Magic Bones

[SamuraiY]

I'm taking the plunge from Player to DM and I need some help making magic Items. These items are the bones of a renowned ancient monk. Finding these bones will be a long term quest, although the party will be doing other thing as well, which should end in the mid-high levels (assuming we get that far). Anyway, the bones must be found one by one, and I need help figuring out the order and functions. Im thinking the hands will "enchantment" unarmed strikes (stacking with other enchantment equivalents to unarmed strike) and that the feet will increase speed, but other than that I'm lost. I need a range of powers, and even just helping me figure out which bones to use would help. Legs and Arms of course, as well as skull, but other than that what? Backbone? Ribcage? any help at all is greatly appreciated.

PS for more information on the backgrounf if you want it go to my "plot hooks" thread in general.

 

[fba827]

the order should be made after you determine the function of each -- they should be found in order of power... weakest to strongest in order to keep it in line with how the characters will progress as they find them.

haveing said that, the bones and powers ...

finding all the bones for a body may start to become a bit of a joke if you have players that might giggle at body parts... so, you may want to just limit it to 5 or 10 fingers or something.. each with a different ability. and maybe the skull thrown in for effect. 'Causing carrying around a magical pelvis or femur may just detract from the tone of play with possible jokes.

if you want to take a cheap way out, just give a different element ability to each.. that is a quick solution but lacks much creativity... just offering in case you're short on ideas (can base it off of the voltron lion affinities, in part )

take the DMG chart for magic item affinity to give you an idea on what types of body parts go with what types of magic properties -- good for an idea starter

hmm... will add more stuff if i think of it.. but that's it off the top of my head at the moment.

 

[SamuraiY]

my players are pretty mature, and I dont think they'll make any jokes about it. As for carrying them around all the time, I was thinking of taking a tome/manual of whatever aproach. Have the character meditate over them for a period of time and they absorb its power.

 

[dutorn]

Well if you have psionics in your campain you could have the skull give some sort of psionic power as in:

Amulet of Catapsi: This copper amulet aids the wearer against other psionic characters. Three times per day, the wearer can trigger the CATOPSI power, which blankets a 100-foot radius in telepathic noise for 10 minutes. Each time other psionic characters withing this range atempt to manifest a psionic power, they must succeed at a Will save (DC 17) or pay double the normal power point cost.

Market Price: 12,000

Of course this is just an example of something to use, but of course psionics are powers of the mind, so I think the skull could have something to do with these powers.

 

[SamuraiY]

Good idea, but unfortunately, there are no psionics in my game.

 

[SamuraiY]

OK, it looks like no one has any ideas, so how about I post my not so good ideas, and you can make suggestions for changes and perhaps order.

Right hand: +1 to unarmed attacks
Left hand: +1 to unarmed attacks
Right foot: +10 to speed
Left foot:+10 to speed
Skull: +? to wis, will, or granting SR?
Ribcage: +? to con, fort, or granting DR

What about the legs and arms though? are there any other bones I'm missing? Please give houghts.

 

[fba827]

Curious - how many ppl in the group -- and do they "share" ? I am wondering from the perspective of how likley will there be one person carrying more than one of these... (or more specifically, the liklihood of one PC carrying three or more of these at the same time)

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Depending on the composition of the party, I'd be inclined to have the bones offer differing abilities.

For example -

Right hand - 'Combat' Item - +2 luck bouns to hit/damage/AC anyone who fights will find it useful.

Left femur - spellcasting item - acts as a pearl of power of the highest level usable by the weilder.

Left hand - 'subtlety' item - +4 to hide/move silent, etc, etc

This way everyone gets something they can use...


Perhaps they could power up, the more items the party collectively owns?


I'd make ownership the thing that makes the item work, probably with an attunement period to each item.... if they need to use them for a specific task then one of the characters dieing after absorbing the power could throw a spanner in the works?

 

[SamuraiY]

This is where I start to get a little bit worried about this particular quest. You see, the items are monk only (they were a monk's bones after all).This could easily frustrate the other players. On the other hand it's a small group, only two or three PCs. I was thinking of having other important quests for the other PCs, so they are sometimes working on the monks quest, sometimes on the cleric's quest, etc. This may not be to good of an idea though. I was going to have the quests coincide as often as possible. One NPC has both a bone and something the cleric needs for example.
As for what happens if the monk dies, what I was thinking is that the power of the bone is "absorbed" by the monk's bone. example: the hand bone they originally found is no longer magical, but the monks is. This could be a little gruesome though.

Now after all this I have to say, remember this is my first time DMing, so please dont be to harsh.

 

[Kemrain]

Make the backbone grant immunity to fear effects!

- Kemrain the Amused.