Favorite Homebrew Items

[gr8artist]

Anything from 3.5 or Pathfinder, or any other game system, is welcome here. I'm not looking for metagame/overpowered/campaign-ending items (looking at you, Wizard optimizers) but rather for items that were interesting, fun, or had a cool or unique set of powers. Bonus points if you have a reasonable idea of the in-game cost (such as GP or crafting time)

Personally one of the best items I ever made for a character was the Utility Wand for my fiance's ratfolk spellcaster. She made a point to collect wands, really for no reason at all, so I periodically threw new and interesting ones her way.
The wand was actually a staff, but sized for a creature so small that it was the same size as a wand.

Utility Wand
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 8th
Slot none; Price unknown, probably around 13 or 14,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
This tiny staff is made of shiny metal, and capped with a glowing gem. When in use, the staff emits a high-pitched buzzing or humming sound. The staff allows use of the following spells:
Arcane mark (1 charge)
Detect magic (1 charge)
Detect secret doors (2 charges)
Jolt (2 charges)
Mending (1 charge)
Open/close (1 charge)
Spark (1 charge)
Construction Requirements
Craft Staff, arcane mark, detect magic, detect secret doors, jolt, mending, open/close, spark; Cost unknown, roughly 6600 gp.

Spoiler: cost/math guesstimations

Show

Spell levels are 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, and 0. Caster level is 8.
Spell trigger item with 50 charges = SL x CL x 750, an item with 50 charges is half the unlimited use base price.
Use a SL of 0.5 for cantrips. Per the multiple different abilities rule, the most expensive ability is at 100% cost, all additional abilities are at 150% cost.
So for our 1st level spell (Detect Secret Doors) the base cost for unlimited use is SL (1) x CL (8) x 1500, or 12000 gp
All the 0 level spells will have a base cost for unlimited use of SL (.5) x CL (8) x 1500 x 1.5, or 9000 gp
With 6 of the 0 level spells and 1 first level spell, the total cost for unlimited casting is probably about 66000 gp.
1 charge per day (though it can store up to 10 charges) means we divide the total by (5 divided by 1) or essentially divide by 5.
1/5 of 66,000 gp is 13,200 gp

[Incorrect]

I have a small list from my campaign. Some of them may be inspired by ToB.


Master's Hammer
When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

This +1 Light Hammer looks like a beautiful, dwarven made, smith's hammer.
The Master's Hammer counts as a Masterwork tool for all metalworking. When used as a weapon it deals damage as one size category larger (1d6 for medium creatures). The Master's Hammer heats up each round it is used, and deals fire damage accordingly. The hammer may be "preheated" by striking an anvil, shield, ally or similar.

Price: 5500 gp.

Round Fire damage
1 1
2 1d2
3 1d4
4+ 1d6


The Thorned Glaive
This +1 Glaive feels slightly alive and subtly writhing to the touch.

When gripped, thorns suddenly protrude from the wielders hands. These thorns can be used to attack adjacent creatures, functioning as +1 spiked gauntlets of the wielders size.
By taking 1 Wisdom damage the glaive deals 1d6 extra damage for two rounds.
Druids are always considered to be proficient with this weapon.

The glaive is fitted with a wand chamber containing:______________________.

Price: 6000


Belt of punishing
This broad metal belt boosts your courage and power, allowing you to chop enemies down without fear of their counterattacks.
Wearing this belt subtracts 4 from your Armor Bonus, to a minimum of 0. Additionally you deal an extra 1d6 points of damage with all melee attacks.

Price: ?? (unique reward)


Bodyguards shield
This +1 heavy steel shield is battered and burned.
Once per encounter, as an immediate action, you can make yourself the target of any attack originally directed against a creature within 10 ft. As part of this action you move adjacent to the original target. You must declare this action before the attack is resolved.
Price 4,000 gp.

[stack]

Partial to the jars of endless jam (collect all the flavors, beware of cursed marmalade) and the knife of buttering.

[Draco_Lord]

I am always a fan of giving out useless items to my players. And then seeing what they can do with them.

Like a Hair Band of Glorious Hair. Your hair looks fantastic, and blows in an invisible wind. Bonuses only to hair based situations.

A ring of land walking. Lets you walk on land at your current land speed.

A staff that once a command word is spoken stands perfectly upright and still for an hour.
A little disappointed with myself for not seeing that being used as a stripper pole right away.

And a ring of lava breathing. Lets you breath lava, but doesn't protect you from the fire damage.

[Malimar]

I had one party that very loved their Bag of Infinite Muffins, which is exactly what it says on the tin. It always contains exactly one fresh muffin, no matter how many muffins you pull out. The muffins come in every normal flavor, but have a bias towards banana nut.

Other fun items, pulled at semi-random from my Big List:

• splendiferous garments of many-colored silk, visible only to people with sufficiently high INT or WIS scores.
• wand of identify, cursed to turn any item it's used on permanently hot pink
• garments that always fit, no matter who wears them, but which have no other magical properties
• Decanter of Endless Slaughter -- as Decanter of Endless Water, but blood instead of water
• garments that automatically mend themselves but have no other magical properties
• magical weapons or armor with extra augment crystal slots beyond the usual "one augment crystal per item" limit
• wonderfully attractive many-colored garments that turn invisible out of shame if worn by anyone with insufficient CHA score
• Horn of Chickens -- a large spiral goat's horn: if you blow into the horn (as a standard action) a chicken appears
• scroll of Planar Ally, keyed to a specific deity -- user must UMD it to cast it to a different deity
• Amulet of Anti-Gravity -- As soon as you put it on it (and only it) immediately falls upward off your neck
• Pimp Hat of Disguise -- ostentatiously floppy purple hat which acts as a Hat of Disguise except it doesn't affect itself
• Approximately bed-sized altar to the goddess of fertility and celebration. If carnal acts are willingly performed on the altar, everyone involved gains a permanent +1 morale bonus to all charisma-based checks. If at least 10gp worth of fine alcoholic beverages are poured on the altar, it immediately sprouts a heroes' feast.
• A loose stone (search DC23), when pushed, reveals a small obsidian altar to the god of secrets. Sealed to the altar is a book of thousands of secrets, most of which are useless to the reader. However, at the end of the secrets are blank lines. If a characer writes a secret (known only to them and up to 100 other people) into the book, the secret is permanently removed from their mind and replaced with a useful secret (treat as a Commune spell). A character can use the book as many times as they wish, losing a secret and gaining a new one each time.
• Circle on a pedestal -- Putting any object on the pedestal renders an individual permanently unable to eat food but able to eat objects of that kind as if it were food. If there is already food on the pedestal, taking it makes an individual permanently not require food or drink. Works once per person.

[Karl Aegis]

I like using an item that combines Ghost Sound and Flare to make what is essentially a signal flare or a firework. It really helps when communicating ideas to others with the same background, like guards or military officers.

[gr8artist]

We currently have a player who possesses a "bag of apples," but rather than containing an endless supply of apples it instead converts/disguises any roughly apple-shaped/sized object into an apple. She can pull out specific apples, without mixing them up, as though it were a handy haversack. The apples retain their chemical and magical properties.

Bracers that look like animal heads, that enlarge and engulf the wearer's fists when activated, giving them a bite attack at the end of each arm. The bracers came in a wide variety of types/species, with slight variations on the bite damage and effects. The bite attacks were considered natural weapons.
Wolf: 1d6 bite + trip
Snake: 1d4 bite + poison
Dragon: 1d6 bite, can cast burning hands 1/day at CL 5th.
Rat: 1d4 bite + 1d6 sneak attack (if applicable)
There was even a two-handed dragon variant, where one hand would be made into the lower jaw, and the other into the upper jaw. It only worked when used in unison, but dealt 2d6 damage + 2x Strength

One of my players was granted a wish, and asked for his adamantine greatsword to become "the most feared weapon in history". I gave it a bonus to Intimidate checks, and 3 charges of disintegrate. He could cast a charge as a swift action after hitting with the sword, and the caster level was equal to his base attack bonus.
He, of course, hoarded the charges and never used them, but what he didn't know was that there was a 33% chance that any charge he tried to use would affect him, instead of the subject of his attack. The idea being that the sword, after striking down its wielder in such a fashion, would become the most feared item in the world, so much so that no hero would dare to use it, for fear of their own life.

Gave a character a dagger that started off really weak, but dealt increasing damage with each worthy adversary that was killed with it. The campaign ended not too long after he figured out what the power was, so he never got it unreasonably farmed, but for a while he was really stab-happy.

Gave a character a bag which contained roughly 50 items, though he was allowed to draw out only 1 item at a time and he had to wait 1 minute between draws. He also could not keep an item out of the bag for more than 1 minute. His draws were, of course, random. It ended up being a terrible idea, though we had a lot of fun with it.
The bag included, among other things:
A portable hole/pocket dimension in a top-hat, into which he could throw enemies to remove them from a fight for 1 minute.
A piece of the grim reaper's scythe, able to kill any creature with a successful attack.
A pair of strap-on wings that allowed him to fly very quickly.
A poke-ball (it was a strange campaign, set in modern times, and they encountered a genie who could make one imaginary item become real)
Batman's utility belt (see above)
and a bunch of other, mostly useless items.

[Crake]

I homebrewed an item for one of my players called Phillip's Practical Outfit. I priced it on 5750 (can't exactly remember the cost caluclations I used to arrive at that number). But the outfit could, as a standard action, be changed into any other outfit at will. It also constantly cleaned and mended itself via prestidigitation and mending, so no matter what, you were always looking fabulous. The player in question frequently fought monsters in a tux thanks to that item.

[Denver]

Goat Eggs.

It was a slip-of-the-tongue, but the DM rolled with it, and now it appears in multiple settings by him. Cheap price, has a fantastic shelf life, is filling enough to last most characters a day. Plus, the flavor of it (hehe) is often times chuckle worthy. "As you bite into the large, hard-boiled egg, you find a delicious and meaty crunch at the center. The crunch is not unlike the crunch of uncooked pasta."

Plus, a hatching goat egg could make a great distraction in the common room of an inn, or distract a posted guard for a moment or two.

[Threadnaught]

The Locate City Bomb.

Speak aloud the pass code, either in or out of character while in possession of the item and it activates, code is same for all games, so metagaming the code is possible and not at all discouraged. Once activated the Locate City Spell is cast as per the original interpretation.
The die rolled is specially bought for the purpose of rolling the Reflex save for every single creature within the radius of the Spell, including PCs. Only the user of the LCB is exempt from the effects.