The DM of a local campaign I play in asked us to invent some magic items, so I did. I’ve had no sleep. We’re currently playing the latest edition of the original game, which I personally have some qualms with but the last thing the world needs is another 5e complaint post, just like it doesn’t need another OSR blog, but I’m in a mood from exhaustion. Anyways, he thought they were all overpowered, and I’m inclined to disagree, but then again I also think if your players have a bag of holding with hundreds of shields that’s your own fault. As a matter of fact, I’m disinclined towards bags of holding, as a general thing. Mostly cause nobody gives a crap about inventories anyways when you’re doing high fantasy. Never once in the past five years has any GM ever made me calculate weight or count ammo. Anyways, enough irritable grognard spew, how ‘bout them items?
Ring of Sacrificial Shield
Characters who possess this iron ring while wielding a shield may use their reaction after being successfully struck by an attack to negate all damage from that attack, but destroying their shield in the process.
Nemean Pelt
Characters who wear this enchanted Lion’s pelt have resistance to slashing and piercing damage, but also has vulnerability to strangulation.
Eyepatch of Blindsense
A character who is missing an eye that wears this leather eyepatch has blindsense within a ten foot radius around themselves. You must make a will save vs fear around the spell Pyrotechnics though, as you only have one eye left, and fireworks are dangerous.
Perfume of Xymox
Characters who wear this exotic scent have advantage on saving throws to resist petrification, in addition to having increased (4 in 6) likelihood that Medusae, Gorgons, and Basilisks will treat them as friendly allies. The character must bathe off the scent within 24 hours, or else they will have to take a full rest without benefits as they completely shed their skin.
Coin of Lupercal
Characters who posses this wolf-headed coin during a full moon may summon a dire she-wolf to nurse them, providing wolf’s milk and 2d8 healing from licked wounds, and a night of guards from her wolf-children. The next day, the characters must chase, drive out, or destroy an evil spirit or ghost or be unable to rest for three days as their dreams are haunted by nightmares of lupine terror.
Chain Letter of Infinite Curses
Characters who possess this archaic scroll may elect to use their reaction to negate the effects of one spell from an evil aligned spellcaster. Afterwards, it mused be passed on to another character who has not previously owned it within 24 hours or effectively acts as Stone of Weight. Share this item with a friend in the next hour and you’ll have good dice rolls for your next game! Or don’t and fail at a critical moment.
Supremely Boring Chest
This plain 5x4x3 foot box is warded by powerful magics. Once per day the bearer may utter a command word that effectively hides the box in plain sight from everyone, even the user. It cannot he found until the effect wears off. You probably just misplaced it, you’ll find it again soon, it’s fine.
Fisherman’s Friend
This simple bracelet of marlin bears a small iron charm of an anchor. Once per day, the wearer May utter a command word and the anchor becomes a 500 pound steel anchor with several fathoms of thick mooring line attached and made off to the nearest safe fixing point. The item is recharged by a red sunset.
Amulet of Proof Against Insomnia
This small silver necklace has a charm on the end in the shape of a sheep, granting the bearer resistance against sleep spells and preventing the first level of exhaustion from an interrupted long rest. You snore something awful while wearing it, and your party members have a 1 in 10 chance of being kept awake by your log-sawing Zs, thus gaining a level of exhaustion.
Bath Bomb
Lighting the fuse and throwing this ceramic grenade causes a fully sized luxury porcelain tub filled with hot water and expensive scented soaps and exfoliating brushes to appear and automatically begin bathing its target for a half hour. The victim of this assault may attempt a DC20 strength check to escape the tub, but soap is slippery and it smells nice. Honestly if they’re fighting this they likely need a bath anyways.
Trap Number One:
“The walls, floors, and ceiling of this room suddenly shift from worked stone to flat metal plates, and a barely perceptible hum fills the room. Only one exit exists, directly across the room. It is guarded by a single near-naked barbarian wielding a nasty club decorated with a human skull.”
Any adventurer wearing armor or using metal weapons who enters into the metal areas will discover that the whole room is a series of electromagnets, with polarities shifting every other turn to the left/right/ceiling/floor (or roll a d4 for the side).
The barbarian is just a combat threat to make the trap more dangerous, and can be replaced by any orc/ogre/naked and dangerous person not using metal.
How to Beat Trap One:
Might: Pass a hefty strength check to resist and move across the magnetic plates. Or strip and challenge the barbarian to unarmed combat, tying a rope to your gear and dragging it across afterwards. Try to lift one of the wall/floor plates so that the trap breaks/crushes itself under its own power.
Cunning: using ball-bearings, Chainmail rings, looted gear, etc, wait until the magnet activated on the ceiling and try to use sabatons or iron-shot boots to dash across to the door before it changes to the floor and bypass the enemy.
Skill: Try to get to know and/or persuade the barbarian into letting you pass. Try to deceive the barbarian to hold something metal just before the magnets switch polarities to another wall (“Catch!”). Try to dig quickly under a plate to disable the magnet by throwing coins/water into the spinny-bits/batteries.
Magic: Use any electrical spell to short circuit the electromagnet trap. Use Create Water to try and flood the room. Use Charm Person/Monster to get the barbarian to let you pass.
Trap Number Two:
“A series of standing mirrors in this room are spaced at regular intervals, blocking the view of the room and corresponding to the points of an angular mandala. The room is lit by an eerie pink glow. “
In the center of this room sits a stone column marked by three rubies down two sides. One side has an open eye and the other a closed eye carved into the stone. The gems are shooting deadly lasers into the mirrors creating a geometric prison guarding the heart of the trap. The lasers are at the six, five, and two foot heights. The mirrors are bolted into the stone floor, and only are mirrored on one side. The lasers shoot out of the open eye and into the closed eye gems, perpetually charging itself. Arcane deduction should inform players that make it to the center that removing the closed eye gems first is safe, removing the open eye gems first will have explosive results.
The exit to the room can be on any side, but is blocked from view by the mirrors.
How to Solve Trap Two:
Might: Tear a mirror from the floor and use it as a shield! Direct the lasers at the mirror’s unprotected backs and shatter them with the laser! Or use it as a shield and open doors for you and your party!
Cunning: Use a hand mirror to stop the lowest laser, letting you and your party crawl through the lowest level. Break a mirror and watch the lasers annihilate the other mirrors a chunk at a time as they shoot in fractal patterns.
Skill: Use acrobatic or athleticism to hurtle or gymnast your way through the lasers. Climb atop the bolted mirrors and step-stone your way across the room.
Magic: Dispel the center of the room. Cast darkness on the center of the room. Use your familiar to fly or crawl to the central pillar and remove the gems. Overcharge the pillar using a fire or light spell.
Trap Three:
“The long hall stretches in front of you, lit only by your own torches. The floor ahead abruptly ends in a yawning pit, but a metal trunk stretches to what appears to be more floor on the other side, and something low lying on the floor across the way. The trunk below shines with an oily sheen, and from somewhere above, fresh wind makes your torch flicker.”
This is a simple pit trap consisting of a fall to doom and a greased metal pole, complicated by some air ducts that push characters off as they cross. Canny players may ask about the ladder stashed on the opposite side used by the dungeon denizens to cross safely, but retracted when defending from marauding drunken slayers and brigands.
How to Solve Trap Three:
There are a myriad of ways to pass this trap, but for this one, let your players figure out how they want to make their way across. How will they solve it? Ask them to describe how, not just roll a dice to figure it out. The game is always more fun when everyone participates!
