Everyday Magic Items

[Zaruthustran]

Cool items, but not unbalancing? I'd look into cantrips.

- A handkerchief enchanted with Prestidigitation 5/day. This handy little item would probably most often be used for (magical) cleaning, such as after a trip to the bathroom or before walking from the dirty street into a home. But it could also be used to retrieve dropped items (nobles do not stoop), flavor a meal, or produce little flowers or other minor gifts.

- Another use for prestiditation: toys. In this case, the spell would just go off with a specific effect--the user couldn't direct it. So, you could have a toy dragon that beathes warm, illusionary flame. Or a bunch of toy soldiers that cheer or yell in tinny voices. Or a wand that shoots sparks or bubbles. A toy catapult that creates its own ammunition. A magic owl that slowly flies around the room.

- Illusionary signs. Illusions, even simple static illusions, make great advertisements. Think of the craziest animated neon sign you've ever seen, but make it move, roar, or move to stay oriented to the viewer.

- Illusionary escorts. Actual prostitution is immoral and illegal, but virtual prostitution is victimless. Think "holodeck".

- Continual Flame streetlights, of course, but how about little personal items with Light 2/day?

- Waterskins of Create Water 1/day.

- Bandage of Cure Minor Wounds 1/day.

- Lucky stone (Guidance 1/day)

- Maps with Know Direction

- Utensils and cup with Purify Food and Water.

-z

 

[edbonny]

> For babies, there's always the Bottle of Gently Everflowing Warm Milk
> Shoes that tie themselves.
> Books that turn pages upon command.

 

[TheLoneGoldfish]

Terry Pratchet used a lot of magic every day items in the Discworld books...

Hell, the pyramids could create time warps...

 

[Dinkeldog]

Check out the Harry Potter books. They've got tons of this stuff, too. The letters that shriek and blow up if you don't open them immediately are among my favorites.

 

[Xarlen]

I would think the teleport/doorway thing would be bothersome, because then you have to go through several unwanted rooms just to get to the right doorway. Instead, how about thinking the desired location, when you walk through.

Note, though, that even IF this city is full of magic users, not Everyone can use magic to the extent where Everyone can cast fly, or Teleport. I mean, the tailor, the baker, or whatever will not be able to cast Fly. So, some things need acomidations.

I like the fact that the roads cast Light themselves. And the hanky! That's cool.

An illusionary escort would have to be a higher powered spell, since it requires everything to 'feel' real, not to mention the illusion to 'act' real. With Major image, the best you could get is a realisitc blowup doll.

 

[Incenjucar]

Permanent Unseen Servent combined with Permanent Illusion.

Actually, I really wonder sometimes.. Permanent Illusion People...

*shudders*

 

[Xarlen]

Permanent Unseen Servent combined with Permanent Illusion.

Actually, I really wonder sometimes.. Permanent Illusion People...

*Yoink!*

Actually, that's a good point... However, that could work for your Common Trollop. For an advanced, capable Call girl, you need someone with a little more experience, knowledge and Skill in for what they're doing.

Then again, why do that, when you can just cast the spells yourself? But, given this, you could use an Unseen Servant to tease/torture someone for an unending period.

"Tickle him with this feather until I get back!" Which, if you don't return for six hours, they may have ran out of air.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Re: Magic items

Also, Try not to create too much of a utopia. One would have thought that with all our wonderful technology and wealth we would have eliminated poverty and injustice. But we haven't. I can't see rich magicians creating free food for the poor unless they were getting something out of it. (Through advertising, for instance - maybe all the free food is enchanted so that the poor must advertise the products of their benefactor. Instead of beggars coming up and asking you for money, they would approach you to say who makes the finest jewellery, the best armour and which Inn has the best prices.)

Finally, have a look at a couple of the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance. He has created several bizarre 'High Magic' cultures. And although I slightly embarrassed to say it, The Harry Potter books might also be a source of inspiration (they are very 'high' magic).

I have a few more ideas - I will put them down tomorrow.

Most of my ideas have already been mentioned, but for the society, think of everyone's places. Elves, being smarter and longer lived could be professors and judges. Dwarves, due to size, strength, and stamina, would be workers. Gnomes would be lawyers and clerks. Half Orcs could be second class citizens, with Half Elves living off the system. Humans and Halflings would likely be the powerful and wealthy merchant class. A caste society coupled with alredy diverse races could be very interesting. You could take it anywhere from a cooprative utopia to a city on the edge of rebellion.

A liscense to practice magic could be fun, to. It would be an acctual Item that dissallows spells of X level on up. The more leinient the card, the more exspensive, plus a surcharge for selling magical services, taxes and union dues, ect.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Re: Re: Magic items

Most of my ideas have already been mentioned, but for the society, think of everyone's places. Elves, being smarter and longer lived could be professors and judges. Dwarves, due to size, strength, and stamina, would be workers. Gnomes would be lawyers and clerks. Half Orcs could be second class citizens, with Half Elves living off the system. Humans and Halflings would likely be the powerful and wealthy merchant class. A caste society coupled with alredy diverse races could be very interesting. You could take it anywhere from a cooprative utopia to a city on the edge of rebellion.

That's pretty much the gist of the races in one of the campaign settings I submitted. Instead of the elven nation in the woods, the dwarf nation in the mountains, etc., all the nations were racially integrated. Elves, being powerful (wizard favored class) and long-lived (wealthy), were most often rulers and policymakers. The other races followed their Favored Class roles. Humans, being skilled yet short-lived, were the ultimate Middle Class, while strong yet dumb/unambitious half-orcs were manual laborers.

-z

 

[Fast Learner]

Possibilities and Limitations

A couple of posters have noted some of the things I wanted to highlight.

Don't limit yourself to what our technology does. Why have a light switch if waving your hand or saying a phrase can turn the light on instead? Light switches are, frankly, lousy technology if you can do just about anything you want. Televisions are really limited, the way you can only watch certain things, and it comes in a heavy box that's tethered to a power outlet, and you can only see the show from one side, and only in two dimensions, etc. Phones are lousy because you have to hold them in your hand, you have to know a special code in order to contact people, you have to have a special setup to talk with more than one person at a time, etc.

And on the other hand don't assume that people would think of solutions to everything. People invent things all the time because no one happened to think of them before. Television, for instance, isn't necessarily obvious. A device that keeps food cool isn't obvious at all if you're in a warmer climate and haven't noticed how the cold keeps things from spoiling (especially not deep cold, like a refrigerator). And even remote communication (as a long-term solution) might not be obvious, whereas a device that seriously magnifies your voice might be.

You get the idea. The place will seem much more magical to your players the more you think "out of the box."