Wizard's Items of Power

[Ahzad]

When you think of a wizard's items of power, his symbols of power, what springs to mind?

I ask b/c i'm plotting an epic campaign set in the time period where the illithid's empire was at it's height. They've managed to "kill" the god of magic and in doing so magic no longer functions. Their biggest threat in a campaign where psionics/magic are different. But he's not really dead his essence is contained in a "godspark" and one of the party members have it and they need to quest and regain the symbols of office and perform a ritual that will allow this god to coalse into form again, and as they gather the items magic begins to reawaken around the multiverse.

The items that come to mind are:
Staff
Robes
Ring
Tomes
Wands

I'm trying not to go overboard w/ items but I want enough that each item will encompass an adventure arc of at least 5 levels so by the time they hit 20 they'll have regained the items they need and the epic levels will involve gathering the materials for the ritual and performing it.

I think the items I have will prolly do, but I wanted to bounce them off the community maybe something will come up that i didn't see.

I've not really begun to think on the ritual yet, so what items do you think they might need for such a thing?

 

[Jolly Giant]

Seems to me you've already got all the essential bits together. I'd stick to what you've already come up with, if I were you. If you have too many items for the PCs to collect, there's always a danger of the campaign feeling repetitive. If you feel you need/want more items, you could always add another ring.

Another idea could be a to add a rod. This could also be a bit of sidetrek, something to pull out if things move too quickly or the PCs are nearing the climax before they're experienced enough. To add variety you could introduce the rod as an item that would be helpfull (rather than essential) to their quest.

A rod of excellent magic or a rod of epic spellcasting (both from ELH), would fit the bill; especially if you decide the ritual require Epic Spellcasting and/or have an XP-cost for whoever conducts it. Both these items are obviously very powerful; yet at the same time of little or no use to the PCs on low levels, so you don't have to worry about handing them out at an early stage. (Unless of course you have PCs like mine; they'd sell the rod and then steal it back once they were high enough level to have real use for it! )

 

[Piratecat]

The hat. You're absolutely forgetting the classic wizard's tall, pointy hat. It's de regueur!

 

[Doug McCrae]

I've got an issue of DC Comics Presents: Superman and the Global Guardians from 1982. Supes and the Global Guardians team up to try to stop a team of international supervillains from resurrecting evil Atlantean sorcerer, Thaumar Dhai. To do it they needed his six talismans:

A diamond set in a crown
Pearl in a scepter
Silver arnmband
Gold necklace
A meteorite set in a breastplate
Orichalcum in a belt buckle

Alternatively you could have one for each school of magic.

 

[Patman21967]

Well, to me the end part seems obvious. They would need the Elder Brain of the Illithids to complete the ritual. In killing the Elder Brain, they release the essence of the God's soul and it enters the PC with the Items, and he ascends to become the God of Magic

just my opinion

 

[F5]

Sounds like a gret idea.

I'm not sold on the Ring as an iconic symbol of a wizard's power though. Outside of Tolkien, a magic ring doesn't really scream "Hey, I belong to a wizard!" to me.

The "item" that I most identify with a wizard that isn't on your list yet is the Familiar. What kind of familiar the god of magic would have had, and how to incorporate it into the ritual, I can't really help you there. But the image of a talking owl sitting on top of a pile of old books is very wizard-ish to me.

 

[Shallown]

How about

A censer
a dagger

a ring I think is not as obvious a wizards item.

I ran my last campaign on finding items liek this to perform a ritual

I had a Tome which was basically the instruction manual
A censer to gather blood and life energy
a diamond that focused the energy
a dagger that drew the energy out of people
Spell fire which was provided by a player who choose the feat not knowing the campaign was gonna hinge on it, proved interesting.
and the gate which was the thing they were trying to shut permanently.


It was fun
Important thing is don't tie your hands to early on what you need.
Also don't hinge to much on one character. The one character with spellfire became important but I made sure he was not the central character or absolutely important, I had back up plans.

later

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

The other iconic D&D wizard's symbol:

The familiar.

It's an off the wall "artifact" the player's just won't expect.


"Saaaayyyyy, Gustav?"

"Ja?"

"We've gotten all the way through this dungeon, right? And we killed 14 mummies, 101 zombies, and a giant golem to do it, right?"

"Ja?"

"So what I"m wondering is: Why were they guarding a cat? And how is it able to sleep upside down five feet in the air?"

 

[Arkham]

The classic items: Cup, Staff, Sword and Pentacle.

The new classics: Wand, Tome, Dagger, Robes.

 

[Ahzad]

Jolly Giant wrote:
"A rod of excellent magic or a rod of epic spellcasting (both from ELH), would fit the bill; especially if you decide the ritual require Epic Spellcasting and/or have an XP-cost for whoever conducts it. Both these items are obviously very powerful; yet at the same time of little or no use to the PCs on low levels, so you don't have to worry about handing them out at an early stage. (Unless of course you have PCs like mine; they'd sell the rod and then steal it back once they were high enough level to have real use for it! "

This is definately a good idea and one that escaped me. I like the idea of them getting a item early that is essential to the endgame but are unable to use it. Gives them another thing to protect besides the mage-who-would-be-a-god, whose powers don't work very well at least until he starts to regain the items of office. So it's essential the party protect him at all costs.

I like some of the other suggestions for alternate items. I didn't really care for the ring or wand as an item but they are what sprung to mind when I set down to think about it.

Gives me some more food for thought. Now if I could only find the right group of players to run it for.