I noticed that Universal Solvent is a legendary item in 5e. The category right below artifact. It's a single use item with an extremely situaitonal use. In 3.5, it cost 50 gp. Now, it costs 25,000+ gp, assuming you can even buy it at all. Why? It removes glue and other adhesives. Is there something of legendary power here that I'm missing?
At first I thought it must have been a typo, but it's in magic item table E along with items like the belt of storm giant strength. I can just imagine the reaction I'd get if I told a player that they could have had an item that makes their Strength score 29, but instead they got one-use magic glue remover... LOL!
Find crucial weight-loading spot in tower, apply glue, toss explosive for extra effect, teleport away to safety, watch tower break.
Legendary is as legendary does.
Besides the mechanical benefits of a substance that dissolves every adhesive in existence, of which there are so very many, part of the legendary nature of the item is that it's recipe is lost to the ages (i.e. no one, not even epic characters, knows how to make it anymore so whatever supply of it there is out there is all that there is).
Much like how out of print gaming materials aren't really any more useful than in print gaming materials, but because there are no more being made their cost keeps climbing up and up.
FallingIcicle wrote:
Universal Solvent could also be the key to opening a Door that has been sealed with an unbreakable substance for thousands of years.
It may not be useful for the day-to-day but it's story-progressing potential should not be discounted.
Shasarak wrote:
It has a legendary rarity catagory, so it has to be worth X gp. 
Does anybody actually run their games anymore? Or do they just let the guidelines in the DMG do it?
Sorry for the micro-rant, but I don't know how this hobby managed to last this long sometimes.
Look, it's only really worth A) what you think it's worth, and B) what you can get for it. Nothing more.
Stop giving the PCs price tags on everything, and instead start giving them buyers and offers.
MNSHO, I guess.
ChrisCarlson wrote:
Universal Solvent Lore (DC15)
- The only alchemist who knew how to make it, died five years ago and took the secret to his grave.
- The last remaining stocks were bought up by an enterprising gnome called Obber who is now extremely wealthy,
- If you do find a flask of it in the wild, it will be 2d10+5 years old
- It has a shelf life of d10 years.
Role Playing: if you ask about Univeral Solvent
- There's no demand for it, squire. Can I interest you in a crowbar? Special offer this week, only 5gp?
- Well, yes, if you care to fund a modest team of assistants, I can set up a feasibility study looking at the possible outcomes of establishing a research activity into it?
- Sure, I can get you some. Bring diamonds worth 10,000gp in a plain brown envelope to the alley behind the Robbers Arms at midnight. Come alone and unarmed or the deal's off.
- What you want dat for? Throg rip stuff apart Throg strong.
- My grandfather kept his own alchemist, you know. We had lots of it in the castle basement. All gone, now, of course, since the eruption.
- ♫ There once was a man, tra-la-ley, ♫ who asked me the same, tra-la-ley, ♫ and such was his fame, tra-la-ley, ♫ that he asked me again!
Well Universal Solvent Is a counter to Sovereing glue witch is also Legandary.
Mistt be a interesting adventure find and retrieve Universal Solvent for a person who had a unfortunate a accident with Sovereing glue.
edwin_su wrote:
Dougan_Axehammer wrote:
ChrisCarlson wrote:
Storyteller-Zero wrote:
BoldItalic wrote:
edwin_su wrote:
ErikFilean wrote:
I'll just leave this here:
Really?
FallingIcicle wrote:
ChrisCarlson wrote:
Universal Solvent is so good at dissolving bonds that it even affects people.
If ingested, the victim must make a Constitution saving throw (save DC 18). On a failure, any previous Bond the victim had disappears; at the DM's discretion, a new Bond may be created through roleplaying or a new random Bond generated on the NPC Bonds table (page 91). In addition, Cultist and Cult Fanatic NPCs (Monster Manual page 345) lose their Dark Devotion ability until they reconsecrate themselves through ritual. Also, the victim no longer counts as an ally for the purposes of Leadership abilities. Spellcasting ability may also be affected, at the DM's discretion.
More Universal Solvent Lore (DC30)
- If Universal Solvent is concentrated by boiling with sal reductium, it becomes so powerful that it even dissolves gluons. These are the hypothetical particles that bind quarks together into protons and neutrons. If those start coming apart, the release of energy is so great that, basically, everything goes nova and you destroy the universe. That's why it's called universal solvent. It dissolves the entire universe,
- There's a whole crate of it, down in the cellars of Embradicon's Emporium in Waterdeep. It was mis-catalogued as Interstitial Ungent and no-one has ever asked for that so it's been completely overlooked for years, buried between a box of candied orc bladders and a barrel marked "Pilchard Feathers - Other Way Up".
- It's actually very easy to make but this post is too small to contain the recipe.