I was reading the "What is low-magic thread?", and it reminded me of something I'm doing a little of in my own campaign...
One of the things I liked about the BOOK OF VILE DARKNESS was the rules by which fiends could possess creatures and objects. The cool thing about this was, when fiends possess objects, they can grant them magical abilities. A fiend can replicate the properties of a magic item with a GP cost equal to 2,000 x their Hit Dice. Therefore, if a wimpy 4-Hit Dice fiend chooses to possess a normal sword, they can grant it the abilities of a sword worth 8,000 gp -- like a "shocking +1 sword", for example.
Obviously it gets a little less powerful as the fiends' Hit Dice go up, since the magic costs are exponential, but it's still interesting. (Particularly since the fiend can choose to stop possessing the sword at any time, and instead try to possess the character using it, or just leave the character in the lurch when their magic item stops functioning.)
Anyway.... I was thinking, why limit this power to fiends? What if ANY Outsider (or possibly even Fey) could possess stuff? If you're using ORIENTAL ADVENTURES, there could be magic items possessed by Nature Spirits. If you're using TESTAMENT, there could be magic items possessed/created by Tempter Devils. To keep this from getting *too* out-of-control, you might say that each particular Outsider (or race of Outsiders) can only replicate certain magical effects. (So, for instance, every Gelugon-possessed dagger will have the same abilities as every other Gelugon-possessed dagger.)
In this weird setting, if the players want magical help, they'll have to befriend (or imprison) powerful spirits and "graft" them into their weapons and equipment. It's basically similar to a manga/anime like SHAMAN KING or something. If you want, you could make it a "low-magic" setting and say that normal mortals can't even create magic items at all. (Or you could say that having a spirit possessing an already-magical item just boosts its power even more.)
Anyhoo, I think I'm gonna use this idea...
Jason
One of the things I liked about the BOOK OF VILE DARKNESS was the rules by which fiends could possess creatures and objects. The cool thing about this was, when fiends possess objects, they can grant them magical abilities. A fiend can replicate the properties of a magic item with a GP cost equal to 2,000 x their Hit Dice. Therefore, if a wimpy 4-Hit Dice fiend chooses to possess a normal sword, they can grant it the abilities of a sword worth 8,000 gp -- like a "shocking +1 sword", for example.
Obviously it gets a little less powerful as the fiends' Hit Dice go up, since the magic costs are exponential, but it's still interesting. (Particularly since the fiend can choose to stop possessing the sword at any time, and instead try to possess the character using it, or just leave the character in the lurch when their magic item stops functioning.)Anyway.... I was thinking, why limit this power to fiends? What if ANY Outsider (or possibly even Fey) could possess stuff? If you're using ORIENTAL ADVENTURES, there could be magic items possessed by Nature Spirits. If you're using TESTAMENT, there could be magic items possessed/created by Tempter Devils. To keep this from getting *too* out-of-control, you might say that each particular Outsider (or race of Outsiders) can only replicate certain magical effects. (So, for instance, every Gelugon-possessed dagger will have the same abilities as every other Gelugon-possessed dagger.)
In this weird setting, if the players want magical help, they'll have to befriend (or imprison) powerful spirits and "graft" them into their weapons and equipment.
It's basically similar to a manga/anime like SHAMAN KING or something. If you want, you could make it a "low-magic" setting and say that normal mortals can't even create magic items at all. (Or you could say that having a spirit possessing an already-magical item just boosts its power even more.)Anyhoo, I think I'm gonna use this idea...
Jason
