Suggestions for Strange Objects campaign

[Forbiddenwar]

I'm starting a campaign filled with objects with strange abilities. Think "The Lost Room (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Room)" without the key or any other game breaking item. As the game progresses the players find items that are more powerful (actually useful).

Can you list 100 everyday (for D&D) objects with strange abilities (read not recognizable as any known spell effect) that doesn't break the game? Also, considering the ingenuity of players, what, if anything, doesn't break the game?

For example:
Item 1: A bowl that instantly absorbs any amount of water (and only water) it contains. Has no effect on water held in another container (it doesn't suck water out of your hand if you put your hand in it, nor out of a waterskin if you put a waterskin in it.)

[NichG]

Something that gradually makes things placed near it more perfect (gems gradually drift towards their maximum possible value, spending an extended amount of time near it allows you to increase one of your HD rolls one point towards its maximum every level, say).

Something that turns incorporeal when light is shone on it, but becomes more solid in darkness.

Something that subtly permutes reality, causing a host of minor inconsequential alterations but occasionally (say, on a 100 on a d100 roll) something more significant happens. Example: the guy the party is facing is now using a bardiche instead of a guisarme, and from his point of view always was.

Something that draws things near it by actually contracting space itself (everything fully contained within a certain radius is automatically moved 5ft towards it when activated)

Something that allows the result of one die roll per game/round/whatever to be known before the action is declared. I.e. you can say 'I want to pre-roll my next d20' and then whatever you decide to do that round will use that roll.

A pen that, when used to alter text, also alters all copies that had been made from that source to match the alterations.

A crayon that creates permanent color streaks that hang in space when used to draw on the air.

A drill that temporarily creates a non-damaging hole 2ft wide and 2ft deep in anything (if you use it on a creature, they'll have a big hole in them but will still function - in essence the edges of the hole are a dimensional warp).

A spirally thing that performs a left-right inversion on anything it is used on (really really sneaky way of assassinating people, by making them unable to gain nutritional benefit from the food they eat).

[Cespenar]

A bell that rings whenever someone somewhere utters the holder's name.

A flask that spontaneously pours drinks fitting to the type of glass it touches. (beer to a tankard, wine to a wine glass, etc.)

A candle whose light is only visible to the person that holds it. (I remember reading something like this somewhere, but can't put my finger on it)

A hammer that "reverses" the hardnesses of the material it strikes. Glass acts like adamantine against it, vice versa, etc. but only against this particular hammer.

A quill that can draw the ink right out of a parchment and then becomes capable of writing exactly like the writing it erased.

A key that can fit and lock any lock, but can't ever unlock them.

A mirror that shows each onlooker the face of the previous user instead.

A parchment that can't be destroyed by anything short of divine means. Perfect for an important pact to be written in, or something similar.

A whetstone that secretly makes a weapon incredibly brittle, so that it shatters on its next strike.

[DracoDei]

Well, I have several things, but only the first is really polished...

Gummy Sphere
These elastic spheres are made of the same material as the real world Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms (TM, although the spelling may be off). They are much more popular among the children of the nobility and court jesters than they are serious adventurers in the field. When ingested they allow the blowing of "soap" bubbles out of the ears. For creatures with external ears, the diameter of the bubbles is twice the longest dimension of said ears, meaning that if the campaign setting includes anthropomorphic rabbits then they can make some really big ones. For creatures without external ears, the diameter is equal to the diameter of the ear-hole. Creatures without ear-holes can not benefit from gummy spheres. The effect lasts 1d4 minutes, or until the creature (if medium sized) has produced 2 cubic feet of bubbles and only one such effect may be in place at a time. The maximum volume scales up and down with the size of the eater. The bubbles are completely and totally non-irritating to the eyes etc.
Caster level 1, Craft Wondrous Item, 10 gold pieces market price per batch of 100 for creation purposes, but normally available for individual sale for 1 silver piece for a single gummy sphere.





And here is the unpolished stuff, ported in from the Competitor forums.The descriptions are very rough, and the caster level/pricing is completely absent. As such, any and all mechanics/pricing suggestions are welcome.

Ok, back in 2nd edition (and probably 1st) the belts that increase your strength increased it to a set amount. This might or might not have matched the legends more precisely, but from a game play perspective was ridiculous, since if you were making a character with such an item, you would dump-stat strength, even if you were a fighter-type, but if you weren't, it was probably your most critical ability score. It also made the wizard just as strong as the fighter if he spent the same amount of money on such (or maybe he couldn't use such a belt?). However, I did come up with a magic item (long after 3.0 came out I think) that SHOULD work like that.


Wondrous Item
Belt of Laboring
This belt is favored by recluses who want to be able to build a home, carry firewood home, or move furniture around without having to resort to actually TALKING to anyone. It is also useful for granting limited mobility to the elderly. Adventurers find them useful for using powerful bows when ambushing a target, ripping open doors and treasure chests, and crushing the life out of pinned items, among other things.

This belt grants a strength score. Use whatever the wearers strength score would be otherwise or the strength of the belt, whichever is higher (except that any NEGATIVES to strength from anything other than size still apply, such as drain or damage). These belts come in ALL strength scores from as little as 8(mostly used for the elderly or infirm who can afford them) to as high a 30 or more. HOWEVER this higher strength score only applies in parts of the wearer's body that are moving so slowly that if the wearer is attempting to walk with strengthened legs (such as while carrying a tree home over there head to chop up for firewood) they not only lose their dexterity bonus generally, but are reduced to 5' of movement. Wing-based flight is limited to gliding if the wings are to maintain their strength. Drawing back a bow would be a full-round action, but said bow could be one that the character would otherwise consider to be more fit for use by building it into a ballista. Certain strength checks generally rely on momentum (over-run, bull-rush, bashing down a door) and the GM should impose penalties as necessary.
((Things to edit into examples: <DragoonWraith> heavy-draw bows, resisting trips and bull rushes, lifting items, breaking doors and containers, encumbrance.))
((Draco Sez: The "Raise to Score" mechanic may be a dead-end, I am not sure. Perhaps a hybrid... "+4 or =16, whichever is higher?"))

Pets
Species include for the following, but are not limited to: mouse, rat, rabbit, gerbil, guinea pig, hamster, ferret, canary, dove, tarantula (almost exclusively only found among the drow), cockatoo, parrot, and penguin (of the smallest species). Colors and patterns not found in nature are availible, but slightly more expensive. All except the parasitic pets are born housebroken. None of them are as prone to bite or claw as their more natural counterparts either.

Related Mundane item (so you don't have to pause on the march every half-hour and/or risk losing your Ioun or Temporary pet):
This steel box has a rectangular tube to slide a belt through so it can be worn like a rigid hip-pack. The hinged lid has a baffled passage (to reject rain through a hole) in built into it. Inside is a miniature feeding station like a rigid hip-pack with a deep well to place water in the bottom of and place to clip a block of food near the top... and litter in the bottom of the main compartment of course.
ASCII art diagram(amazingly enough this made the jump between forums well)

| _______________
| XXX |
| XXX |
| |
| |________
| = = = =_____= = = = = = = = | <-----Hinge Line
| XXX FOOD {
| XXX FOOD {
' XXX FOOD {
DRIP /XXX \ {
| } {
|LITTERLITTERLITTERLITTERLITTER} {
|______________________________} {
} {
} {
} {
} {
} {
}WATERWATER{
}__________{
KEY:
FOOD: Food-block in clip (clip not shown, comes up from below)
LITTER: Upper limit of advisable litter depth
WATER: Upper advisable fill limit
1: Rain-water drip-out point
} and { : Highly textured surface (stone?) to prevent drowning

Ioun Pets
These animals can be placed into orbit like an ioun stone, but provide no direct benefit for the wearer. The ferrets undulate in the Z axis in a sinusoidal fashion, while most of the others simply float around in a circle (they can orient themselves as they prefer). If the Pet needs food or drink, or needs to eliminate, it will float down out of orbit, do what it needs to, and then seek out the wearer again, where upon it will float upwards and resume orbiting again. The enchantments grant no flight/levitation power other than as explicitly mentioned here.
Spell Required for creation: Levitate

Massage Squirrel
These are derived from flying squirrel stock, and are very lethargic when they are not running around on someone who is laying down dragging their floofly tail behind them and their patagium to the sides of them. They have lead laced bones, and become sickly if not provided a lead-block to gnaw on. The recognize no command words (although they can be trained if you can get them to wake up for long enough without going into their pre-programmed behavior). Their racing around is specifically triggered by being on top of a warm object (normal humanoid body-heat range) that is at least 3 size classes larger than them, and has enough room for scurrying. They will run until very tired (IE until just before they would take a point of subdual damage).

Temporary Pet
The "temp-too" version of a parasitic pet, these have hairless bellies (but not chests) which secrete a sticky substance about on the level with that found on duct-tape. They are quite happy to remain stuck onto any living creature, unless they need food, water, or litter, in which case they will peel themselves off by pressing with their legs (not evenly of course!). Once the need is seen to they can be re-applied. Shaving the area they will be applied to is recommend unless one intends to always carry a small supply of alcohol as long as one is worn, and apply it every time they are removed (regardless of whether at your initiative or theirs).




Parasitic Pet
90% of these species are born female. This is important because only the females can be transformed (via two proprietary 1st level arcane spell that complete their bred-in magical potential) into anything other than a normal (except perhaps for coloration) animal. When the spell is applied, the target pre-parasitic-pet undergoes a false pregnancy. When the placenta has reached its maximum size the second spell may be applied. This transfers the placenta to the belly area rendering the entire reproductive system completely non-functional(effectively spaying the creature), transforming the placenta into hundreds of burrowing tendrils. If an option material component of 1 gp worth of Adamintine (doubled for each size class above Fine) is included, these tendrils are capable of piercing even a dragon's scales if given enough of a chance. Elsewise they can not bond to any creature that would still have at least +2 natural armor (shaving may alter this bonus in some species, including locally).
Bonding:
Upon being presented with a sufficiently large patch of bare skin for its tendril-patch to cover,it will attempt to move over it and burrow them in (they are usually placed directly on the area they are to be "worn" on). This process is fairly painful, but not nearly as painful as it should be. The tendrils will seek out capillaries and nerve endings and mesh with them. The blood-tendril interfaces releive the parasitic pet of the need to breath, drink, eat, or urinate, since all these needs are provided by the host in the same way that a baby is sustained by its mother. The interface with the nerve endings causes all sensations felt by the parasitic pet's skin to be mapped onto the area that the tendrils penetrate. This includes pain, heat, cold, pressure, etc. This helps the owner/host avoid accidentally injuring, as well as providing the novel opportunity to experience petting from the animal's point of view to a limited extent.
At the GMs option, bonding a significant weight of these may deal Con damage in the manner of an Dalkyre(Ebberon, spelling may be off) symbiont.
Removal:
The parasitic pet will not release unless it is slowly dying (so a blow in combat wouldn't generally qualify, but old age or non-magical , and some magical, diseases would trigger the reaction). They can also be removed with a Cure Disease, or Heal spell if the caster specifically wishes to, and the host fails their saving throw (which can be failed voluntarily as usual). There is also a proprietary(so NO it ISN'T in most wizard's spellbooks) 0th level spell that can cause them to detach. This spell is usually available from any dealer in either on-site casting or potion form although some dealers use wands. Depending on how long the parasitic pet has been attached it may rapidly die in any of these cases since its lungs may be too atrophied from disuse to function properly(it is considered to be holding its breath). Successful handle animal tricks to teach the pet to "Speak" and the very high repetition use of said trick, can prevent this problem, but that still leaves the digestive and excretory organs to go. This secondary problem can be prevented by giving the pet very slowly increasing amount of treats, and putting up with having it eliminate on one for a sufficient number of days/weeks/months. It is possible to surgically remove a parasitic pet, but this almost always kills the pet, always ruins the tendrils, and if the contact area on the host is not sufficiently excised, filth fever (gangrene) is a significant danger as the tendrils rot within the ex-host's skin.

Mice: 25 gp?
Everything else: Haven't come up with a guess yet.

[Adam...?]

I'm actually running a similar campaign right now. Except I'm going more SCP Foundation (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-series) instead of "The Room."

If you check that link, there's a list of a couple hundred ideas. A lot of them probably won't work for your means; there's a lot of people with abilities, monsters, and anachronistic stuff in there. But if you read through them, you should be able to find more than a few gems. And it's not a bad read either.

[Forbiddenwar]

I'm actually running a similar campaign right now. Except I'm going more =http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-series]SCP Foundation instead of "The Room."

If you check that link, there's a list of a couple hundred ideas. A lot of them probably won't work for your means; there's a lot of people with abilities, monsters, and anachronistic stuff in there. But if you read through them, you should be able to find more than a few gems. And it's not a bad read either.

I'm having serious problems with your link. Could you fix it as it sounds like a great resource to look at?

Edit: It got this link to work:
http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-series
ingenious. Perfect.

[Qwertystop]

If this is D&D 3.5, and a PBP, I might be interested in joining. Mostly because I've wanted to play an Intelligent Eternal Wand of Mage Hand with Beguiler levels for a while, but it's a bit out-there for most campaigns.

[manyslayer]

Going with some of the more bizarre (and, on the surface, less useful) Lost Room items for inspiration (the watch that could hard boil an egg).

A sack that anything placed in it for more than an hour turns purple.

A sword scabbard that makes a noise like a huge gust of wind whenever a weapon is pulled from it.

A tarnished copper coin that when polished, itself does not get any cleaner but all metal within 3' does get polished.

A pair of gloves. When worn, the left index finger makes a slit in any fabric it is run along and the right index finger will fix any slit made by the left hand (and only slits made by the left hand).

A book that reads aloud anything written in it. Pages clear themselves over time.

A lamp that when lit changes color depending on the holder's mood.

A ring that changes which finger it is on (always fitting) whenever it gets wet.

A wineskin that any liquid except fine wine pours through as though it were incorporeal.

A door knocker that will stick to any door until it is knocked three times.



Some useful ones.

A mirror that shows anything reflected in it as if in full light (even in shadows or complete darkness).

Riding boots that allow you to act as if any horse you mount has a saddle and stirrups, even if bareback.

A knife that roasts any slice of meat cut from a carcass.

[Qwertystop]

A tarnished copper coin that when polished, itself does not get any cleaner but all metal within 3' does get polished.

A book that reads aloud anything written in it. Pages clear themselves over time.

A wineskin that any liquid except fine wine pours through as though it were incorporeal.

These could be useful, even though they weren't on the list of useful ones. The coin could be used to clean grime from a complicated machine's inner workings without disassembly, the book could allow a mute to communicate, and the wineskin could filter out poison (though it might take a few shakes, or some poison could be floating on the surface of the wine).

A small doll that is fixed in space (like an immovable rod) and is invulnerable, but anything that someone tries to do to it happens to everyone within 5 feet. Try casting spells on it for Mass anything.

[manyslayer]

These could be useful, even though they weren't on the list of useful ones. The coin could be used to clean grime from a complicated machine's inner workings without disassembly, the book could allow a mute to communicate, and the wineskin could filter out poison (though it might take a few shakes, or some poison could be floating on the surface of the wine).

A small doll that is fixed in space (like an immovable rod) and is invulnerable, but anything that someone tries to do to it happens to everyone within 5 feet. Try casting spells on it for Mass anything.

That's why I said they are less useful on the surface. Given enough creativity, a PC can find an odd use for most anything you give him. I do like the coin cleaning the inside of a machine idea. Even worse if you use it to clean off the lubrication of a machine that needs it. :smallamused:

[Forbiddenwar]

A sack that anything placed in it for more than an hour turns purple.

Could be considered cursed if it turns potions purple, making them impossible to identify by color.
Don't know if I'd be that mean though. Cursed items are quite fun for the DM, not so much for the characters.

[Mr.Smashy]

A wide-brimmed hat, that when worn, causes the user to sprout a full beard...even if female.

A bottle stopper that expands to fit any opening it it thrust, up to 10'x15'

Edit: Wow, I did not understand the nature of this thread prior to looking up "The Room". Since then, i have updated my neural processor.

A Brooch that when worn makes the wearer appear unremarkable, and magically forgetable. (for a BBEG this would be fun.)

A 5" block of lead that constantly floats 5.55' above the ground.

A silk shirt that grows/shrinks to fit a humanoid one size category up/down every time it is turned inside out. (Max of Huge/Min of Tiny)

A listening cone that can only listen through unworked stone/crystal.

A 6" steel disc that can hold up to 5 mins of conversation on it, but can only play it back once.

Eye-glasses that allow Telepathy to anyone within 5' of the wearer.

A bloody knife that turns water it is stabbed with into blood, at a rate of 10 cubic feet per minute. maximum of 50 cubic feet.