Magical Baubles, Trinkets & Toys in your games?

[Nyaricus]

So, I was reading that new DM of the Rings comic strip, and laughed a bit at reading this part:

One of the things I loved to do in our campaigns was give out magical items which were interesting but mostly useless. We’ve been trained by movies that if you find some seemingly unimportant bauble, then the story will later create a situation where it will be the key to solving a problem in an unexpected way.

My favorite was a rope I gave them that untied itself the moment you let go of the knot. It was pointless, but enough of a novelty that they hung onto it. Another was a chalice that would purify any water you put into it. It was sort of a magical water filter which could turn a glass of swamp sludge into mineral water in about five minutes. Another was a magic staff which had only one property: It could be placed tip-down on the floor and it would keep itself balanced.

Once in a while they would haul out one of these magical booby prizes and actually put the thing to some unexpected use. I always loved when they did that.

You see, after reading a thread about this awhile back, I did the same for my D&D group; I handed out some minor, but nearly useless magic items. Among them were:

• A knife which would not cut living flesh, but would never dull no matter how much one may use it.
• A candle which never lost any wax. You could burn it forever, and it still wouldn't loose any.
• A small pouch which, every morning, would have a half-dozen beans in it. If you ate these beans, you only needed a small meal in the evening, it woudl sustain you for the rest of the day. You still needed to drink water though.
• A piece of chalk which never ran out.
• and some other little bauble which I can't remember

So, all very minor things. I think the knife and the beans saw the most use in that (unfortunatly short-lived) campaign.

In any case, what kinds of minor magical baubles have been in your campaigns? Anything interesting? Anything used in an interesting way?

I'm just interested, since in a D&D world, you'd figure stuff like this might be mroe commonplace, and I want to gather some ideas from EN World here, no to mention share some of your great ideas with one another

cheers,
--N

 

[EvilGM]

Adamantine Spiked Thimble - nuf said!
Fishing Net - when thrown in combat it summons a swarm of fish where it lands, or occasionally a shark.
Knife of Sandwich - spreads whatever you want on your bread
the Dreaded Barrel of Monkeys

I'll dig through my notes and see what else our genius? has cooked up.

 

[countgray]

I handed out an animated rope to one of my players once. He named it silky. It would snake itself up walls and tie itself off so the rogue could climb it. It would also untie itself and coil itself up. It had kind of a personality and the player really treasured it.

Another thing I have given out is garments enchanted with prestidigitation that will clean themselves, which is handy after adventuring around in swamps and mudy places.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

hummmm so oldies
endless bottle of whisky
enless ball of yarn
coin of shinyness that's all it does very bright
bag of leaf holding yeap 1000 pounds of leafs nothing else
ring or bunny summoning
ring of hair coloring
map of finding lost shoes
...theres more but i forget

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I stuck continual flame on the end of a quarterstaff (not even masterwork), slipped a leather hood over it and gave it to my players as their first magic item. It's now an integral part of the wizard's character.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

A +2 rubber chicken.

A pair of gloves of green slime handling.

A ring of Nystul's magic aura.

A bag of tricks that only produces flesh-eating slugs.

A small wooden box that devoured any item placed within.

(PC created): a bag of holding containing the body of an NPC killed by a bodak ... the dreaded Bodak in a Bag (tm).

 

[arscott]

In my d20 Modern game, the party was exploring an ancient pyramid inhabited by alchemy-using lizardmen called Kinori, looking for the holy grail.

One of the things they found was a refridgerator/freezer room powered with an alchemal cold stone. They spend a bit of time debating the significance of the stone, and wondering how to get it out of it's socket without taking cold damage. They ultimately managed to retrieve it and haul it back to their base in chicago.

The next session, I took a break, and one of the players GMed. With no real planning on my part nor his, the stone managed to be useful in that adventure, as the baddie was mostly immune to damage, but vulnerable to cold.

 

[Blackrat]

an epic wizards tableware which consist of +5 mithral spoons, forks and knives. Pretty expensive set. minor items with major magical properties

 

[Slife]

The bobbing shield - permanent levitate on a leather shield. Not particularly useful as a shield, since it requires strength checks to keep in shield position, and not particularly useful for levitation, because it bobs upwards instead of going up a constant speed.

 

[Dingleberry]

My dwarven barbarian/ranger spent most of his first treasure haul on commissioning the creation of everclean socks for the entire party.