What is the craziest item or items you have ever given to a player or players? What edition? What character level? What details do you remember of the item?
The Orb of Ashtakala's End - Paragon tier
The Orb of Ashtakala's end is an artifact recently recovered from Xen'drik. The orb is about six inches in diameter, and panelled in the style of a lantern. It emits a soft pink glow. There are eight panels covering the whole thing. Whenever a power of the Orb is used, a number of panels (specified in that power's entry) go dark until the bearer takes an extended rest. If all eight panels go dark, the Orb loses its magical powers temporarily.
It holds within it the living memory of the ancient rakshasa city of Ashtakala, where the Lords of Dust and the greatest of the Two Hundred are trapped. It is the only item that can break the spell set over Ashtakala (setting them all free), and it is also the only item that can send things through the seal. (In other words, it can be used either to trap more things inside Ashtakala or it can be used to free them.) The Orb has no particular preference either way; it wishes only to remember, and by remembering, to live.
It has recently been revealed that the Orb's animating force is more specific than originally thought. It contains the spirit of the ancient First of Two Hundred, Corvin Oneis, who was the only rakshasa to turn away from evil. His motivations are unknown, but believed to be benign.
The Orb does not communicate with its bearer directly. It attempts to influence his actions by altering the world around him or by influencing his dreams and emotions. The Orb wants to witness great acts, whether of heroism or villainy, it doesn't care; it wishes only to be witness to as many great acts as possible, such that it can remember them.
The Orb of Ashtakala's End
Body Slot: Hand (Orb: Implement)
Property: The Orb is a +3 orb when used as an implement.
Critical: +3d6 psychic damage, and the target loses a random encounter power. If they have no encounter powers remaining, they lose a daily power instead. (If they have neither encounter nor daily powers remaining, they just take the damage.)
Property: You gain a +2 bonus to all knowledge checks.
Power: Daily, Healing: Memory of Battle
Standard Action.
You draw on the Orb's memories of a thousand great battles to energize you and your allies. All encounter powers recharge, and you and all allies may spend two healing surges (each). Darkens four panels.
Power: Daily, Teleportation: Ashtakala's Memories
You may use this power against any being whom the wards of Ashtakala believe should be trapped in Ashtakala. They are teleported through time and space, and sent there. Darkens one panel.
Power, At-Will: Concordant Memories
Standard Action
You may only use this power when in line of sight of the wards of Ashtakala. The wards are destroyed.
Power, At-Will: Draw Strength
No Action
You lose a number of healing surges equal to the number of darkened panels on the Orb. If this effect would cause you to lose more healing surges than you have remaining, you take damage equal to your surge value for each surge over the amount you have. This effect cannot deal more damage to you than your maximum hit points. All panels on the Orb light up again.
Concordance (Starting Score: 5)
Owner gains a level: +1d6
Owner bears the Orb to witness a great event unfolding: +2
Owner tells the Orb a story of a great event: +1 (may only occur once per day)
Owner attempts to hide the Orb from the world: -1
Owner refuses to attend a great event that he could: -2
Pleased: 16-20
"The Orb knows I am destined for greatness. We walk as one."
Your penchant for being at the center of great events pleases the Orb, and it opens up its mysteries to you.
Property: The Orb's item bonus to knowledge checks increases to +5.
Property: The Orb increases to a +4 implement, dealing +4d6 psychic damage on a crit.
Power, Daily: Temporal Dissonance
Free action, only usable on your turn
Effect: The party gains the benefit of an extended rest. Darkens six panels.
Satisfied: 12-15
"There is so much to learn from the memories of the past..."
Property: The Orb's item bonus to knowledge checks increases to +3.
Power, Encounter: Frozen Memories
(You freeze a target's memory, preventing them from taking conscious action.)
Frozen Memories
Encounter: Arcane, Implement, Psychic
Standard action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Int, Wis, or Cha (highest of the three) vs Will
Hit: 2d10 + Int, Wis, or Cha (the stat used to attack) psychic damage, and the target is stunned until the end of your next turn.
Effect: Darkens two panels.
Normal: 5-11
"This Orb has hidden power....if only I could understand it..."
The Orb is completely unhelpful and has the original powers described.
Unsatisfied: 1-4
"...who am I? Where am I?"
The Orb begins taking chunks of memory away from you temporarily. It is not malicious, but these random amnesia attacks are very likely to be problematic.
Angered: 0
"......."
The Orb takes away your memories, and inhibits your ability to gain new ones. You are merely an ambulatory carrying device for it to attempt to find a new bearer.
Moving On
The Orb does not have the ability to move itself more than a short distance. It can only change hands through mundane methods.
There was another campaign where the players had the Book of Ages, which allowed them to enter Temporal Prime and time-travel at will. It also automatically recorded some events (mostly those that involved it), and could speak by repeating things that had been said in its presence previously. The Orb of Ashtakala's End is a 4E item, and the Book of Ages was in a Hackmaster campaign.
For a 3.5E game I played, I gave the characters the Rod of Epic Friendship. Basically, an artifact where you had to save against a DC-50 compulsion effect or you were forced to hug the people nearest you.
The PCs treated it as a joke item and never took it seriously.
In the end, I caused a TPK with it. The BBEG wore spiked armor, equipped his soldiers with spiked armor, and had succubi and wights as additional minions. Then he managed to get the rod away from the party, got his people to surround the PCs, and turned it on.
And that is how I got a TPK via hugging.
More than once, I've had the party run across a deck of many things... they usually avoid it beyond one player saying "Cards? I'll turn one over to see what they look like," and everyone realizing what is going on. However, in one campaign the players were feeling a bit brave and each drew a few cards. One player earned two castles and as much jewelry as he could wear and kept it all for no more than a few seconds before drawing ruin, another gained a castle and the service of a knight, the third gained a level, would gain a level upon defeating the next monster, had to face a minor death or die and killed it rather quickly (clerics are suited for it) and so gained another level, and then drew the donjon card and vanished, while the last player simply gained a castle (always with the castles).
Once, I had the party run across the codex of infinite planes, and as they are want to do my players reacted with extreme caution and immediately sought out a way to destroy or safely lock it away... all while my wife's character kept on just reading it, opening portals to different planes and risking insanity with every page - until the cleric in the party decided to summon a celestial to ask it what to do, and it picked the book up out of my wife's character's hands and threw it through an open portal to some empty-looking plane and said "how about you start by not just standing around like a bunch of fools while someone keeps reading the book that opens portals to who even knows where?!"
When all was said and done, one player said to another "Yeah, I don't know why... but I was just certain that the book wouldn't pass through a portal it created." and that player replied "Me either... but once that angel threw the book through, I thought 'well duh, of course it can go through it's own portals - otherwise how would the user ever go anywhere else? It's not the codex of just one plane'"
In the later stages of a campaign we have only just begun, it is likely that the party will be in possession of another artifiact - I'll try and remember to report back how that turns out.
They will most likely use it as this is the item they've spent 3 months worth of play questing for..... of course they weren't aware that it was a DoMT.... But it IS the (potential) answer to their current dilema. There's no draw/result that will screw up the campaign. Donjon/Void simply = yet another quest. Losing to a minor death? Yeah, that perma-death would seem to suck. But, as theyve been taking on worse foes with no access to rez-magics, losing here's not any different. I don't expect any party member having a serious problem defeating one (not even if they lost all their gear on a previous draw). Unless they just plain roll poorly.... Anything else? Just new wrinkles in the storyI gave my players access to the Wall of the Ages. A giant solar calendar that kept track of all things that have and will ever happen. It was a major artifact, and it could be used to alter history. It was very, VERY dangerous to use however, as one character learned when he erased himself from existence.
I'm liking the stories. How many of them are user created items and how many are items already existing within the game's rules? I'm aware of The Deck of Many Things.
In a D&D 3.5 campaign I gave one of my players a Vorpal Scythe of Returning +13. It was pretty intense, with it's range of 50'.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Slit518 wrote:
One campaign, in which there were over a dozen teenage players, I provided a Deck of Many Things (something that I pretty much work into every campaign I run) and a few characterswere granted wishes.
One player wished for a "...pink pony with laser beam eyes, that would attack any enemies that were loyal to him..."; so, I gave it to him.
Another player wished for 10 of the most powerful magic items; so, I provided the following (that I can remember):
- +5 Salt Shaker (great against giant slugs),
- +5 Fly Swatter of Sharpness vs. flies (both normal and giant),
- Vorpal Sword, only effective vs. worms,
- +5 Pinwheel of Protection (made of tissue paper and had to be spinning to grant it's effect),
The only RAW item that player received was a Wand of Wonder.
Another player wished for a quiver that would never be empty; so, I gave him one that he had to roll a d6 whenever he drew an arrow:
1 - broken arrow
2-5 - normal arrow
6 - corkscrew arrow (penalty "to hit", bonus to damage or auto crit or something similar - it was a long time ago)
It was a geat lesson for them on the importance of phrasing/wording of a Wish.
Unearthed Arcana for this edition, though, it is pretty self-explanatory, how to House-rule/Home-brew (they are different).
2nd edition AD&D: Black Tabacco. Basicaly an opiate the could smoke and get addicted to, so they need to search for more or make money fast in order to keep their addiction fed. Withdraw included a -2 CON every day they didn't smoked it... After a week (and a -14 on CON) they where "clean".
It did made some great stories and till this day, whenever a character finds something the players shout (Out of character) "O dear, not black tabacco I hope!"
2nd edition AD&D: A neckless of a small surfboard that turned into a full size one when the command word "COWABUNGA" was uttered.
CFK wrote:
Probably the Girdle of Masculanity/Feminity that my players acquired in a 2nd edition game, somwhere in the 5-10 level range.
The item in question was in the possession of a maedar (male medusa) as a last ditch resort to turn into a medusa and petrify the party. The maeder and his companion had a plan to pull of a heist. The medusa had petrified a few big monsters ( a hydra and a chimera amongst others). They sold these "very lifelike statues" to the mayor of a city, who put them on display around town. Then the maedar went in to turn the petrified monsters back to life. In the chaos that be caused, the maedar could rob the bank/ a rich merchant. The players caught onto his plan and met up with him when he reached the last monster statue.
When he tried to put on the belt, the players realized he was up to something and stopped him. The Girdle then became part of the back and forth between one player that played a woman and another player that would make sexist comments. "Carefull, or you'll wake up with breasts" is probably something you don't hear very often.
A custom magic item that could be used to decode an ancient language written by something they didn't know. Everytime they put it on, they had to roll a saving throw or be spiritually "devoured" by the mask. The reason this happened, which they eventually found out, was that the mask let you see through the eyes of an eldritch abomination. They had to use it multiple times in order to stop the end of the world via a different and worse eldritch abomination.
The arguments over who got to put the mask on the first time (before they knew its effects) were glorious. It managed to eat 2 PCs who didn't prepare properly/did so in an emergency.
Various items that cast charm/influence spells.
A holy avenger at level 9 or so in 2E. Not sure if thats crazy.
1st Ed. A magical skeleton key that could open any lock. But it was sentient and talked. A lot. Think of the helpful computer in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It got to the point where the party would sometimes pass by a locked door rather than get that "damn key" out.
I have also handed out decks of many things and wands of wonder.
Alright, so would a Wild Magic Sorcerer with a Deck of Many Things, a Wand of Wonder and a Robe of Useful Items be a walking, unpredictable wild-card of a character?
Slit518 wrote:
Deck of Many Things, aka The Campaign Destoyer. Nothing good ever comes out of using one. Yet players still love to do it.
ThreeofSwords wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
In a 4th edition game in the very first session of a less serious campaign the players found a magical club. The players weren't able to identify its effects (really bad arcana roll), but they knew it was a club and it had a magical effect on it, so they assumed it would be useful in combat and that they would be able to figure it out in battle. They did.
Turns out the item was a club of healing. When used to strike a target, it deals 1d6+str damage like any other club, but heals the target for 1d8 health. While this sounds useless, the group was able to much comical effect, decide to hand the club to the 8 strength wizard for some painful and eventual "free" out of combat healing. Throughout the campaign, whenever someone suggested something risky, the group would pull out the club of healing as motivation to not rush foolhardy into battle and take too much damage.
So in the first campaign I ever ran, which was a 2E game around 1989-1990 timeframe that lasted about 3 years, one of the first items the players found was something I gave them called the bag of infinite chickens. It was about the size of a large dice bag and basically operated as you might expect.
The players quickly began using this item to check for traps and such by releasing chickens into suspect areas. As the game moved along, they would probe me for other capabilities of the bag..."So since it holds infinite chickens it must have infinite space inside right?" "Can the bag's opening stretch to get X inside?" "There's alot of stuff in here. Can whatever I'm looking for immediately come to my hand when I reach inside?" More interested in making sure the players had fun than worrying much about game balance at the time, it was decided the bag had no upward limit in terms of what could be shoved inside, and the opening could be stretched to encompassed whatever they needed to put in it.
I basically ended up creating a bag of holding artifact (with incidental chickens). In the ensuing months and years of gaming entire dragon hoards of treasure would eventually be dumped into the bag, squashing many 'o hapless chicken who were within and just attempting to mind their own business. All too often a player would summon forth just the sword they needed for a particular fight only to find it to be skewering several of the flightless birds.
Eventually matters began to spiral completely out of control when, at higher levels, the players hired an army to assault a fortress. They simply marched their army into the bag (of course I answered in the players favor when the question of breathable atmosphere inside the bag came into question) and then smuggled the bag into the fortress.
I remember when I finally put my foot down. This was during a Spelljamming module called "Under the Dark Fist." The players located the crystal sphere (solar system) and planet of the main enemy. Instead of invading they said "well we'll just take 4 ships, going in opposite directions around the planet while each is holding a corner of the infinite bag and just swallow the planet. No more threat!" My players still recall when I lost it that day. Rationale be damned I let them know in no uncertain terms that there would be no planet swallowing with the bag of infinite chickens!
Justin2166 wrote:
Slit518 wrote:
These are from a campaign involving the four horsemen of the apocalypse and their own personal items, so all are potentially deadly on a catastrophic level.
Pestilence:
Silver Vial
This ornately designed vial has a silver case with a warning of impending doom to the one who opens it. This warning is magically enchanted to be readable in every language and strike fear into the hearts of creatures unable to read. If the liquid inside is touched, consumed, or inhaled the creature that made contact must make a DC20 CON save vs. disease. On a successful save the creature takes 5d10 necrotic damage and 5d10 poison damage. On a failed save the target is infected with the End Plague. A creature infected with the End Plague has disadvantage on saving ability checks and cannot benefit from the effects of a long rest. At midnight every night the creature must make a DC20 CON save or suffer one level of exaustion. The end plague can be contracted by touch, saliva, and blood.
The end plague can only be cured by using a full healer's kit over one week combined with a DC25 medicine check. If this check is failed by 5 or more the person performing the medicine check must make a CON saving throw as if they had touched the patient.
War:
Ivory Mace
This glistening white mace fills the user with courage and the desire to battle, giving them immunity to fear effects. The mace deals 20 damage on a hit regardless of any resistances or immunities the target may have (there is no die roll). A diety whose avatar is hit with this mace triples their HP, ability score modifiers, and attack damage. If the avatar is defeated by being hit with mace the deity dies permanently.
Famine:
Golden Scarab
This expertly carved scarab has a gemstone set in it's shell. The gem is consistently being eaten away from the inside. If the gem is completely eaten it has 3 days to be replaced. A gemstone set in the scarab will be eaten in one year per 1,000 GP value of the gem (ie. a 10,000 GP gemstone lasts 10 years, a 500GP gemstone lasts 6 months.) If the gem is not replaced within 3 days fifty emerald locusts will emerge from it each day at dawn. These locusts are able to eat ten pounds of plant matter before they die. Once these locusts die the ground on which they land on is unable to grow plants for 50 years within a 10-foot radius.
Death:
Ebony Box
This small box looks as if it were carved out of a single piece of ebony with hinges and a latch made of solid gold. Any lock used to close the box ages at 100 times the rate it would normally age. If the box is opened and set on the ground a blueish-purplish light shines from inside it. After five minutes one foot wide cracks begin to open in the earth around the box pointing in three directtions (roll a d8 to determine which directions the cracks travel) and from them shines the same blue purple light. These cracks spread at a rate of ten feet per day. Every 50 feet the crack splits into two more cracks (directions also determined by rolling a d8). If both split ends are rolled to go back towards their source (if the first crack was heading southwest and the splits were both rolled to go northeast) the crack stops growing. Anyone who sees this light must make a DC 20 wisdom saving throw or be frightened for one day (a successful saving throw gives a creature immunity to this fear effect for one hour). Touching this light deals 10d6 radiant and 10d6 necrotic damage per turn. Using the effects of the 'Wish' spell one of the most recently created cracks can be stopped. A crack stopped by this means will not continue to spread and will shed no light, but remains as a 200ft deep crack in the surface of the earth unless another spell is used to close it. If all the light from the cracks is stopped the box may then be closed and picked up.
I need work on my descriptions, but basically each hoseman holds the potential to cause an apocalypse and, if a player manages to kill or steal from a horseman, so do they.
tubadancross wrote:
Slit518 wrote:
tubadancross wrote:
I gave a player temporary control of the Seraphic Engine in Scarred Lands (by S&S Studios - 3rd Ed. campaign world).
Never topped that... never will...
I remember a custom item I gave out back in my 1E days (been a while)... The Chime of the Winds. It could only be wielded by a chaotic aligned character and it produced a random (d100) air / sky spell effect once per day. The list had lots on it like Invisibility, Gust of Wind, etc... The outcome of using the Chime was impossible to predict and usually hilarious. The thief (rogue) kept trying and trying to roll a 00 (Time Stop), but was never able to pull it off. The index card it is listed on is probably still here somewhere packed up with my 1E books.
PS: The Whistler walks by night and knows many things.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
In our 4e campaign, we had some fun with dropped story items. These were unique items (explained in Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium) of myth, legend, and fairy tales (like the magic beans in Jack and the Beanstalk). Story items allowed the PCs to overcome or get around an otherwise unpassable obstacle or challenge. In our Runegate setting, where travel from world-to-world (mini-settings) was thje norm, the most common obstacles revolved around the idea of a blocked path or a closed door for instance.
Our DM introduced the idea that gods of travel, Avandra and Fharlanghn carried travel journals in their endless wanderings throughout the many worlds. Every so often, an entry would be lost (fall out, scatter to the winds, as it were). We collected them, here and there, and our ultimate reward was a couple of story items.
That's how he got our attention, by dropping these story-items, video-game style (an aspect we enjoyed and played up). One item, a lantern, emulated the effects of a pathfider story item (revealing an otherwise hidden destination), and the other was a series of scrolls that emulated an Instrument of Planar Passage (which allowed us to pass a portal guardian). Anyway, sorta crazy 
.
I offered a deck of many things and a wand of wonder in my 3.5 game, but the same character talked the party out of using them both times.
However, in my 4e game I introduced Seeker. Seeker was a living wand, a neural parasite that bonded with its host to give it powers. It was first a wand, then a Witchblade-like gauntlet. It had shadowy powers, and once raised the character it was bonded to from the dead.
I had fun with it, so I introduced it to my current 5e camapign.
Seeker
Wand, Legendary (requires attunement by a spellcaster)
Hailing from the cold depths of Ibhar, the Dark Nebula, this fleshy purple wand sees the world through a single red, tri-lobed eye. It physically bonds to the wielder when it attunes, leeching off the wielder's life force and biology in order to thrive. The wielder has disadvantage on saving throws against disease because of this. However, it also bolsters the wielder's mind, making them immune to being charmed or frightened. If the wielder ever attempts to end attunement with the wand, they take 4d10 psychic damage from the strain of severing the link it forges. Seeker grows warm whenever an aberration is within 120 feet of it. Seeker has 7 charges. It regains 1d6+1 charges daily at midnight. If you expend Seeker's last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, Seeker drains your lifeforce to sustain itself, dealing 4d10 necrotic damage to you.
Camouflage: As a bonus action, Seeker may be stored on your body in the form of a tattoo. It may be retrieved with another bonus action. While a tattoo, Seeker's powers do not function, and it cannot be removed without causing damage to you. Seeker's eye is always visible as an eye, however, and it still detects aberrations within 120 feet.
Hands of Ibhar: You may expend 1 charge from Seeker to cause inky black, frigid tendrils emerge from your foe’s own body. The tendrils curl and wind around the target so tightly that blood flow and movement are hampered. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw, taking 3d6 psychic damage and reducing their speed to 0 on a failed save, or taking half damage and no reduction in speed on a successful one.
Hunger of Hadar: You craft a void of impenetrable darkness filled with flying, fluttering, fanged shadows that leech the life force of creatures caught within. You may expend 2 charges from Seeker to cast hunger of Hadar.
Phantasmal Killer: You give brief life to a monster drawn from the deepest realms of the target's darkest dreams. You may expend 3 charges from Seeker to cast phantasmal killer.
Nefarious Repair: While you are attuned to Seeker and it has charges remaining, you regain 1d6 hit points at the start of your turn if you have at least 1 hit point remaining.
Sentience: Seeker is a sentient chaotic neutral wand with an Intelligence of 14, a Wisdom of 11, and a Charisma of 18. It has hearing and darkvision out to 120 feet. Seeker can speak, read, and understand Common and Deep Speech, and can communicate with its user telepathically. It speaks in a raspy whisper, and continually mutters dire portents and warnings to itself (someone listening carefully might learn things. Terrible things.). While you are attuned to it, Seeker also understands every language you know.
Personality: Seeker craves knowledge and experiences and is determined to see the multiverse. It was crafted to defeat The Speaker in Dreams and hates manifestations of the Speaker and the Song of Stars with a passion. A conflict might occur if Seeker grows bored with a location or is forced to work with Those Who Hear for any length of time. It grows bored fairly easily and has a short attention span.