A couple of magic item questions

[Delemental]

1. Concerning the hand of glory item; would you permit the creation of an item with a similar function (allowing a ring to be worn in the necklace slot, essentially) but that does not require the use of a severed hand? If so, what would be an appropriate prerequisite spell to substitute for the animate dead spell? I have yet to make a character that would be comfortable wearing a mummified hand around his or her neck; even if I were playing a necromancer, I think I'd want to be a little more subtle about it than that (no wearing skulls as hats, either).

2. Would you allow the creation of an item similar to a bag of holding or handy haversack, but whose primary mechanism was based around the shrink item spell rather than the secret chest spell? In other words, rather than making the inside of the container larger than the outside, the item just makes everything you put into it very small and light. What would be the relative strengths and weaknesses of such an item compared to more traditional extradimensional storage? It seems to me that such an item would prove to have greater storage potential than other items, since the shrink item spell reduces volume (and therefore weight) by roughly 1/4000. That would allow a standard backpack (capacity 100 pounds/10 cubic feet) into an item that could theoretically hold 400,000 pounds or 40,000 cubic feet (assuming you allowed the item to exactly replicate the effects of the spell, of course). Of course, woe to the wearer of such an item if he has it packed full and then steps into an anti-magic field...

 

[KerlanRayne]

1. Concerning the hand of glory item; would you permit the creation of an item with a similar function (allowing a ring to be worn in the necklace slot, essentially) but that does not require the use of a severed hand? If so, what would be an appropriate prerequisite spell to substitute for the animate dead spell? I have yet to make a character that would be comfortable wearing a mummified hand around his or her neck; even if I were playing a necromancer, I think I'd want to be a little more subtle about it than that (no wearing skulls as hats, either).

I was thinking about this just the other day. My idea was to use a mirrored locket. The mirror on the front was to represent the See Invisibility ability. The ring would be placed inside the locket along with a lock of hair from the wearer. If another person whore it, they would have to supply another lock of hair to use the ring but not to use See Invisibility. You could still use Animate Dead to forge a link between the dead hair and the wearer.

How's that?

KerlanRayne

 

[dcollins]

Actually, I personally wouldn't allow a change to the hand of glory. It's just a bit too much to the flavor of the item that it's effectively giving you an extra, sort-of-live hand for magic ring purposes. If it's more desirable for evil characters, so be it, there are some items like that. However, remember also that wearing something like that might not be that outrageous in a certain culture -- it wasn't that long ago that well-to-do people of good standing were fond of collecting shrunken heads, mummified remains, etc. (If it were a hand of the mage I'd be much more willing to swap it for a ring or something.)

For the item storing stuff with shrink item, look to the robe of useful items to compare. It provides about 20 shrunken items (one-way) for 7,000 gp. May need to double or triple price for an item (with similar limit to number of items) that accepts gear and shrinks it for you?