D&D 5E Unicorn horn

[ccs]

While your mulling over the exact details....
1) come up with an adventure/interesting trip to find that person who knows how to craft using Unicorn horn.
2) "So she's got a unicorns horn you say...." I'm sure there's bad guys who definitely have a use for such a thing. Either before or after it gets crafted. Something like that should attract the attention of all manner of thieves, swidlers, & worse. Maybe even a few good guys who mistake her as having killed the Unicorn for its horn.
And encounters with these types should persist for as long as she has the item. Because anyone can have a magic rapier. Virtually no one has one made of Unicorn horn.... Heck, even if she parts with it, people might still come after her to learn it's whereabouts.

 

[Lidgar]

You could go old school and look at the abilities of the 1e unicorn to draw additional inspiration:

"Because the unicorn is magical, its horn gains a bonus of +2 on “to hit” dice, and possession of a unicorn horn is a sovereign remedy against all forms of poison, gas included. Naturally, the unicorn is not subiect to poison. A unicorn always senses the approach of an enemy at 24"distance. They move very silently and surprise opponents on a 1-5. . Once per day unicorns ore able to use a teleportation spell of limited distance - a dimension door - to appear up to 36" away from their former position"

So a druid might tell the PC the unicorn's horn may be able to create a variety of magical effects (through weapons, wands, potions), including protection/resistance to poison, the ability to detect enemies, improve stealth, and teleport/dimension door.

 

[aco175]

Several good ideas about powers and such. Make an adventure of finding a good smith to forge it into a weapon. You can have it powdered and added to the steel to infuse its power to the weapon.

Depending on the size and level of the party you can have it be a horn similar to a horn of blasting or berserkers horn.

 

[Dualazi]

IIRC, there was a Unicorn themed spear in Baldur's Gate 2 that granted poison immunity, which others have mentioned as being thematically appropriate, and the spear is a natural conclusion on how to best turn a horn into a weapon, in my opinion. Perhaps a less common train of thought would be to make into a bow; early composite bows had animal horn as a central component. Due to the time needed to craft such weapons, you could also use it as a method of spacing out the item allotment so as not to unbalance the game (if you're concerned with such things.)

I'm also a big fan of the figurine idea, it would make a cool persistent mount/companion and a way to restore the creature back to 'life'.

You could also broach the subject of having it be something other than a weapon, I could see horn variants being used in Helms, Amulets, Rings, or Wands/Staves as well.

 

[Blackwarder]

Resurrect the Unicorn!!! She will get a legendary steed rather than a penny rapier

Warder

 

[Imaculata]

I'm wondering if it would make more sense to seek out a wizard to make the weapon, rather than a weapon smith... It is a magical component after all.

 

[Gonat]

Why not an old elf weapon-maker or a druid?

 

[LordEntrails]

Lots of good ideas for you.
- weapons, wands, rods, amulets

I would also suggest you go with the good aligned property, and you should also consider it being restricted to use to females. (Not politically correct, but traditional unicorn myth is they only are tamed by a female virgin, so...)

Also, consider sentience, it would allow you to have a means to tie in the female link. i.e. the unicorn's spirit powers some of the abilities, therefore if the spirit is not happy with who posses it, it won't grant the powers.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Let her graft it to her own head!

 

[ADJack]

I like the radiant healing rapier idea a lot. I'm going to use it, and also make it a +2 weapon, because it is very rare. eh?