Dust of Sneezing and Choking

[Taraxia]

What's your ruling? Do you allow players to purchase/craft this Cursed Item in your campaign?

It seems to me that the ability to purposely stun everyone within 20 feet of you for 5d4 rounds is one amazing kamikaze attack. It's suicidal, sure, with the poison damage, but not even that if you allow Eberron's warforged, if you allow Libris Mortis' undead PCs or any other class or race that's immune to poison damage. If you interpret it a certain way, a PC who doesn't breathe or doesn't need to breathe can even avoid the stunning effect, basically making this an easy way to kill off an opposing party.

It's my opinion that this and other potentially abusable Cursed Items shouldn't be available at all except as a trick for unwary players, and even then should be nerfed.

 

[Infiniti2000]

What's your ruling? Do you allow players to purchase/craft this Cursed Item in your campaign?

Craft it, on purpose? How?

Purchase it? Perhaps, but it would be very hard to find and in very limited quantities (i.e. one) because in most areas where such items could even be had, they would be illegal. IMC, of course.

 

[mvincent]

Craft it, on purpose? How?

The requirements for creating it are "CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, poison"... this certainly appears to be for purposeful creation.

 

[Infiniti2000]

The requirements for creating it are "CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, poison"... this certainly appears to be for purposeful creation.

Ah, the menu approach. "Hey, DM, hand over that Guide book of yours. I want to look over the menu of stuff I can create."

Well, as long as you have a method to allow it, I say go for it.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Ah, the menu approach. "Hey, DM, hand over that Guide book of yours. I want to look over the menu of stuff I can create."

Well, as long as you have a method to allow it, I say go for it.

Huh? What do you think that entry is for? It tells the player what requirements they need to match in order to create the item for themselves. Plus, this can also be found in the SRD, which is not limited to just DMs (neither is the DMG for that matter).

The funny thing is, the DM certainly doesn't need to know what the creation requirements are, since if he wants a certain NPC to have this item, he can just give it to him.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Huh? What do you think that entry is for? It tells the player what requirements they need to match in order to create the item for themselves. Plus, this can also be found in the SRD, which is not limited to just DMs (neither is the DMG for that matter).

I was sure the DMG specifically said it was for DM's, not players. If not, I retract my statement. Your comment about the SRD is only valid for d20, not D&D. That, in itself, is a valid point, of course, but my mentioning of DMG should make it clear what I'm talking about (which may be nothing).

The funny thing is, the DM certainly doesn't need to know what the creation requirements are, since if he wants a certain NPC to have this item, he can just give it to him.

Agreed. Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with the OP's question. How about we broaden the question to more than just this cursed item? How does a PC (not player) find out what it takes to create any item? Is item creation IYC purely a metagaming action?

My apologizes to the OP if I've seemingly threadcrapped--that was not my intention.

 

[mvincent]

Ah, the menu approach. "Hey, DM, hand over that Guide book of yours. I want to look over the menu of stuff I can create."

Well, as long as you have a method to allow it, I say go for it.

Isn't that the standard method for creating almost all other magical items? I'm unsure what you are trying to indicate... Players shouldn't used the DMG as a guidebook for what they can create or buy? Players shouldn't create things? Players shouldn't have access to the DMG?

I feel I'm pretty open-minded to your point of view... I'm just not sure what it is yet.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Please read my follow-up clarification.

And, I don't have a good answer to my question myself. I was not being rhetorical or insinuating anything. It's a problem not only in my games, but what I can surmise from seeing on messageboards. It was my wife who termed it "the menu" whenever her druid creates stuff.

Since it directly relates to/answers the OP's question, I thought it was relavent to mention.

 

[mvincent]

I was sure the DMG specifically said it was for DM's, not players. If not, I retract my statement.

That might be possible, but would be odd. I think early editions of the DMG might've said that, but in 3.X how else would players have information about the core prestige classes and such? Also, I certainly desire players to use the SRD, and I definitely consider the SRD as D&D (minus just a few items).

How does a PC (not player) find out what it takes to create any item?

I imagine the same way he learns about which spells to study (or pray for), which feats to take, which prestige classes to study for, etc. D&D is chock full o' meta-game

Is item creation IYC purely a metagaming action?

That seems like the easiest method (and appears to be an accepted norm). If RP justification is needed, one could note that PC's have been in the D&D world all their life and have been following their chosen career path for almost as long (rather than doing this sort of thing as an occasional geeky hobby). Plus, even though the average D&D world might appear low-tech in many areas, methods of travel and communication should actually be pretty decent (thanks to magic), especially for magically oriented institutions. PC's could quite likely have access to even more information than their associated player has, rather than less.

 

[Taraxia]

It certainly seems like the primary point of Cursed Items is to be found and used by hapless player-characters, but the DMG does provide crafting rules for them, which implies that by the RAW players can make them. (There's no reason for the DM to ever know the process by which an NPC made an NPC item, after all.)