Stuff That is Other Stuff...

[Scribble]

So I was listening to the Penny Arcade PVP Darksun Podcast the other day and in it some "spellbooks" are featured as knotted ropes, and "potions" as fruit... (I think they were potions.)

It made me think of how I'm a big fan of "stuff that is other stuff" IE stuff like potions and scrolls and spells books and all that come in forms not the "usual."

I don't unfortunately do it as much as I'd like to... but I figured I could tap into the vast resource of enworld collective brainage to get some ideas.

What kinds of stuff have you reskinned into another form?

 

[IronWolf]

I've had a player in a play-by-post game have his cleric's cure light wounds wand be a hollow reed with needle attached. He would deliver a drop of liquid after jabbing the person with a needle. I thought that was a nice touch.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

The Artificer's Handbook was basically all about the function of a magic item over the form.

 

[Deset Gled]

I once sent a group into a forest to seek the aid of a wise old unicorn that would answer questions about their quest. After running into a number of other talking animals, they eventually came across a rhinocerous. After talking with the rhino and managing to get him thouroughly disgusted (the group was pretty bad at diplomacy at that time), the rhino basically dismissed them, told them to leave the forest, and walked away.

It was immediately after this that the druid looked at me a said "Oh crap, that was the unicorn, wasn't it?" It was.

This idea to reskin a unicorn as a rhino was shamelessly stolen from a short story by Peter S. Beagle.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I ran an anything-goes 3.5 campaign where elves were less cultured and more feral. Elvish spellbooks became tattoos wizards tattooed on themselves when learning a spell...which helped eliminate the whole "Kill the enemy wizard and gank his spells" problem.

Similarly, I had a half-orc cleric in 3e that used tree-bark etchings instead of paper writings for scrolls.

Most recently in 4e I reskinned a warforged artificer with a shocking (or whatever the ability is that lets you convert damage to lightning damage) greatbow into a Forgotten Realms golem who shot electricity from his hands.

DS

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I had a homebrew race of Anthro Porcupines, a people renown in their artistic creations. They basically wore no clothes, but designated status among them with ornate hand-blown beads which would be affixed over their spines.

The arcane spellcasters among them who used "spellbooks" followed this cultural trend with leathern cords containing similar beads (though far more ornate) that are worn as necklaces or belts.

For Warforged and for a race of Anthro Snapping Turtles, I had "spellbooks" that were etched into their harder surfaces.

And, of course, who hasn't at least toyed with the concept of tattooed mages?

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I love this stuff.


I like doing it tied to the culture.

E.G. for potions:

Svirfneblin use dried mushrooms.
Drow use live enchanted spiders.
Dwarves use grog.
Halflings use, er, whatever it is halflings smoke (sometimes in "chaw" form)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm currently running a Geomancer, and every Drift option for the PC has been plant-themed.

So I've thought about taking Brew Potion as a feat...and if I do, the potions will be fruit that grows on him, a la Swamp Thing.

*pluck* "Eat this."

 

[darjr]

I've got a chaos sorcerer and his familiar is a small keg of beer he hauls around and his implement is a silver beer stein. I use the 'tavern brawler' miniature for him. I got the idea somewhere else, but I don't remember them doing the sorc thing with it.

 

[TarionzCousin]

*pluck* "Eat this."

Eww...