Faulty magic items

[Godshoe]

Hello there, magic fellas!

I'm going to start campaign and thought (imho) that heroes too rarely find magic items. In 5e there are not as many opportunities for the master to give adventurers magic things as I would like. Most often, they are either too powerful or are subject to a rules limitation.
So I decided - in my campaign there will be lot of minor magic items with harmless, narrative or one-off magic effects which could bring a narrative interest and a small plot surroundings.

At the same time, together with positive objects, I would like to dilute the treasures with strange, useless or slightly harmful objects.

Maybe you met magic items with a trick? With a little (harmless or not) curse or just works do not quite as they should. Or maybe even some items that simply are of no use in battle.
Maybe you know special tables with random list of this kind stuff? Like trinkets tables but more magical.

[Stattick]

https://www.lordbyng.net/inspiration/results.php

Minor magical items. Click, and receive stats for up to a thousand random items.

[MoiMagnus]

Sentience (not necessarily the kind that talk and think, just objects that somewhat have a notion of will) is the most standard quirk.
Examples in popular fiction are magical objects you need to politely ask for them to work properly. But magical objects that have a phobia could be interesting too.

Slight modification of the user can be a good quirk too. Maybe don't go full magica-girl. But simple things like eyes that glow a certain colour, or some slight transmutation of the skin toward another race (like dragon scales that appears), or slight behaviour changes ("you look much more confident when using it" / "you refrain a sadistic smile" / ...). Hallucination too, not necessarily visual ("you smell burned grass"), that only the user perceive. Nothing permanent a priori, though it might make your players question if that's a good idea to overuse those objects...

Dreams related to the objects can also give a kind of creepiness to them, but your players might overestimate the importance of the object if your start putting dreams about it.

[Stattick]

I made a Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity in 5th edition. It's an attunement item. Once attuned, it changes your sex. Male to female, & vice versa. Characters that are hermaphrodites or have no sexual organs gain the (singular) sex of their choice. The effect lasts for as long as the item is attuned. If you remain attuned for a year and a day, the change is permanent, though continuing to wear the belt will then turn you from male to female or vice versa.

[Lupine]

If you are looking for fun magic items that may be hard, or just plain dangerous to use, I suggest you examine the "strange magics" in the Hag section of Volo's. The guides there are really cool, and you can have a lot of really absurd items that do really cool things.

I was looking for examples to to give you, to no effect. The ones I remember using are:
A small, wind-up clockwork soldier, which when you take an action to wind up, gives you three quarters cover for 1d4 rounds.
A statuette of a skeleton, made of ice. Crushing the ice causes a skeleton (as seen in the monster manual) made of ice appear, which obeys your orders.
A small stone disc, with a ring of lava inside, and a small stone cylinder within that. If you spin the disc, and then throw it, it creates a pillar of fire on the ground.
A mummified dragon claw. If you speak the command word, you may choose a creature, which it attempts to wrap up. That creature, if wrapped up, is restrained, and ages 2d6 years every round. Speaking a different command word causes the wrappings to return to the dragon claw, which cannot be used again for a number of hours equal to the amount the creature aged.

You get the idea. the other fun thing with strange magics is that players don't know what they are, and thus are able to be delighted and surprised by the results.

[Nifft]

At the same time, together with positive objects, I would like to dilute the treasures with strange, useless or slightly harmful objects.

Maybe you met magic items with a trick? With a little (harmless or not) curse or just works do not quite as they should. Or maybe even some items that simply are of no use in battle.
Maybe you know special tables with random list of this kind stuff? Like trinkets tables but more magical.

Take a look at DMG p.143, Minor Properties & Quirks.

Put one or more of those on a normal item.

Think of ways to make mundane information available through magic, like which direction is North, or what time of day it is.

As an example, I had a mirror which (on command) reflected the sun's light, no matter the time of day or obstacles between the mirror and the sun. It was a way to tell the time if you knew how the sun moved (a Nature check), and it had some potential utility against a vampire (of which there were none nearby), but mostly it was just a weird light source.

[Segev]

Take a look at DMG p.143, Minor Properties & Quirks.

Put one or more of those on a normal item.

Think of ways to make mundane information available through magic, like which direction is North, or what time of day it is.

As an example, I had a mirror which (on command) reflected the sun's light, no matter the time of day or obstacles between the mirror and the sun. It was a way to tell the time if you knew how the sun moved (a Nature check), and it had some potential utility against a vampire (of which there were none nearby), but mostly it was just a weird light source.

This was going to be my suggestion.

The half-orc barbarian in the party has a Ring of Swimming that also floats and rotates to point north when floating. If the wearer is in the water, it rotates them to point north if they sit still for a round and just let themselves float.


Xanathar's Guide also has "common magic items," which might be right up your alley. The party has a Wand of Scowls, and the ranger took a Gleaming Sword. (I adapted Armor of Gleaming. They found this pristine sword poking out of the side of a disguisting monster, and when they pulled it out, a dead, half-digested halfling was holding it. The sword was perfectly clean. The ranger wields it because it IS a magic weapon, which can be important for overcoming resistances, even though it has no other useful magic properties besides always being pristine.)

[Nifft]

They found this pristine sword poking out of the side of a disguisting monster, and when they pulled it out, a dead, half-digested halfling was holding it. The sword was perfectly clean. The ranger wields it because it IS a magic weapon, which can be important for overcoming resistances, even though it has no other useful magic properties besides always being pristine.

That's a great point, and it's one which I also utilized.

There was a floats-in-water dagger the party found was magical, and did penetrate some damage resistance, even though it had no +1 nor other combat enhancements.

Penetrating damage resistance is a legit benefit, even if the weapon's magical traits are not combat-oriented.