ENWorlders: Reward my players with Magic Items

[Rel]

MY PLAYERS STAY OUT - BIG SPOILERS INSIDE THIS THREAD

Hello, folks. I'm about to give out some treasure in my campaign and I'm somewhat torn about what to award. I thought you might have some good ideas.

The party has been through a lengthy series of harrowing adventures that, unfortunately, have not garnered them much treasure. Many of thier foes did not have any treasure to speak of and a couple of the fights were narrow escapes on the part of the party where there was little time to stop and loot. Therefore they have fallen behind somewhat in the treasure department.

The campaign is now moving toward the endgame phase and they are going to be up against some really nasty foes. So I'd like to give them a chance to be better equipped. They are soon to uncover a nice cache of treasure (a dragon horde) and I'm trying to figure out what is going to be in it.

Herein lies the rub: I'm somewhat torn as to how much to tailor the treasures to each party member. I don't usually tailor the treasure all that much but there really isn't going to be much opportunity for the group to cash in what they find and buy other stuff. So I figured I'd give some vague descriptions of the party members and see if anybody had ideas for magic items for them. Your "less than perfect" understanding of each character should produce some "less than perfect" treasures but still ones that fit their general areas of expertise.

I'm looking for each party member to gain treasure in the 20-25,000 GP range, whether it be one large item or multiple smaller ones. Custom treasures are fine so long as they are basically balanced for that value. The PC's are all in the 10th-11th level range and consist of:

A Druid
A Wizard (favors Abjurations and Evocations)
A Rogue/Royal Explorer
A Fighter/Cleric of St. Cuthbert
A Barbarian/Bard

Any ideas you have would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Nightfall]

Pipes of Rage (causes all those that hear to make a Will save or go into a barbarian rage. Also grants the warband +2 morale bonus to saves, attacks and damage)

Mace of Berserk Smiting (ignores target hardness and deals double damage to constructs) (counts as +2 heavy mace) (However it is cursed as it will cause the PC to make a Will save or cause him to change alignment to a chaotic one.)

Claws of the Dragon (Gauntlets that grant natural claw equal a mature dragon) (however it will also cause the wearer to want to collect a lot of treasure and not share.)

Scale mail of Cowardly Stealth (grants +10 to hide and move silently) (cursed however to cause whom ever wears it to flee at the first sign of combat. (Will Save negates.)

How this?

 

[Piratecat]

Rel, what kind of dragon and where was its hoard? Have they already seen the hoard?

 

[Liolel]

A treasure that would be nice for the druid, although more on the roleplaying side, would be an item that casts speak with animals x/times per day. It frees the druid from having to use a spell slot on a spell that may not get used and it has all kinds of roleplaying and gameplay uses. I don't have my books with me right now to try and figure out a price though.

 

[Nightfall]

Rel, what kind of dragon and where was its hoard? Have they already seen the hoard?

I figured it was the standard Red Dragon affair and it's in a live volcano. (Hey I'd do it if I had fire immunity. )

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Don't know if this will work for you, but here's an item I put in a campaign several years ago. Unfortunately, the campaign ended before the characters discovered the item's true nature.

Stone of Tongues:
This smooth, hard stone is roughly 6" in diameter, with many-colored veins running throughout. It is slightly warm to the touch, but otherwise unremarkable.

When held, the Stone acts as a continuous tongues spell for the holder. This effect goes away if the stone is merely kept in a pouch or backpack.

Secret: The Stone is actually a unique dragon's egg. The infant within is only just beginning to develop intelligence and will occasionally communicate empathically with its possessor. The communication can take the form of premonitions, dreams, feelings, and so on. The possessor may begin to see "visions" of a young boy, dressed in archaic clothing, engaged in various activities (playing, fighting, running, laughing).

The Stone is hunted by a group of powerful spellcasters, who desire to use it for an evil ritual. If the Stone's whereabouts become known, the group will spare no expense in acquiring it, through fair means or foul.

When the Stone will hatch and the exact purpose of the young dragon can be tailored to a specific campaign.

 

[dreaded_beast]

A Druid
A Wizard (favors Abjurations and Evocations)
A Rogue/Royal Explorer
A Fighter/Cleric of St. Cuthbert
A Barbarian/Bard

Druid: An item that allows more wild shapes per day

Wizard: A metamagic rod

Rogue: An item that gives bonuses to all skills (luckstone?)

Fighter/Cleric: A weapon with the "holy" descriptor

Barbarian/Bard: Item that improves AC (ring, bracers, amulet)

 

[dreaded_beast]

Stone of Tongues:
This smooth, hard stone is roughly 6" in diameter, with many-colored veins running throughout. It is slightly warm to the touch, but otherwise unremarkable.

When held, the Stone acts as a continuous tongues spell for the holder. This effect goes away if the stone is merely kept in a pouch or backpack.

Secret: The Stone is actually a unique dragon's egg. The infant within is only just beginning to develop intelligence and will occasionally communicate empathically with its possessor. The communication can take the form of premonitions, dreams, feelings, and so on. The possessor may begin to see "visions" of a young boy, dressed in archaic clothing, engaged in various activities (playing, fighting, running, laughing).

The Stone is hunted by a group of powerful spellcasters, who desire to use it for an evil ritual. If the Stone's whereabouts become known, the group will spare no expense in acquiring it, through fair means or foul.

When the Stone will hatch and the exact purpose of the young dragon can be tailored to a specific campaign.

I think I like this idea! I may just steal it for my campaign.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Armor of the Dragonshape from the Draconomicon is good. Lets you use Wild Shape to turn into a dragon A Horn of Valhalla for the Barb/Bard.

 

[Rel]

Rel, what kind of dragon and where was its hoard? Have they already seen the hoard?

First up, thanks to everyone that has responded so far. I'm going to read through the list carefully. Some of the suggestions so far look very nice and creative.

The players have not yet seen the hoard.

It is located inside a cave, high on a mountain, atop a sheer cliff. The dragon in question is rather unusual:

It used to be a powerful Black Dragon. Then, a few hundred years ago, it was killed by an upstart Paladin wielding a powerful but fragile sword that turned the blood of its victims into stone. The dragon was slain but its spirit was powerful and evil enough to retain a life of its own and it became a shadow-like undead though it was still trapped within the decaying corpse of the dragon. This drove the shadow-spirit of the dragon nearly mad with rage at its impotence.

It eventually broke free of the corpse when a small band of adventurers came a few years later to see if the rumors of a dragon living on the mountain were true. They found the hoard of the dragon unguarded (the corpse of the dragon was deeper in the cave than the treasure). Driven with insane hatred at the prospect of its hoard being violated, the shadow-dragon broke free from its corpse-shell and slew the adventurers. Ever since, the shadow-dragon has haunted the area, guarding its treasure and the corpse of its body, now mostly just a collection of bones held together by the stone of its veins and vessels.

So...

When the party shows up in search of the Bloodstone Blade, they'll first find the hoard. If they touch it, the Shadow Dragon will come raging out of the walls of the cavern at them and try to kill them. Supposing that they defeat the Shadow Dragon and then take the Bloodstone Blade out of the corpse, it will animate and essentially be a very large, mindless skeletal dragon. Basically two dragons for the price of one.

If they leave the horde alone, and take the Bloodstone Blade, the corpse will become habitable again by the Shadow Dragon and it will become a more powerful undead. But, it may be so pleased at having been freed from its half-existence as Corpse and Shadow that it will be willing to let them leave and may even gift them a piece of the treasure as well.

Either way, I need to figure out what sort of booty is to be had.