You're big, you're bad... what magic items would you have?

[not_me]

So the time has come to equip the BBEGs with some gear. The usual arms and protective gear: check. Scrolls, potions: check. Misc Magic items: good question.

What 'interesting' misc magic items, rings and the like do you like include on your lvl 10+ baddies? Stuff that makes sense for them to be carrying around, stuff they'll use, and stuff that isn't too bad to have fall into the hands of the party.

Thanks,

not_me

 

[Trainz]

I don't know about stuff falling in the hands of the party, as I don't know it's composition, but...

Ring of evasion with good reflex saves would be good. Boots of speed, to have your BBEG haste himself as a free action. Splint mail of heavy fortification +1. PC's hate splint mails (maximum dex bonus 0), so they'll probably sell it (they'll get 18,000 gp for it), and your BBEG is immune to crits and sneak attack.

Of course, an anarchic-unholy weapon, for an extra 4d6 damage on paladins and monks. Many good aligned PC's will be loathe to sell such an item, as it can only be used by evil critters, so the only "proper" thing to do is to destroy it, thus avoiding giving too much treasure to your PC's.

I'm sure other delvers will give you much more advice, and I shall be following this thread with interest.

 

[gunter uxbridge]

You can't go wrong with a rogue with a glove of storing. As a DM I allow a flat footed attack in certain situations.

 

[Xilo]

Well I once came across a baddie with a braclet of fireball. I spent ages trying to find the wizard and there wasn't one!! Makes a good bit of extra fire power if there are only a couple of baddies.

 

[K'Plah Q'Houme]

Full Blade +1 (possibly more), Brilliant Energy and keen. Bring it on!!!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Charisma enhansing items, it nice to be the big bad but to be well liked too, now that is evil.

 

[Jolly Giant]

Hard to say what would make sense for the BBEG to carry around when I don't know what class or race he is or how much "spending money" you've got left, but Rings of Protection, Evasion, energy resistance or Featherfall are all handy items for just about everyone. Resistance items are good for everyone to have.

Often when I don't quite know what stuff to give an NPC, I simply browse through the wondrous items section of the DMG, looking for obscure minor items that don't see much use otherwise. I also like to give powerful NPCs one or two minor items that the NPC really has no use for; some random item he/she/it has happened to find somewhere and not yet had the time to trade in for something more useful. Makes the PCs wonder what the "¤%@ was he planning to do with that?!?

 

[Faerl'Elghinn]

Intelligent weapons are fun. They don't always have to be extremely powerful, but can give you the opportunity to play an NPC without having to keep track of anything.

There are so many uncreated magical items in D&D that your options are almost limitless... You could hand out a ring that gave its wearer Vampiric Touch at 10th level as a standard action once per day, a scabbard which always made drawing its stored weapon a free action, Bracers of Tickling (Tasha's Hideous Laughter as a touch attack 3x/day), a Bracelet of Teleport Without Error once/week with a 10% chance of changing its wearer into another humanoid race or gender in the process, a Helm of Alertness (as the feat)...

None of these items would be too powerful, and as a player, unique items such as these are much more meaningful than those I've bought or commissioned. In fact, I find the idea of buying or commissioning items on a large scale kind of ridiculous. Of all the high-level spellcasters around, how many of them are actually going to sit around spending XP to outfit any old person who can scrounge up some dough? Not many, I'd wager. What percentage of Wizards are actually going to even have the ability to create any items other than scrolls? Plenty of them would rather be taking metamagic feats, I would guess. Sure, there are Magic Item shops, but only very few, and what they have in my campaigns is far more limited. Just because there's a 16th-level wizard in the city doesn't mean he's going to want to spend 2 weeks making you a Belt of Giant Strength...

 

[Shallown]

If they run or head an organization a means to communicate is useful. Rings of Private conversation or a disposable sending item etc. Think of all the things an executive would need. Communications, Scrying and defense against spying. So Anti scrye items and such is also an idea.

later


Think of things also that help a single person but not a group much like the anti scrye helps out the BBEG but in a group there is always someone else to scrye on.

later

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Of course, an anarchic-unholy weapon, for an extra 4d6 damage on paladins and monks. Many good aligned PC's will be loathe to sell such an item, as it can only be used by evil critters, so the only "proper" thing to do is to destroy it, thus avoiding giving too much treasure to your PC's.

You say. Our DM gave us a Demon Prince with a sword of Unholy Power ('twas epic levels). After we slew him and identified the sword as such, my Bladesinger destroyed it without hesitation - much to the chagrin of the party's elven evoker (think Arudin from Dungeon Crawl, Inc - I swear, aside from the race, which is moon elf instead of Arudin's gold elf, they are the same: greedy megalomaniacs with violent tendencies). He kept on whining about the money we lost till the end of the campaign (and through to the next one, and into the current one - the player, that is)