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View Full Version : [D&D 3.5] New Magic Item and Property: Amulet of Equipment and Summoning.



Gnomo
2009-11-28, 06:08 PM
Wondrous Item
Amulet of Equipment
This amulet is made of pure bronze, and has a small figure similar to a chest drawn on it. As a standard action a character wearing the Amulet of Equipment can send any part of his gear (except for this amulet) to a secret place on the ethereal plane, activating it again as a standard action brings back all the equipment sent before to their original position, if there's already equipment using the space slot of the gear summoned, it gets replaced by the one brought from the ethereal plane and the equipped gear gets transported to the secret place.
Strong Conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Woundrous Item; Secret Chest; Price 20,000 gp.


Armor, Shield and Weapon Enhancement
Summoning
Upon command as a standard action, an equipped armor set, shield or weapon enchanted with this property can be transported to a secret place in the ethereal plane, or, if the item is already in the ethereal plane by the means of this enhancement, it can be summoned to the material plane and appears equipped by its owner. If one item using the space slot of the summoned item is equipped by the character, the equipped item goes to the ethereal place and the summoned item takes its place in the material one. Only the one who sent the item to the ethereal plane can retrieve it with the command phrase.
Moderate Conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Magic Arms and Armors; Secret Chest; Price +1 bonus.

I'm planning to give any of this to my players, is this abusable somehow?

flabort
2009-11-28, 07:22 PM
Party Bard: Hi! We'd like to--
Head Gaurd: It's the wanted thieves. The're unarmed. Capture them alive.
Party Mage: Really? unarmed? ME, maybe. The bard, maybe...<nods>
Party Basher: I recall my equipment, and do a full attack on the gaurd's Face.
Head Gaurd: Huh? we'red that swor-

So aside from a seemingly unarmed half-Ogre suddenly swinging a two handed greatsword out of no-were, and sending it back just as fast, no, it doesn't seem abusable.

Oh, unless you count something normally getting movement penelties but no other penelties from Heavy armor, which can put away his armor, move without penelty, and put it back on without taking penelties. But, not many classes can do that, and those who can are cheese anyways.

Otherwise, it seems perfect, and he can't REALLY full attack in the same round as recalling his equipment as a standard action. a warlock could eldritch blast, maybe, but a no-one could full attack at the same time as pulling thier equipment out of thin air.

Siosilvar
2009-11-28, 07:29 PM
Party Bard: Hi! We'd like to--
Head Guard: It's the wanted thieves. The're unarmed. Capture them alive.
Party Mage: Really? unarmed? ME, maybe. The bard, maybe...<nods>
Party Basher: I recall my equipment, and do a full attack on the gaurd's Face.
Head Guard: Huh? we'red that swor-

So aside from a seemingly unarmed half-Ogre suddenly swinging a two handed greatsword out of no-were, and sending it back just as fast, no, it doesn't seem abusable.

Oh, unless you count something normally getting movement penalties but no other penalties from Heavy armor, which can put away his armor, move without penalty, and put it back on without taking penalties. But, not many classes can do that, and those who can are cheese anyways.

Otherwise, it seems perfect, and he can't REALLY full attack in the same round as recalling his equipment as a standard action. a warlock could eldritch blast, maybe, but a no-one could full attack at the same time as pulling their equipment out of thin air.

No one could attack at all in the same round. A standard action is the same one as the "smallest" attack I can think of.

Re the OP: What happens to non-slot and held items?

Other than that, keep in mind that you're essentially giving a player the ability to switch out between two fully functional sets of equipment (or just one), instantaneously.

Magnor Criol
2009-11-28, 07:32 PM
ANYTHING can be abused with the proper setup. =p But no, this shouldn't be a problem. As long as you keep the activation cost a standard action, that takes care of lots of the potential problems.

DracoDei
2009-11-28, 07:37 PM
I have heard of a magic item known as a "Rod of Arming", which I believe did something like this. It isn't considered very powerful, but can be a life-saver if you are attacked in the night and need to get your armor on ASAP. I don't know much more.

I can see several uses for this:
-Travelling in disguise.
-Smuggling (unlike a Handy Haversack, Bag of Holding, it doesn't LOOK like a container. A Portable Hole has the same effect, but doesn't require the person doing the search to know a command word and might activate if unfolded for examination.).
-Increased carrying capacity (two of everything... marginal at best).
-A safety device for a Helm of Brilliance and/or Necklace of Fireballs.
-Drowning prevention.
-Having a second set of equipment that is highly specialized for a certain task, and swapping between them to fit the situation.


I might make sure that you specify that the items don't count as worn for purposes of "You must wear this item for X time before it begins functioning.", but even that would be a really minor abuse, since I think that is usually just for items that would be cheesy if swapped between multiple party members.

sigurd
2009-11-28, 07:40 PM
You've just given all your players a get out of setting free card.

They barely have to interact with anything or think about the mechanics of travel. They are now a list of items without a worry of what to carry, how to get it there, or what they will look like doing it. Everything is safe, nothing is forgotten and I'm betting nothing will break or need replacing.


How long before they get a magic item that lets them be in all places at once so they don't have to remember what city they are in? Oh and another item that lets them seemlessly change characters in an instant, in case any of their other characters could solve a problem better.

Down the road they won't like the game more. They'll like it less because its all solved for them. They will fall out of the game.



Sigurd

Fortuna
2009-11-28, 07:45 PM
That seems a little harsh. As to travelling, it is no worse than a portable hole or bag of holding.

Anyway, can you store a sword (say), pick something up in your dominant hand, and then store that too? If so, how does retrieval work, since it retrieves everything?

DracoDei
2009-11-28, 08:10 PM
I concur that for travel purposes it is no 'worse' than a Bag of Holding or Handy Haversack.

Eldan
2009-11-28, 08:10 PM
I'd specify "gear" a little in the description, otherwise you'll have players arguing that their mounts are gear as well, and then trying to store their riding Ashworms and dragons, or that house they bought recently. Perhaps make it "something that can be worn or held by the character", or just give a weight limit.

DracoDei
2009-11-28, 08:17 PM
I agree that limiting it to Maximum Load, is a good clause to have, and also saying it doesn't effect other extradimensional spaces... IE your Handy Haversack stays in the real world all the time.

Gnomo
2009-11-28, 11:08 PM
Well, I forgot to mention that this is for epic level characters (between 18 and 24), and it's purpose is to be an aid to warriors who need more equipment than spell-casters. To be true, the main idea was to help warriors deal with the armor issue, since spellcasters can just cast something to protect themselves but warriors are stuck with pretty much the same armor and weapon the whole time.

What about this:

Armor, Shield and Weapon Enhancement
Summoning
Upon command as a standard action, an equipped armor set, shield or weapon enchanted with this property can be transported to a secret place in the ethereal plane, or, if the item is already in the ethereal plane by the means of this enhancement, it can be summoned to the material plane and appears equipped by its owner. If one item using the space slot of the summoned item is equipped by the character, the equipped item goes to the ethereal place and the summoned item takes its place in the material one. Only the one who sent the item to the ethereal plane can retrieve it with the command phrase.
Moderate Conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Magic Arms and Armors; Secret Chest; Price +1 bonus.

Ok, now all the gear problems and abuses should be solved, although now the enchantment is a little more expensive at least is not using a valuable space slot, at least this doesn't make it abusable for spell-casters.

What do you think on this?

Ouranos
2009-11-28, 11:41 PM
I think if you limit it to only being able to summon BACK the item so enchanted, meaning if you are wearing armor and summon your other one, the peice replaced (if it isn't enchanted) can't be recovered. Would cover most of the rest of the cheese. Most useful I can see it being really is for rogues, ninjas, and plate wearers. Rogues and ninjas because now they can walk around looking like ordinary folk, wearing regular clothes, then when they suddenly have need of it BAM they're armed and ready. good for assasination too. The reason heavy armor classes work well with it is because of time to don armor. I can wear a mithril full plate all day, take it off and hide it at night, then if attacked at night have it back on instead of being a sitting duck. Or imagine the paladin who enters court in fine robes, unarmed, and then when the time comes he charges the corrupt enemy official in a bright flash of light and is standing there in gleaming, polished full armor with sword in hand, ready to kill him... next round.

Ashtagon
2009-11-29, 02:19 AM
This would be useful for superhero characters who need to be able to do a quick costume change from their "Clark Kent" identity.

DracoDei
2009-11-29, 02:44 AM
I think if you limit it to only being able to summon BACK the item so enchanted, meaning if you are wearing armor and summon your other one, the peice replaced (if it isn't enchanted) can't be recovered. Would cover most of the rest of the cheese.
Can you be more precise about the nature of the cheese in question? Because I am not really seeing how being able to quick-change between two sets of equipment at mid to high to Epic levels is that cheesy. The two applications you described would be the main use, and the ability to have two set-ups actually DOESN'T seem that powerful, since you have to pay for both and with weapons and armor, that gets EXPENSIVE.

Gnomo
2009-11-29, 02:23 PM
I don't think I will make it so that the gear that is not enchanted with this property is forever lost in the ethereal plane when transported, but I can clearly see this is specially useful for roguish characters using a "fortification chain shirt", and then switching to "shadow/silent leather armor", and that's not the intention of the property.

I think it's better to not allow the armor switching, just the summoning, it is after all just a +1 property, shouldn't be that powerful:

Armor, Shield and Weapon Enhancement
Summoning
Upon command as a standard action, an equipped armor set, shield or weapon enchanted with this property can be transported to a secret place in the ethereal plane, or, if the item is already in the ethereal plane by the means of this enhancement, it can be summoned to the material plane and appears equipped by its owner. If any item using the space slot of the summoned item is equipped by the character, the summoning fails. Only the character who sent the item to the ethereal plane can retrieve it with the command phrase.
Moderate Conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Magic Arms and Armors; Secret Chest; Price +1 bonus.

I think this is better, any opinions?

I'm also thinking of changing the command activation to a swift action, would this be balanced?

DracoDei
2009-11-29, 02:50 PM
For a weapon/armor/shield enchantment that works. For the amulet, I like the idea of being able to switch between shadow/silent mithril chain-shirt and Fortification Mithril Breastplate (or another chain shirt if your Dex is high enough, which it might be by that level).

Of course, one could just call the version you favor "lesser" and the version I favor "greater".

sigurd
2009-11-29, 09:50 PM
Sorry if I sounded harsh. Bad Day.


Sigurd