Needed: Magic Devouring Monster

[Pyredup]

Here's the deal:

I've been a sub par DM and I've given my party way too many magic items. They have since become overpowered. I'd like to take some of their items, but I want to give them a chance here. I don't like the whole "This happens cause I say it does" routine. My plan is to have them kidnapped and placed in a labyrinth of sorts. They'll be stripped of all magic items. The party has to work their way through traps and puzzles to get out. They've been put there by a group of people who worship some magic hungry demon or something. Every few rounds that they're still in the labyrinth I'll randomly select a magic item to be eaten.

I need help on figuring out what type of monster should be at the end of the puzzle.

Thanks. :)

[Lord Tataraus]

Well, the arcane ooze (MMIII) aborbs magic, and you could modify it to absorb magic items as well. That thing is cool!

[Solo]

Mordenkaiden's Disjunction+Metamagic Rod of Chain Spell.

[Hurlbut]

Tarrasque. It won't stop chasing you until it has devour enough of magic items before it go back to another decades/centuries long slumber.

[Citizen Joe]

Advertise a 'Crime of the Century' sort of adventure. Some master thief hires them for some portion of his plan. Promise them a share of the great treasure. Near the end, the thief rats them out and they get captured, tried and sent to a desolate island where they have to survive without any of their gear.

[bosssmiley]

MM3: Living Spell. Stat up a Living Disjunction that chases them around going "Nom nom nom!" on their magic items. Expect to be lynched for it. :smallwink:

[bugsysservant]

MM3: Living Spell. Stat up a Living Disjunction that chases them around going "Nom nom nom!" on their magic items. Expect to be lynched for it. :smallwink:

I thought living spells had to be area effects. Isn't disjunction targetted? You could probably house rule something, or jury rig the template, but by RAW, I don't think that works.

[Were-Sandwich]

What about that wierd thing with the big tongue from Fiend Folio?

[Citizen Joe]

Rust monster is a good one for any metallic stuff. If you want to be mean, toss up an illusion around the rust monster so it just looks like a giant scorpion and so that they don't notice their equipment rusting away.

[paallikko]

You should check MM II, there was some kind of construct which had Mordenkainens(c) Disjunction at will. And there was also a magic item eating spider.

[Bauglir]

Methinks the Balhannoth from MMIV was designed for this exact purpose. It eats the magic from magic items, as I recall. Has some nifty stuff like an Anti-Magic Grapple.

[Lemur]

The Nishruu from Monsters of Faerun fits the bill almost perfectly. The main catch with the way that it's written is that it only temporarily turns off magic items without charges when in contact with them. Adding the ability to destroy a magic item every few rounds would fit in with it's concept, though.

[mostlyharmful]

Ethereal Filtcher from the MM1, it just nicks shinies and beams out afterwards, basically a super-powered magpie. My first ever DM hit us with that, we hadn't read the book (hopefully yours haven't either) and didn't know it's hidey hole was somewhere nearby so we went for four levels with this irritating thing popping up and going "Oooo", just before we lost something else useful.:smallfurious:

[Crow]

Dude, don't beat up your party and take their stuff. Especially if your plan involves capturing them. It almost always end up looking "forced", and it just pisses off your players to no end.

Seriously.

Capture and Strip scenarios should be avoided if the intention is just to capture and strip.



Now to add something useful; A sunderizer will take care of lots of those shinies. Your players will be pissed as this guy mows through all of their worn and carried items (but not worn armor).

«When you say Improved Sunder you've said it all.»
-slogan thanks to sloganizer.net

[technophile]

Two words: Null Shadows (http://stevenac.net/sagiro/sagiroX1.pdf).

[Mewtarthio]

I thought living spells had to be area effects. Isn't disjunction targetted? You could probably house rule something, or jury rig the template, but by RAW, I don't think that works.

Disjunction's an area affect spell. A Living Disjunction would, on every hit, force a will save against disjunction for every item carried by a character. Oh, and it can Engulf people and disjoin stuff every round.

[Iku Rex]

Don't railroad the PCs into a bad situation and take their stuff. No good will come of it.

Make the next few adventures treasure-poor. Make the PCs fight their way through monsters that don't carry magic items or gold. Unless you've given them a truly obscene amount of gear they should catch up to their appropriate wealth-per-level soon enough.

You can still reward them for their efforts as long as the reward is not "power" related and can't be sold. For example, a greatful king could give them titles of nobility and land holdings on the edge of the kingdom. Once administration costs and their own taxes to the king are subtracted the land leaves only a vary minor annual profit. (Story hooks galore.) Or, an impressed patron could give them unlimited use of a ship (or airship?) as long as they use it to "fight the good fight" or keep doing jobs for the patron.

[CASTLEMIKE]

City of Splendors Waterdeep introduced the Dweomervore. CR7 usually CN small "Thieving" dragons that feed on charged magic items and wield a telekinetic breath weapon both as a tool and a weapon. They have Telekenetic Filch (Up to 5# and 60') and Magic Drain along with some spell like abilities which includes color spray along with other bennies. They operate alone, in pairs or in gangs of 2 - 4 and might be what you want.

[John Campbell]

Is the disenchanter still in the game?

This is what that thing was for.

[Quietus]

What about the Nightwing?

[Crazy_Uncle_Doug]

There was a Dragon in White Wolf's Creature Collection II (or was it the first) that had a "Disjunction" breath weapon. The party I ran for actually ran into one. They were ticked off about Disjunction, but the "Daern's Instant Fortress" survived. They dropped it on the dragon as fitting revenge.

[knightsaline]

You don't need a magic devouring monster. Just discuss the problem with the players and try and set up a solution. One of the articles on the D&D site has a lot about what happens when the wrong item falls into the wrong hands (player first starts complaining that he gets nothing good, as everything good is taken by the fighter, wizard and cleric (player is a bard). DM asks player to make a list in accordance with the power level of the party. Player gets a Helm of Telepathy. Campaign heavily destroyed because Bard is spamming Helm of TP to read everyones mind. DM tells bard that the helm is ruining the game and says that at some point in the next game, Bard will have to give up the Helm (and assures Bard that it will not get into the hands of any BBEGs) The article is here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/tt/20070327a) if you wish to peruse it.

Artefacts are a problem, give too amny and you may as well send some extremely powerful being, (like Ao or DeeEm) to try and take them away. I want to know why they took the ways of destroying artefacts out of 3:X? Every artefact needs to have some way of destroying it, even if its "The sword must be hit by two natural comets at the same time" or "A thief who wants nothing must bite the coin".

[Khanderas]

Do include some kind of plothook with the destruction.
Like it gets stolen / sundered and the thief / bastard runs off somewhere that leads to new adventures. Not all stolen goods are kept, it can be sold to some random merchant by the thief and then it is out of the game.

That a living spell or the other magic item versions of a rust monster would also work great. Have it locked up in a mysterious box that the PC's HAS to open. Then the lord of the land will charge them with recapturing the monster (the box is immune to the devouring from the creature).

Plenty of times the BBEG tosses a disjunction spell on the PC's. This is more of a "its gone because I said so" though.

[AtomicKitKat]

What about that wierd thing with the big tongue from Fiend Folio?

Is the disenchanter still in the game?

This is what that thing was for.

This (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ff_gallery/50158.jpg) be it.