Miscellaneous Magic Items

[Delemental]

No, this isn't a thread hearkening back to the glory days of 2nd Ed...

I've been thinking recently about the creation of very minor magical items - those "flavorful" enchantments that have little to no impact on gameplay. Obviously such things would only exist in a high-magic game (the Realms come to mind).

In my case, I've just created a new character who's descended from a noble family, and is very image-conscious. I'm hoping to have a newly-created item approved; the Morning Bell. This is a tiny bell that casts prestidigitation once a day. It's entire purpose is to let my character walk out of her tent every morning with clean, fresh clothes, and not smelling like a camel. It costs 200 gp.

How common or uncommon is it for such items to exist in your game? Do you have particular items that you've made or purchased for your characters? Does the inclusion of such trivial magic add interest and personality to a game, or simply burden it down with piles of useless magic junk?

 

[BSF]

In a magic heavy campaign, I can see a certain element of the population using these types of magic items all the time! Heck, in my current campaign, which isn't very magic heavy, one of the NPC's has a magical goblet so he can always set the temperature of his drink. It was my little clue to the PC's that this guy creates magic items, but the concept would work in a lot of places. The Morning Bell sounds kind of nifty. I might have to pilfer that one for my next campaign, which will be very magic heavy!

 

[Teflon Billy]

The group I was playing with was recipient to a trove of such crap for rescuing an elven village.

The only item that sticks in my mind was The Singing Spoon, a silver spoon that, when you ate anything with it, would begin to sing "Goodnight Ladies" when out of your mouth, or hum it when inside.

It was idiotic. My character carried it from level 4 to level 13-ish, when it was stolen and we waged a small war to retrieve it.

 

[Norfleet]

Well, it does seem like the sort of items wizards would seriously make. I mean, seriously, you're a wizard: You're going to: A. Create a Sword of Smiting and Delification that you can't even use....
Or B. Create something to do your laundry.

I know what I'd pick.

 

[Rel]

In previous campaigns, we've had some similar types of magic items.

One was a magic quill that took dictation all by itself.

Another was a magical pan that would heat up food without benefit of a fire. But if you ever put beans of any sort in it, it would always burn them.

I also seem to recall a magical hair-pin that would turn into any kind of headwear you wanted. I don't think that one saw much use though.

My absolute favorite was one that I unabashedly stole from Raymond Fiest: The bag of endless oranges. I had a character based on Nakor the Blue Rider (from the Midkemia books) and he had this bag that would produce oranges as often as he liked. It was always so fun to introduce ourselves to a new NPC, "Hi, I'm Nakor and these are my companions. Care for an orange?"

 

[Henry]

My absolute favorite was one that I unabashedly stole from Raymond Fiest: The bag of endless oranges.

You must have been the life of the party on long sea voyages.

I have introduced very little "useless magic" in my games over the years, but I have introduced items that were nonstandard, but had functions that they couldn't bear to give up:

• A teddy bear of protection (+2 bonus) - it must be carried under your arm to be effective.
• A cursed sword that always hit, but subtracted hit points to do so. People weren't praying for high dice rolls just to hit their target...
• A belt of giant strength that transgendered its wearer with a curse - but if the wearer removed the curse, the bonus strength was gone too.

 

[diaglo]

200gp for a single trivial/luxury item is too rich for 99.9999999% of the population in my campaign. plus since it is magical that would make it worth way more. magic is just not that common.

 

[Welverin]

The group I was playing with was recipient to a trove of such crap for rescuing an elven village.

The only item that sticks in my mind was The Singing Spoon, a silver spoon that, when you ate anything with it, would begin to sing "Goodnight Ladies" when out of your mouth, or hum it when inside.

It was idiotic. My character carried it from level 4 to level 13-ish, when it was stolen and we waged a small war to retrieve it.

I love it. I must have my own.

 

[Rel]

You must have been the life of the party on long sea voyages.

I never had the opportunity for it to be useful in that regard.

One funny story about this character that I'd forgotten about: A friend (Speaks With Stone) and I wrote a book for the Rolemaster system. The publisher was having custom art made for the book and asked for a list of pictures we'd like to include. Nakor and the party had been involved in a fight where he had started out by pelting a demon with one of his oranges before falling back on his magic and jo-stick. We described the scene so they could make artwork from it.

I don't know if the communication was just very bad or if the picture got majorly cropped down, but the art came out as just being a close up of Nakor with an orange in one hand and his jo-stick in the other. Somebody who bought the book later asked me, "What's up with the guy playing stick-ball on page 63?"

Fair question. I told him it wasn't "stick-ball". It was "demon stick-ball with citrus fruit". He didn't e-mail me anymore.

 

[SpuneDagr]

I never used it in a game, but I came up with one. The Stone of Sleeping. Put it under your pillow and it creates a zone of silence and darkness around your head. It also creates a sleep spell effect (that only works if willing) that works on any HD creature.