Curiosity Shop

[hivedragon]

I'm looking for ideas of magic items for players to buy at a weird little store.
Nothing that is intended for direct use in battle though.

[Xanmyral]

A stick with a piece of string and a strange tag on it, that when snapped in half and laid on the ground will sprout a tree.

A quill that never runs out of ink, but the written ink vanishes in an hour.

A small skull, about just roughly twice as large as a rat's skull, that if rubbed will parrot what it has heard randomly.

A ring that when worn causes the ring its self to disappear.

Hair dye that constantly changes its color depending on the mood of the wearer.

A piece of paper that, when ripped in half, creates two half sized pieces of paper. /Joke

A bottle that when opened will sing an ancient song in a dead language.

[Traab]

Just keep in mind, your curiosity shop will likely be the source of MANY future outside the box solutions to various problems. Especially using the ideas listed by Xan.

[Malfunctioned]

A cape that flutters dramatically no matter what the conditions.

A wind-up music box that when wound backwards speaks the names of several locations in the world, each one followed by a descending number.

A mirror that shows what the user would've looked like if they took a different path in life.

A small metal box that can fit into one hand, it allows communication to others holding similar boxes, each assigned a series of numbers that are typed into a keypad on the front.

[turkishproverb]

Scrolls of speak with bread.

A staff of Transmute Pies.

Gauntlets of Ogre stench.

:smallcool:

[hangedman1984]

Nothing that can be used directly in battle though.

not sure if that is really possible, players in general seem to have an uncanny ability to find unexpected and unintended uses for things. Can list many things that aren't intended for battle, but something that can't be?

[RandomNPC]

this (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7246/roleplaying-games/101-curious-items-reflections)

I think that's the page with the links to the 4 other pages, I plan to use most of them.

[The Dark Fiddler]

A small pile of bones that animates and begins dancing whenever music is played.

A small metallic orb that floats behind and follows whoever touches it until they die.

A set of dining ware that uses prestidigitation at will, but can only use it to reflavor the food and drink it's used to consume.

A hair tie that is normally indestructible, but only when being used to actually tie up hair. Prevents the hair it's being used to style from being messed up or dirtied.

Goggles that tint the wearer's vision a specific color. The lenses seem completely normal and do not give any sign of their effect.

A crossbow bolt or arrow that can fly abnormally far (say, 500 feet) when thrown, but deals no damage.

A pair of wedding rings that grow unbearably hot whenever the wearer commits any romantic or sexual act.

A box that contains another box that contains another box that contains another box, ad infinitum. The boxes grow progressively smaller, but whenever the object isn't being directly observed, it grows back to its original size of roughly 3 inches in each direction.

A scabbard that shifts to fit any weapon attempted to put inside it, even if the weapon wouldn't usually use a scabbard. Any weapon placed in it turns a psychedelic, shifting mass of bright colors for a day.

[Xanmyral]

Thought up of some more.

A small stone that when grasped firmly in one's palm, will shatter and reform in the users pocket five minutes later.

A small elastic band that, if an item is concentrated on and the band is put on another object causes that object to look just like the item the user thought about. For roughly two minutes.

Glasses that allow others to detect alignment on the wearer.

Barber scissors that when used to cut hair causes it to fully grow back the way it was before it was cut in an hour.

An Icosahedron that when thrown causes it to catch in none harmful, illusionary fire.

Also


Goggles that tint the wearer's vision a specific color. The lenses seem completely normal and do not give any sign of their effect.
ZE GOOGLEZ! ZHEY DO NOTHINGZ... SOMETHING?!

[HappyBlanket]

A small hourglass filled with shimmering sand, and timed to measure precisely one minute. When you flip it, the sand falls to the opposite end regardless of gravity, and an exact replica of the hourglass appears next to it, with all of it's sand already fallen. When the original hour glass reaches the end of it's count, it vanishes, having traveled backwards in time by one minute.

A large grandfather clock, with enough room inside it to fit one medium creature. It sends the inhabitant into the future by a preset amount of time, at a rate of 1 second per second... All divinations indicate that a great degree of complex magic went into the creation of this device, and that it is in fact magical in nature.

A large tome bound in featureless black leather, with the exception of a title on the front. The title is a random combination of "The Adjective Noun," and the book cannot be opened by any means until the reader makes a guess as to the book's contents. When the reader does so, the book becomes accessible, and the pages fill with exactly what he or she expected to see. The book shuts and the title changes at every nightfall. The title also changes whenever the book is shut.

[Bobby Archer]

A deck of cards that cannot be stacked by any mundane means.

A ruby that glows when in the presence of dwarfs.

A pocketwatch that is always off (either fast or slow) by exactly 27 minutes.

A glass that is full of water whenever it is unobserved.

A small figurine that turns to watch people in the room.

A gold coin that always reappears in its owner's pocket at dusk.

[Mastikator]

A set of two books that, when one is written in, the other is also written in.

A stick that, when placed/dropped on the ground, lands upright.

A world map that displays the location of all people who write their own name on the back of the map. If the person leaves the map area the text disappears.

Boots that amplifies the sound of walking when walking.

A rope that can phase through rock as if air.

A spice that, when applied to a food, causes the food to taste like the previous thing that spice was applied to (no effect first time).

A set of pillows that allows two people to share the same dream.

A mug that removes the taste of whatever is in it.

A cube with a button on it, it starts out very light, when the button is pushed it becomes very heavy, then when pushed again it reverts back to being very light.

A mirror that you can't see yourself in.

[turkishproverb]

A set of two books that, when one is written in, the other is also written in.

A world map that displays the location of all people who write their own name on the back of the map. If the person leaves the map area the text disappears.

A spice that, when applied to a food, causes the food to taste like the previous thing that spice was applied to (no effect first time).


A mug that removes the taste of whatever is in it.


:smalleek:
...
:eek:
Do you have ANY idea just how much players could abuse those?

[Dr.Epic]

Gloves of Self Cleaning: while wearing these gloves, you will never get any blood on you ever. In combat, feel free to swing away and the blood will just drip off leaving you clean. And if you start bleeding from injuries, the blood just appears on someone/something else.

[Bobby Archer]

Swimming trunks: a pair of outrageously colored shorts that double the wearer's swim speed, but drip water constantly whenever the wearer is on land.

Alternatively, a wooden chest that always floats in water, no matter how much weight has been placed inside.

[Ksheep]

Goggles of Nun Detection: When worn, these goggles identifies all nuns within a 500' radius.

Holy Cow: A small statuette that allows direct contact with a bovine deity of your choice.

Joy Buzzer: An unassuming ring that will cause a slight jolting sensation whenever you shake someone's hand. Deals 1 electrical damage. (Good luck trying to shake someone's hand mid-battle)

[Heatwizard]

:smalleek:
...
:eek:
Do you have ANY idea just how much players could abuse those?

The map might be crazy useful if they can wring sufficient use out of it, but Prestidigitation has been reflavoring food/delivering poison for years.

[turkishproverb]

WHo said anything about poison? Remember: Everything is food to someone. And frankly, the books are far more potentially disastrous for a campaign than the map.

[Heatwizard]

WHo said anything about poison? Remember: Everything is food to someone. And frankly, the books are far more potentially disastrous for a campaign than the map.

Oh no, these Eggs Benedict-flavored diamonds will surely break your campaign wide open!

I figure the map is more valuable, given that it's a diet divination at-will. I'm not seeing the inherent brokenness of the books; instant communication is useful, but not so great you can't deal with the power.

[Aurenthal]

A weapon that when its about to strike returns to its sheath.

A piece of paper that when ripped apart, its pieces become the same size of the paper, and so on with the pieces...

Tiny maze that when you start to solve it, it changes

Wooden box that it´s full of wooden pieces

A "trash can", when you throw something in it it goes to the astral plane, and you can´t get it back

A set of sandals, that won´t let you trip on any terrain, but when someone tries to trip you, you inmediately fall (no check)

[Lord Loss]

A "trash can", when you throw something in it it goes to the astral plane, and you can´t get it back



This one's ridiculously broken.

That magic ring you need destroyed? Forget the active volcano, just chuck it in the bin.

Politicians you want removed? Reduce their size and "dispose of them".

Cursed items pestering you? Chuck them in!

The ability to permanently rid yourself of small items is extremely useful to crafty PCs, especially when it comes to MacGuffins. It won't work against extremely high level mages, as they can potentially retreive them from the Astral Plane, but against lower-level enemies it's amazingly powerful.

[Iceforge]

Our DM has two recurring magic items:

Magic Ring of Churning - A Ring when attached to a stick (or finger for hilarious results) make the stick start churning, ideal for lessening the load when making butter.

Knife of Chopping - A small knife thats starts chopping when a command word is spoken, does not chop hard enough to chop anything but vegetables

[HappyBlanket]

A perfect sphere that is always upside down.

A statue that periodically transforms into itself.

A box, protected against all divinations, powers, and magics, containing a cat that is both alive and dead, and dead upon opening. The box loses all of the aforementioned properties upon opening the box.

A scaled down replica of a wooden ship. When a piece is broken off, it is magically replaced. When all the original pieces have been broken off and replaced, the broken parts reform into the form of a ship once more. The bearer is left wondering which of the two ships is the original.

An object that cannot be detected by any normal or supernormal means whatsoever. Yet it's enchanted to let everyone in the area know that it's there.

A two foot wide lock that opens for any key.

[Randel]

Handy marble bag - A decorative bag that holds about a pound of mables of various sizes, colors, and materials. If any of the marbles are ever moved more than 100 yards from the bag they will teleport back into the marble bag. Its a good way to keep from losing your marbles.

Removable sign tattoos - A box containing about a dozen pictures of arrows, X's, pictures of monsters, or other common navigation signs. These can be stuck onto a persons skin at which point they take on the appearance of tattoos, later then can be removed and slapped onto trees or dungeon walls or other things. Once they are stuck to a nonliving surface they glow with a faint light that can be seen in the dark, cannot be removed, and disintegrate after six days.

Glow in the dark chalk - chalk that leaves mildly glowing marks. the marks fade away and stop glowing after six days.

near weightless apple - an apple that weighs 0.001 ounce and just barely avoids floating away. can be dropped from any height without injury.

You too doll - A tiny stuffed doll that takes on the appearance of its owner. Oddly enough also takes on their scent as well.

[deuxhero]

A large tome bound in featureless black leather, with the exception of a title on the front. The title is a random combination of "The Adjective Noun," and the book cannot be opened by any means until the reader makes a guess as to the book's contents. When the reader does so, the book becomes accessible, and the pages fill with exactly what he or she expected to see. The book shuts and the title changes at every nightfall. The title also changes whenever the book is shut.

WOuld be neat, if you could cut out the divination aspect (or produce spells aspect)

[Ravens_cry]

Black Slate of Communication
Whoever holds this slate has their surface thoughts revealed in white chalk letters on the slate, the slate wiping clean when more space is needed.
This slate is common gift by chartable temples to the deaf and mute.

Wisdomweave Cloth.
This highly expensive fabric is invisible to persons not suited for their occupation and the foolish. It is also invisible to children.

Horn of Accompaniment
By blowing on this horn, a suitable accompaniment for any singing, whether a single mandolin or a full orchestra, is produced. If blown in the absence of singing, it makes a horrendous cacophony only suited for sporting events.

[Fiery Diamond]

Black Slate of Communication
Whoever holds this slate has their surface thoughts revealed in white chalk letters on the slate, the slate wiping clean when more space is needed.
This slate is common gift by chartable temples to the deaf and mute.

Wisdomweave Cloth.
This highly expensive fabric is invisible to persons not suited for their occupation and the foolish. It is also invisible to children.

Horn of Accompaniment
By blowing on this horn, a suitable accompaniment for any singing, whether a single mandolin or a full orchestra, is produced. If blown in the absence of singing, it makes a horrendous cacophony only suited for sporting events.

1st one: Useful
2nd one: Heh
3rd one: Oooh, I want one!

[Anderlith]

I don't know if it has been suggested already, but Journey Books(from the Sword of Truth book series). Diaries that you write on & whatever is written on one of the pair is also written on the book's twin. They are could be sold in pairs or the owner may just have one that corresponds to someone else's journey book (making for a cool plot hook)

[Squeejee]

A single red boot that is drawn to the nearest blue surface as if normal gravity were pulling it there, and is similarly repelled from red surfaces as if by reverse gravity.

A complex model of the world which, upon being wound at the base, acts out the world's lifespan from it's formation in space to the current state of life. Looking at it closely, the viewers might catch a very brief glimpse of their own cities before they are wiped out as the model resets. The model automatically records the world's progress as it exists, so an Elf timing the display once at birth and once at death will note that the process takes a fraction of a second longer to complete at death.

A small, broken clockwork Gnome, who seems designed to fix things.

A Vorpal Sword, which shatters upon its first use with a snicker snack.

An ant farm, which upon closer inspection appears to house seven miniature Dwarves, living out their lives oblivious to the outside world.


Aw man, these are all kind of sad :( . I actually have a rule in my campaign world where any mage creating items or conducting research randomly generates a couple of these trinkets, usually ones thematically tied to what they were crafting. It works out real fun when the PCs see a skeletal mariachi band in a dungeon and assume a bard was practicing necromancy here recently...

[Codenpeg]

An ant farm, which upon closer inspection appears to house seven miniature Dwarves, living out their lives oblivious to the outside world.


Will it be labeled Boatmurdered?

[Xyk]

A decanter of endless water, except it's an umbrella that rains on the inside. So a really slow decanter.

[Squeejee]

Will it be labeled Boatmurdered?

Perhaps :D

A crystal ball that can scry on anyone in the multiverse, but requires you to know something about the target that nobody other then you and the target know.

A silver statue that is covered from top to bottom in gold leaf engravings so small that you need a magnifying glass to see them properly. The engravings depict the entire history of the world up to and including the creation of the statue.

A top that doesn't stop spinning as long as it is being observed.

The skull of a famous bard, or maybe it's just a regular skull.

A kobold mummy hanging from the ceiling that asks you to purchase her so that she may return to her tomb. She hangs just out of reach, and is invisible to the shopkeeper.

[Gettles]

A set of dining ware that uses prestidigitation at will, but can only use it to reflavor the food and drink it's used to consume.

The players will poison the world.

[Funkyodor]

- A fist sized stone that is always warm to the touch, perfect for those bitter cold days.
- A fish that hums Phish songs.
- Mechanical clockwork cymbal banging monkey.
- Modern Bic lighter.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

A quill that never runs out of ink, but the written ink vanishes in an hour.

A ring that when worn causes the ring its self to disappear.


A small elastic band that, if an item is concentrated on and the band is put on another object causes that object to look just like the item the user thought about. For roughly two minutes.

These three things (in my opinion) will lead to your players doing 'evil' things.

The Ink: Write a binding contract in the ink all except for the place for the client to sign. They sign in normal ink and now you have their binding signature to do with as you please. Get a judge/king to sign something and you have all the 'legal' documents in the world at your disposal.

The Ring: They can place magical traps on the ring that listens into conversations, like a wire, OR have a scrying effect on it to see were the wearer is at all times.

The Band: In the same situation as the ink. If you only need a certain item for a short while (like a search warrant or an order of arrest) you could use this. It could also be used to fool the bad guys into thinking that they have obtained the macguffin item that they were after.

[Xanmyral]

@Ryu_Bonkosi
Yeah, those would definitely be the more obvious uses for those items. Evil to the DM, yes, good to the player though. Never thought about that as a use for the ring though, forgot that you could trap stuff like that.

One more item.

A bangle made of onyx that menaces with onyx spikes. When worn, cracks appear on it as if magma is boiling below the surface, but does nothing else. No heat given off, but doesn't exude enough light to improve light conditions. Smells faintly of cheese however.

[The Dark Fiddler]

The players will poison the world.

I really don't get how you intend to use the plate to poison the world.

[Ravens_cry]

I really don't get how you intend to use the plate to poison the world.
Maybe not the world, but Prestidigitation can be used to change the flavour of things. Including ingested poison. Which is detected by taste. If poison no longer tastes like poison, how can it be found?
'Ware, oh king, if your dinnerware changes unexpectedly.

[HappyBlanket]

Maybe not the world, but Prestidigitation can be used to change the flavour of things. Including ingested poison. Which is Detect (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectPoison.htm)ed by taste. If Poison (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectPoison.htm) no longer tastes like poison, how can it be found?
'Ware, oh king, if your dinnerware changes unexpectedly.


Truly a most daunting task. Alert the royal casters, we must research an epic spell to protect his highness from such a powerful artifact.

[Ksheep]

These three things (in my opinion) will lead to your players doing 'evil' things.

The Ring: They can place magical traps on the ring that listens into conversations, like a wire, OR have a scrying effect on it to see were the wearer is at all times.


The ring is only invisible. The wearer will still be able to feel it and know that it's there. You may be able to do something with this for times when you're asked to remove all weapons, jewelry, gear, etc, but a detect magic spell would probably still see it.

[The Dark Fiddler]

'Ware, oh king, if your dinnerware changes unexpectedly.

Well... yeah. Most kings won't eat off of the plate because it won't be theirs, I'd think.

[Ravens_cry]

Truly a most daunting task. Alert the royal casters, we must research an epic spell to protect his highness from such a powerful artifact.
You're right, and in a world with magic in fairly common use, such that you can buy minor items at a shop, magic defences would be in use. It's a common thing forgotten in 'cheats' in D&D, they assume that no one besides the PC have ever had to deal with magic. The same can be said of dominate personing the King.