I may have written myself into a corner...

[Aeolius]

The ring does in fact create wealth...coinage... just not the type they are used to:

 

[pawsplay]

How about a ring that 1/week will cast either hero's feast or fabricate?

 

[carmachu]

For the third boon, they asked for wealth, and since the party is only second level, I didn't want to hand out overwhelming amounts of treasure, so I had the Genie instead offer a magical ring to the party of unknown properties, but guaranteed to not be cursed. The party agreed, and took the ring instead of wealth.

The funny thing is, knowelege has a wealth all its own. I'd go with yur gut there and make it an intellegent ring. Its powers could be 1-2 a day of things like mass bull strength, or circile of protection vs evil or something that grants DR2 to all allies within 30'. Something that has a mass effect to help the whole party.

But the real "wealth" is that the ring is old, and has been around a long time and KNOWS things. Like a sage or a bard and knows old legends and stories and knows stuff about lands and people and such. Cant give them hints and clues when their stuck. Give it a personality, like a crotchety old teacher. Its not willing to just hand out information all the time, but willing to teach them so to speak.

 

[SiderisAnon]

I agree with the idea of making it a ring that scales with the party. That way, it can become something that sticks around for their entire career.

I would give it a small constant power for the person wearing it, such as +1 protection or +2 to a skill. Then have it grant a small bonus to the entire party (if within a certain distance) like +1 to a saving throw once or twice a day per person. These powers can scale over time.

Also keep in mind that the ring can simply foil identification. For instance, have the identifyer say that this ring grants X power, but them have the party realize it also grants Y power. They can have it identified multiple times, but it will still only ever show X power.

 

[gribble]

I agree with those suggesting a scaling item that grows alongside the party, and also those who suggested that it maybe gives them information (which can be used to gain wealth).

Maybe check out Weapons of Legacy? I'm sure there were some non-weapon items in there - one of those may be applicable.

 

[Jools]

In a very similar situation I once gave my group a ring of featherfall. Its far from game breaking but worth a lot of money. Its interesting to see if players will keep hold of the valuable ring or sell it for a mere 20% of its value to up their funds considerably.

 

[Ainamacar]

Going with the intelligent item idea, perhaps it is a ring of storytelling. The twist is that it only tells about the stories it has experienced first hand...not all of which are finished. As the party starts to provide it with interesting stories, it slowly reveals some of its more not-quite-finished tales (of never-ending but strangely level appropriate wealth). If the means of story-telling were unorthodox (such as unusual entries in someone's journal, or pictures mysteriously carved into the surrounding grove of trees the morning after camping) that could slowly lead to a dramatic reveal of the ring's purposes and abilities.

 

[Herobizkit]

How about a Ring of Djinni Summoning? It's kinda like wishing for more wishes, but hey, who wouldn't want a friendly Djinni with phenomenal cosmic power (and knowledge) as a friend?

 

[LostSoul]

I think you should tie the ring into the background of the campaign setting - and tie it into the PC's goals in any way, if you can.

 

[Phaezen]

2. Artifact that requires quests to unlock its powers.

Going with the intelligent item idea, perhaps it is a ring of storytelling. The twist is that it only tells about the stories it has experienced first hand...not all of which are finished. As the party starts to provide it with interesting stories, it slowly reveals some of its more not-quite-finished tales (of never-ending but strangely level appropriate wealth). If the means of story-telling were unorthodox (such as unusual entries in someone's journal, or pictures mysteriously carved into the surrounding grove of trees the morning after camping) that could slowly lead to a dramatic reveal of the ring's purposes and abilities.

I think you should tie the ring into the background of the campaign setting - and tie it into the PC's goals in any way, if you can.

BY your powers combined...

More seriously, if you could combine those 3 ideas, you should end up with an item and campaign that the players will remember for years