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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 3918629" data-attributes="member: 1210">In the ol' 2e days, there was a bitchin' 9th level wild magic spell called wildfire. While it was active, it let you make items, emulate spells, etc- basically do nearly anything. It was essentially the wild mage's version of wish. Well, enter our heroes, exploring a deep, deadly dungeon. They find a corpse wearing a ring that radiates EXTREMELY strong magic. One of the pcs puts it on.BOOM!!! Wildfire bursts from the ring, giving the wearer incredible powers- but the effect also permanently drains 1 point of each stat. Now, back in the old days, you didn't have all this easy fixin' stat drain stuff... those points were NOT coming back. Simultaneously the ring informs the pc that it can be used at will, and that the wildfire will last out the immediate situation, but each time it is used or donned, it will do its drain thingee.So at this point, the pc who just lost one off each stat has no real interest in giving up the ring. He's already "paid" for it. But naturally it is a weapon of last resort......except that it's addictive, and as the pc uses it, he has less incentive not to use it- because, in 2e, most stats didn't give you a bonus til you had a 15. So it only took a couple uses to make the pc an "everyman"... but conversely, he had a long way to go before he started facing penalties from low stats.The end result was a super powerful item that couldn't be used casually, but whose power grew more and more addictive the more it was employed. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /> Just perfect.</blockquote>

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