Caspenar's exotic components. (Baldur's Gate campaign)

[Braininthejar2]

Looking for advice for Caspenar the imp.

He is an NPC in the Baldur's Gate campaign - an imp that got custom-modified by a god to serve as his personal smith for all the item creation he couldn't be bothered with.

His abilities allow him to get the work done in a fraction of the time, upgrading the party's equipment to match their needs as they enter epic levels.

The thing is, rather than requiring payment as component costs, he requires actual components - exotic materials and reagents he could incorporate in his creations.

Of course in the computer version, the components are hidden through the game for the party to find - but in a pen and paper game, this would disrupt the "open" feel of the game.

So what I'm looking for is unusual components that an early epic party could side-quest for as they handle the main plot. Do you have any ideas you could bounce off me?

[BarbieTheRPG]

What if the "side components" required flew in the face of the characters' morality? Skin of a newborn baby? 1,000 gold pieces drenched in the blood of an NPC the heroes trust? The gems from the crown of a king/queen the party honors?

Make the required elements hurt.

[icefractal]

If you're looking for things that are a bit trickier to collect/transport than the usual, some possibilities:
* Living components, like a flower from Arborea, that need to be kept growing until used.
* Living components with unusual conditions, like a deep-sea fish that would explode under normal atmospheric pressure. Or a magma salamander that would freeze if the temperature goes below iron-melting levels.
* Unreified matter - If you think of anything while near it, it will turn into that thing. To collect it in the pure form, it has to be done by a mindless construct or someone with incredible control of their own thoughts. Probably found in Limbo.
* A sphere of annihilation. This would have to be one hell of an item to be worth having an artifact as a component, but the SoA is pretty interesting to transport. And it is a lesser artifact, so there can be more than one.
* A fictional substance. It doesn't exist, so it can only be found inside someone's dreamscape. Extracting it from there would be difficult but for an epic-level party possible - or they could just bring the person who dreams it.
* If the players are up for some Sidereal-style manipulation of events, then objects with extremely specific conditions. Like a blade that was used to assassinate someone, then later used to slay the same assassin in revenge. Or a cobblestone that has saved the lives of at least three people. Or someone's last two coins that were freely given away.
* Something irritating large, like a small mountain or a lake.
* And of course the classic - a personal item (or body part) from a highly dangerous person/creature.

[Braininthejar2]

* If the players are up for some Sidereal-style manipulation of events, then objects with extremely specific conditions. Like a blade that was used to assassinate someone, then later used to slay the same assassin in revenge. Or a cobblestone that has saved the lives of at least three people. Or someone's last two coins that were freely given away.

Oh, I remember doing that myself as a player When I became a royal advisor, I handed the king some gold coins and asked him to throw them at me - I then used them as a component for making my circlet of persuasion.

[Braininthejar2]

Items the party has that could potentially be upgraded:

* An evil druid staff that holds two spellstaff effects and aids the user in overcoming magic resistance.
* A dwarven-made full plate of heavy fortification.
* A druid-legal breastplate (actually a hide armor made of gorgon hide)
* a couple standard "+4" and "+6" gloves/belts/amulets
* a bunch of cloak of protection pifwafi
* vampiric bastard sword
* keen adamantine greataxe
* surestriking heavy mace of martial discipline
* a silver cane covered with hieroglyphs, with an ibis head headpiece (holy pick)
* a prismatic burst spear (very cool, totally unoptimised)

[JAL_1138]

Intangible things might be interesting. The love of a hound for its master, the madness of a Slaad, the rage of a demon, the sound of the sky...