[3.5] Interesting Treasure

[Thurbane]

Hey all,

Just wondering what unque pieces of treasure you've come up with in your games? Only using the tables in the DMG can get a bit repetitive.

I have used the 3rd party Mother of All Treasure Tables bok, which is pretty nice.

But I was wondering what pieces of mundane (i.e. monetary value) loot you are most proud of giving to your players?

In the EtCR game I ran, I put in a small mithril statue of a demon with gems for eyes, and despite the fact it didn't detect as magic or evil, the players were always a bit paranoid about it, and never ended up selling it.

Cheers - T

[Squiggles]

I handed out a coin emblazoned with the face of the BBEG that you could you flip and depending on whether it landed heads/tails you would get a +1 luck bonus or -1 your next single roll (attack, saving throw, skill) for the next 10 minutes

[Malimar]

The Alexandrian posted this list (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7246/roleplaying-games/101-curious-items-reflections) a few weeks ago, and most of them seem like pretty neat ideas. Stuff that doesn't necessarily give any mechanical advantage, but still makes the world seem deeply and interestingly magical.

[RandomNPC]

Every time I give out an interesting object with no obvious use it gets the most attention.

Puzzle box? A toy wooden sword? glass marbles?

You'd be surprised with what stops an adventuring party dead in its tracks, when a huge creature in a room accessible only by 5 foot hallways gets blown apart and walked over.

[Big Fau]

Every time I give out an interesting object with no obvious use it gets the most attention.

Puzzle box? A toy wooden sword? glass marbles?

You'd be surprised with what stops an adventuring party dead in its tracks, when a huge creature in a room accessible only by 5 foot hallways gets blown apart and walked over.

That's called the "Cardboard Box Effect". They will spend hours trying to figure out why you mentioned it, regardless of your track record with Chekhov's Gun.

[IthroZada]

One of the more interesting treasure items I've heard of, is a magical orb that you have a snake wind its way through. This then translates the patterns on the snake into a novel, with different species of snake usually being different genres, and every snake being a unique book.

[Swooper]

The Alexandrian posted this list (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7246/roleplaying-games/101-curious-items-reflections) a few weeks ago, and most of them seem like pretty neat ideas. Stuff that doesn't necessarily give any mechanical advantage, but still makes the world seem deeply and interestingly magical.
This is awesome. Thanks for the link. *bookmarks for later use* :smallsmile:

[Angry Bob]

I've given out treasure that was enhanced or held together by magic, such as a series of smooth stones suspended above a small base. When the base moves, the stones move with it.

Likewise, there was the four-dimensional statue I gave them. As in, the fourth spacial dimension, like a hypercube. That one required some will saves(by the players, not the characters), but also made bank when they sold it to Joe McArtdealer, so no one complained.

Then there's stuff that's obviously just an artifact from Dwarf Fortress:

"This is a copper gauntlet. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is made from copper, studded with obsidian and goat bone, encrusted with emerald, decorated with hanging rings of pine, and menaces with spikes of pumice. On the item is an image of cheese in bear bone."

Described exactly like that.

[gorfnab]

Scribal based treasures can be interesting, besides the obvious spellbooks or scrolls, especially if you have a decent Forgery check :smallwink:.

Deeds or titles to property
Letters of Marque to certain territories
Stamp collections if your world has a postal system
Valuable or rare types of paper and parchment
Valuable or rare inks and pens
Carte blanches from various nobles or governments
Paintings or other art
Blackmail information
Signet Rings or official seals
Valuable or rare sealing waxes
Government contracts to provide or distribute goods and services both to and from the government
Rare or formally missing genealogy records of various nobility
Rare books or manuscripts
Extremely accurate, detailed, and possibly magical maps
Insurance contracts or abstracts
Plates for printing money and other minting materials
Letters patent
Lettres de cachet
Letters close
Commissions of offices
Royal or Government Charters

[Serpentine]

I try to do this all the time. I often use the treasure tables in the Draconomicon as a base and then branch out from there, although I've also used examples of, for example, native South American art as treasure. One piece - an obsidian statue of an angel, if I recall correctly - became a sort-of plot piece when my DMPC asked as her boon from a Trickster God to be turned back into a dwarf, and he turned her into the human variety of dwarf. Another party member felt really bad about it, so she offered the statue as tribute and asked to spend her boon on turning my character back into a proper dwarf. The god reluctanly complied, but it only works as long as my character carries the statue.
In the same temple, we came across a pretty valuable gold statue of a coyote. One character (same as above, actually), for fairly good reasons, really doesn't trust coyotes so she stays right away from it. If they ever try to sell it, though, it'll be tricky, cuz such statues have a lot of superstition around them.

Going through the "party loot" thing I've got, we also have:

Beautifully woven llama wool cloak depicting serpents
Silver & shark tooth necklace
Bag of marbles

...hm. We must've sold a lot of stuff. Ah well. I think they might've taken a whole chest once, though...

[Bhaakon]

I like to hand out mysterious creature eggs of unknown provenance. Usually they're smart enough to get it identified, but occasionally they stow a rust monster egg in their big bag'o'lootfood.

[Serpentine]

Oh yeah! Once they took out a flame snake, and went searching for treasure. They got such a good Search check, I decided to give them some: a very, very hot flame snake egg. They took it with them for a while, and then when they later came across a Coatl - and rescued her - they gave the egg to her to raise. They all have feathers with which they can summon the Coatl if they want to, and I'm thinking that if they ever do she'll bring with her a Good flame snake to hang out with them.
Ooooo! It'd make a *great* animal companion for the Magma Druid!

[Eldan]

A few sessions ago, the party found a black leather doctor's bag in a creepy abandoned laboratory. It's theoretically a bag of holding, though it always counts as already full. Holding your hand into it means that you will always find one random body part. Sometimes mummified, sometimes fresh.

[Cerlis]

fan fracking tastic (half sarcastic) just barely got to number 25 and at least half the items there got me thinking of some either chekov's gun or lore point the item is a part of.

of the non Chekov's Gun items I found the snowglobe inspiring. Been thinking of my skarn character i'd like to make. I like to play to type (keeping within based lore but filling out personal details so they act generally like the race is described but its more in depth and personal) so of course he'd be Hotty and noble. I had this image of everytime the party has free time he's there staring and the newly obtained (and seemingly worthless) snowglobe. Shaking it and watching the people come out and toil away, then go back inside and shaking it again. The party getting worried that it has some sort of dark hold on him but really hes just looking at the poor citizens (commonfolk)'s entire life being devoted to chores, freaking out the moment the snow falls (since winter is so horrible expessially in Olden times in which most dnd takes place) getting him to rethink his Peoples entire philosophy about perfection and all their culture that puts a division on people and giving more work to those who already have a hard time surviveing

[some guy]

I once gave the players a magic hookah with six different types of magic tabacco (gain thunderous voice/become insubstantial/ create smoke illusions/ summon smoke elemental/ cast fog cloud and another effect which I forgot. The players never played with it.

Another was The Black Sword of Polychromatic Ink. A sword which was dripping with ink. After each hit the ink changed color (1d6 colors). If you hit a creature with a certain color ink, the creature's wound would take on that color. If you hit a creature with a certain color of wounds while the sword would have the same color on it, the sword would deal more damage.

Something else was a chess game where the winner would permanently steal 1 hp from the loser. You only can play it if you know the rules and you have to finish the game.


One of the more interesting treasure items I've heard of, is a magical orb that you have a snake wind its way through. This then translates the patterns on the snake into a novel, with different species of snake usually being different genres, and every snake being a unique book.

Yeah, that's from Zak Smith from "Playing D&D with porn stars." and "I hit it with my axe". It's more than snakes, actually, there's also yuan-ti, medusae and other creatures you can translate. He has also other interesting treasure (http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-i-did-while-everyone-i-know-was.html). A warning though, his blog is sometimes NSFW.

I once adapted his magic mushroom wich he adapted from another blog which I can't remember right now into this magic mushroom effect table:


Roll a d100 when consumed.
01 permantly -2 against poison
02 permantly -2 against illusions
03 get nauseated for 1 minute, then barf up faithful Shroomling
04-05 skin turns moldy, -2 CHA, remove disease restores condition
06-07 permantly glows purple, 5 ft. 10 ft. shadowy
08-09 permantly glows bright purple, 10 ft, 20 ft. shadowy
10-15 nauseated, 2d8 minutes
15-27 sickened, 4d8 minutes
28 black lotus extract (DMG 197)
29-30 black adder venom (DMG 197)
31-33 green blood oil (DMG 197)
34-36 small centipede poison (DMG 197)
37-41 2d6+3 damage
42-53 visions: -10 to spot, +2 wisdom, -2 cha
54-60 speak myocynid
61-69 enlarge
70-78 reduce
79-86 sleep for 2d10 minutes without save, then duration of below (with save)
87-93 heals 1d6+1 hp
94 permantly +1 hp
95 permantly +1 INT
96 permantly +1 WIS
97 permantly +2 against poison
98 permantly +2 against illusions
99 permantly +2 against enchantment
100 permantly 1/day gain DR2 (1 rnd/lvl)

Most effects can be negated with a DC 14 fort save. Effects in which duration is not specified carry on for 10 minutes, then a new save is permitted. DC lessened with 1 each time.


The times I have used these shrooms in my games they usually work (working meaning players excited to use them). There's enough bad and good stuff on there to make it a dillema and there's enough effects and weird effects to incite curiosity about the effects.

[panaikhan]

One of the guys in our group likes to give out really awkward treasure, like 30ft tapestries or paintings 8ft square or immense (hollow) statues.

When I'm DMing, one of my favorites is "a plain gold wedding band, giving off a faint magical aura"

I also like handing out quirky magical items - things that offer a small mechanical benefit, if the character is brave enough to use them.

[faceroll]

My favorite would have to be an amber orb with a preserved Shimmerling (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mmiii_gallery/83050.jpg) in it. Shimmerlings are fine sized fey that form swarms.

[Serpentine]

My party sorta turned an encounter into treasure... Took out a swarm of shimmerlings, let most of them go, but the Cleric/Sorcerer kept a blue one as a familiar.

[Occasional Sage]

I once got a magical diary. Every night it wrote its entries, but not of my day. Instead, it wrote about the days of 3d4 random intelligent, social beings from someplace on my continent. There was no guarantee that the entries were for important people or anything like that; just random people.

[BlueInc]

One of my DMs likes to give out magical items with really strange effects. One campaign he gave us a magic rock that grew to a 5x5x5 cube when exposed to water and then shrunk back down to a pebble when exposed to fire. In the same campaign he gave us a marble that, when it touched someone’s hand, would mark them with a horrible scent that lasted for hours. The orc rogue in the party liked to hand it to random strangers just to mess with them.

Giving players items that don’t work as expected is always fun. A player of mine went to a completely insane wizard to get his bow enchanted so that when it struck someone, it would produce fire – which is exactly what it did; if he smacked someone with the bow, it would do bonus fire damage XD

My players love to take trophies from their dead enemies. One player carved off…a certain…anatomical feature of a stone golem and got a blacksmith to turn it into a short sword.

[Cieyrin]

I remember a LG mod where there was a cave of shocker lizards. The arcane types in my party subdued every last one in the hopes they could take one as an Improved Familiar. How sad they were when they didn't appear on the reward sheet, the treasure that got away...

[2-HeadedGiraffe]

Scribal based treasures can be interesting, besides the obvious spellbooks or scrolls, especially if you have a decent Forgery check :smallwink:.

Deeds or titles to property
Letters of Marque to certain territories
Stamp collections if your world has a postal system
Valuable or rare types of paper and parchment
Valuable or rare inks and pens
Carte blanches from various nobles or governments
Paintings or other art
Blackmail information
Signet Rings or official seals
Valuable or rare sealing waxes
Government contracts to provide or distribute goods and services both to and from the government
Rare or formally missing genealogy records of various nobility
Rare books or manuscripts
Extremely accurate, detailed, and possibly magical maps
Insurance contracts or abstracts
Plates for printing money and other minting materials
Letters patent
Lettres de cachet
Letters close
Commissions of offices
Royal or Government Charters

I love this list, and I may have to use some of these ideas the next time I DM.

One of my personal favorites was supposed to be a sidequest, but the campaign ended and it never panned out. The players found a clay figurine of the mayor of the town they started adventuring from. It didn't have any special properties, but I was going to have lots of them of various NPCs and let the players trade them in for some real treasure if they found a collector.

[OracleofSilence]

if you want actually interesting treasure, really use the rules as listed on magic items. every other tove the players find will most likely contain at least on intelligent magic item. making ego roles can certainly cause memorable encounters.

[Dragonsoul]

Rod of Wonder is always fun, especially when it backfired and the wielder turns blue(Permanent, No save) Use the greater Rod of wonder for even more fun!

[Ksheep]

In one game I played in, the party was split into two groups. Over the course of the adventure, we found the following:

One party found a tiger-skin sofa.
The other party then found a DIRE-tiger-skin sofa.
Both parties found an organ. Both parties gnomes kept them.
One party found a 20' diameter sandstone sphere.
The other party found a 20' diameter glass dodecahedron.

One of the parties found a life-sized, sandstone statue of a mountain... with a 20' diameter hole carved into it.

[Tibbaerrohwen]

In one game I played in, the party was split into two groups. Over the course of the adventure, we found the following:

One party found a tiger-skin sofa.
The other party then found a DIRE-tiger-skin sofa.
Both parties found an organ. Both parties gnomes kept them.
One party found a 20' diameter sandstone sphere.
The other party found a 20' diameter glass dodecahedron.

One of the parties found a life-sized, sandstone statue of a mountain... with a 20' diameter hole carved into it.

This is cool, but do you me an organ, as in bodily organ, or a musical instrument? I love the idea of gnome dragging a full organ with him everywhere XP

[Thiyr]

The Mother of All Treasure Tables has gotten some use in one game I was in, which was quite nifty, I admit. I enjoyed getting my players excited about giving them bars of iron, personally (They were stuck in a place where iron was a fairly rare commodity, meaning they were worth quite a bit, though saving them to craft stuff would be worthwhile as well)

Though speaking of creature eggs, I did have a character drag one party member off for a sidequest (not at session). Went out to kill a black dragon. I wanted to do it because I could get a dragon liver and preserve it so I had a means of generating dragon bile. I wasn't expecting my character (who, despite this event had an immense respect for dragons) to find a single remaining unhatched egg. So I brought it home and got myself a new "child". Very creative lying made that one quite nifty.

[Serpentine]

One of the parties found a life-sized, sandstone statue of a mountain... with a 20' diameter hole carved into it.If it's life-sized... wouldn't that pretty much just make it a sandstone mountain with a tunnel? :smallconfused:

[Cieyrin]

If it's life-sized... wouldn't that pretty much just make it a sandstone mountain with a tunnel? :smallconfused:

I can only imagine he meant it to be a scale model.

[Ksheep]

This is cool, but do you me an organ, as in bodily organ, or a musical instrument? I love the idea of gnome dragging a full organ with him everywhere XP

It was a musical instrument. My character, the Bardic Gnome, ended up getting the first one, and he had it in the back of a wagon for a while. Shortly after this, we got a castle, so he decided to make a concert hall for the organ.


If it's life-sized... wouldn't that pretty much just make it a sandstone mountain with a tunnel? :smallconfused:

Not a tunnel, just an alcove... about the same size as that sphere we found earlier.

As for how it was a statue... the DM rolled it there on the spot. It went something along the lines of:
You find a *roll* life-sized statue... *roll* of a mountain... *roll* made of sandstone.

It was found in a dragon's den, after killing off the dragon. We were trying to figure out how it even got in there in the first place. We ended up leaving it because we couldn't move it.

EDIT:

I can only imagine he meant it to be a scale model.
No, he quite clearly said life-sized. Rolled it and everything. We then spent about half an hour as to why it was there and how it was made.

[marcielle]

Rod of Wonders.....

Let me tell you of the time we ended up fighting a blue lounge rhino in the middle of a stinking cloud and butterfly pandemic...

[gallagher]

of the things i have given them, all of them i could figure a million ways to use them, yet they felt it unnecessary to explore them, as i often hid them in toys.

a rubber ball that glowed in the dark and had a really cool pattern: it would return to the exact height from which it was dropped/continuously bounce until it is stopped.

a magic train set: it could hold any amount of weight upon it and still run and made its own track ahead of it

"The Broken Watch": it is right twice a day. twice per day make a bardic knowledge check, using the watch, as if you were a bard of your level.

i also one time gave a player Presto's Hat. if you rhymed it properly and timely, you got a metamagic effect for free. it also worked as a get out of jail free card, it could replicate a spell of 4th level or lower if you, also, made a cool rhyme off the top of your head. obviously sometimes it wouldnt work because players cant rhyme worth crap. useable 2x per day

[Tetsubo 57]

Some items I used in an old 2E campaign:

large jar with head in amber liquid (seems to be aware): head is one Ewar Farrar (LN), an apprentice Necromancer who cheesed off his mentor, he has been in the jar for 78 years (43 of them in his masters den). Outside of the jar he will quickly die.

dagger w/ curved black blade (gives you an uneasy feeling): magically poisoned and of evil alignment.



conch shell: has four hours of music recorded on it, popular symphonies.



medallion w/ 17 moonstones: a magic compass, always knows North and can 'tag' an object for tracking.




blade (24" long, 3" wide, 1/4" thick, straight with D-style guard and beautiful wood grips): blade will cut wood and plants without effort, leaves the plant unharmed, will not cut any other substance.

27 sheets of vellum in leather scroll tube: pages can accept 'images' from a mage using them, will record anything the mage is looking at when command word is used ( Flash!).

lidded medallion on chain: 'pocket' clock, tells time (hour, minute, seconds), date has chime (hourly, every ten minutes or every minute) and has hologram of dancing girl (seven veils strip).

gold nightengale (life sized): automaton, functions like real bird, has switch and will come when called.

pheonix feather quill: has endless supply of mundane ink.



ivory cube (1" x 1" x 1"): 'icecube', will cool up to a gallon of liquid down to any temp. short of freezing in one minute, can be used for one hour per day.

8" pot w/ attached lid: lid attached by short chain, will self heat (up to 1000 degrees), must rest for equal time period used, maximum of twenty four hours use at one time.

flask of blood: vampire blood, one pint.

bronze bracers: function as Cloak of Arachnida.

glass sphere (15" diameter) with small blue demon inside (appears unhappy and aware of it's surroundings): entrapped minor demon, sphere has had Glassteel cast on it, opening the sphere will release the demon, demons name is Takoupla and is LE.

invisible ring: gold ring which is invisible.

[Serpentine]

As for how it was a statue... the DM rolled it there on the spot. It went something along the lines of:
You find a *roll* life-sized statue... *roll* of a mountain... *roll* made of sandstone.

It was found in a dragon's den, after killing off the dragon. We were trying to figure out how it even got in there in the first place. We ended up leaving it because we couldn't move it.<3
<3 so hard.

Rod of Wonders.....

Let me tell you of the time we ended up fighting a blue lounge rhino in the middle of a stinking cloud and butterfly pandemic...I have one such event from my games in comic form:http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h287/serpentine16/IronAvatarist/EllywickWonderRod.gif

[Serpentine]

I just rediscovered a dragon hoard from one of my old games. It included the following:

Buffalo femur goblet.
Oak platter painted with whale pictures.
Steel ring with engraved patterns. (Kariana)
Crystal mobile.
Onyx anklet.
Limestone amulet with carving of a dragon in flight.
Small brass statue of a charging warrior.
Mahogany sceptre with an adamantine plated head with engravings of hunting scenes and carvings of weapons of the shaft.
3 identical pillars, of bone, granite and crystal.
Oak board game. (Kariana)
Wool cloak.
Highly polished mahogany ball.
2 snakeskin tapestries, one depicting a battle between hunters and a serpentine god, other depicting the god flying over mountains. (Ellywick)
Wool tapestry of a dragon rampant. (Kariana)
Ring of yew.
Oak locket with an etching of a beloved child.
Sea lion skin belt with an onyx buckle. (Balthier)
Mahogany statue of an Aztec-type ball player with an obsidian ball and hair. (Scout)
Marble brooch with a carving of a palace or temple front.
Glass brooch with a carving of a tree. (Balthier)
Alexandrite periapt with a carving of an octopus. (Ellywick)
Tunic of parrot feathers. (Ellywick)
Golden whistle pipe.
Iron-plated rat skull pendant with a carving of maize. (Scout)
Bronze ewer engraved with farming scenes.
Stuffed bear toy made with dire bear skin.
Copper brazier with mosaics of dancing.