Quirky or flavorful magical equipment effects

[Tiadoppler]

I'm running a fairly low-magic campaign, and I want magical items (especially weapons and armor) to be interesting, unique, valuable and powerful, but also randomized. I'm looking for suggestions of quirks (NOT curses) that can be added to "standard" +1 or +2 items without overwhelmingly changing the power level, or adding too many conditional/activated effects.

Good: this sword glows orange all the time, unless it's in a scabbard.
Bad: this sword does +1d4 additional non-magical bludgeoning damage to male elves during the night-time. (not worth remembering! too conditional!)

Good: this shield is self-cleaning and always highly polished
Bad: this shield grants +5 to AC and all saving throws (too powerful!)

Good: this armor can be dismissed to a pocket dimension as an action, and re-summoned as a bonus action. When summoned this way, the armor appears fully-formed around the armor's owner.
Bad: this armor has 15+1d6 magical charges. Anyone wearing this armor can (as an action) activate the armor, spending a number of charges to cast certain spells: Disguise Self (2 charges), Knock (3 charges), Counterspell (4 charges), Wish (12 charges). This armor gains 1d3 magical charges at dusk, and 1d4 magical charges at dawn. If the last magical charge is used, or the armor has more than 25 charges at noon or midnight, roll a d20. If you rolled a 1, the armor crumbles into dust, losing all magical properties. (too convoluted! too many activated special abilities!)


I've found lots of great lists of minor magical items, but they tend to be intricate, and not based around simplicity of play.

Do you have any great ideas for minor (positive or neutral) magical effects that can be tacked onto a piece of adventuring equipment to change the experience just a little?

[Lunali]

Good: this armor can be dismissed to a pocket dimension as an action, and re-summoned as a bonus action. When summoned this way, the armor appears fully-formed around the armor's owner.

This is a very powerful ability for a quirk unless your campaign has little to no non-combat situations.

[Tiadoppler]

This is a very powerful ability for a quirk unless your campaign has little to no non-combat situations.

I agree that that's on the high end for utility.

We've got lots of non-combat situations (politics, diplomacy, etc.), but I'm not trying to make the quirks useless, but rather occasionally useful abilities that don't unbalance things too much. Because it will all be randomly rolled, it's very unlikely for the perfect item to get the perfect abilities.


If the face character wearing a fancy dress to the party also has the ability to snap her fingers and have plate armor appear on her in an emergency, that could be a really cool moment for that character! I want that sort of thing to be possible.


I'd like a +1 or +2 item with an ability or two to feel cool. These aren't standard issue weapons, they're Excalibur. One reason I want help thinking of abilities is so that if I roll up 15 magical items over the course of the entire campaign, each one has a different set of weird capabilities/features.


Edit: In hindsight, I shouldn't have given two aesthetic examples as "good" ones. I'm also thinking of things like (damage type) resistance, +1 to Spell Save DC or +1 to Spell Attack, or even +5' to speed.

[iTreeby]

The face of this shield is a... Face distorted in agony while not in combat it licks itself to remove damage or blood from its face's face

[Kane0]

Ever seen this (https://centralia.aquest.com/downloads/NLRMEv2.pdf) before?

[Tiadoppler]

Ever seen this (https://centralia.aquest.com/downloads/NLRMEv2.pdf) before?

That's... fascinating, and I will definitely keep a copy of that around for future shenanigans. At the same time, it's not quite what I was looking for. I'm trying to find ways to boost player abilities or change tactics or strategies that they might employ. Reliability is important - I'd like the players to understand that these aren't randomized effects - they're benefits and properties which are integral to the weapons, armors and other devices that they have found.

A glowing magic sword might be great in pitched battle, but it also makes it difficult to be sneaky on a dark night.

A summoned armor gives you an opportunity to look harmless while actually being ready for battle.

A pair of shoes that gives +5' to movement speed lets you chase down a fleeing criminal with ease.

A halberd that grants a bonus to your Spell Save DC might encourage the Eldritch Knight to take a spell he wouldn't otherwise have considered.

An invisible dagger let's an assassin surprise his target far more easily.


I'm just trying to make a list of interesting permanent effects that might appear on a powerful magical artifact. This is what I have so far in terms of general items:

Summoned
Invisible (as in, the item cannot be seen)
Glowing
Self-Cleaning
Indestructible
Fast (+5' speed)
Jealous (DC 25 Athletics check for non-attuned people to lift or move)
Deathless (Advantage on Death Saving Throws)
Damage Resistance (of a randomly decided Damage Type)
Weightless
Spellpower (+1 Spell Save DC, +1 Spell Attack Bonus)
Darkvision
Advantage on (Magic Spell School) saving throws
Immunity to (Specific Spell)
Waterbreathing
Feather Fall
Visible trail (Smoke, mist or lines of glowing light follow the outline of the item and stay in place for several seconds after the item has passed by)
Transforming (can turn into another item)
Immunity to Hunger (or Thirst, or both)
Turns red when exposed to poison, and yellow when exposed to disease
Emits a pleasant odor within 10' and grants advantage to saves against airborne environmental hazards in that area
Climb speed
Burrow speed
Swim speed
Flight speed
Jump distance is no longer limited by your speed

[iTreeby]

Lots of these are magical effects granted by magic items in the DMG. Maybe something like the alchemy jug... The Mace of Mayo! every time the Mace of Mayo hits a creature for the first time in a day, it produces a pound of mayonnaise in a five foot square under the targets feet (usable 5 times per long rest)

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I like useing this one (http://rustyandco.com/extras/magicitemgenerator/).

[Arkhios]

There's a minor quirks table in DMG's magic item section, might want to check it out. I find it's quite fun, and the items don't need to be more magical than that.

[sambojin]

Cloak of the Faded Grasping

This cloak allows you to cast Misty Step once per short rest, and Disguise Self once per short rest (though you can appear two foot taller or shorter, rather than the usual one foot, by using the cloak in this way).
Requires attunement.

Pretty much equivalent to a +2 item. Has in combat uses, and OoC uses. So quite nice. Not a weapon, but an anti-weapon, for anyone.

This the kind of stuff you're looking for? But more weapon'y?

[ZenBear]

I really love Hew (https://lost-mine-of-phandelver-torrance.obsidianportal.com/items/hew) from Lost Mine of Phandelver. Now you know how Durkon (http://oots.wikia.com/wiki/A_Comic_as_Lovely_as_a_Tree) feels! :smalltongue:

I like non-combat quirks like that to give items character.