D&D 5E Eversmoking Bottle Question

[Kalshane]

It sounds like the smart move is to Identify the bottle before pulling the stopper out. Just yanking it out runs the same risks you take with using any unfamiliar magic item.

That said, a timely use of an ESM saved the party from a TPK during the final fight of a campaign I was running. They were getting absolutely hammered with spell attacks from multiple angles and popped open the the bottle. A whole lot of spells in 5E require you to be able to see your target. Obscuring the battlefield with smoke shut down a large number of the baddies' attacks, allowing them to regroup and eventually prevail.

 

[Ath-kethin]

It sounds like the smart move is to Identify the bottle before pulling the stopper out. Just yanking it out runs the same risks you take with using any unfamiliar magic item.

That said, a timely use of an ESM saved the party from a TPK during the final fight of a campaign I was running. They were getting absolutely hammered with spell attacks from multiple angles and popped open the the bottle. A whole lot of spells in 5E require you to be able to see your target. Obscuring the battlefield with smoke shut down a large number of the baddies' attacks, allowing them to regroup and eventually prevail.

One reason I miss the old cursed items was stuff like this. In almost all cases, you find a way to use a cursed item same as any other. They just did different things.

I don't understand games where every magic item has to mesh perfectly with a character concept. All of them are useful. If your barbarian can't figure out how to get some use out of a gray bag of tricks and/or throws a tantrum because they didn't get a magic sword, it's on them. All magic items are useful, you just need to figure out a way to use them.

 

[Kalshane]

One reason I miss the old cursed items was stuff like this. In almost all cases, you find a way to use a cursed item same as any other. They just did different things.

I don't understand games where every magic item has to mesh perfectly with a character concept. All of them are useful. If your barbarian can't figure out how to get some use out of a gray bag of tricks and/or throws a tantrum because they didn't get a magic sword, it's on them. All magic items are useful, you just need to figure out a way to use them.

Well, the paladin who attuned to the cursed Axe of Berserking in my current campaign would probably argue against the usefulness of being forced to attack your fellow party members (though we did have an amusing moment when the curse first triggered where the barbarian used her action to chuck the paladin onto the other side of the goblins they were fighting so he had to cut through them before he could start attacking party members again) but yes, there are plenty of clever uses for things like Dust of Sneezing and Choking or Bags of Devouring and the like.

 

[el-remmen]

I love that I had this very question about the potentially cursed nature of the Ever-Smoking Bottle, googled it and this thread came up as the most relevant result.

I plan to use one in an adventure, but with choking/suffocation properties, not just a fog (which is boring!). Let the PCs figure how and if to use it.

 

[kigmatzomat]

In 5e if they spend the short rest (1hr) or cast Identify (1 rnd or 10m) they get the command word.

BTW, giving a tabaxi monk an Eversmoking Bottle is comedy as they can outrun the explosion of smoke.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I plan to use one in an adventure, but with choking/suffocation properties, not just a fog (which is boring!). Let the PCs figure how and if to use it.

I'd be careful about letting it suffocate anyone. It's got a very large AoE that will pretty quickly penetrate any space that isn't fully air-tight, and that's a dangerous tool to potentially hand a party of clever PCs after they take it from its former owner by force. The obscuration is plenty powerful already IME.

You might also want to decide how else to stop it beyond the command word or destroying it outright. The smoke pours out with enough force that keeping it confined in an airtight container might not be feasible, and while submerging it in a liquid would probably eliminate the smoke (at the cost of rapidly tainting the fluid involved) the bottle itself might need to be weighted down if you decided it would float on its own the way most empty bottles do. How much does infinite smoke weigh, anyway?

 

[kigmatzomat]

I plan to use one in an adventure, but with choking/suffocation properties, not just a fog (which is boring!). Let the PCs figure how and if to use it.

Smoke doesn't have to suffocate or choke people. As long as it doesn't consume/displace oxygen you aren't suffocating.

Choking comes down to if it impacts breathing. Smoke is just floating bits of stuff that isn't water. What if it's essentially an industrial smoke machine? Or it's nicely scented incense?

 

[el-remmen]

I think folks are missing the point that I want to use it as a cursed/trapped object. If they do find a way to use it, I plan for it to be the kind of thing that still poses a threat to them so they have to tread carefully.

I’ll probably make it that in order to restopper it you need to be in view of it (in addition to the command word) which with its obscuring properties will mean you have to find a way to get within five feet of it.

 

[Distracted DM]

Wow, I always thought it was kind of a Fog Cloud item. I never thought of it as a trap item... But that's probably because it's not explicitly CURSED so Identify would give the command word.
The older edition wording definitely makes it more obviously a "gotcha" item.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Wow, I always thought it was kind of a Fog Cloud item. I never thought of it as a trap item... But that's probably because it's not explicitly CURSED so Identify would give the command word.

The older edition wording definitely makes it more obviously a "gotcha" item.

It was introduced in AD&D, when Identify worked like this:

Spoiler: AD&D Identify Wall of Text

When an identify spell is cast, magical items subsequently touched by the wizard can be identified. The eight hours immediately preceding the casting of the spell must be spent purifying the items and removing influences that would corrupt and blur their magical auras. If this period is interrupted, it must be begun again. When the spell is cast, each item must be handled in turn by the wizard. Any consequences of this handling fall fully upon the wizard and may end the spell, although the wizard is allowed any applicable saving throw.

The chance of learning a piece of information about an item is equal to 10% per level of the caster, to a maximum of 90%, rolled by the DM. Any roll of 96-00 indicates a false reading (91-95 reveals nothing). Only one function of a multifunction item is discovered per handling (i.e., a 5th-level wizard could attempt to determine the nature of five different items, five different functions of a single item, or any combination of the two). If any attempt at reading fails, the caster cannot learn any more about that item until he advances a level. Note that some items, such as special magical tomes, cannot be identified with this spell.

The item never reveals its exact attack or damage bonuses, although the fact that it has few or many bonuses can be determined. If it has charges, only a general indication of the number of charges remaining is learned: powerful (81% - 100% of the total possible charges), strong (61% - 80%), moderate (41% - 60%), weak (6% - 40%), or faint (five charges or less). The faint result takes precedence, so a fully charged ring of three wishes always appears to be only faintly charged.

After casting the spell and determining what can be learned from it, the wizard loses 8 points of Constitution. He must rest for one hour to recover each point of Constitution. If the 8-point loss drops the spellcaster below a Constitution of 1, he falls unconscious. Consciousness is not regained until full Constitution is restored, which takes 24 hours (one point per three hours for an unconscious character).

The material components of this spell are a pearl (of at least 100 gp value) and an owl feather steeped in wine; the infusion must be drunk prior to spellcasting. If a luckstone is powdered and added to the infusion, the divination becomes much more potent: Exact bonuses or charges can be determined, and the functions of a multifunctional item can be learned from a single reading. At the DM's option, certain properties of an artifact or relic might also be learned.

Taking that all in, Identify was a de facto downtime spell with large failure chances and significant component cost at low levels, with no retries until your next level if you did fail. Then add a crippling CON hit to the caster that meant you really only wanted to cast someplace you expected to be safe for at least 8 hours, and preferably right before bedtime. You only get to Identify one item function per caster level, so multi-function items eat up more of that item with separate failure chance each time, and if you roll badly enough on any given attempt your GM just gets to lie to you outright. And it's imprecise at best when it comes to actual charges and bonuses unless you powder a very potent magic item as an added material component.

TL;DR Identify was nearly unusable until you were approaching double-digit levels, and even then it wasn't very reliable at all. Gygax couldn't have made it any clearer that it was intended to punish players for refusing to engage blindly with his cursed items via random testing Russian roulette. That's also part of why some cursed items are described as visually identical to other, very potent magic items - the OP items are bait to lure you into skipping out on even trying Identify and just hope you weren't hitting a curse. The Eversmoking Bottle was the "trap" variant of an Efreeti Bottle, for ex, and there are at least a half dozen pairings like that in the DMG, including the problematic Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity, which was the "cursed" version of the various Girdles of Giant Strength.

Thankfully, there are other options than that school of thought in D&D these days.