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A magic blade of goblin slaying, melted down and reforged into a helmet. Still does +1 to goblins, but you have to throw it at them, or headbutt them with it on.
You can't melt a magic item because it's indestructible, to do that it would be incredible expensive for not much point. But.... You could apply this to a fist or gauntlet though. An orc melted iron around it and turned it into a fist, so he could punch goblins... but now you're stuck with a goblin slaying knife stuck in an oversized fist. That or a goblin tried to bury it in an iron ball so he'd stop torturing goblins, so the orc who owned it turned it into a morningstar, chain ball or the tip of a crazy weird halberd. Maybe an orc melted it into an iron helmet, thinking it would look cool, not realizing what it was until it was too late. There might be 3 magical daggers stuck in that helmet awkwardly and just nobody knows. Maybe they don't even know when they pick it up.
Some favourite homebrew items of mine: Silent Witness: A sword that is completely silent. It makes no sound when cutting, stabbing, being unsheathed etc. It also lets you cast Silence once per long rest. Simple, but my rogue really enjoyed it. A bracer that projects a shield of force (bonus action to activate/deactivate). The shield is just a regular plus 2 to AC. However, once per rest you can overcharge the bracer to cast the Shield spell (so plus 7 to AC) but the shield is then unusable until a rest. A sword with a clear crystal blade that lets the player cast Counterspell against magic of fire, cold or lightning. If successful, it absorbs the element of the spell and deals 1d6 of that damage type for the next 8 hours. During this time, the Counterspell cannot be used. However, a player can remove the element from the sword by doing something appropriate for the element in question. They could place the fiery sword in cold water or snow for an hour, sink the blade in dirt for an hour to discharge the lightning etc. It gives players a choice: do I need the Counterspell or the extra damage more?
They’re cool as! Your silent sword reminded of a sword I made which is kind of like the folly to a silent sword, in that it’s +1 to hit/damage but when you attack someone you have to make a DC15 Wisdom saving throw or loudly apologise to the creature you attacked in a language they would know. So you really struggle to sneak with it.
An idea I always had was if you managed to win against the Avatar of Death, you’d get a choice between the following: the cloak of the shades (a combo of levitate, cloak of elven kind, and I dunno misty step with a +2 to AC?) the scythe of the reaper it is a 2 handed finesse reach weapon and deals 1d8 slashing + 1d8 necrotic damage. When you slay a living creature with this weapon they must succeed a DC 15 will save or their soul is trapped in the scythe dealings an additional 1d8 necrotic damage for every soul contained. However, one escapes the weapon per day, and it can hold up to 4 at a time.
I find people forget inventory. Scrolls and potions and boutique ammo end up forgotten on the back of the character sheet. So I make cards for consumables. When you burn it, you hand it in. When you are playing you have a fan of resource cards in front of you.
I honestly am a big fan of the Cypher system's... Cyphers. They let you do the cool flashy shit that you want your magic items to do, but once. Which like honestly is how often so many players will use their magic items for things other than "I hit the orc with my +1 sword."
Another option with magic items is having them come in parts. When my players were creating characters, I let them have any magic item they could think of that didn't doing anything real in game mechanics but fit their characters back story. The ranger came up with a bow that spouts witty one liners when he shoots enemies. I then used that as a base for future magic item rewards. For example, he first got a quiver that is a companion to the bow that returns and mends fired arrows (yay no more ammo tracking) but is sentient and told him about the poor state of the bow. Next he will find a magic bow string that it turns out was originally part of his bow that increases damage (instead of just finding a +1 bow) and now his bow starts to gain a personality as it is a little more complete. Next will be guards that attach to the front of the bow to protect it so he can now use it to defend against melee attacks (+1 AC vs melee) but also has slots for gems. Then there are gems for different damage types, a sight for +1 to hit and allow ricochet shots, etc. The more complete bow can now converse and give advice on how to fight an enemy: "No don't use fire against a fire elemental! Have I taught you nothing?!". They're only at level 5 now so it's all still a long way off.
That kind of thing is exactly what I kept waiting for them to mention doing when they were talking about item creation at the beginning. Probably just me having played Zelda and various JRPGs too much.
I always loved the way Earthdawn handled magic items. No such thing as 'just' a magic sword, it's an item with stories, legend or even personality attached. And the more you discovered the stories, or added to the legends, the more you unlocked the magical properties.
That's. Fucking. Cool!!! Just went down a rabbit hole of thinking of magic items with lore tied to my world. I always thought of them as just cool things to reward to my players but this takes it to another level. God I love this game and community.
@@killcat1971 I've been grappling with how to pull that off from the beginning of my campaign. However, watching this video helped me out a lot. For example, I have a warlock in my party (pact of the blade) who doesnt have his sentient weapon yet but earns pieces of it through learning about his past, this is tied to a vampire clan and his sisters soul being the sentient part of the blade drip feeding him aspects of his past. She also sends him out on specific missions where upon completion he receives boons. I could totally do the same for the rest of my party.
Shadowrun lore (Sixth World, Earthdawn is 4th World, so two eras before) is super deep, complex and I love it. I hate the dice, astral, and Matrix rules.
I feel like bog standard items like a +1 sword or a cloak that gives you +1 AC should be reserved for stuff that you can buy. If your party wants to get one they can find a magic shop and buy it, it'll be better than what they currently have but it's not going to be amazing. If you're going to give it to them as treasure, make it something with some kind of unique effect like the ability to run on water.
I really enjoy using scaling magic items that grant a bonus to whatever it does equal to half of your proficiency bonus. It requires attunement, and it usually has some little additional ability.
I made a flute of animal messenger once for my players - the trick being that it summoned the same squirrel each time, Gimmer. Got to give him a personality and everything
Transferring magical properties from one item to another. I gave my players this option ONCE when a high powered wizard provided them the boon. Sort of like a custom crafting event, so they got to port magic from items found to items they are emotionally attached to. I think it worked well.
Lighter of Bic, The Mad Mage: An ordinary red lighter that appears to be non-magical in nature. When activated using the plunger, a Fireball spell of a random level (1d6+3) is cast in the direction of the nearest enemy.
The most hilarious homebrew magic (cursed) item I've ever added to one of my campaigns was for a player that loved to horde magic items, jumping at claiming them before anyone else could see if they could use them, if they were safe, etc. I wish I had a picture of his face when I asked for his character sheet and explained that he'd proudly just donned a Helm of Devouring. I sketched a little pic of a cartoon helm with eyes and teeth gleefully munching away at all that was left of him, a pair of boots.
My favorite little thing is to have different (items) of holding. It totally makes sense for a well off mariner to have a sea chest of holding for instance. Or for a small merchant ship to be able to have barrels with the same enchantment, to making shipping things easier. Or instead of a bag or large box, a tiny jewelry box that is still extra dimensional but isn't as big on the inside as a bag of holding.
Mine are about to discover a savage continent where the Moonshae Isles are supposed to be. I need to do more research into custom magic. As well as recipes for magical items. Gonna be fun!
@@Grinnar I just made a 2nd level transmutation spell like a week ago call tendriled lock where it requires somatic and material components with the components being a head full of hair and a silver hair brush worth 50 gp and you run the brush through your hair which then grows 30 feet long and can lash out and grapple creatures and crush them and the higher the level you use the more creatures you can grapple
Reskinning normal items is so much fun. My new group just found a Wand of Magic Missiles, but instead of a wand it was a frog that burps magic misslies when you squeeze him (or command him to do so if you can speak to animals). They found him in a hag's hut, she fed him special herbs and spell ingredients to 'enchant' him. Especially for experienced parties, this is a way to hype up every day magic items.
*Leomund's Sleeping Bag* _Wondrous Item, rare_ This large drawstring bag contains an extradimensional space, approximately six feet in diameter and seven feet deep. The bag can hold up to 1000 punds, not exceeding a volume of 198 cubic feet, and can fit up to two Medium sized creatures comfortably. While closed, the contents of the bag are protected from weather and temperature, and living occupants can breath freely while inside. The bag can be opened or closed from inside. This item otherwise has the properties of a _bag of holding_ .
Anytime I'm starting a campaign I have asked my players to write a backstory for me and if they do I will grant them a magic item of my choice. This magic item is very often a custom-made one tailored to that character keeping their back story and abilities in mind. Making magic items is an important part of being a GM
In my campaign, I've adopted Earthdawn's approach to magic items, by weaving threads to empower them. The more intimate becomes your knowledge of an item's lore and purpose, the more of its powers you unlock. Think of it as levels of attunement.
I made spells like booming blade, green flame blade into magic items. Specifically to discourage the need to multiclass into warlock/sorcerer and works fantastically
The diversity of single use items beyond the norm is definitely making it into my campaigns. A magic lotion that boosts charisma for a bit or throwing a small gem on the ground to make an effect or someone/thing owing a "favor" all sound great.
There was a plant seed in Ancient Rome that was supposed to prevent pregnancy. It was found in North Africa, and proved to be so popular the plant went extinct from people digging them up for sale.
I like elemental weapons or items that do additional damage, for example, lightning until you use an ability or roll a crit. Then it gets that big burst, but loses the constant energy.
This video comes at the perfect time! I'm homebrewing three magical weapons... ancient Celestial weapons that devils are looking to corrupt for their own devices, and the party is looking to find them first.
Two features I like to play with when making items are concentration and levels of attunement. For example, you could have a sword that gives some benefits normally, but becomes more powerful if the character expends a second (or third) attunement slot on it. I especially like playing with this when dealing with sentient weapons, allowing stronger and stronger buffs (with appropriate trade off or risks when dealing with evil weapons) based on how devoted the character is. Concentration is fun to play with because it lets non-caster classes actually get some use out of the concentration resource, and lets you introduce risk-reward into items. For example, say a ring of haste which, by spending an action, allows a character to grant themselves the haste effect but only for as long as they maintain concentration, with them suffering the usual drawbacks if the haste effect ends.
Talking about magic items reflecting culture, in the setting i'm designing, there's an big archipelago full of islands and people and fish and things, and about two centuries before the present date, a guy called Jiven rose up and united the squabbling little island territories, becoming Guardian (effectively a King). To cut out a bit of history, effectively there's this artifact called the Crown of the Guardian, and this video really helps me in trying to design its properties.
@@TwoGoblinsInATrenchCoat no problem my friend. You might even be able to do some inspired ovjects from moana or something too. Shaking the fishook with turn you into a random creature from the sea for example. Im creating a 3 island open world for my family to learn how to play dnd in and bonding time. Magical items are next on my agenda
I always wanted to play in a high magic setting, where magic is so common it's almost indistinguishable from modern day. Disposable self grooming razors and brushes can be bought from any corner market stall. Every home has an enchanted cold cabinet to store their produce in. WeaveNet connected seer crystals (EyeStones) allow denizens to communicate with each other instantly. Arcanomechanical Engineers design auto-enchanters for large scale factories. Air Djinn Express delivers products from all over the plane straight to the consumer. It's how I imagine the world would look right before the Calamity - like a magical D&D Jettsons.
I should publish my home-brew setting, as it's basically this. There are 12 worlds known to mankind, linked by massive portals known as Titan Gates, each jealously guarded by rich nobles who fund their kingdom's economy by changing merchants a fee for travel between worlds. Flying islands dot the Skys, fought over by Gargoyles and Vanara, who claim these places as descendants of the Dragons and Titans respectively. Zeppelins allow for global air travel, with various other kinds of airships lost in the ruins of massive cities overrun by monsters. Central Heating is possible thanks to Fire Elementals, and magical Air Conditioning and Ice-makers exist using Frost Elementals. Clockwork Farmers live in towers around which massive farms are tended to for long forgotten creators, and now claimed by wealthy nobles. The Dwarves maintain a global subway system that link their cities together based on technology created by the Titans. The Saurian races maintain their own civilizations in swamps, deserts, and other warm locations, using technology left behind by the Dragons. Magic items, new and ancient, litter the world, found in market stalls and desolate ruins. A moon-sized supercomputer orbits one of the planets, housing the knowledge of the ancient Titans, but lying unused as no one can access it. I even created rules to allow a player to start the game bonded to a liquid metal symbiont, who grants a bonus to Armor Class at the cost of not being able to cast magic spells.
You know, this episode reminded me about a show I used to watch as a kid called Xiaolin Showdown. Basically, the whole show centered around finding magic items. It might serve as good source of inspiration for some magic items. Anyways, great episode as always guys!
For DND Beyond after looking over things I crafted a Ring of Holding. It seemed like something so obvious that was needed, and it didn't already exist. The area it could contain was modeled after a bag of holding but since a ring is much smaller, so too was the space and weight it could hold. I thought it would be perfect for a Rogue to hide their ill gotten gains in plain sight.
One of my favourite items I ever created is the Dimensional Key, lets you cast Dimension Door once per day, strong fun, and can have great lore attached super easily.
Love it been working on a npc who could teach players to craft magic items the twist is the strongest weapons are made using demons and they usually curse the weapon/ have sentience.
There's this one anime called MAR-Heaven that had this really fun concept of *ALL* the things are magic weapons (called ARM) and I would REALLY love to do that one day! Swords, shovels, quarterstaffs, pocket dimensions, summons...you name it, it was probably an ARM, which are wearable trinkets/accessories that would, on a few seconds of concentration, summon the ARM to it's true form. This video reminded me to work on it again after a year or so of altered interests, so thank you for making this vid!
@@theendblock102 Yup! Crazy show at times, and I wanna say either the dub was never finished? Or the anime itself was never finished...I remember swapping over to the manga at one point to get the end of the story.
@@theendblock102 yeah this thing is totally real. I picked up the manga when I was younger and was so into the concept of wearable trinkets that became badass weapons of legend!! I've known maybe one other person that knew what the series was lol
As always the opening was gold. My limited experience with custom magic items is, balance is difficult. But this advice should help mitigate those issues.
My first Homebrew magic item was a great axe called "Enforcer". It was a +2 great axe that anytime you hit with a melee weapon attack with the weapon, you can spend a charge to deal an extra 2d10 force damage and cause the target to make a dc 16 strength save. On fail the target is knocked prone. It also had the ability to cast thuder wave for 2 charges with ever extra charge the effect is stronger. It had a Max charge of 6 charges. I was pretty proud and I'd love to bring it back.
Great discussion. As a Runequest, Cthulhu, Ravenloft and WoD storyteller, I try to make my magical itens a quest to construct or to search. Make them few, make them powerful, make them relevant and always have a few in any of them. Stronger itens may come with continuous use, the wrong decisions and the tentation of corruption. A good item might transforme into a a legend with the stories growing, perhaps some curses depending on the moral choices.
The DM for a game I’m playing in gave each character an item tailored to the characters’ backstories, that evolve with us as we level. My character has her mother’s scimitar that does radiant damage on a crit, and lets me burn spell slots to make more attacks as a bonus action (letting me cast support spells and still use the sword), our Minotaur celestial warlock/barbarian has a relic that can cast prayer of healing as an action once per day and can concentrate on a spell for him while he rages, but becomes targetable and has to role checks, the Druid has an breast plate that shifts with her beast shapes and can cast stone skin once per day. I love how the items enhance our play styles and tie into our stories as we travel. I’m so excited to learn legend lore to learn more about them and their histories. I’m real worried the hexblade’s (he’s kind of like this Arthurian knight to some king with a magic sword who sketches me out) sword is possessed or something.
That sounds really fun, I’ve also found that magic items that tie into your character on a somewhat personal level or fit with your style tend to be more rewarding
My players helped a wizard recover his research into an adamantine conditioner for leather and hide, which was stolen by ... a group of lycanthropes hoping to produce it for themselves. The conditioner provides a temporary benefit (nullify crits) that getsore persistent the more times it gets used, eventually becoming a permanent adamantine infusion, thereby nullifying critical hits. The conditioner can only be applied once per 10 days initially, and after the 50th application the effects lasts 100 days, and can be applied once per 100 days. It is permanent after the 55th application.
The players dont know this yet, but the early experiments were caustic, and some of the lycanthropes (who have been tracking his research in secret a long time) were badly injured when they tried it on their own skins, which is a point of tension with the unknowing wozard
In my homebrew there is a type of crystal "Vantarite" from my version of the shadowfell "giant's grave" basically once a crystal makes it to the prime material it gain's a magical trait but instead of falling into the normal 8 schools it manifests as a negative or opposite version, I.E. one of my players got his hand's on a great sword that is anti-Evocation.
An idea I read somewhere that I like and use in my games is that weapons with a +1 or higher enchantment teach the wielder how to use that kind of weapon, like the player feels a nudge on their feet and arms correcting stance and over the course of a few weeks or months of practice the character gets proficiency in that type of weapon (longsword, dagger, bow, etc)
Another would be that the weapon had proto-sapience and has mini quests built into it so if you achieve certain goals you unlock additional powers, like leveling in a certain class, defeating or protecting a specific person, similar to the legacy weapons in 3.5
This was interesting. I hadn't put much thought into creating my own magic items, but it's right up my alley. I think I'll give my rogue a dagger that's a sentient. It's very old, so it's also a bit senile. When you roll a 1 it get's scared and screams. Not great if you happen to be sneaking! Thanks for another inspiring episode. Fourth session coming up this weekend gents. It must be going well because my oldest daughter (14) invited a friend to play with us for third session. Everyone had a great time. They're still getting their heads around roll playing, but other than that, it's going well. Both I and my wife have musical theater backgrounds, so that helps.
I like to take something D&D doesn't do often but does well. I like that there are "utility" magic items and artifacts that have good abilities that you know will work every time. A plus one sword will give you that plus one every time without fail. 5e you can play without magic items but some games require the use of magic items at higher levels to not die, and the players have to be able to rely on them. And I like that there are cursed ones that look safe but are dangerous when you use them. But I like to include something that is not so common. That is, items with huge benefits but significant draw-backs. My simple example is the double-cross-bow: it has two arrow-grooves and two strings so you can fire two quarrels with one reload-action. But it is magical so on a natural 1, one of those bolts is fired at the wielder and damages them as a critical hit. It's powerful but risky. Other examples you could take from good ol' Tolkien. Take a orc-bane sword that glows a faint blue-white light whenever orcs are around. Say a 300 foot radius. It is magic and deals a lot more damage to orcs. What's the risk or drawback you ask? Well, it's a bit hard to hide when you are sneaking about with a bloody glowing sword! Even sheathed it will glow and some of that light wil filter through if the scabbard isn't specially made. The other thing might be a spellbook that has a useful spell that you can cast once per day without expending your spell-slots and it's a different spell each day. But the book is also the phylactery of an ancient lich or the seal to the prison of a powerdul magic-wielding creature, and each spell brings the creature closer to freedom. Maybe the DM could roll 1d100 to see how many spells are needed to cast to free the thing, and tell or not tell the players at their own disgression. For my inspiration I like to use actual mythology. There are so many riches in Celtic and ancient European, Asian and African mythology that you could fill entire books with just ideas for magic weapons. My favourite might be a Celtic myth of a spear that once thrown, it will not stop flying and hitting enemies until it is caught or all the enemies are dead. It had to be kept in a broth of milk, wine and poppy-juice to keep it sleepy so it wouldn't constantly attack people. Thor's hammer is another great one, and for magic swords, the many versions of Excalibur and other magic swords of Arthurian legend like the non-wounding Courtain or Cortana come to mind.
Players of mine going through Curse of Strahd met Mordenkainen (as you do). He gave them a magical item I created. It doesnt have a name, it doesnt have a defined use, it just has charges, that do not refresh. He tells them 'when you need something, and you will know, use this.' WHAT THE ITEM DOES, is when used it casts any one of the 'mordenkainen' named spells from any existing edition of D&D that is most apt for the current situation.
I have one that I promised to share in my comment on you "gold spending" video: an enchanted ship in a bottle. There are pros and cons to owning one, but the expense would be absolutely ridiculous to actually acquire one even with connections: one would need to be rich enough to buy 5 nations. Pros: 1. Passage on a ship is always guaranteed 2. Fees involving the vessel ranging from paying the crew up and including port taxes are avoided 3. Can serve as a mobile stronghold Cons: 1. Bottle must be safeguarded at all times due to it being the source of its enchantments 2. The type of vessel inside is all that's available 3. The bottle being damaged or even destroyed has 1 of only 2 repercussions: A: Damage to the bottle with the vessel being outside will hit the player party's pocket B: The vessel still being INSIDE will render the vessel being useless and any items in it (even those not part of the accommodations) will be lost forever The reason for the massive expense is because of the time needed to actually create it and possibly a crew to man it while in use along with the enchantments for that, replenishment of consumables, etc.
Imbue item, plus spell of choice makes most magic spells, get a ingredient list for potions, I have a wand that can open planar gate to any of the planes plus a spell that restores spells imbued into it.. I love it, travel to any plane at will
The only tinkering I've done with magic items (admittedly I've only been dming for like 2 months) is taking the +1 plant killing axe from phandelver (hew), turned it into a +1 axe of orc slaying, and changed the location so I could make sure it got into the hands of one of my dwarf players, who hates orcs.
I got my players very excited when they rescued a sentient magical flying cape from the clutches of a hag, only for the cape not to want to be possessed. The cape representing freedom from bounds and joyous expression of movement. The cape wrapped itself around the neck of the person who freed it from it's chest, dramatically billowing and lending an air of heroism to the wearer, then the cape flew into the air and started chasing birds, it tumbled through the air chasing one of my player's mage hand, with the player trying to trick it into entering their bag of holding. The cape saw through how this person just wants to possess them, and then it flew off into the horizon..
My favourite item I've made for my campaign was when I converted the Fallout 4 Super Sledge into a little something I called the Rockethammer. It's so satisfying seeing the player wield it with reckless abandon.
Does anyone else find the Web DM videos are getting quieter and quieter? I feel like I never used to struggle to hear them, but lately I have my laptop on max volume and its still pretty quiet.
Use headphones. It could be your Laptop speakers. I work in a factory and had this playing on my phone and I still heard it even with all of the noise from everyone working.
In one of our campaigns the party found an Amulet of Questioning. When someone puts it on they are immediately changed to the opposite sex permanently. The barbarian in the group, who was really impulsive, just put it on rather than have it identified. When he discovered what it did, he immediately tried to put it on the arrogant, male paladin the group. After a failing the saving throw, the paladin was changed as well. It was pretty hilarious when they had to deal with guys hitting on them at the local tavern.
Time to keep the Ring of Catapult Alive. Requires Attunement, Functions as Wand of Magic Missile with the following changes. 9 Charges, no chance to Self Destruct, each charge fires a Magic Missile in the form of a housecat. When the cat manifest, it has 1/2 d8 hp, and takes the same amount of damage as it dealt to the target. Cursed Variant: Should a Cat die on impact, in 1d100+1 days, it's ghost begins to manifest each nightfall constantly bawling at the user that gave it life only to experience pain and then immediately die. There is no limit to the number of ghost that may follow the user. To be honest, I've never handed out a non-cursed version. We recently had a trigger happy rouge use up all the charges each day until a few months later and the first night with a cat yowling at him bothered him. Party blamed it on the shack they called in. Then the next night, 6 cats appear.....
My DM had my Arcane Archer go on an epic campaign long quest for what we later would refer to as the Patriot Arrow And the Bow of the Elements. The arrow had it's own special carrying holster that attached to my quiver. It did massive dmg and when paired with the Bow could be imbued with various other effects (for instance on a sea voyage one time before I really knew what I had, I activated what I guessed was the flame element gem and fired at the mast of the attacking raider ship rolled a Nat 20 and the arrow activated a massive flame explosion effect that blew a huge hole in the deck and sank the enemy ship). The catch was after every use I had to roll percentile dice and if the die roll was a multiple of 13 the arrow would disappear into the twisting nether, if I succeeded at the roll the arrow would go dormant and was unusable for a certain amount of time I think it was a d6 worth of days. Through the use of a ritual I could attempt to call it back to it's holster but, there was no guarantee it would immediately return. The Bow was etched with runes and embedded with various gems related to dif element (fire, air, water, etc) and came with a book of instructions on how to activate it's various other abilities. The catch with the bow was that if it was dmg'ed it was hard to repair because it was made of rare materials and if I rolled a 1 on my attack there was a chance for one of the gems to shatter (lol I broke the bow string at least twice and had some interesting conversations with npc's trying to track down replacements lol). I had to spend time during our rest period studying the manual and eventually by the end of his career he unlocked all it's secrets. Like at first I could only activate one gem (element) at a time but, after a little while I learned how to combine dif ones together for interesting results. :D
a vial of healing. an empty vial that you cast a spell into and it fills up as a potion of healing = to a cure spell of that spell level usable 1/short or long rest.
What I'm getting from this video is that every magic item needs to be significant to the game for some reason. Players should never be able to respond to finding a magic item with, "Oh, that's cool."
I sprinkle my campaigns with various eccentric little magic items that were either: A) something cute that rich parents would give their kid for a graduation present, or B) something that a high-level alchemist would make for everyday convenience that has no purpose you couldn't also do with a little manpower, or C) something that a rich, slightly nutty, powerful person would make or have made as essentially a desk ornament or personal amusement. I am a firm believer that people 1000 years ago didn't have the current adventuring party in mind when they invested in arcane artifacts. It's up to the party to figure out whether a given item has any meaningful use or not. The artifacts they find may be the ones that no one else thought was worth starting a major crusade to recover. Also, as GM, I may find a way to make some silly little item significant to the story in some way later on that isn't just about power.
Context is key here. Fantasy & folklore are brimming with items that once taken out of their original, intended context (rich collector's antimagicked vault, powerful mage's knickknack, spirit/faerie realm toy) prove to be grossly powerful, or otherwise have unintended consequences. I saw a Real-World exhibit that included these little clay/porcelain/glass palm-sized objects that modern archaeologists infer were used as invites/passes to "cool parties for important people". Now they're being studied in a museum. You can easily start from a place of "random pocket trinkets" or household/trade items, and then imbue them with a use that was totally mundane & harmless *in context*, but now you're putting them in the hands of PCs. It can go the other way as well, where an object has little/no mundane value, but is priceless to the right entities (divine/sacred artifacts are especially good for this one).
I have a homebrew Maul named "The Maul of Mutilation" you can pierce your hands on the metal thorns above and below the grips and take 2d4 damage (no reductions allowed) and feed it your blood, in turn it becomes a +2 Maul and your crit range is increased by 1, this effect lasts for 3 rounds. The weapon is sentient and pesters the wielder to feed it and in turn it will crush their foes when in battle. Back story is pretty open ended, it could have been made by fiends or maybe forged by vampirc dwarves whose lords soul is trapped inside
An idea I always had was if you managed to win against the Avatar of Death, you’d get a choice between the following: the cloak of the shades (a combo of levitate, cloak of elven kind, and I dunno misty step with a +2 to AC?) the scythe of the reaper it is a 2 handed finesse reach weapon and deals 1d8 slashing + 1d8 necrotic damage. When you slay a living creature with this weapon they must succeed a DC 15 will save or their soul is trapped in the scythe dealings an additional 1d8 necrotic damage for every soul contained. However, one escapes the weapon per day, and it can hold up to 4 at a time.
I'm thinking about using an optional Rule whereby you role to see how well your attunement to an item goes. So if you are a paladin based in light maybe the personality of a staff of darkness is really counter to the rest of your character but the rogue might not have that problem. Or if you really want to you either keep attempting the attunement or maybe take some rp actions to influence the items perception of you.
I was coming up with styles of magic weapons and such for my campaign, I figured it would help solidify the countries a bit more if I could describe the things they built, in more detail. Long story short I came to the idea of a salesman that would create animals with the effects of magic items. The first thing he gave the party was a trio of chipmunks that cast healing word twice a day. I think the party forgot he made animals with special effects because they just asked him to make them hats of disguise.
Repurposing earlier magical items could be something neat; perhaps use them as fuel for something (spell, other magic item or donations to certain groups or maybe go with sort of pseudo-crafting systems; enchantment (that in setting could be a spirit or demon inhabiting weapon) can be moved into other items, usually exhibiting same function. With really powerful binding, you can force and meld two spirits together and bind to new/old item. This could also produce some adventure in ways, as you could create mishap possibility; maybe the two fuse in some unexpected way, or the binding fails and enchantment gets to roam free. Maybe these bindings can also produce drawbacks that represent their spirit in some ways.
Ya crafting in game magic items is something that takes a few years to get into learning.. I like to take 2 or 3 low magic items and make a plus 5, our gm only let's us do plus 5 because we tried to do a plus 15 battleaxe, uh uh
Autumnal Rod - has a 50/50 chance to cast a fire spell or an ice spell when used. Could potentially become more erratic at higher levels (could give a slight burn, could dump a fireball on you - depending on dice rolls).
I’ve been waiting for you guys to do this topic! You mentioned doing a guns show during the pirate episode. Hope to see that included in a video or be a main topic soon.
I don't give out "just +1 and greater" magic weapons and armor anymore. A great resource I use to give the +1 or better armor and weapons some extra flair or a cool ability is Nerzugal's DM Toolkit (pay what you want on the DMsGuild). It has a bunch of different resources in it but key for this ***8*** d100 tables for magical item effects. If you're wanting to give your items a dressing up, then this is invaluable.
It exists in the official Dungeonmaster’s Guide under the name of frost brand. Pretty sure it has been carried over from previous editions. I wouldn’t be surprised if chillrend was inspired by frost brand.
The Babelfish - lives in yoir ear and gives you the ability to understand any language Isopod of Tongues - lets you speak any language, but lives in your mouth. Ypu have eat twice as much food per day. Tapeworm of immunity to ingested poisons. Also requires you to eat more per day.
I made a home brew magic giants’ bane war club that is actually a wooden table leg from a hill giant’s workshop. The tableleg was made from the heart wood of a hibernating Treant. The table leg is sentient, can talk (cussing like a sailor/won’t shut up) and wants sweet revenge on all giants for chopping him up. The club offers temporary giant strength to the wielder who is attuned to the weapon and will refuse to work for anyone else. The downside is that in the presence of any giant, the wielded must make a Wisdom Saving throw or be charmed into a mindless rage and attack the nearest giant. Discretion being the better part of valor can quickly be thrown out the window and this has caused our party tremendous problems and hijinks as the person playing the Cleric who wields the weapon has terrible luck making saving throws.
I remember the comic Nodwick by Aaron Williams, I'm kind of disappointed the comic doesn't have any new stories going on, had what it claimed was a "Legendary Artifact" but was just really silly, the Clue by Four (a plank of wood on a wooden handle). What makes the Clue by Four so special? When you get hit by it then your Int is bumped up for a short time. I actually did my best to recreate it in D&D Beyond, so the Clue by Four is now existing as a homebrew magic item for 5E on D&D Beyond
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I love the pulp fiction guys awesome job
Web DM would halfling luck of Elry effect the laser pistol effect adding another d20 roll or no?
DO LIZARDFOLK
Jim got to hold Mjollnir... there must be a cost.
A magic blade of goblin slaying, melted down and reforged into a helmet. Still does +1 to goblins, but you have to throw it at them, or headbutt them with it on.
Lol I love that
Just imagining a Goliath needing to get on their knees to headbutt goblins. Or I guess pick them up. Either way great image
@@AwkwardlySatisfying Hey! A great use for grapple.
@@baronbob962 and grappling in 5e can be super fun and versatile! Great thought!
You can't melt a magic item because it's indestructible, to do that it would be incredible expensive for not much point. But....
You could apply this to a fist or gauntlet though. An orc melted iron around it and turned it into a fist, so he could punch goblins... but now you're stuck with a goblin slaying knife stuck in an oversized fist. That or a goblin tried to bury it in an iron ball so he'd stop torturing goblins, so the orc who owned it turned it into a morningstar, chain ball or the tip of a crazy weird halberd.
Maybe an orc melted it into an iron helmet, thinking it would look cool, not realizing what it was until it was too late. There might be 3 magical daggers stuck in that helmet awkwardly and just nobody knows.
Maybe they don't even know when they pick it up.
Some favourite homebrew items of mine:
Silent Witness: A sword that is completely silent. It makes no sound when cutting, stabbing, being unsheathed etc. It also lets you cast Silence once per long rest. Simple, but my rogue really enjoyed it.
A bracer that projects a shield of force (bonus action to activate/deactivate). The shield is just a regular plus 2 to AC. However, once per rest you can overcharge the bracer to cast the Shield spell (so plus 7 to AC) but the shield is then unusable until a rest.
A sword with a clear crystal blade that lets the player cast Counterspell against magic of fire, cold or lightning. If successful, it absorbs the element of the spell and deals 1d6 of that damage type for the next 8 hours. During this time, the Counterspell cannot be used. However, a player can remove the element from the sword by doing something appropriate for the element in question. They could place the fiery sword in cold water or snow for an hour, sink the blade in dirt for an hour to discharge the lightning etc. It gives players a choice: do I need the Counterspell or the extra damage more?
I love the overcharging shield bracer idea, I might steal that.
They’re cool as!
Your silent sword reminded of a sword I made which is kind of like the folly to a silent sword, in that it’s +1 to hit/damage but when you attack someone you have to make a DC15 Wisdom saving throw or loudly apologise to the creature you attacked in a language they would know. So you really struggle to sneak with it.
Uh, yeah, let me just write these down real quick, don't mind me. . .
An idea I always had was if you managed to win against the Avatar of Death, you’d get a choice between the following:
the cloak of the shades (a combo of levitate, cloak of elven kind, and I dunno misty step with a +2 to AC?)
the scythe of the reaper it is a 2 handed finesse reach weapon and deals 1d8 slashing + 1d8 necrotic damage. When you slay a living creature with this weapon they must succeed a DC 15 will save or their soul is trapped in the scythe dealings an additional 1d8 necrotic damage for every soul contained. However, one escapes the weapon per day, and it can hold up to 4 at a time.
Please, feel free to steal this stuff!
Warlock patron: Astral suitcase.
It is infinite. It is eternal.
It's a hexblade variant. You open the case to cast or bash people with it for melee.
@@angelusmortis8142 talking suitcase hex weapon is the best
Eldritch Blast is throwing the briefcase and then it blows up before returning to the hand.
So, who’d you make your pact with?
A bag of holding.
Rask... is that you? Its Hogger
I find people forget inventory. Scrolls and potions and boutique ammo end up forgotten on the back of the character sheet. So I make cards for consumables. When you burn it, you hand it in. When you are playing you have a fan of resource cards in front of you.
Clever.
I honestly am a big fan of the Cypher system's... Cyphers. They let you do the cool flashy shit that you want your magic items to do, but once. Which like honestly is how often so many players will use their magic items for things other than "I hit the orc with my +1 sword."
I love the content, but the intros are always extra nice gems.
Another option with magic items is having them come in parts. When my players were creating characters, I let them have any magic item they could think of that didn't doing anything real in game mechanics but fit their characters back story. The ranger came up with a bow that spouts witty one liners when he shoots enemies. I then used that as a base for future magic item rewards. For example, he first got a quiver that is a companion to the bow that returns and mends fired arrows (yay no more ammo tracking) but is sentient and told him about the poor state of the bow. Next he will find a magic bow string that it turns out was originally part of his bow that increases damage (instead of just finding a +1 bow) and now his bow starts to gain a personality as it is a little more complete. Next will be guards that attach to the front of the bow to protect it so he can now use it to defend against melee attacks (+1 AC vs melee) but also has slots for gems. Then there are gems for different damage types, a sight for +1 to hit and allow ricochet shots, etc. The more complete bow can now converse and give advice on how to fight an enemy: "No don't use fire against a fire elemental! Have I taught you nothing?!". They're only at level 5 now so it's all still a long way off.
David Richards That sounds really cool.
That kind of thing is exactly what I kept waiting for them to mention doing when they were talking about item creation at the beginning. Probably just me having played Zelda and various JRPGs too much.
I always loved the way Earthdawn handled magic items. No such thing as 'just' a magic sword, it's an item with stories, legend or even personality attached. And the more you discovered the stories, or added to the legends, the more you unlocked the magical properties.
That's. Fucking. Cool!!! Just went down a rabbit hole of thinking of magic items with lore tied to my world. I always thought of them as just cool things to reward to my players but this takes it to another level. God I love this game and community.
@@dren5810 One advantage is that you can give a starting player an item that grows as they do.
@@killcat1971 I've been grappling with how to pull that off from the beginning of my campaign. However, watching this video helped me out a lot. For example, I have a warlock in my party (pact of the blade) who doesnt have his sentient weapon yet but earns pieces of it through learning about his past, this is tied to a vampire clan and his sisters soul being the sentient part of the blade drip feeding him aspects of his past. She also sends him out on specific missions where upon completion he receives boons. I could totally do the same for the rest of my party.
Shadowrun lore (Sixth World, Earthdawn is 4th World, so two eras before) is super deep, complex and I love it.
I hate the dice, astral, and Matrix rules.
Yes earthdawn also was very unique in that multiple players could "attune" to the same item so there's not a ton of party fighting for the "good" item
I feel like bog standard items like a +1 sword or a cloak that gives you +1 AC should be reserved for stuff that you can buy. If your party wants to get one they can find a magic shop and buy it, it'll be better than what they currently have but it's not going to be amazing. If you're going to give it to them as treasure, make it something with some kind of unique effect like the ability to run on water.
I really enjoy using scaling magic items that grant a bonus to whatever it does equal to half of your proficiency bonus. It requires attunement, and it usually has some little additional ability.
I made a flute of animal messenger once for my players - the trick being that it summoned the same squirrel each time, Gimmer. Got to give him a personality and everything
I love minor magic items and one time use items. Also, items who grow with a character if certain things are met. Super fun.
Transferring magical properties from one item to another. I gave my players this option ONCE when a high powered wizard provided them the boon. Sort of like a custom crafting event, so they got to port magic from items found to items they are emotionally attached to. I think it worked well.
Lighter of Bic, The Mad Mage:
An ordinary red lighter that appears to be non-magical in nature. When activated using the plunger, a Fireball spell of a random level (1d6+3) is cast in the direction of the nearest enemy.
Awh, it's like the Deluminator Hermione gets for Dumbledore, except Voldemort made it.
Also deals 1d4 damage to user, and can't be used in moderate to high wind.
Nah, on a 1-4 on a d100, it fires off a Burning Hands spell cast at a random level spell slot. A bit risky, perhaps, to light your pipe with it...
@@NickTBrick Ron gets the Deluminator...
I had a very similar magic item in my game. It was a cursed lighter that when lit, cast fireball centered on itself at level 3 + 1d6.
10/10 like normal keep up the awesome work web dm crew never a disappointment
The most hilarious homebrew magic (cursed) item I've ever added to one of my campaigns was for a player that loved to horde magic items, jumping at claiming them before anyone else could see if they could use them, if they were safe, etc. I wish I had a picture of his face when I asked for his character sheet and explained that he'd proudly just donned a Helm of Devouring. I sketched a little pic of a cartoon helm with eyes and teeth gleefully munching away at all that was left of him, a pair of boots.
That is one way to deal with a treasure hoarder!
My favorite little thing is to have different (items) of holding. It totally makes sense for a well off mariner to have a sea chest of holding for instance. Or for a small merchant ship to be able to have barrels with the same enchantment, to making shipping things easier. Or instead of a bag or large box, a tiny jewelry box that is still extra dimensional but isn't as big on the inside as a bag of holding.
I've been waiting for this episode for a long time specifically for helping me make artifacts for my players
Mine are about to discover a savage continent where the Moonshae Isles are supposed to be. I need to do more research into custom magic. As well as recipes for magical items. Gonna be fun!
@@Grinnar I just made a 2nd level transmutation spell like a week ago call tendriled lock where it requires somatic and material components with the components being a head full of hair and a silver hair brush worth 50 gp and you run the brush through your hair which then grows 30 feet long and can lash out and grapple creatures and crush them and the higher the level you use the more creatures you can grapple
Reskinning normal items is so much fun. My new group just found a Wand of Magic Missiles, but instead of a wand it was a frog that burps magic misslies when you squeeze him (or command him to do so if you can speak to animals). They found him in a hag's hut, she fed him special herbs and spell ingredients to 'enchant' him. Especially for experienced parties, this is a way to hype up every day magic items.
*Leomund's Sleeping Bag*
_Wondrous Item, rare_
This large drawstring bag contains an extradimensional space, approximately six feet in diameter and seven feet deep. The bag can hold up to 1000 punds, not exceeding a volume of 198 cubic feet, and can fit up to two Medium sized creatures comfortably. While closed, the contents of the bag are protected from weather and temperature, and living occupants can breath freely while inside. The bag can be opened or closed from inside. This item otherwise has the properties of a _bag of holding_ .
I have an item like that. If they take a long rest in it then all hit dice rolled are doubled in value.
Magnificent! MAGNIFICENT!!!!! I love it
Anytime I'm starting a campaign I have asked my players to write a backstory for me and if they do I will grant them a magic item of my choice. This magic item is very often a custom-made one tailored to that character keeping their back story and abilities in mind. Making magic items is an important part of being a GM
Bio-mechanical Items involving symbiotic relationship with exotic/mutant creatures reminds me of Flintstones Dino-tech
In my campaign, I've adopted Earthdawn's approach to magic items, by weaving threads to empower them. The more intimate becomes your knowledge of an item's lore and purpose, the more of its powers you unlock. Think of it as levels of attunement.
I made spells like booming blade, green flame blade into magic items. Specifically to discourage the need to multiclass into warlock/sorcerer and works fantastically
The diversity of single use items beyond the norm is definitely making it into my campaigns. A magic lotion that boosts charisma for a bit or throwing a small gem on the ground to make an effect or someone/thing owing a "favor" all sound great.
One item i would expect to be common is an "Amulet of prophylaxis" it prevents both conception and disease.
There was a plant seed in Ancient Rome that was supposed to prevent pregnancy. It was found in North Africa, and proved to be so popular the plant went extinct from people digging them up for sale.
I like elemental weapons or items that do additional damage, for example, lightning until you use an ability or roll a crit. Then it gets that big burst, but loses the constant energy.
Yes
This video comes at the perfect time! I'm homebrewing three magical weapons... ancient Celestial weapons that devils are looking to corrupt for their own devices, and the party is looking to find them first.
I like items with a static bonus when wielded normally (+1, etc.) and another ability that you only get when attuned.
Rolled high on initiative this time. Never been this early. Great topic for a video!
Welcome to the notification crowd!
Two features I like to play with when making items are concentration and levels of attunement.
For example, you could have a sword that gives some benefits normally, but becomes more powerful if the character expends a second (or third) attunement slot on it. I especially like playing with this when dealing with sentient weapons, allowing stronger and stronger buffs (with appropriate trade off or risks when dealing with evil weapons) based on how devoted the character is.
Concentration is fun to play with because it lets non-caster classes actually get some use out of the concentration resource, and lets you introduce risk-reward into items. For example, say a ring of haste which, by spending an action, allows a character to grant themselves the haste effect but only for as long as they maintain concentration, with them suffering the usual drawbacks if the haste effect ends.
I was hoping that the chest would be the pulp fiction chest for a second
I THINK that was the joke there, even if they used the wrong color of light.
pretty sure it's the joke...
Talking about magic items reflecting culture, in the setting i'm designing, there's an big archipelago full of islands and people and fish and things, and about two centuries before the present date, a guy called Jiven rose up and united the squabbling little island territories, becoming Guardian (effectively a King). To cut out a bit of history, effectively there's this artifact called the Crown of the Guardian, and this video really helps me in trying to design its properties.
If it is an archipelago then maybe you could make some sort of magic fishing hook that a god dropped or something
@@benbenben1008 You know, I was initially thinking a Crown, but a something more fish-themed seems like it could fit better. So... thank you (;
@@TwoGoblinsInATrenchCoat no problem my friend. You might even be able to do some inspired ovjects from moana or something too. Shaking the fishook with turn you into a random creature from the sea for example. Im creating a 3 island open world for my family to learn how to play dnd in and bonding time. Magical items are next on my agenda
I always wanted to play in a high magic setting, where magic is so common it's almost indistinguishable from modern day. Disposable self grooming razors and brushes can be bought from any corner market stall. Every home has an enchanted cold cabinet to store their produce in. WeaveNet connected seer crystals (EyeStones) allow denizens to communicate with each other instantly. Arcanomechanical Engineers design auto-enchanters for large scale factories. Air Djinn Express delivers products from all over the plane straight to the consumer.
It's how I imagine the world would look right before the Calamity - like a magical D&D Jettsons.
I should publish my home-brew setting, as it's basically this. There are 12 worlds known to mankind, linked by massive portals known as Titan Gates, each jealously guarded by rich nobles who fund their kingdom's economy by changing merchants a fee for travel between worlds. Flying islands dot the Skys, fought over by Gargoyles and Vanara, who claim these places as descendants of the Dragons and Titans respectively. Zeppelins allow for global air travel, with various other kinds of airships lost in the ruins of massive cities overrun by monsters. Central Heating is possible thanks to Fire Elementals, and magical Air Conditioning and Ice-makers exist using Frost Elementals. Clockwork Farmers live in towers around which massive farms are tended to for long forgotten creators, and now claimed by wealthy nobles. The Dwarves maintain a global subway system that link their cities together based on technology created by the Titans. The Saurian races maintain their own civilizations in swamps, deserts, and other warm locations, using technology left behind by the Dragons. Magic items, new and ancient, litter the world, found in market stalls and desolate ruins. A moon-sized supercomputer orbits one of the planets, housing the knowledge of the ancient Titans, but lying unused as no one can access it. I even created rules to allow a player to start the game bonded to a liquid metal symbiont, who grants a bonus to Armor Class at the cost of not being able to cast magic spells.
I really like the notion of magic items that unlock additional features once they are in their "awakened" form after certain circumstances are met
You know, this episode reminded me about a show I used to watch as a kid called Xiaolin Showdown. Basically, the whole show centered around finding magic items. It might serve as good source of inspiration for some magic items. Anyways, great episode as always guys!
GoldenDragon007
YES!! I loved that show growing up and its where I get so much of my imagery for the monk class
@@AlexanderBaird same, although now i really wonder if it was a fever dream
For DND Beyond after looking over things I crafted a Ring of Holding. It seemed like something so obvious that was needed, and it didn't already exist. The area it could contain was modeled after a bag of holding but since a ring is much smaller, so too was the space and weight it could hold. I thought it would be perfect for a Rogue to hide their ill gotten gains in plain sight.
One of my favourite items I ever created is the Dimensional Key, lets you cast Dimension Door once per day, strong fun, and can have great lore attached super easily.
Isn’t there already an item that lets you do that basically
Love it been working on a npc who could teach players to craft magic items the twist is the strongest weapons are made using demons and they usually curse the weapon/ have sentience.
There's this one anime called MAR-Heaven that had this really fun concept of *ALL* the things are magic weapons (called ARM) and I would REALLY love to do that one day!
Swords, shovels, quarterstaffs, pocket dimensions, summons...you name it, it was probably an ARM, which are wearable trinkets/accessories that would, on a few seconds of concentration, summon the ARM to it's true form.
This video reminded me to work on it again after a year or so of altered interests, so thank you for making this vid!
Do it!!!
I thought for sure I hallucinated this series because I've been unable to find any trace of it.
@@theendblock102 Yup! Crazy show at times, and I wanna say either the dub was never finished? Or the anime itself was never finished...I remember swapping over to the manga at one point to get the end of the story.
@@theendblock102 yeah this thing is totally real. I picked up the manga when I was younger and was so into the concept of wearable trinkets that became badass weapons of legend!! I've known maybe one other person that knew what the series was lol
Great guys! I really enjoy your opinion on using magic items as part of a culture!
“Archaeologist militia” is a delightful phrase.
As always the opening was gold. My limited experience with custom magic items is, balance is difficult.
But this advice should help mitigate those issues.
My first Homebrew magic item was a great axe called "Enforcer". It was a +2 great axe that anytime you hit with a melee weapon attack with the weapon, you can spend a charge to deal an extra 2d10 force damage and cause the target to make a dc 16 strength save. On fail the target is knocked prone. It also had the ability to cast thuder wave for 2 charges with ever extra charge the effect is stronger. It had a Max charge of 6 charges.
I was pretty proud and I'd love to bring it back.
Great discussion. As a Runequest, Cthulhu, Ravenloft and WoD storyteller, I try to make my magical itens a quest to construct or to search. Make them few, make them powerful, make them relevant and always have a few in any of them. Stronger itens may come with continuous use, the wrong decisions and the tentation of corruption. A good item might transforme into a a legend with the stories growing, perhaps some curses depending on the moral choices.
The DM for a game I’m playing in gave each character an item tailored to the characters’ backstories, that evolve with us as we level. My character has her mother’s scimitar that does radiant damage on a crit, and lets me burn spell slots to make more attacks as a bonus action (letting me cast support spells and still use the sword), our Minotaur celestial warlock/barbarian has a relic that can cast prayer of healing as an action once per day and can concentrate on a spell for him while he rages, but becomes targetable and has to role checks, the Druid has an breast plate that shifts with her beast shapes and can cast stone skin once per day. I love how the items enhance our play styles and tie into our stories as we travel. I’m so excited to learn legend lore to learn more about them and their histories. I’m real worried the hexblade’s (he’s kind of like this Arthurian knight to some king with a magic sword who sketches me out) sword is possessed or something.
That sounds really fun, I’ve also found that magic items that tie into your character on a somewhat personal level or fit with your style tend to be more rewarding
My players helped a wizard recover his research into an adamantine conditioner for leather and hide, which was stolen by ... a group of lycanthropes hoping to produce it for themselves. The conditioner provides a temporary benefit (nullify crits) that getsore persistent the more times it gets used, eventually becoming a permanent adamantine infusion, thereby nullifying critical hits.
The conditioner can only be applied once per 10 days initially, and after the 50th application the effects lasts 100 days, and can be applied once per 100 days. It is permanent after the 55th application.
The players dont know this yet, but the early experiments were caustic, and some of the lycanthropes (who have been tracking his research in secret a long time) were badly injured when they tried it on their own skins, which is a point of tension with the unknowing wozard
Love the video, 100% relate to Jim David's apparent tendency to forget magic items.
My group each had a cowbell with a different enchantment, so we became known in the world as the Cowbell Crew.
Love the name drop of Bruenor and how he made a +5 equivalent maul, perfect segue into how ANYONE should be allowed to make a magic item.
In my homebrew there is a type of crystal "Vantarite" from my version of the shadowfell "giant's grave" basically once a crystal makes it to the prime material it gain's a magical trait but instead of falling into the normal 8 schools it manifests as a negative or opposite version, I.E. one of my players got his hand's on a great sword that is anti-Evocation.
My favorite is a "Family Heirloom" named Phenrafang. It's a +3 Vorpal Quick Blade. A +3 to hit, a +3 on damage, a +3 for initiative, and a +3 to AC.
I made a magical stale muffin, and if you can stomach all of it, you can just summon a flumph
Lol
An idea I read somewhere that I like and use in my games is that weapons with a +1 or higher enchantment teach the wielder how to use that kind of weapon, like the player feels a nudge on their feet and arms correcting stance and over the course of a few weeks or months of practice the character gets proficiency in that type of weapon (longsword, dagger, bow, etc)
Another would be that the weapon had proto-sapience and has mini quests built into it so if you achieve certain goals you unlock additional powers, like leveling in a certain class, defeating or protecting a specific person, similar to the legacy weapons in 3.5
This was interesting. I hadn't put much thought into creating my own magic items, but it's right up my alley. I think I'll give my rogue a dagger that's a sentient. It's very old, so it's also a bit senile. When you roll a 1 it get's scared and screams. Not great if you happen to be sneaking! Thanks for another inspiring episode.
Fourth session coming up this weekend gents. It must be going well because my oldest daughter (14) invited a friend to play with us for third session. Everyone had a great time. They're still getting their heads around roll playing, but other than that, it's going well. Both I and my wife have musical theater backgrounds, so that helps.
Magic scabbards!
You need a magic scabbard. Just like the story of king Arthur.
*the mariner sword example is what reminded me of this
Looking forward to hear how you guys handle Homebrew magic items!
Probably my favourite intro of yours so far. That was well done.
Thank you!
Magic items are one of my favorite things about this game. So much fun. I loved this episode. ⚔️
Thanks Matthew!
Testing experimental magic items is part of the campaign I'm working on.
I really like the idea of a magic oil that gives a weapon a magical effect for like an hour
@Michael Johnson that is very neat Ill have to steal those ideas
"Pastes, creams, aerosols...". You can tell Jim Davis has been flying recently
I like to take something D&D doesn't do often but does well. I like that there are "utility" magic items and artifacts that have good abilities that you know will work every time. A plus one sword will give you that plus one every time without fail. 5e you can play without magic items but some games require the use of magic items at higher levels to not die, and the players have to be able to rely on them. And I like that there are cursed ones that look safe but are dangerous when you use them.
But I like to include something that is not so common. That is, items with huge benefits but significant draw-backs. My simple example is the double-cross-bow: it has two arrow-grooves and two strings so you can fire two quarrels with one reload-action. But it is magical so on a natural 1, one of those bolts is fired at the wielder and damages them as a critical hit. It's powerful but risky. Other examples you could take from good ol' Tolkien. Take a orc-bane sword that glows a faint blue-white light whenever orcs are around. Say a 300 foot radius. It is magic and deals a lot more damage to orcs. What's the risk or drawback you ask? Well, it's a bit hard to hide when you are sneaking about with a bloody glowing sword! Even sheathed it will glow and some of that light wil filter through if the scabbard isn't specially made. The other thing might be a spellbook that has a useful spell that you can cast once per day without expending your spell-slots and it's a different spell each day. But the book is also the phylactery of an ancient lich or the seal to the prison of a powerdul magic-wielding creature, and each spell brings the creature closer to freedom. Maybe the DM could roll 1d100 to see how many spells are needed to cast to free the thing, and tell or not tell the players at their own disgression.
For my inspiration I like to use actual mythology. There are so many riches in Celtic and ancient European, Asian and African mythology that you could fill entire books with just ideas for magic weapons. My favourite might be a Celtic myth of a spear that once thrown, it will not stop flying and hitting enemies until it is caught or all the enemies are dead. It had to be kept in a broth of milk, wine and poppy-juice to keep it sleepy so it wouldn't constantly attack people. Thor's hammer is another great one, and for magic swords, the many versions of Excalibur and other magic swords of Arthurian legend like the non-wounding Courtain or Cortana come to mind.
Players of mine going through Curse of Strahd met Mordenkainen (as you do). He gave them a magical item I created. It doesnt have a name, it doesnt have a defined use, it just has charges, that do not refresh. He tells them 'when you need something, and you will know, use this.'
WHAT THE ITEM DOES, is when used it casts any one of the 'mordenkainen' named spells from any existing edition of D&D that is most apt for the current situation.
I have one that I promised to share in my comment on you "gold spending" video: an enchanted ship in a bottle. There are pros and cons to owning one, but the expense would be absolutely ridiculous to actually acquire one even with connections: one would need to be rich enough to buy 5 nations.
Pros:
1. Passage on a ship is always guaranteed
2. Fees involving the vessel ranging from paying the crew up and including port taxes are avoided
3. Can serve as a mobile stronghold
Cons:
1. Bottle must be safeguarded at all times due to it being the source of its enchantments
2. The type of vessel inside is all that's available
3. The bottle being damaged or even destroyed has 1 of only 2 repercussions:
A: Damage to the bottle with the vessel being outside will hit the player party's pocket
B: The vessel still being INSIDE will render the vessel being useless and any items in it (even those not part of the accommodations) will be lost forever
The reason for the massive expense is because of the time needed to actually create it and possibly a crew to man it while in use along with the enchantments for that, replenishment of consumables, etc.
Imbue item, plus spell of choice makes most magic spells, get a ingredient list for potions, I have a wand that can open planar gate to any of the planes plus a spell that restores spells imbued into it.. I love it, travel to any plane at will
The only tinkering I've done with magic items (admittedly I've only been dming for like 2 months) is taking the +1 plant killing axe from phandelver (hew), turned it into a +1 axe of orc slaying, and changed the location so I could make sure it got into the hands of one of my dwarf players, who hates orcs.
I got my players very excited when they rescued a sentient magical flying cape from the clutches of a hag, only for the cape not to want to be possessed.
The cape representing freedom from bounds and joyous expression of movement.
The cape wrapped itself around the neck of the person who freed it from it's chest, dramatically billowing and lending an air of heroism to the wearer, then the cape flew into the air and started chasing birds, it tumbled through the air chasing one of my player's mage hand, with the player trying to trick it into entering their bag of holding.
The cape saw through how this person just wants to possess them, and then it flew off into the horizon..
Zara Steele funny stuff, but also a good way of getting players to think out of the box. Not all items can be treated the same way.
Welcome to the ONLY non gameplay dnd content creators that make good intros.
My favourite item I've made for my campaign was when I converted the Fallout 4 Super Sledge into a little something I called the Rockethammer. It's so satisfying seeing the player wield it with reckless abandon.
I gave the players a magic coin that would randomly change between their pockets and make noises at random non combat times to mess with them.
Does anyone else find the Web DM videos are getting quieter and quieter? I feel like I never used to struggle to hear them, but lately I have my laptop on max volume and its still pretty quiet.
Use headphones. It could be your Laptop speakers. I work in a factory and had this playing on my phone and I still heard it even with all of the noise from everyone working.
In one of our campaigns the party found an Amulet of Questioning. When someone puts it on they are immediately changed to the opposite sex permanently. The barbarian in the group, who was really impulsive, just put it on rather than have it identified. When he discovered what it did, he immediately tried to put it on the arrogant, male paladin the group. After a failing the saving throw, the paladin was changed as well. It was pretty hilarious when they had to deal with guys hitting on them at the local tavern.
Time to keep the Ring of Catapult Alive. Requires Attunement, Functions as Wand of Magic Missile with the following changes. 9 Charges, no chance to Self Destruct, each charge fires a Magic Missile in the form of a housecat. When the cat manifest, it has 1/2 d8 hp, and takes the same amount of damage as it dealt to the target.
Cursed Variant: Should a Cat die on impact, in 1d100+1 days, it's ghost begins to manifest each nightfall constantly bawling at the user that gave it life only to experience pain and then immediately die. There is no limit to the number of ghost that may follow the user.
To be honest, I've never handed out a non-cursed version. We recently had a trigger happy rouge use up all the charges each day until a few months later and the first night with a cat yowling at him bothered him. Party blamed it on the shack they called in. Then the next night, 6 cats appear.....
I can only imagine Revenant cats now.
My DM had my Arcane Archer go on an epic campaign long quest for what we later would refer to as the Patriot Arrow And the Bow of the Elements. The arrow had it's own special carrying holster that attached to my quiver. It did massive dmg and when paired with the Bow could be imbued with various other effects (for instance on a sea voyage one time before I really knew what I had, I activated what I guessed was the flame element gem and fired at the mast of the attacking raider ship rolled a Nat 20 and the arrow activated a massive flame explosion effect that blew a huge hole in the deck and sank the enemy ship). The catch was after every use I had to roll percentile dice and if the die roll was a multiple of 13 the arrow would disappear into the twisting nether, if I succeeded at the roll the arrow would go dormant and was unusable for a certain amount of time I think it was a d6 worth of days. Through the use of a ritual I could attempt to call it back to it's holster but, there was no guarantee it would immediately return. The Bow was etched with runes and embedded with various gems related to dif element (fire, air, water, etc) and came with a book of instructions on how to activate it's various other abilities. The catch with the bow was that if it was dmg'ed it was hard to repair because it was made of rare materials and if I rolled a 1 on my attack there was a chance for one of the gems to shatter (lol I broke the bow string at least twice and had some interesting conversations with npc's trying to track down replacements lol). I had to spend time during our rest period studying the manual and eventually by the end of his career he unlocked all it's secrets. Like at first I could only activate one gem (element) at a time but, after a little while I learned how to combine dif ones together for interesting results. :D
I miss the 3.5E item creation tables and rules.
No reason you can't tweak em for your own 5e game!
Just remember that balance needs tweaking.
@@Grinnar Balance be damned! Op PC's just means they fight gods faster!
@@Troglodytarum Some of us like to see players have some consequences to their actions and struggles.
@@Grinnar Gods coming down to smite the PCs is consequences.
a vial of healing. an empty vial that you cast a spell into and it fills up as a potion of healing = to a cure spell of that spell level usable 1/short or long rest.
What I'm getting from this video is that every magic item needs to be significant to the game for some reason. Players should never be able to respond to finding a magic item with, "Oh, that's cool."
I sprinkle my campaigns with various eccentric little magic items that were either: A) something cute that rich parents would give their kid for a graduation present, or B) something that a high-level alchemist would make for everyday convenience that has no purpose you couldn't also do with a little manpower, or C) something that a rich, slightly nutty, powerful person would make or have made as essentially a desk ornament or personal amusement.
I am a firm believer that people 1000 years ago didn't have the current adventuring party in mind when they invested in arcane artifacts. It's up to the party to figure out whether a given item has any meaningful use or not. The artifacts they find may be the ones that no one else thought was worth starting a major crusade to recover. Also, as GM, I may find a way to make some silly little item significant to the story in some way later on that isn't just about power.
Context is key here. Fantasy & folklore are brimming with items that once taken out of their original, intended context (rich collector's antimagicked vault, powerful mage's knickknack, spirit/faerie realm toy) prove to be grossly powerful, or otherwise have unintended consequences. I saw a Real-World exhibit that included these little clay/porcelain/glass palm-sized objects that modern archaeologists infer were used as invites/passes to "cool parties for important people". Now they're being studied in a museum.
You can easily start from a place of "random pocket trinkets" or household/trade items, and then imbue them with a use that was totally mundane & harmless *in context*, but now you're putting them in the hands of PCs. It can go the other way as well, where an object has little/no mundane value, but is priceless to the right entities (divine/sacred artifacts are especially good for this one).
99% of my magic items are custom. Even the healing potions that range from 4d4-3(1-13hp) to Regen 1hp each round for 10 rounds.
You get a thumbs for the intro alone!
I have a homebrew Maul named "The Maul of Mutilation" you can pierce your hands on the metal thorns above and below the grips and take 2d4 damage (no reductions allowed) and feed it your blood, in turn it becomes a +2 Maul and your crit range is increased by 1, this effect lasts for 3 rounds. The weapon is sentient and pesters the wielder to feed it and in turn it will crush their foes when in battle. Back story is pretty open ended, it could have been made by fiends or maybe forged by vampirc dwarves whose lords soul is trapped inside
An idea I always had was if you managed to win against the Avatar of Death, you’d get a choice between the following:
the cloak of the shades (a combo of levitate, cloak of elven kind, and I dunno misty step with a +2 to AC?)
the scythe of the reaper it is a 2 handed finesse reach weapon and deals 1d8 slashing + 1d8 necrotic damage. When you slay a living creature with this weapon they must succeed a DC 15 will save or their soul is trapped in the scythe dealings an additional 1d8 necrotic damage for every soul contained. However, one escapes the weapon per day, and it can hold up to 4 at a time.
Consider this stolen as it is amazing
CanyonnT T thank you as it turns out you get nothing but your life if you kill the Avatar of Death, no XP nothing.
@@giraffedragon6110 that's no fun
I have been waiting for this episode since I first found you guys! It isn't even Christmas.
Christmas in August!!
I'm thinking about using an optional Rule whereby you role to see how well your attunement to an item goes.
So if you are a paladin based in light maybe the personality of a staff of darkness is really counter to the rest of your character but the rogue might not have that problem. Or if you really want to you either keep attempting the attunement or maybe take some rp actions to influence the items perception of you.
I was coming up with styles of magic weapons and such for my campaign, I figured it would help solidify the countries a bit more if I could describe the things they built, in more detail. Long story short I came to the idea of a salesman that would create animals with the effects of magic items. The first thing he gave the party was a trio of chipmunks that cast healing word twice a day. I think the party forgot he made animals with special effects because they just asked him to make them hats of disguise.
Repurposing earlier magical items could be something neat; perhaps use them as fuel for something (spell, other magic item or donations to certain groups or maybe go with sort of pseudo-crafting systems; enchantment (that in setting could be a spirit or demon inhabiting weapon) can be moved into other items, usually exhibiting same function. With really powerful binding, you can force and meld two spirits together and bind to new/old item. This could also produce some adventure in ways, as you could create mishap possibility; maybe the two fuse in some unexpected way, or the binding fails and enchantment gets to roam free. Maybe these bindings can also produce drawbacks that represent their spirit in some ways.
Ya crafting in game magic items is something that takes a few years to get into learning.. I like to take 2 or 3 low magic items and make a plus 5, our gm only let's us do plus 5 because we tried to do a plus 15 battleaxe, uh uh
Autumnal Rod - has a 50/50 chance to cast a fire spell or an ice spell when used.
Could potentially become more erratic at higher levels (could give a slight burn, could dump a fireball on you - depending on dice rolls).
It's the suitcase from Pulp Fiction
Love this intro as well guys! Great topic to cover.
Thank you!
Reaching web Dm videos makes me wish you could like the videos twice
Common Magic Item: A Magic Ring that can't get dirty or be destroyed. That's all it does. Made as a symbol of the Union of two kingdoms.
Pulp Fiction reference?!?
I’ve been waiting for you guys to do this topic! You mentioned doing a guns show during the pirate episode. Hope to see that included in a video or be a main topic soon.
Thanks for the suggestion!!
I don't give out "just +1 and greater" magic weapons and armor anymore. A great resource I use to give the +1 or better armor and weapons some extra flair or a cool ability is Nerzugal's DM Toolkit (pay what you want on the DMsGuild). It has a bunch of different resources in it but key for this ***8*** d100 tables for magical item effects. If you're wanting to give your items a dressing up, then this is invaluable.
Some video game weapons would work good in a D&D game. Like the sword Chilrend from Oblivion/Skyrim.
Well the Elder Scrolls is based off an old D&D campaign.
It exists in the official Dungeonmaster’s Guide under the name of frost brand.
Pretty sure it has been carried over from previous editions. I wouldn’t be surprised if chillrend was inspired by frost brand.
Wow, I was just thinking about making a magic item!
They have a very special version of a helm of detect thoughts, only works on their viewers. ;)
The Babelfish - lives in yoir ear and gives you the ability to understand any language
Isopod of Tongues - lets you speak any language, but lives in your mouth. Ypu have eat twice as much food per day.
Tapeworm of immunity to ingested poisons. Also requires you to eat more per day.
Gross, but freaking genius lol.
I made a home brew magic giants’ bane war club that is actually a wooden table leg from a hill giant’s workshop. The tableleg was made from the heart wood of a hibernating Treant. The table leg is sentient, can talk (cussing like a sailor/won’t shut up) and wants sweet revenge on all giants for chopping him up. The club offers temporary giant strength to the wielder who is attuned to the weapon and will refuse to work for anyone else. The downside is that in the presence of any giant, the wielded must make a Wisdom Saving throw or be charmed into a mindless rage and attack the nearest giant. Discretion being the better part of valor can quickly be thrown out the window and this has caused our party tremendous problems and hijinks as the person playing the Cleric who wields the weapon has terrible luck making saving throws.
I remember the comic Nodwick by Aaron Williams, I'm kind of disappointed the comic doesn't have any new stories going on, had what it claimed was a "Legendary Artifact" but was just really silly, the Clue by Four (a plank of wood on a wooden handle). What makes the Clue by Four so special? When you get hit by it then your Int is bumped up for a short time. I actually did my best to recreate it in D&D Beyond, so the Clue by Four is now existing as a homebrew magic item for 5E on D&D Beyond