Sovereign Glue

[J-H]

Why is this a Legendary item? It's magic superglue. It takes a minute to set, so you can't even use it in combat.

Has anyone ever used this, or had your players use it?

[Anymage]

I'm guessing that's less based on cost as a measure of power or ability to interact with the world, and more about how it's supposed to be rare and noteworthy to people living in the world. Rarities have occasionally been loose like that.

[JackPhoenix]

Not sure why... I suppose it was based on even older edition... but while it wasn't very expensive, it required CL 20 to craft back in 3.5, way more than most other magic items. Same with Universal Solvent.

[Mastikator]

I rolled on a random magic item table. The table that could've given me a 9th level spell scroll. Instead I got sovereign glue. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Why is this a Legendary item? It's magic superglue. It takes a minute to set, so you can't even use it in combat.

Has anyone ever used this, or had your players use it?

I like to imagine someone in the design process had players do some crazy *&(*$*)$ with sovereign glue back in 2nd edition so it was intentionally made rare in 3rd edition and the tradition continued from there.

[Trask]

To be fair, the potential applications of Sovereign Glue are nearly endless and potent in the hands of a creative player. I do think Legendary is a bit much though.

[Unoriginal]

Why is this a Legendary item? It's magic superglue. It takes a minute to set, so you can't even use it in combat.

Has anyone ever used this, or had your players use it?

It's legendary because there is only three things in the whole of D&D reality that can separate what is stuck together with Sovereign Glue. And one of those things in the Wish spell, meaning a mortal has 33% chances of losing the capacity to use Wish if they wish for that.

Granted it's vulnerable to Oil of Etherealness too, but it's still something that requires quite a bit of efforts to find or make.

[Chronos]

It's legendary because there is only three things in the whole of D&D reality that can separate what is stuck together with Sovereign Glue. And one of those things in the Wish spell, meaning a mortal has 33% chances of losing the capacity to use Wish if they wish for that.
Does that count "break one of the stuck things a tenth of a millimeter away from the sovereign-glue seam"? Because that one's usually pretty easy.

[KorvinStarmast]

Why is this a Legendary item? It's magic superglue. It takes a minute to set, so you can't even use it in combat.

Has anyone ever used this, or had your players use it? If it was removed from the game it would harm nothing.

[SociopathFriend]

Why is this a Legendary item? It's magic superglue. It takes a minute to set, so you can't even use it in combat.

Has anyone ever used this, or had your players use it?

I got my DM to agree to let me glue a Chevalier Saddle to a Broom of Flying- with the interaction such a thing implies.

I also had an idea once to stealthily board a sailing ship and glue its rudder- though the plan was aborted.



It's a very contextual item. There's a lot of scenarios where you don't want it but in the scenarios where you do- there's nothing in the game that'll do the job better.

[Necrosnoop110]

And one of those things in the Wish spell, meaning a mortal has 33% chances of losing the capacity to use Wish if they wish for that.
Sorry dummy here not following the "33% chances of losing the capacity"?

[JackPhoenix]

Sorry dummy here not following the "33% chances of losing the capacity"?

If you use Wish for anything that isn't replicating a spell of 8th level or lower, you have 33% chance to never be able to cast Wish again.

[Unoriginal]

Does that count "break one of the stuck things a tenth of a millimeter away from the sovereign-glue seam"? Because that one's usually pretty easy.

It can work, but sometime it can't.

You could use Sovereign Glue to glue the Book of Vile Darkness and the Book of Exalted Deeds together.

[kazaryu]

Why is this a Legendary item? It's magic superglue. It takes a minute to set, so you can't even use it in combat.

Has anyone ever used this, or had your players use it?

why is it legendary? because its virtually unbreakable...do you know how many end game baddies could be absolutely ruined by the correct application of this stuff? rarity doesn't always = power, but in this case it absolutely fits.


If it was removed from the game it would harm nothing.

if any magic item was removed from the game nothing would be harmed.

[Hairfish]

if any magic item was removed from the game nothing would be harmed.

I'd quite like to keep my artificer's ability to shunt a whole pack of enemies into the astral plane, thank you very much

[Necrosnoop110]

If you use Wish for anything that isn't replicating a spell of 8th level or lower, you have 33% chance to never be able to cast Wish again.

Thanks! Totally missed that line. In my defense I've never played 5E at that level yet.


Finally, there is a 33 percent chance that you are unable to cast wish ever again if you suffer this stress.

[Brookshw]

If it was removed from the game it would harm nothing.

Bite your tongue, SG can have some of the most fun and creative opportunities for use of magic items, right up there with immovable rods and some of the robe of useful items patches :smallbiggrin:

[Lord Vukodlak]

why is it legendary? because its virtually unbreakable...do you know how many end game baddies could be absolutely ruined by the correct application of this stuff? rarity doesn't always = power, but in this case it absolutely fits.

The glue takes a minute to set so.... how?

[Unoriginal]

The glue takes a minute to set so.... how?

Well for one example: BBEG has a vault to hold something they value when they're not using it, and they think there is no chance the PCs can open it.

The PCs know they can't open it, but with Sovereign Glue they can significantly delay the BBEG accessing the content.

[J-H]

I Sovereign Glue Excalibur to the stone.

Now the Sovereign Glue means there is no Sovereign.

[kazaryu]

The glue takes a minute to set so.... how?

without getting to terribly creative: sneak up on the baddie while they sleep and glue body parts together, glue the mcguffin they're after to something that they can't easily move, glue the mcguffin they need to yourself, so they can't just steal it. if they're a caster, glue they're preferred casting implement down,


not everything needs to be done in combat...but lets talk about combat: apply glue to their weapon...now they either needs to drop their weapon...or have it permanently attached to their arm...lots of things its hard to do without hands, apply glue to their face-forces them to waste turns cleaning it off or they could find themselves unable to breathe...even 1 full turn of inactivity by the big bad is huge,

those are just a couple ideas. obviously the precise things you can do with it depend on the big bad, your own characters, and the relationship between the PC's and the big bad.

[JackPhoenix]

without getting to terribly creative: sneak up on the baddie while they sleep and glue body parts together, glue the mcguffin they're after to something that they can't easily move, glue the mcguffin they need to yourself, so they can't just steal it. if they're a caster, glue they're preferred casting implement down,


not everything needs to be done in combat...but lets talk about combat: apply glue to their weapon...now they either needs to drop their weapon...or have it permanently attached to their arm...lots of things its hard to do without hands, apply glue to their face-forces them to waste turns cleaning it off or they could find themselves unable to breathe...even 1 full turn of inactivity by the big bad is huge,

those are just a couple ideas. obviously the precise things you can do with it depend on the big bad, your own characters, and the relationship between the PC's and the big bad.

Even if the BBEG was so nice to let you put the glue on his personal equipment and himself in the middle of combat, the glue works on objects, not creatures, so only one, maybe two of those suggestion work. And if you have unrestrained access to the BBEG's casting implement or whatever they are looking for for a whole minute, you don't have to bother with the glue, you already have many, many other options.

[kazaryu]

Even if the BBEG was so nice to let you put the glue on his personal equipment and himself in the middle of combat your follow up is corect, and not something i'd properly, but the implication you're making here is...idk, it feels asinine. obvously the point would be to apply without your opponents permission. ability checks tend to be easier to pass than things like saving throws (the other way to do something similar),
the glue works on objects, not creatures, so only one, maybe two of those suggestion work. this is a great point, about the RaW. i will point out that many DM's would let you get away with gluing to creatures, but that's obviously houseruling.


And if you have unrestrained access to the BBEG's casting implement or whatever they are looking for for a whole minute, you don't have to bother with the glue, you already have many, many other options. for example? and just because you have other options, doesn't mean the sovereign glue isn't an effective one. the problem when discussing how powerful things like sovereign glue, or the marvelous pigments (which should also probably be legendary) is that so much of what you can do relys on specific scenarios and big bads. they're the types of items that you think are kinda meh...until your players are like 'yo what if i did X'.

so i gave some general examples, any of which could be incredibly potent, depending on your big bad's plans. The point being that basically any item that comes with an absolute caveat (i.e. 'only X can interact with this') has the potential to be incredibly broken

[Unoriginal]

You could put Sovereign Glue on one of the gears of the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanius, then watch the spectacle as it turns and presses itself against another gear.

[Mastikator]

You could put Sovereign Glue on one of the gears of the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanius, then watch the spectacle as it turns and presses itself against another gear.

It takes a minute to set, how are you stopping the gears for a minute?

[Unoriginal]

It takes a minute to set, how are you stopping the gears for a minute?

Plenty of the gears are enormous enough and slow enough it takes more than a minute for them to turn.

[Chronos]

Gumming up a lock can be done with plain ordinary nonmagical tar. And if you can get ahold of the BBEG's MacGuffin for long enough to glue it to something, you can just steal it.

[Damon_Tor]

It's a rare example of a bond that has no DC to break it, and no weight limits, just three ways to break it. Period.

One thing that may be relevant here is that sovereign glue does not have an exception for teleportation abilities, or even planar travel, so by gluing one object to another you can prevent certain spells and abilities from functioning properly. Let's say there's an eldritch knight with a bonded weapon and you'd prefer he remain unarmed: sovereign glue his weapon to something. Either the weapon bond recall will fail, or the object its glued to will be teleported along with it (and depending on what the other object is, may render the weapon unusable anyway).

In general it's a great way to render an object totally unusable. Imagine if the evil king Bebegrex has to don the Crown of Magoffonor at the moment of planetary alignment. He defeats the PCs and prepares to put the crown on his head only to discover that there's an Unbreakable Arrow affixed across the diameter of the crown with sovereign glue.