What do you find in a city of aberrations?

[shilsen]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. Lots of very good (and by that I mean - icky and disturbing) stuff here.

As I'd mentioned earlier, I'm leaning towards dropping in some powerful magical items but have them come with concomitant disadvantages. I want the drawbacks to be such as to make PCs think twice about using the items but not be bad enough to make them automatically ignore the items.

I'm also thinking of having some of the items have the effects of magical items but not be actual magical items. For example, something a player has been talkign about for a long time is a ring of regeneration. I'm planning to use the idea for the huge, corpulent hobgoblin(s) being used as fodder by the aberrations, with the regeneration item(s) being used to keep them alive and heal their wounds. Instead of making it a ring, I thought of making it some kind of attached symbiotic creature, which replaces hit pt loss and provides regrowth of lost flesh, draining something else (maybe Int, Wis or Cha damage) in return.

So I'm looking for ideas for the following magic items, with attached disadvantages:

Death Ward item
Belt of Strength
Cloak of Resistance
Cloak of Charisma
Ring of Protection
Amulet of Natural Armor
Ring of Regeneration
Ring of Spell Storing

Any ideas for good drawbacks? And variant items that would provide the same benefit as a magic item of the type listed?

Thanks in advance.

 

[diaglo]

Amulet of Natural Armor.

amulet of molting.

think either like a snake

or like a crab or lobster or maybe even cockroach


so when first donned the skin of the wearer begins to itch. bat crazy itch. at the same time they get crazy hungry. consuming 2 or 3 times their normal rations.

and then when all of the skin has sloughed off the wearer is actually weaker than normal. tired even. partial actions only.

and then finally the new skin forms and is tougher.

vary time of molting, growth, and hardening on the + of the protection

edit: removal of the amulet interrupts the process. but it means things have to revert to normal again. either shedding the new hard skin or waiting for the weakened state to return to normal skin state

 

[diaglo]

Belt of Strength

Athach third arm of strength. it attaches to the sternum of any medium or larger sized creature. but it is size Large. so it makes things very awkward for the wearer. reach is still only 5 ft. and only the third arm has actual giant strength bonus. the wearer has a hard time getting armor to fit. it requires spending the equivalent of buying Large sized armor.

without the multiweapon fighting feats using the third arm in combat is very difficult. all normal penalties apply

 

[diaglo]

Cloak of Resistance

mucosal slime of resistance. similar to applying an oil. must be applied to the entire body to work. and has the ability of the 0 lvl spell resistance. lasts for one save or until 1 hour at which time it has lost potency.

unfortunately, the slime reacts to organic materials. not enough to cause damage. but enough to destroy all fingernails and hair. highly prized by those with hair issues.

 

[diaglo]

Ring of Spell Storing

Tongue of the Naga.



the tongue replaces the character's own tongue. their words gain a lisp and hiss (possible spell failure until they get used to it). the taste of food is off normal. and it is longer than their old tongue so it hangs out of their mouth.
edit: otherwise it acts like a normal spell storing item

 

[Piratecat]

Tesseracts...someone wrote a very erudite description of a tesseract dungeon on these boards which I promptly failed to comprehend.

That may or may not have been me, but I did one as well.

Fun with Tesseracts!

 

[Kafkonia]

Of course. That would, however, make the PC alienist (and probably his NPC friend) quite happy. Let's just say that he carries around tentacles from creatures they've killed for a handy snack.

How about some counter-alienists. Aberrations that are fascinated by primes like alienists are fascinated by aberrations. And they can carry around some arms and legs for a tasty snack.

Panes of glass can be flowing at a visible rate, rather than the usual slow rate glass flows at.

Water could flee from anyone trying to drink it. There could be places with no gravity, or where gravity is equal from all directions -- and slowly intensifies, pulling objects (or people) apart.

The streets are tongues.

Two words. Half-ilithid beholder.

 

[Kafkonia]

Nice idea. I think I'll tie that into the idea of parts of the city being sentient. What better way to have a city full of guards than have the city actually be one of the guards?

If you have access to Races of Destiny, there's at least one spell that pertains to animating cities -- give it a look.

 

[Piratecat]

Any city where the buildings slouch towards you is worth the price of admission.

 

[diaglo]

If you have access to Races of Destiny, there's at least one spell that pertains to animating cities -- give it a look.

or you can modify City of the Spider Queen...




[sblock] one of the sections in the end involves a tower that is guarding a negative energy sphere partly on the prime and partly on the negative material planes.[/sblock]