Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="topgunice" data-source="post: 7101081" data-attributes="member: 6877823">Something I've been wondering about, but does anyone have any houserules or ideas for storied magic items? I'm not talking about magic items with stories, but items that became magical because of their story or history. By the rules, making magic items tends to be a fairly mechanical affair: spellcasters only, requires a set amount of time and materials, can only create certain items based off the caster's spells. The problem with that is that within the world there are an enormous amount of items that gain their power not from spellcasters or being crafted, but by being attached to great feats or amazing stories.If I'm not being clear, here's a few examples of what I mean (taken from a few of my campaigns): A paladin challenges his enemies to one on one duels. After ever battle, he collects a piece of their armor. After winning his 100th duel, he melts down all the scraps and creates a set of full-plate armor. Now, by the rules, this armor would be nothing special, but the story of how he got the armor, and the act of fighting duels in the name of his god, could potentially imbue that armor with some spark of power. When I ran this game, I ended up having him sacrifice some gold and other materials, as well as forge it within an abandoned temple, resulting in a rather powerful magic set of armor.A druid's clan was attacked and torched, the ancient grove which they guarded burnt to ash. The druid survived the attack, and spent the next month gathering the ashes of her fallen comrades, then carving a staff from the remains of the ancient oak that rested at the center of the grove. The weapon ended up offering great protection, but left her susceptible to flames: the same flames that consumed all that mattered to the druid. I'm sure there are tons of other examples. The traditional "blade quenched in the blood of 1000 enemies" (not how quenching works, I know), or the pendant made with the locks of hair from a heartbroken nymph. A non-crafted example would be a regular sword that killed a vampire lord, the act of heroism enchanting the blade. Really, the examples are pretty endless. So, back to my question: are there rules for this sort of magic item creation? Should I just give out appropriate magic items when these sorts of stories happen? Or should I create my own magic item creation rules, focused on story? I feel like the latter option makes the most sense. Anyway, thoughts?</blockquote>

Verification