Help With a Magic Item

[Morof Stonehands]

Hello all,

Just trying to brainstorm ideas for some magic items. My players are currently on a quest to collect all the chapters of the Daemonic portion of the Book of the Damned. The book in its entirety has been made into an artifact, however they do not have that yet. But I want the individual chapters to have a magical effect/ability as well.

They are evil though, so they will have a downside as well. So what kind of abilities should theses things have? My players will be about level 5 when they get the first chapter.

Thanks for the help!

[Flickerdart]

How many chapters will there be? How many PCs are there, and what are their builds? Do you want the chapters to have a passive effect when carried/first read, or an activated effect?

I also question the idea that evil items must have drawbacks. Evil creatures aren't stupid, and won't equip their minions with intentionally detrimental items. What the book should do is have effects that Evil creatures would not care about (or even consider beneficial) while Good or even Neutral creatures might see as detrimental. For example, reading from the book might cause an archdevil's brand to appear on the creature's forehead. Worshipers of that devil would rejoice (as this gives them extra status in their community and favour from their patron) but everyone else would not be pleased. Or the book might affect the user with a drug, or give him an Evil aura (to the dismay of smite-happy paladins like Miko). Perhaps the book's power is to summon a demon whose aid can only be used for evil-ish deeds, or who will pervert all requests and attempt to cause as much harm as possible while still technically doing the job he was asked to do.

[atemu1234]

Hmmm... boosts on Knowledge checks related to it would be useful.

[Honest Tiefling]

Perhaps the downsides exist because the PCs are not Daemons themselves, and this was the best they could do as a safety feature to prevent people from using the items. Or, the downsides are just bad enough to be surmountable, but if you do enough evil acts, well, they get better. This would encourage the holders of the chapters to commit more and more evil.

[BowStreetRunner]

Take a look at the Relics for evil deities included in the Magic Item Compendium. I should think that the power level of those should be somewhat appropriate.

[Morof Stonehands]

How many chapters will there be? How many PCs are there, and what are their builds? Do you want the chapters to have a passive effect when carried/first read, or an activated effect?

I also question the idea that evil items must have drawbacks. Evil creatures aren't stupid, and won't equip their minions with intentionally detrimental items. What the book should do is have effects that Evil creatures would not care about (or even consider beneficial) while Good or even Neutral creatures might see as detrimental. For example, reading from the book might cause an archdevil's brand to appear on the creature's forehead. Worshipers of that devil would rejoice (as this gives them extra status in their community and favour from their patron) but everyone else would not be pleased. Or the book might affect the user with a drug, or give him an Evil aura (to the dismay of smite-happy paladins like Miko). Perhaps the book's power is to summon a demon whose aid can only be used for evil-ish deeds, or who will pervert all requests and attempt to cause as much harm as possible while still technically doing the job he was asked to do.


Well, I started to get ideas from the Book of the Damned Pathfinder series. That has 10 chapters, so I'll be using that.

PCs right now are all level 3. 1 Elf Wizard, 1 Half-Elf Ranger, 1 Halfling Rogue, and 1 Half-Elf Ranger/Wizard

Drawback wise, it doesn't have to be a incredibly obvious mechanical drawback. The complete book damns you to Abaddon if you read any part of it. I like the idea of making it so that it only effects non-Evil people.






Hmmm... boosts on Knowledge checks related to it would be useful.

I was thinking that for one of the chapters. How much would be a good amount? +5 circumstance?


Perhaps the downsides exist because the PCs are not Daemons themselves, and this was the best they could do as a safety feature to prevent people from using the items. Or, the downsides are just bad enough to be surmountable, but if you do enough evil acts, well, they get better. This would encourage the holders of the chapters to commit more and more evil.

I like this idea!