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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Viktyr Gehrig" data-source="post: 912386" data-attributes="member: 9249">A few years back, I was playing with a group of pretty obnoxious munchkins. I might have been able to make good powergamers out of them, if they'd shown any interest in actually learning the rules... Well, the worst offender was the party's Mage, who quite frequently demanded an artifact. Of course, I'm not fond of artifacts in general, and typically avoid them... but after several months of this, when the PCs reached 9th level, I set them on the trail of a very powerful Necromancer who had been searching for the Hand of Vecna and was building an undead army as he went-- destroying towns and reanimating them. After several adventures, the party managed to do some damage to his undead army, and they finally got close enough to the Necromancer to fight him. It was a hard fight, because he was a higher-level character than they were and he had several powerful magical items. However, what really drew their attention was the wrinkled, disembodied hand hanging on a thong around the Necromancer's neck. The Mage, of course, howls "Mine!" and jumps on it, and casts Detect Magic. Necromancy. All kinds of Necromancy. Deadly Death Necromancy... of Death! So, he demands the Dwarven Fighter hand over his battle axe. Of course, the Dwarf doesn't like magic, so he hesitates... the Mage demands the axe, and the rest of the party backs him up. The Dwarf hands over the axe. I tell the Mage's player that it's not a good idea, and I make him roll a saving throw vs. Paralyzation to not pass out from shock. I warn him in advance of this, and tell him that noone would just cut off their hand like that. He feeds me some line about how his character is all battle-hardened and tough, so I shrug. He slams the axe across his wrist, takes a few hit points and rolls his saving throw, which he succeeds. Then, he presses the shriveled hand against the stump and... nothing happens. He tries again, and nothing happens, and he tries tying it to his stump in hope of it attaching later. The Cleric offers to heal him, and he screams "No! It has to attach on its own!" So, they bind the wound, and he keeps the stump attached to his wrist. After a few days, it still doesn't work, so ambition wins over paranoia and they take the Hand to a sage. The sage spends a couple hours with it, and tells them it's not the Hand of Vecna. It's a regular mummified hand with Nystul's Magic Aura cast on it-- several dozen times.</blockquote>

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