Items found in an Archmage's bedroom

[Trafalgar]

What are some cool things to put in the bedroom of a powerful wizard for flavor purposes? I am talking about minor but novel magical items, weird pets, strange books, etc.

[KorvinStarmast]

A wand of wonder: for when the Archmage gets bored and wants a little fun.

[Trafalgar]

A wand of wonder: for when the Archmage gets bored and wants a little fun.

That's a little too powerful. I am looking for minor things that add flavor to a space. It might be useful in a very specific scenario but usually just a novelty. Like minor stuff in Harry Potter.

Here is an example I found online. "Book of Epic Boredom" If you read 2 pages or more, you need to make a saving throw or fall asleep. You can be woken up normally.

What would a powerful wizard have stuck in the back of a drawer and forgotten about? Or maybe the wizard was practicing certain techniques before attempting and major artifact and these failed attempts were discarded even though they still have strange magic effects on them.

[KorvinStarmast]

That's a little too powerful. I am looking for minor things that add flavor to a space. It might be useful in a very specific scenario but usually just a novelty. Like minor stuff in Harry Potter.

Here is an example I found online. "Book of Epic Boredom" If you read 2 pages or more, you need to make a saving throw or fall asleep. You can be woken up normally.

What would a powerful wizard have stuck in the back of a drawer and forgotten about? Or maybe the wizard was practicing certain techniques before attempting and major artifact and these failed attempts were discarded even though they still have strange magic effects on them. Glyph of warding that triggers a darkness spell, or a fog cloud.

[King of Nowhere]

Wand of transmute fats to vitamins. When the doctor told the wizard he had an unbalanced diet and was at risk of heart disease, the latter answered "reality bends to my will, not viceversa". He then proceeded to research this spell, and he kept eating all the junk food he liked.

Scroll of prevention of earth disease. Before transmuting fats to vitamins, the wizard tried this project. It failed. It would work wonderfully at preventing disease on earth elementals, if they had any

Gliph of minor gust of wind. Located in the toilet, triggers on bad smells.

Scroll of hello world. Projects the sentence "hello world" midair in colored letters. Kept as a memento, the first spell that the wizard completed succesfully.

[wilphe]

What would a powerful wizard have stuck in the back of a drawer and forgotten about?

Depending on how far you want to take this, and how badly you want to make them regret going through someone's personal things:

Wand of Vibration

Salve of slipperiness

Robe of Useful (but only in the Bedroom) Items

Highly specific Deck of Illusions

Potions of Endurance

Rope of Entanglement

Feather token (whip)

Elixirs of love

[Jay R]

Eternal wand of mage hand. How many times have you been sitting at your desk and wanted something that was across the room?
Eternal wand of prestidigitation. Just massively useful in everyday life.
Decorative (but otherwise useless) magic ring. Gold band, when you put it on, it has a silent image of a diamond.
Book of infinite jokes. Each time you open it, you read a different one.
Everfull mug
Everfull candy dish
Everfull potato chip bag

[KorvinStarmast]

Eternal wand of mage hand. How many times have you been sitting at your desk and wanted something that was across the room?
Eternal wand of prestidigitation. Just massively useful in everyday life.
Decorative (but otherwise useless) magic ring. Gold band, when you put it on, it has a silent image of a diamond.
Book of infinite jokes. Each time you open it, you read a different one.
Everfull mug
Everfull candy dish
Everfull potato chip bag
Since the first two are cantrips, not sure I see the need. Number 7 is why the Archmage died. :smallbiggrin:

[King of Nowhere]

Since the first two are cantrips, not sure I see the need. Number 7 is why the Archmage died. :smallbiggrin:

in 5e cantrips are unlimited, in 3.x they are - a paradox - your least abundant spell slots, because you don't get extra ones for your int modifier.

[gbaji]

Magic compact mirror that makes whomever looks at it more handsome/beautiful than they are (some kind of glamour thingie).

Magic comb/hairbrush that instantly detangles/cleans hair when used.

Magic wardrobe with some kind of preservation/cleaning/repair magic on it (repels moths as well). May also be bigger on the inside. But it's like really large and bulky to try to carry away.

Magic roomba (tiny flat round golem that activates 1/day and cleans the floor in a the room of debris and dust).

Magic mini-fridge. Maybe it duplicates food/drink items placed in it. Maybe it just keeps stuff cold.

Magic "do not disturb" door sign. When placed on a door, it makes the door impossible to percieve without truesight. Probably not on the door right now (unless the PCs have truesight, in which case it's a great reason to explain why said dead/gone archmage's room hasn't already been pilfered). Um... Note that this is a pretty dangerous/powerful thing to hand to the players. Could modify this to make it some kind of compulsion spell/effect that just makes people not open the door unless they make a save or something.

Magic slippers. Keeps your feet warm. Seriously. That's it. But will do so under any conditions, so might be useful for that artic adventure you've got planned.

Magic bedside lamp. Turns on or off by clapping once or twice.

Magic stylus. When activated and placed over any paper/parchment, will take hands free dictation for you (and will write in whatever language you speak). Can't be used to scribe magic stuff, but to just write down notes, memoirs, keep a grocery list, etc, it'll work great.

Magic peephole. When placed on a door, it will allow anyone looking in the peephole to see a fisheye view of whomever is on the other side of the door. Also something to be cautious about handing out to players though.

Magic clothes stand/rack. Any item of clothing (including headwear) tossed towards the stand will be telekinetically grabbed, straightened out, and hung properly.

Magic carpet. No. It doesn't fly. It does however, when unrolled, automatically unroll itself perfectly flat with no lumps or rolls, and will stay that way, and magically never gets caught on anything (feet, roomba, etc). So you wont trip on the darn thing. When picked up, it'll automatically roll itself back up.

[Calen]

Magic "do not disturb" door sign. When placed on a door, it makes the door impossible to percieve without truesight. Probably not on the door right now (unless the PCs have truesight, in which case it's a great reason to explain why said dead/gone archmage's room hasn't already been pilfered). Um... Note that this is a pretty dangerous/powerful thing to hand to the players. Could modify this to make it some kind of compulsion spell/effect that just makes people not open the door unless they make a save or something.

Magic peephole. When placed on a door, it will allow anyone looking in the peephole to see a fisheye view of whomever is on the other side of the door. Also something to be cautious about handing out to players though.


You could have those installed on the door and removal will disable them. Or let them be installed on a door after a large amount of time so that the players could use them in their on base.

[Maat Mons]

Dragon 341 has wax golems, which are lifelike and can be made to look like specific people, if desired. Every powerful Wizard has a special closet full of them in their bedroom. The door to this closet is generally well concealed.

[Jay R]

An animated broom with arms and hands, using two buckets to keep filling the well with water.

[Witty Username]

Collar of sustenance.

[Kardwill]

- Silent animated image of the Wizard's family (Bonus point if their father can now look at them with an air of silent disappointment for all eternity)

- A magical locket, containing the last thoughts of a loved one

- Their first enchantment project (an old wand that never really worked as intended, but important as a memento)

- Summoner weekly magazine. More precisely, the infamous July 89 "Succubus Summer Special" issue, long forgotten at the bottom of a drawer

- Magical trash bin, that burns down safely any small object left inside for more than a few minutes. Useful for old notes, trash, and the occasional incriminating evidence. Actually quite dangerous to familiars, had to be locked away after the catnip accident.

- Oskar's Olfactory Obliterating Outhouse, familiar litterbox model.

- An animated, semi-sentient writing quill with a bad, sarcastic attitude



You could have those installed on the door and removal will disable them. Or let them be installed on a door after a large amount of time so that the players could use them in their on base.

Or change the doorframe from their base, just to install their new, shiny door, which is totally something my players would do ^^

[Leon]

Orb of white noise

[gbaji]

You could have those installed on the door and removal will disable them. Or let them be installed on a door after a large amount of time so that the players could use them in their on base.

Right. What makes them dangerous is how PCs would use them. Need to rest inside a dungeon? Hang the "do not disturb" sign on the outside of the room you are holed up in. Take it with you, and attach to any door you don't want wandering monster to... well... wander into. Also useful for hiding from town guards, bad guys searching buildings, and angry/suspicious spouses.

The peephole would be incredibly useful for any dungeon delver. To be able to look inside any room behind a door without having to open it?

My assumption for both of these items is that they are removable and magically "attach" to any door they are placed against. So yeah, being able to be removed and placed on any door you want makes them incredibly useful for adventurers, despite being seemingly minor items by themselves. The peephole, at least, you could argue should require some additional work/ritual/whatever to attach to a door, but the "do not disturb" sign would presuambly be designed to be put on a door casually and then removed when you actually want people to enter (just like the ones in hotels).

[Gnoman]

When I was designing objects for the quarters of a Dwarven noble for my game, one of them was a magic bathtub. Specifically, it was a very large (for a dwarf, long enough to fit a human comfortably enough) stone tub perpetually full of water that could not leave the basin. The water would always match temperature to the bather's exact desire, would generate perfumed soap to taste, and anything besides water or a living bather would dissolve into raw mana (helping to fuel the spell) after six hours. That sounds appropriate for an archmage, depending on your definition of "bedroom".

[Lvl 2 Expert]

A bookshelf. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?483064-What-s-on-the-Shelf-1001-Essays-Treatises-and-Books-on-Magic)

[Anonymouswizard]

Magic resistant/nullifying handcuffs.

A Robe of Chill Resistance.

A summoning circle located under the bed.

[Trafalgar]

Lets say there is a birdcage in the Archmage's bedroom. What would be inside the cage?

[Potato_Priest]

Lets say there is a birdcage in the Archmage's bedroom. What would be inside the cage?

The feathers of an albino hummingbird would satisfy every spell component requiring feathers (in 5e) except for Identify. The feathers of an albino owl would satisfy every spell component requiring feathers except for Foresight.*

So I'd say it would be one of the two, depending on whether this wizard casts more Foresight or more Identify. Perhaps a magically created albino hummingbird-owl hybrid.

*I am presuming that albino birds are exotic enough to count for Wind Wall's "feather of exotic origin" and since they are white they suffice for Fear.

[Leon]

Lets say there is a birdcage in the Archmage's bedroom. What would be inside the cage?

a Tiny Roc

[Anymage]

Depending on how far you want to take this, and how badly you want to make them regret going through someone's personal things:

Wand of Vibration

Salve of slipperiness

Robe of Useful (but only in the Bedroom) Items

Highly specific Deck of Illusions

Potions of Endurance

Rope of Entanglement

Feather token (whip)

Elixirs of love

If we're going this route, a portable hole. That looks like a discreet wand of Light.


Lets say there is a birdcage in the Archmage's bedroom. What would be inside the cage?

"Does magic" is so broad as to make single answers hard. A homunculus? A small extraplanar creature? (I'm thinking demon, but that assumes settings other than D&D where demons are composed of tangible Chaos and Evil.) An entirely invented form of life? (Possibly an owl with some bearlike features.) An enemy polymorphed into the form of some lesser creature, to have its indignity perpetuated? A reanimated bird of prey? A clockwork contraption? I'm inclined to go "homunculus" or "minor extraplanar creature", just because anything living will have troubles staying alive if the archmage responsible for their care and feeding is no longer doing so on account of being dead.

[Anonymouswizard]

Lets say there is a birdcage in the Archmage's bedroom. What would be inside the cage?

A bird skeleton and a slightly smaller birdcage, inside that is a bird skeleton and a slightly smaller birdcage...

[Maat Mons]

I'd go with some sort of shapeshifting creature, currently taking the form of a bird.

[Kardwill]

I'd go with some sort of shapeshifting creature, currently taking the form of a bird.

Yes, something you really don't want getting out of that enchanted cage and morphing back to its true form.

[Jay R]

There is nothing in the birdcage. -- and bits of the Archmage all over the bedroom.

[Sapphire Guard]

A patch of magical darkness with glowing red eyes in it that asks to be let out. If let out, it laughs and vanishes.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A small mechanical orrery of an unknown solar system. Bonus points if it's a binary or trinary star system.

A towel that casts Prestidigitation (cleaning mode only) on itself when activated.

An ancient, ruined, partially disassembled device similar to the Antikythera mechanism.

A book titled, Flumph Mating Rituals. It's fully illustrated in painstaking detail.

A tiled area of the floor containing a permanent teleportation circle. Several of the tiles have been removed, breaking the circle, but they can be replaced to make it active again.

A mirror that says uplifting things about the person whose reflection it shows.


5e - There are plenty of cosmetic/fun common magic items - Cloak of Billowing, Dread Helm, Hat of Vermin, etc.

3.5e - An Everburning Torch created by a Heightened (9th level) Continual Flame, and an onyx pendant with a permanent Heightened (9th level) Deeper Darkness effect. The two are in close proximity and are currently cancelling each other out. Either of those will completely overcome and negate any 8th level or lower darkness or light effect respectively.

[Anonymouswizard]

A strange thin metallic book. When you open it there are no pages, just a multitude of buttons and a blank area.

This could be anything from a laptop computer to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as needed. If players try to abuse the latter make sure they land on planets who's entries are either uselessly short or so popular they never get updated.

[King of Nowhere]

A strange thin metallic book. When you open it there are no pages, just a multitude of buttons and a blank area.

This could be anything from a laptop computer to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as needed. If players try to abuse the latter make sure they land on planets who's entries are either uselessly short or so popular they never get updated.

Tarrasque: mostly harmless. Written by a bunch of epic levels

[Anonymouswizard]

Tarrasque: mostly harmless. Written by a bunch of epic levels

Nah, it's a subheading under that one planet from Spelljammer.

[Metastachydium]

Lets say there is a birdcage in the Archmage's bedroom. What would be inside the cage?

1. A Cockatrice, its petrifying gaze seemingly inactive. Seemingly being the operative word. Don't open the cage!


OR

2. A Corollax3.x!MM2. Trained to be capable of opening or closing the door to the cage from the inside. Overall quite friendly, but will vomit a rainbow use Colour Spray on people that act threatening (or if it feels like a funny thing to do).


OR

3. A jar of marmalade.


OR

4. If the cage is large enough, Little Roc from Sanguine Avenue (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0755.html). (Look out, he has a pen knife!)


OR

5. A miniature Terror Bird tirelessly running in a hamster wheel to power a strange contraption outside the cage.

[gbaji]

Lets say there is a birdcage in the Archmage's bedroom. What would be inside the cage?

Um... A bird? Otherwise, it would be a <something else>cage. Duh!

[KorvinStarmast]

There is nothing in the birdcage. -- and bits of the Archmage all over the bedroom. Great answer.
Also, in the corner behind the bed, a dried out (perhaps filled?) used condom with a few layers of dust on it.

[Herbert_W]

A pair of bunny slippers made from taxidermied bunnies. Each is warm and cozy to the touch, and the ears occasionally twitch.

A Magic Mouth alarm clock.

A heavy iron birdcage in the fireplace, with a small phoenix trapped inside.

A shelf full of completely empty books. Every page is blank.

A chest of drawers where each of the drawers have about twice as much space inside them as a drawer of their size should.

A small pile of identical skulls - they even have the same pattern of cracks.

A set of everburning torches in a box on the ceiling, with flaps that open and close with the pull of a string.

An apothecary’s chest where each drawer is full of a different type of small bone: mouse skulls, human finger bones, cats tails, etc.

A large piece of parchment with arcane symbols drawn on it in roughly the shape of a summoning circle. Anyone who examines it feels a sense that it is incomplete and a strong urge to complete it, while having no idea of how to do so. (It’s not actually any part of a functional summoning circle. It cannot be completed.)

A small humanoid figure made out of sticks which cleans the floor over and over. It avoids getting underfoot but otherwise ignores the PCs.

A row of empty potion bottles at the back of a desk.

A half-empty potion bottle. The contents are an opaque pale blue, smell faintly of vanilla, taste like slightly off milk, and cause anyone who drinks it to feel vaguely queasy for several hours.

Coathooks consisting of skeletal hands, which grab any coat placed in them and release the coat when it is pulled.

A half-eaten plate of food. Everything on the plate remains fresh. Any vermin in the room avoid it.

A window, on an internal wall of the building. It opens into a pocket dimension which looks like a forest at night regardless of the time of day. The air from the window is fresh and smells faintly of pine trees and rotten leaves. On closer inspection, the forest has no sky: the trees extend from the ground beneath straight up into another plane of ground overhead and have a set of roots at either end.

An inkwell full of coagulated blood.

A quill which enables anyone using it to perfectly forge their own father’s signature.

A latrine which uses a linked portal. The other end of the portal is high in the sky above a ruined city.

A collection of daggers with fanciful designs - wavy blades, dual blades, spiraled spikes with a triangular cross-section, etc. - but with no magical properties.

Multiple "secret" compartments (which aren't all that hard to find) with what appear to be spellbooks, but each page is covered in Exploding Runes.

A nonfunctional replica of a Staff of Power.

[Leon]

A bird skeleton and a slightly smaller birdcage, inside that is a bird skeleton and a slightly smaller birdcage...

Birdcages all the way down

[Trafalgar]

Um... A bird? Otherwise, it would be a <something else>cage. Duh!

I am in awe of your boundless creativity. Your vibrant imagination obviously operates at a higher level than us mediocre laypeople.

[Anonymouswizard]

Um... A bird? Otherwise, it would be a <something else>cage. Duh!

Wait, birds are dinosaurs, does that mean dinosaurs are birds?...

[Metastachydium]

Wait, birds are dinosaurs, does that mean dinosaurs are birds?...

All BIRDIES are DINOSAURS! Not all dinosaurs are birdies.

[Lord Torath]

All BIRDIES are DINOSAURS! Not all dinosaurs are birdies.Specifically, the bird-hipped dinosaurs did not become birdies.

[Killerkat]

Mirrored Orb of Refracting Colors. Enchanted by a Light spell and Silent Image. For when you really want to throw that dance party.

[Metastachydium]

Specifically, the bird-hipped dinosaurs did not become birdies.

…which is something that will never be not funny, yes!

[KorvinStarmast]

Mirrored Orb of Refracting Colors. Enchanted by a Light spell and Silent Image. For when you really want to throw that dance party./wins thread. :smallcool:

[Ignimortis]

A box that is seemingly enchanted to replicate Create Food and Water several times per day, but produces decent pizza and cold beverages instead.

[Metastachydium]

A box that is seemingly enchanted to replicate Create Food and Water several times per day, but produces decent pizza and cold beverages instead.

An identical-looking box that, nevertheless, produces cold pizza and decent beverages instead.

[Magimasterkarp]

- A mirror above the bed, enchanted to allow you to look through objects, carefully calibrated to allow the wizard to check for monsters below their bed. Unfortunately it got cracked, so now every day when the PCs use the shards, they have to roll a dice to see if they can look through the next wall, or through the entire dungeon, with everything in a 2 kilometer radius being invisible in the reflection.

- A Potion labeled: "Potion of Turn into Potion Bottle", with an empty Potion Bottle next to it.

- An empty box on the dresser labeled: "Wizards Friend Replacement Eyebrows - Fireball-proof! Extra Authoritative Raise! Also available in Dragontamer Bushy!"
Later the PCs can find a charred skeleton with an intact pair of fake eyebrows. Equiping them will give you a +1 to Charisma (or whatever, i don´t play DnD) when you raise them. (Look at the trope "Fascinating Eyebrow" on tv tropes for reference.)
If the wizard's death is already planned some other way, the players can just find a spare pair on the dresser. Also magical goattee/beard care oil.

- A band poster for some band that is a pun on a real band and a fantasy trope. "Leopard that failed his listen check"

- A magical gem containing the restless souls of hundreds of evil monsters, their unnatural existence torturing reality into a new shape to subvert the laws of nature against the better judgement of normal men, all to make a cute paperweight slightly heavier because the wizard didn't want to buy a new one ("I swear gifts shops rip you off!")

[KorvinStarmast]

- A band poster for some band that is a pun on a real band and a fantasy trope. "Leopard that failed his listen check" Airship that can't get off the ground in Eberron. (Led Zeppelin...)

An umber hulk whose friends call him Manny, but who is known formally as The Monster, Manuel. His favorite song is Dazed and Confused (as done by Led Zeppelin).