What are good magic item drawbacks?

[Anymage]

I'm not looking for curses. I want items that the characters can put down if they wish, but that are on the whole useful enough to be worth holding on to. But at the same time there's a long narrative history of magic requiring a cost from the user, and from a game perspective there's some argument to including a minor hassle to certain items. It helps give flavor to the ones you use a lot, and discourages keeping a bundle of them around on the off chance that they'd be handy.

So with that said, what are some good minor requirements (e.g: item only works if you've done X in the last day), bans (small penalty on certain actions while bound to the item), or other catches that would still make the item a net benefit, but also make its presence more tangible.

[awa]

short version

I had one a knife empowered by a fragment of a serial killer soul, it had the limitation that if possible they had to attack the most vulnerable enemy on the field. (one of its powers told them who that was.)

Another was a weapon that when in combat forced them to take any attack of opportunity vs friend or foe.

[Xervous]

Comedic option: activation phrase is used in everyday conversation. The trick is picking something that may come up every other session so the wielder has to think around it.

Autonomous trigger. Rather than a phrase, there are circumstances that cause the item to trigger on its own and run the full duration of a charge. Being unexpectedly plunged into darkness may cause the hat to start glowing. That beer counted as poison so you’re hasted and ready for the assassins!

[OldTrees1]

Shield of Arrow Attraction: Ranged attacks against targets near you are redirected to you.

[Kol Korran]

Some ideas:
1. A weapon designed to kill certain creatures (Troll, giants, dragons, undead and such) can be sensed by such creature ("What is that awful smell?). It makes them more alert, suspicious, and less likely to cooperate. (Penalty to stealth and social skills against such creatures?).

2. A cloak of shadows enable you to better hide in shadow and potentialy give you darkness/ shadow powers, but makes you partly a shadow creature as well... You lose color sight, and see only in shades of black and white, and sunlight hurts you (dazzle, sun sensitivity trait and such). If you take off the cloak, the effects wear off. In about 2d4 days or such...

3. Token of the wild fey: An amulet (or similar item), that is recognized by woodland beings (animals, plants, other potential wild creatures), who then let you pass, refrain from hurting you, and may even assist. It may even give you powers such as the ability to talk to animals, ot some simple illusion magic.

However, the item holds the presence of the fey. It forces you to some of their laws. Such as:
- Never tell the truth, or the whole truth, or add a twist to it.
- Speak only in rhymes. In conversation you must rhyme according to the last sentence of the person who last spoke.
- discard "civilized" contraptions, such as bathing, or foot gear, cooked meals, or common pleaentries.
- You find cruelty amusing.

4. Staff of lightning and thunder!
The stuff holds the power of the storm. It can only be charged in stormy weather (actual storms, not ones created by low potency magic). Yet if the staff goes a long time without a storm, it becomes... Restless... Stormy... It can discharge it's effects at random, in any tense situation (A random roll, or a "control the staff" check) The effects escalates, the longer time it has not been charged by a storm. At first there may be an unexpected gust of wind. Them possibly a low but audiable rumble. Then perhaps slight rain. Then the staff owner may discharge electricity by the touch (Shocking grasp?) Then perhaps a loud thunder (Save or be deafned?) Or random lightning bolts. If the staff goes waaaayyy to long without recharging, it tears itself apart while releasing one last short, but violent storm.

5. Potions of enhanced natural healing!
Like your basic cure potions, but they "use up" your natural physical reserves. (Depending on system this may be hit dice, the health recovered from next night/ several nights rest, or such). If you have no reserves left, they can fatigue/ weaken you. They are useful at crisis, and but can deplete you if used too often.

6. Helm of true sight:
The helm may give you bonuses to observation/ perception checks, make it easier to discern illusion, perhaps give advantage on social encounters (An ability to notice lies and such).

But with great sight, comes the uncomfortable truth of what you haven't seen till now. You notice the many imperfection, see behind the masks people wear on their daily lives, notice many imperfections, small falsehoods, and disturbing or uneasy details and truths... You are more susceptible to emotion effects causing fear, anxiety, depression, anger or despair. "You want the truth?! You can't handle thr truth!" It shouldn't be too excessive, but noticeable, and possibly mostly a flavour effect (For good roleplayers).

Also, another possible or alternate effect- you cannot avoid (Or it may be difficult, or you'll need to pass a check) to avoid gaze effects (such as a vampire's charming stare, or a medusa's petrifying one).

7. Bag of hoarding:
Similar to a bag of holding, but you also have a tendenct to hoard and keep things. You find it hard to sell loot, and more compelled to buy/ steal/ gain loot. (Possibly a negative modifier of some sort, or a check against the compulsion. Or... Lesser ability to haggle/ barter well).

8. Fiery sword! A flaming sword!
The sword draws heat from living beings. After a few rounds of combat, the sword needs heat. If it hits a living being, it draws some heat from it, possibly making a bit more damage. But if it misses- it draws the hear from the wielder. Thw sword needs to draw some body heat every certain time (a day? A few days?) Or it's fite weakens ( less damage), and weakens, till it may "burn out" and extinguish...

Just some quick ideas...

[icefractal]

Animated Armor
When not activated, it's just strong but unwieldy armor - in 3E, call it Mechanus Gear.

When activated (limited duration per day), it moves itself to amplify the wearer's movements, with several benefits:
* No armor penalties and can move at full speed
* Haste, and a bonus to melee damage
* Can be assigned a simple standing order, such as "stay near this person" or "move away from enemies", which it will perform if the wearer is unable to act (stunned, dazed, etc).

However, the force that it moves with when activated strains the wearer's body. After deactivating, they're fatigued and take an amount of Strength and Dexterity damage based on how long it was used for (in 5E it could give exhaustion levels instead).


Psychic Bullets
Can only be used by a wielder who's not immune to mind-reading. When fired, they capture a temporary echo of the wielder's mind. The result is that if they miss, they turn around in mid-air and try to hit again the next round, at the same attack bonus, continuing until they hit or 1+Wis rounds have passed.

The downside is that they retain the echo for 1+Wis hours, and during that time mind-reading spells can be cast on them as if they were the wielder, without the benefit of protective items and such. Make sure to collect all your shots after the fight!

Note: I rule that ammo is "usually rendered unusable" when it hits (and magical enhancements on it are single-use) rather than literally disintegrating, which is important for these.

[Vaern]

I'm not looking for curses...

So with that said, what are some good minor requirements (e.g: item only works if you've done X in the last day), bans (small penalty on certain actions while bound to the item), or other catches that would still make the item a net benefit, but also make its presence more tangible.

The D&D 3.5 DMG's section on cursed items actually does seem to have the kind of thing you're looking for. There are, of course, the classic cursed items. You know, the specific named items with effects that are likely to get you killed if you hold onto them too long. But, it also has a list of less malicious curse suggestions that can be put on any item.

Listed under intermittent functioning, "dependent" items only function under certain conditions. An item may only function during the day. It might only function underwater. It might function only in the hands of someone who is incapable of casting spells.

The "requirement" section is full of "item only works if you've done X in the last day." Item must be cleansed in holy water each day. Item must kill a living creature each day. Item must draw blood when wielded, and can't be put away until it has scored a hit.

The "drawback" section has a lot of bad stuff that'll typically make you want to "nope" you loot into the nearest ocean. Character's race or gender changes, gain negative levels become unable to cast spells, that kind of thing. Among the less crippling drawbacks, though, are items that simply look ridiculous, items that continuously emit weird sounds, items that force their item to become extremely possessive about them, or simply some identifying mark that appears on the character.

As for "bans," maybe look at the Wu Jen's list of possible taboos in Complete Arcane.
Can not light a fire.
Can not wear a certain color.
Can not drink alcohol.
Can not bathe.
Violating a taboo means that the Wu Jen can't cast any spells for the rest of the day. Make items function the same way: If a player violates the item's ban, it no longer functions for that character until the next day.

[mucat]

Imagine a wand-of-wonder type device, whose maker decided to number its diverse and crazy functions. Maybe it has 100 functions, and the command numbers run from 1 - 100. A few of them are extremely useful (and probably limited by charges or uses-per-day), some are quite dangerous, while most are impractical (?) but potentially hilarious.

Now imagine that the device has no off switch. Every time the person carrying/attuned to it speaks a number, the corresponding function activates. This is all as intended; the wizard who first crafted it is on record saying he can't understand how anyone could accidentally say a number. "But if they know numbers invoke the wand, why would they ever speak them unintentionally?" And somehow, he himself never did.

Good luck to its new owners!

[Stonehead]

Here are some ideas I came up with, grouped somewhat vaguely.

Requires maintenance:

A weapon requires you to give full burial rites to anyone killed by it
Item needs a daily ritual whose materials cost a not insignificant amount of gold
An item needs difficult maintenance every day. (Requires crafting roll)
An item needs to be sung a bed time song to function the next day (requires Performance roll)
A weapon needs to kill a minimum amount of creatures every day


Only functions in certain environments:

An item only works while it's clean, any mud or dirt will stop it's magical effects
An item only works when exposed to daylight
An item that can't work when surrounded by loud noises
An item that only works when facing North
A shy item doesn't work when multiple people are observing it


Only allows a specific target

A weapon that picks a random enemy (or maybe any random character) each turn, and can only attack that target.
A weapon that can only attack the nearest/farthest observable enemy.
A pacifist weapon that can only attack creatures who have attacked you first.
A fearful weapon that cannot attack creatures stronger than the wielder.
A proud weapon that cannot attack creatures weaker than the wielder.


Cost on use

An item that consumes hp with every use
An item that consumes spell slots with every use
An item that consumes gold with every use
An item that consumes other magic items with every use


Nuisance Effect

An item that makes a loud, irritating noise when used (or all the time)
An item that makes a bright, attention grabbing flash when used.
An item that makes it rain when used
An item that flies across the room, and needs to be retrieved when used
A chaotic item that makes you roll on the Wild Magic Surge table when used

[Psyren]

The 5e DMG has tables of Minor Properties, Quirks, and Detriments that you can apply to magic items to personalize them. Many of these, especially the third category, can be considered drawbacks. The third applies mostly to artifacts but you can introduce modified versions of them to any category of item.

[Stonehead]

Man, coming up with these is actually really fun, let me know if I'm posting too much or bothering anyone.

More Backlash Effects

Attracts inter-dimensional monsters whenever used
Teleports the user to a random nearby space whenever used
Starts a fire near the user's feet whenever used
Knocks the user prone whenever used
Removes the user's armor when used
Makes user blind/deaf when used
A weapon that buffs the target's strength if it survives the hit.



More costs

Consumes large amounts of food (preferably through a giant mouth)
Alternatively, the power of the item could scale with the quality of the food it was fed, requiring a cooking roll.
Consumes books
Needs to consume human skulls to function



More Targeting Restrictions

cannot attack the same target twice in a row.
cannot attack a second target until the first one is dead (or simply defeated).
can only target flying/non-flying creatures
cannot attack "cute" creatures (DM's opinion)
cannot attack men or cannot attack women



More Environmental Restrictions

Must be wielded in two hands (only for a wand or shield, or something normally one-handed)
Cannot be used while wearing armor.
Cannot be used in the cold
Cannot be used on Mondays
Cannot be used two turns in a row
Cannot be used two days in a row
Cannot be used while standing up (laying down or sitting only)



A lot of these are more descriptive fluff than legitimate drawbacks, but I think that's a good thing. The +5 Vorpal Greatsword needs a serious balancing factor like attracting demons or removing armor, but maybe the Bag of Holding only needs a daily breakfast.

[Vaern]

Cannot be used on Mondays
Cannot be used two turns in a row
Cannot be used two days in a row


These kind of remind me of Fairy Tail's summoning keys. A contract must be formed with the creature that each key summons which may prevent the summoner from calling that creature at particular times or on certain days.

[Kurt Kurageous]

I'd say, "Anything that makes sense or anything that's balanced." This is exclusively legendary/artifactish stuff.

If it does X, then it doesn't do the opposite of X, or the opposite of X is more likely to happen.
Ring throws fire spells but makes you vulnerable to cold damage.

Bow of the X, magic weapon with bigger bonus vs ancient racial foe of X, will not hit X
Bow of the Orc, + vs Elves, will not hit Orcs.

Just spitballing here.

[AceOfFools]

Rocket boots: when activated, fly 60’ in a chosen direction. Not up to 60’, mind, exactly 60’. In a straight line.

Pathfinder’s “Clouded Vision” Oracle Curse is a good model, granting increasingly powerful vision effects at the cost of limiting the maximum range you can see. Culminates in True Sight to 60’ and nothing beyond, iirc.

I also once had a goddess of treachery temporarily bless someone to succeed all saving throws as if they rolled a nat 20, including saving throws they would normally voluntarily fail. This one only works in something like 3E, where most beneficial spells—including healing—had a normally voluntarily failed save. The players hate-loved it.

[Pauly]

Some ideas I have had over the years.

Magic weapons (1)
Are powered by a magical critter trapped in the weapon in the forging. In order to create their effect they need to feed - on the user. Using the weapon is a HP drain in the user, with the higher the effect the greater the HP drain.

Magic Weapons (2)
Anything that creates an elemental effect (fire, cold, acid etc.) is always on. You need a special scabbard to be able to carry the weapon. Loss of or damage to the scabbard means you are walking around with a permanently flaming sword in your hand.

Healing devices
Typically something that gives the user regeneration. Creates a mild endorphin euphoria, which eventually can become a full blown addiction requiring longer and longer exposure to give an effect. If the DM is mean you can have withdrawal symptoms if the character is removed from an item they have depended on for a long time.

Potions
You build up tolerances. If you keep taking, for example, strength potions your potion of Fire Giant Strength only gives you the bonus of Hill Giant strength and if you take more it gives less and less effect over time.

[SpyOne]

If the player is a good roleplayer an excellent drawback is making the item intelligent.
A sword that, in addition to many cool features, hates a particular other magical sword and will steer it's wielder into facing the wielder of the other.
An item that wants ro return to its "rightful owner", and encourages the current holder to use it in situations that will attract attention. And/or tries to bring the current holder into conflict with people it deems more likely to take it closer to "home".

It can be very hard to play someone who is being subtly, perhaps subconsciously, manipulated.

[Balyano]

Had a player who had a sword that made him immune to fear. The character does not know it does that. Instead it causes the wielder to believe they are invulnerable. They believe any injuries the receive are merely cosmetic, only serving to make them look more impressive.

[tenshiakodo]

I like cosmetic drawbacks, like magic items that are pink and girly looking (just to mess with those hotheaded testosterone-fueled Barbarian types), or magic swords that constantly mutter in Infernal.

I remember looking at the official list of magic item drawbacks in 3rd edition, and one struck me as odd "user shrinks 1 inch". I was like, uh, how is that a drawback?

In one campaign I ran, there was a female Fighter who was always upset when people wouldn't take her seriously as a warrior. They'd say she was a weak little girl, and her reply would be something like "what the hell? I'm 6 feet tall and have a Strength of 17!".

This was all in character of course, out of character, the player thought it was funny, so it became a running gag. Eventually they found a belt of Giant Strength, and she claimed it, and, of course, as one does, wore it constantly. Slowly over the course of the next few weeks, I told the player that the character seemed to be losing muscle mass- but as she wasn't getting weaker, she didn't think much of it. Then I told the player that, no doubt as a result, her clothing was getting looser and ill-fitting.

This came to a head the next time she tried to Intimidate someone, and I secretly applied a -2 penalty. She failed as a result, and once again, the "weak little girl" comment came out. Now I'd told the player with the highest Perception what was going on, and they had been keeping it quiet until now.

"Weak little girl?! Look at these muscles! And I'm 6' tall!"

"Well actually", says the Perceptive player, "your arms are starting to look like sticks, and you're 5' 9" at best." He then stated he stood right next to the Fighter, to demonstrate his point, as he was noticeably taller than before.

There was a moment of confusion, and I revealed the "horrible" curse of the Belt- her dependence on the magically-enhanced strength was causing her own muscles to atrophy, and she was even losing height, becoming smaller and more girlish-looking over time!

They never did bother getting that curse removed.

[Stonehead]

These kind of remind me of Fairy Tail's summoning keys. A contract must be formed with the creature that each key summons which may prevent the summoner from calling that creature at particular times or on certain days.

Hate to disappoint, but I originally used the "Not on Mondays" drawback for an orange Figurine of Wondrous Power of a lion...



Magic Weapons (2)
Anything that creates an elemental effect (fire, cold, acid etc.) is always on. You need a special scabbard to be able to carry the weapon. Loss of or damage to the scabbard means you are walking around with a permanently flaming sword in your hand.

I love this, energy erupting from the sheath is so much cooler of an image than speaking a command word. It kinda makes sense too that a powerful magical sword would need a similarly powerful scabbard.



Healing devices
Typically something that gives the user regeneration. Creates a mild endorphin euphoria, which eventually can become a full blown addiction requiring longer and longer exposure to give an effect. If the DM is mean you can have withdrawal symptoms if the character is removed from an item they have depended on for a long time.

Potions
You build up tolerances. If you keep taking, for example, strength potions your potion of Fire Giant Strength only gives you the bonus of Hill Giant strength and if you take more it gives less and less effect over time.

Definitely interesting drawbacks. In a game like DnD that expects healing to be abundant, it would probably impact the balance pretty heavily.

[Jay R]

An amulet of lie detection. It calls out, "Liar!" if anybody tells a deliberate falsehood in its presence.

Including the wearer.

[Pauly]

Definitely interesting drawbacks. In a game like DnD that expects healing to be abundant, it would probably impact the balance pretty heavily.

The idea from a GM perspective is to get players to slow down on quaffing potions and use them for boss fights or situations where the dice had gone bad. You have to be careful though, there’s a line you have to walk between players exploiting the rules and the DM punishing the players for wrongfun.
With healing in particular and the long rest of current edition it’s a bit easier to find the balance.

[Stonehead]

The idea from a GM perspective is to get players to slow down on quaffing potions and use them for boss fights or situations where the dice had gone bad. You have to be careful though, there’s a line you have to walk between players exploiting the rules and the DM punishing the players for wrongfun.
With healing in particular and the long rest of current edition it’s a bit easier to find the balance.

Personally, I'm a fan of injuries that are lasting enough to become story beats. "No, we shouldn't attack those goblins, Dorrick's arm is still broken from our run in with that giant". Healing and injury is part of the game though where small changes have huge ripple effects. RAW DnD (at least older editions, I've only played a few sessions of 5E, and I don't think my bard took a hit) usually works under the assumption that hp is a bar that gets refilled every combat, like a fighting game story mode. As long as you know the system well enough to adjust things like encounter difficulty and frequency, loot distribution, and avoidability of combat, I'm 100% on board, sounds super fun. You just gotta understand a system before you start tinkering with it.

[VampiricLongbow]

In one of my 5E games, the players found a Moonblade. I randomly determined its effects. It glows in the presence of goblinoids and deals an extra 1d6 thunder damage when it hurts goblinoids. To make this Moonblade a little more interesting, every time the blade deals damage to a goblinoid, the swords SCREAMS, "DEATH TO ALL GOBLINS!" in elven. The Moonblade is easily the strongest weapon the party has access to right now. The campaign is veering towards the party allying themselves with one tribe of goblinoids to fight off a very belligerent and zealous tribe. The party will clearly favor using the Moonblade because it will pump out a lot of extra damage but... How will the goblinoids the party is allied with react to the party using a weapon that screams, "DEATH TO ALL GOBLINS" every time it hurts a goblinoid (be they friend or foe)? Using the weapon is going to cause some... Awkwardness, to say the least. Which is not to the level of a cursed weapon but it is a drawback that may push the party to not use the Moonblade all the time.

[Jay R]

The party will clearly favor using the Moonblade because it will pump out a lot of extra damage but... How will the goblinoids the party is allied with react to the party using a weapon that screams, "DEATH TO ALL GOBLINS" every time it hurts a goblinoid (be they friend or foe)?

The awkwardness might occur long before it's actually used. In *The Hobbit*, the goblins immediately recognized the two swords Glamdring ("foe-hammer") and Orcrist ("goblin-cleaver"). They knew them as Beater and Biter. Does this group of goblins have any reason to recognize the Moonblade on sight?

[SimonMoon6]

I've long had this idea of a magic sword that's really powerful and all, but if you kill someone with the sword, suddenly the sword forces you to experience the entire life of the person you just killed (possibly, it feels like a long time to you, but is really a short time in reality, like what happened in the Picard's flute story). That way, you gain an understanding of exactly what has been lost by your violent action. Thus, the wielder might feel guilty after killing people.

There could be other game effects, like being stunned for d4 rounds (possibly save to resist). Possibly the DC to resist would be based on the CR or HD of the victim.


I like cosmetic drawbacks, like magic items that are pink and girly looking (just to mess with those hotheaded testosterone-fueled Barbarian types), or magic swords that constantly mutter in Infernal.

I once designed an intelligent suit of magical armor. When found by the PCs, it said in a deep masculine seductive voice, "Oh, yeah, put me on!"

The players were so creeped out that they decided to sell the armor.

That's the problem with 3.x: weird and interesting magic items like this tend to get sold so that the PCs can buy a similar item without any interesting features.

[Jay R]

:haley:: ... so the Boots of Speed were totally powerful, but they were, like, lime green. (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0003.html)

[Trask]

I had a big two handed sword, cut square at the top, single bladed heavy beast of a thing, more of a cleaver than a sword really. Anyone who was killed by the sword had their name erased from history, anywhere it was recorded in any way. Any writing, carving, symbol that represented them in this world was gone forever except by the power of a wish. But, if you ever died while holding the sword, the same would happen to you, except that your name would also be lost in the memories of those that knew you. It would truly be like you never existed.

[Telok]

The flaming sword of fiery flame fire! Great weapon, did like an extra 5d6 on hit that upped to d10s on crits before doubling. It never went out. Always did the fire damage to anything touching or in an inch or so of the blade. They eventually did something like a deal with some salamanders with a bunch of adamantine & asbestos to get a 20 pound "sheath" that was cool enough to handle with regular oven mitts.

Also, it talked. Wasn't really intelligent, more like a parrot, but it only knew a few phrases related to fire & burning stuff, and any time the player rolled 17 on/for anything it said one of them (d20 lands on 17, d20+5 rolls a 12, 3d6 totals 17, etc.). Was also cursed so that the owner/possessor couldn't refer to it except by name. Couldn't say "my sword" or "you know, that thing". Nope, had to be "THE FLAMING SWORD OF FIERY FLAME FIRE!" or nothing.

Loved that thing as a DM, the players were... tolerant.

[tomandtish]

Comedic option: activation phrase is used in everyday conversation. The trick is picking something that may come up every other session so the wielder has to think around it.
....

I've used this one before. Wand of Fireballs. The catch was that the activation word was the name of the character who was carrying it.....

"Hey Frank...". BOOM.

Owner could set the range if they were holding it. Otherwise it went off right there. Lots of fun watching everyone try and avoid using the character's name.

[Spore]

Maybe you already know this, but Full Metal Alchemist is an anime/manga based on the law of equivalent exchange. Magic (or alchemy) in the setting more or less works under the premise that you need a skilled alchemist that knows what they're doing to activate magical effects that usually take a toll.

Examples include:
- ressurection of a dead person requires a soul to sacrifice.
- creation of a sentient magical beast requires body and mind of both a sentient creature and an animal
- summoning of a weapon made of iron requires the user to touch earth
- thermal conservation is part of the magic and thus not affected. you can freeze or boil water at will, but you cannot summon it.
- many effects require you to be an alchemist (so in Vancian magic to have spell slots or a mana/spell pool for other systems)

As such I would generally say you can have two general schools of effects:

General modus operandi, stuff that is auxiliary, and just flavor for an item. An extremely sharp blade would literally be able to cut anything. Air itself (pushing the wind out of one's lungs), the literal concept of magic (don't attack the spellcaster, attack the spell).

Detrimental anti-synergy stuff: More powerful effects that are fully powered the first time you use them, but get gradually less powerful. This is to further creative usage. A phoenix's feather that deals damage as a fireball and then casts cure critical wounds at the same targets afterwards. If you kill the enemy with that, you have used a powerful spell for free. If you don't, the enemy might be at a higher life total than before.

[Jarawara]

I have an item to add to the list. Kinda simplistic, even childlike. And I don't mean "intentionally childlike", I mean, I used it 40 years ago, when I was a child. But I think the idea still has merit, if only to get you thinking of other similar concepts.

My players found a magic sword, and once identified, learned it was a "+1 to +5 sword". There were five runes on it. Learn the runes (a bit of searching on that, but not too hard), then speak the rune to power up the sword to the appropriate level.

When you set it to say... +3, the sword now has a +3 bonus to hit for however many rounds it takes to actually score the hit. Once you hit, you score the +3 damage, and then the sword is powered down until you speak the rune again. And yes, that means a well placed silence spell will leave you without a magic sword, but as it played out, that situation never befell the players.

So the party gets into a fight with a group of orcs (this back when orcs averaged 3 hp). Sword-wielder activates the +5 rune over and over again, scoring an easy minimum 6 pts damage on every target he hits (which occurs most every round). He thinks this is the greatest weapon ever, and probably also thinks I'm a chump for thinking that he'd ever choose anything less that max power all the time.

... Until, that is, the sword ran out of charges. Each +1 is a charge, don't ya know?

Wands have charges. Rods have charges. Staves have charges. Swords? Nah, those a constant power, aren't they? Hehehehe....

*~*~*

Think of how your players will react to your Flametongue Sword complete with FlameThrower capability, when after 20 or so area-affect flamethrows, it suddenly runs out of charges and needs you to find a skilled Wizard to re-enchant it.

[Milodiah]

When we're talking "magic loot of unknown provenance you just found in a cave", one thing I've enjoyed in the past is RoboCop weapons. By which, I mean, they have in essence a hidden RoboCop Law 4: cannot harm (x). Be it the order of paladins that commissioned the weapon, the king of kingdom X or anyone wearing his colors/heraldry, someone who's unarmed, etc. etc.

Not only do they lose their enchantment bonus and effects against said targets because the magic cuts out, it inverts its bonuses because the magic is actively working against you to try to prevent what you're doing. You can imagine the look on a player's face when they scoop up a fancy magic greatsword from a dead hellknight, go to turn it against its former owner's friends, and discover that instead of a plus four to attack and damage, there's a minus four as the sword literally pulls itself back from your swings and struggles against your strikes with all its might. Particularly nasty ones might even force a Will save or compel you to drop the weapon, redirect the attack, or even hurt yourself, but that's mind-affecting magic, and there's a ton of counters and caveats to that stuff in D&D. But the sword literally trying to bend your wrist and arm backwards as you go to swing? As the GM, I'm not letting you roll a save or something against that to make it go away. For every bit of effort you direct towards overpowering the weapon, you've distracted yourself from your target.


Another nice "nasty surprise" in the same vein is some sort of anti-theft system that's still active, but you don't know about unless you really study the item. It might be sending its location back to the rightful owner who very much wants it back in real-time, and when they come within a hundred meters of it the item starts flashing and ringing bells. Or, to return to the theme of original organization, a secret arcane mark only visible to members of said order, which basically screams "yeah I don't have permission to be using this item" when in the hands of an outsider.

[ShadowFighter15]

I feel like I'd be remiss not to point out the potential of something like The Bonesaw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epM1GJN4kog).

But for a more serious suggestion some sort of auditory effect when it activates could be interesting. Maybe you activate it and it makes a noise like someone is attacking from another direction, leaving some attackers distracted.

[Socksy]

Taste like Chicken: The weapon produces the odour of roast chicken and causes the wielder to sweat gravy. Count as one size category smaller for the purpose of Swallow Whole, and become the most likely target for bite attacks.

In fact, any KAMB! downside would be pretty good here. "Your party members start to dislike you for getting such a cool weapon with no downside whatsoever"...

[Stonehead]

Thought of another one: An item that binds to the user, and restricts what words they're allowed to say. The common examples I've seen other people use is a sword that makes you speak Elvish, or only allows you to talk in rhyming couplets. You could use pretty much any improv game though. A sword that only allows you to say one word at a time. A sword that makes everything you say a question. A sword that switches "yes" with "no", you get the idea.

[Lacco]

Dramatic Magic Items

A whole set of items that have a) positive effect and b) dramatic effect.

The Billowing Cloak of Protection vs. Elements
Works as normal protective cloak, but billows dramatically (even indoors, where there is no wind) at all times. Makes it easier to spot the character, but may be used to intimidate the enemy in correct environment.

The Ominous Ring of [Insert Effect]
Any time the character says something ominous or dramatic, a thunder is heard. Lightning is optional.

The Terrifying Mask of Phantom
Provides bonuses to climbing, performance (singing & playing on organ), hiding and sneak, and provides the user with the ability to cast Charm once per day.
However, requires a singing performance once per day.

Sword of Thousand Truths
An extremely sharp, powerful blade. Provides the bearer with random facts (not always truthful) and not always helpful commentary on current situation at random times (Think Intelligence Dampening Sphere).

Cloak of Many Bats
Whenever you open this cloak, a small swarm of bats appear inside and fly out.

Ring of Dramatic Entry
Provides a significant bonus to Charisma and has protective abilities. However, whenever you pass a portal of any kind (door, tent flap), it plays a swelling, dramatic music.

Duelling Blade
Provides a significant combat bonus, but requires that the wielder is well dressed and acts like a gentleperson (e.g. issuing a challenge to one's opponents, giving a salute, accepting surrender). If the wielder does not act in line with its requirements, becomes heavy and unwieldy (the bonus becomes a penalty).

Defiant Magic Items

Again, a whole set, powerful but actively trying to defy their bearer.

Swords that attempt to sneak away (levitate). Armor you have to wrestle to don it. Weapons that become extra heavy if you go against their will (e.g. the axe wants to fight the orcs, you decide to go for the wizard...).

Bracers of Pain and Gain
These provide a tangible, good benefit (the "gain" part can be replaced with almost anything) in exchange for one of the following:
- bonus for the enemy to hit the bearer
- decrease of character's HP
- additional damage if hit
So you could get Bracers of Pain and Regeneration - which give the enemy a bonus to hit, but also significant regeneration.

Random terrible ideas:
- whenever you use the item, all small animals within 100 feet start to hiccup
- smells sweet and attracts all the vermin
- works only when you are not observed
- makes you feel like you are drunk
- can not be detected when worn (by the wearer) and looks strange (e.g. Duck of Protection, that works as a +3 helmet when worn on head).
- provides a random prophecy, which is however not always relevant to current situation, location, persons... just a random prophecy in a booming voice

[elros]

What I did most often was having magic items appear distinctive, so people could look at them and identify them as coming from a particular region or organization. Having the item meant other people would react to it, and would make them favorable or unfavorable to the person. For example, a magic item associated with a neighboring wizard could result in that wizard sending people to recover his lost item. Not quite as strong as Gollum and the one Ring, but it added something to the game, especially for some of the social interactions.

I also made weapons that had an area of effect when a critical hit was rolled. Rolling a natural 20 on a sword meant nearby characters and enemies were impacted, either by taking damage, being knocked over, etc. Of course, players would not know about the effect until after they had a critical hit, and once they knew it could either help or hurt them depending on the circumstances. In general, I found that unknown effects were much better received than straight up unhelpful or harmful ones.

[Stonehead]

Thought of a few more:
A sword that demands its own lodging every night. In a tavern, the party needs to buy it its own room, in the wilderness, it needs it's own tent, and if the party is ambushed, the sword is going to be pretty far from its user.

Not sure how much of a drawback this one is, but a bow that teleports whoever is shot by it adjacent to the bow would be pretty cool. In combat, you bring the enemy into threatening range, so it's pretty bad, but it would have a lot of utility outside of combat... so long as your party is willing to eat arrow damage.

[Misereor]

Spiked Club of Ogre Might.
A large spiked club that is completely mundane until a command workd is spoken, which polymorphs the wielder into an Ogre for 3d6 combat rounds.
This effect can be used 1/day. For extra flavor, the GM may secretly roll for duration.

Ruby Ring of Fire Immunity
This ring absorbs all fire witin 1' of the wearer', effectively making the wearer completely immune to normal and magical fire, but also capable of annoying them under certain circumstances.
Regrettably the ring only works as long as it is powered by a ruby. The ruby will block 1 point of damage per 10 gp value before burning out and becoming worthless. The ring will adjust to accept a single ruby of any size. Similar rings exist for other energy types. They are much easier to craft than normal magical rings of similar power, but suffer from this rather significant financial drawback.

Potion of Fearlessness.
This potion makes the imbiber immune to fear. However, the inventor found that the easiest way to accomplish this was to block the imbiber's ability to harbor any feelings at all, which somewhat inadvertently included empathy, love, friendship, and even the desire for self preservation to the extent that it is driven by feelings rather than logic (varies from character to character; encourage roleplay). Repeated use may cause a variety of disassociative disorders.


Feel free to adjust for campaign balance.