What are some minor or lesser magical effects?

[poolio]

My players are interested in buying some magic items, and i would also like some more magic items i can sprinkle around and give to creatures that can use items/weapons/armor to make into more interesting encounters.

So far i just have adding various levels of elemental damage bonuses for weapons,
Including
+1d4.
+1d6.
+1d8.
+2d4.
+2d6.
Of various elements.

And various level damage reductions for armor/shields that are made from different kinds creatures, materials, or using different methods, these include.
DR 1, 2, or 3, for all elemental and basic damage types.

The things I'm having most trouble coming up with is stuff for casters, almost all the wands/staves in the books have a bunch of charges to cast a bunch of spells with, there's not a lot of options for passive buffs that don't require attunement.
All i have for that are 1-3 times a day spells, or minor passive damage buffs, such as +2 damage on all fire damage delt using a spell/cantrip.

What other ideas can we come up? And what else that seem more focused on individual schools of magic? All i have right now seems to favor evocation over something like illusion magic.

[nickl_2000]

This is a great resource for weak magical items and magical properties.

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

[poolio]

This is a great resource for weak magical items and magical properties.

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

That is a great tool, and one I've used a lot before, as well as the inspiration to get this thread going, but it doesn't have a lot of options for wizards or sorcerers, or other casters in general

[nickl_2000]

Fair enough, I figured it was a good place to start


-Free extra Cantrip or limited extra Cantrip uses per day.
-Prepare an extra spell during the day
-An item allowing you to extend touch spells to a certain range
-+1 damage on a cantrip during a full moon
-+1 damage on a cantrip when in direct sunlight
-Can extend the duration or have more uses of affects from control elemental cantrips.
-One extra bardic inspiration, one extra sorcery point
-Single use a day to boost your DC by 1d4
-Single use a day to boost your magical attack by 1d4
-Single use a day of some spell
-Allows you to use scrolls with your spell DC instead of the scroll spell DC.
-increase the AoE on spells (this may not be a minor effect)

There's a few off the top of my head. I will try and think of more though.

[poolio]

Fair enough, I figured it was a good place to start


-Free extra Cantrip or limited extra Cantrip uses per day.
-Prepare an extra spell during the day
-An item allowing you to extend touch spells to a certain range
-+1 damage on a cantrip during a full moon
-+1 damage on a cantrip when in direct sunlight
-Can extend the duration or have more uses of affects from control elemental cantrips.
-One extra bardic inspiration, one extra sorcery point
-Single use a day to boost your DC by 1d4
-Single use a day to boost your magical attack by 1d4
-Single use a day of some spell
-Allows you to use scrolls with your spell DC instead of the scroll spell DC.
-increase the AoE on spells (this may not be a minor effect)

There's a few off the top of my head. I will try and think of more though.

A lot of these are really good already! Feel free to keep adding anything that comes to mind, same to anyone else reading this, the more ideas we have the better, remember, even a bad idea is better then no idea.

[Unoriginal]

The DMG has a table for magic items' minor properties, and the Xanathar's indicates that an item that *only* has one of those minor properties is a Common magic item.

Could be worth a look.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Take this from the side. The above magical effects are great. My randomly high Dex elven Lore Bard REALLY benefeted from having an Oath Bow.

It was way more fun than repetively plunking Eldritch Blast like everyone else.

Maybe you can find similar and let a caster in on the weapon fun?

[poolio]

The DMG has a table for magic items' minor properties, and the Xanathar's indicates that an item that *only* has one of those minor properties is a Common magic item.

Could be worth a look.

True, but i was hoping to get some peoples creative juices flowing with this thread, and get some more unique ideas then what we already have available to us.

[Gudrae]

Not sure if this is what you were looking for, but back in 3.5 I toyed with the idea of a series of abjuration items that could be purchased. Specifically a stone, powder, and soap (maybe candle wax as well) of spell school negation.

The idea was that if it was placed on/covered a magical rune/magic item it would disable its designated spell school for a certain time. Stone till it gets moved off the magic rune, powder till enough is disturbed (potentially by wind), soap in a couple of hours. The soap and powder would only be apply-able out of combat

Further the powder and soap couldn't be applied unless the stone had already been placed on the rune (so it could make applying it to a wall or in a tide difficult because before the stone touches it it would be active) and would take a couple minutes to apply per 5 square feet.

Only the stone could be re-useable, but suffered a risk of dangerous magical traps still going off when removed without a powder/soap to replace the job, though to a lessened degree than normal.

Each could be purchased at different caster level (was thinking go by 3's) and the powder bags and soap would have like 5 square feet of rune it would disable a pop, 10 uses a bag/bar.

I figured the order of decreasing expense would be something like Stone (rather expensive)/Soap/powder.

It seems like it would be an easy enough conversion to 5th-ed, just replace caster level with spell level and ta-da.

Justification - It made sense to me that spell casters would have a need for disabling their own/students spell work for a short time as a consequence of magic's danger and study. Further, I'd have to imagine rogues would find ways of acquiring it so that they could make a living sneaking into wizard towers and ancient ruins.

Greater reason - I really like abjuration as a spell school and feel like it doesn't get enough love. Id also like to see some more minor magical items that are not directly related to combat.

[Cheesegear]

My players are interested in buying some magic items

As always...Just say no. Players aren't meant to be able to acquire magic items with gold - at least easily.

With that out of the way...Let's treat it like a real question:

What level are they?


i would also like some more magic items i can sprinkle around and give to creatures that can use items/weapons/armor to make into more interesting encounters.

Xanathar's will give you plenty of examples of interesting magic items that can make encounters fun in all sorts of ways.
I also like hostiles using Oils, giving the hostiles weapons the appearance of being magical. But not really. It's a fun bait-and-switch for the DM:

'You said the sword was magical!'
'No I didn't...I said his sword was on fire and dealt fire damage...The oil has 2 charges left. Don't know what else to tell you.'


So far i just have adding various levels of elemental damage bonuses for weapons

The fact that you go all the way up to +2d6 means you aren't dealing with minor magical effects. Please define 'minor' and 'lesser'?


And various level damage reductions

Passive Damage Reduction on Armours/Shields is a big deal, don't do it. There's a reason Barbarians can't Rage whilst wearing Heavy Armour.


DR 1, 2, or 3, for all elemental and basic damage types.

So, worse Dragon Scale? But also you can put on any armour you want? ...Yeah, no.


there's not a lot of options for passive buffs that don't require attunement.

...I don't know why you make that sound like a problem.

You want; Passive combat-usable buffs. No attunement. Permanent. Buyable. ...Uhh...


All i have for that are 1-3 times a day spells

Yep. Oils and Charms. They're the few magic items that actually make sense to be able to buy on the down low.


All i have right now seems to favor evocation over something like illusion magic.

Based on the rest of your post, that's probably because you appear to only be thinking about combat-related items.

In any case, if your players want to buy magic items, limit them to Charms, Potions and Oils. Or Xanathar's.
Refluff scrolls that some of your players can't use...Into - you guessed it - Charms, Potions and Oils.

If you want them to go HAM, allow them to buy a 24-hour Blessing for a stack of gold that will pay for the hedge witch's new kitchen.

[poolio]

As always...Just say no. Players aren't meant to be able to acquire magic items with gold - at least easily.

With that out of the way...Let's treat it like a real question:

What level are they?



Xanathar's will give you plenty of examples of interesting magic items that can make encounters fun in all sorts of ways.
I also like hostiles using Oils, giving the hostiles weapons the appearance of being magical. But not really. It's a fun bait-and-switch for the DM:

'You said the sword was magical!'
'No I didn't...I said his sword was on fire and dealt fire damage...The oil has 2 charges left. Don't know what else to tell you.'



The fact that you go all the way up to +2d6 means you aren't dealing with minor magical effects. Please define 'minor' and 'lesser'?



Passive Damage Reduction on Armours/Shields is a big deal, don't do it. There's a reason Barbarians can't Rage whilst wearing Heavy Armour.



So, worse Dragon Scale? But also you can put on any armour you want? ...Yeah, no.



...I don't know why you make that sound like a problem.

You want; Passive combat-usable buffs. No attunement. Permanent. Buyable. ...Uhh...



Yep. Oils and Charms. They're the few magic items that actually make sense to be able to buy on the down low.



Based on the rest of your post, that's probably because you appear to only be thinking about combat-related items.

In any case, if your players want to buy magic items, limit them to Charms, Potions and Oils. Or Xanathar's.
Refluff scrolls that some of your players can't use...Into - you guessed it - Charms, Potions and Oils.

If you want them to go HAM, allow them to buy a 24-hour Blessing for a stack of gold that will pay for the hedge witch's new kitchen.

There it is! wouldn't be one of my threads without the inevitable negative nancy showing up.

having magical items in the several hundred to thousands of gold range doesn't hurt anything, shops don't always have literally every possible item available, magic exists in the worlds we play in, so why wouldn't there be places to purchase these things? just cause you can't balance things doesn't mean others can't, i'm not gonna bother with any of these questions, but if someone else with less of a "no don't do that" attitude wants to ask them, i'll gladly expand on them.

Also, will not allow them to buy something they might find interesting, but will lead them on to believe they could get the bad guys flaming sword that is just a sword that smells of burnt out oil? yeah i'm sure players love that.

[Cheesegear]

having magical items in the several hundred to thousands of gold range doesn't hurt anything

Why aren't they stolen on a regular basis? Why doesn't [local lord] step in and say 'My Captain of the Guard needs that. Give it to me. I wasn't asking.'

Magic items, in a shop, present world-building issues. That's why the DMG goes out of its way to point that out to you. That's why the DMG says that if players want to buy magic, they have to do it in a roundabout way.


shops don't always have literally every possible item available, magic exists in the worlds we play in, so why wouldn't there be places to purchase these things?

Because it presents a world-building problem. The DMG says as much.


Also, will not allow them to buy something they might find interesting

Players can look for something interesting, and players may offer cash as a way for the owner to part with it once they find it. But to have a brick-and-mortar building, signposted with 'Magic Items Here', is not something that the DMG wants you to do. It's in the book. Don't know what to tell you.


but will lead them on to believe they could get the bad guys flaming sword that is just a sword that smells of burnt out oil? yeah i'm sure players love that.

You want interesting encounters? Part of creating interesting encounters is sometimes you have an encounter where things aren't as they appear. Illusion magic is a great way of doing this. Oils, Potions and Charms are another great way of doing this. If you do it all the time, then your players will get frustrated. Sure. That's why you don't do it, all the time.

If you want interesting magic items that players should be allowed to purchase for cash, Xanathar's has a lot of great examples. Tables A and B in the DMG also have good examples.

If you want interesting items that would create fun encounters? Look through the DMG, find a fun hostile. Find a fun magic item. Combine.

One I did was I gave a Night Hag Daern's Instant Fortress. A very interesting encounter, I'll tell you that much.


i'm not gonna bother with any of these questions

Not even the basic one; What level are they?
I can give you a dozen ideas straight off the top of my head if that's what you want, if you tell me what level they are - and how much gold they have to spend. And I can make it a good idea, because they're homebrew'd magic items designed for the party's level with the party's gold limit.

If you want passive effect, combat relevant, no attunement, buyable magic items. Just tell me their level and how much gold they have. I still wont think it's a good idea.

[Glorthindel]

A staff I had in a Hackmaster campaign made spells of one particular school (Necromancy in this case, but any would work) only take up half of a memorisation slot. In Hackmaster that was pretty powerful (as it potentially doubled my spells for the day) but in 5th ed, would be fairly minor as it would just allow you to prepare a few more.

Also, it remained standing upright when released, which was surprisingly useful quite often when I needed a spare hand.

And in a game I DM'ed I once handed out a "bottled sword" - it appeared to be a bottle filled with a blue-silver liquid, that when unstoppered and tipped up, would flow out to form a sword blade (sort of modelled on Tidus's sword from FF10), using the bottle as the hilt. It had a few other abilities (+1 to hit, extra cold damage, etc), but the ability to be kept hidden as a innocent bottle of liquid was its coolest feature.

[Warder]

I think cool caster items are those that modify a specific spell to do something they don't normally do. Just like how martials can have a unique and special sword, casters can start having their signature spell through that sort of thing. Maybe you can be the best at magic missile because all your magic missiles blow up in a 5' radius, or slow their target, or whatever. The best magic items are the ones that let you do something you couldn't before, not the ones that just make you better at the things you already do, imho.

[EggKookoo]

You could also make a magic item that confers the properties of a feat. A Staff of Sentinel, or Bracers of Medium Armor Mastery. Ring of Alertness. Stuff like that. As long as you're careful which feats you're dealing with, you can have something functional and useful but not too overpowered, and often painful to give up if the player needs to free up attunement slots later.

[KorvinStarmast]

That is a great tool, and one I've used a lot before, as well as the inspiration to get this thread going, but it doesn't have a lot of options for wizards or sorcerers, or other casters in general

They already have a metric crap ton of tools. :smallyuk: They don't need more candy.

-Free extra Cantrip or limited extra Cantrip uses per day.
Attune the item for a free extra cantrip, or, do it like a wand of "x" and have 3 charges, rechard 1d3 at dawn.

-Prepare an extra spell during the day
Pearl of Power already does this.

-An item allowing you to extend touch spells to a certain range Why have sorcerers and metamagic, anyway?

-+1 damage on a cantrip during a full moon cool idea.

-+1 damage on a cantrip when in direct sunlight cool idea.

-Can extend the duration or have more uses of affects from control elemental cantrips. Why have sorcerers and metamagic, anyway?

-One extra bardic inspiration, one extra sorcery point Per long rest? Per Short rest?

-Single use a day to boost your DC by 1d4 That's strong; suggest not.

-Single use a day to boost your magical attack by 1d4 That's strong; suggest not.

-Single use a day of some spell Warlock invocations: who needs them? Why have warlocks?

-Allows you to use scrolls with your spell DC instead of the scroll spell DC. Why?

-increase the AoE on spells (this may not be a minor effect)
Why have sorcerers and meta magic, anyway? And no, it's not a minor effect

Just say no. Players aren't meant to be able to acquire magic items with gold - at least easily. Agree in general.


The fact that you go all the way up to +2d6 means you aren't dealing with minor magical effects. Please define 'minor' and 'lesser'? {snip}
Passive Damage Reduction on Armours/Shields is a big deal, don't do it. There's a reason Barbarians can't Rage whilst wearing Heavy Armour. Yep.
nd like a problem.


Yep. Oils and Charms. They're the few magic items that actually make sense to be able to buy on the down low. consumables.

Based on the rest of your post, that's probably because you appear to only be thinking about combat-related items.

In any case, if your players want to buy magic items, limit them to Charms, Potions and Oils. Or Xanathar's.
Refluff scrolls that some of your players can't use...Into - you guessed it - Charms, Potions and Oils. Bravo.

If you want them to go HAM, allow them to buy a 24-hour Blessing for a stack of gold that will pay for the hedge witch's new kitchen. Laughed, I did. :smallbiggrin:

[JackPhoenix]

Why aren't they stolen on a regular basis?

Presumably because those items aren't just lying on a shelf somewhere. If you're a merchant rich enough to deal in magic items, you're also rich enough to pay for decent security.


Why doesn't [local lord] step in and say 'My Captain of the Guard needs that. Give it to me. I wasn't asking.'

Because that works exactly once. After that, the merchants leave for the neighbor who doesn't steal their stuff, putting the [local lord] at distinct disadvantage when the neighbor sends soldiers geared up with multiple magic items, perhaps even bought under the "screw that thieving anus" discount, depending on how vengeful the merchant feels. Or a bunch of murderhobos.

[nickl_2000]

Pearl of Power already does this.


For this one you did read it wrong. Pearl of Power lets you cast one extra spell of level 3 or higher. My suggestion was to increase the amount of spells that a Wizard, Cleric, Paladin, or Druid can prepare in a day (not cast). It increases their power a little bit in giving them more options rather than a direct power increase.

I'll agree with a lot of what you had to say, although I was just throwing out ideas off the top of my head.

[poolio]

They already have a metric crap ton of tools. :smallyuk: They don't need more candy.

Attune the item for a free extra cantrip, or, do it like a wand of "x" and have 3 charges, rechard 1d3 at dawn.
Pearl of Power already does this.
Why have sorcerers and metamagic, anyway?
cool idea.
cool idea.
Why have sorcerers and metamagic, anyway?
Per long rest? Per Short rest?
That's strong; suggest not.
That's strong; suggest not.
Warlock invocations: who needs them? Why have warlocks?
Why?
Why have sorcerers and meta magic, anyway? And no, it's not a minor effect
Agree in general.

Yep.
nd like a problem.

consumables.

Based on the rest of your post, that's probably because you appear to only be thinking about combat-related items.
Bravo.
Laughed, I did. :smallbiggrin:

Just cause they get a lot, doesn't mean their players wouldn't also like something neat, hence why i'm looking for ideas for simpler or minor buffing items, it's a simple concept. and sorcerers meta magics can be used multiple times, on multiple spells, there's no harm in giving an item that can replicate it somewhat for another class, all of your arguments, if you can even call them that, are worthless, you would probably tell your casters not to hold any martial weapons, just cause fighters/barbarians use those, so why have them if wizards are gonna swing a sword around.

i'll say it again, anyone reading this, if you have nothing to add, there are other threads, we are here to talk about ideas for minor effects/buffs items can provide to increase the feel of magic in your respective game worlds, critiques are fine, but just saying "don't do that" is counter productive to a game about creativity, if you're going to say "i wouldn't do that" then at least follow it up with "but if i was going to, i would do it like this"

be useful, be helpful, most importantly, be creative.


with that out of the way, i had an idea for various rings that can make javelins out of different elemental energies, such as acid/cold/fire/lightning, this gives a martial class an either limitless or number of uses a day, source of ranged attacks, and a ring takes up a lot less space then a pack full of huge pointy sticks, not a mage specific item, i know, but it was something that popped up in my head and i wanted to add to my own thread at least, i've been trying to come up with something for illusion magic, and all i can really come up with is something that can make them harder to detect, or last a little longer, like burn a charge, increase the DC check for an illusion by a number equal to charges spent, or give disadvantage on the check, or something like that.

and for some other neigh sayers, damage reduction isn't nearly as game breaking as you think, resistance is much, much better, and a shirtless guys yelling gets resistance to almost literally everything, so why play anything else? because just cause something is good, doesn't mean it breaks anything, taking 3 less damage from a goblin trying to crack you with a torch? awesome, great, useful, can save you from going down, taking 3 less damage from a red dragons fire breath? "oh goodie, instead of 47 damage i only took 44, surely we're unstoppable my my dear friends"

and while i'm at it, fine, i'll answer that one question, my current group consists of 4 level 4 characters, a GOO/pact of the blade warlock planning on going fighter at some point, an evoker wizard, a favored soul sorcerer who might grab some warlock for story/character reasons of his own, and a twilight cleric. but this thread wasn't to find specific gear for them, it's to help expand my own magic loot lists as well as provide ideas for the community, first time i've had a group of all casters, and i realized i had butt loads of martial gear, of various power levels, but very little stuff that would appeal to casters that wasn't just staves granting tons of free spells, anyway, that's enough of my ranting for now, back to the ideas :smallsmile:

[KorvinStarmast]

be useful, be helpful, most importantly, be creative.
You mean like this?
Attune the item for a free extra cantrip, or, do it like a wand of "x" and have 3 charges, rechard 1d3 at dawn. Though maybe 7 charges and a 1d6+2 recharge at dawn for a cantrip would feel more like the usual wand.
Beyond that, your have demonstrated that your sense of balance sufficiently out of tune that I'll not offer my free time beyond this. Other posters will get that.
Did you not note that I found the +1 in sunlight / +1 in moonlight a cool idea?

and for some other neigh sayers, The term is naysayer.
Horses are neighers, or I suppose if you anthropomorphize them enough, neigh sayers.

[Cheesegear]

Just cause they get a lot, doesn't mean their players wouldn't also like something neat, hence why i'm looking for ideas for simpler or minor buffing items

And you're not getting those, and you didn't create those.


there's no harm in giving an item that can replicate it somewhat for another class

Yes there is. If you have items that replicate another class, there is no point having that class at the table. But that's only a concern if those classes are part of your table.


you would probably tell your casters not to hold any martial weapons, just cause fighters/barbarians use those, so why have them if wizards are gonna swing a sword around.

Eldritch Knight says 'Hello!'


we are here to talk about ideas for minor effects/buffs items can provide to increase the feel of magic in your respective game worlds, critiques are fine

Your reactions to criticism says differently.


but just saying "don't do that" is counter productive to a game about creativity

Nobody has said 'Don't do that'.
People have said 'Don't do that...' and then listed a boatload of reasons why not, and you haven't addressed any of it, because all's you read was the first three words.


if you're going to say "i wouldn't do that" then at least follow it up with "but if i was going to, i would do it like this"

Then tell me what level they are.
Tell me how much gold they have.
Also maybe tell me what classes you do have at the table so I only end up making items that replicate classes that aren't there.


with that out of the way, i had an idea for various rings that can make javelins out of different elemental energies

Refluffed Javelins of Lightning. You're not being very creative, here.


and a ring takes up a lot less space then a pack full of huge pointy sticks, not a mage specific item

Quiver of Elhonna. Why do you keep reinventing wheels?


and while i'm at it, fine, i'll answer that one question, my current group consists of 4 level 4 characters
a GOO/pact of the blade warlock planning on going fighter at some point,
an evoker wizard,
a favored soul sorcerer
and a twilight cleric.

Easy. I can create half a dozen magic items that wont break your table by the end of the day. I'm going back to lunch.

[poolio]

why do i get these worthless trolls every time i post here?
**** it, i'm out.