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mootoall
2010-12-25, 02:59 AM
I was just reading through the MiC when I saw the Goggle of the Ebon Hunter. Darkvision, nice things, the tiniest bit over priced, but overall good. Then I remembered the random chance that a magic item will glow with an aura of light, and I started to chuckle. Any other self-defeating magic items like that?

Jarrick
2010-12-25, 03:30 AM
Potion of remove paralysis. You can drink it when you're paralyzed and... oh, wait...

Akal Saris
2010-12-25, 03:36 AM
3.0's Sword of the Planes comes to mind.

In 3.0, it had the statistics below, and a price tag of 52,315 gold. But for 50,315g, you could simply buy a +5 Longsword that worked anywhere in the universe and at a higher bonus than the Sword of the Planes, and still have 3,000g left over to spare. There was literally no point at which the SoTP was worth crafting or purchasing.

Sword of the Planes

This longsword has an enhancement bonus of +1 on the Material Plane, but on any Elemental Plane its enhancement bonus increases to +2. (The +2 enhancement bonus also applies on the Material Plane when the weapon is used against elementals.) It operates as a +3 longsword on the Astral Plane or the Ethereal Plane or when used against opponents native to either of those planes. On any other plane, or against any outsider, it functions as a +4 longsword.

tenshiakodo
2010-12-25, 04:34 AM
While I can't recall if it's a 3rd edition rule, the Sword of the Planes originally did have a purpose, as the enhancement bonus of magic weapons and armor fluctuated based on where they were enchanted.

Thus a weapon enchanted, say, in the Abyss as a +3 would only be a +2 in Limbo, or something along those lines. As a result, in a campaign where the players often travel to various planes, the SotP had a reasonable chance of being useful when your normal items weren't.

Not saying that justifies it's price tag, just that was the theory.

DnD has a history of magic items that are redundant, overpriced, or just plain silly. Apparatus of Kwalish, Helm of Brilliance, Wands/Rods of Wonder, the list goes on.

One of my personal favorites is the Rod of Lordly Might. Ok, I get it, it's a minor arsenal of different weapons, which conceivably a weapon master-style character might want. But each weapon has a different enhancement bonus and/or function, and most of them aren't really the kind of weapons a serious melee character would use (Battleaxe? Spear?).

Not to mention you could burn out the thing by expending charges for it's other functions. In theory, it's a Swiss Army Weapon. In practice, it's an overcosted piece of junk.

Luckblades are another fun one. Because you really need a Ring of Wishes in the form of a +1 Short Sword, right?

AslanCross
2010-12-25, 05:12 AM
I was just reading through the MiC when I saw the Goggle of the Ebon Hunter. Darkvision, nice things, the tiniest bit over priced, but overall good. Then I remembered the random chance that a magic item will glow with an aura of light, and I started to chuckle. Any other self-defeating magic items like that?

Doesn't that 30% chance apply only to magic weapons? DMG, p. 221.

Kurald Galain
2010-12-25, 05:19 AM
The computer game ADOM has a Scroll of Cure Blindness. Think about it.

2xMachina
2010-12-25, 05:30 AM
DnD has a history of magic items that are redundant, overpriced, or just plain silly. Apparatus of Kwalish, Helm of Brilliance, Wands/Rods of Wonder, the list goes on.


Like Bracers of Armor +2, when you can get a item of continuous Mage's Armor?
:smalltongue:

Godskook
2010-12-25, 05:44 AM
Like Bracers of Armor +2, when you can get a item of continuous Mage's Armor?
:smalltongue:

Optimized custom magic items should not and can not be fairly compared to pre-made ones.

Runestar
2010-12-25, 05:58 AM
While I can't recall if it's a 3rd edition rule, the Sword of the Planes originally did have a purpose, as the enhancement bonus of magic weapons and armor fluctuated based on where they were enchanted.

Believe it was a 2ed rule, not sure if it was carried over to 3e though. Spells didn't even work in the abyss, so mages were screwed unless they could obtain "keys" of sort.

GoatBoy
2010-12-25, 07:30 AM
Stilled burning hands

Silenced power word: kill

Eschewed fire seeds

KillianHawkeye
2010-12-25, 09:32 AM
Reminds me of the Boots of Blinding Speed from the computer game Morrowind. They made you super fast, but you couldn't see anything. :smallamused:

2xMachina
2010-12-25, 09:38 AM
Reminds me of the Boots of Blinding Speed from the computer game Morrowind. They made you super fast, but you couldn't see anything. :smallamused:

Rincewind: When running, "to" is never important, what matters is "from".

Anxe
2010-12-25, 11:23 AM
Reminds me of the Boots of Blinding Speed from the computer game Morrowind. They made you super fast, but you couldn't see anything. :smallamused:

Those boots became super useful if you cast a Resist Magic spell on yourself before putting them on. The spell warded off the negative blinding effect and still allowed you to keep the speed effect.

Cirrhosis
2010-12-25, 01:36 PM
Those boots became super useful if you cast a Resist Magic spell on yourself before putting them on. The spell warded off the negative blinding effect and still allowed you to keep the speed effect.

Technically, magic resistance resists all magic, not just harmful magic. You will either have resistance to both effects or neither effect, as both of the effects occur simultaneously when you wear the boots, depending on whether or not you've chosen to suppress your magic resistance at the time.

Re'ozul
2010-12-25, 02:08 PM
I always wonder wether people use the Rod of wonder as a money making (and gem economy breaking) machine by having minions cast at stuff and every time someone gets a temporary effect that disables them to use the rod, they give it to the next minion. 10 hours of casting would not only give you a huge field of grass (or a field of huge grass, though it would most likely burn away from the many many fireballs) but also gems worth 4500gp.

Then again its most likely only useful for evil parties what with all of those colorful and or dead minions (and the elephants and rhinos can't forget them).

Gensh
2010-12-25, 02:38 PM
Reminds me of the Boots of Blinding Speed from the computer game Morrowind. They made you super fast, but you couldn't see anything. :smallamused:

Did it work like that for everyone else because it only made my screen kind of dark and didn't really bother me.


Technically, magic resistance resists all magic, not just harmful magic. You will either have resistance to both effects or neither effect, as both of the effects occur simultaneously when you wear the boots, depending on whether or not you've chosen to suppress your magic resistance at the time.

Well, this is Morrowind. Half of the magic doesn't work in the way you'd expect it to anyway, but this one actually does only block harmful effects.

Anyway, I never saw the purpose in immovable rods. They just don't seem that useful.

mootoall
2010-12-25, 02:40 PM
Anyway, I never saw the purpose in immovable rods. They just don't seem that useful.

Then you're just not being creative enough :smallwink: My favorite was that one city where they staked them through the arms of the Tarrasque to hold him in place so they could harvest his flesh for magic reagents ...

Gensh
2010-12-25, 02:46 PM
Then you're just not being creative enough :smallwink: My favorite was that one city where they staked them through the arms of the Tarrasque to hold him in place so they could harvest his flesh for magic reagents ...

But for 5k gp, I could buy a weapon made of solid gold...

mootoall
2010-12-25, 02:51 PM
But for 5k gp, I could buy a weapon made of solid gold...

I suppose you could, but there's no more point to a solid gold weapon than a rod that can plant itself in mid-air ...

Gensh
2010-12-25, 02:56 PM
I suppose you could, but there's no more point to a solid gold weapon than a rod that can plant itself in mid-air ...

There is when it's a solid gold chainsaw as long as a man is tall (large fleshgrinding fullblade). :smallcool:

mootoall
2010-12-25, 02:57 PM
There is when it's a solid gold chainsaw as long as a man is tall (large fleshgrinding fullblade). :smallcool:

I must admit.






That is awesome.

Susano-wo
2010-12-25, 03:03 PM
I like the idea that with two of them you can climb anything, though I suppose that in theory you could just fly. but this is cooler!

boomwolf
2010-12-25, 03:05 PM
Reminds me of the Boots of Blinding Speed from the computer game Morrowind. They made you super fast, but you couldn't see anything. :smallamused:

On the other hand TeS, and especially Morrowind, is bombarded with dumb magic items.

A scroll that gets your jump insanely high that you can jump over a freaking tower, but grants you no way to survive the fall back down?


Anyway, the dumbest item a DM tossed at me was the +1 construct-bane SAP. (fail?)

Anyways, potions are the way to get most fails:
Potion of Animate Dead (well, I assume you can administer it to dead guys.)
Potion of Scare (why would you ****ing drink that?)
Potion of Knock (how does it even WORK?)
Potion of Stinking Cloud (he has gas...)
Potion of Daylight (wtf?)
Potion of Slow (again, why?)
Potions of summon <whatever>
Potion of Shatter (wait, what?)
Potion of Charm/Suggestion (......)

KillianHawkeye
2010-12-25, 03:11 PM
Anyways, potions are the way to get most fails:
Potion of Animate Dead (well, I assume you can administer it to dead guys.)
Potion of Scare (why would you ****ing drink that?)
Potion of Knock (how does it even WORK?)
Potion of Stinking Cloud (he has gas...)
Potion of Daylight (wtf?)
Potion of Slow (again, why?)
Potions of summon <whatever>
Potion of Shatter (wait, what?)
Potion of Charm/Suggestion (......)

Most/all of those would actually be oils, since oils are completely equivalent to potions except in their manner of use (rubbed on target instead of being drank).

Narren
2010-12-25, 03:48 PM
In a 2nd edition game I gave my players the Mace of Healing. When striking someone, it would deal 1d6+2 points of damage, and heal 1d6+2 points of damage. They stuck it in a saddle bag and forgot about it until the party ranger whipped it out when facing a horde of undead.

Keinnicht
2010-12-25, 06:39 PM
I suppose you could, but there's no more point to a solid gold weapon than a rod that can plant itself in mid-air ...

There's less point. Solid gold would deform immediately upon being struck against something.

Keinnicht
2010-12-25, 06:41 PM
In a 2nd edition game I gave my players the Mace of Healing. When striking someone, it would deal 1d6+2 points of damage, and heal 1d6+2 points of damage. They stuck it in a saddle bag and forgot about it until the party ranger whipped it out when facing a horde of undead.

Ouch.

Also, I always wondered what sick mage made the Loadstone. It doesn't weigh enough to significantly slow someone down, it doesn't do anything other than weigh you down...It seems like the magical equivalent of joybuzzing someone.

slaydemons
2010-12-25, 06:45 PM
i made an account just to answer this topic and to forever join in on this subforum the answer


Vorpal guillotine i saw it on another topic on here i couldn't stop laughing because its self defeating purpose

mootoall
2010-12-25, 06:47 PM
i made an account just to answer this topic and to forever join in on this subforum the answer


Vorpal guillotine i saw it on another topic on here i couldn't stop laughing because its self defeating purpose

LOL, yes, that's a great one. And welcome!

Kurald Galain
2010-12-25, 06:47 PM
Also, I always wondered what sick mage made the Loadstone.

At least in 2E, any mage attempting to create a beneficial magical stone could randomly end up with one of these instead. A worse example of this rule is the necklace of strangulation...

The Glyphstone
2010-12-25, 06:54 PM
i made an account just to answer this topic and to forever join in on this subforum the answer


Vorpal guillotine i saw it on another topic on here i couldn't stop laughing because its self defeating purpose

A Merciful Guillotine is even worse.

ScionoftheVoid
2010-12-25, 06:54 PM
Ouch.

Also, I always wondered what sick mage made the Loadstone. It doesn't weigh enough to significantly slow someone down, it doesn't do anything other than weigh you down...It seems like the magical equivalent of joybuzzing someone.

Yes, but it would be hilarious watching them attempt to get rid of it. And even more hilarious in a low-level party's loot. Guess who doesn't have a Bag of Holding to screw over the encumbrance rules yet? You don't! Buahahahaah! There are reasons why you should be skeptical when your DM tells you you see a lodestone in your loot at level 2. I now have an idea for a reward in my current campaign. :maniacallaugh:

slaydemons
2010-12-25, 07:24 PM
short sword of cure light wounds

The Glyphstone
2010-12-25, 07:29 PM
short sword of cure light wounds

Great weapon for undead-slaying.

Raging Gene Ray
2010-12-25, 07:51 PM
A Merciful Guillotine is even worse.

Worse? Try hilarious. The PCs are arrested on some trumped up charge, the drama builds, the leader is restrained, the blade plummets...then the executioner and the entire town point and laugh at the surviving "prisoner" as he loses control of all his bodily functions from the shock.

The party bard arranged all this with the king. As a bit of good-natured ribbing.

Gensh
2010-12-25, 07:54 PM
There's less point. Solid gold would deform immediately upon being struck against something.

Not if it's "alchemically treated."

Anyway, I always loved those little candies of inflict light wounds from Ghostwalk. Useless to the average party, but odds are, they'll loot them along with everything else and end up eating some of them at the worst possible moment.

Jarrick
2010-12-25, 08:07 PM
Immovable rods are useful for wrecking (Or at least stopping) ships and other vehicles. Nothing like tearing a 6"+ hole through an oncoming ship. or lightning rail car. or airship. They're also good for disabling creatures with swallow whole. Just summon a monster, tell it the command word, and order it to get swallowed and shout the word before it dies.

Re: Merciful Guillotine: "Our nation doesnt believe in the death penalty. We prefer public humiliation."

woodenbandman
2010-12-25, 09:45 PM
Ring of creation of rings:

Using this gold ring creates a gold ring, and then causes the original ring to crumble into dust. Single use.

Siosilvar
2010-12-25, 09:50 PM
Ring of Extra Ring Slot

Staff of Disintegration: disintegrates upon use.

Jack_Simth
2010-12-26, 12:13 AM
Luckblades are another fun one. Because you really need a Ring of Wishes in the form of a +1 Short Sword, right?
You get a Luckblade for the +1 Luck to saves and the 1/day reroll of any roll you make. The Wishes? Eh, if you find it charged in a loot pile go for it. Otherwise, not so much.

Pseudolich
2010-12-26, 01:00 AM
I find it rather...odd when merciful and vorpal end up on the same weapon.

For a genuinely self-defeating item, though, I would go with the Deck of Many Things. It is supposedly meant to be a game of chance granting benefits and penalties. Instead, it prompts players to either run away, abuse divination to avoid the harmful effects, ignore it, or cast astral projection and use major creation on anti-osmium to get rid of it.

mootoall
2010-12-26, 01:05 AM
I find it rather...odd when merciful and vorpal end up on the same weapon.

For a genuinely self-defeating item, though, I would go with the Deck of Many Things. It is supposedly meant to be a game of chance granting benefits and penalties. Instead, it prompts players to either run away, abuse divination to avoid the harmful effects, ignore it, or cast astral projection and use major creation on anti-osmium to get rid of it.

Heh, I think artifacts fall into a different category altogether ...

VirOath
2010-12-26, 01:18 AM
You get a Luckblade for the +1 Luck to saves and the 1/day reroll of any roll you make. The Wishes? Eh, if you find it charged in a loot pile go for it. Otherwise, not so much.

When you utterly crush the epic level dragon in one round with a dice chain that is on the statistic side of "One in a Million", DO NOT let the dumb party beatstick go over to the pile and pick up the shiny sword and say "I WISH we could do that again."

The party, and the epic level draco-lich, will not be pleased.

Yeah, I have a good reason to have an aversion to wishes in all of their forms.

Jack_Simth
2010-12-26, 10:14 AM
When you utterly crush the epic level dragon in one round with a dice chain that is on the statistic side of "One in a Million", DO NOT let the dumb party beatstick go over to the pile and pick up the shiny sword and say "I WISH we could do that again."

The party, and the epic level draco-lich, will not be pleased.

Yeah, I have a good reason to have an aversion to wishes in all of their forms.That's what you get for letting anyone touch the potentially cursed loot before it's been properly Analyzed. Seriously, there's *a lot* of things that could have nasty effects if the party beatstick picks them up unknowing. If you have an Unseen Servant spread everything out properly, cast Detect Magic to determine which of the loot is, and is not, magical, and then use Analyze Dweomer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/analyzeDweomer.htm) (which explicitly notes curses) on everything that registers as magic, you don't get that sort of problem unless your DM is out to get you (and if you're at a level where it's reasonable to be dropping Luck Blades that still have Wishes in them into the loot pile, you should be able to manage a 6th level spell a time or three a day).

Gamblerjoe
2010-12-26, 11:01 AM
The computer game ADOM has a Scroll of Cure Blindness. Think about it.
cure blindness can be cast on others


Potion of remove paralysis. You can drink it when you're paralyzed and... oh, wait...
potions can be administered. in pnp they dont describe potions, they just call them by the spell effect they create, but in DDO they do. for remove paralysis potions the description sais that it is used on other characters, and the game mechanics follow suit.


Technically, magic resistance resists all magic, not just harmful magic. You will either have resistance to both effects or neither effect, as both of the effects occur simultaneously when you wear the boots, depending on whether or not you've chosen to suppress your magic resistance at the time.
not sure where u got that idea, but the resist magic thing works. you make a custom spell that gives you resist magic 100% (or more accurately brings your magic resistance to 100% depending on what it starts off as for your race). give it a duration of 1 sec. cast the spell and equip the boots. your screen will not go dark, and your speed will increase by 200.

you actually dont even need 100%, but its so easy to achieve theres no reason not to. if your magic resistance is 0 or less, your screen will go pitch black. if it is 1-99% your screen will darken appropriately.

***
And lastly, my self defeating magic item is in my sig. its an old running with a guy i used to play dnd with. its the most antagonistic weapon we could think of. the most amusing weapon that i actually looted in DDO was a vicious dwarven axe of greater dwarf bane. i looted it on my axe/shield spec'd dwarf fighter too.

Chilingsworth
2010-12-26, 11:57 AM
The best I can think of off the top of my head:

A spell component pouch with permenant silence on it.

true_shinken
2010-12-26, 12:46 PM
For a genuinely self-defeating item, though, I would go with the Deck of Many Things. It is supposedly meant to be a game of chance granting benefits and penalties. Instead, it prompts players to either run away, abuse divination to avoid the harmful effects, ignore it, or cast astral projection and use major creation on anti-osmium to get rid of it.

YMMV. My players got addicted to playing with the deck, without any shenanigans, even after sufferings lots of ill effects. I think it's a really fun item.

Talon Sky
2010-12-26, 01:18 PM
short sword of cure light wounds
That's what Sesshomaru thought about the Tenseiga ;p

Keinnicht
2010-12-26, 02:45 PM
I find it rather...odd when merciful and vorpal end up on the same weapon.

For a genuinely self-defeating item, though, I would go with the Deck of Many Things. It is supposedly meant to be a game of chance granting benefits and penalties. Instead, it prompts players to either run away, abuse divination to avoid the harmful effects, ignore it, or cast astral projection and use major creation on anti-osmium to get rid of it.

I don't think it's self-defeating. Players aren't obligated to take a chance if they don't want to. Although I wouldn't let divination spells fly.

Re'ozul
2010-12-26, 05:29 PM
Not self-defeating but strange: Vorpal Whip.

Tag-line: How confident are you in your rolling?

Talon Sky
2010-12-26, 05:39 PM
Not self-defeating but strange: Vorpal Whip.

Tag-line: How confident are you in your rolling?

I thought Vorpal could only be on a bladed weapon?

Nero24200
2010-12-26, 05:40 PM
On the other hand TeS, and especially Morrowind, is bombarded with dumb magic items.

A scroll that gets your jump insanely high that you can jump over a freaking tower, but grants you no way to survive the fall back down?


Theres a trick to that actually. No matter how high you jump in Morrowind you don't take damage (unles you jump off of something or otherwise land on a lower platform). This is because your acrobatics skill also determines how far you can fall before you take damage.

Use on scroll, leap, then use another just before you land. You'll survive.


Though I've heard one interpretation of a "Truly Immoveable Rod" that stays still while the planet spins. So when set there was basically a small line around the earth that you didn't want to go near and got very hot.

Flickerdart
2010-12-26, 05:41 PM
I find it rather...odd when merciful and vorpal end up on the same weapon.
Makes perfect sense on a Paladin or something. When you whomp people and they suddenly get decapitated, it was your deity's will that they should live no more!

KillItWithFire
2010-12-26, 05:56 PM
Makes perfect sense on a Paladin or something. When you whomp people and they suddenly get decapitated, it was your deity's will that they should live no more!

So would you just run down the street smacking every civi you could find in order to test them?

Coidzor
2010-12-26, 05:59 PM
Ouch.

Also, I always wondered what sick mage made the Loadstone. It doesn't weigh enough to significantly slow someone down, it doesn't do anything other than weigh you down...It seems like the magical equivalent of joybuzzing someone.

Well, yeah, gnomes can't all invent ingenuous devices for dealing death.

mootoall
2010-12-26, 05:59 PM
So would you just run down the street smacking every civi you could find in order to test them?

No, that's what the Holy short sword of CLW is for. If they're undead, they die.

Pseudolich
2010-12-26, 06:01 PM
I suppose that it would function for justification of "accidental" kills, so it isn't completely self defeating.

Perhaps the starmantle cloak? While it is great for reducing weapon damage, it practically acts as a beacon for disjunction spells from anything capable of casting it, thus rendering it a very nice cloak with no magical properties.

Kurald Galain
2010-12-26, 06:07 PM
cure blindness can be cast on others
The point you're missing is that it's a single-player game :smalltongue:

Jack_Simth
2010-12-26, 06:34 PM
The computer game ADOM has a Scroll of Cure Blindness. Think about it.

Isn't that one like Nethack, wherein if you've fully ID'd the scroll, you can cast off of it regardless of whether or not you can see at the moment?

Kurald Galain
2010-12-26, 06:41 PM
Isn't that one like Nethack, wherein if you've fully ID'd the scroll, you can cast off of it regardless of whether or not you can see at the moment?

Nope. ADOM is way nastier than Nethack.

The other example from ADOM is the potion of Stun Recovery. As you've probably guessed, you can't drink potions while stunned. The third and final example is the potion of uselessness, which actually isn't.

VirOath
2010-12-26, 06:50 PM
That's what you get for letting anyone touch the potentially cursed loot before it's been properly Analyzed. Seriously, there's *a lot* of things that could have nasty effects if the party beatstick picks them up unknowing. If you have an Unseen Servant spread everything out properly, cast Detect Magic to determine which of the loot is, and is not, magical, and then use Analyze Dweomer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/analyzeDweomer.htm) (which explicitly notes curses) on everything that registers as magic, you don't get that sort of problem unless your DM is out to get you (and if you're at a level where it's reasonable to be dropping Luck Blades that still have Wishes in them into the loot pile, you should be able to manage a 6th level spell a time or three a day).

Oh, trust me, I know. But he was next in the initiative line and had the movement. Everyone faceplamed hard at the table that day.

It's an old story, but a good one.

Dusk Eclipse
2010-12-27, 12:48 AM
Ring of Extra Ring Slot

Staff of Disintegration: disintegrates upon use.

The ring of extra ring slot becomes quite usefull if you use the rules in the MIC to add common effect to items.

yilduz
2010-12-27, 01:50 AM
Ring of Extra Ring Slot


It isn't really self-defeating, but this post reminded me of something.
I played a card game before called Munchkin. In it was a card named "two-handed sword." It didn't require two hands to wield (it only required one), but instead it gave you two extra hands. So you not only get to hold the sword, but you have three hands free!

ffone
2010-12-27, 02:32 AM
Like Bracers of Armor +2, when you can get a item of continuous Mage's Armor?
:smalltongue:

not 'when', but 'if you can trick your DM'

AsteriskAmp
2010-12-27, 05:40 AM
i made an account just to answer this topic and to forever join in on this subforum the answer


Vorpal guillotine i saw it on another topic on here i couldn't stop laughing because its self defeating purpose


I know it's not possible by RAW, but still, if you are the DM:

Potion of True Resurection: True Resurection on a potion, not much to explain.

Potion of Gate: The gate spell is cast ... inside of you, a random monster comes out of it, it's hostile to the drinker and will procede to burst out of the drinker upon coming out of the gate.

Potion of Time Stop: Your digestive system acts freely for 1d4 +1 rounds.

Potion of Fly Sympathy: Flies are attracted to you.

And some not so original ideas copied from a similar thread:

Sword of Cure Minor Wounds

Vorpal Guilliotine

And finally some original ideas:

Scroll of Literacy: Caster becomes Literate.

Scroll of Cure Blindness: Caster is cured of Blindness

Top Hat of Rabbit Production: When the words ALAKAZAM! are uttered near this hat it produces 1d4 fluffy rabbits while taking away 1% of the wearer's hair, they stay for 1d3 rounds and cannot do any action other than to look cute, after the elapsed time they decompose into hair.

Tracking Gloves: This leather gloves emit a high pitched sound when only one of them is left on the wearer's body. The sound stops when the other is removed or the removed one is returned.

I messed up my titles and the un-original ideas should have gone where original ideas went...

And to add something to the thread

Cursed Blinding Helmet of Read Magic

And the story behind the Vorpal Guillotine and the Sword of Cure Minor Wounds.

Strangely enough the Vorpal Guillotine is strangely useful if dealing with realism, guillotines as any blade is not assured to perfectly cut through, on the other hand, the Vorpal Guillotine has a slightly better chance.

I used it in as part of the plot on one of my campaigns when the PCs reached a town that had everything that had an edge made vorpal, this went from the logical (swords, axes) to the hilariously dangerous (table edges, corners), it was essentially a plot hook. They carefully looted the town, a PC died nonetheless looting the stable (He got decapitated by running through a door made for halflings), they couldn't take the guillotine but had fun trying it out with random villagers and chickens and horses and more villagers.

The sword of cure light wounds was taken from a enworld thread about a mace of cure light wounds, I gave it the PCs on another campaign, they bypassed the system with it by using the blunt side for the curing instead of the edge, it was lost shortly thereafter thanks to disjunction, that a PC had casted while testing what the heck it did (afterwards he learnt to actually read spell descriptions instead of taking the scientific IC approach to spells).

Runestar
2010-12-27, 08:07 AM
Aren't you able to adminster potions to your team-mates? So potions won't be useless even if you are in a situation where you can't use them. If you are paralyzed, your friends can still take it and feed it down your throat. :smallsmile:

Ah, this reminds me - a merciful whip or sap. :smallbiggrin:

Jack_Simth
2010-12-27, 08:21 AM
Aren't you able to adminster potions to your team-mates? So potions won't be useless even if you are in a situation where you can't use them. If you are paralyzed, your friends can still take it and feed it down your throat. :smallsmile:
Not D&D 3.5: ADOM: Single-player - no companions to apply it to, no companions to apply it to you.

Ah, this reminds me - a merciful whip or sap. :smallbiggrin:
You still get the bonus damage, though.

Runestar
2010-12-27, 09:11 AM
Not D&D 3.5: ADOM: Single-player - no companions to apply it to, no companions to apply it to you.
You still get the bonus damage, though.

That makes it all the more paradoxical. What's so merciful about a whip which does more damage? :smallamused:

Greenish
2010-12-27, 09:30 AM
What's so merciful about a whip which does more damage? :smallamused:It's over faster.

kestrel404
2010-12-27, 09:59 AM
3.0's Sword of the Planes comes to mind.

In 3.0, it had the statistics below, and a price tag of 52,315 gold. But for 50,315g, you could simply buy a +5 Longsword that worked anywhere in the universe and at a higher bonus than the Sword of the Planes, and still have 3,000g left over to spare. There was literally no point at which the SoTP was worth crafting or purchasing.

Sword of the Planes

This longsword has an enhancement bonus of +1 on the Material Plane, but on any Elemental Plane its enhancement bonus increases to +2. (The +2 enhancement bonus also applies on the Material Plane when the weapon is used against elementals.) It operates as a +3 longsword on the Astral Plane or the Ethereal Plane or when used against opponents native to either of those planes. On any other plane, or against any outsider, it functions as a +4 longsword.

I would just like to point out that this is a great sword for a Ravenloft campaign.

EDIT: I misread. I thought it cost more than a +3 sword, not a +5 sword.

Siosilvar
2010-12-27, 12:17 PM
The ring of extra ring slot becomes quite usefull if you use the rules in the MIC to add common effect to items.

Not sure where my MIC went, but... the only common effect for rings I can remember is the deflection bonus.

If there's three common effects that can be added, then it's useful, I suppose.

The Glyphstone
2010-12-27, 12:19 PM
Not sure where my MIC went, but... the only common effect for rings I can remember is the deflection bonus.

If there's three common effects that can be added, then it's useful, I suppose.

Energy resistances also have Ring affinity.

Hyfigh
2010-12-27, 02:47 PM
I thought Vorpal could only be on a bladed weapon?

Not a bladed weapon - a slashing weapon. Whips, though non-lethal (normally), deal slashing damage.

true_shinken
2010-12-27, 03:30 PM
Not a bladed weapon - a slashing weapon. Whips, though non-lethal (normally), deal slashing damage.

So you can have a vorpal whip that deals nonlethal damage by RAW? That's frakking hilarious. :smallbiggrin:

Hyfigh
2010-12-27, 03:55 PM
So you can have a vorpal whip that deals nonlethal damage by RAW? That's frakking hilarious. :smallbiggrin:

It knocks your block off... :smallamused:

mootoall
2010-12-27, 04:04 PM
It knocks your block off... :smallamused:

Twenty lashes could actually be as deadly as it really was way back when.

true_shinken
2010-12-27, 04:08 PM
Twenty lashes could actually be as deadly as it really was way back when.
I really really doubt 20 lashes would be lethal. You see, my country has a long and ugly story of slaving. We study about this at school and the standart punishment for slaves was to be tied to a tree and suffer 100 lashes. Dude would agonize during the lashing, but would be fit enough to work the following day.

Jack_Simth
2010-12-27, 08:07 PM
Twenty lashes could actually be as deadly as it really was way back when.
Depends on the specific whip used. The Cat of Nine Tails is a totally different beast from the whip in the hand of the guy driving the horse and carriage, but getting hit with either can be meant by 'lashes', depending on context.

The Glyphstone
2010-12-27, 08:40 PM
The Cat-O-Nine-Tails would better match the Scourge (CWar 159) though than the whip, being both multi-lashed and capable of dealing lethal damage.

Jack_Simth
2010-12-27, 08:46 PM
The Cat-O-Nine-Tails would better match the Scourge (CWar 159) though than the whip, being both multi-lashed and capable of dealing lethal damage.
Probably. But historically, both were used for doling out 'lashes' (as well as several other implements, but those two make an interesting contrast) - which one depended on context. Twenty lashes from a Cat of Nine Tails has a decent chance of killing a person (especially if the person holding the lash doesn't really care if he does kill the target, which was often the case). Twenty lashes from the whip you'd see the guy driving the cart using is very unlikely to kill the target unless the person holding the lash is specifically trying to do so and knows exactly what he's doing.

The Glyphstone
2010-12-27, 08:48 PM
Probably. But historically, both were used for doling out 'lashes' (as well as several other implements, but those two make an interesting contrast) - which one depended on context. Twenty lashes from a Cat of Nine Tails has a decent chance of killing a person (especially if the person holding the lash doesn't really care if he does kill the target, which was often the case). Twenty lashes from the whip you'd see the guy driving the cart using is very unlikely to kill the target unless the person holding the lash is specifically trying to do so and knows exactly what he's doing.

That's true. I was still looking at it from the mechanical perspective, not so much the historical one.

This has been a really weird tangent though...weren't we talking about self-defeating magic items rather than the intricacies of whips?

Jack_Simth
2010-12-27, 08:59 PM
That's true. I was still looking at it from the mechanical perspective, not so much the historical one.

This has been a really weird tangent though...weren't we talking about self-defeating magic items rather than the intricacies of whips?
Side tangent came about based on a comment about a Vorpal Whip being self-defeating, and the twenty lashings being as lethal in D&D as they were historically, and people saying that whips weren't historically that bad. Did I go too far afield? I apologize.

A little more on-topic:

The Stone of Increased Carrying Capacity
This twenty-pound rock increases your maximum carrying capacity by twenty pounds when worn as a hat.

Coidzor
2010-12-27, 09:01 PM
Literally self-defeating, as that'd probably break most peoples' necks. :smallamused:

VirOath
2010-12-27, 09:07 PM
Not if you employ shrink item abuse.

Jack_Simth
2010-12-27, 09:10 PM
Literally self-defeating, as that'd probably break most peoples' necks. :smallamused:
Only if it was fastened securely and the tripped or something. But seriously - People Used to Do That (http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/exhibits/goldie/quiltblock_15.shtml), and probably still do in some places.

Not if you employ shrink item abuse.
Shrink Item doesn't work on magical objects. And it won't work very well as a hat if it's one-eighth the size anyway, so you wouldn't be wearing it properly to reap the benefits.

Uncle Festy
2010-12-27, 11:36 PM
The Stone of Increased Carrying Capacity
This twenty-pound rock increases your maximum carrying capacity by twenty pounds when worn as a hat.

Ok, so I was pretty sure where you were going with this... and then I read the bit about wearing it as a hat, and laughed out loud. :smallbiggrin: