Need idea for 5 random items

[Balor01]

I've been a bit stingy with loot lately, so according to WBL, I "own" my players about 12.000 gp. I will transform this into 5-6 items they will find, but ... searching core left me with +1 armor, +1 weapons ... So I wonder if playground has any better ideas? I will not reveal party lvl or composition, because loot will be random, but if anyone has any better ideas then +1 longsword, Ill take it.

Tnx

[Shadowleaf]

I suggest you pick up a copy of the Magic Item Compendium. It's more than worth its cost, especially since it's one of those books you'll use for all characters.

Have you taken a look at the Wondrous Items list? (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm) It works great as random loot.

12k gold could be something like:
Phylactery of Faithfulness
Handy Haversack
Efficient Quiver
Boots of Elvenkind
Hand of the Mage
Hat of Disguise

[Darrin]

I've been a bit stingy with loot lately, so according to WBL, I "own" my players about 12.000 gp. I will transform this into 5-6 items they will find, but ... searching core left me with +1 armor, +1 weapons ... So I wonder if playground has any better ideas?

From Core:

Hat of Disguise (1800 GP). The "swiss army knife" of Social Engineering. Hundreds of uses, most of them on the shady side of illegal.

Ring of Feather Falling (2200 GP). Can free up a 1st-level spell slot, but mostly to make the Monk cry ("Slow fall? You call that a class feature?").

Ring of Sustenance (2500 GP). You'd think there wouldn't be much interest, seeing how rations, goodberry, or a Survival check is so much cheaper, but it was surprisingly sought-after in our group.

Bag of Tricks, Rust (3000 GP). Provides flankers and/or trap-detectors.

Marvelous Pigments (4000 GP). One of the Fabulous Four (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8235936&postcount=8). Requires some creativity to really get the most out of this, but in the right hands can crack a dungeon in half (literally... just paint a crack down the middle!).

Slippers of Spider Climbing (4800 GP). Another good source for "think outside the box" solutions, where the designers didn't anticipate people walking along walls/ceilings.

[Hirax]

Spheres of awakening are a favorite of mine, and are a steal at 1800GP.

[The Witch-King]

If I were you, I'd be looking for opportunities to introduce magic items that would serve to introduce plot elements. If, for example, you had a middle eastern themed part of your campaign world and you wanted the players to go there, you might give them a +1 scimitar and a magic lamp of some kind. They might wonder why a particular treasure they've found seems to be from a particular cultural source and you might use that to direct them to clues that would lead them on an adventure.

Other possibilities include named items with specific histories. Yeah, it might be just a +1 longsword to you or I but it just happened to be the first known sword of a great hero who later vanquished a demon lord. The cult of the demon, who were driven underground into hiding, might not take it too well for an adventurer to start waving that sword around. It might take a couple of attacks for the players to wonder why these crazy cultists are after them but after they figure it out, you've got a good plot hook to get them to go after the evil cult's remnants. That sort of thing. Oh--a really good and funny way to introduce the plot hook would be if they try to sell the sword and no one will touch it because they know the cult will kill anyone who possesses it but the merchants who know that don't want to draw the cult's ire by telling the players about the sword either...

Just a thought.

[Balor01]

Tnx guys. :) loot horde will be much more interesting.

[Socratov]

as an addition:

Zorya Polunochnaya’s
Moon
(DR324 p29)
New silver coin.
Once per day, the coin can be commanded to
become a glowing sphere of light (similar to
a Dancing Light) that can be directed to
move around within 130’ of its owner.
Effect lasts for 1 hour. It can be captured by
others. AC 24, Hardness 8, 20hp.
— Spell
Effect
Faint
Evoc 3 Craft Wondrous Item
Dancing Lights 500 40 1,000

i know, it's from Dragon mag, but it's not OP, and has some interesting uses, dont forget the RP activation: flipping the coin in the air...

[Alienist]

Aberrant Sphere. 1800gp MIC

Yes, it's a poke-ball.

Player: "I cast identify"
DM: "you use it and a monster appears under your control, but you take a little bit of brain damage"
Player: "Oh, so EXACTLY like Pokemon then..."

[Golkiwu]

In a home-brew 3.5 campaign, my DM decided to work with modified weapons of legacy options as a scale-able reward for the PC's. First he created the bad guys that were using the weapons to kick our butts. Once we acquired them, we had to deal with attuning them through various acts of adventure. My example is (we were playing gestalt rogue/xxxx, i was a rogue/wizard) we got a Rapier from a pirate we had defeated. It was a +1 rapier, but my character had a dream one night after acquiring the blade. The dream showed me using it against a foe and channeling a spell through it to defeat him. My DM gave me a real-world idea of what I needed to do to get the power to work (spell channeling through the weapon) and it would have to be a one on one type of challenge to complete the power activation. Other powers were flight and one other I cannot recall. I do remember that the flight power was relative to the creature of feather it was taken from.. I eventually successfully pulled a feather from a Roc. Gave him Perfect Flight of 60'. All together, his gifts were scale-able, and only achievable when he gave you the opportunity to fulfill the challenge needed to unlock the power. This way you could give the players an item of x value now, but have it retain a future power that , through effort of adventure and appropriate level gain, gives them new cool stuff that counts as WPL throughout their characters careers through the same item.

[undead hero]

You should add in items that introduce plot and cost more than the money you "owe" your characters.

Something that they will love ;)

If there is a fighter among the group give him something like the legendary weapons (get rid of the stupid negatives the weapon bestows). Maybe something that is a family heirloom

Arcane caster? Rods of awesomeness (metamagic) that actually belongs to another caster (and wants it back)?

If you feel you "owe" them gold then don't give them items that are worth around that amount since items picked out by another is worth less than the gold. I remember as a Cleric getting a few beads of force... I had the Bard sell them at double the normal price (yay charisma/lies) so I could get something my character thought was useful.