you prepare your day's allotment of spells without resting 8 hours beforehand.

I am aware. it is superior to the pearls of power in 2 ways:
1. It lets you choose different spells
2. It lets you regain ALL your spells with a single 3000gp item.

Pearls of power do have the advantage in the time to use.