AD&D 1E AD&D- Overpowered Magic Items

[GuyBoy]

The Vorpal Blade!
Roll well and your enemies would be (not) running around like headless chickens!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The Vorpal Blade!
Roll well and your enemies would be (not) running around like headless chickens!

....and you know that every time it happened, the player shouted, "SNICKER SNACK!"

 

[the Jester]

....and you know that every time it happened, the player shouted, "SNICKER SNACK!"

A pc in my 5e game has a vorpal axe whose name is Snicker Snack.

 

[James Gasik]

I do recall the funny notation on the Vorpal Sword...

And I'm just imagining a support group for headless Dopplegangers and Elementals!

 

[JEB]

I do recall the funny notation on the Vorpal Sword...
View attachment 367984
And I'm just imagining a support group for headless Dopplegangers and Elementals!

Huh, dopplegangers could survive decapitation in 1e? Interesting. (Bonus obscure fact: they were classified as "undead" types in 0e.)

 

[Kannik]

1. The Holy Trinity. Long before your local corporations pivoted to video and preached synergy, AD&D was all about the synergy. The Holy Trinity of AD&D was the Hammer of Thunderbolts, the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and A Girdle of Storm Giant Strength.

Oh heck yes, the number of hours I as a younger player lusted after these three items would be embarrassing to disclose. (I was 'fortunate' enough to get a girdle of cloud giant strength in one campaign, which was admittedly quite cool in its own right...)

While it wasn't overpowered per se, I'll never not love the full name for the flame tongue: Sword +1, Flame Tongue, +2 vs. regenerating creatures, +3 vs cold-using, inflammable, or avian creatures, +4 vs. undead. Imagine if you had to say its name each time you drew it... (also, love the seemingly arbitrary divisions of both whom it affects and by how much, classic Gygaxian).

For use the 'creative use' items were also lovingly coveted and abused, including decanters of endless water and feather tokens.

One super overpowered item was Dust of Disappearance. Remain invisible for 1d10+10 turns (110 - 200 minutes) even when attacking -- scout, scout some more, steal, do a bunch of more stuff, and then join the party in attack with big bonuses and able to run around the battlefield with impunity. Good times.

 

[Voadam]

(Bonus obscure fact: they were classified as "undead" types in 0e.)

Where do you get that? Looking in Supplement I Greyhawk where they first show up I don't see anything indicating they are undead.

DOPPLEGANGERS: These are creatures with mutable form, able to shape themselves into the double of any person that they can observe. Once in this likeness they will attack—or if possible assume the role as well as the shape, and attack by surprise and at great advantage. Dopplegangers are subject to neither Sleep or Charm spells. They are also magic-resistant, saving against all forms of magical attack as if they were 10th-level fighters.

The closest thing I can find would be that they are immune to sleep and charm and undead are immune to sleep and charm.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

So, side topic.

Magic Items that are references to things not in the game (such as the Nessus tag).

I brought this up in another thread, so I'll start with it here. The Vacuous Grimoire, which was just a shot at the 3PP Arduin Grimoire.

Description-
A book of this sort is totally impossible to tell from a normal one, although if a detect magic spell is cost, there will be a
magical aura noted. Any character who opens the work and reads so much as a single glyph therein must make 2 saving throws versus magic. The first is to determine if 1 point of intelligence is lost or not, the second is to find if 2 points of wisdom are lost. Once opened and read, the vacuous grimoire remains, and it must be burned to be rid of it after first casting a remove curse spell. If the tome is placed with other books, its appearance will instantly alter to conform to one of the other works it is amongst.

That's right. Gygax was telling you that the book tried to look just like a D&D book, but it made you stupid.

 

[James Gasik]

Huh, dopplegangers could survive decapitation in 1e? Interesting. (Bonus obscure fact: they were classified as "undead" types in 0e.)

Check the 2e DMG, it has the same notation.

 

[JEB]

Where do you get that? Looking in Supplement I Greyhawk where they first show up I don't see anything indicating they are undead.

In the updated wilderness encounter tables in Eldritch Wizardry, they're included under the "UNDEAD-TYPES" category. (Along with skeletons, zombies, ghouls, wights, wraiths, mummies, spectres, vampires, shadows, ghosts, liches, and will o'wisps.)