What was your favorite 1e/2e magic item?

[Man in the Funny Hat]

There are three that I recall most clearly from 1E:

Thumper - this was a half-size/half-power Maul of the Titans

Misty Boots of Silent Speed - as the name suggests they conferred the combined effects of Boots of Speed, Boots of Elvenkind, and (IIRC) Blur.

+3 Hasted Mithril Plate of Amazing Agility - this was tied closely with the nature of the campaign it was introduced in. We had a particular method for generating ability scores and had added the score of Agility seperate from Dex. The primary result of this was to make dwarves EXTREMELY vulnerable in their Agility and if they wore full plate (as all but one very unique PC did) were commonly "turtles" unable to get up on their own. This item effectively cured that problem for the wearer as well as providing effects of a haste spell once a day. I forget what the mithril actually did if anything.

You'll notice that the above are rather unique items, not by-the-book stuff. If I had to pick a favorite 1E by-the-book item it would have to be the Dwarven Thrower. IN 2E it would be Boots of Striding and Springing (had a couple of PC's whose concept was sort of drawn from it).

 

[Henry]

Rod of Lordly Might! For two reasons:

1) God, we had so many puerile jokes regarding "extending your rod" when I was growing up over this item.

2) It was a weapon James Bond would be proud of. Swiss Army Weapon, could find North, depth underground, blast open doors, steal hit points, make climbing poles -- you name it, this thing could do it.

 

[justanobody]

Most importantly your 10' pole wasn't always 10' when carrying it.

 

[Splurch]

My favorite would be Dust of Dryness, I had a character that was a fop duelist who instead of slapping the person across the face with a glove to challenge to a duel he would smack them in the face with a bid of dust of dryness and soak them.

And one time I bought a lot of it (like 10 bags of it) and had them all full when we were being chased in a cave area and new we were going to die (way outnumbered and I smashed all the bags open on a cliff face in the cave and washed all the enemies off the cliff with a wave.

Homebrew would be the gnomish wand of wander my dm made. It had 101 uses most of which were just silly.

 

[howandwhy99]

What? No love for the Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity?

 

[Treebore]

This thread actually made me start thinking about and remembering lots of good memories about use of a lot of cool magic items, Hammer of Thunder Bolts, Staff of Thunder and Lightning, Daerns Instant Fortress, and a whole lot more. Lots fo coolness explored and occurred.

Yeah, Rod of Lordly Might, Sphere of Anihilation, Wand of Wonder (remember the 1E Jester write up in Dragon?) etc...

Plus I had a LOT of fun with my multi class Assassin collecting and using cursed magic items on her targets.

Thanks for dredging up so many cool/fun memories.

 

[justanobody]

What? No love for the Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity?

Were we supposed to identify the faves as a DM?

I thought it was just for players POV.....

 

[Lanefan]

Were we supposed to identify the faves as a DM?

I thought it was just for players POV.....

I voted as DM *and* player - Wand of Wonder and Deck of Many Things are excellent DM tools...and players like 'em too!

Lanefan

 

[justanobody]

Well the Girdle as a DM. Nothing more fun than seeing that player try to figure out how to wear their armor when it no longer fits them, and their "contacts" with NPCs and just about anybody else when they no longer look like themselves.

 

[theemrys]

For me it would either be the Frostbrand or the Sunblade...