Had a paladin who got three wishes. Sacrificed them to his deity. No problem. Had a barbarian, wished for an ever full mead cup like the decanter of endless water. After drinking to black out state he can't really remember what else he wished for. But he really loves that cup.
My party of a bard, barbarian, Warlock, and rogue each got a single wish, they were kind enough to make reasonable wishes, my bard has a magical summon able harem, my barbarian has a +2 greataxe, my Warlock got a pseudo dragon, and my rogue got a set of lockpicks like Percy Jacksons sword, like they are always in his pocket...
I heard a story of a group of people doing a sort of pvp campaign, where one party would be ahead setting all the traps and whatnot, and the second party is trying to get past said obstacles. At some point, the evil party thought of “creating” a “head of vecna” and leaving it for the pursuing party. The thing is, the head of vecna is obviously not a real magic item, they just left behind a normal corpse head dubbed the “head of vecna.” The pursuing party didn’t know this, and when they came across it, they got the brilliant idea of chopping off a party member’s head and replacing it with the head of vecna. Obviously, nothing happened, and they were left with a headless party member. They went through at least three party members before finally figuring out that it was just a normal corpse head.
You can learn more at: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/98870/whats-the-head-of-vecna-and-why-is-it-important or for another tall tale like it: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/98723/what-is-this-story-i-recall-about-an-extremely-long-ever-changing-character-back Personally I think they are examples of creative writing (rather than actual events), but still fun.
Opposing parties can be fun. I've done it a few times before, where one party plays the villains and the other party plays the adventurers. Not only for D&D, but also a superhero rpg and starwars. Depending on the size of the groups, you may need a co-DM to assist because it gets complex. One campaign series that works well for this is the Way of the Wicked Adventure Path. There's one book where the party needs to set up their own dungeon and defend it against multiple parties of adventurers. It's really fun watching the evil party set the traps and stock the dungeon with monsters, and often they are more creative, devious, and plain evil than the DM could be.
I did something like this running 2 sessions, and by god, were they cruel to the good party, they stocked a dungeon with all sorts of minion monsters and then a treasure hoard with minor magic items, and a crawling claw in chest labled VECNA, chaos ensued
My favorite: a cursed amulet that absorbs your soul the moment you put it on. Your characters soul can then be transfered between bodies (even after death) by putting the amulet on a new victim, but this comes with a catch: they have more restrictions laden upon them every time their soul transfers. This can be anything from a new crippling fear, to forgetting past memories. Its kind of like a monkeys paw wish in a way; you make a character "immortal" but every time their soul is placed on a new body, they lose some part of who they originally were along the way.
I once gave my party a Tankard of Alcohol . It turned... ok, so the tankard makes it so that any liquid into a hard alcohol. How was I supposed to know that our barbarian would use it to turn *an entire lake* into a sea of vodka? Also, BOIS!!! Why did you not mention the Decanter of Endless Water? It's literally world destroying if they drop it in a chase or something. It's not really an *evil* item but it can be used evily
I can think of a worse variation of the Decanter of Endless Water: The Pot Of Endless Coffee, it would have the same effect if dropped but it would be HOT caffeinated water.
Given the amount of water actually outputted by a decanter of endless water it's not likely to really be as much of an issue as I think you're imagining.
+Muse I really think people underestimate the scales involved here. A decanter of endless water couldn't even create enough water to maintain a decently sized lake because evaporation would beat it out. Similarly it's not going to impact world as a whole even over billions of years, because the amount of water being created is far less than is already being added from sources like meteorites (or in D&D portals to the plane of water which are stated to exist in some places). Nor does it compare to the amount of water being lost from solar wind, geologic processes or in D&D settings magic and portals to other planes.
That's not how a Decanter of Endless water works. A 1 gallon Decanter holds 1 gallon of water, if you open it, and turn it over, that's all you get. You have to re-seal the decanter to get another gallon to appear.
I am a little shocked you guys did not mention sentient items. They have alignments which can not be detected, can remain hidden till they choose, and if the weirder ever does an action that the item disagrees with, immediate cha check for possession. Imagine boss fight, and suddenly you cleric's mace forces him to attack his own party...
I could see that going absolutely horribly. like not even something that might go against its alignment, just whatever it disagrees with. imagine a barbarian tries to help his friend escape from the scene of a crime only for his chaotic good war axe to force them both to stay and fight cause it hates elves or something
About the deck of many things, the card that gives you a monster-infested castle is where i fail to see the problem, both RP and in a gameplay perspective. Why on earth veterans adventurers would reluct to slay a few monsters in order to own a castle? Why on earth players would reluct one or two classical dungeon crawl sessions to own a castle?
The argument I’ve heard about that point is that the party could always just go find a monster-infested castle to clear out and conquer if they wanted to, so the card is kind of pointless.
Spending 3 days of battles and danger to clear a dungeon, just to probably hear: "Thank you for freeing this castle/dungeon/keep belonging to the Bollock's family making it...let me check...here it is: sir Reynald of Huitre, great-great-grand son of sir Lewis 1st, the legitimate owner of the precited building. Here is 1000 GPs and a meaningless title for compensation , now be on your way." I mean someone have built this castle, it being abandoned doesn't mean it belongs to the first random peasant skilled enouch to clean it.
I've always had it "spawn" a new castle in some random part of the world. It alters everything about the land socially too. So any titles to that land and castle, etc. are in the player who drew the card's name. However... it is still infested and must be cleared.
I had a DM at one point put three Decks of Many Things in a game at once. Was pretty sure that was his way of saying he was sick of the game, at the time.
My dm won't put a deck of many things in our campaign. I did get the spade part of the deck of illusions though. It helped when I summoned a medusa and a frost giant to help us fight our first blue dragon. We were all panicking when our dm put that "minature" in the middle of the map.
I once had a long Sword that was +2 at the start of a game but when ever i used it it would start to sing very loudly yank doodle when i would get in to a fight
still relates to Vecna, sort of, but the book of vile darkness is just a horrible item, you have to either kill someone every few days or do an evil deed every week or something i cant remember, and it can only be destroyed if there is "no evil on any plane of existence whatsoever". plus it makes ur character suffer horrible debuffs/transformations
The Coin of Tantos. Summons Tantos, god of commerce. Doesn't sound that bad until you realise this is the same god that runs the slave trade, organ trade, and powerful magical weapons trade in my setting. This is a god you don't want to piss off if you can help it.
Frank G That's not how gods work. A good roll might only grant a quick death. Especially, with a god that symbolizes wealth and profit, you may be more useful to him dead or transformed into solid gold.
um the basic wish spell should not be against you it will grant you your wish nothing less nothing more but even than it has limits. the ifreiti will attempt to screw you with your wish's Djinn grant your wishes but are very fuzzy on the finer details
Yep, sentient wish givers will misinterpret your wishes as much as they can (if they feel like it), non-sentient wish givers will interpret it literally. Both will screw you if you make your wish too vague: wish for a mountain of gold, it surrounds you; wish for a mountain of gold to appear before your eyes, it's anywhere within your field of vision, but probably not killing you; wish for a mountain of gold that you and only you know the location of and is always in a location that is convenient for you, and you have a good wish, though you might have to mine the gold by yourself...
I'm planning to use the Deck of Many Things in my current campaign BUT it will be more of a fortune teller experience. Some of the party will see a new tent/stall in a town they frequent, the stall is of a fortune teller who charges minimally for you to hear your fate. I'll offer them the deck, let them draw and make note of the results but not immediately apply them. I'll find more narrative ways to apply them in the days/weeks ahead. The fortune teller and tent will quietly disappear behind them as they leave, not to be seen again for a long time
Ironic that you have Call Of Cthulhu in the background when talking about horrible magical items. If your DM takes ANY inspiration out of that for magic items it makes the Eye of Vecna look like a Bag of Holding. Also it's dangerous if your DM takes inspiration from the SCP Wiki, such terrible things there.
An old man is going to reward my party by placing each of these items in front of them. All they have to do is touch an item to claim it. No identify. This is the first campain for all my players. Russian roulette anyone?
I don't think that Wishes granted by the Wish spell and magic items should screw over the players. Wishes granted that way should only be bad if they are phrased poorly.
I always interpreted wish as "taking the path of least resistance to fulfill the definition of the wish". For example, in my mind, saying "I wish I had (I dunno, insert anything more ridiculous than standard equipment here)" would make it so you technically own that thing (like the deed proving so appears in your hands, or all the gold pieces in the world magically have your name engraved on them). The question then becomes "Why should anyone care?" One other thing I'd like to point out, though; Wish can also mimic the effects of ANY eighth level or lower spell, and only has verbal components.
within the lore of my campaign world, at one time all the gods got together to decide whose oversight such powerful magic would be under. Big argument until the god of mischief/humor/karma spoke up, and all the gods agreed that if Toltiir was in charge of wishes - it wouldn't unbalance good or evil, order or chaos. It could still get out of hand, but likely would not screw things up except on a very local level. This is well known in the setting, with old tales told of those who got greedy or tried to outsmart the gods becoming cautionary stories.
my favorite example: "I wish to the most powerful wizard in the world!" You are now a level 2 wizard. EVERY wizard in the world is now level 1 and are pissed and looking for YOU!
Bag of Devouring is awful dangerous to the unseasoned character. You store your stuff yesterday, need to fight today, go for your Longsword, "As you slept, your bag made mysterious munching and crunching sounds and now your sword and several pieces of gold are missing." the troll is not amused.
AtariShooter First, the BoD's description states that it will instantly and permanently destroy any organic matter that is fully placed withing the bag. Meanwhile, metal and non-consumables are spat back out after a minute or so. So, rest safe knowing that the sword and gold are safe from consumption. Secondly, the BoD is a great item to have as long as the player using it isn't a moron. In fact, if used in a smart manner, one could potentially kill anything susceptible to a polymorph spell. (turn the tarasque into a snail, put the snail into the bag, tarasque is now gone forever.)
if you throw a bunch of first-time players into a campaign where they have multiple "extradimensional storage items", and they foolishly decide to put one inside the other, then, well, guess what? You've just landed yourself in an alternate dimension. One that is very hard to escape of you don't know the rules of D&D. Recovering form that ain't gonna be easy.
Adam: Not really sure why a DM would give their players multiple Portable Haversacks of Holding, but ok... EveesCastle: I think Planeshift is a 7th level spell. So it would be more like character level 13 at the very least.
@@archer9480 one for each character, fairness and such. Now try to planeshift out of Ravenloft! You'll pay for your attempt to play with the dimensions.
@@robertmartinu8803 Shockingly, I have run a CoS game where a hag tried to pull off an emergency planeshift. She disappeared and then immediatly popped back to where she was. She got beaten to death by the PC's.
I played an warlock who had found a way to somewhat control the eye of Vecna after stealing it from a cultist and was able to add it’s spells to his spell list, however, he had to wear an eyepatch over the eye or Vecna would find him and send his minions to reclaim it.
Well I've only DMed 2 sessions so far and the only weird item I gave someone in the party was a magical whoopie cushion who I gave to the rouge can't wait to see if he starts a war with it
My first DM session I was dumb and gave my players an unlimited wish. I am glad they cut me some slack and didn't make themselves immortal or some shit because then we'd have an issue. But still my low level characters have +5 weapons now.
Welcome to DMing, may you have the same fun they're having. Maybe you can use Xanathar's in order to help yourself distribute the items you give to them. Keep rolling!
ha, nice to see people who know what the eye of vecna is and the evil things it does to the bearer of the eye... it’s too bad the makers of certain board games included this item in there without providing any flavor text or lore, basically expecting people to know what it is specific example : playing betrayal at baldur’s gate (a reskinned betrayal at the house on the hill) and someone found an omen card called “the eye of vecna” and i got into a 20 minute argument with someone at the table about how it worked. because the text on the card says something to the effect of “YOU may use the eye to attempt to frighten another player and prevent them from moving onto YOUR space... THEY must roll dice and beat a 2+ if THEY fail, THEY must end their turn without moving if THEY fail and THEY also rolled a 1, then YOU take 1 damage” and the other player was interpreting it such that the player that got frightened should take the damage and not the bearer of the eye. and we went back and forth, me pointing out the specific language and the specific use of the pronouns “you” and “they” and how the card established that you = the one using the eye while They = the other player trying to move onto you space getting frightened and this player kept arguing that doesn’t make sense, why would the person using the powers take the damage? and i said, but the language is there it is plain as day and he says “yeah well then the writers fucked up, they don’t know how to write, i know that’s not what they meant” so he would rather insist that the text on the card is a misprint than admit he read it wrong and i said “do you know what the eye of vecna is? if you knew what it was it would make sense” and then i proceeded to tell him the lore behind the eye of vecna and until he just literally started talking over me, saying he didn’t want to hear it and told me that I win and we’ll play it my way like i’m the fucking asshole and it’s not “my way”, it’s the right way, the way it was written on the card. also worth noting, that we are not kids, we are not children. we were all adults. this individual was like...40 years old... i know that was a tangent, i just like that you guys included the eye of vecna on your list because you know what it is and how bad it is for the people that use it
One of my favorite, most memorable characters is the result of a wish. My barbarian didn't want gold, or power, or immortality; no his wish was to live a life so great, and heroic that sages would tell his tales, and bards would sing songs about him down through the ages, and his name, and deeds would never be forgotten. The net result was GM's grace for the rest of the campaign, and in every campaign sense, there is at least one scene were i have to take on the role of an NPC bard, or storyteller and tell a story about my barbarian, with a small XP bonus to my current character depending on the quality of the tail. Best wish ever! Also why did you add the Eye of Vecna to the list, the Hand and Eye aren't standard magic items, they're ARTIFACTS! As in they are in the same category as Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, and the Rod of Seven Parts. These are things that have entire campaigns built around them. The Deck of Many Things could be argued to fall in this category too, as there are some supplements that include it in that category.
Also last time I read the eye and the hand aren't that dangerous by themselves, if I remember correctly the big negative happens if you try to use them both, at that point every day you have them you have to perform a check, and if you fail Vecna devours your soul and puppets your body, however using both of them grants you the ability to perform the wish spell for free once per day, also if you use either item then removing that item automatically kills you.
Nyghtking Can your soul be devoured if you're a Lich though? Since the ritual for becoming a Lich removes your soul and places it in a container (I know the technical term but don't know how to spell it), then your soul wouldn't be in your body to be consumed by Vecna, right?
@@dlcshadowheartlordofdomina7504 yes, a phylactery doesn't stop you from having your soul eaten, infact it makes it easier as it's already been partially severed from your body. Plus you'd make vecna into a lich right off the bat, so he might actually thank you, if he hadn't just eaten you that is...
TheApexSurvivor Well that's bullshit. How are you supposed to cheese your way into having cursed artifacts with little to no consequences if the beings you're trying to cheat can get around it? Also wouldn't Vecna have to find the phylactery first to get your soul logically or do the rules just not apply? Seriously, kind of takes away the point of being a Lich if you can't do soul cheesing.
@@dlcshadowheartlordofdomina7504 the thing is, you put a piece of an ancient lich into yourself, he's literally the guy who wrote the book on making phylacteries, and you put him in the corpse that has a direct connection with to your phylactery, so when he wants to find your phylactery to eat your soul he just has to follow the link between soul and body, which he has spent literally thousands of years studying. It's like trying to beat the best hacker in the world by becoming a script kiddie. He probably has a backdoor into your program already and if not he can find or make one pretty quick...
If you became a lich through some kind of really long and arduous process and stored your soul in a phylactery then I could see the eye of vecna being useful because it can't steal your soul anymore :D
@@FarrTheFox There's also the tiny little detail that becoming a Lich usually turns you outright Evil, so it'd really only be an option for an "Evil Campaign" with Evil PCs. Particularly since you need to do or obtain some horrific things just to perform the necessary ritual. One such requirement I believe involves the murder of an innocent baby.
There is lore to support the idea that even vecna can’t find the hand and eye... it’s the only Physical items of vecna in the multiverse and they are “perma” hidden from vecna, I believe my physical body is hidden from vecna,unless he’s interacted with me before “I” find the eye ...the only thing I lose is attunement slots... the eye can still steal your soul if it’s “still” in your body
I once had a Rouge try to steal a portable hole by putting it in her bag of holding. The black hole that opened up swallowed the whole party and almost ended the campaign.
My wizard/cleric character has two bag of holdings. I was joking around with our gun user of our group, that we need to figure out how to shoot two bag of holdings and when it gets 10ft away from us, put one into the other. That basically makes a one way ticket to the astral plane, and I think it kills, or pulls everybody in a 10ft radius, and I think it destroys everything that is in it. Yet, I won't do that since it has all the things I want to keep.
Wish story. One of my characters was a werewolf who got a barmaid pregnant without knowing that, depending on what rules you're running (or the DM throws out to screw with you), Lycanthropy can be sexually transmitted. So he gets a hold of a genie after the local priestess says she can remove the disease because of the baby. He asks for the Lycanthropy to be removed from the Batman and the baby but the DM monkey pawed it so that a slight pause before "and the baby" because someone distracted me led the genie/DM to interpret the pause as "wanting to remove the baby alongside the disease" and made my character carry it to term while male. The genie later regretted this decision immensely but still.
I mean the hand isn't really on the same level since it doesn't have a 1/20 chance of killing you and creating a powerful NPC villain in your place *every single time you use it*.
I rememebr how in 4e, if you had both at the same time Vecna would be reformed or something in your place and would usher in a new age of chaos. Recipe for campaign destruction
The difference is, the items they chose have effects that would make your greed actually want to use it. The hand and eye of vecna are so well known and 100% guarantee you cry and die so... you would not use those and make that mistake. In fact, if you encountered those you would probably try to destroy them for good (great quest line btw my peeps loved it)
One time we got a ring of 3 wishes with 1 wish left in it. I wanted it but had just got a magic weapon before this, so another member in the party got the ring. I was arguing with him and he starts saying, "I wish you wear a monkey." Over and over. The other players start laughing and I'm serious, so they laugh even more. I'm saying don't, it's a waste of a wish and so on. The DM gives me a save and I fail. So I was a monkey fighting for some time until it wore off.
I remember when my DnD group drew every card from the deck of many things, I died and one friend lost his soul while the other just gave up and became evil. Good times, am I right?
one game i played in had a magic jukebox, the DM turned on the radio when our thief put in a coin. The song was "Ballroom Blitz" - looking back i'm glad it wasn't "Addicted To Love" or something worse. Wand of Wonder is something else that can screw up the characters though it's a lot less problematic than the Deck.
My favorite trick is to give a ring of wishing and tell them it's just a +1 ring, done casually, the party can go unaware until someone says "I wish" ... then the fun begins.
Party Member: I wish I was immortal. DM: Poof! You are a fine marble statue with an enchantment to prevent your destruction. Second party member: Wasn't he carrying all t eh gold, gems, and most of the magical items in his large bag of holding?
I'm glad y'all mentioned the tarasque at the end there. I had a 10th level party that pushed a crate of acid on the tarasque from an air ship and killed him with it. He was at full hp too
I find that you shouldn't really have mentioned any evil artifacts, as its kind of implied that they will ruin you. Its like throwing in the one Ring from LOTR into this list. That being said since you are using artifacts, no book of vile darkness? Or what about the sword of Kaz?
my Dm once wanted to screw with us. The wizard of the party would cast animate object on a rock or something and use it as a look out. So time goes on and yes we had a "deck of Many Things" the pc wizard was half paying attrition once and cast his spell. Dm rols and start laughing as his Deck of M.T. comes to life. and sence the Deck is such a "powerful magic item" it was perminate. and had regeration. and was afraid of everything cause when someone would pick him up would start "pulling his insides (cards) out." and when he did get scared he would RANDOMLY pop 1D4 cards out of the top of his head in shock and run and hide. He also gave us a cursed genie lamp named Bob. Bob the helpful Genie. whatever you wished for you got.... anything. even those half assed under your breath wishes like the lake in the Anauroch desert we made cause we were hot and muttered "Man, I wish it would rain." 40 days later..... Bob had a "No Wish Take Back Policy." and you had to find a willing volunteer to take Bob from you. cant be stolen and you cant lock him away or set his bottle down and walk away... he will find you and drag his bottle with him because "He missed you guys" and you cant wish him away eather, Bob sucked, but damn the funny RP. "player "Damn, I Wish..............(PUNCH in face)..... the hell for?" Manly Man/Prissy Priss Soap ... yes who knew you could put spider climb on a idea so it doesn't slide off your body Spiked Gauntlets of Excessive Masturbation ummm name says it all. Yes I had a very interesting DM.
JR4006 when you used the manly man soap when layering up you hear in hour head a seductive feminine voice saying out th rum me here, and rub me there..... etc. and works you up to a climax. pissie priss soap did the same then in reverse for women. in that husky manly voice and lots of corsessing. lol
My Personal Favorite is the Bag of Devouring, though it makes a good back escape plan. "No, please. That bag has everything I own. Please don't loot it!"
I ran a campaign where a player earned a free wish from a genie. He embraced his inner Madagascar and said “I wish I could go to THE WILD!” I offered him a chance to change his mind but he didn’t, he stuck to his guns. So I basically threw him into D&D Jurassic Park with prehistoric versions of the monster manual creatures. Ended about as badly as expected, but we all still enjoyed it
I have a plan to present my players with the Devouring Blade- a cursed sentient legendary greatsword that can get stronger for 1 day by eating a freshly slain body, but grows weaker (along with its wielder) every 3 days that it doesn't
I gave my D&D group a Ring of Three Wishes. They carefully took it back to their guild, promptly hid it in their vault, and put it under constant watch. I think my group understands.
To be fair, planar travel wouldn't be realistic if a party is unknowing of those plans despite their existence even with the tool/s necessary. Also if you're the DM most of these items aren't game breaking...you put them in and use them to your story's advantage not against it. Yes I'm aware of metaknowledge and how it works with people being inclined to act differently despite their character's knowledge and motivations but I feel as DM that's on you to keep in order. For example: "Your halforc with ten intelligence doesn't know what a plane is, he's thinking can I crush it." Or you get a way to portray it as being limited, "Well, you DO remember something about a plane of fire...you could go there but suddenly you remember all the stories you heard about fire giants and worse who live there and you're still recovering from that hobgoblin attack..."
Easy. First, do some tinkering. Write up new effects for the cards, it's your game, but make them party-level appropriate. Second, you can decide how many cards are still available. I would have 10 or 12, with 1 really bad card, 1 really good card, and the rest leaving the players saying, "Well, that's okay." (like one card gives you Bag of Holding, but it can only operate at night) I have an idea for an adventure that starts with the PCs in a tavern, and some guy runs in and shouts, "Hey! There's a great big castle right in the middle of Old Farmer Thompson's field! It wasn't there last night!" Your heroes should be out the door before any NPC says, "Old Farmer Thompson?? Didn't he go to the nearest big city to be at the reading of his father's will??" So, obviously, he inherited the Deck, got the castle, and was probably killed by a wandering monster. Now, it's a God-level Artifact, so if your party slays the monsters infesting the castle, the legality of them now "owning" the castle while it sits in a corn field should be easy to establish -- a deed in their names (or their party teamname, like "The Avengers") pops up in the records at city hall. Maybe hidden in the castle is a box with the rest of the Deck? Will peasants arrive at the castle, seeking help from the mighty PCs who own this great fortress? Will an official show up and ask the team about the taxes on a place like this? You decide, it's your campaign.
In a sci-fi home brew I am running I keep 4 loot tables and i roll which table I’m going to take stuff off of. One table has stuff that has beacons hidden in them so the main villain can ping their location to minions, one where everything is unaltered, one with faulty/damaged gear, and one with cursed, enchanted/magical items, and a few normal items
My DM's setting happens to include (at least) five sets of magical dice with different effects based on the outcome, and each pair has a different table of effects. As you can imagine, they tend to have a mix of good and bad effects. One, for example, has most of its effects involve burning, melting, or charring the target in some way, but it can also occasionally make them immortal, give them fire breath, summon a fire velociraptor under their control, or send them back in time a few minutes. We once accidentally gave a tree sentience (and a giant sword) and almost got killed by it until we gave it *more* sentience by accident which bumped it up to the level of a curious toddler that was more interested in frolicking after birds than grinding us into paste. We also once accidentally sent two of our party (including me) on a drug-trip through hundreds of thousands of years of history and on another occasion turned another party member into chewbacca. Long story short, those dice are *very* rarely rolled nowadays
My D&D group encountered a Eufretee(I think that's how it is spelled) when we did our run of Tomb of Horrors. My character was dead at that point, but I was still there to help out. The Eufretee did none of the options that you said, but rather it just gave us information and moved an object revealing a passage that would ultimately be their way out of the Tomb. Definitely not what our DM was expecting, but still cool in a sense.
I don't know about you, but having my soul devoured by an eye and then my body being used as a flesh puppet sounds great...I don't have a problem, what are you talking about?
Some of my favorite artifacts; A Lolipop that served as a wizard's staff (which belonged to a character magically frozen at the age of 8), a dart of beauty (extra bonuses versus Beholders), and a Giant shield of regeneration (with cuffs at the top and bottom).
Speaking of Lovecraft, there's a Lovecraft supplement for Labyrinth Lord (a simplified 1st ed AD&D), which I was playing at the time that included a random artifact generator. I called it The Peerless Gong. It was a small gong with a reflective surface that only reflected wheeling stars and your eyeless face. When the gong is struck, one's next attack or spell automatically hits, does max damage, and no save for any effects. The downside is that the character permanently loses 1 CHA (restored only via a Wish). I didn't tell my players this (only hinted with descriptions) while they abused the hell out of it, then tried to use a CHA skill and I informed them it failed despite what they rolled. If they'd gone down to 2 or 3 CHA, they'd have become a devoted, depraved, and drooling cultist of Nyarlathotep and lose control of the character.
The avatar of death from the deck also have to be fought alone by the one who drew the card. If someone else helps you, another avatar of death will spawn for each person who joins the fight.
One of my players currently have the Eye of Vecna and I've also used the Deck of Many Things. Each player has advanced at least three levels since then, and I'm a first time DM, so I would say that evil would be a strong way to describe these. If in the wrong hands, sure, but truly immersive DMing can make it work wonderfully in my experience
Ive used plenty of dangerous stuff: * Deck of many things * Rod of wonders with a 10000 results table * Intelligent weapons and artifacts (a bastard sword who was also a bastard, for example) * Monkey paw * Genies * a Cursed spellbook (all it did was provide new spells on a weekly basis that people could learn or copy over. in a group of 3+ spellcasters that thing was fought over with glorious results. It intentionally wanted to cause strife.) * Familiars of the evil variety (who merely acted the part and were effectively double agents) * Magical brands and jewelry from evil deities (they would burn or pinch, dealing damage if ignored) * a lute that wouldnt let you stop playing (think SCP stuff) * list goes on
Which version of the deck of many things are you guys using. When I looked at the one for 3.5 which is what I play the deck had the same number of good and bad things. And in it it gives you a keep not a castle and a permanent +6 to diplomacy. I pulled that card so many times I had a permanent +36 to deplomacy
I planned on my players rolling the cubic gate. Well, not planned but had something if they did. What cubic gate did they get? One that gave them just alternative prime material planes. They did find a way to make it useful, making it so they could hide from those they are running from or stash their goods in alternative places they weren't known. I did that to dodge the Planescape aspect for the most part, just made their world a little bigger.
the ring of 3 wishes has a very strict guildline of rules for its uses and specifically says "if players want a more powerful effect they can try at their OWN RISK. wish is for boosting attributes, killing T-Dawg, being a panacea for the incurable, and a few other things, but should never be over used.
An item which a DM threw at us once was a magical hourglass which could teleport you anywhere in a minute. You'd disappear, walk through a portal for 1 minute, and reappear anywhere you wanted with no maximum range or precision... The catch was that this 1 minute in your perception was not the same minute for the real world, and every time you used it you had to take a dice roll to determine just how long the teleportation ACTUALLY took... with an upper limit of 100 years.
My friend who used to DM for our group used Mimics a lot. At first it's a little bit exciting because you think you're getting a new item or some money, but it actually a trap. He mostly stopped using them once I learned to attack something that looks like a treasure chest instead of reaching into its mouth
I was terrified of the Deck of Many Things. Mat Colville convinced me to give it a chance, and I snuck it into an optional mini-dungeon I designed. So far, with it, the bard has given himself 2 extra Charisma, lost all of the XP he gained towards a level, convinced a harmless buffoon of an NPC antagonist to draw from it by promising it was completely safe, who was then eternally murderized by an avatar of Death, and went on to try to hide said NPC's death from his extremely powerful family, which included making the terrible choice of giving the family patriarch the opportunity to draw one card... which let him get the answer to any question he wished and caused the party to be on the run from the authorities when the question revealed the unfortunate little detail of Jimothy Francine Quarnsworth's death at the hands of the bard's subterfuge... which led the bard to draw again because he is great at making bad decisions and somehow managed to reveal the presence of one of the five magical artifacts the entire campaign is based around in the process, the bastard. Oh, and it served as a way for me to erase the presence of a problem player from the story and introduce a new one. I'm still terrified of the Deck of Many Things. But it's guaranteed to shake up your campaign if things are getting boring!
No wand of wonder? Really? Even in 5e it can end your character by potentially petrifying you, stunning you for a round in combat. Casting stinking cloud catching your party in its effects or potentially blinding the party for 10 rounds. Lastly, it potentially (depending on DM) have a plot critical item disappear into the ethereal domain. Have fun folks
In one of my more recent campaigns, our party of four was almost torn apart over a Deck of Many Things. Here's the story: Our party consists of Illithin, the Firbolg Cleric; Gene Masters, the Human Fighter; a Fire Genasi Monk (forgot his name); and Orion Kane, the Goliath Fighter (my character). We were planning a heist to steal a Deck of Many Things from the baron of the town Neversummer because no one should be allowed to have that item. Gene and Illithin provided the distraction at night, while the Monk and I went to the baron's castle via Ring of Teleportation (we're wearing masks at this point). The baron led us to the chamber, and the Monk went to check while I held the baron at blade point. Sure enough, it was there, but the Monk used the deck to get a huge sum of gold and lied to me. The next day, after a night of staying outside the city, we returned to the tavern. Some puckish Rogue stole the deck from the Monk, revealing that the Monk had the deck the entire time. A fight broke out, Gene and I fought the Monk, Illithin chased and killed the Rogue, and drew FORTY cards! He got a huge sum of gold, a few enemies to slaughter, and a Wish spell, which he used to wish all Decks of Many Things out of existence (at this point, we're level FOUR). And that is the story of how our party almost fell apart over a Deck of Many Things. I fucking hate that item!
I know someone who got the Deck Of MAny Things about five minutes into a campaign, everyone was terrified, then the dude got bumped straight up to level 17 the quest was a slightly modified, less ass-kicking, version of Tomb Of Annihilation
Anything that actually talks to you "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain?"
Had a shady npc related to one of the PCs offer a deck of several things in a blackjack bet with the party rogue. The rogue happened to win. Day after the rogue decided to draw two cards. 1st card: alignment flip. Now lawful good. 2nd card: avatar of death. A wonderful way to deal with some potentially troublesome adventurers.
Thought about it... but if you have a True Neutral character, how would the balance card from the Deck of Many Things change you? Would you have to roll d100 with a 25% chance of becoming one of the extremes(LG, CG, CE, LE), or would nothing happen?
Fun fact about the deck of many things, specifically the avatar. You must defeat it alone. If anybody assists you, they also summon an avatar... that must be defeated alone. Game I played in once, our DM had a field day with this.
Im seeing a few comments that are a tad salty, you two had some insightful opinions and facts that I found enjoyable. Keep it up guys. (I know I'm just a humble bard with a tiny channel but we are all minnows in the world of UA-cam.) Subscribed.
In my campaign, I drew the card that made me rich, destroyed my intelligence, and changed my alignment from lawful evil to chaotic good. My patron did some evil things to turn my back
"I wish for unimaginable riches!" "The room suddenly feels oppressively hot as molten gold starts to bubble from the floors, drip from the cieling, and seep from the mortar in the walls. The room starts to fill with deadly liquid wealth." "You never let me have anything cool" "... Are you suggesting this isn't cool" "No. It's molten." "That's fair."
Meh, I recently gave my players a cubic gate, AND an Efreeti bottle. So far they're using everything responsibly. I tried to tempt them with a Deck of Many Things, but they were scarred by our last game when one of the players was trapped by it. But honestly that was a fun adventure. The player who was trapped made a new character sent on a quest to save their old character and everyone had fun. I'm a fan of the controversial items.
What about magical traps? Especially magical traps with a spell of obfuscation or misdirection on them, in my campaign most magical traps i throw at my party are ensorcelled with a spell of atleast nondetection cast upon them in order to deal with party members that can discern /discover traps.*eg* Even created a spell that works well against true sight.
Deck of Many Things made my whole party overpowered. We got almost every good card. One character lost his money, one person lost a level but also gained one. The only one who had bad stuff happen was my Teifling Warlock. Lost all my equipment, got a knight, had to fight the Avatar of Death (naked) and then got a castle. I survived with less than 20 hp. I'm lucky it has no force resistance.
In one of my current campaigns, one of the character has pulled from the Deck of Many Things waaaay more than he should have. Hes gotten wealth, a servant, magic items and weapons. The only bad card he pulled was Death. He's a barbarian that solo'd it with a newly acquired magic weapon. Right after the wizard pulled 1 cards. Lost 4 INT, and all his magic items, including his Enduring Spellbook.
Beholders do have minions though. Not to mention they love to fill their lairs with traps. So many traps. I really think that playing a beholder intelligently turns the encounter CR to something much higher than the base monster CR.
Have had several of these in our campaign and it’s still going after 25+ years. PCs still have there knight or castle, Death was easily defeated (only 33 hps) by a party member and most of the time wishes were used to restore things (life, levels, limbs, finding the PC who got dongoned, etc). The CN held the efreeti bottle and made friends with it. It then got “zapped” away for violating its mission “torment mortals, don’t befriend them!” The Efreeti king said. “But he let me eat souls!” (Evil ones and they deserved it!). The only thing that can truly derail a campaign is a lack of communication and/or people not getting along - including poor GMing. All else is window dressing that exacerbates this underlying issue.
I've seen the Deck of Many Things destroy a couple of campaigns. It almost always goes like this. Everyone: We shouldn't use this. That One Guy: I'll just draw... ONE Card. -whoosh- Good things happen. Everyone else: oh, I'll just draw one too. Or two... Or three. Campaign Implodes. But what if That One Guy got unlucky? The Other Guy: I'll draw a card or two... Just to try and save my friend! Campaign Implodes.
A cracked Everfull Flask, Belt of Giant Weight, Love Letter of Spite, The Bowless Arrow. All magical Items that I've made for my corrupted magical items campaign.
My character tried using on of the wishes on her luck pistol to dispell a rancid odor from one of the party members, we had just killed a bunch of goblins so I attempted to move the smell to the dead goblins and it works but then the room filled will rancid smelling goblin corpses. I have yet to use the other two wishes because of this. Why did I want to dispel the rancid odor? My character is a hound folk and was already flustered, I didn't want more debuffs on my character. Why did a party member smell so bad? An unlucky roll while using the knuckle bone of fickle fortune. That item sucks.
What my character would do with 3 wishs: *Gets a Ring of 3 Wishes* Wish Granter (WG): What do you want? What shall you wish for? My Character: ... ..... WG: come on... What do want- My Character: Sweet Rolls. WG: Like a mountain... Or? My Character: No. Just a bag, like 10 or 11 sweet rolls. WG: That is it? My Character: Yeah. *gets wish* *Hands ring to other party member* My Character (Eating a Sweet Roll): Just be careful what you wish for.
Here's a story of how my party rewrote the whole campaign... One of our characters had a Deck of Many Things, which didn't initially do very much for us. However, at one point he got a ring of three wishes. Since a wish can be used to undo one event from the past, there was now no risk to drawing from the deck. Aaand since the deck has a card which gives you wishes... well... I'm sure you can already see the problem. We all gained 10 levels in that session, and the deck just so happened to be completely incinerated in the next one. Now that our characters were about three times the level of the original campaign boss, our DM had to come up with something new. Luckily for him, a beholder solved that problem. We found out that a sleeping beholder had been causing the nearby town to randomly disappear and reappear every day, so we tried to kill it. Unfortunately, the attack that had a good chance to one-hit it didn't kill it. My character panicked when its flesh began melting off and tried to banish it to another plane of existence. Unfortunately for everyone, this beholder was native to our plane of existence, so it only stayed banished for 1 minute before it returned as a death tyrant that could *travel between dimensions at will.* So now we have a new villain. Long story short: we're doomed.
Once got the deck of many things. All of us got lucky except for one player, who was sent to be judged by Death, who would take his soul. We decide since he was a pixie, he didn't have a soul, and Death moved on...
I know you mentioned the Deck of Many Things (and oh boy I had a DM that tossed it in game once and watched another DM use it, I won't touch it I don't trust any of my friends lmaoo) but I'm surprised you didn't specifically mention The Fates card. Trusting players to make wishes that don't destroy the game is one thing, but a card that literally allows a player to mess with the weave of fabric avoiding or erasing one thing? I watched my friend scramble in panic when of his players said "I use The Fates card to erase BIG BAD'S birth from ever happening" and it was like, what do you do? Fun to watch him squirm, but I didn't envy being in his position.
Yep, we just had some experience with the deck of many things. The only bad thing we did NOT pull was the trap your soul card. The last one I pulled while holding the entire deck itself was the card that dissolved all my magic items. This included the awesome home brew dagger that I have been using for ever! Since the deck itself is a magical item, it too vanished.
If you use the eye and hand of Vecna at the same time, does the eye still have a chance to tear your soul??? I read the abilities and effects you gain from having the two, but unlike the description of using the objects alone, there doesn’t seem to be negative results. Aside from the character becoming neutral evil
Had a paladin who got three wishes. Sacrificed them to his deity. No problem. Had a barbarian, wished for an ever full mead cup like the decanter of endless water. After drinking to black out state he can't really remember what else he wished for. But he really loves that cup.
Lol
Drown the world with mead
Already had enough booze, probably wished for somethin to eat, then somewhere to sleep.
My party of a bard, barbarian, Warlock, and rogue each got a single wish, they were kind enough to make reasonable wishes, my bard has a magical summon able harem, my barbarian has a +2 greataxe, my Warlock got a pseudo dragon, and my rogue got a set of lockpicks like Percy Jacksons sword, like they are always in his pocket...
I'd use it as a torture device.
"If you don't tell me where he is, I will tip this glass over, and you will drown in this room."
I heard a story of a group of people doing a sort of pvp campaign, where one party would be ahead setting all the traps and whatnot, and the second party is trying to get past said obstacles. At some point, the evil party thought of “creating” a “head of vecna” and leaving it for the pursuing party. The thing is, the head of vecna is obviously not a real magic item, they just left behind a normal corpse head dubbed the “head of vecna.” The pursuing party didn’t know this, and when they came across it, they got the brilliant idea of chopping off a party member’s head and replacing it with the head of vecna. Obviously, nothing happened, and they were left with a headless party member. They went through at least three party members before finally figuring out that it was just a normal corpse head.
Huh, so it is.
You can learn more at:
rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/98870/whats-the-head-of-vecna-and-why-is-it-important
or for another tall tale like it:
rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/98723/what-is-this-story-i-recall-about-an-extremely-long-ever-changing-character-back
Personally I think they are examples of creative writing (rather than actual events), but still fun.
Opposing parties can be fun. I've done it a few times before, where one party plays the villains and the other party plays the adventurers. Not only for D&D, but also a superhero rpg and starwars. Depending on the size of the groups, you may need a co-DM to assist because it gets complex.
One campaign series that works well for this is the Way of the Wicked Adventure Path. There's one book where the party needs to set up their own dungeon and defend it against multiple parties of adventurers. It's really fun watching the evil party set the traps and stock the dungeon with monsters, and often they are more creative, devious, and plain evil than the DM could be.
I did something like this running 2 sessions, and by god, were they cruel to the good party, they stocked a dungeon with all sorts of minion monsters and then a treasure hoard with minor magic items, and a crawling claw in chest labled VECNA, chaos ensued
My favorite: a cursed amulet that absorbs your soul the moment you put it on. Your characters soul can then be transfered between bodies (even after death) by putting the amulet on a new victim, but this comes with a catch: they have more restrictions laden upon them every time their soul transfers. This can be anything from a new crippling fear, to forgetting past memories.
Its kind of like a monkeys paw wish in a way; you make a character "immortal" but every time their soul is placed on a new body, they lose some part of who they originally were along the way.
Petty Panda sounds like Dr. Bright from the SCP foundation.
This would be beautiful. I can just imagine this causing a character with split personality disorder.
I have ideas.
Petty Panda thats an awesome concept, that must of been fun
bright is that you
Sounds like lichdom with the phylactery.
I once gave my party a Tankard of Alcohol . It turned... ok, so the tankard makes it so that any liquid into a hard alcohol. How was I supposed to know that our barbarian would use it to turn *an entire lake* into a sea of vodka?
Also, BOIS!!! Why did you not mention the Decanter of Endless Water? It's literally world destroying if they drop it in a chase or something. It's not really an *evil* item but it can be used evily
I can think of a worse variation of the Decanter of Endless Water: The Pot Of Endless Coffee, it would have the same effect if dropped but it would be HOT caffeinated water.
Given the amount of water actually outputted by a decanter of endless water it's not likely to really be as much of an issue as I think you're imagining.
Vakus Drake unless left in the bottom of a cave for centuries (Water World)
+Muse I really think people underestimate the scales involved here. A decanter of endless water couldn't even create enough water to maintain a decently sized lake because evaporation would beat it out.
Similarly it's not going to impact world as a whole even over billions of years, because the amount of water being created is far less than is already being added from sources like meteorites (or in D&D portals to the plane of water which are stated to exist in some places). Nor does it compare to the amount of water being lost from solar wind, geologic processes or in D&D settings magic and portals to other planes.
That's not how a Decanter of Endless water works. A 1 gallon Decanter holds 1 gallon of water, if you open it, and turn it over, that's all you get. You have to re-seal the decanter to get another gallon to appear.
I am a little shocked you guys did not mention sentient items. They have alignments which can not be detected, can remain hidden till they choose, and if the weirder ever does an action that the item disagrees with, immediate cha check for possession.
Imagine boss fight, and suddenly you cleric's mace forces him to attack his own party...
I could see that going absolutely horribly. like not even something that might go against its alignment, just whatever it disagrees with. imagine a barbarian tries to help his friend escape from the scene of a crime only for his chaotic good war axe to force them both to stay and fight cause it hates elves or something
About the deck of many things, the card that gives you a monster-infested castle is where i fail to see the problem, both RP and in a gameplay perspective.
Why on earth veterans adventurers would reluct to slay a few monsters in order to own a castle?
Why on earth players would reluct one or two classical dungeon crawl sessions to own a castle?
Honestly throne is one of the few actually good, "good" cards.
The argument I’ve heard about that point is that the party could always just go find a monster-infested castle to clear out and conquer if they wanted to, so the card is kind of pointless.
Spending 3 days of battles and danger to clear a dungeon, just to probably hear:
"Thank you for freeing this castle/dungeon/keep belonging to the Bollock's family making it...let me check...here it is: sir Reynald of Huitre, great-great-grand son of sir Lewis 1st, the legitimate owner of the precited building. Here is 1000 GPs and a meaningless title for compensation , now be on your way."
I mean someone have built this castle, it being abandoned doesn't mean it belongs to the first random peasant skilled enouch to clean it.
I've always had it "spawn" a new castle in some random part of the world. It alters everything about the land socially too. So any titles to that land and castle, etc. are in the player who drew the card's name. However... it is still infested and must be cleared.
I meant that to respond to the dude saying that the adventurers could just claim an abandoned dungeon, instead of using the castle of the deck.
I had a DM at one point put three Decks of Many Things in a game at once. Was pretty sure that was his way of saying he was sick of the game, at the time.
Gen
I usually just put in ancient black dragons when I'm done with a campaign. Ends things a lot quicker ;)
I think it was their way of saying "I hate you"
Probably
My dm won't put a deck of many things in our campaign. I did get the spade part of the deck of illusions though. It helped when I summoned a medusa and a frost giant to help us fight our first blue dragon. We were all panicking when our dm put that "minature" in the middle of the map.
(Draws meteor card from the deck of many things)
"Hey dm, can I go start an encounter with that badger?"
I once had a long Sword that was +2 at the start of a game but when ever i used it it would start to sing very loudly yank doodle when i would get in to a fight
the ultimate torture weapon
still relates to Vecna, sort of, but the book of vile darkness is just a horrible item, you have to either kill someone every few days or do an evil deed every week or something i cant remember, and it can only be destroyed if there is "no evil on any plane of existence whatsoever". plus it makes ur character suffer horrible debuffs/transformations
Chris Wenzel If you live near a bakery, you're pretty much set. Just steal forty cakes...
That's as many as four tens. And that's terrible.
As of 5e it's been changed, it doesn't transform your character but if you willingly perform a good deed the book leaves you.
The Coin of Tantos. Summons Tantos, god of commerce. Doesn't sound that bad until you realise this is the same god that runs the slave trade, organ trade, and powerful magical weapons trade in my setting. This is a god you don't want to piss off if you can help it.
My character would view him as an ally.
Frank G But would he consider your character as an ally?
Depends on which rolls I have to perform and if I passed them.
Frank G That's not how gods work. A good roll might only grant a quick death. Especially, with a god that symbolizes wealth and profit, you may be more useful to him dead or transformed into solid gold.
All the magic items you speak about here should only be used as a plot point never as a reward
um the basic wish spell should not be against you it will grant you your wish nothing less nothing more but even than it has limits.
the ifreiti will attempt to screw you with your wish's
Djinn grant your wishes but are very fuzzy on the finer details
Yep, sentient wish givers will misinterpret your wishes as much as they can (if they feel like it), non-sentient wish givers will interpret it literally.
Both will screw you if you make your wish too vague: wish for a mountain of gold, it surrounds you; wish for a mountain of gold to appear before your eyes, it's anywhere within your field of vision, but probably not killing you; wish for a mountain of gold that you and only you know the location of and is always in a location that is convenient for you, and you have a good wish, though you might have to mine the gold by yourself...
I'm planning to use the Deck of Many Things in my current campaign BUT it will be more of a fortune teller experience. Some of the party will see a new tent/stall in a town they frequent, the stall is of a fortune teller who charges minimally for you to hear your fate. I'll offer them the deck, let them draw and make note of the results but not immediately apply them. I'll find more narrative ways to apply them in the days/weeks ahead. The fortune teller and tent will quietly disappear behind them as they leave, not to be seen again for a long time
I want to know how this went
Ironic that you have Call Of Cthulhu in the background when talking about horrible magical items. If your DM takes ANY inspiration out of that for magic items it makes the Eye of Vecna look like a Bag of Holding. Also it's dangerous if your DM takes inspiration from the SCP Wiki, such terrible things there.
I'm a dm, I want to thank you for the wonderful idea :D
Smiley Try Scp 682 "hard to kill reptile" ... Yeah you'll have fun with that
Very tempting >:)
Personally I'd see the Doomsday Clock an interesting magical item.
Huh, it actually seems very doable, the question is what rarity should it be?
An old man is going to reward my party by placing each of these items in front of them. All they have to do is touch an item to claim it. No identify. This is the first campain for all my players. Russian roulette anyone?
dylan powl so am i
Beautiful
Throw a bag of devouring, and a thief catcher in there. Tres bien!
So you're saying that you didn't enjoy DMing and you want someone else to take over?
I don't think that Wishes granted by the Wish spell and magic items should screw over the players. Wishes granted that way should only be bad if they are phrased poorly.
"Well, right now I wish for nothing" *campaign ends*
I always interpreted wish as "taking the path of least resistance to fulfill the definition of the wish". For example, in my mind, saying "I wish I had (I dunno, insert anything more ridiculous than standard equipment here)" would make it so you technically own that thing (like the deed proving so appears in your hands, or all the gold pieces in the world magically have your name engraved on them). The question then becomes "Why should anyone care?"
One other thing I'd like to point out, though; Wish can also mimic the effects of ANY eighth level or lower spell, and only has verbal components.
within the lore of my campaign world, at one time all the gods got together to decide whose oversight such powerful magic would be under. Big argument until the god of mischief/humor/karma spoke up, and all the gods agreed that if Toltiir was in charge of wishes - it wouldn't unbalance good or evil, order or chaos. It could still get out of hand, but likely would not screw things up except on a very local level. This is well known in the setting, with old tales told of those who got greedy or tried to outsmart the gods becoming cautionary stories.
my favorite example: "I wish to the most powerful wizard in the world!" You are now a level 2 wizard. EVERY wizard in the world is now level 1 and are pissed and looking for YOU!
@Tim Grier. That sounds pretty ok... You have a minor advantage over them. Come to think of it, this sounds like a great campaign idea :D
Bag of Devouring is awful dangerous to the unseasoned character. You store your stuff yesterday, need to fight today, go for your Longsword, "As you slept, your bag made mysterious munching and crunching sounds and now your sword and several pieces of gold are missing." the troll is not amused.
The bag of devouring is even worse considering just sticking your hand in to get an item can end your character in a turn
AtariShooter First, the BoD's description states that it will instantly and permanently destroy any organic matter that is fully placed withing the bag. Meanwhile, metal and non-consumables are spat back out after a minute or so. So, rest safe knowing that the sword and gold are safe from consumption.
Secondly, the BoD is a great item to have as long as the player using it isn't a moron. In fact, if used in a smart manner, one could potentially kill anything susceptible to a polymorph spell. (turn the tarasque into a snail, put the snail into the bag, tarasque is now gone forever.)
if you throw a bunch of first-time players into a campaign where they have multiple "extradimensional storage items", and they foolishly decide to put one inside the other, then, well, guess what? You've just landed yourself in an alternate dimension. One that is very hard to escape of you don't know the rules of D&D. Recovering form that ain't gonna be easy.
Adam: Not really sure why a DM would give their players multiple Portable Haversacks of Holding, but ok...
EveesCastle: I think Planeshift is a 7th level spell. So it would be more like character level 13 at the very least.
@@archer9480 one for each character, fairness and such.
Now try to planeshift out of Ravenloft! You'll pay for your attempt to play with the dimensions.
@@robertmartinu8803 Shockingly, I have run a CoS game where a hag tried to pull off an emergency planeshift. She disappeared and then immediatly popped back to where she was. She got beaten to death by the PC's.
I played an warlock who had found a way to somewhat control the eye of Vecna after stealing it from a cultist and was able to add it’s spells to his spell list, however, he had to wear an eyepatch over the eye or Vecna would find him and send his minions to reclaim it.
Well I've only DMed 2 sessions so far and the only weird item I gave someone in the party was a magical whoopie cushion who I gave to the rouge can't wait to see if he starts a war with it
well if he murders someone with a whoopie cushion ill prboably give him inspiration for that cause how can i be mad at that
My first DM session I was dumb and gave my players an unlimited wish.
I am glad they cut me some slack and didn't make themselves immortal or some shit because then we'd have an issue.
But still my low level characters have +5 weapons now.
EveesCastle sounds retarded
Welcome to DMing, may you have the same fun they're having. Maybe you can use Xanathar's in order to help yourself distribute the items you give to them. Keep rolling!
Monster Died being smothered in the face with a whoopie cushion.
Ally of the monster though the noise was from the beans last night.
ha, nice to see people who know what the eye of vecna is and the evil things it does to the bearer of the eye...
it’s too bad the makers of certain board games included this item in there without providing any flavor text or lore, basically expecting people to know what it is
specific example : playing betrayal at baldur’s gate (a reskinned betrayal at the house on the hill)
and someone found an omen card called “the eye of vecna”
and i got into a 20 minute argument with someone at the table about how it worked.
because the text on the card says something to the effect of “YOU may use the eye to attempt to frighten another player and prevent them from moving onto YOUR space...
THEY must roll dice and beat a 2+
if THEY fail, THEY must end their turn without moving
if THEY fail and THEY also rolled a 1,
then
YOU take 1 damage”
and the other player was interpreting it such that the player that got frightened should take the damage and not the bearer of the eye.
and we went back and forth, me pointing out the specific language and the specific use of the pronouns “you” and “they” and how the card established that
you = the one using the eye
while
They = the other player trying to move onto you space getting frightened
and this player kept arguing that doesn’t make sense, why would the person using the powers take the damage?
and i said, but the language is there it is plain as day
and he says “yeah well then the writers fucked up, they don’t know how to write, i know that’s not what they meant”
so he would rather insist that the text on the card is a misprint than admit he read it wrong
and i said “do you know what the eye of vecna is? if you knew what it was it would make sense”
and then i proceeded to tell him the lore behind the eye of vecna and until he just literally started talking over me, saying he didn’t want to hear it and told me that I win and we’ll play it my way
like i’m the fucking asshole
and it’s not “my way”, it’s the right way, the way it was written on the card.
also worth noting, that we are not kids, we are not children. we were all adults. this individual was like...40 years old...
i know that was a tangent, i just like that you guys included the eye of vecna on your list because you know what it is and how bad it is for the people that use it
FeMaiden , I had to stop playing collectable card games for the same reasons.
One of my favorite, most memorable characters is the result of a wish.
My barbarian didn't want gold, or power, or immortality; no his wish was to live a life so great, and heroic that sages would tell his tales, and bards would sing songs about him down through the ages, and his name, and deeds would never be forgotten. The net result was GM's grace for the rest of the campaign, and in every campaign sense, there is at least one scene were i have to take on the role of an NPC bard, or storyteller and tell a story about my barbarian, with a small XP bonus to my current character depending on the quality of the tail.
Best wish ever!
Also why did you add the Eye of Vecna to the list, the Hand and Eye aren't standard magic items, they're ARTIFACTS! As in they are in the same category as Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, and the Rod of Seven Parts. These are things that have entire campaigns built around them. The Deck of Many Things could be argued to fall in this category too, as there are some supplements that include it in that category.
Also last time I read the eye and the hand aren't that dangerous by themselves, if I remember correctly the big negative happens if you try to use them both, at that point every day you have them you have to perform a check, and if you fail Vecna devours your soul and puppets your body, however using both of them grants you the ability to perform the wish spell for free once per day, also if you use either item then removing that item automatically kills you.
Nyghtking Can your soul be devoured if you're a Lich though? Since the ritual for becoming a Lich removes your soul and places it in a container (I know the technical term but don't know how to spell it), then your soul wouldn't be in your body to be consumed by Vecna, right?
@@dlcshadowheartlordofdomina7504 yes, a phylactery doesn't stop you from having your soul eaten, infact it makes it easier as it's already been partially severed from your body.
Plus you'd make vecna into a lich right off the bat, so he might actually thank you, if he hadn't just eaten you that is...
TheApexSurvivor Well that's bullshit. How are you supposed to cheese your way into having cursed artifacts with little to no consequences if the beings you're trying to cheat can get around it? Also wouldn't Vecna have to find the phylactery first to get your soul logically or do the rules just not apply? Seriously, kind of takes away the point of being a Lich if you can't do soul cheesing.
@@dlcshadowheartlordofdomina7504 the thing is, you put a piece of an ancient lich into yourself, he's literally the guy who wrote the book on making phylacteries, and you put him in the corpse that has a direct connection with to your phylactery, so when he wants to find your phylactery to eat your soul he just has to follow the link between soul and body, which he has spent literally thousands of years studying.
It's like trying to beat the best hacker in the world by becoming a script kiddie. He probably has a backdoor into your program already and if not he can find or make one pretty quick...
If you became a lich through some kind of really long and arduous process and stored your soul in a phylactery then I could see the eye of vecna being useful because it can't steal your soul anymore :D
Possibly, but you have to keep in mind... Vecna has been doing this lich thing WAY longer than you have.
Yeah, you'd make it much easier as your soul is already partially severed from your body and your giving vecna a free phylactery while you're at it...
Depends on what the book of vile darkness does to you. Could make your face have no features. x3
@@FarrTheFox There's also the tiny little detail that becoming a Lich usually turns you outright Evil, so it'd really only be an option for an "Evil Campaign" with Evil PCs. Particularly since you need to do or obtain some horrific things just to perform the necessary ritual. One such requirement I believe involves the murder of an innocent baby.
There is lore to support the idea that even vecna can’t find the hand and eye... it’s the only Physical items of vecna in the multiverse and they are “perma” hidden from vecna, I believe my physical body is hidden from vecna,unless he’s interacted with me before “I” find the eye ...the only thing I lose is attunement slots... the eye can still steal your soul if it’s “still” in your body
Wishes are easy, just wish for the comfiest underwear ever
It worked for Oolong.
Your underwear proceeds to become a mass of needles that inject heavy drugs that make you feel comfortable but slowly kill you.
Surprise, It's a mimic.
Now your undies are normal, and every other pair of underwear in the world is super scratchy.
I once had a Rouge try to steal a portable hole by putting it in her bag of holding. The black hole that opened up swallowed the whole party and almost ended the campaign.
Rogue: "....Oops."
:P
My wizard/cleric character has two bag of holdings. I was joking around with our gun user of our group, that we need to figure out how to shoot two bag of holdings and when it gets 10ft away from us, put one into the other. That basically makes a one way ticket to the astral plane, and I think it kills, or pulls everybody in a 10ft radius, and I think it destroys everything that is in it. Yet, I won't do that since it has all the things I want to keep.
Wish story. One of my characters was a werewolf who got a barmaid pregnant without knowing that, depending on what rules you're running (or the DM throws out to screw with you), Lycanthropy can be sexually transmitted. So he gets a hold of a genie after the local priestess says she can remove the disease because of the baby. He asks for the Lycanthropy to be removed from the Batman and the baby but the DM monkey pawed it so that a slight pause before "and the baby" because someone distracted me led the genie/DM to interpret the pause as "wanting to remove the baby alongside the disease" and made my character carry it to term while male. The genie later regretted this decision immensely but still.
Bit disappointed you didn't mention the hand of vecna as well
I mean the hand isn't really on the same level since it doesn't have a 1/20 chance of killing you and creating a powerful NPC villain in your place *every single time you use it*.
I rememebr how in 4e, if you had both at the same time Vecna would be reformed or something in your place and would usher in a new age of chaos. Recipe for campaign destruction
Ikr, It goes... Hand in hand ... with the eye
The difference is, the items they chose have effects that would make your greed actually want to use it. The hand and eye of vecna are so well known and 100% guarantee you cry and die so... you would not use those and make that mistake. In fact, if you encountered those you would probably try to destroy them for good (great quest line btw my peeps loved it)
The Head Of Vecna. Check it out on 1d4chan, it's a funny story.
One time we got a ring of 3 wishes with 1 wish left in it. I wanted it but had just got a magic weapon before this, so another member in the party got the ring. I was arguing with him and he starts saying, "I wish you wear a monkey." Over and over. The other players start laughing and I'm serious, so they laugh even more. I'm saying don't, it's a waste of a wish and so on. The DM gives me a save and I fail. So I was a monkey fighting for some time until it wore off.
been looking for a decent D&D talk show, then i found this channel. this is pretty good.
I remember when my DnD group drew every card from the deck of many things, I died and one friend lost his soul while the other just gave up and became evil. Good times, am I right?
Hosts say deck of many things
*shudders* no no no my current campaign has this thing we don’t touch it
I like how you are honest about messing up. A lot of guys on UA-cam act like they are all knowing.
"The beholder isnt as tough as other monsters" that just makes me feel like crap that we had a party wipe when we were lvl 15 against a beholder
0:54 guy on left looks down and nods thinking: 'Yeah, you need some help in the sword department'
Never give out the cloak of the bat unless your prepared to have Batman in your campaign.
one game i played in had a magic jukebox, the DM turned on the radio when our thief put in a coin. The song was "Ballroom Blitz" - looking back i'm glad it wasn't "Addicted To Love" or something worse. Wand of Wonder is something else that can screw up the characters though it's a lot less problematic than the Deck.
Not as badly as Wand of Starry Wonder.
Grey Shard i
My favorite trick is to give a ring of wishing and tell them it's just a +1 ring, done casually, the party can go unaware until someone says "I wish" ... then the fun begins.
Party Member: I wish I was immortal. DM: Poof! You are a fine marble statue with an enchantment to prevent your destruction. Second party member: Wasn't he carrying all t eh gold, gems, and most of the magical items in his large bag of holding?
I'm glad y'all mentioned the tarasque at the end there. I had a 10th level party that pushed a crate of acid on the tarasque from an air ship and killed him with it. He was at full hp too
I find that you shouldn't really have mentioned any evil artifacts, as its kind of implied that they will ruin you. Its like throwing in the one Ring from LOTR into this list. That being said since you are using artifacts, no book of vile darkness? Or what about the sword of Kaz?
my Dm once wanted to screw with us. The wizard of the party would cast animate object on a rock or something and use it as a look out. So time goes on and yes we had a "deck of Many Things" the pc wizard was half paying attrition once and cast his spell. Dm rols and start laughing as his Deck of M.T. comes to life. and sence the Deck is such a "powerful magic item" it was perminate. and had regeration. and was afraid of everything cause when someone would pick him up would start "pulling his insides (cards) out." and when he did get scared he would RANDOMLY pop 1D4 cards out of the top of his head in shock and run and hide.
He also gave us a cursed genie lamp named Bob. Bob the helpful Genie. whatever you wished for you got.... anything. even those half assed under your breath wishes like the lake in the Anauroch desert we made cause we were hot and muttered "Man, I wish it would rain." 40 days later..... Bob had a "No Wish Take Back Policy." and you had to find a willing volunteer to take Bob from you. cant be stolen and you cant lock him away or set his bottle down and walk away... he will find you and drag his bottle with him because "He missed you guys" and you cant wish him away eather,
Bob sucked, but damn the funny RP. "player "Damn, I Wish..............(PUNCH in face)..... the hell for?"
Manly Man/Prissy Priss Soap ... yes who knew you could put spider climb on a idea so it doesn't slide off your body
Spiked Gauntlets of Excessive Masturbation ummm name says it all.
Yes I had a very interesting DM.
Dan Acton lmao at the masturbation gauntlets!!!
JR4006 we also had clock rings of enlargement..... one time use thou. lmao
JR4006 when you used the manly man soap when layering up you hear in hour head a seductive feminine voice saying out th rum me here, and rub me there..... etc. and works you up to a climax. pissie priss soap did the same then in reverse for women. in that husky manly voice and lots of corsessing. lol
Komninos Maraslidis it was ..... but we were all stoners at the time and thought it was funny as hell.
I love it!
It's nice to see these videos getting some good views.
My Personal Favorite is the Bag of Devouring, though it makes a good back escape plan. "No, please. That bag has everything I own. Please don't loot it!"
I ran a campaign where a player earned a free wish from a genie. He embraced his inner Madagascar and said “I wish I could go to THE WILD!” I offered him a chance to change his mind but he didn’t, he stuck to his guns. So I basically threw him into D&D Jurassic Park with prehistoric versions of the monster manual creatures. Ended about as badly as expected, but we all still enjoyed it
I have a plan to present my players with the Devouring Blade- a cursed sentient legendary greatsword that can get stronger for 1 day by eating a freshly slain body, but grows weaker (along with its wielder) every 3 days that it doesn't
wait my character is a half elf do I still suck
I gave my D&D group a Ring of Three Wishes. They carefully took it back to their guild, promptly hid it in their vault, and put it under constant watch. I think my group understands.
To be fair, planar travel wouldn't be realistic if a party is unknowing of those plans despite their existence even with the tool/s necessary. Also if you're the DM most of these items aren't game breaking...you put them in and use them to your story's advantage not against it. Yes I'm aware of metaknowledge and how it works with people being inclined to act differently despite their character's knowledge and motivations but I feel as DM that's on you to keep in order. For example: "Your halforc with ten intelligence doesn't know what a plane is, he's thinking can I crush it." Or you get a way to portray it as being limited, "Well, you DO remember something about a plane of fire...you could go there but suddenly you remember all the stories you heard about fire giants and worse who live there and you're still recovering from that hobgoblin attack..."
can it be possible to make a campaign around the Deck of Many Things?
Easy. First, do some tinkering. Write up new effects for the cards, it's your game, but make them party-level appropriate. Second, you can decide how many cards are still available. I would have 10 or 12, with 1 really bad card, 1 really good card, and the rest leaving the players saying, "Well, that's okay." (like one card gives you Bag of Holding, but it can only operate at night)
I have an idea for an adventure that starts with the PCs in a tavern, and some guy runs in and shouts, "Hey! There's a great big castle right in the middle of Old Farmer Thompson's field! It wasn't there last night!" Your heroes should be out the door before any NPC says, "Old Farmer Thompson?? Didn't he go to the nearest big city to be at the reading of his father's will??" So, obviously, he inherited the Deck, got the castle, and was probably killed by a wandering monster. Now, it's a God-level Artifact, so if your party slays the monsters infesting the castle, the legality of them now "owning" the castle while it sits in a corn field should be easy to establish -- a deed in their names (or their party teamname, like "The Avengers") pops up in the records at city hall. Maybe hidden in the castle is a box with the rest of the Deck? Will peasants arrive at the castle, seeking help from the mighty PCs who own this great fortress? Will an official show up and ask the team about the taxes on a place like this? You decide, it's your campaign.
Bag of devouring can be pretty terrible because a lot of the time the party will confuse it with a bag of holding.
So the Eye of Vecna is the Millenium Eye from the Yu-Gi-Oh manga.
Yeaah-no, I'll stick with my +2 Magic Quarterstaff.
In a sci-fi home brew I am running I keep 4 loot tables and i roll which table I’m going to take stuff off of. One table has stuff that has beacons hidden in them so the main villain can ping their location to minions, one where everything is unaltered, one with faulty/damaged gear, and one with cursed, enchanted/magical items, and a few normal items
My DM's setting happens to include (at least) five sets of magical dice with different effects based on the outcome, and each pair has a different table of effects. As you can imagine, they tend to have a mix of good and bad effects. One, for example, has most of its effects involve burning, melting, or charring the target in some way, but it can also occasionally make them immortal, give them fire breath, summon a fire velociraptor under their control, or send them back in time a few minutes. We once accidentally gave a tree sentience (and a giant sword) and almost got killed by it until we gave it *more* sentience by accident which bumped it up to the level of a curious toddler that was more interested in frolicking after birds than grinding us into paste. We also once accidentally sent two of our party (including me) on a drug-trip through hundreds of thousands of years of history and on another occasion turned another party member into chewbacca. Long story short, those dice are *very* rarely rolled nowadays
We have four of these sets currently, having gotten the first one at ~level 3 despite our DM not expecting us to find any until at least 8-10
My D&D group encountered a Eufretee(I think that's how it is spelled) when we did our run of Tomb of Horrors. My character was dead at that point, but I was still there to help out. The Eufretee did none of the options that you said, but rather it just gave us information and moved an object revealing a passage that would ultimately be their way out of the Tomb. Definitely not what our DM was expecting, but still cool in a sense.
I don't know about you, but having my soul devoured by an eye and then my body being used as a flesh puppet sounds great...I don't have a problem, what are you talking about?
Some of my favorite artifacts; A Lolipop that served as a wizard's staff (which belonged to a character magically frozen at the age of 8), a dart of beauty (extra bonuses versus Beholders), and a Giant shield of regeneration (with cuffs at the top and bottom).
Speaking of Lovecraft, there's a Lovecraft supplement for Labyrinth Lord (a simplified 1st ed AD&D), which I was playing at the time that included a random artifact generator.
I called it The Peerless Gong. It was a small gong with a reflective surface that only reflected wheeling stars and your eyeless face. When the gong is struck, one's next attack or spell automatically hits, does max damage, and no save for any effects. The downside is that the character permanently loses 1 CHA (restored only via a Wish). I didn't tell my players this (only hinted with descriptions) while they abused the hell out of it, then tried to use a CHA skill and I informed them it failed despite what they rolled.
If they'd gone down to 2 or 3 CHA, they'd have become a devoted, depraved, and drooling cultist of Nyarlathotep and lose control of the character.
The avatar of death from the deck also have to be fought alone by the one who drew the card. If someone else helps you, another avatar of death will spawn for each person who joins the fight.
One of my players currently have the Eye of Vecna and I've also used the Deck of Many Things. Each player has advanced at least three levels since then, and I'm a first time DM, so I would say that evil would be a strong way to describe these. If in the wrong hands, sure, but truly immersive DMing can make it work wonderfully in my experience
Had a first hand experience with the eye and hand of vecna. If you use em cautiously they're pretty fun.
Ive used plenty of dangerous stuff:
* Deck of many things
* Rod of wonders with a 10000 results table
* Intelligent weapons and artifacts (a bastard sword who was also a bastard, for example)
* Monkey paw
* Genies
* a Cursed spellbook (all it did was provide new spells on a weekly basis that people could learn or copy over. in a group of 3+ spellcasters that thing was fought over with glorious results. It intentionally wanted to cause strife.)
* Familiars of the evil variety (who merely acted the part and were effectively double agents)
* Magical brands and jewelry from evil deities (they would burn or pinch, dealing damage if ignored)
* a lute that wouldnt let you stop playing (think SCP stuff)
* list goes on
Which version of the deck of many things are you guys using. When I looked at the one for 3.5 which is what I play the deck had the same number of good and bad things. And in it it gives you a keep not a castle and a permanent +6 to diplomacy. I pulled that card so many times I had a permanent +36 to deplomacy
I planned on my players rolling the cubic gate. Well, not planned but had something if they did. What cubic gate did they get? One that gave them just alternative prime material planes. They did find a way to make it useful, making it so they could hide from those they are running from or stash their goods in alternative places they weren't known. I did that to dodge the Planescape aspect for the most part, just made their world a little bigger.
the ring of 3 wishes has a very strict guildline of rules for its uses and specifically says "if players want a more powerful effect they can try at their OWN RISK. wish is for boosting attributes, killing T-Dawg, being a panacea for the incurable, and a few other things, but should never be over used.
An item which a DM threw at us once was a magical hourglass which could teleport you anywhere in a minute. You'd disappear, walk through a portal for 1 minute, and reappear anywhere you wanted with no maximum range or precision...
The catch was that this 1 minute in your perception was not the same minute for the real world, and every time you used it you had to take a dice roll to determine just how long the teleportation ACTUALLY took... with an upper limit of 100 years.
My friend who used to DM for our group used Mimics a lot. At first it's a little bit exciting because you think you're getting a new item or some money, but it actually a trap. He mostly stopped using them once I learned to attack something that looks like a treasure chest instead of reaching into its mouth
I was terrified of the Deck of Many Things. Mat Colville convinced me to give it a chance, and I snuck it into an optional mini-dungeon I designed. So far, with it, the bard has given himself 2 extra Charisma, lost all of the XP he gained towards a level, convinced a harmless buffoon of an NPC antagonist to draw from it by promising it was completely safe, who was then eternally murderized by an avatar of Death, and went on to try to hide said NPC's death from his extremely powerful family, which included making the terrible choice of giving the family patriarch the opportunity to draw one card... which let him get the answer to any question he wished and caused the party to be on the run from the authorities when the question revealed the unfortunate little detail of Jimothy Francine Quarnsworth's death at the hands of the bard's subterfuge... which led the bard to draw again because he is great at making bad decisions and somehow managed to reveal the presence of one of the five magical artifacts the entire campaign is based around in the process, the bastard.
Oh, and it served as a way for me to erase the presence of a problem player from the story and introduce a new one.
I'm still terrified of the Deck of Many Things. But it's guaranteed to shake up your campaign if things are getting boring!
No wand of wonder? Really? Even in 5e it can end your character by potentially petrifying you, stunning you for a round in combat. Casting stinking cloud catching your party in its effects or potentially blinding the party for 10 rounds. Lastly, it potentially (depending on DM) have a plot critical item disappear into the ethereal domain.
Have fun folks
Not sure if this counts, but every time I try to animate a golem it tends to go crazy and viontly thrash my party with it's mighty fists
In one of my more recent campaigns, our party of four was almost torn apart over a Deck of Many Things. Here's the story:
Our party consists of Illithin, the Firbolg Cleric; Gene Masters, the Human Fighter; a Fire Genasi Monk (forgot his name); and Orion Kane, the Goliath Fighter (my character). We were planning a heist to steal a Deck of Many Things from the baron of the town Neversummer because no one should be allowed to have that item. Gene and Illithin provided the distraction at night, while the Monk and I went to the baron's castle via Ring of Teleportation (we're wearing masks at this point). The baron led us to the chamber, and the Monk went to check while I held the baron at blade point. Sure enough, it was there, but the Monk used the deck to get a huge sum of gold and lied to me. The next day, after a night of staying outside the city, we returned to the tavern. Some puckish Rogue stole the deck from the Monk, revealing that the Monk had the deck the entire time. A fight broke out, Gene and I fought the Monk, Illithin chased and killed the Rogue, and drew FORTY cards! He got a huge sum of gold, a few enemies to slaughter, and a Wish spell, which he used to wish all Decks of Many Things out of existence (at this point, we're level FOUR). And that is the story of how our party almost fell apart over a Deck of Many Things. I fucking hate that item!
I know someone who got the Deck Of MAny Things about five minutes into a campaign, everyone was terrified, then the dude got bumped straight up to level 17
the quest was a slightly modified, less ass-kicking, version of Tomb Of Annihilation
My ultimate table rule is: no cubic gates and no DOMT, I’m not gonna let them ruin my campaign!
Anything that actually talks to you
"Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain?"
Had a shady npc related to one of the PCs offer a deck of several things in a blackjack bet with the party rogue. The rogue happened to win. Day after the rogue decided to draw two cards.
1st card: alignment flip. Now lawful good.
2nd card: avatar of death.
A wonderful way to deal with some potentially troublesome adventurers.
Thought about it... but if you have a True Neutral character, how would the balance card from the Deck of Many Things change you? Would you have to roll d100 with a 25% chance of becoming one of the extremes(LG, CG, CE, LE), or would nothing happen?
Fun fact about the deck of many things, specifically the avatar. You must defeat it alone. If anybody assists you, they also summon an avatar... that must be defeated alone. Game I played in once, our DM had a field day with this.
Im seeing a few comments that are a tad salty, you two had some insightful opinions and facts that I found enjoyable. Keep it up guys. (I know I'm just a humble bard with a tiny channel but we are all minnows in the world of UA-cam.) Subscribed.
In my campaign, I drew the card that made me rich, destroyed my intelligence, and changed my alignment from lawful evil to chaotic good. My patron did some evil things to turn my back
"I wish for unimaginable riches!"
"The room suddenly feels oppressively hot as molten gold starts to bubble from the floors, drip from the cieling, and seep from the mortar in the walls. The room starts to fill with deadly liquid wealth."
"You never let me have anything cool"
"... Are you suggesting this isn't cool"
"No. It's molten."
"That's fair."
Meh, I recently gave my players a cubic gate, AND an Efreeti bottle. So far they're using everything responsibly. I tried to tempt them with a Deck of Many Things, but they were scarred by our last game when one of the players was trapped by it. But honestly that was a fun adventure. The player who was trapped made a new character sent on a quest to save their old character and everyone had fun.
I'm a fan of the controversial items.
What about magical traps? Especially magical traps with a spell of obfuscation or misdirection on them, in my campaign most magical traps i throw at my party are ensorcelled with a spell of atleast nondetection cast upon them in order to deal with party members that can discern /discover traps.*eg* Even created a spell that works well against true sight.
Pulled a 3 cards out of a deck once and gained Fire Immunity, +10 to all combat checks, and my weapon can talk.
Deck of Many Things made my whole party overpowered. We got almost every good card. One character lost his money, one person lost a level but also gained one.
The only one who had bad stuff happen was my Teifling Warlock.
Lost all my equipment, got a knight, had to fight the Avatar of Death (naked) and then got a castle.
I survived with less than 20 hp.
I'm lucky it has no force resistance.
In one of my current campaigns, one of the character has pulled from the Deck of Many Things waaaay more than he should have. Hes gotten wealth, a servant, magic items and weapons. The only bad card he pulled was Death. He's a barbarian that solo'd it with a newly acquired magic weapon. Right after the wizard pulled 1 cards. Lost 4 INT, and all his magic items, including his Enduring Spellbook.
Beholders do have minions though. Not to mention they love to fill their lairs with traps. So many traps. I really think that playing a beholder intelligently turns the encounter CR to something much higher than the base monster CR.
Have had several of these in our campaign and it’s still going after 25+ years. PCs still have there knight or castle, Death was easily defeated (only 33 hps) by a party member and most of the time wishes were used to restore things (life, levels, limbs, finding the PC who got dongoned, etc). The CN held the efreeti bottle and made friends with it. It then got “zapped” away for violating its mission “torment mortals, don’t befriend them!” The Efreeti king said. “But he let me eat souls!” (Evil ones and they deserved it!). The only thing that can truly derail a campaign is a lack of communication and/or people not getting along - including poor GMing. All else is window dressing that exacerbates this underlying issue.
I've seen the Deck of Many Things destroy a couple of campaigns. It almost always goes like this.
Everyone: We shouldn't use this.
That One Guy: I'll just draw... ONE Card.
-whoosh- Good things happen.
Everyone else: oh, I'll just draw one too. Or two... Or three.
Campaign Implodes.
But what if That One Guy got unlucky?
The Other Guy: I'll draw a card or two... Just to try and save my friend!
Campaign Implodes.
A cracked Everfull Flask, Belt of Giant Weight, Love Letter of Spite, The Bowless Arrow. All magical Items that I've made for my corrupted magical items campaign.
I wish I could get these eleven minutes of my life back.
My character tried using on of the wishes on her luck pistol to dispell a rancid odor from one of the party members, we had just killed a bunch of goblins so I attempted to move the smell to the dead goblins and it works but then the room filled will rancid smelling goblin corpses. I have yet to use the other two wishes because of this. Why did I want to dispel the rancid odor? My character is a hound folk and was already flustered, I didn't want more debuffs on my character. Why did a party member smell so bad? An unlucky roll while using the knuckle bone of fickle fortune. That item sucks.
What my character would do with 3 wishs:
*Gets a Ring of 3 Wishes*
Wish Granter (WG): What do you want? What shall you wish for?
My Character: ... .....
WG: come on... What do want-
My Character: Sweet Rolls.
WG: Like a mountain... Or?
My Character: No. Just a bag, like 10 or 11 sweet rolls.
WG: That is it?
My Character: Yeah.
*gets wish*
*Hands ring to other party member*
My Character (Eating a Sweet Roll): Just be careful what you wish for.
I remember reading up on that hand and eye in the thumbnail when I was bored
Here's a story of how my party rewrote the whole campaign...
One of our characters had a Deck of Many Things, which didn't initially do very much for us. However, at one point he got a ring of three wishes. Since a wish can be used to undo one event from the past, there was now no risk to drawing from the deck. Aaand since the deck has a card which gives you wishes... well... I'm sure you can already see the problem. We all gained 10 levels in that session, and the deck just so happened to be completely incinerated in the next one. Now that our characters were about three times the level of the original campaign boss, our DM had to come up with something new. Luckily for him, a beholder solved that problem. We found out that a sleeping beholder had been causing the nearby town to randomly disappear and reappear every day, so we tried to kill it. Unfortunately, the attack that had a good chance to one-hit it didn't kill it. My character panicked when its flesh began melting off and tried to banish it to another plane of existence. Unfortunately for everyone, this beholder was native to our plane of existence, so it only stayed banished for 1 minute before it returned as a death tyrant that could *travel between dimensions at will.* So now we have a new villain. Long story short: we're doomed.
Once got the deck of many things. All of us got lucky except for one player, who was sent to be judged by Death, who would take his soul. We decide since he was a pixie, he didn't have a soul, and Death moved on...
I know you mentioned the Deck of Many Things (and oh boy I had a DM that tossed it in game once and watched another DM use it, I won't touch it I don't trust any of my friends lmaoo) but I'm surprised you didn't specifically mention The Fates card. Trusting players to make wishes that don't destroy the game is one thing, but a card that literally allows a player to mess with the weave of fabric avoiding or erasing one thing? I watched my friend scramble in panic when of his players said "I use The Fates card to erase BIG BAD'S birth from ever happening" and it was like, what do you do? Fun to watch him squirm, but I didn't envy being in his position.
What is with the redwall books in the background?
I love that, wish for immortality? Become the mosquito from Jurassic Park hahaha
Yep, we just had some experience with the deck of many things. The only bad thing we did NOT pull was the trap your soul card. The last one I pulled while holding the entire deck itself was the card that dissolved all my magic items. This included the awesome home brew dagger that I have been using for ever! Since the deck itself is a magical item, it too vanished.
If you use the eye and hand of Vecna at the same time, does the eye still have a chance to tear your soul??? I read the abilities and effects you gain from having the two, but unlike the description of using the objects alone, there doesn’t seem to be negative results. Aside from the character becoming neutral evil