Minor Magic Items Your Players Loved

[NowhereMan583]

Magic items are often the part of a fantasy RPG that get the players most excited. However, it's not always The Invincible Axe of the Orcish Warlord that gets the most use and discussion at the table. This thread is for stories about relatively minor and low-powered magical items that captured your players' attention or stuck in their memories.

I'll start with a couple items from past D&D 3.5 campaigns.

Ring of Speak to Insects: This was a ring that, once a day, would cast a version of speak with animals that only worked on insects (normal-sized ones). During each use, a single insect -- whichever happened to be closest -- could be commanded to perform a specific action. You had to be careful with your commands, though, because the insects weren't very bright and resented being bossed around. My players referred to it as the Ring of Ask Bugs and used it about once a session for information-gathering.

Diminutive Golem of Trap Finding: This tiny little kobold-shaped golem, when placed on the ground, would usually act pretty much like one of those old wind-up toys: it would move straight ahead until it hit a wall or other obstacle, then stop. However, if there happened to be a trap between its starting point and the wall, it would studiously avoid it, so the players could watch what it did and know whether to look out for traps. Unfortunately, as they found (repeatedly) to their peril, it wouldn't react to traps that were triggered by doing something other than walking over a particular spot in the floor, so the party often fell victim to traps that went off when you opened a door or picked a lock. They liked the golem anyway, though, and treated it like a pet -- "I take Trapfinder out of my pack and play with him / pet him / check to make sure he's okay."

[BWR]

I played a bard with a musical instrument that could turn into any instrument I wished, up to and including a pipe organ (don't ask how it was pumped). It was not useful for anything but playing music on - no blocking doors or dropping it on people, but I had a blast playing up every stereotype an instrument could have.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

The Luggage, from the Discworld, was originally conceived this way. It was an item Terry Pratchett routinely gave his party - an autonimously mobile, indestructable chest of effectively infinite capacity, which would obey simple instructions (often poorly). So, sometimes it helped them carry all of the loot out of the dungeon, but sometimes they forgot to tell it to stop walking and it would step right into an underground river, forcing them to navigate the entire dungeon in order to get their stuff back.

[Malimar]

Bag of Infinite Muffins. Exactly what it says on the tin: there's always exactly one muffin inside the bag, no matter how many you pull out. A variety of flavors, though it was a bit biased towards banana nut.

The party loved it so much, and used it for so much, that we started referring to them as "the muffin party".

[Jay R]

A group I played with was once given a bag of useless duplication. Put any object in it, and you will get back an identical copy that is useless - magic items with no magic, weapons that didn't cut, food that was unpalatable and had no nourishment, etc.

When I stole all their magic items, I made copies of them and left those behind. They never knew that somebody has stolen their items, and never came after me. They were looking for somebody who had the power to make their magic items inert.

[THEChanger]

Ooooh! I gave my party Kevin!

Well, Kevin's official designation was Twelve. He was a small, silver statue of a monkey, one of a set of twelve that sat on a massive clock inside an ancient library. Each of the statues served as a fetch mechanism - they can cast Locate Object at will, but it only functions on materials cataloged in the library, and worked as long as the object was on the same Plane as the statue. I originally removed the range simply because the library itself was much larger than the 400 feet or so radius the spell provided. One of the party rangers, however, adopted the statue while they were exploring the library, and protected it from a pack of kobolds. It turned out to be very useful later on, because the party needed to retrieve pieces of a very special book. I originally was going to have them pick up traces of it simply by traipsing about the world, but the ranger thought to ask Kevin if he knew where it was. He was able to mark the general location of the missing pages on their world map, because the spell powering him was so expanded. The ranger is considering making Kevin her second Animal Companion, which I agreed I would allow a Feat to do. Kevin isn't useful at all in combat, but as an Animal Companion, I would imagine his finding abilities would improve along with the PCs.

[Laughingmanlol]

The Decanter of Endless Water, a personal favourite of mine, has so far been used to knock a fleeing invisible mage into the muddy street so they could find him, and to bypass a trapped floor with pressure plates, they drank a potion of levitation and used the bottle for propulsion!
The Treeform Cloak allows the wearer to, once per day, turn into a tree on command. The ranger who received it started by using it how I expected, for eavesdropping and hiding, but later, when the dwarf fighter and half-elf sorceress were about to be discovered as imposters at a necromancer ball, the ranger, who had been watching from the skylight of the three-story building, shot a grappling hook arrow to grab the dwarf's armour, shouted to the sorceress to hold on, then leapt off the side with the rope tied to him, turning into a tree mid-fall to pull both of them up and out onto the roof with the extra weight and make their escape!

[Hida Reju]

"The Coin of Darkness" A coin with a 20ft Darkness spell placed on it. Any time the coin is not in a bag, pocket, or closed fist it produces a 20ft sphere of darkness. It was in 3.0 D&D the Daylight spell would suppress it but not dispel the item but the coin trumped the lvl 1 light spell.

Ring of Fire identification - A ring that if you touch it to anything it would then speak outloud Fire or Not Fire. It provided no benefit to protect you from said fire either. It was the creation of a rather novice apprentice enchanter. Interesting note it had a 100% identification rate, it could even detect perfect illusions as Not Fire.

Broken(to some) Dowsing Rod - Would lead you directly to the nearest source of Beer not currently in your possession.

Spoon of Flavor - Would enchant whatever you were eating to taste like a delicious beef stew or Chicken Soup.

Rubber Duckie of Protection - Owner of item would float without effort on water and water born predators ignored them as long as they did not try to attack them.

[Angel Bob]

I gave my party some everlasting provisions for the road -- they insisted that it instead be an everlasting teapot. Although they have to forage for food now, they never want for beverages. When the teapot was broken in a mishap involving the party druid and a twenty-foot chasm, the party leader became extremely angry and threatened to boot him from the party. (Thankfully, the cleric could cast make whole, and another member learned enchant magic item.)

[Xefas]

My group in high school tended to value the worthless trinket items more highly than your standard magical weapons and armor, dividing up the treasure from encounters with hilarious unevenness, because the fighter would rather have the mug that keeps any coffee, tea, or hot chocolate poured into it at optimal drinking temperate, than a suit of +1 full plate, and the wizard would prefer an animated demons-vs-devils themed chess set over a headband of intellect.

Only once did it ever go too far. I tossed a rusted iron crown into some encounter's pool of loot (I don't even remember what the encounter was now). When placed on someone's head, it levitated a few inches, and ignited into a brilliant halo of flame. The flames were illusory, and produced no heat, but had highly convincing visual, auditory, and olfactory components. This was its only property; it did nothing else.

No one in the party survived. Each player was willing to give up their entire cut of the treasure (which was significant; IIRC the encounter was something like a boss-monster), plus additional items on their person, for the crown. They haggled and haggled for over an hour, and eventually one of them just decided to take the crown, and leave their share of the treasure, and be done with it. The others instantly leapt onto him, mauling him nearly to death; upset, he fought back, before being killed. Then, another player figured that with his companions weakened, he could take the crown, and they wouldn't dare risk fighting him, injured as they were. He was wrong.

In the end, one character was left alive, with the crown, and if I've got the story straight in my head, he ended up dying of exposure in the cold, because the wizard was dead and thus unable to renew the Endure Elements spell that had gotten them all to the dungeon in the first place. We decided that he died, curled in the fetal position, hugging the crown to his body as the snow covered him.

The interesting thing is, given that group, I don't think I could've gotten them to act that way even if I'd given them some mechanically cursed One-Ring-esque magical monstrosity that was intended to turn them against each other.

[DigoDragon]

My players love little magic bags that give them food rations and magical ropes that can do "Rope Trick". When you're on long trips it's good to not worry about provisions and sleeping arrangements.

[Jay R]

Anything that lets them ignore some common sense rule. That's why the most popular item is a Bag of Holding.

[mikeejimbo]

Broken(to some) Dowsing Rod - Would lead you directly to the nearest source of Beer not currently in your possession.

That's actually pretty awesome, and not just for drunks like me. A regular dowsing rod will lead you to natural water, but beer means civilization, so it could help you find your way if you're lost.

[Eurus]

My group in high school tended to value the worthless trinket items more highly than your standard magical weapons and armor, dividing up the treasure from encounters with hilarious unevenness, because the fighter would rather have the mug that keeps any coffee, tea, or hot chocolate poured into it at optimal drinking temperate, than a suit of +1 full plate, and the wizard would prefer an animated demons-vs-devils themed chess set over a headband of intellect.

Only once did it ever go too far. I tossed a rusted iron crown into some encounter's pool of loot (I don't even remember what the encounter was now). When placed on someone's head, it levitated a few inches, and ignited into a brilliant halo of flame. The flames were illusory, and produced no heat, but had highly convincing visual, auditory, and olfactory components. This was its only property; it did nothing else.

No one in the party survived. Each player was willing to give up their entire cut of the treasure (which was significant; IIRC the encounter was something like a boss-monster), plus additional items on their person, for the crown. They haggled and haggled for over an hour, and eventually one of them just decided to take the crown, and leave their share of the treasure, and be done with it. The others instantly leapt onto him, mauling him nearly to death; upset, he fought back, before being killed. Then, another player figured that with his companions weakened, he could take the crown, and they wouldn't dare risk fighting him, injured as they were. He was wrong.

In the end, one character was left alive, with the crown, and if I've got the story straight in my head, he ended up dying of exposure in the cold, because the wizard was dead and thus unable to renew the Endure Elements spell that had gotten them all to the dungeon in the first place. We decided that he died, curled in the fetal position, hugging the crown to his body as the snow covered him.

The interesting thing is, given that group, I don't think I could've gotten them to act that way even if I'd given them some mechanically cursed One-Ring-esque magical monstrosity that was intended to turn them against each other.

That's amazing. I'd be tempted to make it a recurring item after that. If it wasn't cursed before, you'd bet it is now. :smallamused:

[Darth_Versity]

At my table we always come back to discussions about one item in particular. The self emptying chamberpot. I was a simple bronze chamber pot that opened a very small portal to the abyss a minute after it detected any contents. The party used it as a form of interrogation by placing it on an orcs head and threatening him that he had one minute to tell all before it activated.

[Lost Demiurge]

Not exactly magic, but in Shadowrun the team's face special ordered the "Little Black Dress," or the "One Dress", as it became known.

150K nuyen. Damn thing was made of memory fibre, could adjust itself to look good in any light, provide its own subtle shades of light as needed, lower or raise the cleavage line as necessary with a thought, become tighter or looser, and had a self-installed skillchip with tiny electrode (Quite invisible) that linked up with the wearer's skillwires to provide a specialty in etiquette (Highest society). Also worked with contact lenses to provide a teleprompter for ease of navigating conversations, and reading visual tells of the opposite gender. Could also subtly massage the wearer to relax their muscles via light current, thus easing stress.

She only busted it out once or twice, but oh my gosh her dice went nuts while she was wearing it. Never rolled less than 4 successes... Damn near got a proposal from the King of Nigeria, one time.

[hymer]

Damn near got a proposal from the King of Nigeria, one time.

Funny, I got something similar in my in-box the other day.
That was a joke, by the way.
As for minor magic items the players would love, it's surprising how much some players enjoy cheating a copper ante games of chance. You could give them dice that follow the commands of their attuned owner ("Come on, dice, don't fail me now, I need a niner!"), a scrying mirror that allows you to see things from a different angle, etc.

[ReaderAt2046]

Well, one time my D&D party got plane shifted to the Elemental Plane of Treasure, and we ended up with a bunch of really wonky items as well as some good ones. Highlights include:

An elf eyeball
A skull helm with horns sticking out
A d10 that would always roll a 7
A motorcycle.

[Vrock_Summoner]

Funny, I got something similar in my in-box the other day.
That was a joke, by the way.
As for minor magic items the players would love, it's surprising how much some players enjoy cheating a copper ante games of chance. You could give them dice that follow the commands of their attuned owner ("Come on, dice, don't fail me now, I need a niner!"), a scrying mirror that allows you to see things from a different angle, etc.

If I understood that right, I think I'm supposed to say good for you! :smallconfused:
Yeah, I would hope so.
@OP: To be fair, I was playing the game, not DMing, but still. The item was a homebrewed thing known as a dragonrock. It did one thing: alert dragons to your presence. Seriously, every dragon in the world knew the location of the dragonrock at all times. Naturally, it was reverse-pickpocketed onto the party rogue right before he went to steal from a dragon's lair. Gave us plenty of time to acquire the MacGuffin, so his sacrifice was not in vain. It was also used for several lulzy purposes, such as when we fed it to a kobold when we found out that dragons were going to start seeking the dragonrock... Torture is so wholesome.

[Fable Wright]

If I understood that right, I think I'm supposed to say good for you! :smallconfused:

He's talking about the Nigerian Prince (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/419_scams) scam, in which you get a fraudulent email claiming to be from someone important (a Prince of Nigeria) asking for a little help (your cash) in exchange for a massive reward (usually of money). Of course, it's really some random person sending out dozens of these emails to stolen/harvested addresses, taking the cash and asking for just a little bit more because of some setback or other. One of the more well-known scams of the internet.

[Nod_Hero]

A D&d campaign a long time ago our group was known as the "Silver Band".
So we all got a plain old silver ring as our logo. When we helped a deity find his missing high priestess, he enchanted the rings to allow us to communicate as long as we were within 50 miles of each other. Sort of like Star Trek communicator badges.
A very minor yet neat item, that totally gave our group an identity.

[DigoDragon]

Anything that lets them ignore some common sense rule. That's why the most popular item is a Bag of Holding.

Yup, that's popular in my group (I myself favor the Haversack for ease of item retrieval in combat).


Another favored minor item my players reminded me of:

Noisy Cricket: A -1 Cursed Dagger. The blade glowed pink whenever undead were nearby, but it also made this annoying cricket chirping noise at the same time that attracted the undead to the wielder. The noise could not be silenced by anything less than a level 3 silence spell. They liked it because they could use it to lure unintelligent undead into a corner and then blast them all at once.