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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8378838" data-attributes="member: 29398">War vs sport again, only in a larger context than just combat.If you're going to go out adventuring, you're willingly putting yourself into situations where the game world is out to kill you; and will, if you're unlucky or foolish or pick the wrong challenges to take on.  It's not sport, it's war.  Thus, survival is goal number one.Damn - I knew I got something wrong there; one of them (the silver rod?) was supposed to be harmful on touch.Another example of 5e making things (too) easy on its players/PCs.Indeed; they're a not-quite-death trap.  Not quite death, in that the PC is technically still alive and can still think etc., but not exactly conducive to a continued career in adventuring either. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I've actually had these gems in my game for ages, with a wide variety of powers and abilities, and there's a small body of knowledge built up around them which PCs would be able to learn with a bit of inquiry.Removing one outright is a Very Bad Idea, and probably can't even be done without violence - i.e. literally prying it out with a crowbar - as it's fused to the wearer's skull.  There's a way of replacing one gem with another, at some risk.  Dispel Magic, if it manages to knock out the gem's enchantment (low odds at best), is deadly.  If the wearer fails a save vs AoE damage, having the gem fail a save vs destruction is Bad (but its saves are pretty good).These gems are usually very powerful, though; and thus arte high-risk high-reward items.The point of the wish ring is that there's no way of learning what it does without wearing it, and as soon as someone puts it on its effect takes place after which it's a bland gold ring.Deception.  Trickery.  Chaos.  High risk, high reward.It'd be a variant on the old Potion of Delusion, which makes you think it's a real potion but in fact Does Nothing.  Here, it just does something different; still beneficial, but not what you're expecting.Ayup.  And there's loads of precedent for such items, the Necklace of Strangulation being one such.There's a strong element of luck in the game, to be sure; and that's part of the point.  If the game wasn't built around luck, it wouldn't use dice.Now, depending on level and resources the boots might not be an outright death trap.  Augury and-or Portent can really help here, as can a Bard's Item Knowledge ability (or maybe even Legend Lore); and Commune and other divinations at higher levels.Sometimes there's warning, other times not, depending on the situation.But even warnings can be misinterpreted.  Say the party enters a room; and on the floor of the room is a skeleton, posed as if reaching for a sword* on the floor close by it.  Now, was the dying person reaching for the sword because the sword could save her, or did the sword kill her and just happen to fall there when she collapsed?* - the sword's grip is trapped with a deadly-poison needle.</blockquote>

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