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

[Vahktang]

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...

For 8 grand profit.
How long can you live on 8,000 gp when a worker gets, what, 1 sp/day?
After you adventure, buy a house in town, make an item a year and you're pretty much set for life.

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.

Now that's a fun idea.

More later,

Vahktang

 

[Kae'Yoss]

For 8 grand profit.
How long can you live on 8,000 gp when a worker gets, what, 1 sp/day?
After you adventure, buy a house in town, make an item a year and you're pretty much set for life.

You're forgetting that adventurers are greedy bastards



But back to the original matter: If you know the Order of the Stick, you might want to give the bad guy a magic item that lets him cast Evan's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion. That will teach those adventurers about weak points in the armor.....

 

[Kormydigar]

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

For powerful bad guys a good combination of dust of dissappearance and a few beads of force to hurl at the heroes works nice. They are not super high gp items and they are expendable. How much of the goodies the pcs can recover depends on how long it takes them to track down the owners

 

[Lord Judas]

A CodPiece of spell storing, with a Fireball stored. Imagine that!

Anything from the Book of Erotic Fantasy.

Just kiddin!

 

[MDSnowman]

Here are a few of my favorites, Bracers of Blinding Strike (unfortunatly if your PCs ever get a hold of one... they will put a death grip on it) It's Bracers of Armor +6, that automatcily gives you Improved Initiative and makes any weapon you wield the equivlent of a speed weapon.

If reading the adventure path has taught me anything though... it's to buff up your villains with spells before combat... in effect your doomed to die NPC will be wielding a +3 weapon, while by the time the PCs go to sell it it's +1. As a player I'd feel ripped off, but fortuantly I DM more often than not.

 

[Crothian]

If I'm big and bad, I don't need magic items. I fight in a magic dead zone.

 

[Trainz]

If I'm big and bad, I don't need magic items. I fight in a magic dead zone.

That's it. Give the BBEG a single level of cleric, 16 wisdom (IIRC), and a scroll or two of anti-magic shell. Give him no other magic items, just make him naturally bad ass with feats and stats.

This way, you can, if you wish, place only a monetary treasure to reward your PC's after your BBEG almost handed their behinds to them.

 

[nameless]

I love to showcase unique items on my big bads. Here are two examples that I've used in the past:

1. Skin of the Spinagon: +X Spiked Mithril Breastplate. The plates interlock and shift, moving like a skin. It has mechanical/magical metal wings on the back that let the wearer fly for an hour per day (in 10 minute increments). It became a favorite item that was commissioned more than once, because it's just so useful (and stylish!)

2. Shroud of the Blood Spider: +X Mithril Chain Shirt. The chain shirt is blood red due to alchemical alteration of the mithril. The bottom edge of the shirt goes down to the knees, but seems tattered. With a command word, the bottom half of the chain shirt unravels and extends into a large number of long chain "legs," suspending the wearer 4 feet off the ground. The legs were effectively a mount, which never needed a ride check to control, and had stats that were a mix between a large animated object and a large monstrous spider (I don't have the stat block I made in front of me). The command word could be given at will, but if the mount was destroyed, it couldn't be used for a week while the armor repaired itself. The players didn't end up killing the mind flayer that was wearing this, but they were shuddering with coolness as the illithid climbed all over the room and laid waste to the party (before his astrally projecting form was destroyed - 3.0E).

 

[Saeviomagy]

You're forgetting that adventurers are greedy bastards

Frankly - if my GM would let me commission out stuff, I'd do it in a flash. Filling spellbooks is very expensive, and crafting would be an ideal way of taking care of that.

 

[not_me]

Some good ideas indeed.

I'd combed through the wondrous item section of the DMG, which is what brought this question to the fore. I was at a bit of a loss, but I do like the "whatever was he going to do with THAT?" aspect -- experience has shown that give the players a hint of a plot and they will come up with 40 different explenations. Which really means you don't need to do any work, the players often do it for you

The anti magic tactic has indeed been ready to be employed at a later time -- against monks.

The thought of undeveloped and "made unique" items is one I should look more into, though. One or two of the baddies should have access (and could make, even) something rather unique and useful. Not sure if I'll go for intelligent quite at this point, but I may.

My biggest watchout will be to ensure the baddies don't become too powerful and overwealm the players.

Splint of fortification -- I must remember that one too.

Keep them coming if you have 'em, these are great...

not_me