..And it has 32 charges left!

[alsih2o]

I would like advice on handling the nuber of remaining charges on magic items.

If a player has a Wand of Dundruff that she uses EVERY game session I can keep decent track. What I have trouble with is keeping track of items that are rarely used.

One of my players has a Brooch of MM Shielding that absorbs whatever number of damage from MMs(looted form a body of a long time rival). I have resorted to telling her how many HP it has left to absorb. This covers my problem of keeping track but I feel as if I have cheated the player by taking away any sense of mystery or surprise.

Has anyone come up with a good method? That removes the burden and surprise form the player for infrequently used items?

A printable sheet with magic item notes for DMs? This would be a huge boon for me as I am unorganized in a 'gamma ray exposed, genetically altered slob' way.

 

[diaglo]

hand the player a stack of playing cards = to the number of charges. have them hand you back one for each charge used. when all the cards are gone... so are the charges.

 

[fredramsey]

Ooh, a wand of dandruff? That would be cool...

I would like advice on handling the nuber of remaining charges on magic items.

If a player has a Wand of Dundruff...

 

[BSF]

3x5 cards that you keep with your gaming stuff. When a PC uses an item, you might need to find the card, but then the player doesn't know how many charges are left, etc.

 

[derelictjay]

Well, I've had the player keep track of the number of time the item has been used, and compare that number the number of charges that I have written, It can be a bit cumbersome, but it works well enough that I don't have to tell the players the actual number of charges left in the magic item.

 

[Darkness]

Laptop.

Or what they said.

 

[diaglo]

Laptop.

Or what they said.

another thing i've done when the player hasn't gone to the expense of using identify is just to say their are runes on the stick. and after each use part of the runes vanish. soon none exist. and no charges left either.

makes for a good, quick meter/gauge for the PCs.

this goes with a puzzle instead of playing cards... kiddie puzzles with 50 pieces/charges or less

 

[Voadam]

Identify
Divination
Level: Brd 1, Magic 2, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Touch
Targets: One touched object
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
The spell determines all magic properties of a single magic item, including how to activate those functions (if appropriate), and how many charges are left (if any).
Identify does not function when used on an artifact.
Arcane Material Component: A pearl of at least 100 gp value, crushed and stirred into wine with an owl feather; the infusion must be drunk prior to spellcasting.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It is one of those things I track, index card on my DM screen.

Mage Mike: Wand of... Charges OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO

 

[adwyn]

I too am A) Lazy B) disorganized, and C) still wanting to keep the unknown.

So what I did was set a DC40 roll for each time a wand is used to see if it fizzles out. The roll is 1d20 + 1/per use. That way I can say the wand has a +12 when they find it. From then on they can keep track without ever really being sure.