Hot answers tagged magic-items
22
Sure, mechanical/non-magical equivalents would be a fluffy way to satisfy as aspect of his role-playing. But how about you try something interesting?
Word of your superstition and abstinence against magical gear has
spread and intrigued a number of people. You've awakened old fears of
harmful magical auras, and new prides in personal strength. ...
19
While two of my following suggestions originate from 4e I think they can still be applied to any D&D game.
Inherent Bonuses
Originally introduced in 4e's Dark Sun Campaign Guide, these bonuses greatly reduce the mechanical necessity to acquire magical items just to keep up with the expected encounter difficulty.
Inherent bonuses basically say that ...
18
Magic items are more interesting when they serve to advance or drive a plot. This may be because
Only with that item can the characters succeed (and it is hard to get or keep the item). Example: wights that can only be hurt by +1 weapons, in an area where +1 weapons are extremely rare.
The item is complex; it only sometimes works, or requires mastery and ...
18
Apart from his very good other suggestions, I have to disagree with Ichoran, that magic items have to advance or drive a plot to be interesting. A bag of holding is an interesting idea which doesn’t have to be central to the plot.
I agree more with F. Randall Farmer’s ‘Make Items Custom and Personal’.
I say, “Interactive Items Can be Interesting.” In a ...
18
It's good because of wolves' innate trip ability. If the wolves hit they can take a free trip attempt. If they succeed the enemy is prone and it makes it that much easier for you to hit them, and prevents them from moving without taking an attack of opportunity.
17
In Adventurer's Vault pg 198 it describe uses for the Enchant Magic Item ritual:
... the ritual can also be
used to place a property in a magic item that has no
property, or to upgrade a magic item to a more powerful
version 5 levels higher. This use of the ritual follows
the same rules for enchanting a magic item from a
mundane item but ...
16
Two things come to my mind immediately: Artifacts in the original AD&D DMG like the Rod of Seven Parts, and an extension of artifacts that I used in a D&D 3.5 game. Hopefully you'll get some ideas that will work for your game.
The AD&D artifact route is fairly straightforward: as you get more pieces of the artifact together, you get access to ...
14
The neither of these things represents an if else block Here is the control flow:
If you have surges left
Spend surge Regain HP, make saves
Else If you are bloodied
Regain HP, make saves
Else
No Effect
So in the case of either having surges or being bloodied you regain HP, if you neither have surges or are bloodied then the potion has no effect. ...
14
Undead can benefit from magic items like any other creature.
The only exceptions would be items that have conditions they don't meet or do things that don't apply..like CON bonuses. They could technically wear items boost their immunities but it would be a waste in most circumstances (poison/disease/etc).
Turn/Rebuke resistance would obviously be a ...
13
As a matter of fact, Spider Climb does not allow to traverse frictionless surface automatically, much as the spiders can't traverse glass, for example. All it does is granting climb speed to its subject, and that doesn't even mean automatic climb success:
A creature with a climb speed has a +8 racial bonus on all Climb checks. The creature must make a ...
12
Nice catch. This is really a completely different item than earlier editions. Some first thoughts:
The Really Secure wizard's lab/panic room/fortress control room. All walls are 5' thick stone; authorized personnel have access to the portable hole. Simple. When under attack, remove the hole... and there's no sign the room even exists. (Plus, it's ...
12
The main difficulty you're having in using the formula is that there is no existing spell that models the effect you want. Both Major Creation and Fabricate are dramatically more powerful than the effect you want in that they can create almost anything. Placing the limitation of converting coins of one type into another type of precisely equal value is a ...
12
No. The spell stoneskin (PHB p. 163) says in no uncertain terms that the target of the spell is completely immune to physical attacks, specifically including magically-enhanced physical attacks such as from a sword of sharpness. The vorpal sword's description even says that it is just like the sword of sharpness, except with a better bonus.
The way to ...
12
A spellbook contains the formula for a spell. A scroll contains an almost-completed casting of a spell - the equivalent of what you would memorize for the day, in written form - just speak the completion of the spell to activate it. When you complete the spell inscribed on a scroll, the contents of the scroll are erased, just as the spell is erased from your ...
12
When special abilities modify the enhancement bonus, you use the total enhancement bonus to determine cost. This applies to weapons, armor and shields.
Special abilities count as additional bonuses for determining the market value of the item, but do not modify attack or damage bonuses (except where specifically noted). A single weapon cannot have a ...
12
No, but...
Once you have temporary hit points, it doesn't matter how you got them: if a cleric gave them to you and the cleric dies, you keep your THP. If you got them from an item and you lose the item, you keep your THP. If the DM granted you THP for doing something cool and the DM dies... well probably you should call an ambulance or something, but ...
12
Yes, you can.
As you say, the caltrops are not described as ever disappearing, and are in fact stated to “follow all the rules of for normal caltrops.” The item requires Leomund’s secret chest to make, which implies that it’s basically just literally an extradimensional space full of perfectly normal, mundane caltrops that you can ...
11
Check the verbiage about "Temporary Bonuses" and "Permanent Bonuses" under each ability score on d20PFSRD. Temp bonuses give bonuses to specific things that depend on them - skill checks, attack rolls. But permanent bonuses...
Permanent Bonuses: Ability bonuses with a duration greater than 1 day
actually increase the relevant ability score after 24 ...
11
Make Items Custom and Personal
This is related to my question Can players use crafting to improve beloved magic items instead of churning gear?
I have my players upgrade their primary gear (weapons, armor, implements) during major down-time (the week before a major assault, during a research break, etc.) They enchant, smith, infuse, forge, transform, etc. ...
11
No, wondrous items such as an Everfull Mug or Piero's Pan of Flameless Frying wouldn't overcome damage resistance (magic) if they were used as improvised weapons.
Damage ReductionSRD is only overcome by magic weapons when the DR is specifically vulnerable to magic weapons and when the weapon in question has at least a +1 magical enhancement bonusSRD. ...
11
There is nothing about it on the SRD about cats, but I do remember about a race called Tibbits that could transform into house cats, and the description said something along the lines of "while in cat form, Tibbits function as normal cats and cannot manipulate fine objects or activate magic items", so I'd rule the same for cat familiars.
EDIT: Found it. "A ...
11
No, they do not stack
You'd get a single 25% chance to negate the critical; the critical section in the stacking rules text is:
In most cases, modifiers to a given check or roll stack (combine for a
cumulative effect) if they come from different sources and have
different types (or no type at all), but do not stack if they have the
same type or ...
10
I'll head to the Dungeon Master's Guide 2, chapter 5, section Item Components, page 146. A quick and easy way to solve your issue is suggested in the 4. Upgrade or Replace? subsection:
4. Upgrade or Replace? An item created using these guidelines could replace an old item. Or the process could impart a new power to an existing item, upgrading it to a ...
10
Reduced Magic Item Creation Costs
When a PC makes a magic item, they may (if they want) attempt to cut costs. This is done with an Arcana check that alters the creation cost up or down by 1% per point under or over the DC.
Rule
Check Arcana at 15 + the level of the magic item. Every point above the required DC results in a 1% cost savings. Every point ...
10
Alignment
I would say, no. In general, killing vs. not killing is more of an alignment concern than how you kill them.
Some deities might be interpretable as being against vorpal. And characters at the very lawful end of the spectrum might have issues. But ultimately this is a DM/player call. It isn't an assumption of the setting.
(Personally, I'd ...
10
The biggest factor in how interesting an item is is whether it is passive or active. A passive item just increases stat Q by X. That's boring, always there, automatically included in your character sheet, and quite forgettable.
Active items on the other hand are much more interesting. When the character must make a decision to use the item or save it for ...
10
First question: trigger
The character needs only to have at least one level of a class which can cast the spell. In this case a first level wizard will be able to trigger any wizard spell.
Second question: completion
From the SRD: Scrolls
To have any chance of activating a scroll spell, the scroll user must meet the following requirements.
The ...
10
The value is 0gp and one artifact
What you described is a major, plot driven artifact. It is neither purchasable nor controllable by the player as it may be nuked, changed, or develop a need for a smoothie at any time by the whim of the GM. While it is certainly dangerous and effective, the fact that it's a plot coupon means that it functionally is "free" ...
10
ACKS has removed the "Identify" spell but it has replaced it with explicit mechanics to identify magic items in other ways.
p210 of ACKS: "Sages and other characters proficient in Magical Engineering or Loremastery can identify common or famous magical items simply through their knowledge of such things. Potions may be identified by sipping them, or by ...
10
There are really too many options to list specifics. This problem can be addressed through basic mechanics available in some form to most classes and available to all classes through feat trees (check out unusual weapons available through feats) and items. I'll discuss each mechanic and give a level-5-or-below example of a power for each of them.
Anything ...
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