magic items for specific race, cursed for others

[Jgosse]

Has any one ever used magic items keyed to a specific race ? I had a 3.5 campaign where the dwarf clan had the kings belt . It was a re flavor of the belt of magnificence +6 to all 6 abilities but it would be -6 for anyone not of royal blood. It guaranteed any king would have the wisdom and other qualities of a king.

I am currently running a 5e game focusing on an army of goblins and am thinking of doing the same thing. Creating goblinoid only magical items that will grant the reverse to a non goblinoid.

Edit: to change goblin to goblinoid

[Guy Lombard-O]

Never done that exactly, although I see no reason why you couldn't. There's certainly some persuasive precedent that not every item is useable by every creature, in the class-specific magic items.

The only "race-specific" items I ever created (for goblinoids, btw) were wailing heads. If placed in prominent places with good visibility (hanging by ropes or stuck atop poles), the head would magically come to life if another creature of the head's race entered its field of vision and plead for help, in a manner similar to the Alarm spell.

[Samayu]

I am currently running a 5e game focusing on an army of goblins and am thinking of doing the same thing. Creating goblin only magical items that will grant the reverse to a non goblin.

Sounds cool. They probably wouldn't be very powerful, belonging to goblins. How do the items behave under an identify spell?

Identify: You choose one object that you must touch throughout the casting of the spell.

So while you're holding the +1 Goblin Sword it would be -1 for you, so it would be Identified as a -1 sword? Could be fun when they think they are tricking a goblin into accepting a "gift" of a "cursed" sword.

[Jgosse]

Sounds cool. They probably wouldn't be very powerful, belonging to goblins. How do the items behave under an identify spell?

Identify: You choose one object that you must touch throughout the casting of the spell.

So while you're holding the +1 Goblin Sword it would be -1 for you, so it would be Identified as a -1 sword? Could be fun when they think they are tricking a goblin into accepting a "gift" of a "cursed" sword.

Thats probably the best bet on how to handle it not like I can trick identify. Also I should of said goblinoids gobs, hobs, and bugs not just goblins.

[Jgosse]

Never done that exactly, although I see no reason why you couldn't. There's certainly some persuasive precedent that not every item is useable by every creature, in the class-specific magic items.

The only "race-specific" items I ever created (for goblinoids, btw) were wailing heads. If placed in prominent places with good visibility (hanging by ropes or stuck atop poles), the head would magically come to life if another creature of the head's race entered its field of vision and plead for help, in a manner similar to the Alarm spell.
Thats an interesting one.

[Anymage]

You can Identify an item without attuning it (and thus springing the curse), but the DMG also says that Identify doesn't normally notice curses.

I guess in the cases of items aimed at a specific group, it depends on the intent of the maker. If the item should serve as a final trap for anyone who took it off the original wearer's corpse, hide the curse. (I could see drow doing this easily.). If the item is something like a crown that's only intended for those of the royal line, it makes sense to communicate that a curse would strike down the unworthy to dissuade attempts at looting.

[Samayu]

Well that's a good point. Is it actually a curse on the item, that makes it perform poorly? Or is just an effect that's designed in? Because if a piece of armor was enchanted to be +1 to a goblinoid, and -1 to a nongoblinoid, you could argue that it's just an effect and not a curse.

The nature of a curse is that the user can't be rid of it. That would not be desireable, because they'd want to get that item back in the hands of their own people for the +1.

So I'd say this shouldn't be considered an actual curse.