COMPETITION: Ring of regret, once per day an intelligent undead creature can enjoy the sensations of life for one hour. Eating, drinking, breathing and sunbathing will cause no discomfort during this period.
Did you ever read Brothers Majare (I think that's the title). The brother that is the fighter has sex with a female lich that has made herself to look very, very milfy. Lol, the ring is a good idea.
@@shaggyrumplenutz1610I remember that one. The wizard brother saw through her illusions because of his own curse was being affected by it. It caused him to really, really doubt her appearance to the point he was able to see past the illusion. And being a good brother he said nothing about this to his brother. Because he knew his brother had rattled those bones.
In another layer of the multiverse, AJ is the God of storytelling. He never fails to inspire the imagination, and impart some theoretical musings into his tales.
The Lich's Homunculus, this small undead creature has a magical connection to the lich it is attuned to. Resembling a shrunken, skeletal humanoid with a small animal skull and random portions of dried decayed flesh. When not in use, this creature lies dormant curled up in a lich's empty chest cavity. When active, this construct can follow commands, scout and relay information and sensory input telepathically. Additionally, the construct can act as a conduit for a lich's life draining abilities, granting life and souls drained directly to the lich. To attune to this item a lich must hold near it's body for the duration of the attunement and at the end of attunement the humunculus burrows or crawls into it's chest cavity, sealing any hole behind it. From then on, it needs only a command to come out and work or go back to dormant, opening and sealing any hole when doing so. Obviously, if a living creature tries to attune to this item, it would die from a lack of available room.
COMPETITION: The Waiting Stone - A Revenant that attunes to this item can, upon destruction of their currently inhabited body, choose for their spirit to instead inhabit the Waiting Stone, rather than search for and animate another humanoid corpse. While within the stone, the year-long countdown on the Revenant's revenge is effectively paused until the spirit emerges from the stone once again. At that time, the countdown resumes where it had left off. If the stone is broken, the spirit is simply freed, able to again search for a suitable corpse. If the target of the Revenant's revenge dies before justice can be served, the spirit does not pass on into the afterlife until they either choose to leave the stone or the stone is broken. "Some say the stone was stolen from the lair of a Sphinx, others tell of a cabal of would-be Archmages attempting to perfect a phylactery that would not need fed or charged with souls, resulting in true eternal life. Whatever the truth, this smooth, alabaster, almost marble-textured stone whispers the violent curses and vulgar spurning of the enraged spirit within, crackling every so often with negative energy. They say that revenge is a dish best served cold, don't they? Well, some spirits would wait until the Nine Hells freeze over."
COMPETITION: Cup of Oblivion Description: A metallic goblet made from black and impossibly smooth void stone. The Cup weeps necrotic tears that steam and curl as though from fresh mulled wine. The Cup emits an aura of cold that does 1d4 cold damage to any living creature holding the Cup. Effect: Once per day an undead can drink from the Cup of Oblivion and gain the ability to breathe a stream of necrotic shadow breath as per the breath weapon of an adult shadow dragon 1d4 times. Hazard: If a living creature drinks from the Cup, it must succeed in a DC 21 CON save or have their internal organs be instantly obliterated by the sudden materialization of a Sphere of Annihilation within their digestive tract, killing the creature instantly. On a successful save, the creature takes 6d6 necrotic force damage and 6d6 force damage as they violently vomit up the hungry sphere of darkness.
COMPETITION Since a lich stores their essence elsewhere, why not make their bodies into magic items? I present to you, yourself, because you ARE the magic item These guys devote themselves to magic and it's not to far fetched that an older more powerful lich could find a way to enchant his skeletal body. Perhaps even a magical effect for every bone depending on how powerful the DM wants it. I mean, the guy has already enchanted his soul, so just go the full ten miles. The useful applications for this crazy enchantment are pretty much limitless, but here are some ideas. 1. Negative energy enchants that make any living thing that touches the lich take 6d6 necrotic damage on a failed save. 2. Stored spell slots in the body for counter spells. 3. Summoning ruins engraved into the bone that summon powerful undead when the lich is bloodied. 4. Anything that has to do with stealing souls. Gotta stock up somehow and this lich might as well do it in style. 5. Illusion magic that is powerful enough to make the lich an undead changling. Maybe just humanoids, or maybe up to dragon size your choice. 6. Short-range teleportation-on-hit magic for those pesky fighters who get to close. 7. Any attempt to modify the body to mimick the Death Tyrants ability to control limitless undead are not unwelcome. 8. More memory storage so all those dusty books the lich reads stay in there easier, leading to more memorized spells. 9. Perhaps something to allow the lich to physically replace someone else's skeleton with it's own body? Nothing like Fred the fighter's skeleton becoming a lich. No one would see a lich clawing it's way slowly out of a friend that had been alive moments before coming. Bonus points if the lich is monologuing as it climbs out of it's meat bag. 10. Perhaps an anti-airfield preventing anything within a 60ft radius from breathing as there is no oxygen near the lich, only cold necrotic death. Any one of these effects could be used in an undead magic item but only a lich would be crazy enough to graft all those powerful magic enchantments onto it's body. It's a real pain when the body is destroyed however so... 11. As a final insult to the enemy, an explosive self-destruct to remind the party that they just destroyed years of work. The lich can always create another body like this but it's a real pain to do so. There. Build Your Lich Workshop is open for business and there is only one question. How powerful do you want your lich?
I think a lich could really use a laboratory with a bubling pool of adamantine, to coat his/her skeleton minions in. Yeah, that's basicly the backstory of Wolverine from X-men, but having near indestructible skeletons would definitly be something a lich is interested in. I imagine the lich would also be interessted in seeing, if he can apply the adamantine to itself. Apperently adamantine armor only gives immunity to crits, but to me it also makes sense to push up the lich's armor class. I think it would be quite terrifying to see a floating, probably angry, lich, made out of a near indestructible metal :)
I thought about the idea to coat skeletons in molten metal quite a while ago, and still think it is a good idea to beef up Undead minions. One must apply the metal with care, though, lest the skeleton become trapped under a layer of metal and unable to move. Shouldn't be a problem for a Lich (or expert Necromancer), though. All that hollow space within and between bones are also great opportunities for upgrades for the ingenious liches and necromancers out there. The bones could be filled with alchemical substances to make them more flexible and less brittle, or to the contrary, to splash reagents that rapidly dissolve flesh to the attackers. One could also fill the meager skeletons with explosives: the unwary adventurers would simply underestimate and decimate these petty minions without a second thought, only to be subjected to the explosion and bone shrapnel that follow (or worse, metal fragmentation, if the skeletons were previously coated!).
I missed the contest but I'm still submitting my idea. Corps Seeds. Corps seeds are a set of small gems of 5 to 20 GP value hidden in the pockets and pouches of gear left on reanimated corpses in numbers of 2d4 (4-5). These enchanted gems lay dormant until touched by a living creature. Twelve hours later a gem will teleport into the nearest body within 30 feet after which the creature must make a DC 15 Will saving throw daily until the gem is removed upon a failing save the creature is struck with severe pneumonia like symptoms that worsen with each consecutive failing save. Casting Remove Curse will neutralize the symptoms but the seed will be unaffected. If the creature fails three saves than the creature dies instantly and rises as a zombie under the control of the seeds creator and is drawn to their location. The Corps Seeds can only be located with a Detect Magic spell and must be removed with a successful medicine check or destroyed with a Dispell Magic spell or Antimagic Field.
Yes, this is exactly what I needed right now. I love the darker side of d&d. I dont play. But I love the Lore. Keep up the great job A.J. love the lore😁
I know the competition has long since been over, but I do love to add and share ideas that bud within mine own skull, to which I have just the concept for a desired item by the Vampiric Undead. *The Aphotic Mirror* : This obsidian material of indiscernible blackness draws the attention of wandering eyes in a vain hope of unveiling it's depths, it can be mounted across broad segments of armor or indeed be carried much in the same fashion as any other accessories, however is most commonly used as a Besagew. Upon being the subject to any spell or attack inflicting Radiant Damage, the "Mirror" draws in and negates X-Amount of Radiant Damage before shattering, a Perfect One-and-Done defensive charm for any Vampire fearful of an Errant Druid's capacity to summon Sunlight or indeed the Holy Magics of any nosey Cleric or Paladin.
First thought: “Get yo Lich some yellow mold, liches love yellow mold” Second thought: thank you so much for these videos, I’m doing research for my first time DM’ing a session and these have been a tremendous help!
COMPETITION-A mask that, when put on, blends in with the character's face and enhances their beauty. This would come with a host of positive bonuses to interactions with NPCs. They can take it off whenever, but a timer is secretly set. Once a predetermined amount of time has elapsed, the character's face comes off with the mask. The mask would transfer the character's life force/essence to the lich or something like that. Could have it kill the character outright (they die screaming, etc) or worse they are put in an irreversible state where they have to live out their days with no face (no cartoony clean skull, but a nasty, gorey juicy one). This item would need a lot of polish since I am shooting from the hip.
COMPETITION (Although belated): Skeleton Foundry Unlike its parent, the Bone Foundry, this foundry is composed of a crucible and various specialized tools not to melt bone, but rather to coat bone in metal in order to produce hardier skeletons and undead. Such skeletons gain one (or more) additional Hit Dice that doesn’t count against the maximum HD a necromancer can control, gain additional natural armor, according to the type and quality of the metal used in the process and lose their vulnerability to Bludgeoning damage. The skeletons also gain a claw attack, dealing appropriate damage for their size, if that they didn’t already possess them. Skeletons with existing claw and bite attacks have their critical range increased to 19-20, due to the razor sharpness of their metallic blade-like protrusions. The increase in weight results in an increase in Strength (and Constitution in 5E), but a slight reduction in Dexterity, which can be partially mitigated by the lubrication and otherwise optimization of the skeleton’s joints by the more engineering-oriented necromancers, or use of lighter metals, such as Mithral. All of the skeleton’s natural attacks also gain the properties of the metal used, such as bypassing appropriate Damage Reduction/Resistances. Some unscrupulous necromancers fill the skeletons with explosives in order to detonate in a violent explosion of shrapnel when destroyed, turning their lesser minions into dangerous weapons against the often unwary adventurers and champions they face. While some like to customize their skeletons with the addition of fearsome spikes on their members, some would rather choose discretion and hide the metallic features under illusions or a cheaper bone-like coating, or even powder, in order to surprise their assailants with an unexpected resistance. Bone Foundry This collection of tools, from crucibles to various molds, tongs and tools, may appear as a regular smithy at a first glance, but the grisly inscriptions, blood stains and other remains they usually contain rapidly reveal its true nature upon closer examination. This ingenious, if inelegant, combination of metallurgic, magical and alchemical tools is used not to melt metals and craft swords or hammers, but rather to make bone temporarily more malleable and seemingly ‘melt’. This allows the user to change the shape of bone, as well as other similar organic materials (chitin, keratin, etc.) in order to fashion them into more efficient or specialized forms. This allows a necromancer to fuse multiple skeletons of smaller sizes into a larger skeleton to create a more fearsome warrior, change the configuration of a bipedal skeleton into a more adept quadrupedal climber, swimmer or mount, add multiple limbs to an existing skeleton to allow for more attacks or the manipulation of more tools, etc. Some simply use these capabilities to add horns, claws, talons, spikes or other features to their skeletons, or simply harden them by plating the basic skeleton with an exoskeleton into a veritable animated bone plate warrior, if not to create a full plate of bone animated by necromantic energies for themselves or their minions. These two foundries are even more formidable when combined together, which allows for a reduction of space and cost by removing redundancies between the two kits, and make for both more versatile and tougher skeletal minions. Liches in particular are known to specialize in their use, as they are not erudites in the highly specialized and often obscure magical, alchemical and anatomical knowledge necessary, but can even customize their own bodies with the addition of grafts, etc.
COMPETITION Casket of the forgotten. A humble, wooden coffin belies the onyx interior of the box, and its wonderous properties. Any creature who speaks the command word inside casket of the forgotten gains the following benefits. They are subject to a constant nondetection spell. They are immune to any form of damage originating from outside the coffin. They are forgotten, over the next d100 years, their name fades from history and the memory of any living creature. The seal is air tight, and the casket is small enough to make performing most tasks impossible, though the door may be opened at any time with the command word.
COMPETITION Kelemvor's Scales of Judgement Artifact Appearance: Set of Brass scales held up by a skeletal hand. When a Lich, Vampire or any other intelligent undead creature truly feels remorse, regret or saddened over their transformation into undeath they may find that this curious item has seemingly appeared among their belongings. Upon touching the scales they will immediately obtain a full and complete understanding of how it is used. When a living creature places their hand upon the scales it will not move regardless of how much force is applied, however when an intelligent undead creature places their hand upon the scale it will immediately move to a leveled out position (A lich must place their Phylactery on the scale and put their hand atop it). On the opposite side of where the hand is placed a pale luminescent beating heart will appear, placing the heart against their chest will cause the heart to pass through any skin, bone or clothing they may have and upon reaching the center of the chest will merge with their heart (if they have one) or take its place in the location if one is not available. After 1d4 minutes the heart will stop beating and the creature will die a true death (a Lich's Phylatery will turn to ash). 1d12 hours later the body of the deceased will be the target of a true resurrection spell returning the being to life in a state of perfect health as though they had never become undead. During the hours following the being's true death, they will stand and be judged before Kelemvor, God of the dead. ( forgotten realms setting ) if the being is truly remorseful and repentant before the god of the dead, they will be given a list of tasks to perform upon returning to the land of the living. (difficulty and number equal to their acts and deeds performed while undead) This individual will never again be able to be resurrected into undeath and must also actively seek it out and destroy it whenever it may be, and if possible find a way to redeem them as well. The now reborn being will be compelled to carry out whatever tasks and orders he or she was given and will live for this singular purpose until they are all achieved and they are released from service, to forge their new path. Once the True resurrection is complete the scales will vanish and once again find itself among the baubles and trinkets of some intelligent undead's possessions until the day they too take notice of it. ( only one set of these scales appears anywhere on the world at a time.)
COMPETITION Pin-tong of tongues, a blacksmithing tong enchanted by the lich to rip out the tongues of their victims. The lich can use the pin-tong to place the victim's tongue in the lich's own mouth. This allows the lich to speak with the voice of the victim and know what the victim has said over the last month. If a living being attempts to install a tongue with the Pin-tong, the new tongue attaches over their existing tongue causing suffocation. The two tongues now are attached and can only be removed with the Pin-tong, ripping out both. A tongue can only be attached once after being ripped out.
COMPETITION Ring of Bone Treatment Its a simple magic item crafted using a well lived swan's backbone which died from natural causes, plus a variation of the spell 'flesh to stone'. The item must be willingly weared for it to work, and by the nature of the usual crafters, tend to be very beautiful even if macabe. It is used and crafted by the Lich who are still attached to a distorted vanity and bothered by the decomposing meat, so the amulet allows to purge the meat then cleaned and treats the bones to an almost pearly condition of ivory coralation. The item has one use per day - in the case of a particularly dirty experiment - however passively maintains the condition of the bones by cleaning and polishing them, which guarantees a mere + 1AC. If a living person wears it, even without actually activating the meat purging effect, they will start to feel a faint itching and discomfort, but no damage. If the amulet is not removed in time, the user will find their flesh slipping off their bones, the joints will stop working causing the person to fall to the ground. Even if the person has not received damage, he will succumb to suffocation. The condition can be reversed through restoration magic. This item is a call to the ring of instant bath.
COMPETITION Vapors of Vestigial Vitality and Empayhy - This sealed container when opened releases a vapor that the Lich must choose to inhale. Upon doing so the Lich gains +1d4 Charisma bonus when interacting with living beings as well as being under the effect of friendship for any encounters. The Lich also gains some small measure of the experiences of a living body. Physical lust, sore joints, smells and tastes, ect. This can be distracting or disorienting depending on the circumstances and some Lich may become addicted to this state.
The excuitioner's mask: A black hood with sewn shut eyes and mouth, Placed over the head of an undead thrawl, endows it with greater strength. Placed over the head of a living creature, the mask will begin to smother the wearer to death. If not cut off the living victim, the wearer will die and rise again as a zomby, inthrawled to the owner of the mask. When the wearer of a mask kills a living creature, all of that creaturs items transfer to the wearer of the mask. The executioner will discard older items and take up better items when applicable. (This is based on the real history that excutioners would only get paid whatever the condemned had on them)
COMPETITION: Eyes of Entropy Two spheres of dark crystal that absorb any light that hits them, these items need to be inserted into the hollow eyesockets of an undead creature. Once per day, this creature can then use an action to focus on an enemy within 60 feet of it that it can see for up to 1 minute. The target must succeed on a DC 17 wisdom saving throw as soon as the caster begins to look at it. Every turn that the target is still within direct line of sight of the caster it must make another Wisdom saving throw or be afflicted by another effect every turn, up to 3 turns, after which the statuses become permanent and can only be removed through a greater restoration spell, one at a time. The conditions are chosen by the user from the following list: Poisoned Blinded Afraid Charmed Slowed Paralyzed Confused Incapacitated Deafened
COMPETITION: Madstone of Meddler Mangling. This amulet is created from a mortar from the bones of a moondog, couatl, silver dragon, or other sickening maggot of justice. It provides the wearer with several potent abilities, some requiring charges. While wearing this amulet, lair actions occur on initiative count 1 in addition to initiative count 20. The amulet has 12 charges for the following other properties. The amulet regains 2d4 expended charges nightly at midnight. Rebuke the Holy Warrior. If you are dealt radiant damage from a melee attack, you can expend 6 charges as a reaction to make a melee spell attack against the attacking creature. If you hit, this ability duplicates of effects of the Hurl through Hell (PHB, p. 109) warlock class feature. Upbraid the Hedge Wizard. If one of your spells fails because of the spell counterspell (PHB, p. 228) or ends because of the spell dispel magic (PHB, p. 234) you can expend 6 charges as a reaction to cast Tenser's Transformation (XGE, p. 168) targeting the creature which cast either of those two spells. You do not need to concentrate on this ability to maintain the effect. The affected creature may make a Constitution Save at the end of its turn to end this effect on itself. Strategic Withdrawal. You can expend 12 charges as an action to create the following effects. In the first round of using this ability you replicate the effects of a prismatic wall spell (PHB, p. 267). In the following round, you replicate the effects of a plane shift spell (PHB, p. 266). If your phylactery is on the same plane of existence as you, you may choose for it to travel to your destination and appear in your hands or teeth when you arrive in the plane you selected. You may instead choose to travel to the current location of your phylactery if it is in another plane.
COMPETITION Robe of Useful Organs: Have you ever wondered what you might do with that old gallbladder? Ever looked past your ribs and think "hey, what's the point of all this baggage?" Well, ponder no longer! This quality slave-stiched robe will turn those antiquated flesh sacks into powerful new tools. Stomach: As an action, you may target any space within 60ft, making the appropriate ranged attack roll. Upon impact, the stomach will burst, causing 4d6 acid damage to everyone within 5ft of the targeted square an causing an additional 1d6 acid damage for 10 rounds or until the affected take an action to rid themselves of the acid. Intestine: As a bonus action you may command your intestines to spring from your body and Restrain an enemy within 5ft of you. A DC20 reflex save will allow them to avoid this condition. To burst free of the intestines, the affected may make a DC18 strength check. The intestines may also be used as a 50ft rope. Liver: As an action, you may throw your liver into any space within 60ft, where it begins to rapidly expand. After 1 round it fills a 10-10-10 ft cube. 1 round later it calcifies into stone. Spleen: As an action, you may throw your spleen into any space withing 60ft, where it bursts, covering the floor in an oily slick. It acts as the Grease spell, save DC20. Gallbladder: Once per day, what used to be your gallbladder creates 1 random dose of contact, ingested, or injury poison from the available list in the Poison section of the SRD. Each of these poisons has a save DC of 15. Roll a d12 to determine the poison, on a 12 you choose. Pancreas: The spherical nods in the pancreas harden into the likes of marbles. There are 100 total nods. Each of these may be activated to act as if affected by the light cantrip and cannot be reused. Kidneys: Each of your kidneys wreaths with small worms. As an action, you may throw one of your kidneys into any space within 60ff, where the worms erupt from the sack a burrow into the ground creating 5ft square pit that is 10ft deep. Heart: Always get the last laugh! Upon the death of this body, every unsued organ immediately activates, and after 2 rounds, explodes for (1d20)d6 necrotic damage. ALSO, while not dying you can use the heart as a metronome! Lungs: As an action, you may throw one of your lungs to any space withing 60ft, where it begins convulsing. It then acts as a smoke bomb but obscures a 40ft radius area and persists for 5 minutes. While not immediately deadly, the foul air emitted snuffs out all breathable air.
This is great! I can imagine a party being absolutely horrified while the Lich is just cackling as it goes down. In an enclosed space. And the door is closed :)
COMPETITION Mirror of Dark Reflection (Note: Pathfinder) Given the hideous appearance of many undead, it is impossible for them to enter the communities of the living without instilling revulsion, fear, or violent reprisal. This large, silver hand mirror can change that. Molded into the mirror's frame are the visages of attractive humans and elves, who appear to smile and wink at the viewer. Any intelligent undead who gazes into the crystal mirror will see themselves as their previous living appearance, and may cast the Daywalker spell once a day, suppressing the negative aspects of their presence. The living, however, will not be so lucky. As they look into the ebony depths of the glass, they will see themselves as a rotting abomination. The previously beautiful faces that decorate the frame will wither into grinning skulls, as the viewer's reflection will move of it's own volition, leaping out of the mirror to attack. The monstrous reflection will assault the viewer's psyche as a Phantasmal Killer spell, requiring a DC 19 Will and possibly Fortitude saves to survive.👱♂️👁💀
COMPETITION: Lenses of Dawn : The lenses of these items are made of amber crystal. When worn over the eyes, the wearer can operate without penalty in magical or natural bright light ( flare, sunbeam, est.) An addition side effect allows vampires a full round action prior to dissolution when faced with sunlight.
COMPETITION Orb of Desiccation: To an entity that can live for hundreds, if not thousands of years, rot and decay remain a problem for one's possessions even if the owner is beyond such concerns. For liches who reside in dank caves or the underdark, humidity and dripping stalagmites can often smudge and ruin decades old spellbooks, rust ancient iron artifacts, and tarnish gold, silver, and copper pieces. To counter this, liches who reside in these wet/humid areas often carry an Orb of Desiccation to enables them to pull the water out of the environment and into a demiplane contained by the orb. The Orb of Desiccation is activated by spending one spell slot (of any level) to activate it, following the same rules as the spell Create or Destroy Water to determine the effects per level of spell slot burned. The orb recasts the "spell" until it is turned off by expending an action (for the owner) or being hit by a spell/cantrip. If activated while a living creature is in range, the orb begins to mummify the creature as the moisture is pulled from the flesh of the creature, leaving a preserved, leathery corpse for the lich's later use. A particularly skilled lich may use an orb as a fish tank of sorts, as the orb can also grant sight into the demiplane which can be populated with all forms of undead marine life - ranging from bone coral reefs and decrepit undead sharks to a simple bony fish for a lonely lich
COMPETITION: Staff of Turn the Wise; Upon using this legendary item, each creature with a wisdom score of 18+ automatically fails the save (DC18 if your wisdom score is under 18 naturally), causing the creature to charmed for the duration. The charmed creature obeys all orders from the staff user and the effect can only be broken by a remove curse spell or the staff being broken in half.
COMPETITION The Golden Nails of Lo Pan Artifact These long golden fingernail replicas attach themselves to the wearer’s hand when placed over the corresponding nail(or fingertip if no nail is present). They can only be removed by a Remove Curse spell of 8th level or higher or a Wish spell. When worn by a Lich, these Nails grant the wearer a +1 bonus to their AC, Saving Throws, Ability Checks, and Melee Attack Rolls(including Melee Spell Attacks). When the Lich hits with its Paralyzing Touch attack, the attack deals an additional (2d4) Slashing damage(this damage is counted as magical damage). The Lich may also use its Bonus Action on its turn to expend a number of charges to cast one of the spells listed below, using INT as its spellcasting ability. When casting spells using the Nails, the only component required is Somatic, in the form of pointing. Spells cast using the Nails do not count as a spell cast by the Lich during the turn. The Nails have 20 charges to use when casting spells. All spent charges are regained daily at midnight. Spells: 1 Charge: Burning Hands, Catapult, Chromatic Orb, Ice Knife, Ray of Sickness. 2 Charges: Aganazzar’s Scorcher Blindness/Deafness, Scorching Ray, Shatter. 3 Charges: Erupting Earth, Fireball, Lightning Bolt. 4 Charges: Ice Storm, Vitriolic Sphere. 5 Charges: Negative Energy Flood. When worn by a living creature or other corporeal undead creature, the Nails may be used to cast Spells but do not confer any of the bonuses they would grant to a Lich. When a living creature or non-Lich undead creature uses the Nails to cast a spell, it’s Maximum Hit Points are reduced by the number of charges spent. These Hit Points cannot be regained while the Nails are still attached to the creature. If a creature’s Hit Points are reduced to 0 this way, it dies instantly and turns to dust, spawning a Wraith in its place.
COMPETITION Gauntlet of Death. This item is worn on a single hand and contains 5 charges of the level 7 spell finger of death. (You send negative energy coursing through a creature that you can see within range, causing it searing pain. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. It takes 7d8+30 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A Humanoid killed by this spell rises at the start of your next turn as a Zombie that is permanently under your Command, following your verbal orders to the best of its ability.) This item only regains charges once a zombie raised by this item has been slain.
Depending on the disposition of the lich and the contents of a memory globe, I imagine that destroying it’s memory globe could result in a default win. I image a lich that became a lich to fulfill some good or neutral goal but who simply cannot live on with the memories of loss and sacrifice. These memories, however, are what defines them as a person and the purging of those memories left them lesser in spirit.
COMPETITION: Amulet of Water Sphere: A small glowing blue amulet that projects a sphere of pure elemental water 10' diameter around the lich that protects against fire attacks (maybe 1d8 levels?). The lich doesn't need to breathe so it won't be harmed by the sphere but any living creature that cannot breathe water in melee range must use constitution saves (or whatever is used now for drowning checks) to prevent from drowning. Shattering the amulet causes a one time water elemental tsunami 10' tall in a circle radiating away to 30' from the destroyed amulet that does 6d8 damage (or how ever many levels of fire resistance were left) to those hit by it. [Fashionably late Edit] Ugh, I only noticed the video now so guess I missed the competition...
COMPETITION: Its simple but I ran a lich that wore a modified ring of regeneration. The ring healed undead or inflicted necrotic damage to the living at 1 point per minute. The ring could only be removed another creature who is immediately compelled the put it on. It resizes and attunes itself removing an attuned item if necessary. If a creature dies while wearing the ring the lich's spirit occupies the corpse. As this happens at the moment of death it may appear the person has recovered.
COMPETITION: bone bell , basically a master key , whenever the lich points the bell in a direction anything blocking \ protection \ or locks are removed from blocking his way, extremely useful A non lich can attempt to use the bell and roll with high risk, if they fail the skin of whatever arm or leg they used to ring the bell turns to ash leaving just the charred skeleton left, i like the idea that at a huge risk or cost this could be resorted to using and if it failed they may attempt to try using it a second time and loose multiple appendages; ive never actually played DND so feel free to improve the idea; players may see the lich use the item but have no idea about its high chance to fail in the hands of a non lich
COMPETITION. a get away vehicle powered by necrotic energy. made from the carcass of a great sea or sky creature (like a whale or cloud ray) it could function like an air ship or submersible with proper modifications. it would be powered and steered by necrotic energy from the lich itself through an amulet or broach attuned to the undead hulk. but spheres like the memory sphere could be used to store said energy and ac as a fuel tank, or use captured spell casters instead.
COMPETITION: Necromaical Organ, Wondrous Item, this strange creation of alchemy, necromancy, and artifice is formed from the modified remains of a sentient creature. It is inserted into the body of an undead creature replacing any similar organ the creature may retain from life. The effects of this depend upon the type of organ used in creation. All versions require attunement. Lungs (Rare): Your necromaical lungs grant you the ability to expel noxious fumes from your nose and mouth. As an action you may expel this gas in a 30 foot cone or 10 foot radius originating from yourself. Living creatures in the area must pass a DC15 Constitution saving throw or take 10d6 poison damage, half on success. Recharge 5-6 Eyes (Very Rare): Your necromaical eyes gift you with vision of life energies. As a bonus action you can detect all living creatures within 1 mile of you. This effect lasts as long as you concentrate on it as if concentrating on a spell, up to a maximum of 1 hour. Liver (Very Rare): Your necromaical liver excretes necrotizing toxins throughout the remains of your body. Creatures that touch you or are within 5 feet of you when you are struck in combat must make a DC15 Dexterity saving throw or take 6d8 Necrotic damage immediately and 3d8 Necrotic damage at the end of each of its turns until it is treated with a DC10 Medicine check or recieves at least 1 HP of magical healing. Heart (Legendary): Your necromaical heart gives you the vigor of life once again. Your movement speed is increased by 10 feet and you have advantage on Constitution checks and saves. As an action you can force the heart to pump alchemical vitae throughout your undead body, granting you the effects of the Haste spell for 1 minute, no concentration required. Once used, all benefits of the heart cease to function until you complete a long rest. Skin (Very Rare): Your necromaical skin covers your entire form in a rubbery, pliable armor. Your AC increases by 1 and you gain resistance to Radiant damage AMD Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage from nonmagical sources. If you take 75+ HP of damage while attuned to the skin it immediately dissolves into a slimy, flesh-gel and is destroyed.
COMPETITION Heart of Darkness A silver brooch in the shape of a human heart, inlaid with "veins" of clear black onyx. It's command word is quite clearly engraved onto its surface. This brooch is adorned on the chest and seems like a perfectly ordinary piece of jewellery, until its command word is spoken. When the command word is uttered by anyone holding or wearing the brooch, the heart sinks into the rib cage to the place where the wearers hear would be and opens a channel into the negative energy plane. This is very beneficial to any undead sorcerer or vampire lord, as such direct source of negative energy greatly empowers any undead, providing resistance to turning and positive-energy/radiant damage. This also renders any undead immune to the effects of sunlight. The undead being may use this channel to drain life force from its enemy, doing 3d6 points of necrotic damage with a touch attack. The brooch is an immensely amusing item for any lich to toy around with. By inserting it into a low-tier undead and pitting it against adventurers, the adventures will be confounded by a seemingly normal skeleton warrior who unexpectedly drains life force. If the undead is then defeated, that only serves the lich: when a living adventurer would don the amulet and speak the command word, the heart sinks through the chest replacing the living heart, which would invariably prove fatal to any mortal. Then, as the channel to the negative energy plane opens and the body is flooded with negative energy, the formerly living adventurer will rise as a twisted wight after an hour has passed.
COMPETITION: Fingers of the grave : When worn by a living creature or construct these gauntlets have no effect and appear as simple iron gloves covered in odd ancient glyphs. When worn by an undead the Fingers of the grave mold to the shape of the hand and give the appearance of living healthy flesh colored hands of the humanoid species and coloration desired by the user. This can be decided once ever 24hours. While an undead wears these gauntlets they can interact with objects as if they were corporeal. Perfect for unfinished business, passing as a living humanoid, or operating weapons or items that may require a pulse.
A Staff of Flesh with interchangeable soul gems. Who says a party gets back the soul the soul they were trying to save?? What if they return the soul of some other creature to their friend's body??
Regardless of sucess, a thought was going through my head for a soecial necromancer character I was going to write about and illustrate. So... COMPETITION Black Blood Brew. Made by strange cultists that collected the living black blood of a certain undead, the glass appears to be brittle and cracking even if it was a freshly made one. Likewise, any other inanimate object touched appears to wither somewhat. Applying the fluid to any living thing causes a rot to take hold. The rot periodically can generate maggots, that help spread the affliction through the victims body, or carnivorous worms that burrow outward to spread the affliction to nearby living things. There is also a tiny chance to generate fungal pods that spread the rot as an airborne effect with a periodic releasing of spores. Being used on the dead or the undead upgrades the maggots over a brief period of time into flies that spread the rot. The worms provide a strange preservative and protective webbing over the fly generating bodies. Even adds a touch of shock absorption at the cost of fire vulnerability. Spores from the fungus can make the webbing explosive or make the webbing apply rot as it dissolves from even natural body heat. I guess if you wanted to plague an entire city to an agonizing fate, or just torture somebody and get some special vector agents for a deadly affliction, then it wouldn't be a bad tool for a Lich or even a very cruel mage to keep around.
one i love to use is a heart sized container suspended by chains in the chest cavity of the lich .it acts as a weird jar. Only the weird is actually a magically dominated slime that cleans its owner of any detritus ..able to destroy anything on him/her .however it can also be used to grab things up to 10 ft away ?under the assumption its non organic. And i also let it have 6 small "bullets "just small pieces of the ooze that it can whip off of itself at targets within 40 ft. if it hits the ooze will try to eat itsway into the targets chest mimicking its larger forms position on it master ,its grapples onto the character with an opposing strength check dc14 and for every turn ,up to 4 it will deal 1d8 acid /necrotic(you choose ) upon the 4th turn it eats into the chest killing the target and it will begin eating everything until the target is nothing but a skeleton .upon completion the lich may present a new container creating a copy of the original artifact.if none is presented the creature will move to find any for of jar or non organic container and it will hide there till food comes by or death .i need to make a stat block and the like for it but i call the ooze a canopic ooze. The bbeg of my last campaign was a female lich who had coated her bones in silver and runes ,she had a shaped crystal heart suspended by horned silver chains containing a small red canopic ooze ,one of her favorite tactics was to make herself beautiful with illusions before paralyzing and feeding a person to her ooze .then putting it in a jar and selling it on the soul market for either souls or magic items to other undead .it is a great touching my opinion. she gits a soul and a truely valuable miagic item for trade.not to mention the dont eat bone so boom skeleton for the skeleton bag .im defiantly a lil behind the times but lemme know what u think man ,
u know i didnt mention this but ..if a living creature holds the heart and reads the ensription on it the top will open and the ooze will go its thing on its own ..mind u on an instinctual level. but it eats bio matter ..and people are just that .
COMPETITION Mask of the Risen Pharaoh This mask is shaped in the bronze image of a pharaonic skull complete with headdress, and while wearing it your eyes crackle with fell purple light. When you make a saving throw against Turn Undead, you may opt to fail your save and appear to have been destroyed. However, you actually are banished to the Border Ethereal Plane for 1 minute. During this time you can see and follow those who turned you, but you may not target them with any spells, attacks, or abilities. When the minute expires, you reappear in the Material Plane. You must take a short or long rest before you are able to use the power of the mask again.
Darn, missed the competition, but i shall propose my idea anyway. A stone engraved by runes that wont activate unless touched by a living creature. The creature will suffer 2d6 necrotic damage as the stone pulls life-force from them. Thus effect will happen once a round while it is being held. If a creature dies while holding the stone, their soul will be trapped inside and used to turn the stone into a gem. At this point, if anyone but the one who created the gem tries to use it, it will become unstable and in d6 rounds will explode. The creator can choose to release the soul, returning the gem to a stone and allowing the one who died to be revived, or use it to fuel a powerful spell, destroying the soul in the process. This could be a way for a lich to strong arm a party into serving his needs. However, any magic canceling spell or situation could stop the stone's effect, for d6 rounds or until out of the area stopping magic. Like anti magic field etc. If the gem explodes beside the body from which it took the soul, the creature will awaken with 1hp
COMPETITION! *Crown of Dread-Call* Crafted from intertwined finger bones and mummified lips dyed jet black, the Crown of Dread-Call constantly writhes and moans as though in deep despair. Anyone wearing the crown takes 5 necrotic damage at the beginning of their turn and suffers the Frightened status, but also deals an additional 1d6 necrotic damage with every attack. In addition, any incorporeal undead within 25 miles are attracted to the area, circling the wearer within 30 feet. When encountered, roll 1d100 and consult chart below for what undead are present or may appear within the next ten minutes. The incorporeal undead may act normally against any living targets within the area as normal and may not voluntarily leave the crown's proximity. 1-30: 1D4 shadows 31-50: 1 ghost 51-70: 1D6 spectres 71-90: 2 greater shadows 91-100: 1 banshee
COMPETITION! Throne of astral projection (basically, the "golden throne") Made from multiple precious metals, and encrusted with various jewels over the entire body of the work, the throne requires a phylactery to function. With this device, the lich can traverse the astral plane w/o any fear of hostile intent from its denizens - though at a cost as the phylactery is drained during the thrones use. While active, the lich is surrounded by an anti magic field out to 30ft. In addition, any living creature/spirited undead must pass a dc17 int.save or forcibly have its mind thrown into the astral plane when entering the fields area. If either their body dies, or their cord is cut, their soul falls into the phylactery and follows all the rules for that fun. From there, flavor to taste: astral plane hijinks allow for lots of "whatever u think is what happens" fun. The lich is more God-tier on it, but it uses so much more energy. Good times.
COMPETITION: Nagrik's Beard. A funnel that can be attached to the inside of a skeletal lower jaw which empties into an enchanted wineskin that hangs at the wearer's neck. Invented by a dwarven lich to let him continue drinking. While the intent was to allow the user to get drunk, it has the added benefit of giving the wearer the ability to imbibe potions.* Variations on the design include a rudimentary lung used by a glass blowing lich. While the joys of taste and smell are worthless to most liches, even the most pragmatic lich can find some use for these senses in the course of their experimentations. As such, olfactory variants have been developed as well. *I have no idea if there are rules about skeletons drinking potions already.
COMPETITION Ring of the Neck-romancer While attuned to/wearing this item, an undead creature gains an appetite for the blood of the living...literally. It will proceed to bite and suck the blood of living creatures, each "healing" the undead creature a portion of health relative to the creature it decided to feast on. The more blood it drinks, the more "life" returns to the creature wearing the ring, returning it similarly to a state of what it once was while it was alive. Upon having consumed blood worth twice the total amount of health of the undead creature has, the undead creature now becomes a vampire. It's still undead...but now it's a vampire, gaining all the perks, weaknesses and rules of being a vampire. *Sparkles in sunlight not included.*
COMPETITION Staff of Quasi-Negitivity Since a Lich is connected to the negative energy plane I think a staff that draws power from the quasi elemental planes that border the negative energy plane would be have some interesting uses. For instance the plane of salt could be channeled to desiccate a living creature by literally destroying the water that they’re made out of, probably as a blight spell. The Plane of Vacuum could destroy air in a radius around the lich as long as it concentrated, which would be a good way to keep medium sized melee attackers away from it. Plane of Dust disintegrates things, turning them to dust. The Plane ash would allow the lich to counter fire effects in a similar manner to a counterspell spell, due the the plane of ash’s extreme cold, except it could be done with mundane fire. For instance a shapechanged adventurer who’s turned into a gold dragon could simply have their breathe weapon halted as if it were nothing, and being able to counter things like fireball without expending a spell slot would be very advantageous for a lich who wants to protect a horde of lesser undead. The staff would probably be made from voidstone and other materials specific to the various quasi elemental planes.
COMPETITION: Ti' Cortez's Spore's: These yellow mold spores have been magically enhanced for potency and processed into ultra fine particles. One small pouch releases a 20' cloud. When released any living creature within 20' suffers yellow spore damage, 6d6 per turn. With this spell casted a vast area can easily dusted, overwhelming groups of aventures or even an army. Receivers take on a concentrated dose, usually right up their noses or into their mouths. This magically enchanted enhanced dust seeks out targets individually moving as intelligently as an elemental however is fairly week. Due to how fine the material is it cannot travel against a strong breeze and is also susceptible to rain where it can not travel at all. Only the quickest fleeing adventures can outpace it.
Beholder skull Just a tiny red orb that summons the lich beholder like a pokemon and thus through its gaze creates undead for the lich by proxy. Simple but quite effective
Now I can't help but imagine a Lich, that has such a brooch of turn resistance, so they can't be turned, but flees anyway in an attempt to trick its opponents and get them while they don't expect it. The catch is, the Lich is a _very_ bad actor.
Liches naturally have turn resistance, don't they? But the bad acting part is amusing. "Oh no, I am afraid. This light, it burns. Please dark gods save me." So monotone the party thinks they are being mocked until they realize the lich is indeed attempting to trick them. Then the lich actually runs away as the party looks on in pity.
COMPETITION The Dark Lantern- There is no item that amuses a Lich as they walk the halls of their lair more than a Dark Lantern. This silver framed lantern gives off a light blue magic illumination. To the unwary it is a simple floating magic lantern, however it is the source of this light that will send a chill down anyone's spine. For this light is that of a burning soul. The dark lantern uses good aligned souls as any other lantern would use a candle. To the undead the light of this lantern is appealing and grants them advantage on perception and investigation while using it. To living creatures it provides no illumination despite the magic light can be clearly seen, but to good aligned creatures the light is appalling and gives them disadvantage to all their senses. The dark lantern can be held or by speaking a simple command on the lantern it will float ahead of the user up to 10 feet. The dark lantern provides a 40 foot radius of bright light and an additional 10 feet of dim light. To fuel a dark lantern is where the lich's devious cunning comes into play. If anyone living opens the lantern to place a candle in must succeed a charisma DC of 18 or they will have their soul sucked into the lantern. Creatures of neutral or evil alignment will not illuminate the lantern and their soul's are sent to the abyss to traded in the soul market by the night hags. Only a good aligned creature's soul will cause the lantern to illuminate as their soul is slowly sucked into the abyss. As long as the lantern shines it's light the soul has a chance to escape, and this is what burns from the soul, hope and goodness. As the lantern's light dims so does the soul's purity and when the light dies the soul is sent to the abyss denying those of the righteous the afterlife their deeds would have granted them. If another creature opens the lantern while a soul is already burning inside the soul can attempt to escape but it will cause the new user to have their soul sucked in. If the creature is good aligned and opens a dark lantern that holds a soul inside the soul inside can warn them of the danger or they can take the body of the other good being making it an unholy trade of who is to suffer. Destroying the lantern will free the soul inside and allowing them to seek the celestial plane they were destined to achieve. So the next time you encounter a lich and they sit by a strange lantern lighting their dark lair as they read their magic books you can't help but wonder, is that a soul burning in there lighting the lich's work?
COMPETITION: The Phylactery Golem: The Lich's phylactery is stored inside An Iron Golem hostile to anything living to protect it from harm. The lich has a teleportation circle set near the golem to quickly return to defend it should it come under attack, requiring the adventurers to either defeat the lich first & quickly defeat the golem afterwards or find a way to stall the lich for long enough to defeat the golem. Or they can try fighting both at the same time. The Phylactery Golem makes the phylactery encounter much more interesting than simply putting it behind some traps. While not Strictly a item, i dont see why a lich would be unable to aquire or create a golem to protect itself.
Competition Negative Energy Siphon A circular piece of jewelry (ring, bracelet, necklace, or circlet) made of steel and inlaid with silver mined from the Shadow Shadowfell, which enhances a Lich's connection to the Negative Energy Plane. Once per day, the Lich can activate the Siphon and create an aura of Negative Energy in a 30ft radius around them. Within this field, all spells that would otherwise deal damage will restore hit points, and healing spells become damage dealing spells. Additionally, non-undead creatures that end their turn in this aura must make a DC17 Constitution Save or take 6d6 Necrotic damage, and the Lich gains an equal amount of hit points. If a living creature activates the Siphon, they will be pulled into the Negative Energy Plane and replaced with a Night Walker :D
COMPETITION: Staff of opposition: Legendary. Strong Aura of Conjuration, Necromancy, and Transmutation. Requires attunement. As a legendary item, IDENTIFY does not work on it, though a LEGEND LORE spell may reveal some of its secrets. These staves are Damascus-colored iron rods. They are covered in one small rune repeated over and over, and each rune is always oriented upwards relative to the wielder. This makes it fairly grippy, and is often described as looking "spooky". They taper slightly toward one end. This rod can be activated at will with an action (standard action), but deactivation is delayed by an hour (and is a bonus action). You cannot stop the deactivation once it has been triggered, nor can it be expedited in any way. The rod can only be activated again as long as it is currently inactive. When activated, this rod instantly reverses the polarity of metaphysical energies in the vicinity (default range is all creatures within line of sight, though each staff varies in range, from as small as 5 feet, up to as large as 5 miles. If the staff has a range, obscurement does not change what creatures are affected. Some versions of this staff also have a maximum number of targets. This number must always include the user). All living creatures become undead, and gain immunities and resistances as a zombie. They can now be turned, and cannot be healed except by effects that heal undead. Living creatures affected this way appear drab, lifeless, pale, and bestial. All undead become living, and can now be healed, targeted by spells, and appear as if they were alive. They do not, however, revert to their appearance from before their death, and additionally lose all immunities that are a consequence of their undead nature. If the undead has sunlight aversion, or a similar effect (like "Vampire Weaknesses"), they lose that trait. Undead transformed this way lose all of their abilities to feed (all effects that deal necrotic damage), and must eat and sleep as if they were a normal member of whatever race they belonged to before their death. Incorporeal undead remain incorporeal, but regain the appearance and alignment of their selves before their death. All Elementals within the area of the staff become Elementals of the opposite kind (air becomes earth, water becomes fire, etc.). If there isn't a clear opposite, then all magical damage dealt by the elemental is reversed instead (fire becomes cold, cold becomes fire.) All constructs affected have their alignment reversed, and if they have a programmed purpose, they attempt to thwart it. (A shield guardian will attack its master and protect enemies, etc.) Dragons' breath weapons and all spells cast by those affected are also inverted, in terms of damage type only. This effect only applies until that creature again prepares spells. All celestials affected become evil fiends while the staff is active and all fiends become good celestials while the spell is active. (Or in 3.5e, all outsiders have their alignment reversed across the good/evil axis). Magic items in the vicinity, if they have a clear opposite, become that item. If not, they lose all magic abilities for the duration. If they are held, attuned, worn, or carried, that creature may make an additional Wisdom (Will) save as described below, to resist this change for each item that they are holding, wearing, carrying, or attuned to. For each Item they choose to protect this way, they receive a cumulative -1 to all of these charisma saves, including the save to resist the alignment-swapping effect below. All affected creatures are allowed a Constitution (fortitude) save to negate these effects. If they succeed, they may choose to either fail the save or take 1d4 necrotic damage per hit die of the affected creature. If the creature is immune to necrotic damage, but are weak to another type of damage, they take that type of damage instead. All creatures that fail the first save must make a Wisdom (Will) save, DC 12, or have their alignment reversed on both axese. They have advantage (or +2 in 3.5e) on this save If they initially passed the Constitution (fortitude) save. On a success, the creature must make the same save in 24 hours. If they succeed by 10 or more, they must make the save again in 1 week. When the rod is deactivated, the creatures hose alignments were swapped return to normal after a duration identical to the time they spent with their alignment swapped. When a creature's alignment is swapped in this way, they are aware of why, and will attempt to avoid switching back. If this rod is ever activated within the vicinity of an aberation, it explodes, as if it were a staff of the archmagi with one charge per hit die of affected creatures, as it is unable to process the energies of the far-realm, no matter how residual. This staff can be broken to achieve a similar effect. If the staff is broken while active, its effects become permanent. If the rod remains active for 100 years, the effects become permanent and the rod deactivates, becoming a Wand of Smiles. All creatures affected know the location of the Wand of Smiles at all times. The Wand of Smiles can be used as a component to recreate the staff, which will end the effect. The Wand can be destroyed, which removes all hope of reverting the changes. A wish can end this effect at any time, on any number of creatures affected by the same rod. This is considered a greater use of wish in 5e, meaning there is a 33% chance that the caster loses the ability to cast wish forever. If this rod would affect a creature with divine ranks, it is broken immediately. Any creature of enough clout to stop the use of a Gate spell (as described in that spell) can also choose to stop the effect of this staff, or reverse its effects on any one creature or item. In this case, the rod simply has no effect. The rod can be deactivated without being attuned to it. This staff if helpful for power-hungry liches or evil clerics, who can transform living attackers into undead, assert control over them, and then transform back before feeling the adverse effects of their impermanent life. However, every use of the staff holds danger, as the user may end up permanently transformed into their own anathema. Some nieve adventurers might use the staff to gain the benefits of undeath, but, unbeknownst to them, they are actually risking total annihilation every time they use it. Sometimes, powerful, bored, or particularly crafty liches will create these items just to give them to adventurers, and hopefully create some new, powerful undead minions, along with some even more powerful mayhem. At the same time, avoiding any possible downsides of using the item themselves. In the best case, a lich could hover over a battlefield, and activate the staff to watch as roughly 1 in 10 living creatures suddenly swap alignment and attack their former allies. Gods and planar Powers also have use for these items, as they are unaffected by them and can cause enemy ranks in the bloodwar to quickly change sides, as the rod automatically swaps the alignment of outsiders. Countless angelic detachments were caused to fall by emissaries of Baator who used these weapons before graduating to stronger artifacts, or attaining a high enough status that they were no longer on the front lines. It is rumored that Baalzebul has a large collection of Wands of Smiles for exactly this reason, in a hidden stockhouse that must be only describable as utterly terrifying. Additionally, this item serves as a plot hook for some low-level adventurers, since they might have a common Wand of Smiles which some recently freed undead paladins may want very much, in order to return to their gods's good graces. Ultimately, this is a very strong legendary magic item, though it does have a large downside, very similar to a curse. The only reasons it is not an artifact is because A) I want multiple to exist B) I hate minor/major benificial/detrimental properties. Feel free to change this to better suit your own games. I think it's probably on par with the Tome of the Stilled Tongue, which is legendary for the same reason "A". Legendary is still extremely, extremely difficult to create in 5e, so on that measure it shouldn't be a problem. Understand that this is a POWERFUL problem-solving tool, and could ruin many games, much like a TotST, or Deck of Many Things. Be careful of giving it to an enemy as well, as anything that a bad guy has is only 2-3 rounds away from being the players'. If you make it an artifact, I suggest also making it intelligent. It hates whatever class of creature you are, and tells you that you are not worthy to wield it. This personality has an intelligence of 18, wisdom of 8, and charisma of 6. If you attempt to intimidate the staff, it immediately caves in, loudly fearing that you will break it. It never attempts to assert control, unless the wielder tries to break it. Whenever it is deactivating, it will tell you about the benefits that you have just thrown away, and insist that you were better while you were affected. The rod switches polarity instantly because anything slower would kill all things involved. This can be achieved by activating the rod during a TIME STOP spell. If this ever happens, the wielder is consumed, and all in the vicinity take damage as if they had succeeded at the constitution save twice. They may not choose to fail the save. Edit: it is Conjuration because it deals with Outsiders and Elementals, Necromancy because it deals with life/death (+/-) energy, and Transmutation because it changes the traits of those affected. In 5e, it would probably just be Evocation, or Transmutation. Though to be completely fair, in 5e, it probably wouldn't even get a typing (like most magic items in 5e). Also in 3.5e it doesn't need attunement, obviously.
COMPETITION Mug of Misty Memories: Existing both in the ethereal and material planes, the Mug of Misty Memories acts as both a means of reflection upon a life that once was and a form of tantalizing inbreation for the undead. The undead creature in sensory range of the Mug will experience familiar sensory sensations from the mug that were pleasing to the creature when they were alive, and must make a wisdom roll DC 15 to resist drinking from the Mug. The mist has pleasant familiar aroma and shapes itself into images from the creatures past life. The mist then fills the creature floating inside if lacking the necessary organs. The taste and feel of a familiar drink is even experienced. A constitution roll DC 10 must be made to keep from being intoxicated, putting all of the creature's d20 roll at disadvantage, including intoxication recovery rolls that happens each turn. The Mug of Misty Memories never runs out of mist and many undead covet this magic item as a vice. The living simply see, smell, and feel a misty wet mug and experience none of the euphoria experienced by the undead.
COMPETITION: Ring of Bone Storage. A small carved ring of polished irory activated by command word. Appears to onlookers to summon/store items similar to a ring of storage. However the ring instead "stores" the items inside the hollow of a users bones where thee marrow would be. Effects on living users.....
COMPETITION : Weight of Scorn - this plain adamantine belt would be used by a purely skeletal Lich. Once the command word is spoken it transmutes the Lich's skeleton to Adamantine, slowing it down yes, but also considerably raising its AC, the user of the belt has to say the command word to turn back its affects. If used by a normal mortal they will become a petrified Adamantine statue dying in the process due to everything turning into metal where as the skeletal Lich receives no physical harm due to it being undead and needing to biological functions. The Lich will usually leave this belt unsecured a top a desk with papers that states "The belt seems to produce free Adamantine when the correct company is present. I do hope the right people come by." Have this Lich occupy Limbo and it will have adamantine weapons, armor, and other items galore (Do to Limbo making matter easier to manipulate). An adamantine golem anyone? This honestly sounds like an item that would be used as an adventure hook to me. A Lich purposely lures young adventurers to its Prime Material Plane base. The rumors of limitless adamantine being too much for them to ignore. They go an find this belt. One tries it one and says the word. They turn to a grey metal statue as they let out one last shrill scream. The rest of the party try to figure out how to undo the effects. Then a Slaad controlled by the Lich via its mind gem steps out a portal from Limbo to collect its master's prize.... Roll for initiative.
There is plenty of things you can do/use if you are undead, you can go to the moon, or the bottom of the ocean, but a scrool of "portal to the negative plain" is just the best, negative energy will hurt the heros, heal the lich and won't even destroy his books. An amulet that lets him channel negative energy like an evil cleric is also very good.
COMPETITION Collar of Mortal Delights Ranging in appearance from the ornate jewelry wesekhs of the Pharaohs to the ruffled collars of Victorian courts, this wondrous item is worn around the neck and nailed into cervical vertebrae. The wearer can activate (and deactivate) the collar with a simple thought, at which point a fully functioning tongue and palate (as well as any missing or damaged teeth) grows from the collar. This allows the wearer, usually a skeletal or desiccated undead, to enjoy the finer pleasures of eating and drinking. While one could imagine this as a partial resurrection of its master, the truth is that the collar is home to a specialized homunculus. Upon being summoned by its master, the homunculus shifts into reality from a pocket of the astral plane, and forms a psychic link with its bearer, allowing it to share all sensation of taste, aroma, texture, et cetera. This collar would, in theory, also work with a living host, but in practice, would displace all of that creature existing anatomy. I am sure I can leave it up to your imagination what kinda of gruesome fate that would entail. While some undead find mortal pleasures idle and distracting, many others would chose not to leave behind these comforts. Criminally decadent vampire courts often provide these as gifts to the older, more decrepit of their esteemed guests. Ancient mummy monarchs could use this item to indulge themselves in lavish royal parties thrown by their high priests and necromancers. Even some liches found use in the collar, having been known to use scents and flavors as mnemonic stimulus.
COMPETITION: Larry the lich likes to keep his old master close by. Conneted to his belt, His master spends his days as a shrunken head. Larry can use his old master as a spell focus and his master can vomit up green flame that sticks to the ground for two turns. If a living creature attempts to use larrys master, the head will refuse to cast any spell and attempt to bite the thief.
Brooch of separation The enchantment on this item is both simple and specific, allowing it to be cast very powerfully rather cheaply. More like a mini meat skewer than a pin, this item will seperate anything its connected to into baser components when a command is spoken. A skeleton with magical or mechanical means of saying this command can pin it to a body and seperate the bodys meat and bones into two neat piles. The lich will often make this item out of more expensive material than the enchantment needs, like gold or platinum, studding it with jewels. When adventures kill the group of skeletons working with this item theyll take it and occasionally even pinning it to their cloak. At best this means at a simple word the lich will disrobe an adventure, amusing and effectively neutralizing them for an easy target. At worst, the adventuring party will suddenly find 3 piles of gear, meat, and bones where their friend used to be.
COMPETITION: the waters of un-life(a staff), when activated it fills the space with water that deals 1d8 necrotic damage over time to living targets and the staff stores the damage as healing that the user can draw upon.
Probably not a lich or undead item only, but a lich recurring NPC in my campaign world; known only as The Profane Scholar; has a Gem of True Seeing embedded into one of his eye sockets. He also lacquers his bones because he is several thousand years old and it preserves his skeletal body and keeps it neat without having to fuss with it to much.
COMPETITION Robe of Worms This magical pus-yellow robe appears to ripple and move on its own when not worn. However, when it is worn by a lich, or other intelligent skeletal undead, the cloak transforms into a covering of 1000 living, magical worms of various types that are unaffected by any negative energy, necrotic damage, and poison. The robe grants a +2 bonus to armor class and if the undead is struck by a melee attack or a magical attack that does only kinetic (force) damage, then worms are dislodged from the robe and onto all within melee range (1d6 worms per target). Worms will quickly regenerate to replace any removed in this way. Roll to determine what types of worms are scattered: 1. Large Biting Maggot (1hp damage /round) 2. Poison Crawler (Fortitude save or lose 1d2 Constitution and 1d3 Dexterity) 3. Tomb Worm (Fortitude save or contract mummy rot) 4. Slime Worm (1 acid damage/round to character or whatever equipment it lands on) 5. Rot Grub 6. Kyuss Worm. If the undead is hit with an energy attack (fire, cold, sonic, acid, electric, positive) then they automatically take only half damage, the other half absorbed by the robe and killing 1 worm per point of damage. These will not immediately regenerate and doing at least 900 total damage destroys the cloak, as there are not enough worms left to keep it cohesive. The cloak will heal itself when not worn at the rate of 10hp/hour. Once per week, the wearer can throw any one worm to the ground and turn it into a century worm for 1 hour. If this robe is ever donned by a living creature, they will take 2d100 points of damage per round until they die or Dispel Magic is used against a DC 17 difficulty. Edit: spelling
Competition Rings of boneportation. rings is a marrow looking material with a black gem encrusted in it. When used, it teleport the skeleton and any worn objects of the creature using it to the location of the other ring. these rings recharge when both are worn by the same creature for 24 hours. if the creature is living, the skeleton of that creature is teleported leaving only a sack of flesh and organs limply behind. the bones may be restored to the body with a wish spell or with a greater restoration if they can find the bones without 24 hours.
The memory globe is a awesome Idea for a Elf due the Reverie state as such can be the drive motiff for him/her. Also a excellent for explain a sorcery inheritance
COMPETITION Flame Horror Helm: Channels the flames of Phlegethos into the skull of the wearer, causing it to blacken and burn with a 15ft aura of Heat Metal, cast at 5th level (5d8 fire damage). A creature that touches the wearer or hits its bones with a melee attack while within 5ft of it takes 1d10 Fire and 1d10 Necrotic damage. Nonmagical plants in the area, like trees and bushes, burn and die within the 15ft aura. Reasoning: Turns the proper bony undead into Ghost Riders, and makes players envious enough to try the helm on themselves. ALSO! Maybe add something about the helmet being affected by cold spells to punish wizards who prepare their spells based on the monster manual.
COMPETITION _(I know I'm too late but it sounds like fun):_ 1.) Amulet of Dracolich Fire: An amulet carved out of a dracoliches bone containing a diamond formed by the heat and pressure of a dracoliches breath. When a creature dons the amulet a magical blue flame ignites in its chest allowing it to breath a magical fire in a 20' cone dealing 3d8 fire or lightning damage (users choice) + 3d8 necrotic or cold damage (users choice) or half damage if the victim(s) succeed on a DEX saving throw, this effect can be used a number of times equal to the users proficiency bonus per short- or long rest Anything located in the wearers chest cavity will catch fire and be forcefully ejected. 2.) Lich Champions Armor: An armor forged out of the dark entities native to the negative planes and the lower planes, forged specifically to hold the body and soul of a liches champion so that they may never die or leave the liches service. A heavy armor requiring STR 15 to wear, grants AC 16 + CON modifier(minimum of 1) as well as resistance to all non-magical damage and immunity to poison, acid, and disease. Allows the wearer to cast the spells _Soul Cage,_ _Inflict Wounds_ (as a lvl 1 spell), and _Hellish Rebuke_ (as a lvl 1 spell) at will using the armor as spell-casting-components as well as being under a constant effect of _Spirit Shroud_ (not requiring concentration), the armor can hold up to 3 souls at once from the Soul Cage spell. When a creature other than the chosen champion puts on the armor for the first time the armor fuses with the flesh and soul of the creature dealing 10+2d20 necrotic damage, the creature must succeed a DC15 CON save or gain 1 lvl of exhaustion, if the armor is removed the creature instantly dies. Whenever the wearer takes a long- or short rest, or takes damage that leaves them at- or below half health, they take 1d10 necrotic damage for every lvl of exhaustion they have and must succeed a DC15+3 for every lvl of exhaustion (15 for 0 lvls, 18 for 1 lvl, 21 for 2 lvls, &c.) CON save or gain 1 lvl of exhaustion. If for any reason the wearer becomes unconscious(other than when sleeping) or dead, their sole becomes trapped in the armor and the soul of the original champion possesses the body, rising with full health.
COMPETITION My current BBEG main plot revolves around the use of these items Lamentation Horn - a musical instrument curved like a french horn but instead of brass it is composed of hollowed out spinal segments of sentient creatures ranging from small to medium sized (Kobold to half orc in size for example) that if a living creature was to try and blow nothing would happen as it requires Negative energy to be channelled through it in order to work. In the hands of a high ranking or particularly strong undead when blown at first it seems as nothing has happened as no audible sound is produced but quickly all sentient life in the surrounding area of effect, centred on the undead using it,start to feel uneasy as the closer they are the more damaging the effect - 300 ft or closer - feel sick to there stomachs,sweating,dizziness etc (Con saves) 200 ft or closer - the target starts to feel there life force being slowly drained from them as they start to hallucinate (necrotic damage) 100 ft or closer - the hallucinations are terrifyingly vivid making the target believe things such as there skin rotting from there bones or sores creeping up there limbs getting more infected (high level illusion magic as well as higher necrotic damage) prolonged exposure leads to insanity and self mutilation culminating in a violent end. The Lamentation Horns are just proof of concept/proto-types for the BBEG's master work the Tower of Lament (a giant Lamentation horn atop his keep ) made from hollowed out spines like the horns but this time from huge creatures like giants and dragons. The range of the Tower would encompass such a large area that it would drive entire civilisations to literally tear them selves apart.
COMPETITION: Staff of Graverobbing, Wondrous item (Staff) This large staff has a thousand bony hands carved into its length, giving it the appearance of many hands clawing over each other to escape. When planted in the ground within 10ft of a grave, the hands descend into the ground like roots made of carved fingers and remove any corpse held within the grave, including anything it was wearing over the next 10 minutes, or one minute if it was a shallow grave. The staff leaves only a slight disturbance in the ground which appears much like if a rodent or small animal had been here. The Staff fails to retrieve the corpse if the grave is under the effects of the Hallow spell or the corpse was doused in holy water as a part of proper funeral rights by the clergy.
COMPETITION Avatar dust-the lich performs a ritual for 1 hour with a gemstone worth at least 1000 gp. At the end of the ritual all but a small sliver of the gem turns to dust. This distinction can be applied to undead under the lich's control and, using the sliver left as a focus, the lich can do the following. Passively the lich is aware if the undead are attacked or slain. As a bonus action, the lich can observe through the undead's senses and s pool eak through them. As a full action and by burning a 3rd level spell slot the lich can possess the undead, allowing it to use it's normal actions and legendary actions. This ends when the undead is slain.
COMPETITON: Ring of false life : This rig when worn infuses the body with blood equal to the size and species of the creature wearing it. This blood appears to all medical and investigation checks to be normal body fluid and lasts 1d10 hours outside the host body before turning into a fine iron colored powder. Provided the host has no active blood-flow of it's own this item provides a magical replacement that even allows for bruising and blushing. An entity who wears the ring and has an active circulatory system takes their hit dice in damage every round until they expire or remove the ring. It takes 1 action to remove the ring. A vampire who wears a Ring of false life does not need to feed provided that take 1 long rest every 48 hours.
As for smashing the globe for spell slots @11:40, I would say no. I think of spell slots more like someones' ability to manipulate arcana of that magnitude; think of it like how many times you can lift your max weight at 1 rep. Each rep is how many times you can lift that magnitude of weight. Smashing the globe would probably let you remember spells from your spell list. Maybe have a marker that marks each spell onto the globe you wish to remember how to cast lolol This is simply the opinion of a 1st time DND player, who rolled a wizard.
Competition Profane Protector It is an item fashioned from a portion of a desecrated cleric's skull, whom served a god who is vehemently against undead. It resembles a loop, where in the hole a gem bleached of color by channeling negative energy into it, and then magically suffused to the bone. The item Grants the lich resistance to radiant damage, as it partially nullifies the God's gifts to mortals, a blessing it has shunned to become immortal. A user of divine magic that carries it is stripped of their godly blessings while carrying it, such as their domain spells and domain features, but not spells and abilities they've gained through their following of their morals/god.
I once created a set of magic items called the Ring & Sword of Klous Mou. The Ring is a thick band of platinum engraved with intricate lines of inlain sapphire (that pulse an ominous red under the light of a full moon) one side of the ring is fashioned in the shape of a snarling maw whilst the opposite is that if a man's bared teeth. With the side of "Man" facing outward a vampire's sanguine nature and abilities are totally suppressed allowing them to pass as human and move in broad daylight undetected. To return to normal said vampire merely needs to remove the ring and wear it with the "beast" side of the ring facing outward while standing under moonlight. The sword of Klous Mou is oddly warm to the touch and has a smooth almost skin like texture at the hilt. The guard of the blade is that of a pale rose with blackened teeth at the center biting down upon a dull red blade shaped like that of a writhing tongue. It has a modest ability of dealing an additional 2d8 necrotic damage with each hit (a 1d10 long sword), on a crit it grants the weilder a health shield equal to that of half the resulting damage. When a vampire kills with this blade they restore their vitality by 2d8 and the victim is infected with vampirism (players will automatically rise as a vampire thrall upon 3 failed death saves.) The nefarious part of these items is that they can be used by living creatures, but at the cost of their humanity. The sword slowly corrupts living welders giving a point of corruption after a night of vivid dreams of crimson rivers and fields of flesh that grow more intense with each passing night (DC 16 wisdom save, raises by 1 point with each passing week). With a corruption level of 1d10 + wisdom modifier the wielder of the sword will have a strong compulsion to wear the ring if they have not already donned it (DC 20 wisdom save each day). The ring suppresses this effect but instead slowly causes the player to become a true vampire as the blade siphons the blood of its victims into said ring. After claiming the lives of a dozen living beings the wielder will awaken a true vampire after a week, using the ring to hide their new sanguine attributes from others. Alignment will shift to the evil counterpart of their current one.
Yeah, AJ my boy! Dragon Magazine no. 234!!! Daurgothoth, The Creeping Doom! Great pull, The Only CR 50 Monster in all of The Forgotten Realms! I was just contriving a plot thread on Reddit for a DM who wanted to run an Epic Level end-game for his Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaign’s players... He wanted to know if Epic Level PCs could take down Daurgothoth with Mordenkainen & Halister (Not Mad, as outside of the UnderMountain...) back-up as a plot-hook/safety-net, ha!
@TheDankness 4/20 I know, right?? It’s only 4/5, I think... that’s his lore anyway. He’s basically trying to become an Undead Tiamat, well... that and sire a new race of Dragon despite being Undead & not a Vampiric Dragon, ha. He’s got everything but Poison as a Breathweapon (Black & Green Dragon rivalry maybe...? But I’d think that would make it easier to find an Ancient Great Wyrm to relieve of their Corporeal Form & Breath from since they like the same types of Terrain for Lairs...?) PLUS, the Dracolich Bone-Fragment standard Breathweapon, an INSTA-KILL Legendary Breath with a DC 32 saving throw.... AND THEN, what amounts to a Beholder’s Anti-Magic Cone as a Breathweapon.... AND EVEN AFTER THAT, is basically a Lvl 25 Spellcaster with access to Cleric Spells thrown in on top. He’s pretty much an Undead Demigod with 4 Avatar Forms ready to go from the bodies of the 3 Great Wyrms that he stole Breathweapons from should you even get through his original Black-Dracolich body!
COMPETITION: This is an item I have used in my games. The Harrow Crown: the wearer of the corwn is granted an aura of intesnse pain. Anyone within 5 ft or coming in any contact with the wearer is subject to the pain and if they fail their save (Fortitufe savve dc25 for D&d 3.5) they are rendered helpless at the wearers feet. The item stops alot of fighters in their tracks and can grant the Wrack spell, Sadisism spell, and massochism spell in combination 5 times a day. Undead can't feel the pain the crown causes, but any living creature that wears it, must make a save every hour it is worn or die from shock. I can be destroyed by any higher angel or by the casting of a Greater Restoration on it.
COMPETITION The bracers of ages +2 to attack rolls with melee or unarmed attacks, +2 to AC and regain 1d6 hit points every 10 minutes. Cannot be removed every 10 minutes the equipped character ages by 4 days. My wife’s submission
COMPETITION Circlet of Animate Bones When activated the lich (or skeletal creature) breaks into pieces that each gain a fly speed of 120 feet and can be controlled each turn. Pieces can only be moved within line of sight of the head or main sensory part (DM's discretion), otherwise pieces can be pulled towards any other piece. This item is meant to help distract enemies and escape danger. being separated dose not interfere with spells, but loosing a hand might. if a living creature tries to activate this item their bones will try to leave like normal but be held back by flesh. After a moment of extreme pain and 3d8+5 bludgeoning damage the creature must make a Constitution/Fortitude save equal to the damage or become unconscious. If the creature dies or becomes unconscious it will float up at 5 feet per round for 1 minute before falling. A creature that succeeds the save gains a fly speed of 120 feet but takes 1d8+2 bludgeoning damage every time it moves as its bones are still trying to break free.
i'm personally not great at coming up with items that can't be used by players, more a fan of items that are hard to use. best example would be: the vampires cane: +1 arcane focus has 35 charges you can use 10 charges to cast charm person (DC:17) 20 charges to cast gaseous form or polymorth on a willing target (but only to turn into a regular bat) 30 charages to cast conjure animals (but only variations of bats, wolves or rats) there are all obviously abilities vampires have and will of course alarm people as each spell registers to others as vampire abilities, not magic item abilities. the best part is how it regains charges. not something like 3d6 charges per day. technically there's no limit to how often you can use it. to recharge it the attuned person must make a 10 minute ritual targeting a willing or incapacitated target, at the end the target takes 3d10 necrotic damage, thei health is reduced by the same amount, and the cane regains an amount of charges equal to the damage taken. yes, this cane is powered by blook. it isn't called the vampire cane for nothing. (now combine this with a homebrew rule were you don't regain any lost max hp on a long rest but only 1 hitdie roll+con mod and suddenly the powerful item isn't going to save the day every time) probably doesn't qualify as it's not unusable by the players, but i think it's neat. Edit: forgot another thing that makes it diffecult. If it has less then 5 charges left it's hungry and distracts the user giving them disadvantage on concentration saves.
Use a magic sword for the phylactery - make it attractive to heroes, and leave it to be "found" by the PC's. I promise you that anytime the lich needs a new body near his phylactery, he won't have to wait long, and your players will *love* you for it - every time they kill a human, "that *tirade censored* lich pops back up and kills one of us!!"
COMPETITION Burial Shroud of Tornock the Unclean- Tornock was a great necromancer mixing divine and arcane magicks together. Many thought he'd transform into a lich, but he didn't even what his soul bound to the material. He crafted shroud made from mummy linen and phase spider silk. Once dead and buried the shourd transformed him into a Phantom Lord. He spent many years traveling between planes via the Ethereal until he had a dispute with an Ultroloth. The Ultroloth hired a coven of night hags to track and capture Tornock. They torn his soul out of his shroud into one their soul bags. The shroud remained behind in the Ethereal, and can only be worn incorpreal or Ethereal creatures. It functions as a cloak of protection, grants Resistance to force damage, and once per day allows you to plane shift via deep Ethereal. If you are currently Ethereal, but not incorpreal the shroud remains behind when you planeshift. If found while on the material the shroud can be seen as a spectral tattered cloth vaguely holding the shape of a humanoid suspended midair. It moves gently with an unfelt wind and creates a cold spot around it.
COMPETITION Bracers of Unliving Defense: This pair of ornate bracers grant +4 to the AC of the wearer. When an attack against the AC of the wearer misses, a living wearer gains 1 level of exhaustion instead of taking damage. If the wearer dies from exhaustion their flesh immediately crumbles away and they become free willed Skelton (bent wholly on the destruction of any living creature it sees). These items are Cursed and require a Remove Curse spell to take off.
COMPETITION: Ring of regret, once per day an intelligent undead creature can enjoy the sensations of life for one hour. Eating, drinking, breathing and sunbathing will cause no discomfort during this period.
Did you ever read Brothers Majare (I think that's the title). The brother that is the fighter has sex with a female lich that has made herself to look very, very milfy. Lol, the ring is a good idea.
Yeah I own two copies of that book actually.
@@shaggyrumplenutz1610I remember that one. The wizard brother saw through her illusions because of his own curse was being affected by it. It caused him to really, really doubt her appearance to the point he was able to see past the illusion. And being a good brother he said nothing about this to his brother. Because he knew his brother had rattled those bones.
WE HAVE OUR WINNERS! Robe of Useful Organs, Ointment of Burials, The Dark Lantern and Sahelain's Picture, Congratulations! Amazing entries everyone!!
All amazong entries, congrats gents! And thanks to Aj for a mine of new magic items I'll spend days reading
Useful Organs was a great one.
An absolute blast reading through these. Good job everyone!
This was fun! You should do it again sometime!
Will you make a video on the winner's items?
In another layer of the multiverse, AJ is the God of storytelling. He never fails to inspire the imagination, and impart some theoretical musings into his tales.
The Lich's Homunculus, this small undead creature has a magical connection to the lich it is attuned to. Resembling a shrunken, skeletal humanoid with a small animal skull and random portions of dried decayed flesh. When not in use, this creature lies dormant curled up in a lich's empty chest cavity. When active, this construct can follow commands, scout and relay information and sensory input telepathically. Additionally, the construct can act as a conduit for a lich's life draining abilities, granting life and souls drained directly to the lich. To attune to this item a lich must hold near it's body for the duration of the attunement and at the end of attunement the humunculus burrows or crawls into it's chest cavity, sealing any hole behind it. From then on, it needs only a command to come out and work or go back to dormant, opening and sealing any hole when doing so. Obviously, if a living creature tries to attune to this item, it would die from a lack of available room.
COMPETITION:
The Waiting Stone - A Revenant that attunes to this item can, upon destruction of their currently inhabited body, choose for their spirit to instead inhabit the Waiting Stone, rather than search for and animate another humanoid corpse. While within the stone, the year-long countdown on the Revenant's revenge is effectively paused until the spirit emerges from the stone once again. At that time, the countdown resumes where it had left off. If the stone is broken, the spirit is simply freed, able to again search for a suitable corpse.
If the target of the Revenant's revenge dies before justice can be served, the spirit does not pass on into the afterlife until they either choose to leave the stone or the stone is broken.
"Some say the stone was stolen from the lair of a Sphinx, others tell of a cabal of would-be Archmages attempting to perfect a phylactery that would not need fed or charged with souls, resulting in true eternal life. Whatever the truth, this smooth, alabaster, almost marble-textured stone whispers the violent curses and vulgar spurning of the enraged spirit within, crackling every so often with negative energy. They say that revenge is a dish best served cold, don't they?
Well, some spirits would wait until the Nine Hells freeze over."
COMPETITION: Cup of Oblivion
Description: A metallic goblet made from black and impossibly smooth void stone. The Cup weeps necrotic tears that steam and curl as though from fresh mulled wine. The Cup emits an aura of cold that does 1d4 cold damage to any living creature holding the Cup.
Effect: Once per day an undead can drink from the Cup of Oblivion and gain the ability to breathe a stream of necrotic shadow breath as per the breath weapon of an adult shadow dragon 1d4 times.
Hazard: If a living creature drinks from the Cup, it must succeed in a DC 21 CON save or have their internal organs be instantly obliterated by the sudden materialization of a Sphere of Annihilation within their digestive tract, killing the creature instantly. On a successful save, the creature takes 6d6 necrotic force damage and 6d6 force damage as they violently vomit up the hungry sphere of darkness.
COMPETITION
Since a lich stores their essence elsewhere, why not make their bodies into magic items? I present to you, yourself, because you ARE the magic item
These guys devote themselves to magic and it's not to far fetched that an older more powerful lich could find a way to enchant his skeletal body. Perhaps even a magical effect for every bone depending on how powerful the DM wants it. I mean, the guy has already enchanted his soul, so just go the full ten miles.
The useful applications for this crazy enchantment are pretty much limitless, but here are some ideas.
1. Negative energy enchants that make any living thing that touches the lich take 6d6 necrotic damage on a failed save.
2. Stored spell slots in the body for counter spells.
3. Summoning ruins engraved into the bone that summon powerful undead when the lich is bloodied.
4. Anything that has to do with stealing souls. Gotta stock up somehow and this lich might as well do it in style.
5. Illusion magic that is powerful enough to make the lich an undead changling. Maybe just humanoids, or maybe up to dragon size your choice.
6. Short-range teleportation-on-hit magic for those pesky fighters who get to close.
7. Any attempt to modify the body to mimick the Death Tyrants ability to control limitless undead are not unwelcome.
8. More memory storage so all those dusty books the lich reads stay in there easier, leading to more memorized spells.
9. Perhaps something to allow the lich to physically replace someone else's skeleton with it's own body? Nothing like Fred the fighter's skeleton becoming a lich. No one would see a lich clawing it's way slowly out of a friend that had been alive moments before coming. Bonus points if the lich is monologuing as it climbs out of it's meat bag.
10. Perhaps an anti-airfield preventing anything within a 60ft radius from breathing as there is no oxygen near the lich, only cold necrotic death.
Any one of these effects could be used in an undead magic item but only a lich would be crazy enough to graft all those powerful magic enchantments onto it's body. It's a real pain when the body is destroyed however so...
11. As a final insult to the enemy, an explosive self-destruct to remind the party that they just destroyed years of work. The lich can always create another body like this but it's a real pain to do so.
There. Build Your Lich Workshop is open for business and there is only one question. How powerful do you want your lich?
Certainly an interesting idea.
Spellstitched creature.
@@devinm.6149 that is a great name for it.
it is impressive how many videos you produce, you are spoiling us.
I think a lich could really use a laboratory with a bubling pool of adamantine, to coat his/her skeleton minions in. Yeah, that's basicly the backstory of Wolverine from X-men, but having near indestructible skeletons would definitly be something a lich is interested in.
I imagine the lich would also be interessted in seeing, if he can apply the adamantine to itself. Apperently adamantine armor only gives immunity to crits, but to me it also makes sense to push up the lich's armor class. I think it would be quite terrifying to see a floating, probably angry, lich, made out of a near indestructible metal :)
I thought about the idea to coat skeletons in molten metal quite a while ago, and still think it is a good idea to beef up Undead minions. One must apply the metal with care, though, lest the skeleton become trapped under a layer of metal and unable to move. Shouldn't be a problem for a Lich (or expert Necromancer), though.
All that hollow space within and between bones are also great opportunities for upgrades for the ingenious liches and necromancers out there. The bones could be filled with alchemical substances to make them more flexible and less brittle, or to the contrary, to splash reagents that rapidly dissolve flesh to the attackers. One could also fill the meager skeletons with explosives: the unwary adventurers would simply underestimate and decimate these petty minions without a second thought, only to be subjected to the explosion and bone shrapnel that follow (or worse, metal fragmentation, if the skeletons were previously coated!).
I should add, you can post as many entries for the competition you want to.
@Kyle Rolnick just watch all of his videos and you'll be in good shape. The demons ones are especially good.
Can you make a video of the most interesting items submitted.
@@calebchampion7781 Tune into the LiveStream tomorrow
AJ Pickett Yippee!!!
I missed the contest but I'm still submitting my idea. Corps Seeds. Corps seeds are a set of small gems of 5 to 20 GP value hidden in the pockets and pouches of gear left on reanimated corpses in numbers of 2d4 (4-5). These enchanted gems lay dormant until touched by a living creature. Twelve hours later a gem will teleport into the nearest body within 30 feet after which the creature must make a DC 15 Will saving throw daily until the gem is removed upon a failing save the creature is struck with severe pneumonia like symptoms that worsen with each consecutive failing save. Casting Remove Curse will neutralize the symptoms but the seed will be unaffected. If the creature fails three saves than the creature dies instantly and rises as a zombie under the control of the seeds creator and is drawn to their location. The Corps Seeds can only be located with a Detect Magic spell and must be removed with a successful medicine check or destroyed with a Dispell Magic spell or Antimagic Field.
Great timing I just got my fav beverage! Always giving me ideas for my next big bad.😈
Yes, this is exactly what I needed right now.
I love the darker side of d&d. I dont play. But I love the Lore.
Keep up the great job A.J. love the lore😁
I frequently am reminded you live in New Zealand, it's the subtle things.
I know the competition has long since been over, but I do love to add and share ideas that bud within mine own skull, to which I have just the concept for a desired item by the Vampiric Undead.
*The Aphotic Mirror* : This obsidian material of indiscernible blackness draws the attention of wandering eyes in a vain hope of unveiling it's depths, it can be mounted across broad segments of armor or indeed be carried much in the same fashion as any other accessories, however is most commonly used as a Besagew.
Upon being the subject to any spell or attack inflicting Radiant Damage, the "Mirror" draws in and negates X-Amount of Radiant Damage before shattering, a Perfect One-and-Done defensive charm for any Vampire fearful of an Errant Druid's capacity to summon Sunlight or indeed the Holy Magics of any nosey Cleric or Paladin.
First thought: “Get yo Lich some yellow mold, liches love yellow mold”
Second thought: thank you so much for these videos, I’m doing research for my first time DM’ing a session and these have been a tremendous help!
You are so welcome!
Good Luck Joseph! The community needs more DMs!
These are always a delight
COMPETITION-A mask that, when put on, blends in with the character's face and enhances their beauty. This would come with a host of positive bonuses to interactions with NPCs. They can take it off whenever, but a timer is secretly set. Once a predetermined amount of time has elapsed, the character's face comes off with the mask. The mask would transfer the character's life force/essence to the lich or something like that. Could have it kill the character outright (they die screaming, etc) or worse they are put in an irreversible state where they have to live out their days with no face (no cartoony clean skull, but a nasty, gorey juicy one). This item would need a lot of polish since I am shooting from the hip.
My favorite beverage right now is pierogies cooked in a cast iron skillet with lots of other delicious things added in
That is, at best, a stew.
It was fantastic as was the Video!
COMPETITION (Although belated): Skeleton Foundry
Unlike its parent, the Bone Foundry, this foundry is composed of a crucible and various specialized tools not to melt bone, but rather to coat bone in metal in order to produce hardier skeletons and undead. Such skeletons gain one (or more) additional Hit Dice that doesn’t count against the maximum HD a necromancer can control, gain additional natural armor, according to the type and quality of the metal used in the process and lose their vulnerability to Bludgeoning damage. The skeletons also gain a claw attack, dealing appropriate damage for their size, if that they didn’t already possess them. Skeletons with existing claw and bite attacks have their critical range increased to 19-20, due to the razor sharpness of their metallic blade-like protrusions. The increase in weight results in an increase in Strength (and Constitution in 5E), but a slight reduction in Dexterity, which can be partially mitigated by the lubrication and otherwise optimization of the skeleton’s joints by the more engineering-oriented necromancers, or use of lighter metals, such as Mithral. All of the skeleton’s natural attacks also gain the properties of the metal used, such as bypassing appropriate Damage Reduction/Resistances.
Some unscrupulous necromancers fill the skeletons with explosives in order to detonate in a violent explosion of shrapnel when destroyed, turning their lesser minions into dangerous weapons against the often unwary adventurers and champions they face. While some like to customize their skeletons with the addition of fearsome spikes on their members, some would rather choose discretion and hide the metallic features under illusions or a cheaper bone-like coating, or even powder, in order to surprise their assailants with an unexpected resistance.
Bone Foundry
This collection of tools, from crucibles to various molds, tongs and tools, may appear as a regular smithy at a first glance, but the grisly inscriptions, blood stains and other remains they usually contain rapidly reveal its true nature upon closer examination. This ingenious, if inelegant, combination of metallurgic, magical and alchemical tools is used not to melt metals and craft swords or hammers, but rather to make bone temporarily more malleable and seemingly ‘melt’. This allows the user to change the shape of bone, as well as other similar organic materials (chitin, keratin, etc.) in order to fashion them into more efficient or specialized forms. This allows a necromancer to fuse multiple skeletons of smaller sizes into a larger skeleton to create a more fearsome warrior, change the configuration of a bipedal skeleton into a more adept quadrupedal climber, swimmer or mount, add multiple limbs to an existing skeleton to allow for more attacks or the manipulation of more tools, etc. Some simply use these capabilities to add horns, claws, talons, spikes or other features to their skeletons, or simply harden them by plating the basic skeleton with an exoskeleton into a veritable animated bone plate warrior, if not to create a full plate of bone animated by necromantic energies for themselves or their minions.
These two foundries are even more formidable when combined together, which allows for a reduction of space and cost by removing redundancies between the two kits, and make for both more versatile and tougher skeletal minions. Liches in particular are known to specialize in their use, as they are not erudites in the highly specialized and often obscure magical, alchemical and anatomical knowledge necessary, but can even customize their own bodies with the addition of grafts, etc.
Cheap beer. Moderately expensive cheese. Priceless information.
Thanks Professor!
yay new tmg episodes always makes my day so much better
COMPETITION
Casket of the forgotten. A humble, wooden coffin belies the onyx interior of the box, and its wonderous properties.
Any creature who speaks the command word inside casket of the forgotten gains the following benefits.
They are subject to a constant nondetection spell.
They are immune to any form of damage originating from outside the coffin.
They are forgotten, over the next d100 years, their name fades from history and the memory of any living creature.
The seal is air tight, and the casket is small enough to make performing most tasks impossible, though the door may be opened at any time with the command word.
Excellent backup plan for when a Vampire screws up! XD
COMPETITION
Kelemvor's Scales of Judgement
Artifact
Appearance: Set of Brass scales held up by a skeletal hand.
When a Lich, Vampire or any other intelligent undead creature truly feels remorse, regret or saddened over their transformation into undeath they may find that this curious item has seemingly appeared among their belongings. Upon touching the scales they will immediately obtain a full and complete understanding of how it is used. When a living creature places their hand upon the scales it will not move regardless of how much force is applied, however when an intelligent undead creature places their hand upon the scale it will immediately move to a leveled out position (A lich must place their Phylactery on the scale and put their hand atop it). On the opposite side of where the hand is placed a pale luminescent beating heart will appear, placing the heart against their chest will cause the heart to pass through any skin, bone or clothing they may have and upon reaching the center of the chest will merge with their heart (if they have one) or take its place in the location if one is not available. After 1d4 minutes the heart will stop beating and the creature will die a true death (a Lich's Phylatery will turn to ash). 1d12 hours later the body of the deceased will be the target of a true resurrection spell returning the being to life in a state of perfect health as though they had never become undead.
During the hours following the being's true death, they will stand and be judged before Kelemvor, God of the dead. ( forgotten realms setting ) if the being is truly remorseful and repentant before the god of the dead, they will be given a list of tasks to perform upon returning to the land of the living. (difficulty and number equal to their acts and deeds performed while undead) This individual will never again be able to be resurrected into undeath and must also actively seek it out and destroy it whenever it may be, and if possible find a way to redeem them as well. The now reborn being will be compelled to carry out whatever tasks and orders he or she was given and will live for this singular purpose until they are all achieved and they are released from service, to forge their new path.
Once the True resurrection is complete the scales will vanish and once again find itself among the baubles and trinkets of some intelligent undead's possessions until the day they too take notice of it. ( only one set of these scales appears anywhere on the world at a time.)
COMPETITION Pin-tong of tongues, a blacksmithing tong enchanted by the lich to rip out the tongues of their victims. The lich can use the pin-tong to place the victim's tongue in the lich's own mouth. This allows the lich to speak with the voice of the victim and know what the victim has said over the last month. If a living being attempts to install a tongue with the Pin-tong, the new tongue attaches over their existing tongue causing suffocation. The two tongues now are attached and can only be removed with the Pin-tong, ripping out both. A tongue can only be attached once after being ripped out.
COMPETITION
Ring of Bone Treatment
Its a simple magic item crafted using a well lived swan's backbone which died from natural causes, plus a variation of the spell 'flesh to stone'.
The item must be willingly weared for it to work, and by the nature of the usual crafters, tend to be very beautiful even if macabe.
It is used and crafted by the Lich who are still attached to a distorted vanity and bothered by the decomposing meat, so the amulet allows to purge the meat then cleaned and treats the bones to an almost pearly condition of ivory coralation. The item has one use per day - in the case of a particularly dirty experiment - however passively maintains the condition of the bones by cleaning and polishing them, which guarantees a mere + 1AC.
If a living person wears it, even without actually activating the meat purging effect, they will start to feel a faint itching and discomfort, but no damage. If the amulet is not removed in time, the user will find their flesh slipping off their bones, the joints will stop working causing the person to fall to the ground. Even if the person has not received damage, he will succumb to suffocation. The condition can be reversed through restoration magic.
This item is a call to the ring of instant bath.
Meat Purging *shudder*
COMPETITION Vapors of Vestigial Vitality and Empayhy - This sealed container when opened releases a vapor that the Lich must choose to inhale. Upon doing so the Lich gains +1d4 Charisma bonus when interacting with living beings as well as being under the effect of friendship for any encounters. The Lich also gains some small measure of the experiences of a living body. Physical lust, sore joints, smells and tastes, ect. This can be distracting or disorienting depending on the circumstances and some Lich may become addicted to this state.
The excuitioner's mask: A black hood with sewn shut eyes and mouth, Placed over the head of an undead thrawl, endows it with greater strength. Placed over the head of a living creature, the mask will begin to smother the wearer to death. If not cut off the living victim, the wearer will die and rise again as a zomby, inthrawled to the owner of the mask. When the wearer of a mask kills a living creature, all of that creaturs items transfer to the wearer of the mask. The executioner will discard older items and take up better items when applicable. (This is based on the real history that excutioners would only get paid whatever the condemned had on them)
COMPETITION: Eyes of Entropy
Two spheres of dark crystal that absorb any light that hits them, these items need to be inserted into the hollow eyesockets of an undead creature. Once per day, this creature can then use an action to focus on an enemy within 60 feet of it that it can see for up to 1 minute. The target must succeed on a DC 17 wisdom saving throw as soon as the caster begins to look at it. Every turn that the target is still within direct line of sight of the caster it must make another Wisdom saving throw or be afflicted by another effect every turn, up to 3 turns, after which the statuses become permanent and can only be removed through a greater restoration spell, one at a time. The conditions are chosen by the user from the following list:
Poisoned
Blinded
Afraid
Charmed
Slowed
Paralyzed
Confused
Incapacitated
Deafened
COMPETITION:
Madstone of Meddler Mangling. This amulet is created from a mortar from the bones of a moondog, couatl, silver dragon, or other sickening maggot of justice. It provides the wearer with several potent abilities, some requiring charges.
While wearing this amulet, lair actions occur on initiative count 1 in addition to initiative count 20.
The amulet has 12 charges for the following other properties. The amulet regains 2d4 expended charges nightly at midnight.
Rebuke the Holy Warrior. If you are dealt radiant damage from a melee attack, you can expend 6 charges as a reaction to make a melee spell attack against the attacking creature. If you hit, this ability duplicates of effects of the Hurl through Hell (PHB, p. 109) warlock class feature.
Upbraid the Hedge Wizard. If one of your spells fails because of the spell counterspell (PHB, p. 228) or ends because of the spell dispel magic (PHB, p. 234) you can expend 6 charges as a reaction to cast Tenser's Transformation (XGE, p. 168) targeting the creature which cast either of those two spells. You do not need to concentrate on this ability to maintain the effect. The affected creature may make a Constitution Save at the end of its turn to end this effect on itself.
Strategic Withdrawal. You can expend 12 charges as an action to create the following effects. In the first round of using this ability you replicate the effects of a prismatic wall spell (PHB, p. 267). In the following round, you replicate the effects of a plane shift spell (PHB, p. 266). If your phylactery is on the same plane of existence as you, you may choose for it to travel to your destination and appear in your hands or teeth when you arrive in the plane you selected. You may instead choose to travel to the current location of your phylactery if it is in another plane.
COMPETITION
Robe of Useful Organs:
Have you ever wondered what you might do with that old gallbladder? Ever looked past your ribs and think "hey, what's the point of all this baggage?" Well, ponder no longer! This quality slave-stiched robe will turn those antiquated flesh sacks into powerful new tools.
Stomach: As an action, you may target any space within 60ft, making the appropriate ranged attack roll. Upon impact, the stomach will burst, causing 4d6 acid damage to everyone within 5ft of the targeted square an causing an additional 1d6 acid damage for 10 rounds or until the affected take an action to rid themselves of the acid.
Intestine: As a bonus action you may command your intestines to spring from your body and Restrain an enemy within 5ft of you. A DC20 reflex save will allow them to avoid this condition. To burst free of the intestines, the affected may make a DC18 strength check. The intestines may also be used as a 50ft rope.
Liver:
As an action, you may throw your liver into any space within 60ft, where it begins to rapidly expand. After 1 round it fills a 10-10-10 ft cube. 1 round later it calcifies into stone.
Spleen:
As an action, you may throw your spleen into any space withing 60ft, where it bursts, covering the floor in an oily slick. It acts as the Grease spell, save DC20.
Gallbladder: Once per day, what used to be your gallbladder creates 1 random dose of contact, ingested, or injury poison from the available list in the Poison section of the SRD. Each of these poisons has a save DC of 15. Roll a d12 to determine the poison, on a 12 you choose.
Pancreas:
The spherical nods in the pancreas harden into the likes of marbles. There are 100 total nods. Each of these may be activated to act as if affected by the light cantrip and cannot be reused.
Kidneys:
Each of your kidneys wreaths with small worms. As an action, you may throw one of your kidneys into any space within 60ff, where the worms erupt from the sack a burrow into the ground creating 5ft square pit that is 10ft deep.
Heart:
Always get the last laugh! Upon the death of this body, every unsued organ immediately activates, and after 2 rounds, explodes for (1d20)d6 necrotic damage. ALSO, while not dying you can use the heart as a metronome!
Lungs: As an action, you may throw one of your lungs to any space withing 60ft, where it begins convulsing. It then acts as a smoke bomb but obscures a 40ft radius area and persists for 5 minutes. While not immediately deadly, the foul air emitted snuffs out all breathable air.
This is great. Imagine an undead campaign centered around such items.
It’s all one item. It’s a play off the Robe of Useful Items.
*WINNER No.3 email me at ad4emperor@**gmail.com*
So much detail
This is great! I can imagine a party being absolutely horrified while the Lich is just cackling as it goes down. In an enclosed space. And the door is closed :)
COMPETITION
Mirror of Dark Reflection
(Note: Pathfinder)
Given the hideous appearance of many undead, it is impossible for them to enter the communities of the living without instilling revulsion, fear, or violent reprisal.
This large, silver hand mirror can change that.
Molded into the mirror's frame are the visages of attractive humans and elves, who appear to smile and wink at the viewer.
Any intelligent undead who gazes into the crystal mirror will see themselves as their previous living appearance, and may cast the Daywalker spell once a day, suppressing the negative aspects of their presence.
The living, however, will not be so lucky. As they look into the ebony depths of the glass, they will see themselves as a rotting abomination.
The previously beautiful faces that decorate the frame will wither into grinning skulls, as the viewer's reflection will move of it's own volition, leaping out of the mirror to attack.
The monstrous reflection will assault the viewer's psyche as a Phantasmal Killer spell, requiring a DC 19 Will and possibly Fortitude saves to survive.👱♂️👁💀
COMPETITION:
Lenses of Dawn : The lenses of these items are made of amber crystal. When worn over the eyes, the wearer can operate without penalty in magical or natural bright light ( flare, sunbeam, est.) An addition side effect allows vampires a full round action prior to dissolution when faced with sunlight.
you just took that item from libris mortis
COMPETITION
Orb of Desiccation:
To an entity that can live for hundreds, if not thousands of years, rot and decay remain a problem for one's possessions even if the owner is beyond such concerns. For liches who reside in dank caves or the underdark, humidity and dripping stalagmites can often smudge and ruin decades old spellbooks, rust ancient iron artifacts, and tarnish gold, silver, and copper pieces.
To counter this, liches who reside in these wet/humid areas often carry an Orb of Desiccation to enables them to pull the water out of the environment and into a demiplane contained by the orb. The Orb of Desiccation is activated by spending one spell slot (of any level) to activate it, following the same rules as the spell Create or Destroy Water to determine the effects per level of spell slot burned. The orb recasts the "spell" until it is turned off by expending an action (for the owner) or being hit by a spell/cantrip.
If activated while a living creature is in range, the orb begins to mummify the creature as the moisture is pulled from the flesh of the creature, leaving a preserved, leathery corpse for the lich's later use.
A particularly skilled lich may use an orb as a fish tank of sorts, as the orb can also grant sight into the demiplane which can be populated with all forms of undead marine life - ranging from bone coral reefs and decrepit undead sharks to a simple bony fish for a lonely lich
LOVED the competition idea, you should do a video on hag items, too!
COMPETITION:
Staff of Turn the Wise;
Upon using this legendary item, each creature with a wisdom score of 18+ automatically fails the save (DC18 if your wisdom score is under 18 naturally), causing the creature to charmed for the duration. The charmed creature obeys all orders from the staff user and the effect can only be broken by a remove curse spell or the staff being broken in half.
COMPETITION
The Golden Nails of Lo Pan
Artifact
These long golden fingernail replicas attach themselves to the wearer’s hand when placed over the corresponding nail(or fingertip if no nail is present). They can only be removed by a Remove Curse spell of 8th level or higher or a Wish spell.
When worn by a Lich, these Nails grant the wearer a +1 bonus to their AC, Saving Throws, Ability Checks, and Melee Attack Rolls(including Melee Spell Attacks). When the Lich hits with its Paralyzing Touch attack, the attack deals an additional (2d4) Slashing damage(this damage is counted as magical damage).
The Lich may also use its Bonus Action on its turn to expend a number of charges to cast one of the spells listed below, using INT as its spellcasting ability. When casting spells using the Nails, the only component required is Somatic, in the form of pointing. Spells cast using the Nails do not count as a spell cast by the Lich during the turn. The Nails have 20 charges to use when casting spells. All spent charges are regained daily at midnight.
Spells:
1 Charge: Burning Hands, Catapult, Chromatic Orb, Ice Knife, Ray of Sickness.
2 Charges: Aganazzar’s Scorcher Blindness/Deafness, Scorching Ray, Shatter.
3 Charges: Erupting Earth, Fireball, Lightning Bolt.
4 Charges: Ice Storm, Vitriolic Sphere.
5 Charges: Negative Energy Flood.
When worn by a living creature or other corporeal undead creature, the Nails may be used to cast Spells but do not confer any of the bonuses they would grant to a Lich. When a living creature or non-Lich undead creature uses the Nails to cast a spell, it’s Maximum Hit Points are reduced by the number of charges spent. These Hit Points cannot be regained while the Nails are still attached to the creature. If a creature’s Hit Points are reduced to 0 this way, it dies instantly and turns to dust, spawning a Wraith in its place.
COMPETITION
Gauntlet of Death. This item is worn on a single hand and contains 5 charges of the level 7 spell finger of death.
(You send negative energy coursing through a creature that you can see within range, causing it searing pain. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. It takes 7d8+30 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
A Humanoid killed by this spell rises at the start of your next turn as a Zombie that is permanently under your Command, following your verbal orders to the best of its ability.)
This item only regains charges once a zombie raised by this item has been slain.
Depending on the disposition of the lich and the contents of a memory globe, I imagine that destroying it’s memory globe could result in a default win.
I image a lich that became a lich to fulfill some good or neutral goal but who simply cannot live on with the memories of loss and sacrifice. These memories, however, are what defines them as a person and the purging of those memories left them lesser in spirit.
COMPETITION:
Amulet of Water Sphere: A small glowing blue amulet that projects a sphere of pure elemental water 10' diameter around the lich that protects against fire attacks (maybe 1d8 levels?). The lich doesn't need to breathe so it won't be harmed by the sphere but any living creature that cannot breathe water in melee range must use constitution saves (or whatever is used now for drowning checks) to prevent from drowning. Shattering the amulet causes a one time water elemental tsunami 10' tall in a circle radiating away to 30' from the destroyed amulet that does 6d8 damage (or how ever many levels of fire resistance were left) to those hit by it.
[Fashionably late Edit] Ugh, I only noticed the video now so guess I missed the competition...
COMPETITION: Its simple but I ran a lich that wore a modified ring of regeneration. The ring healed undead or inflicted necrotic damage to the living at 1 point per minute. The ring could only be removed another creature who is immediately compelled the put it on. It resizes and attunes itself removing an attuned item if necessary. If a creature dies while wearing the ring the lich's spirit occupies the corpse. As this happens at the moment of death it may appear the person has recovered.
COMPETITION: bone bell , basically a master key , whenever the lich points the bell in a direction anything blocking \ protection \ or locks are removed from blocking his way, extremely useful
A non lich can attempt to use the bell and roll with high risk, if they fail the skin of whatever arm or leg they used to ring the bell turns to ash leaving just the charred skeleton left, i like the idea that at a huge risk or cost this could be resorted to using and if it failed they may attempt to try using it a second time and loose multiple appendages; ive never actually played DND so feel free to improve the idea; players may see the lich use the item but have no idea about its high chance to fail in the hands of a non lich
COMPETITION. a get away vehicle powered by necrotic energy. made from the carcass of a great sea or sky creature (like a whale or cloud ray) it could function like an air ship or submersible with proper modifications. it would be powered and steered by necrotic energy from the lich itself through an amulet or broach attuned to the undead hulk. but spheres like the memory sphere could be used to store said energy and ac as a fuel tank, or use captured spell casters instead.
COMPETITION
The Head of Vecna!
COMPETITION: Necromaical Organ, Wondrous Item, this strange creation of alchemy, necromancy, and artifice is formed from the modified remains of a sentient creature. It is inserted into the body of an undead creature replacing any similar organ the creature may retain from life. The effects of this depend upon the type of organ used in creation. All versions require attunement.
Lungs (Rare): Your necromaical lungs grant you the ability to expel noxious fumes from your nose and mouth. As an action you may expel this gas in a 30 foot cone or 10 foot radius originating from yourself. Living creatures in the area must pass a DC15 Constitution saving throw or take 10d6 poison damage, half on success. Recharge 5-6
Eyes (Very Rare): Your necromaical eyes gift you with vision of life energies. As a bonus action you can detect all living creatures within 1 mile of you. This effect lasts as long as you concentrate on it as if concentrating on a spell, up to a maximum of 1 hour.
Liver (Very Rare): Your necromaical liver excretes necrotizing toxins throughout the remains of your body. Creatures that touch you or are within 5 feet of you when you are struck in combat must make a DC15 Dexterity saving throw or take 6d8 Necrotic damage immediately and 3d8 Necrotic damage at the end of each of its turns until it is treated with a DC10 Medicine check or recieves at least 1 HP of magical healing.
Heart (Legendary): Your necromaical heart gives you the vigor of life once again. Your movement speed is increased by 10 feet and you have advantage on Constitution checks and saves. As an action you can force the heart to pump alchemical vitae throughout your undead body, granting you the effects of the Haste spell for 1 minute, no concentration required. Once used, all benefits of the heart cease to function until you complete a long rest.
Skin (Very Rare): Your necromaical skin covers your entire form in a rubbery, pliable armor. Your AC increases by 1 and you gain resistance to Radiant damage AMD Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage from nonmagical sources. If you take 75+ HP of damage while attuned to the skin it immediately dissolves into a slimy, flesh-gel and is destroyed.
This is awesome!
@@NixDeimos thank you.
Well now I know who is winning this competition and I am stealing this for my game
Excellent work.
@@cultofnatethemagnificent5879 thank you! I hope it's fun.
COMPETITION
Heart of Darkness
A silver brooch in the shape of a human heart, inlaid with "veins" of clear black onyx. It's command word is quite clearly engraved onto its surface.
This brooch is adorned on the chest and seems like a perfectly ordinary piece of jewellery, until its command word is spoken.
When the command word is uttered by anyone holding or wearing the brooch, the heart sinks into the rib cage to the place where the wearers hear would be and opens a channel into the negative energy plane.
This is very beneficial to any undead sorcerer or vampire lord, as such direct source of negative energy greatly empowers any undead, providing resistance to turning and positive-energy/radiant damage. This also renders any undead immune to the effects of sunlight. The undead being may use this channel to drain life force from its enemy, doing 3d6 points of necrotic damage with a touch attack.
The brooch is an immensely amusing item for any lich to toy around with. By inserting it into a low-tier undead and pitting it against adventurers, the adventures will be confounded by a seemingly normal skeleton warrior who unexpectedly drains life force.
If the undead is then defeated, that only serves the lich: when a living adventurer would don the amulet and speak the command word, the heart sinks through the chest replacing the living heart, which would invariably prove fatal to any mortal.
Then, as the channel to the negative energy plane opens and the body is flooded with negative energy, the formerly living adventurer will rise as a twisted wight after an hour has passed.
COMPETITION:
Fingers of the grave : When worn by a living creature or construct these gauntlets have no effect and appear as simple iron gloves covered in odd ancient glyphs.
When worn by an undead the Fingers of the grave mold to the shape of the hand and give the appearance of living healthy flesh colored hands of the humanoid species and coloration desired by the user. This can be decided once ever 24hours.
While an undead wears these gauntlets they can interact with objects as if they were corporeal. Perfect for unfinished business, passing as a living humanoid, or operating weapons or items that may require a pulse.
A Staff of Flesh with interchangeable soul gems. Who says a party gets back the soul the soul they were trying to save?? What if they return the soul of some other creature to their friend's body??
Regardless of sucess, a thought was going through my head for a soecial necromancer character I was going to write about and illustrate. So...
COMPETITION
Black Blood Brew.
Made by strange cultists that collected the living black blood of a certain undead, the glass appears to be brittle and cracking even if it was a freshly made one. Likewise, any other inanimate object touched appears to wither somewhat.
Applying the fluid to any living thing causes a rot to take hold. The rot periodically can generate maggots, that help spread the affliction through the victims body, or carnivorous worms that burrow outward to spread the affliction to nearby living things. There is also a tiny chance to generate fungal pods that spread the rot as an airborne effect with a periodic releasing of spores.
Being used on the dead or the undead upgrades the maggots over a brief period of time into flies that spread the rot. The worms provide a strange preservative and protective webbing over the fly generating bodies. Even adds a touch of shock absorption at the cost of fire vulnerability. Spores from the fungus can make the webbing explosive or make the webbing apply rot as it dissolves from even natural body heat.
I guess if you wanted to plague an entire city to an agonizing fate, or just torture somebody and get some special vector agents for a deadly affliction, then it wouldn't be a bad tool for a Lich or even a very cruel mage to keep around.
one i love to use is a heart sized container suspended by chains in the chest cavity of the lich .it acts as a weird jar. Only the weird is actually a magically dominated slime that cleans its owner of any detritus ..able to destroy anything on him/her .however it can also be used to grab things up to 10 ft away ?under the assumption its non organic. And i also let it have 6 small "bullets "just small pieces of the ooze that it can whip off of itself at targets within 40 ft. if it hits the ooze will try to eat itsway into the targets chest mimicking its larger forms position on it master ,its grapples onto the character with an opposing strength check dc14 and for every turn ,up to 4 it will deal 1d8 acid /necrotic(you choose ) upon the 4th turn it eats into the chest killing the target and it will begin eating everything until the target is nothing but a skeleton .upon completion the lich may present a new container creating a copy of the original artifact.if none is presented the creature will move to find any for of jar or non organic container and it will hide there till food comes by or death .i need to make a stat block and the like for it but i call the ooze a canopic ooze. The bbeg of my last campaign was a female lich who had coated her bones in silver and runes ,she had a shaped crystal heart suspended by horned silver chains containing a small red canopic ooze ,one of her favorite tactics was to make herself beautiful with illusions before paralyzing and feeding a person to her ooze .then putting it in a jar and selling it on the soul market for either souls or magic items to other undead .it is a great touching my opinion. she gits a soul and a truely valuable miagic item for trade.not to mention the dont eat bone so boom skeleton for the skeleton bag .im defiantly a lil behind the times but lemme know what u think man ,
I will from this day for call this the canopic heart .aj help me with the ooze.i wonder if it could even function as a familiar.
u know i didnt mention this but ..if a living creature holds the heart and reads the ensription on it the top will open and the ooze will go its thing on its own ..mind u on an instinctual level. but it eats bio matter ..and people are just that .
COMPETITION
Mask of the Risen Pharaoh
This mask is shaped in the bronze image of a pharaonic skull complete with headdress, and while wearing it your eyes crackle with fell purple light. When you make a saving throw against Turn Undead, you may opt to fail your save and appear to have been destroyed. However, you actually are banished to the Border Ethereal Plane for 1 minute. During this time you can see and follow those who turned you, but you may not target them with any spells, attacks, or abilities. When the minute expires, you reappear in the Material Plane. You must take a short or long rest before you are able to use the power of the mask again.
Darn, missed the competition, but i shall propose my idea anyway. A stone engraved by runes that wont activate unless touched by a living creature. The creature will suffer 2d6 necrotic damage as the stone pulls life-force from them. Thus effect will happen once a round while it is being held. If a creature dies while holding the stone, their soul will be trapped inside and used to turn the stone into a gem. At this point, if anyone but the one who created the gem tries to use it, it will become unstable and in d6 rounds will explode. The creator can choose to release the soul, returning the gem to a stone and allowing the one who died to be revived, or use it to fuel a powerful spell, destroying the soul in the process. This could be a way for a lich to strong arm a party into serving his needs. However, any magic canceling spell or situation could stop the stone's effect, for d6 rounds or until out of the area stopping magic. Like anti magic field etc. If the gem explodes beside the body from which it took the soul, the creature will awaken with 1hp
COMPETITION!
*Crown of Dread-Call*
Crafted from intertwined finger bones and mummified lips dyed jet black, the Crown of Dread-Call constantly writhes and moans as though in deep despair. Anyone wearing the crown takes 5 necrotic damage at the beginning of their turn and suffers the Frightened status, but also deals an additional 1d6 necrotic damage with every attack. In addition, any incorporeal undead within 25 miles are attracted to the area, circling the wearer within 30 feet. When encountered, roll 1d100 and consult chart below for what undead are present or may appear within the next ten minutes. The incorporeal undead may act normally against any living targets within the area as normal and may not voluntarily leave the crown's proximity.
1-30: 1D4 shadows
31-50: 1 ghost
51-70: 1D6 spectres
71-90: 2 greater shadows
91-100: 1 banshee
COMPETITION!
Throne of astral projection (basically, the "golden throne")
Made from multiple precious metals, and encrusted with various jewels over the entire body of the work, the throne requires a phylactery to function. With this device, the lich can traverse the astral plane w/o any fear of hostile intent from its denizens - though at a cost as the phylactery is drained during the thrones use.
While active, the lich is surrounded by an anti magic field out to 30ft. In addition, any living creature/spirited undead must pass a dc17 int.save or forcibly have its mind thrown into the astral plane when entering the fields area. If either their body dies, or their cord is cut, their soul falls into the phylactery and follows all the rules for that fun.
From there, flavor to taste: astral plane hijinks allow for lots of "whatever u think is what happens" fun. The lich is more God-tier on it, but it uses so much more energy. Good times.
COMPETITION: Nagrik's Beard. A funnel that can be attached to the inside of a skeletal lower jaw which empties into an enchanted wineskin that hangs at the wearer's neck. Invented by a dwarven lich to let him continue drinking. While the intent was to allow the user to get drunk, it has the added benefit of giving the wearer the ability to imbibe potions.* Variations on the design include a rudimentary lung used by a glass blowing lich. While the joys of taste and smell are worthless to most liches, even the most pragmatic lich can find some use for these senses in the course of their experimentations. As such, olfactory variants have been developed as well.
*I have no idea if there are rules about skeletons drinking potions already.
heh! Nice
COMPETITION
Ring of the Neck-romancer
While attuned to/wearing this item, an undead creature gains an appetite for the blood of the living...literally. It will proceed to bite and suck the blood of living creatures, each "healing" the undead creature a portion of health relative to the creature it decided to feast on. The more blood it drinks, the more "life" returns to the creature wearing the ring, returning it similarly to a state of what it once was while it was alive.
Upon having consumed blood worth twice the total amount of health of the undead creature has, the undead creature now becomes a vampire. It's still undead...but now it's a vampire, gaining all the perks, weaknesses and rules of being a vampire. *Sparkles in sunlight not included.*
Heh!
COMPETITION Staff of Quasi-Negitivity
Since a Lich is connected to the negative energy plane I think a staff that draws power from the quasi elemental planes that border the negative energy plane would be have some interesting uses. For instance the plane of salt could be channeled to desiccate a living creature by literally destroying the water that they’re made out of, probably as a blight spell. The Plane of Vacuum could destroy air in a radius around the lich as long as it concentrated, which would be a good way to keep medium sized melee attackers away from it. Plane of Dust disintegrates things, turning them to dust. The Plane ash would allow the lich to counter fire effects in a similar manner to a counterspell spell, due the the plane of ash’s extreme cold, except it could be done with mundane fire. For instance a shapechanged adventurer who’s turned into a gold dragon could simply have their breathe weapon halted as if it were nothing, and being able to counter things like fireball without expending a spell slot would be very advantageous for a lich who wants to protect a horde of lesser undead. The staff would probably be made from voidstone and other materials specific to the various quasi elemental planes.
Interesting concept!
COMPETITION: Ti' Cortez's Spore's: These yellow mold spores have been magically enhanced for potency and processed into ultra fine particles. One small pouch releases a 20' cloud. When released any living creature within 20' suffers yellow spore damage, 6d6 per turn. With this spell casted a vast area can easily dusted, overwhelming groups of aventures or even an army. Receivers take on a concentrated dose, usually right up their noses or into their mouths. This magically enchanted enhanced dust seeks out targets individually moving as intelligently as an elemental however is fairly week. Due to how fine the material is it cannot travel against a strong breeze and is also susceptible to rain where it can not travel at all. Only the quickest fleeing adventures can outpace it.
Beholder skull
Just a tiny red orb that summons the lich beholder like a pokemon and thus through its gaze creates undead for the lich by proxy.
Simple but quite effective
Now I can't help but imagine a Lich, that has such a brooch of turn resistance, so they can't be turned, but flees anyway in an attempt to trick its opponents and get them while they don't expect it.
The catch is, the Lich is a _very_ bad actor.
Liches naturally have turn resistance, don't they? But the bad acting part is amusing. "Oh no, I am afraid. This light, it burns. Please dark gods save me." So monotone the party thinks they are being mocked until they realize the lich is indeed attempting to trick them. Then the lich actually runs away as the party looks on in pity.
COMPETITION
The Dark Lantern-
There is no item that amuses a Lich as they walk the halls of their lair more than a Dark Lantern. This silver framed lantern gives off a light blue magic illumination. To the unwary it is a simple floating magic lantern, however it is the source of this light that will send a chill down anyone's spine. For this light is that of a burning soul. The dark lantern uses good aligned souls as any other lantern would use a candle. To the undead the light of this lantern is appealing and grants them advantage on perception and investigation while using it. To living creatures it provides no illumination despite the magic light can be clearly seen, but to good aligned creatures the light is appalling and gives them disadvantage to all their senses. The dark lantern can be held or by speaking a simple command on the lantern it will float ahead of the user up to 10 feet. The dark lantern provides a 40 foot radius of bright light and an additional 10 feet of dim light.
To fuel a dark lantern is where the lich's devious cunning comes into play. If anyone living opens the lantern to place a candle in must succeed a charisma DC of 18 or they will have their soul sucked into the lantern. Creatures of neutral or evil alignment will not illuminate the lantern and their soul's are sent to the abyss to traded in the soul market by the night hags. Only a good aligned creature's soul will cause the lantern to illuminate as their soul is slowly sucked into the abyss. As long as the lantern shines it's light the soul has a chance to escape, and this is what burns from the soul, hope and goodness. As the lantern's light dims so does the soul's purity and when the light dies the soul is sent to the abyss denying those of the righteous the afterlife their deeds would have granted them. If another creature opens the lantern while a soul is already burning inside the soul can attempt to escape but it will cause the new user to have their soul sucked in. If the creature is good aligned and opens a dark lantern that holds a soul inside the soul inside can warn them of the danger or they can take the body of the other good being making it an unholy trade of who is to suffer.
Destroying the lantern will free the soul inside and allowing them to seek the celestial plane they were destined to achieve.
So the next time you encounter a lich and they sit by a strange lantern lighting their dark lair as they read their magic books you can't help but wonder, is that a soul burning in there lighting the lich's work?
*WINNER No.1 email me at ad4emperor@**gmail.com*
I was gonna say I bet you will win hahaha.
With this much detail you deserve to win.
COMPETITION: The Phylactery Golem: The Lich's phylactery is stored inside An Iron Golem hostile to anything living to protect it from harm. The lich has a teleportation circle set near the golem to quickly return to defend it should it come under attack, requiring the adventurers to either defeat the lich first & quickly defeat the golem afterwards or find a way to stall the lich for long enough to defeat the golem. Or they can try fighting both at the same time. The Phylactery Golem makes the phylactery encounter much more interesting than simply putting it behind some traps.
While not Strictly a item, i dont see why a lich would be unable to aquire or create a golem to protect itself.
Competition
Negative Energy Siphon
A circular piece of jewelry (ring, bracelet, necklace, or circlet) made of steel and inlaid with silver mined from the Shadow Shadowfell, which enhances a Lich's connection to the Negative Energy Plane. Once per day, the Lich can activate the Siphon and create an aura of Negative Energy in a 30ft radius around them. Within this field, all spells that would otherwise deal damage will restore hit points, and healing spells become damage dealing spells. Additionally, non-undead creatures that end their turn in this aura must make a DC17 Constitution Save or take 6d6 Necrotic damage, and the Lich gains an equal amount of hit points. If a living creature activates the Siphon, they will be pulled into the Negative Energy Plane and replaced with a Night Walker :D
COMPETITION:
Staff of opposition:
Legendary.
Strong Aura of Conjuration, Necromancy, and Transmutation.
Requires attunement.
As a legendary item, IDENTIFY does not work on it, though a LEGEND LORE spell may reveal some of its secrets.
These staves are Damascus-colored iron rods. They are covered in one small rune repeated over and over, and each rune is always oriented upwards relative to the wielder. This makes it fairly grippy, and is often described as looking "spooky". They taper slightly toward one end.
This rod can be activated at will with an action (standard action), but deactivation is delayed by an hour (and is a bonus action). You cannot stop the deactivation once it has been triggered, nor can it be expedited in any way. The rod can only be activated again as long as it is currently inactive.
When activated, this rod instantly reverses the polarity of metaphysical energies in the vicinity (default range is all creatures within line of sight, though each staff varies in range, from as small as 5 feet, up to as large as 5 miles. If the staff has a range, obscurement does not change what creatures are affected. Some versions of this staff also have a maximum number of targets. This number must always include the user). All living creatures become undead, and gain immunities and resistances as a zombie. They can now be turned, and cannot be healed except by effects that heal undead. Living creatures affected this way appear drab, lifeless, pale, and bestial.
All undead become living, and can now be healed, targeted by spells, and appear as if they were alive. They do not, however, revert to their appearance from before their death, and additionally lose all immunities that are a consequence of their undead nature. If the undead has sunlight aversion, or a similar effect (like "Vampire Weaknesses"), they lose that trait. Undead transformed this way lose all of their abilities to feed (all effects that deal necrotic damage), and must eat and sleep as if they were a normal member of whatever race they belonged to before their death. Incorporeal undead remain incorporeal, but regain the appearance and alignment of their selves before their death.
All Elementals within the area of the staff become Elementals of the opposite kind (air becomes earth, water becomes fire, etc.). If there isn't a clear opposite, then all magical damage dealt by the elemental is reversed instead (fire becomes cold, cold becomes fire.)
All constructs affected have their alignment reversed, and if they have a programmed purpose, they attempt to thwart it. (A shield guardian will attack its master and protect enemies, etc.)
Dragons' breath weapons and all spells cast by those affected are also inverted, in terms of damage type only. This effect only applies until that creature again prepares spells.
All celestials affected become evil fiends while the staff is active and all fiends become good celestials while the spell is active. (Or in 3.5e, all outsiders have their alignment reversed across the good/evil axis).
Magic items in the vicinity, if they have a clear opposite, become that item. If not, they lose all magic abilities for the duration. If they are held, attuned, worn, or carried, that creature may make an additional Wisdom (Will) save as described below, to resist this change for each item that they are holding, wearing, carrying, or attuned to. For each Item they choose to protect this way, they receive a cumulative -1 to all of these charisma saves, including the save to resist the alignment-swapping effect below.
All affected creatures are allowed a Constitution (fortitude) save to negate these effects. If they succeed, they may choose to either fail the save or take 1d4 necrotic damage per hit die of the affected creature. If the creature is immune to necrotic damage, but are weak to another type of damage, they take that type of damage instead.
All creatures that fail the first save must make a Wisdom (Will) save, DC 12, or have their alignment reversed on both axese. They have advantage (or +2 in 3.5e) on this save If they initially passed the Constitution (fortitude) save.
On a success, the creature must make the same save in 24 hours. If they succeed by 10 or more, they must make the save again in 1 week. When the rod is deactivated, the creatures hose alignments were swapped return to normal after a duration identical to the time they spent with their alignment swapped. When a creature's alignment is swapped in this way, they are aware of why, and will attempt to avoid switching back.
If this rod is ever activated within the vicinity of an aberation, it explodes, as if it were a staff of the archmagi with one charge per hit die of affected creatures, as it is unable to process the energies of the far-realm, no matter how residual. This staff can be broken to achieve a similar effect. If the staff is broken while active, its effects become permanent.
If the rod remains active for 100 years, the effects become permanent and the rod deactivates, becoming a Wand of Smiles. All creatures affected know the location of the Wand of Smiles at all times. The Wand of Smiles can be used as a component to recreate the staff, which will end the effect. The Wand can be destroyed, which removes all hope of reverting the changes.
A wish can end this effect at any time, on any number of creatures affected by the same rod. This is considered a greater use of wish in 5e, meaning there is a 33% chance that the caster loses the ability to cast wish forever.
If this rod would affect a creature with divine ranks, it is broken immediately.
Any creature of enough clout to stop the use of a Gate spell (as described in that spell) can also choose to stop the effect of this staff, or reverse its effects on any one creature or item. In this case, the rod simply has no effect.
The rod can be deactivated without being attuned to it.
This staff if helpful for power-hungry liches or evil clerics, who can transform living attackers into undead, assert control over them, and then transform back before feeling the adverse effects of their impermanent life. However, every use of the staff holds danger, as the user may end up permanently transformed into their own anathema.
Some nieve adventurers might use the staff to gain the benefits of undeath, but, unbeknownst to them, they are actually risking total annihilation every time they use it.
Sometimes, powerful, bored, or particularly crafty liches will create these items just to give them to adventurers, and hopefully create some new, powerful undead minions, along with some even more powerful mayhem. At the same time, avoiding any possible downsides of using the item themselves. In the best case, a lich could hover over a battlefield, and activate the staff to watch as roughly 1 in 10 living creatures suddenly swap alignment and attack their former allies.
Gods and planar Powers also have use for these items, as they are unaffected by them and can cause enemy ranks in the bloodwar to quickly change sides, as the rod automatically swaps the alignment of outsiders. Countless angelic detachments were caused to fall by emissaries of Baator who used these weapons before graduating to stronger artifacts, or attaining a high enough status that they were no longer on the front lines.
It is rumored that Baalzebul has a large collection of Wands of Smiles for exactly this reason, in a hidden stockhouse that must be only describable as utterly terrifying.
Additionally, this item serves as a plot hook for some low-level adventurers, since they might have a common Wand of Smiles which some recently freed undead paladins may want very much, in order to return to their gods's good graces.
Ultimately, this is a very strong legendary magic item, though it does have a large downside, very similar to a curse. The only reasons it is not an artifact is because
A) I want multiple to exist
B) I hate minor/major benificial/detrimental properties.
Feel free to change this to better suit your own games.
I think it's probably on par with the Tome of the Stilled Tongue, which is legendary for the same reason "A".
Legendary is still extremely, extremely difficult to create in 5e, so on that measure it shouldn't be a problem. Understand that this is a POWERFUL problem-solving tool, and could ruin many games, much like a TotST, or Deck of Many Things. Be careful of giving it to an enemy as well, as anything that a bad guy has is only 2-3 rounds away from being the players'.
If you make it an artifact, I suggest also making it intelligent. It hates whatever class of creature you are, and tells you that you are not worthy to wield it. This personality has an intelligence of 18, wisdom of 8, and charisma of 6. If you attempt to intimidate the staff, it immediately caves in, loudly fearing that you will break it. It never attempts to assert control, unless the wielder tries to break it. Whenever it is deactivating, it will tell you about the benefits that you have just thrown away, and insist that you were better while you were affected.
The rod switches polarity instantly because anything slower would kill all things involved.
This can be achieved by activating the rod during a TIME STOP spell.
If this ever happens, the wielder is consumed, and all in the vicinity take damage as if they had succeeded at the constitution save twice. They may not choose to fail the save.
Edit: it is Conjuration because it deals with Outsiders and Elementals, Necromancy because it deals with life/death (+/-) energy, and Transmutation because it changes the traits of those affected.
In 5e, it would probably just be Evocation, or Transmutation.
Though to be completely fair, in 5e, it probably wouldn't even get a typing (like most magic items in 5e).
Also in 3.5e it doesn't need attunement, obviously.
Do I get the honorary "longest" award?
COMPETITION
Mug of Misty Memories:
Existing both in the ethereal and material planes, the Mug of Misty Memories acts as both a means of reflection upon a life that once was and a form of tantalizing inbreation for the undead.
The undead creature in sensory range of the Mug will experience familiar sensory sensations from the mug that were pleasing to the creature when they were alive, and must make a wisdom roll DC 15 to resist drinking from the Mug. The mist has pleasant familiar aroma and shapes itself into images from the creatures past life. The mist then fills the creature floating inside if lacking the necessary organs. The taste and feel of a familiar drink is even experienced. A constitution roll DC 10 must be made to keep from being intoxicated, putting all of the creature's d20 roll at disadvantage, including intoxication recovery rolls that happens each turn.
The Mug of Misty Memories never runs out of mist and many undead covet this magic item as a vice.
The living simply see, smell, and feel a misty wet mug and experience none of the euphoria experienced by the undead.
COMPETITION: Ring of Bone Storage. A small carved ring of polished irory activated by command word. Appears to onlookers to summon/store items similar to a ring of storage. However the ring instead "stores" the items inside the hollow of a users bones where thee marrow would be. Effects on living users.....
COMPETITION : Weight of Scorn - this plain adamantine belt would be used by a purely skeletal Lich. Once the command word is spoken it transmutes the Lich's skeleton to Adamantine, slowing it down yes, but also considerably raising its AC, the user of the belt has to say the command word to turn back its affects. If used by a normal mortal they will become a petrified Adamantine statue dying in the process due to everything turning into metal where as the skeletal Lich receives no physical harm due to it being undead and needing to biological functions.
The Lich will usually leave this belt unsecured a top a desk with papers that states "The belt seems to produce free Adamantine when the correct company is present. I do hope the right people come by." Have this Lich occupy Limbo and it will have adamantine weapons, armor, and other items galore (Do to Limbo making matter easier to manipulate). An adamantine golem anyone?
This honestly sounds like an item that would be used as an adventure hook to me. A Lich purposely lures young adventurers to its Prime Material Plane base. The rumors of limitless adamantine being too much for them to ignore. They go an find this belt. One tries it one and says the word. They turn to a grey metal statue as they let out one last shrill scream. The rest of the party try to figure out how to undo the effects. Then a Slaad controlled by the Lich via its mind gem steps out a portal from Limbo to collect its master's prize.... Roll for initiative.
There is plenty of things you can do/use if you are undead, you can go to the moon, or the bottom of the ocean, but a scrool of "portal to the negative plain" is just the best, negative energy will hurt the heros, heal the lich and won't even destroy his books. An amulet that lets him channel negative energy like an evil cleric is also very good.
It's not lack of oxygen at the bottom of the ovean that would ne a problem it's the obscene amount of pressure that would doom any undead.
COMPETITION
Collar of Mortal Delights
Ranging in appearance from the ornate jewelry wesekhs of the Pharaohs to the ruffled collars of Victorian courts, this wondrous item is worn around the neck and nailed into cervical vertebrae. The wearer can activate (and deactivate) the collar with a simple thought, at which point a fully functioning tongue and palate (as well as any missing or damaged teeth) grows from the collar. This allows the wearer, usually a skeletal or desiccated undead, to enjoy the finer pleasures of eating and drinking.
While one could imagine this as a partial resurrection of its master, the truth is that the collar is home to a specialized homunculus. Upon being summoned by its master, the homunculus shifts into reality from a pocket of the astral plane, and forms a psychic link with its bearer, allowing it to share all sensation of taste, aroma, texture, et cetera. This collar would, in theory, also work with a living host, but in practice, would displace all of that creature existing anatomy. I am sure I can leave it up to your imagination what kinda of gruesome fate that would entail.
While some undead find mortal pleasures idle and distracting, many others would chose not to leave behind these comforts. Criminally decadent vampire courts often provide these as gifts to the older, more decrepit of their esteemed guests. Ancient mummy monarchs could use this item to indulge themselves in lavish royal parties thrown by their high priests and necromancers. Even some liches found use in the collar, having been known to use scents and flavors as mnemonic stimulus.
Interesting!
COMPETITION: Larry the lich likes to keep his old master close by. Conneted to his belt, His master spends his days as a shrunken head. Larry can use his old master as a spell focus and his master can vomit up green flame that sticks to the ground for two turns. If a living creature attempts to use larrys master, the head will refuse to cast any spell and attempt to bite the thief.
Brooch of separation
The enchantment on this item is both simple and specific, allowing it to be cast very powerfully rather cheaply. More like a mini meat skewer than a pin, this item will seperate anything its connected to into baser components when a command is spoken. A skeleton with magical or mechanical means of saying this command can pin it to a body and seperate the bodys meat and bones into two neat piles. The lich will often make this item out of more expensive material than the enchantment needs, like gold or platinum, studding it with jewels. When adventures kill the group of skeletons working with this item theyll take it and occasionally even pinning it to their cloak. At best this means at a simple word the lich will disrobe an adventure, amusing and effectively neutralizing them for an easy target. At worst, the adventuring party will suddenly find 3 piles of gear, meat, and bones where their friend used to be.
COMPETITION: the waters of un-life(a staff), when activated it fills the space with water that deals 1d8 necrotic damage over time to living targets and the staff stores the damage as healing that the user can draw upon.
Oh man, those memory globes would have been awesome to include in my recent Lich encounter...next time. Thank you, for the new knowledge!
Probably not a lich or undead item only, but a lich recurring NPC in my campaign world; known only as The Profane Scholar; has a Gem of True Seeing embedded into one of his eye sockets. He also lacquers his bones because he is several thousand years old and it preserves his skeletal body and keeps it neat without having to fuss with it to much.
COMPETITION
Robe of Worms
This magical pus-yellow robe appears to ripple and move on its own when not worn. However, when it is worn by a lich, or other intelligent skeletal undead, the cloak transforms into a covering of 1000 living, magical worms of various types that are unaffected by any negative energy, necrotic damage, and poison. The robe grants a +2 bonus to armor class and if the undead is struck by a melee attack or a magical attack that does only kinetic (force) damage, then worms are dislodged from the robe and onto all within melee range (1d6 worms per target). Worms will quickly regenerate to replace any removed in this way.
Roll to determine what types of worms are scattered:
1. Large Biting Maggot (1hp damage /round)
2. Poison Crawler (Fortitude save or lose 1d2 Constitution and 1d3 Dexterity)
3. Tomb Worm (Fortitude save or contract mummy rot)
4. Slime Worm (1 acid damage/round to character or whatever equipment it lands on)
5. Rot Grub
6. Kyuss Worm.
If the undead is hit with an energy attack (fire, cold, sonic, acid, electric, positive) then they automatically take only half damage, the other half absorbed by the robe and killing 1 worm per point of damage. These will not immediately regenerate and doing at least 900 total damage destroys the cloak, as there are not enough worms left to keep it cohesive. The cloak will heal itself when not worn at the rate of 10hp/hour. Once per week, the wearer can throw any one worm to the ground and turn it into a century worm for 1 hour.
If this robe is ever donned by a living creature, they will take 2d100 points of damage per round until they die or Dispel Magic is used against a DC 17 difficulty.
Edit: spelling
Competition
Rings of boneportation.
rings is a marrow looking material with a black gem encrusted in it.
When used, it teleport the skeleton and any worn objects of the creature using it to the location of the other ring. these rings recharge when both are worn by the same creature for 24 hours. if the creature is living, the skeleton of that creature is teleported leaving only a sack of flesh and organs limply behind. the bones may be restored to the body with a wish spell or with a greater restoration if they can find the bones without 24 hours.
lol, boneportation
Are you planning to do more of these "item catalogue" videos for other monsters? I really enjoyed this one.
Seems pretty popular!
The memory globe is a awesome Idea for a Elf due the Reverie state as such can be the drive motiff for him/her. Also a excellent for explain a sorcery inheritance
COMPETITION
Flame Horror Helm: Channels the flames of Phlegethos into the skull of the wearer, causing it to blacken and burn with a 15ft aura of Heat Metal, cast at 5th level (5d8 fire damage). A creature that touches the wearer or hits its bones with a melee attack while within 5ft of it takes 1d10 Fire and 1d10 Necrotic damage. Nonmagical plants in the area, like trees and bushes, burn and die within the 15ft aura.
Reasoning: Turns the proper bony undead into Ghost Riders, and makes players envious enough to try the helm on themselves. ALSO! Maybe add something about the helmet being affected by cold spells to punish wizards who prepare their spells based on the monster manual.
COMPETITION _(I know I'm too late but it sounds like fun):_
1.) Amulet of Dracolich Fire:
An amulet carved out of a dracoliches bone containing a diamond formed by the heat and pressure of a dracoliches breath.
When a creature dons the amulet a magical blue flame ignites in its chest allowing it to breath a magical fire in a 20' cone dealing 3d8 fire or lightning damage (users choice) + 3d8 necrotic or cold damage (users choice) or half damage if the victim(s) succeed on a DEX saving throw, this effect can be used a number of times equal to the users proficiency bonus per short- or long rest
Anything located in the wearers chest cavity will catch fire and be forcefully ejected.
2.) Lich Champions Armor:
An armor forged out of the dark entities native to the negative planes and the lower planes, forged specifically to hold the body and soul of a liches champion so that they may never die or leave the liches service.
A heavy armor requiring STR 15 to wear, grants AC 16 + CON modifier(minimum of 1) as well as resistance to all non-magical damage and immunity to poison, acid, and disease. Allows the wearer to cast the spells _Soul Cage,_ _Inflict Wounds_ (as a lvl 1 spell), and _Hellish Rebuke_ (as a lvl 1 spell) at will using the armor as spell-casting-components as well as being under a constant effect of _Spirit Shroud_ (not requiring concentration), the armor can hold up to 3 souls at once from the Soul Cage spell.
When a creature other than the chosen champion puts on the armor for the first time the armor fuses with the flesh and soul of the creature dealing 10+2d20 necrotic damage, the creature must succeed a DC15 CON save or gain 1 lvl of exhaustion, if the armor is removed the creature instantly dies.
Whenever the wearer takes a long- or short rest, or takes damage that leaves them at- or below half health, they take 1d10 necrotic damage for every lvl of exhaustion they have and must succeed a DC15+3 for every lvl of exhaustion (15 for 0 lvls, 18 for 1 lvl, 21 for 2 lvls, &c.) CON save or gain 1 lvl of exhaustion.
If for any reason the wearer becomes unconscious(other than when sleeping) or dead, their sole becomes trapped in the armor and the soul of the original champion possesses the body, rising with full health.
COMPETITION
My current BBEG main plot revolves around the use of these items
Lamentation Horn - a musical instrument curved like a french horn but instead of brass it is composed of hollowed out spinal segments of sentient creatures ranging from small to medium sized (Kobold to half orc in size for example) that if a living creature was to try and blow nothing would happen as it requires Negative energy to be channelled through it in order to work. In the hands of a high ranking or particularly strong undead when blown at first it seems as nothing has happened as no audible sound is produced but quickly all sentient life in the surrounding area of effect, centred on the undead using it,start to feel uneasy as the closer
they are the more damaging the effect -
300 ft or closer - feel sick to there stomachs,sweating,dizziness etc (Con saves)
200 ft or closer - the target starts to feel there life force being slowly drained from them as they start to hallucinate (necrotic damage)
100 ft or closer - the hallucinations are terrifyingly vivid making the target believe things such as there skin rotting from there bones or sores creeping up there limbs getting more infected (high level illusion magic as well as higher necrotic damage) prolonged exposure leads to insanity and self mutilation culminating in a violent end.
The Lamentation Horns are just proof of concept/proto-types for the BBEG's master work the
Tower of Lament (a giant Lamentation horn atop his keep ) made from hollowed out spines like the horns but this time from huge creatures like giants and dragons. The range of the Tower would encompass such a large area that it would drive entire civilisations to literally tear them selves apart.
Quite cool!
COMPETITION: Staff of Graverobbing, Wondrous item (Staff) This large staff has a thousand bony hands carved into its length, giving it the appearance of many hands clawing over each other to escape. When planted in the ground within 10ft of a grave, the hands descend into the ground like roots made of carved fingers and remove any corpse held within the grave, including anything it was wearing over the next 10 minutes, or one minute if it was a shallow grave. The staff leaves only a slight disturbance in the ground which appears much like if a rodent or small animal had been here. The Staff fails to retrieve the corpse if the grave is under the effects of the Hallow spell or the corpse was doused in holy water as a part of proper funeral rights by the clergy.
COMPETITION
Avatar dust-the lich performs a ritual for 1 hour with a gemstone worth at least 1000 gp. At the end of the ritual all but a small sliver of the gem turns to dust. This distinction can be applied to undead under the lich's control and, using the sliver left as a focus, the lich can do the following. Passively the lich is aware if the undead are attacked or slain. As a bonus action, the lich can observe through the undead's senses and s pool eak through them. As a full action and by burning a 3rd level spell slot the lich can possess the undead, allowing it to use it's normal actions and legendary actions. This ends when the undead is slain.
COMPETITON:
Ring of false life : This rig when worn infuses the body with blood equal to the size and species of the creature wearing it. This blood appears to all medical and investigation checks to be normal body fluid and lasts 1d10 hours outside the host body before turning into a fine iron colored powder. Provided the host has no active blood-flow of it's own this item provides a magical replacement that even allows for bruising and blushing.
An entity who wears the ring and has an active circulatory system takes their hit dice in damage every round until they expire or remove the ring. It takes 1 action to remove the ring.
A vampire who wears a Ring of false life does not need to feed provided that take 1 long rest every 48 hours.
As for smashing the globe for spell slots @11:40, I would say no.
I think of spell slots more like someones' ability to manipulate arcana of that magnitude; think of it like how many times you can lift your max weight at 1 rep. Each rep is how many times you can lift that magnitude of weight.
Smashing the globe would probably let you remember spells from your spell list. Maybe have a marker that marks each spell onto the globe you wish to remember how to cast lolol
This is simply the opinion of a 1st time DND player, who rolled a wizard.
Competition
Profane Protector
It is an item fashioned from a portion of a desecrated cleric's skull, whom served a god who is vehemently against undead. It resembles a loop, where in the hole a gem bleached of color by channeling negative energy into it, and then magically suffused to the bone. The item Grants the lich resistance to radiant damage, as it partially nullifies the God's gifts to mortals, a blessing it has shunned to become immortal. A user of divine magic that carries it is stripped of their godly blessings while carrying it, such as their domain spells and domain features, but not spells and abilities they've gained through their following of their morals/god.
I once created a set of magic items called the Ring & Sword of Klous Mou.
The Ring is a thick band of platinum engraved with intricate lines of inlain sapphire (that pulse an ominous red under the light of a full moon) one side of the ring is fashioned in the shape of a snarling maw whilst the opposite is that if a man's bared teeth.
With the side of "Man" facing outward a vampire's sanguine nature and abilities are totally suppressed allowing them to pass as human and move in broad daylight undetected. To return to normal said vampire merely needs to remove the ring and wear it with the "beast" side of the ring facing outward while standing under moonlight.
The sword of Klous Mou is oddly warm to the touch and has a smooth almost skin like texture at the hilt. The guard of the blade is that of a pale rose with blackened teeth at the center biting down upon a dull red blade shaped like that of a writhing tongue. It has a modest ability of dealing an additional 2d8 necrotic damage with each hit (a 1d10 long sword), on a crit it grants the weilder a health shield equal to that of half the resulting damage.
When a vampire kills with this blade they restore their vitality by 2d8 and the victim is infected with vampirism (players will automatically rise as a vampire thrall upon 3 failed death saves.)
The nefarious part of these items is that they can be used by living creatures, but at the cost of their humanity. The sword slowly corrupts living welders giving a point of corruption after a night of vivid dreams of crimson rivers and fields of flesh that grow more intense with each passing night (DC 16 wisdom save, raises by 1 point with each passing week). With a corruption level of 1d10 + wisdom modifier the wielder of the sword will have a strong compulsion to wear the ring if they have not already donned it (DC 20 wisdom save each day).
The ring suppresses this effect but instead slowly causes the player to become a true vampire as the blade siphons the blood of its victims into said ring. After claiming the lives of a dozen living beings the wielder will awaken a true vampire after a week, using the ring to hide their new sanguine attributes from others. Alignment will shift to the evil counterpart of their current one.
great video AJ
Yeah, AJ my boy!
Dragon Magazine no. 234!!! Daurgothoth, The Creeping Doom! Great pull, The Only CR 50 Monster in all of The Forgotten Realms!
I was just contriving a plot thread on Reddit for a DM who wanted to run an Epic Level end-game for his Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaign’s players...
He wanted to know if Epic Level PCs could take down Daurgothoth with Mordenkainen & Halister (Not Mad, as outside of the UnderMountain...) back-up as a plot-hook/safety-net, ha!
If a dracolich Is bad news immagine a dracholich Who can use the 5 cromatic breath weapons and other spells as breath weapons
@TheDankness 4/20
I know, right?? It’s only 4/5, I think... that’s his lore anyway.
He’s basically trying to become an Undead Tiamat, well... that and sire a new race of Dragon despite being Undead & not a Vampiric Dragon, ha.
He’s got everything but Poison as a Breathweapon (Black & Green Dragon rivalry maybe...? But I’d think that would make it easier to find an Ancient Great Wyrm to relieve of their Corporeal Form & Breath from since they like the same types of Terrain for Lairs...?)
PLUS, the Dracolich Bone-Fragment standard Breathweapon, an INSTA-KILL Legendary Breath with a DC 32 saving throw....
AND THEN, what amounts to a Beholder’s Anti-Magic Cone as a Breathweapon....
AND EVEN AFTER THAT, is basically a Lvl 25 Spellcaster with access to Cleric Spells thrown in on top.
He’s pretty much an Undead Demigod with 4 Avatar Forms ready to go from the bodies of the 3 Great Wyrms that he stole Breathweapons from should you even get through his original Black-Dracolich body!
COMPETITION: This is an item I have used in my games.
The Harrow Crown: the wearer of the corwn is granted an aura of intesnse pain. Anyone within 5 ft or coming in any contact with the wearer is subject to the pain and if they fail their save (Fortitufe savve dc25 for D&d 3.5) they are rendered helpless at the wearers feet. The item stops alot of fighters in their tracks and can grant the Wrack spell, Sadisism spell, and massochism spell in combination 5 times a day.
Undead can't feel the pain the crown causes, but any living creature that wears it, must make a save every hour it is worn or die from shock. I can be destroyed by any higher angel or by the casting of a Greater Restoration on it.
COMPETITION The bracers of ages +2 to attack rolls with melee or unarmed attacks, +2 to AC and regain 1d6 hit points every 10 minutes. Cannot be removed every 10 minutes the equipped character ages by 4 days. My wife’s submission
COMPETITION
Circlet of Animate Bones
When activated the lich (or skeletal creature) breaks into pieces that each gain a fly speed of 120 feet and can be controlled each turn. Pieces can only be moved within line of sight of the head or main sensory part (DM's discretion), otherwise pieces can be pulled towards any other piece. This item is meant to help distract enemies and escape danger. being separated dose not interfere with spells, but loosing a hand might. if a living creature tries to activate this item their bones will try to leave like normal but be held back by flesh. After a moment of extreme pain and 3d8+5 bludgeoning damage the creature must make a Constitution/Fortitude save equal to the damage or become unconscious. If the creature dies or becomes unconscious it will float up at 5 feet per round for 1 minute before falling. A creature that succeeds the save gains a fly speed of 120 feet but takes 1d8+2 bludgeoning damage every time it moves as its bones are still trying to break free.
That sounds like it would be terrifying to see
i'm personally not great at coming up with items that can't be used by players, more a fan of items that are hard to use. best example would be:
the vampires cane:
+1 arcane focus
has 35 charges
you can use 10 charges to cast charm person (DC:17)
20 charges to cast gaseous form or polymorth on a willing target (but only to turn into a regular bat)
30 charages to cast conjure animals (but only variations of bats, wolves or rats)
there are all obviously abilities vampires have and will of course alarm people as each spell registers to others as vampire abilities, not magic item abilities. the best part is how it regains charges. not something like 3d6 charges per day. technically there's no limit to how often you can use it. to recharge it the attuned person must make a 10 minute ritual targeting a willing or incapacitated target, at the end the target takes 3d10 necrotic damage, thei health is reduced by the same amount, and the cane regains an amount of charges equal to the damage taken. yes, this cane is powered by blook. it isn't called the vampire cane for nothing. (now combine this with a homebrew rule were you don't regain any lost max hp on a long rest but only 1 hitdie roll+con mod and suddenly the powerful item isn't going to save the day every time)
probably doesn't qualify as it's not unusable by the players, but i think it's neat.
Edit: forgot another thing that makes it diffecult. If it has less then 5 charges left it's hungry and distracts the user giving them disadvantage on concentration saves.
Lich magic items?
Personal favorite....
Bobble Lich...
Take a lich... Shrink it down...
Mount on carriage hood.
COMPETITION
A slime that lives within the body of the undead, protecting it and feeding from it in a mutually parasitic relationship.
Four minutes after 11pm? Well, you are on the other side of the world…
Use a magic sword for the phylactery - make it attractive to heroes, and leave it to be "found" by the PC's. I promise you that anytime the lich needs a new body near his phylactery, he won't have to wait long, and your players will *love* you for it - every time they kill a human, "that *tirade censored* lich pops back up and kills one of us!!"
Thanks a whole bunch for this spellbinding video appreciate it! 👍🏻👍🏻
COMPETITION
Burial Shroud of Tornock the Unclean- Tornock was a great necromancer mixing divine and arcane magicks together. Many thought he'd transform into a lich, but he didn't even what his soul bound to the material. He crafted shroud made from mummy linen and phase spider silk. Once dead and buried the shourd transformed him into a Phantom Lord. He spent many years traveling between planes via the Ethereal until he had a dispute with an Ultroloth. The Ultroloth hired a coven of night hags to track and capture Tornock. They torn his soul out of his shroud into one their soul bags.
The shroud remained behind in the Ethereal, and can only be worn incorpreal or Ethereal creatures. It functions as a cloak of protection, grants Resistance to force damage, and once per day allows you to plane shift via deep Ethereal. If you are currently Ethereal, but not incorpreal the shroud remains behind when you planeshift. If found while on the material the shroud can be seen as a spectral tattered cloth vaguely holding the shape of a humanoid suspended midair. It moves gently with an unfelt wind and creates a cold spot around it.
COMPETITION
Bracers of Unliving Defense: This pair of ornate bracers grant +4 to the AC of the wearer. When an attack against the AC of the wearer misses, a living wearer gains 1 level of exhaustion instead of taking damage. If the wearer dies from exhaustion their flesh immediately crumbles away and they become free willed Skelton (bent wholly on the destruction of any living creature it sees). These items are Cursed and require a Remove Curse spell to take off.