Amulet of Triage

[Talanic]

Had this idea while at work today. I haven't actually gamed in years so thought I'd just post it and see if it's as interesting as I think it might be.

The Amulet of Triage (minor magic item, transmutation) has no effect on any creature that is hostile to its bearer or has more than -1 hit points. All others that the bearer touches with the amulet are afflicted with the spell Flesh to Stone (no save - only succeeds if the target is willing or unconscious). If the bearer is reduced to negative hit points while wearing the amulet, he is affected. When characters turned to stone by this ability are affected by a Stone to Flesh spell, they do not need to save for survival.

It seems like a simple idea - if there's insufficient healing power available to take care of everyone, then a spell that effectively puts a dying character into stasis would be invaluable. I suspect that this would be far more useful to NPC healers than it would be to players, but I had to get the idea out of my head.

[Sith_Happens]

I feel like it would be much simpler to just have the amulet stabilize people. Petrifying them is rather overkill.

[Siltharon]

The Amulet of Triage (minor magic item, transmutation) has no effect on any creature that is hostile to its bearer or has more than -1 hit points. All others that the bearer touches with the amulet are afflicted with the spell Flesh to Stone (no save - only succeeds if the target is willing or unconscious). If the bearer is reduced to negative hit points while wearing the amulet, he is affected. When characters turned to stone by this ability are affected by a Stone to Flesh spell, they do not need to save for survival.

Ok basically I have to agree with Sith_Happens and ask why? I mean ok it's saver to turn to stone if you are below 0 HP but in most games other charakters can save you more effective / faster (without using the counterspell btw which still leaves you at the same HP). If you use this item for flavour it might be a good idea but you still have to find a good reason to use it. Maybe in a world where magic healing is strongly constricted or a world without normal divine magic.

Second you should think about rewording and rethinking what that item does. The RAW of this item provokes to use it in as much cheese as possible since the wording is pretty inaccurate. First I would define on which creatures you can use it on and rather than saying on which it has no effect. Because you might miss something out of the equation leading to results and especially abuses you didn't consider.
For example I would probably use that item .... but not for it intended purpose. I'd probably just use it to turn unconcious ppl into stone which is, thanks to some bad wording and several different interpretations, probably possible.

I don't really know now how to fix that item or if it's even possible to do so but I'd definitely increase it to medium magic items since Flesh to Stone is a 6th grade spell.

[ericgrau]

Because merely unconscious and stable people are subject to coup de graces. Until you get heal, healing spells will not get you anywhere near full and you can still be in danger. I think this would save some resurrections.

[hymer]

I think ericgrau has it, though in my games we'd be more worried about randomly getting caught up in an AoE damage spell than being targeted specifically.
But as long as you're casting a fifth (? Or sixth?) level spell on the guy going down, why not cast what's-it, that healing cocoon thingie?

Edit: Looked the spells up: Rejuvenation Cocoon, druid5, MIC; Flesh to Stone, sor/wiz6

[Siltharon]

Because merely unconscious and stable people are subject to coup de graces. Until you get heal, healing spells will not get you anywhere near full and you can still be in danger. I think this would save some resurrections.

true .... but by the level you could attain the item you probably are able to cast heal anyways (also 6th level). If you have the item earlier you still have to use stone to flesh (also 6th level) to counter it. An option would be to make the effect temporary. Even after fixing the item it would still be very very situational.

[ericgrau]

Since it cannot do everything flesh to stone could, presumably it would be much cheaper. Not having stone to flesh is a big problem though. The ability to restore its targets should probably be included in the amulet.

The way it saves people is a bit funky but it could work at the right price.

[Siltharon]

agree on that ... maybe enableing the owner to cancel the effect with another touch at will and/or giving the power just a limited duration (somewhere around a few hours probably).

Suggested fixes and descriptions:
-minor->at least medium (though it merely is about the price)
-giving it a max number of uses per day (3?)
-turns the bearer into stone upon reaching -1 or lower hitpoints as affected by the Flesh to Stone Spell (this does not count against the daily uses of the item)
-the bearer can turn willing targets into stone as if affected by the Flesh to Stone spell and can turn them back to normal by spending a standard action (requires touch)
- giving it a maxduration to avoid abuse: I'd suggest one hour or maybe 24 hours

-as of now I don't see a way to use the item on unconscious ppl for just saving reasons since the power itself isn't purely for saving ppl .... any way you would formulate it, it would probably be abused/used to turn enemies into stone when they are unconcious
mainproblem is, that an unconcious charakter cannot tell if a spell cast on him is beneficial (actually he can't even tell there is a spell for obvious reasons)

[Killer Angel]

Because merely unconscious and stable people are subject to coup de graces.

...I believe that you can also break a statue, relatively easily.

[Gildedragon]

So maybe an amulet of sepia snake sigil, command word to deactivate?

[TuggyNE]

agree on that ... maybe enableing the owner to cancel the effect with another touch at will and/or giving the power just a limited duration (somewhere around a few hours probably).

Suggested fixes and descriptions:
-minor->at least medium (though it merely is about the price)
-giving it a max number of uses per day (3?)
-turns the bearer into stone upon reaching -1 or lower hitpoints as affected by the Flesh to Stone Spell (this does not count against the daily uses of the item)
-the bearer can turn willing targets into stone as if affected by the Flesh to Stone spell and can turn them back to normal by spending a standard action (requires touch)
- giving it a maxduration to avoid abuse: I'd suggest one hour or maybe 24 hours

I would reduce this even further. The amulet should only activate when the wearer is dropped into negatives, and turns them into stone (complete with meager hardness) up to 1/day for 1 hour.

Ad-hocing it, the price would be maybe as low as 13200gp (including 50% off for weird activation). Or, you could switch to the superior rejuvenation cocoon for probably 9000gp.

[Talanic]

Thanks for the responses. You're right - this item, as written, is largely useless because there are so many other options in the game already, and because the game doesn't really handle situations where a character gets close to death and won't recover without long-term specialty treatment. Because healing is so simple and death is such a binary option (Is he below -9? No? Apply cantrip heal and he's stable) more complicated methods of treatment are moot. Even in situations of exotic diseases and poisons, where quests might normally be applied to find a cure or antidote, there's really no point because of the spells involved.

It's especially bad because of the spell levels of Flesh to Stone / Stone to Flesh - wasn't it lower in earlier editions? Rhetorical question, really - I didn't play those that much - driving the price up beyond where it'd be feasible for characters who might want it could get it.

If someone ran a campaign with lots of arcane magic but no divine, I could see it being useful. Healers using it to petrify characters that they can't currently treat, staving off the effects of diseases until cures are found, etc. I had the macabre image of a party finding a gallery of statues of people who've all suffered horrible injuries and cautiously working their way in, thinking they've found some kind of psychopath's trophy gallery, only to find a hard-working doctor trying to preserve the patients that he can't treat yet.

Long story short, it's probably better for storytelling than it would be for D&D.