I have used items with a cost, however, the cost is left vague and very subjective. A wizard PC once made a deal with an unseelie water faerie (hag), for an armor that would save his life no matter what. The faerie agreed to make him one, if he would give her a life in exchange for saving his. Wizard PC agreed thinking he would just murderhobo some random npc... wrong, he had to give the faerie a child which meant becoming the faerie's mate.
In a video about screen writing titled "How to NOT Preach to Audiances," the speaker discusses how to create a great story starting with having a strong theme. The first step is to give the protagonist a serious flaw. Which is what your discussion reminded me of. This is a perfect opportunity to marry an item with something the character(s) have to deal with or work through. Instead of a random or generic cost for using the item, make it something deeply connected to the character(s) perhaps connected to their flaw(s). The potential to develop the character(s) story can be more meaningful while offering a tangible avatar that represents the struggle they face. Something the GM can refence at times they want to emphasize the flaw or delema.
I really like the idea of the compass from pirates of the Caribbean where it always promises adventure (aka continue plot) but they always have some form of misadventure or something goes wrong or not according to plan. This could be adapted to a magnifying glass for clues or a map for treasure or something.
I made a revolver that required the target to make a con save of 18 to take half damage. It dealt the same damage as a 3rd level fireball. However every time it was used it would slowly turn the user into a vampire. It also required you to damage yourself to reload it. This is one of my favorite items in my game. The player used it enough to actually complete the transformation. He became a vampire spawn and it was a lot of fun to have his character around. Double edged magic items are fantastic
I'm in a Dungeon Crawl Classics game where we frequently hire 2-3 henchmen to help us fight. And then we came upon a +6 to hit long sword, which will compel the wielder to roll a willpower save to not immediately swing an attack on anyone who tells a lie. We used the sword for one delve, slew a hired man-at-arms on an unlucky fib, and took it back to town to hide it in a lock box. The +6 just wasn't worth it for us, but it was fun to use, fun to see the repercussions of its use, and fun to be in that state of fear while it was in our possession.
@How to be a Great GM: typo in the title -> Next game SESISON. I haven't watched the video yet, but I don't doubt for an instant it's going to be any less interesting than your usual content. So keep up the good work and thank you for everything you've done so far!
Hmm. I hope those players that turned into the book had a transformation slow enough to note the info down for the next group of heroes! Also the sword that takes your soul. I'd not make the player a husk, but a soulless vampire, possessed by an evil spirit or demon getting into our realm this way. Or, perhaps even better. Now they are in the sword, and the presence from it is in them.
Very nice! Sadly, I have players that never, ever use items that have any kind of drawback. For example, they earned an artifact that, when used, granted access to aberrant knowledge & powerful FORBIDDEN magics (i.e., homebrew spells that they've been asking for since session 1); however, each time it was used, the user had to roll on the insanity table. Guess what they did? Stuck it in their bag of holding and forgot about it. Didn't even sell it, and it's sitting there to this day!
Shoot, I'm still trying to get my players to simply investigate the magic items, and this after explicitly telling them that investigating a magic item will always produce an accurate description and will never have a negative consequence in the current game.
This could be an issue with players feeling their DM might punish them. I was in a game once where none of us wanted to do anything with even the slightest risk attached bc we knew the GM would make up disproportionately terrible consequences every single time.
Good, good I say. If you, as the GM, are going to screw the Players over like this, then the Players have every right to flip you off, and never bring out that item, ever again. Now, I'm not against cursed items, I've played characters with cursed items, that is not the problem; the problem lies in making the character, virtually unplayable, and a predetermined death (whether by circumstance or number of uses), does qualify. Rolling on the insanity table? I'll just rip up that character, asap, and have it over with.
I gave my players an Illithid ship to use for themselves. It could fly, sail under water, teleport to different places and plains. However, it was semi intelligent and they would have terrible nightmares when on board. The ship also needed fuel. It needed to consume the brains of sentient creatures. They fed it their enemies, but soon found that wasn't enough. It would kill innocents too. They hid it in a lake and came back days later to find a fishing boat floating, but no fishermen. They stopped using it in the end. 😂
The main campaign item in my last campaign was one like those described in the video. It's use always had a tremendous personal cost for its desintegration anything. It would bring about the destruction of a loved one. I had the dead loved one marked eith the same symbol on the item. Its final form was a balefire rod, removing whatever it touched from the life tapestry intirely. If the thing/person was unimportant there were small consequences, remove something important and world altering affect many things... Could cause the tapestry to fall apart... Both of these fostered great role-playing opportunities for the table. It improved character story growth, and party dynamics in ways standard items just don't.
Every one of the few magic items that have been in my games since the late 90's has been cursed! Magic in my campaign is powerful and dangerous, It creates a real sense of dread whenever they are used.
major, impactful items are a lot of fun to create and to throw into your world. Sometimes they stick and get used, sometimes the players hold on to them or even destroy them, you never know exactly how they are going to interact with them (though depending on the player and character you can make reasonable assumptions) but you'll almost certainly get your players to engage with them in some meaningful way. Once my players found a tome of blood magic, it contained homebrew powers that the villains have been using and which seemed like a pretty swift way to gain an edge after besting their first major enemy. Would they use it, hoard it, sell it? What would it cost to use it, and what would they gain? But they chose to destroy the tome, so that it's wicked knowledge may not fall into the wrong hands, which made me really happy! Like in the years I ran the game my players tend to be more on the neutral, opportunistic side of things so a true act of heroism is hard to get out of these folks that are more in it for their own survival. That moment wouldn't have happened with a greatsword +3 I tell you that much!
I haven't done this often, but I like to put my players into things they can't hack their way through. The only thing very close to this was an item that they needed to retrieve was a demon in the shape of a sword. Every time you used it you had to roll will check or be possessed. That thing almost ko'd the party on numerous occasions. A lot of party members died. 😆
I made a +3 sword that did an extra 4d8 necrotic dmg but every time it was used to attack a creature, its bearer had to succeed on a wis save. The dc started at 10 and went up by 1 for each use. If you fail the save, you take the same damage you just dealt. If this damage reduces your hp to 0 you become trapped inside the blade. Of course the player had no idea what the current dc was and certainly had no idea he could become trapped. I did give it one way out. Only a wish spell can reverse this effect.
I hit my characters with the dreaded Hammer of Neutrality.... when weilded by a TN character, it would perform as normal +3 weapon (1ed). In any other character's hands, with every hit, the player was required to roll a d6. On a roll of 1-3 the weapon would do normal damage. On a roll of 4-6, the weapon would heal its opponent for the "damage" rolled. Of course, it was a cursed weapon and the player would not reach for any other weapon until a "Remove Curse" was cast on the player.
I made bloodmage robes that can heal the wearer and overcharge their spells by sacrificing hit dice. If their hit dice hit 0 at any point they die outright
Not quite a magic item, but close enough: I was playing an autognome monk and asked my DM if i could change my case with one made of adamantium or mizzium. He said no, but after a few weeks he came out with a compromise: The BBEG made a public announcement that he will bestow any who wish to serve him a blessing. The BBEG would turn them into undying sentries, effectivly giving them the " Constructed Resilience " and " Sentry's Rest " from warforge race , changing their creature type to construct and finnaly mizzium armor proprieties as racial feature. My character had beef with the BBEG and really wanted him dead, sometimes endangering the whole party just to fight 1 more of BBEG's lackeys. Since i alredy had 80% of the benefits and no way in hell would my character willingly stand at the same dinning table as the BBBG the contract became the exact opposite of what i wanted. There was other stuff to do beside this BBEG and signing the contract didn't take away your freedom so i could have kept adventuring, but in my eyes he would cease to be who he is, he would become an empty shell of his former self Edit: I haven't forgiven my DM yet and this happend a year ago
[Avoiding the spoiler-ing] R.A. Salvatore has, in one of his well-known Forgotten Realms novel series, a drow who obtains a magical mask which allows the wearer to have the appearance of someone else... a "regular", socially-acceptable-elf [wood elf when traveling on the surface of the world versus the Underdark] being perhaps the most obvious and best disguise for a dark elf who does not wish to be constantly dealing with people fleeing or attacking them on sight. This item did not come with a specific mechanical flaw, but it did have the roleplay/personal consequence of making the character question themselves; why they were deliberately hiding who they really are, what it meant to always feel that they must suppress their pride & disassociate from their true self simply to avoid being forced to prove that they were indeed "The Exception" to the general rule in that world's surface-lands which was to say basically "when you see Dark elves, it's a bad sign"; something bad has happened, is happening, and/or will happen 99% of the time as the Lloth-worshiping "chaotic evil aligned-dark-elves" were generally quite different in basic morals, ethics etc from the rest of the sentient species in that fantasy world. Of course this is a broad summary, and it was written 20+ years ago. Some of the lore has been altered since then and this subject is a deep one with pages of discussion that could be had, but the point is the magic item caused a mental / personal / role-play penalty/flaw. It's in a book, so that's a bit different from a TTRPG game though, and a GM might want to give such an item some sort of mechanical flaw or difficulty if the players were not interested in just acting out the penalty/flaw through RP, but... 2 cents of food for thought.
I made a magic +2 maul that I made special by adding the fact it is enchanted to make every killing blow knock its victim's head into their torso.. Makes it a calling card, and if they are needing to keep a low profile they have to be judicious with its us.
that is a hilarious item tho. I imagine like a wizened enchanter pouring his craft into this absolute force of a maul and handing it over to some warlord or whatever. "Tell us, what blessing did you bestow upon this weapon, sage?" "Fuckin watch this"
Oke extra hyped for my magic item now, let me know what ya think. Running a party for two but non of them is a caster. Im planning of giving them a tome and gem of soul magic. The tome contains all spells from the schools of necromancy, enchantment and conjuration (excluding cantrips). With the gem they will be able to try and catch souls using a reaction (arcana check DC 8+CR monster) after a monster is slain and gain its CR as spellpoints (use the variant rules for spellpoints in the DMG). They can use these spellpoints to cast the spells in the tome up to their character lvl if they were a full caster. But their is also risk, when casting a spell the caster needs to roll a save or check (still on the fence on whice) (DC 10+spell lvl) if they succeed they cast the spell with spell points, if they fail the soul magic uses their soul instead. They roll a 1d4 for every spell lvl and add the total to their soul score or something. If this soulscore every exceeds the PC Max HP their soul is consumed. Im thinking of making them able to gain extra bonusses to the checks to catch souls or extra magic items to protect them a bit against the save for castig if needed. Or maybe as it gets dangerous they might be willing to embark on an extra quest line to seek protection or a cure. Please feel free to steal this ofcourse, but in return I would like to ask you that if you have tips or additions please let me know.
I dinda like that, but there are too many rolls for my taste. The arcana tests bugs me, particularly by saying that the soul of an ogre is worth much more than mine or my children. I would not link the soul's power to the Max HP; it's like saying that the barbarian soul is more anchored than the priest.
How about a charistma save to not get your soul sucked and converted in spell points, you can say the DC is 10+proeficiency of the character attuned to the gem
A cursed book of ten pages. For the cost of losing a finger to turn a page (and -1dex) the player may cast any spell the have or have not prepared, but know. The spell consumes no components, and requires no somatic or verbal components. Each use disintegrates the finger and the page. Upon ten uses, the book disintegrates, the fingers (and now -10 dex) can only be reversed by a Greater Restoration or better. But not before all ten pages are turned.
I really think the sweet spot should be that the players *sometimes* use the item. Because even though it is a choice not to use it, it's not a very fun one. E.g. my character just got a magic item as a gift from a demon associated to her patron but the potential downside to using it (wasn't told what the cost could be but it definitely feels like a trap) could very easily outweigh the benefit the item grants, which means I am reluctant to use it, especially since the effect is not super special. So make sure that a) players know the cost and can make an informed decision and b) you try and make it worth the cost in dire circumstances, make the allure big enough for it to be likely to be used.
I have an idea of an executioners weapon that has been cursed with the spirits of the falsely accused. It's shape will vary based on what player I want to tempt it with, but it will look powerful with a bad aura. The moment it is wielded, the weapon will bind itself to the user and user will be on trial. Attacking those that have killed before will deal a satisfying amount of extra damage as the spirits crave justice. Attacking those that have NOT killed before will instead see the spirits turned on the wielder of the weapon. With a weapon like this I think of a lot of interesting scenarios. There is even some utility in it, as it can show you who has never killed in their life.
My group won't put up with any sort of penalty whatsoever on an item. It's a +10 sword of Slaying All The Things, but it causes a craving for cheese? Into the nearest volcano with that trash. Sigh.
I've been pondering how to change up my magic items. I like this idea. I've generally used Legacy items, that grow in power with the characters. Also, is anything going to come of that game club video? I sent an email, but never got a response. Did I slip through the cracks?
I confess that i stole the generall idea of the book which i still remember from the windswift campaingn. My player (who´s soul is now in the book) loves and hates it. This specific kind of book knows the history of every single creature living in the material plane. So he got all this knowledge but he´s only allowed to answer very specific questions from the other players. Still thinking about a the cost per question asked. Also my players posses a lantern that will answer all their questions - sadly this lamp is a notorious lyer. It will only answer 3 Question per day truthfully if the asking person is not the owner of the latern
Sorry, but IMO, only a jerk would do that to their Players. "Oh you need help? Well, here you go; just get ready to roll up another character." If it were me, I'd never use that item, ever again, consequences be damned: I wouldn't even care if that were out of character, never using it again.
![[TOOLS] Proper traps for fantasy games](/img/n.gif)
I have used items with a cost, however, the cost is left vague and very subjective. A wizard PC once made a deal with an unseelie water faerie (hag), for an armor that would save his life no matter what. The faerie agreed to make him one, if he would give her a life in exchange for saving his. Wizard PC agreed thinking he would just murderhobo some random npc... wrong, he had to give the faerie a child which meant becoming the faerie's mate.
........ Not that bad, but still pretty bad
Sounds kinda rapey my guy
Not a visual I needed...thanks..😀
Shit, this is genius
In a video about screen writing titled "How to NOT Preach to Audiances," the speaker discusses how to create a great story starting with having a strong theme.
The first step is to give the protagonist a serious flaw. Which is what your discussion reminded me of. This is a perfect opportunity to marry an item with something the character(s) have to deal with or work through. Instead of a random or generic cost for using the item, make it something deeply connected to the character(s) perhaps connected to their flaw(s).
The potential to develop the character(s) story can be more meaningful while offering a tangible avatar that represents the struggle they face. Something the GM can refence at times they want to emphasize the flaw or delema.
I really like the idea of the compass from pirates of the Caribbean where it always promises adventure (aka continue plot) but they always have some form of misadventure or something goes wrong or not according to plan. This could be adapted to a magnifying glass for clues or a map for treasure or something.
well, it promises 'adventure' but gives no guarantee of safety, usefulness, appropriateness, wealth gain, ethics, or fun. :P
I made a revolver that required the target to make a con save of 18 to take half damage. It dealt the same damage as a 3rd level fireball. However every time it was used it would slowly turn the user into a vampire. It also required you to damage yourself to reload it. This is one of my favorite items in my game.
The player used it enough to actually complete the transformation. He became a vampire spawn and it was a lot of fun to have his character around.
Double edged magic items are fantastic
I'm in a Dungeon Crawl Classics game where we frequently hire 2-3 henchmen to help us fight. And then we came upon a +6 to hit long sword, which will compel the wielder to roll a willpower save to not immediately swing an attack on anyone who tells a lie. We used the sword for one delve, slew a hired man-at-arms on an unlucky fib, and took it back to town to hide it in a lock box. The +6 just wasn't worth it for us, but it was fun to use, fun to see the repercussions of its use, and fun to be in that state of fear while it was in our possession.
Doesn't need to be so dramatic.
The shield of arrow catching works better in SWADE, but it's a fun item.
sounds like proper artifacts from old school AD&D
That book could make an interesting offering to Candle Keep.
@How to be a Great GM: typo in the title -> Next game SESISON.
I haven't watched the video yet, but I don't doubt for an instant it's going to be any less interesting than your usual content. So keep up the good work and thank you for everything you've done so far!
Hmm. I hope those players that turned into the book had a transformation slow enough to note the info down for the next group of heroes! Also the sword that takes your soul. I'd not make the player a husk, but a soulless vampire, possessed by an evil spirit or demon getting into our realm this way. Or, perhaps even better. Now they are in the sword, and the presence from it is in them.
Imma watch this tomorrow during breaks at schools, thanks man. You are a great mentor.
That book idea is brilliant
Very nice! Sadly, I have players that never, ever use items that have any kind of drawback. For example, they earned an artifact that, when used, granted access to aberrant knowledge & powerful FORBIDDEN magics (i.e., homebrew spells that they've been asking for since session 1); however, each time it was used, the user had to roll on the insanity table.
Guess what they did? Stuck it in their bag of holding and forgot about it. Didn't even sell it, and it's sitting there to this day!
Shoot, I'm still trying to get my players to simply investigate the magic items, and this after explicitly telling them that investigating a magic item will always produce an accurate description and will never have a negative consequence in the current game.
Plot point: Some super-nothic seeks it out from them and begins tearing up the country side on a mad super spell slinging rampage 😂🎉
This could be an issue with players feeling their DM might punish them. I was in a game once where none of us wanted to do anything with even the slightest risk attached bc we knew the GM would make up disproportionately terrible consequences every single time.
Good, good I say. If you, as the GM, are going to screw the Players over like this, then the Players have every right to flip you off, and never bring out that item, ever again. Now, I'm not against cursed items, I've played characters with cursed items, that is not the problem; the problem lies in making the character, virtually unplayable, and a predetermined death (whether by circumstance or number of uses), does qualify. Rolling on the insanity table? I'll just rip up that character, asap, and have it over with.
@@ziggy78eog This. If I didn't sign up for the Wild Magic, I did not sign up for the Wild Magic.
Sword of studio applause.
Laugh track on crit fail
Applause on hit
Applause and cheering on crit
I gave my players an Illithid ship to use for themselves. It could fly, sail under water, teleport to different places and plains.
However, it was semi intelligent and they would have terrible nightmares when on board. The ship also needed fuel. It needed to consume the brains of sentient creatures.
They fed it their enemies, but soon found that wasn't enough. It would kill innocents too. They hid it in a lake and came back days later to find a fishing boat floating, but no fishermen.
They stopped using it in the end. 😂
The main campaign item in my last campaign was one like those described in the video. It's use always had a tremendous personal cost for its desintegration anything. It would bring about the destruction of a loved one. I had the dead loved one marked eith the same symbol on the item.
Its final form was a balefire rod, removing whatever it touched from the life tapestry intirely. If the thing/person was unimportant there were small consequences, remove something important and world altering affect many things... Could cause the tapestry to fall apart...
Both of these fostered great role-playing opportunities for the table. It improved character story growth, and party dynamics in ways standard items just don't.
Every one of the few magic items that have been in my games since the late 90's has been cursed! Magic in my campaign is powerful and dangerous, It creates a real sense of dread whenever they are used.
major, impactful items are a lot of fun to create and to throw into your world. Sometimes they stick and get used, sometimes the players hold on to them or even destroy them, you never know exactly how they are going to interact with them (though depending on the player and character you can make reasonable assumptions) but you'll almost certainly get your players to engage with them in some meaningful way. Once my players found a tome of blood magic, it contained homebrew powers that the villains have been using and which seemed like a pretty swift way to gain an edge after besting their first major enemy. Would they use it, hoard it, sell it? What would it cost to use it, and what would they gain?
But they chose to destroy the tome, so that it's wicked knowledge may not fall into the wrong hands, which made me really happy! Like in the years I ran the game my players tend to be more on the neutral, opportunistic side of things so a true act of heroism is hard to get out of these folks that are more in it for their own survival.
That moment wouldn't have happened with a greatsword +3 I tell you that much!
I haven't done this often, but I like to put my players into things they can't hack their way through.
The only thing very close to this was an item that they needed to retrieve was a demon in the shape of a sword. Every time you used it you had to roll will check or be possessed.
That thing almost ko'd the party on numerous occasions. A lot of party members died. 😆
I made a +3 sword that did an extra 4d8 necrotic dmg but every time it was used to attack a creature, its bearer had to succeed on a wis save. The dc started at 10 and went up by 1 for each use. If you fail the save, you take the same damage you just dealt. If this damage reduces your hp to 0 you become trapped inside the blade. Of course the player had no idea what the current dc was and certainly had no idea he could become trapped. I did give it one way out. Only a wish spell can reverse this effect.
I hit my characters with the dreaded Hammer of Neutrality.... when weilded by a TN character, it would perform as normal +3 weapon (1ed). In any other character's hands, with every hit, the player was required to roll a d6. On a roll of 1-3 the weapon would do normal damage. On a roll of 4-6, the weapon would heal its opponent for the "damage" rolled. Of course, it was a cursed weapon and the player would not reach for any other weapon until a "Remove Curse" was cast on the player.
I made bloodmage robes that can heal the wearer and overcharge their spells by sacrificing hit dice. If their hit dice hit 0 at any point they die outright
Yes! Great guidance.
Not quite a magic item, but close enough:
I was playing an autognome monk and asked my DM if i could change my case with one made of adamantium or mizzium. He said no, but after a few weeks he came out with a compromise:
The BBEG made a public announcement that he will bestow any who wish to serve him a blessing. The BBEG would turn them into undying sentries, effectivly giving them the " Constructed Resilience " and " Sentry's Rest " from warforge race , changing their creature type to construct and finnaly mizzium armor proprieties as racial feature.
My character had beef with the BBEG and really wanted him dead, sometimes endangering the whole party just to fight 1 more of BBEG's lackeys.
Since i alredy had 80% of the benefits and no way in hell would my character willingly stand at the same dinning table as the BBBG the contract became the exact opposite of what i wanted.
There was other stuff to do beside this BBEG and signing the contract didn't take away your freedom so i could have kept adventuring, but in my eyes he would cease to be who he is, he would become an empty shell of his former self
Edit: I haven't forgiven my DM yet and this happend a year ago
[Avoiding the spoiler-ing] R.A. Salvatore has, in one of his well-known Forgotten Realms novel series, a drow who obtains a magical mask which allows the wearer to have the appearance of someone else... a "regular", socially-acceptable-elf [wood elf when traveling on the surface of the world versus the Underdark] being perhaps the most obvious and best disguise for a dark elf who does not wish to be constantly dealing with people fleeing or attacking them on sight.
This item did not come with a specific mechanical flaw, but it did have the roleplay/personal consequence of making the character question themselves; why they were deliberately hiding who they really are,
what it meant to always feel that they must suppress their pride & disassociate from their true self simply to avoid being forced to prove that they were indeed "The Exception" to the general rule in that world's surface-lands which was to say basically "when you see Dark elves, it's a bad sign"; something bad has happened, is happening, and/or will happen 99% of the time as the Lloth-worshiping "chaotic evil aligned-dark-elves" were generally quite different in basic morals, ethics etc from the rest of the sentient species in that fantasy world.
Of course this is a broad summary, and it was written 20+ years ago. Some of the lore has been altered since then and this subject is a deep one with pages of discussion that could be had, but the point is the magic item caused a mental / personal / role-play penalty/flaw. It's in a book, so that's a bit different from a TTRPG game though, and a GM might want to give such an item some sort of mechanical flaw or difficulty if the players were not interested in just acting out the penalty/flaw through RP, but...
2 cents of food for thought.
I made a magic +2 maul that I made special by adding the fact it is enchanted to make every killing blow knock its victim's head into their torso..
Makes it a calling card, and if they are needing to keep a low profile they have to be judicious with its us.
that is a hilarious item tho. I imagine like a wizened enchanter pouring his craft into this absolute force of a maul and handing it over to some warlord or whatever.
"Tell us, what blessing did you bestow upon this weapon, sage?"
"Fuckin watch this"
Oke extra hyped for my magic item now, let me know what ya think. Running a party for two but non of them is a caster. Im planning of giving them a tome and gem of soul magic. The tome contains all spells from the schools of necromancy, enchantment and conjuration (excluding cantrips). With the gem they will be able to try and catch souls using a reaction (arcana check DC 8+CR monster) after a monster is slain and gain its CR as spellpoints (use the variant rules for spellpoints in the DMG). They can use these spellpoints to cast the spells in the tome up to their character lvl if they were a full caster.
But their is also risk, when casting a spell the caster needs to roll a save or check (still on the fence on whice) (DC 10+spell lvl) if they succeed they cast the spell with spell points, if they fail the soul magic uses their soul instead. They roll a 1d4 for every spell lvl and add the total to their soul score or something. If this soulscore every exceeds the PC Max HP their soul is consumed.
Im thinking of making them able to gain extra bonusses to the checks to catch souls or extra magic items to protect them a bit against the save for castig if needed. Or maybe as it gets dangerous they might be willing to embark on an extra quest line to seek protection or a cure.
Please feel free to steal this ofcourse, but in return I would like to ask you that if you have tips or additions please let me know.
I dinda like that, but there are too many rolls for my taste. The arcana tests bugs me, particularly by saying that the soul of an ogre is worth much more than mine or my children. I would not link the soul's power to the Max HP; it's like saying that the barbarian soul is more anchored than the priest.
How about a charistma save to not get your soul sucked and converted in spell points, you can say the DC is 10+proeficiency of the character attuned to the gem
A cursed book of ten pages. For the cost of losing a finger to turn a page (and -1dex) the player may cast any spell the have or have not prepared, but know. The spell consumes no components, and requires no somatic or verbal components. Each use disintegrates the finger and the page.
Upon ten uses, the book disintegrates, the fingers (and now -10 dex) can only be reversed by a Greater Restoration or better. But not before all ten pages are turned.
I’m confident Adru’Sai would approve this message….
I really think the sweet spot should be that the players *sometimes* use the item. Because even though it is a choice not to use it, it's not a very fun one. E.g. my character just got a magic item as a gift from a demon associated to her patron but the potential downside to using it (wasn't told what the cost could be but it definitely feels like a trap) could very easily outweigh the benefit the item grants, which means I am reluctant to use it, especially since the effect is not super special. So make sure that a) players know the cost and can make an informed decision and b) you try and make it worth the cost in dire circumstances, make the allure big enough for it to be likely to be used.
I have an idea of an executioners weapon that has been cursed with the spirits of the falsely accused. It's shape will vary based on what player I want to tempt it with, but it will look powerful with a bad aura. The moment it is wielded, the weapon will bind itself to the user and user will be on trial. Attacking those that have killed before will deal a satisfying amount of extra damage as the spirits crave justice. Attacking those that have NOT killed before will instead see the spirits turned on the wielder of the weapon.
With a weapon like this I think of a lot of interesting scenarios. There is even some utility in it, as it can show you who has never killed in their life.
My party is going thru the hells now and I will definitely be offering them some kind of doubled edged sword type magical item or two.
Thank you for the idea
Was that a reference to Daoud's Wondrous Lanthorn from the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth?
Thanks for the content.
My group won't put up with any sort of penalty whatsoever on an item. It's a +10 sword of Slaying All The Things, but it causes a craving for cheese? Into the nearest volcano with that trash. Sigh.
I've been pondering how to change up my magic items. I like this idea. I've generally used Legacy items, that grow in power with the characters.
Also, is anything going to come of that game club video? I sent an email, but never got a response. Did I slip through the cracks?
One player in my group definitely would use the item. Others, it depends. A few players, definitely not.
I confess that i stole the generall idea of the book which i still remember from the windswift campaingn. My player (who´s soul is now in the book) loves and hates it. This specific kind of book knows the history of every single creature living in the material plane. So he got all this knowledge but he´s only allowed to answer very specific questions from the other players. Still thinking about a the cost per question asked.
Also my players posses a lantern that will answer all their questions - sadly this lamp is a notorious lyer. It will only answer 3 Question per day truthfully if the asking person is not the owner of the latern
Sorry, but IMO, only a jerk would do that to their Players. "Oh you need help? Well, here you go; just get ready to roll up another character." If it were me, I'd never use that item, ever again, consequences be damned: I wouldn't even care if that were out of character, never using it again.