Survivor Magic Jewelry (PART I)- AMULET OF THE PLANES WINS!

Ed Laprade · May 15, 2019

Amulet of Health 8
Amulet of the Planes 10
Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location 6
Bead of Force 2 -2 = 0. It gets forced out.
Bracers of Archery 8
Bracers of Defense 9 +1 = 10
Brooch of Shielding 9
Gem of Seeing 11

Mistwell · May 15, 2019

Can't believe some of you guys love the Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location. It's 1) boring, and 2) comes up incredibly rarely. I mean really, how often are you the subject of a divination spell by someone else? And of those times, how many do you really care about?

Gradine · May 15, 2019

Mistwell said:
Can't believe some of you guys love the Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location. It's 1) boring, and 2) comes up incredibly rarely. I mean really, how often are you the subject of a divination spell by someone else? And of those times, how many do you really care about?

I'll counter these points in reverse order:

2) It comes up more often than you think for villains and other very important NPCs. A reminder that most of us on this board are DMs
1) Even discounting the above, it's still not nearly as boring as setting your Constitution score to 19.

Mistwell · May 16, 2019

Gradine said:
I'll counter these points in reverse order:

2) It comes up more often than you think for villains and other very important NPCs. A reminder that most of us on this board are DMs
1) Even discounting the above, it's still not nearly as boring as setting your Constitution score to 19.

I've been playing since 1978. It really doesn't come up all that often. And those times it does come up, it's usually not critical if it gets blocked. If the villain needs to spy on you, there are a good half dozen other ways they can do it if the divination route gets blocked (and it doesn't even help the entire party, just the one character wearing the amulet). At least with Constitution, it will come up with your hit points, your saves, your endurance checks like drowning, your ability to shrug off disease and poison, etc..

Gradine · May 16, 2019

Mistwell said:
I've been playing since 1978. It really doesn't come up all that often. And those times it does come up, it's usually not critical if it gets blocked. If the villain needs to spy on you, there are a good half dozen other ways they can do it if the divination route gets blocked (and it doesn't even help the entire party, just the one character wearing the amulet).

I wasn't clear; I meant that villains and major NPCs are more likely to get use out of the item than PCs are, and that's something to take into account.

At least with Constitution, it will come up with your hit points,

Numbers go up :yawn:

your saves,

your endurance checks like drowning, your ability to shrug off disease and poison, etc..

Also, speaking of things that don't come up that often...

Edit: Literally every other "[item] of [stat] to 19" is more interesting because while still only give bonuses of the numbers-go-up :yawn:

variety, at least they impact choices and actions that your characters can actually make. And those items are also incredibly boring. Ninety-nine percent of Con ability checks are reactive.

CleverNickName · May 16, 2019

Mistwell said:
Can't believe some of you guys love the Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location. It's 1) boring, and 2) comes up incredibly rarely. I mean really, how often are you the subject of a divination spell by someone else? And of those times, how many do you really care about?

It's one of the most unique items in the game. It does something that is very, very difficult to do otherwise.

If it's boring, or if using it doesn't come up very often in your games, that's your DM's fault. Case in point: for Season 2 of Critical Role, Liam O'Brian chose this item as the starting magic item for his character Caleb Widogast. It doesn't just sit around Caleb's neck wasting space; Matt wove it into the plot and made it integral to Caleb's backstory and character arc. I won't post any spoilers here, but...yikes.

Turns out, it's a pretty awesome magic item. FAR more interesting than another (Thing) of (Statboost).

Mistwell · May 16, 2019

CleverNickName said:
It's one of the most unique items in the game. It does something that is very, very difficult to do otherwise.

Unique and otherwise hard to accomplish is not, in itself, an argument for the item. If the item made one hair stand on end no matter what, that would be both unique and otherwise very difficult to do. And still boring and unlikely to come up often. It's sort of similar to the item which absorbs magic missiles - yay?

If it's boring, or if using it doesn't come up very often in your games, that's your DM's fault. Case in point: for Season 2 of Critical Role, Liam O'Brian chose this item as the starting magic item for his character Caleb Widogast. It doesn't just sit around Caleb's neck wasting space; Matt wove it into the plot and made it integral to Caleb's backstory and character arc. I won't post any spoilers here, but...yikes.

Turns out, it's a pretty awesome magic item. FAR more interesting than another (Thing) of (Statboost).

This is, again, non-unique to this item. ANY item can be worked that way by a DM. Indeed, the DM making a huge background around that item was probably a sign the DM felt the need to jazz something up which would otherwise be boring and not come up very often naturally on it's own without the DM intervening in the plot to adapt to the boring item

CleverNickName · May 16, 2019

Mistwell said:
Unique and otherwise hard to accomplish is not, in itself, an argument for the item. If the item made one hair stand on end no matter what, that would be both unique and otherwise very difficult to do. And still boring and unlikely to come up often. It's sort of similar to the item which absorbs magic missiles - yay?

That one's on my list also, right after I get rid of the Constitution-flavored Thing of Statboost, the AC-flavored Thing of Statboost, and the Bow-flavored Thing of Statboost.

Mistwell said:
ANY item can be worked that way by a DM. Indeed, the DM making a huge background around that item was probably a sign the DM felt the need to jazz something up which would otherwise be boring and not come up very often naturally on it's own without the DM intervening in the plot to adapt to the boring item

Agree. The AC-flavored Thing of Statboost is pretty useless and won't come up very often in a court-intrigue campaign unless the DM intervenes and shapes the story around it.

I get it, scrying doesn't come up very often at your table. I think if it did, you'd maybe have a different opinion of that Amulet. But you asked me why I liked it so much, and that's my answer: it's the item on the list that tells the best story. It's a one-of-a-kind item that does something that other items can't, and if you have one, there's probably a very good reason for it. Or at the very least, a cool story about it.

Things that make numbers go up, so that monsters fall down? Dime a dozen.

StormbringerAUS · May 16, 2019

Amulet of Health 8
Amulet of the Planes 10 - 2 = 8
Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location 6
Bracers of Archery 8 + 1 = 9
Bracers of Defense 10
Brooch of Shielding 9
Gem of Seeing 11

CleverNickName · May 16, 2019

Amulet of Health 8-2=6
Amulet of the Planes 8
Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location 6+1=7
Bracers of Archery 9
Bracers of Defense 10
Brooch of Shielding 9
Gem of Seeing 11

Survivor Magic Jewelry (PART I)- AMULET OF THE PLANES WINS!

Ed Laprade

First Post

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)

Gradine

The Elephant in the Room (she/her)

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)

Gradine

The Elephant in the Room (she/her)

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing

StormbringerAUS

Explorer

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing

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