Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Low-Magic World: Spirits instead of Magic Items?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="ptolemy18" data-source="post: 1988582" data-attributes="member: 24970"><p>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...</p><p></p><p>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. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> 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.)</p><p></p><p>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.)</p><p></p><p>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. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> 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.)</p><p></p><p>Anyhoo, I think I'm gonna use this idea...</p><p></p><p>Jason</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ptolemy18, post: 1988582, member: 24970"] 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 [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Low-Magic World: Spirits instead of Magic Items?
Top