A Magic Item for Milestones in 3.5

[Noumenon]

Based on 4E's system of milestones, I decided to make a magic item that works better the more encounters you do in a row. Then at least one person in the group will be saying, "I want to keep going!" But I put this item in my game before figuring out how it works. So help me out.

I was thinking it would just be a gem that gives +1 to hit after two encounters in a row, +2 after the fourth, +3 after the sixth. One thing I did wrong is not giving it any body slot. That's because I had a cool blank ten-sider with swirly colors and I wanted to put it in a treasure chest (a sealed envelope) as a prop -- a magic gem.

I wanted the party to figure out what it did without idenitfiying it (another reason it has no slot), so I had it get very cold when they went to sleep right after they found it. The cleric pulled it out of his pocket to look and took one cold damage, so he gave it to the barbarian who has DR 1/-. The party did one more encounter, so I had the gem get warm, but then they slept again. (You can see why I created the item.)

I really sparked a curiosity in my barbarian about why this item is behaving like this. I don't usually get him so intrigued.

So my issues are:

* is there a better effect to put on this item, whether for flavor, motivation, or balance?

* what can I do so that when the function is revealed, the barbarian will still say "cool!" instead of saying "Oh. Obviously you're just shoving me toward extra combats. I'll call it 'the DM gem.'"

I almost want to do what my one player brainstormed and make it a mundane magic item that you can put in your drink to cool it or heat it up, just so it will stay "neat."

(I have read other threads about how to discourage resting by setting time limits and lowering CRs, but that takes work. A magic item is easier and I've decided it's partly a problem with 3.5 that isn't worth swimming upstream against.)

 

[Ongorth]

So my issues are:

* is there a better effect to put on this item, whether for flavor, motivation, or balance?

* what can I do so that when the function is revealed, the barbarian will still say "cool!" instead of saying "Oh. Obviously you're just shoving me toward extra combats. I'll call it 'the DM gem.'"

*You can really put on any effect you want. By its very nature, slapping on a generic +X to anything is sort of boring. What might be better is finding some kind of theme and make increasingly impressive examples of said theme. For instance, if the theme is something like fire, you could make this using basic core info:

Base Effect: +1 initiative checks
2 Battles: Any wielded weapon gets flaming quality
4 Battles: 1/encounter fireball, CL=level
6 Battles: Fire Shield as a constant effect (warm only)

*If you give the players a flaming sword, do they accuse you of shoving them toward combats with cold creatures?

If the players like being wusses, they'll be wusses. Concentrate on making 2 really, really cool fights per day, possbily with multiple phases instead.

 

[Noumenon]

I like what you did there with the effects having a "warmer... hot... hotter" theme. That's really playing into what I've done so far. Also, the "duplicates a second level spell after four... third level after six...", that's cool. That way when he figures out "Oh, it activates after extra combat," he won't be like "OK, I figured it out." He'll be like "I wonder what it does after you do eight combats in a row! Let's try!!"

The first time his axe starts on fire spontaneously is going to be a super surprise that validates his excitement about learning what the gem does.

I wonder if there's anything that would make the gem really unhappy, more than sleeping, and what cold spell effect that would simulate?

*If you give the players a flaming sword, do they accuse you of shoving them toward combats with cold creatures?

Maybe it's just me. I am shy about, for example, having my monk find +1 shurikens in a treasure box, because it seems like I'd be saying "This can't be random, the DM wants you to try shurikens." I'll try to make an encounter with a monk instead, so he can loot the shurikens. When I give him a "gift" in the treasure I try to make it something oblique, like a wand of enlarge person. Good for monks, but not "monk's belt" obvious.

 

[Noumenon]

More on the spell-like progression of effects. Just for elegance in design, I would have it emulate one more spell level every two combats:

0 combats: Prestidigitation (Wiz 0) (I just like how this explains the heating and cooling)
2 combats: [not sure, something like Produce Flame or Burning Hands]
4 combats: Heat Metal (Drd 2)
6 combats: Flame Arrow (Wiz 3) or just +1d6 fire on all attacks
8 combats: Fire Shield (Wiz 4)
10 combats: [not sure, flame strike?]

I like the "heating things up" theme, it's a little more specific than just "fire." This is a level 9 barbarian who's got it now.

If the players like being wusses, they'll be wusses. Concentrate on making 2 really, really cool fights per day, possbily with multiple phases instead.

That might actually play to my strengths, because so far I've been putting a lot of thought into single encounters (like this one) and even running through them in rehearsals. A string of random encounters with monsters I don't know all that well isn't my style anyway. But I'm new to DMing and my group is new to rule of coolism, so I could definitely see them mellowing out if I don't kill them randomly for a few more sessions.

 

[Ongorth]

I just picked fire because you said the stone got warm. Obviously you could do it with any theme you want. I do agree it'd be kind of cool as a player to, once having figured out that the thing gets better the more you fight with it, trying to push your luck to see what happens next. Anyway, I think the key to making it a good item isn't focusing on meaningless concepts like spell level, but instead just making sure the abilities get consistently better without getting so good they blow everything up without even putting in quarters.

 

[Noumenon]

I just picked fire because you said the stone got warm. Obviously you could do it with any theme you want.

I wasn't criticizing your theme, I meant to say "by playing off your good idea of fire I was inspired to tighten the theme down to something I like even better."

I bet I could do a whole line of these gems if the original works out well. Maybe one that metamagics your spells a little more every two encounters you do. I have two more of those funky dice and the next person who finds one in a treasure chest will be really excited!

 

[Set]

This is a pretty spiffy idea.

You might consider a pseudo-rationale for why such an item would increase in power as the day goes on.

Some examples;

Perhaps the item was consecrated by a temple of the god of battle, and his blessings increase as the person engages in more and more battles, and then fade as they rest.

Perhaps the item draws magical energy (arcane or divine) from the user, in quantities too small to be detected, so that the more levels of spells the caster uses in a day, the greater the charge of the item (so that, by the time he has few spells left, they strike at enhanced Caster level or have a higher value for spell penetration or DC or whatever.)

Perhaps the item similarly draws upon / is charged by other daily class ability uses, such as Barbarian rage (growing hotter after the Barbarian rages and giving him some small bonus that grows with each additional Rage used during a day), Bard music (producing a very quiet resonating tone after 'inspired' by the bardic music, growing slightly louder and clearer to the Bard, but inaudible to anyone else, with each additional bardic music use during the day), Cleric Turning, Druid Wild Shape, Paladin Smite, Monk Stunning Fist, etc.

Perhaps the item has a spirit within it, a violent spirit of chaos, or a crusading spirit of righteousness, one that grows more excited (and provides stronger bonuses) the more combats are entered into, and, since the spirit might have certain standards as to what sort of combat it considers gripping and / or righteous, the character discovers that combats that end too quickly (dispatching a single foe in a round, for instance) 'don't count' as they don't satisfy the spirit. The spirit might be samurai-like, considering the wielder unworthy of it's greater blessings and only bequeathing them upon the wielder when it feels that they have sufficiently earned it's respect for the day. It remembers quite well the previous days actions, but it chides the user if the user tries to cash in on yesterday's heroic deeds. "You think that you only need to be a hero yesterday? That today you can be a shiftless layabout and receive the honor of my advice? You cannot call yourself a hero if you are not willing to be a hero *every day!* Get to work. Prove yourself!"

Perhaps the item is necromantic or even vampiric in nature and literally is *feeding* upon the deaths of the users foes. It only charges in the presence of hot blood (or whatever) spilled in true combat, and ritual sacrifice does nothing for it. If the user isn't *also* in mortal danger, the necromantic items hungers are not stirred, and it provides no benefit.

 

[Noumenon]

Perhaps the item has a spirit within it, a violent spirit of chaos, or a crusading spirit of righteousness, one that grows more excited (and provides stronger bonuses) the more combats are entered into, and, since the spirit might have certain standards as to what sort of combat it considers gripping and / or righteous, the character discovers that combats that end too quickly (dispatching a single foe in a round, for instance) 'don't count' as they don't satisfy the spirit.

I'm definitely keeping the idea of the gem having opinions. If your first axe blow of the day, when the gem is still cold, is just chopping firewood or something, that gem is going to freeze down to chill touch temperatures. And if you're purposely turning all the roleplaying scenes into combat, the gem needs to have some idea of propriety or I've just created "the Magic Gem of Hackenslash."

The idea of the gem having alignment, with a chaotic spirit, is intriguing, but it might be hard to get it to trigger if you have to be breaking the law or something for it to work. I guess players set on making 10 combats a day are gonna cause a lot of chaos without really trying. What else would a chaotic gem like?

Perhaps the item is necromantic or even vampiric in nature and literally is *feeding* upon the deaths of the users foes. It only charges in the presence of hot blood (or whatever) spilled in true combat, and ritual sacrifice does nothing for it. If the user isn't *also* in mortal danger, the necromantic items hungers are not stirred, and it provides no benefit.

I hate to make it evil because the barbarian follows Kord. I wonder if I should have it trigger on first attack, or on first blood? If it's blood I would want it to start beating like a heart in the barbarian's pocket and pound faster and harder for each encounter where blood is spilled.

The idea of requiring the user to be in mortal danger has to be somewhere in the flavor for balance. It suggests that it might feed off his adrenaline. When I first read your idea about the gem feeding off bardic music, or Stunning Fist uses, I thought "But I don't want to encourage bardic music, I want to encourage battles without resting." If I make a family of gems that work like this, though, I wouldn't want them all to feed off battles. It would be redundant and practically force the party into combat. So a "bard's gem" that encourages bard class skills with a nice inspire courage effect would be keen.