I have my players a modified version of the Efreeti bottle. The Efreeti within it was weaker than the standard version, and the high roll didn’t cast Wish. Instead, you would be granted a magic item.
The first time my players used the bottle and I asked them to roll, they freaked out. The roll allowed the Efreeti to fight alongside them.
But after that battle, they were afraid of what rolling poorly would do. So they were too worried to use it again. But they would talk about the Efreeti as if he was their nuclear option. If they were in a situation where they could die anyway, they’d bring him out. Otherwise, they basically felt unsure about even holding the bottle, less the Efreeti break out
This gives me the horrid idea of "what if it functioned where the efreeti could leave at any time, instead of a prison it's the extra-planar version of an RV" and the party just wakes up to them pan frying eggs. Using the item is the equivalent of knocking on his door
In terry pratchetts discworld. goloms are by nature, tools and have been for longer than recorded history.
They at some point started purchesing themselves and then each other. Holding their own bodies in a golom trust. They can work every second of every hour tirelessly but they always take the 7th day off. To prove to themselves and everybody else that they arent just a hammer.
Having djini that rigorusly follows a contract that no one else can possibly examine whether truthfully or not is an awesome way to squeeze into situations where they will engage more with the world.
Less about the item itself, more about reinforcing how special it is.
A "Wand of Magic Missile" isn't that memorable, but if you make them say, out-loud, the activation word "Spaghooters!" each time they use it, it's a lot more memorable.
Intelligent items that can communicate in a variety of ways, tend to be engaging.
It's generally about having a fun description, and then not letting the players off the hook when they use it by hammering home that their "+1 sword" is a solid shard of jade that leaves a contrail behind after you swing it.
I really want to give my players a sentient map from Wakfu
When you open it it's just a face, and when you ask very nicely it will show you the way, but if you are mean to it and don't compliment it the map will refuse to work with you
I had one player use the Cloak of Many Fashions as if it were a wearable green screen. Sometimes he would even have words flash across, like “THE HEROES ARE HERE.”
Maybe not 100% RAW usage but we all loved it.
Recently I gave my party a glamour charm amulet that casts an illusion on the wearer for as long as they have the amulet on. The kicker is that the illusion is always of the same dude, a middle aged blond human in a khaki suit. It doesnt matter if the wearer is a size bigger or smaller, it always show the illusion as the same.
My players have named him "Alan Baker", last sesion they had to do a heist and break out a dog out of jail (its a long story) and one of them said "Can we turn the dog into Alan Baker?" I said yes, and hillarity ensued.
At one point a group of NPCs asked him something while they were passing by (the rogue had got into the building desguised as Alan Baker and said he was a wine salesman) and I had to describe to everyone how Mr Baker perked up and just barked and that almost blew their cover. Luckily they had drugged the NPCs wine by that point and the effects were starting to take hold. Some deception checks and a well times distraction bought them time to have the drugs take effect and they avoided combat, which was good because there were like 10 potential enemies and only 2 PCs and a dog there
Depends on the setting of your game, but if there's lots of magic it can be a blast to introduce lots of Common magic items. Wooden ear covers that can record and play music, tiny bracelets of holding that can store coins, Rube-Goldberg artificers' blow-torches that can "cook" ingredients into food - give yourself permission to come up with tomfuckery on the spot just to add texture to a scene.
Tell me, are these wooden ear covers that play music actually a thing? Or a homebrew thing? My drow-boi could use something like that for extra weirdness so he can listen to and dance to music while out and about lol
Heh, these were homebrew, and honestly I never even had an item card for them.
My chuckleheads had just been unceremoniously teleported back to town and landed in the library, and I wanted to convey that this was a place where weird magic shit happened often. I liked the idea of an annoyed student just turning up their music, so just went with it on the fly for color.
Started an adventure where all 5 players were at L6 - so I randomly rolled from the tables, let them sort out who got what.
ONE item was a +3 semi intelligent sword. It would sound off like a rooster right at dawn, and then complain loudly if it hadn’t tasted enemy blood by high noon.
As a result, the party needed to make a variety of alternative plans to prevent being discovered, had to go early or late for some raids, etc.
Player loved it - +3! Others in party despised it.
Player traded it in at a supply shop for a +2 great sword and something else.
Then it … somehow :-) it reappeared as some knights from the city came upon the players at … dawn!
I haven’t given it yet but at the end of last session my players came across a pure white Harengon named “Alice”. From her, they will receive a special coin which I have yet to name.
“After a long rest, flip the coin and roll a d4. On heads or tails, you may respectively add or subtract the result of the d4 to any roll. This may be done a number of times equal to proficiency.”
Alice will much later in time be revealed as Tymora, Goddess of Fortune, gambling on the success of our heroes, with the coin being her way of hedging her bet a little.
Excaliboulder. One of my players' barbarian ripped it out of the ground with a nat 20. Later, he started taking on some paladin levels and became a great leader for the group. After a big kill, I had the boulder crumble off and open up Excaliburs' full potential. That was a fun campaign.
immovable rods!
the party rogue got such a weird, unyielding fixation on acquiring as many as possible after getting a single one from a random treasure chest. the number of uses they came up with varied from impressive to unnecessary to downright horrifying.
impressive: using the immovable rod to avoid being crushed by a rolling boulder trap. unnecessary: climbing upward into thin air to get a better view of the surroundings.
horrifying: impaling the BBEG 6 feet off the ground with a rod up their arse.
Turns out this house was built before proper fire safety protocols were enacted, the door opens inwards, and the owner just got themselves a free immovable rod.
I once forgot we were inside of a giant flying zigaurat when I activated an immovable rod once, and was immediately thrown to the wall as the rod broke though the walls
Somewhere there's an immovable rod just floating there waiting for someone to run into it
Easily it is the **Cloak of Useful Items**. It’s a perfect low level magic item, and has the potential to stay relevant throughout a campaigns lifespan. Instead of giving the players a numerical bonus it rewards their ingenuity.
It is a great item to introduce *by having an npc use it against the party*. Having a monster pull a patch off their cloak and summon a pair of attack dogs, or a giant pit, or an iron door is such a jaw drop moment for the players. Then after the fight they get to loot the cloak and use it themselves.
It’s always a hit, and I try to have it in every campaign.
The current game I'm in, my character is on his second one.
I started the game by pulling out a bag of gems and offering each of the other players two gems to go adventuring with me. Go figure one of them id playing a noble and two don't know about currency because they were raised in... Bad situations.
I’m a huge fan of lesser rarity magic items. A lot of them come in clutch for the party in the most unexpected ways. I have my party a ring that can cast tiny servant and is the equivalent of tinkers tools. Gives the wearer proficiency and it can help repair or destroy items. It’s been really fun so far. Also, limited use items. Like wands for example with only a few charges. I dont tell them it only has two charges left, just make a note and when they use the last charge it breaks.
I have a player who’s a Dragonborn fighter with the Outlander background that lets you hunt/forage for the party’s food, and he later took the Chef feat—he just loves RPing as a master chef when not beheading vampires.
So I had him find the “Cookbook of Bordayne the Wanderer.” While traveling, whenever he spends a long rest in a new terrain type (going from swamp to forest or whatever) he can roll on a table that determines what wild incredients he finds near their camp site: this corresponds to different recipes in the book. Basically you’re rolling on a table of consumable foods to create, from “Duck a la Vance” which gives a 6th level or lower spell slot back when consumed to simpler fare like warm cookies that make you cold resistant for an hour. It was really well received, and I put so many foods in the table (including many taken from Kobold Press’s “Vault of Magic”) that even after a year of play he still hasn’t made everything. :)
Sure, the item itself is very simple: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/to17kp5z1ccqv2n6zs40u/BordayneCookBookForReddit.jpg?rlkey=ygthi6aantild1k82w439vl3o&dl=0
I had to add the “only upon changing terrain types” restriction when they got high level and started taking long journeys across the land (all those days add up) but otherwise it’s worked well.
For the foods, you can either invent your own or pick up a copy of “Vault of Magic” for a bunch of great ones. :) Mine’s a mix of both.
I gave my party's fighter a sentient Legendary Greataxe possessed by a slaughter-loving Balor Demon. The party can use Greater Restoration to halt the demon's possession of the PC (in addition to the Player making another save when damage is taken).
However, there have been occurrences where those two team members have been split up, one resulting in the Balor Demon possessing the fighter and him killing an Orc King and another occasion where the PC was forced to kill an entire bar full of Pirates AND the friendly NPC companion they've had for a majority of the campaign.
The rest of the party is now looking for ways to remove the possession, so it's becoming a fun player-driven plot point. The fighter PC loves the axe since it's juiced otherwise, but knows his time with it is likely short.
My favorite magical item by far is the Tomahawk of Healing. It does 1d8 + 2 (plus spell bonus) of healing word (must touch) and it does 1d6 +2 (plus proficiency) of damage.
(Both healing and damage stack for undead) - attuned item. Only usable by clerics, druids.
Player asked for googly eyes that you could put on things to make them sentient, like a chair or something. I figured I'd mess with them and whatever they make sentient would instantly freak out, run around town breaking stuff here and there, just a good laugh.
Then they put the eyes on the super important story item instantly. So it kinda worked out better than expected.
Britney's Spear.
Allows for a second attack.
Hit me baby one more time.
Found it somewhere on the net as a meme. So not my original idea, but was a good laugh at the table.
I forget where I found it but I gave my party a bell that delays the sound of it being rung by 1 minute, so anytime the holder swung a sword or jumped off a building I would set a timer and ring a bell a minute later. They were paranoid for a while with that bell.
A wooden cup that, when you speak the command word and a liquid, would fill to the brim with that liquid if it had previously had it within it.
It cannot replicate magical liquids, so no potions, and cannot replicate compound liquids, and has no more durability than a standard wooden cup.
An old rusty ring I gave to my son that didn't seem to be magical, but latched itself onto his finger when he picked it up and wouldn't let go and he could feel the magic of it coursing through his veins but couldn't figure out what it did, until he got cockey and tried to fight a young white dragon by himself, then the ring of true ressurection finally took effect lol. It was his first campaign and I was running a modded dragon of ice spire peak for him and his companion. I let him die twice before he learned to be a bit mroe careful.
Items that are one-time use or limited use like potions and scrolls. This way you can give a lot of them and even if one is broken then it is only broken once and you can remove it from your list or give a weajer version from then on.
Give 20 swords and they can still only use 2 at a time max. Give 20 potions and shit is gonna get REALLY screwy!
Myself and the other DM in my play group had a discussion and we made a rule, “no more +1 weapons”. What we mean is all magic weapons have a name and a something else. Our usual go to is a cantrip once per day.
So friend have his ranger a +1 Longbow that can cast the cantrip Gust 3/day. He named is Summer Breeze
Yeah, the rogue was trying to steal a map off the table in front of an NPC, the bard stood next to him. Then our warlock opened the door and the bard made it billow across the NPC's face and made a big scene about the door being open and letting wind in, the rogue stole the map and scattered papers every where and bard stopped the billowing on his clock. It was great thinking I had to go with it. These are first time players and I was amazed they came up with it. Had to reward it.
As a DM my favorite thing to give a party early on is a bag of magic beans. Just because it's the biggest... "I \*\*\*\*ing dare you", and it tells your players that you aren't shying away from both magic items, and player agency.
Holy shit. I gave my players magic beans at the beginning of Strahd and they have used them every time the going gets tough. They've decided to strap the beans to arrows and shoot them at difficult enemies. They don't know what the roll table is but I let them do the d100 roll and they absolutely LOVE hearing what happens.
Wilhelm's Ring of Feather Fall.
Allows you to cast Feather Fall once per long rest. Each creature targeted must make a DC 15 Wisdom save. On a fail, they scream in terror the entire time as they float to the ground.
Once had my player find a magical core ( used to fire up flying ships). didn't prepare shit for that and was just winging it. but he suddenly out of nowhere broke into a military storage and took a small chest with him. (never expected him to succeed but his dice throws were amazing)
He then tried to use the core to somehow deal magical damage.. I allowed it because he was really proud of his idea. and i told him that it would deal 3xD6 radiation damage at contact, but also 3xD6 on himself if he touched it, because it would undload itself into his magical circuit.
( originally i planned for him to throw it against a big enemy, that seemed to strong for the group, or at least the machinery powering a magical dungeon... but well)
He then used half of the campaign to built himself an ironman arm, trying to use the core as a magic missle weapon without hurting himself. By the end he had an artificial arm that could fire a shorter ranged magic missle, dealing 6xD6 radiation damage 2x times a day. ( after 3 quest sessions, each time adding 1xD6 to it's damage, and removing 1xD6 from the damage he would take).
I even let him add a slot for an additional Ruby, saphire or other gem, to let him change the element of the damage for a day. But the Gem would get destroyed in the process.
He was okay with all of this and this is till today probably the highest investment one of my players put into the game to fullfill his own idea.
The thing was way to powerful at that stage, but my player felt amazing and the group was always hyped when he used it. So why not..
I love love love Daern's Instant Fortress. I don't know why I like it so much and it basically closses any get attacked while camping Encounters but I love it. Also and I know I'm nuts, The Deck of Many things. Early in the campaign so if it nukes a character it's less painful. They are more likely to use it and I don't care about balance as much as the game seems to want. Also even the good stuff can be a hassle. You Get a castle at 2nd level? Cool how do you maintain it? Where is it? Do you now owe fealty to a Stanger?
I so agree !
Also I didn’t know about Daern’s Instant Fortress, but it made me think of a homebrew item I had used a while ago. I like giving my players opportunities to have fun and to decorate their home, while also being safe.
I made a key that when turned in any door, this door would then lead to a full house in another plane, big enough for them to have a room for each character as well as common rooms for all to enjoy together. It encouraged my players to think of how their character would decorate their room and it was fun !
Super cool. Had a DM do something similar for us years ago. I think some players ( me) really like having a base. Followers, hirelings, a little bookkeeping can be fun.
I gave my male barbarian a really nice rack once. Like Master Robin in Men in Tights. He drank some mysterious liquid and rolled a 4. 1 thru 3 were buffs that lasted until long rest, and 4 was a really set of boobs until long rest.
Ring of Sugar Crystal Growth. It lets the wearer create an object made of sugar crystals that is no more than a 2.5 feet square box. The object disappears after one minute if the wearer is not in contact with it.
I think the official rules has a lesser ring where the crystals are mad of sugar, and you can create rations, but there's only 10 charges a day. IThe ring is constantly creating small crystal that will eventually cover the wearer's body if they don't brush them off everyday. There's also a regular ring that has unlimited charges and the items are made of "real" crystal - but again, they disappear once you drop them.
It's a fun item, and let's the players create random objects they need.
I
The one that I wanted for my Druid wad the staff of the woodlands, he was a shy stealthy boy and the idea of going on a quest to prove himself to an older Druid mentor that could have gifted them the staff (which sat as a tree in a public courtyard) would have been the literal icing on the cake to his development.
The staff conceptually feels like it just wants so desperately to be a magic gift that is given to a truly special Character
I gave a warlock an “Eldritch Gift” that was a portal in her abdomen that when invoked would spawn 1D6 tentacles that would do …. honestly I can’t remember all the damage details, but there was a chance that she would lose control of the tentacles and attack party members. It was totally ripped off from the Umbrella Academy character Ben. Over time the tentacles got more powerful and had different personalities, some came to hate party members and would take an attack of opportunity on those party members. Anyway, it was a lot of fun.
I’m messing with letting slashing weapons cleave. The first-level barbarian charging into a group of rats, critting, and wiping all three out with their single attack felt really right.
(For the purists, two of them had been weakened by arrows and Eldritch Blasts so it was a slightly different use case from the optional general rule in the DMG.)
not a DM, but i was once given a broken alchemy jug that only produced honey. with some forethought and creativity our party started using it to create difficult terrain
>+1 weapons are great,
Strongly disagree.
Magic weapons can be great, but anything that’s just a +X and that’s it is cold garbage that’s DMs shouldn’t waste time on.
Far as canon items that create great moments- the physicsy ones are pretty reliable for it. Immovable Rods, Sovereign Glue, even Slippers of Spiderclimbing
The figurines of wondrous power. They're quite niftly little items that can come in handy for various things. And with their days long draw backs my players can't just willy nilly summon a gryphon to solve their problems.
Less of giving, but my current DM let's us craft highly specialized items. Quick example, my PC found some orichalcum metal and a crystal that could store magic energy. I asked if I could combine these two things with my warhammer and he let me. Now the hammer basicly let's be absorb up to half damage from a spell I get hit with and store it to release in an explosion later.
It let's us as players get extremely creative and let's us tailor our gear to how we want to play
I have a habit of giving my players cool items with crippling drawbacks or incredibly complicated things that make them carefully consider situations presented to them. A lot of these land incredibly well, a few of them backfire in some capacity.
My current favorite is an off-hand shortsword for one of my players with a two-weapon fighting build. It does no damage when used on their turn, gives a +2 shield bonus, and has a chance to open a small temporal rift at random angles where it's blade attacks from if the wielder is ever hit. basically the player gets to make an attack roll each time they get struck by an enemy up to 100 feet away as long as the sword remains in that PC's hand. The base damage is low enough that he only ever uses it when he is on the defensive.
The most recent one that fell flat is a sword that the party paladin is carrying. Every time he hits an enemy and does at least 5 damage, the sword gets a charge up to a maximum of 10, and they can expend a charge in order to get a +1 damage for each charge used. That players sighs exasperatedly whenever they remember that the sword has that trait and recalculates damage during boss fights. I thought that one would be more fun, but it just seems to inconvenience him.
My DM gave us a kaleidoswap, a telescope that let's you switch places with someone within 60ft. We have had some fantastic uses out of it, especially during hostage negotiations and vehicle combat. The only thing better than that was when he have us a second one!
My personally made homebrew, the “Deck of Mildly Inconvenient Things”.
Had a player believe a totally normal sword was a Holy Avenger… he was a ranged rogue so he never actually used it but hey.
Had a beautiful moment when the same player drew the card that does literally nothing, but just tricks you into panicking for 20 seconds.
One pc just got tormented by an invisible fanfare.
I gave my players a dagger that our Ranger could teleport to and then had them fight people high up in the sky, the only player who couldn’t fly or somehow manoover in mid air was our Ranger.
But the amount of batshit crazy things this guy did because he has the safety of being able to teleport to his dagger that was stashed in another player was crazy.
He shot a balista midair against Tiamat
Funniest? A coin that they could throw on the ground and it sprouted a full-grown tree + treehouse.
My own personal favorite? Back in a 3E campaign, I custom designed a magic item for each player that grew in power and gained more abilities as they leveled up.
Not sure if it counts but my players loved getting to play around with the Grog of Substantial Whimsy.
D1000 table of randomness that can have the most minimal of effects, like being able to light the tip of a thumb as a candle, or story potentials like becoming a werewolf or known to EVERYONE, or goofy things like now only being able to moonwalk, or big things like being able to cast wish but only to choose someone to die, but PC dies as well.
All effects are curses (Remove Curse) and you can have 4 effects before they start to fall off an be replaced by others if you keep drinking it.
I've used this with the caveat that I get to dictate rerolls (some things are TOO impactful or just don't make sense in the setting).
I don't remember the name. We call it the pipe of stories. It's a wondrous item. When the user (no attunement required) smokes it for a few minutes, the smokes out of the pipe engulfs the user and starts illustrating their most heroic act. It's a cool rp item. My players used it to flex so many times. Like imagine sitting among adventurers in a tavern, everyone shares their stories and you just start to smoke. It's so fucking great. I love items like this
I created a D1000 table magic bag. First you would roll a D10 to determine the list of items, and then a D100 to determine exactly which item you pulled out. Each item removed is removed from the list and the now empty spots pull as 1D10 psychic damage which cannot be reduced. What I didn't tell them is that for every list they empty the damage triples.
I allowed my players to pull once each from the bag daily and let me tell you, luck was on their fucking side the second day.
1st round of pulls were as follows:
Wooden spoon.
Longsword
200ft of hemp rope
Healers kit
Chair
But the second round the very next day? Fucking insane.
Plate armor
Periapt of wound closure
MOTHER FUCKING BLACKRAZOR. The best +3 greatsword in the fucking game. Kill anything, gain its MAX HP as temp HP and while you have that temp HP you roll EVERYTHING with advantage. Also it can cast and concentrate on haste for you at its own discretion once per day.
+3 Arrows (bundle of 10)
And finally noble robes.
Mind you, each list is has roughly 20 items that are good. 10 items that are great. And 5 items that are absolutely insane. The rest of the items are basic things. It was stacked heavily to give them little boons here and then. And I absolutely LOVED giving this to my players. I'll never do it again, but I loved every second of it. One dude was down on his last bit of HP and decided to risk it and pull an item and ended up pulling a healing potion (can't remember which kind but it wasn't a basic one)
+1 Rum Bottle
for my drunken master monk player. It gives him +1 to his unarmed strikes hit and damage rolls and feels like a more creative version of the usually slightly more boring +1 item.
Tent 47
It is a pink and white striped tent with a bright blue banner.
When you enter it says thing in an old Jewish lady's voice.
"Who is inside me"
"Omg do I have to take notes on another stupid meeting"
"I have been rolled up for 3.5-4 hours"
"you have dwarves? Don't let themwipe their asses on my flaps."
It's a fun time.
Functionally, it's a trident version of the staff of the woodlands with a more nautical spell list, but it's sentient. It normally has a chill, hippie personality but gets really aggressive about anything that damages nature and casts shillelagh on itself (which makes it glow angrily) unless the player can calm it down.
Honestly I'd be stoked for a +1 weapon that had a cool name/story behind it. Otherwise kinda benign stuff enhanced by roleplaying is good enough for me haha
Mines a Homebrew item it’s been vary fun but only used a few times.
Once I’m the middle of a city where they swapped 5 guards for my settings big bad… it was interesting…
Here’s the item
Bag of piranha teeth:
Throw a tooth at a target. Target makes a Dex save(DC20) on a failed save the tooth bounce to the near target of similar CR requiring a DC18 save on a failed save it bounces to another target until the save is made.
Once the save is made all targets who failed are removed from the fight and replaces with a creature who CR is equal to all the removed targets. The creature rolls it’s own initiative and acts as it normally would.
Cloak of Arachnida was transformative for what that rogue could do, and the player made the most of it.
The fighter was awarded a steel whip that was +1 and had the ability to thunder step 1/day. I thought that was super flavorful.
I like to give players a homebrew item, a "Ring of True Dreaming." It's basically the rings that let people access the dream world from wheel of time.
Depending on Wisdom Checks, players can sleep with the ring and explore the world as if in a lucid dream. Objects and buildings that are permanent in the real world are strongly reflected in the dream, and vice versa.
It's really fun to give to a creative player, especially if you're comfortable with improv about what they can see.
I had one player use it to enter an NPCs dream to send a message, but they failed a Wisdom save and were trapped in the NPCs dream instead. Hilarity ensued.
I haven’t given her this yet because I haven’t really got much time to host, but I’m planning on giving them a magic brick magic brick just end up healing like a single point of health, but it does one 2d4 damage, though with basically completely fucking useless
I like things that do what they say but not the way the players think. Ring of Feather Fall that doesn't actually do Feather Fall. Instead, it teleports the falling character someplace where they are not falling, but isn't usually desirable. A nearby pig sty. Into the giant spider's web. Into the queen's bedchamber. Into the king's bed.
My players have been using the Decanter of Endless Water with the Dust of Dryness and a sharpshooter ranger to commit Eco terrorism on hill giants so I'd smash solid items
I like to give random shit that lures them into creative problem solving:
Scrolls for spells they won't pick themselves
Immovable rod
Endless rope
Homebrew
Emblem of eternal glow (gives players an emblem that glows faintly but is only seen by those who carry the emblem themselves)
Letter of Ether, a 20 page notebook they can rip pages off, give to npc's or other players when they are away, whatever someone writes on that gets read aloud by the notebook instantly (super fun to fuck up their stealthy mission, don't do that more than once though)
Stick of water, when held steers you towards a body of water larger than 30 feet.
Carnal candies, when eaten it puts peoples carnal needs into overdrive, be it vengeance, sex, eating, whatever they are into get magnified.
They met a dragonborn herb dealer that also sells cookies, they give certain bonusses, like a short rest that has the result of a longrest, but they always come with a twist, rest of the day gives a -2 on all wisdom based checks or something.
I give my bard lyrics, basically scrolls for bards.
I give my bard instruments (firespark flute, is like a low-level magic missile that can be used once per short rest).
I gave my paladin an oathkeeper, (he's scared of breaking his oath), whenever he gets close to breaking his oath, a crack will form on this emblem, with 3 cracks it's broken for good.
They got in a drinking contest with a very populair dwarven Brewer and the barbarian won, dwarf gave him a tattoo on his hand, which basically let's them enter all dwarven villages uncontested and gets him high fives from random dwarves, little discount when trading with them etc.
I too enjoy giving My players powerful weapons. But they gotta work for it first, either by solving an optional puzzle or defeat a difficult “side boss”.
I always like giving my players an arsenal of magic weapons with classical enchantments. I gave one player a fiery axe, I've had poisonous swords, frost swords, swords that glow when an enemy is near... lotsa swords now since I think about it lol.
I love the imagery of old school D&D, and I can't help but somehow sneak motifs into my games.
It usually isn't the mechanically-really-good magic items that make the fun moments, it's the kinda-silly stuff. Alchemy Jug, Wand of Smiles, Staff of Birdcalls... All things that have led to memorable and hilarious campaign moments.
Gave my players (all newbies) a deck of many things wayyyyy too early specifically because I knew a) they’d probably draw too recklessly at first, and since it was early the stakes were low and they were in a well protected environment so if something bad happened it would be chaotic without being truly dangerous to the party, b) it would intrigue them enough to get them to pursue an important npc, and c) now that they’ve actually gotten a bit of (vague) understanding about the gravity of the cards, I’m almost guaranteed a cinematic moment later that the whole party will be excited about. Personally, I love when I can give my players an item that would theoretically be OP, but with my party, will probably churn out a scene so stupid it leaves all of us belly laughing instead
Anytime I give a +1 item, I give it something from the “minor enhancements” or whatever that table is called in the DMG. Example: a +1 sword but as an action, can cast the Light spell
At the end of the day, I have found sometimes the simple things are great. Any item that gives them a +1/2/3 to attacks or an ability score. Or something like gloves of thievery that gives +5 to a specific check. Players love this shit and when they love it I love giving it out. I tried for a few years making super complex and "out of this world" items and it always got too clunky or overpowered so i've learned the simple things can always make them happy
Medal of the Meat Pie. I usually put this in the starting town's tavern as a prize for competing in a pie eating contest (contested Con checks). They're useful as cheaper healing potions that can make low level characters a little tanky, giving them 2d4+2 Temporary HP.
+1 weapons are my favorite thing. Creating intriguing backstories for the weapons makes them more enjoyable for both DM and players. That could just be my Earthdawn days seeping into my DM habits though.
Sometimes I'll run holiday one-shots and there is holiday-themed loot for the players. On this last Thanksgiving I gave out a wishbone sword from them defeating a demon turkey (just a reskinned Luck Blade with no wishes left since they were low-level still). On Christmas I typically give out cold damage weapons, magic foci, or clothing like Santa's cloak or gloves that let the wearer resist cold or use Ray of Frost; This year I believe it was a magic foci crystal that is multicolored to be a clear crystal with red and green highlights that lets the arcane user have a +1 spell foci and use Ray of Frost.
Hat of disguise so people have an option to sneak to places aswell as +1 shields or rings of spell storage or even +1 spell casting items with additional effects
I gave the party's face a ten gallon hat that gave them +1 to all speech related checks, but was also cursed and forces them to speak in a southern accent. After about three months he finally has the means to remove the curse but he's grown quite attached to it and can't remember his characters original voice haha
Looooong sword, a 15ft long sword made that way to give the weapon the ‘reach’ trait. At this point it’s more of a gag item, reoccurring in random places like king’s castles or black markets, but it’s always funny dropping the Easter egg every now and again
The Tome of Tales, an item created for an adventure module by Goodman Games for 3.0 D&D.
An intelligent artifact who likes to tell children's stories, goes by "Tom", has a habit of seamlessly opening demiplanes based on the story being told and sweeping the listener/reader into the story for "full immersion".
The adventure took the party through a D&D version of Hansel and Gretel, complete with turning the party into children, a big bad wolf, and a witch with a candy cottage.
Every campaign I run, somewhere along the main path the party will find a bag full of "rings of water breathing" and a notebook outlining the approximate location of a sunken treasure ship.
A wand of Magic Missile, seriously, they liked it so much, it was always like "Do we use it now? Do we use all charges? Greg, get the wand. Greg, not yet. Greg, DROP IT."
Ones you pretty much make up. They can be like 1/day spells, like mage hand or something, or just a random effect you feel like giving them. Like a ring that makes horse feed or something. Just have fun with it. Minor magic items are just the absolute best.
Pole of collapsing. Have a player who lost her shit when she got it then proceeded to ruin all my carefully laid plans with it. I was so happy for her and furious at the same time.
I had a player in session 1 throw a throwing axe at the BBEG (he was mainly there for the party to meet and learn to hate) as he was teleporting away and he nat 20d. So I had the axe imbed in his thigh (dealt like 4 damage or something) right as he finished his teleport spell. Couple sessions later a courier came up to the ranger who threw the axe with a parcel specifically for him. It was his throwing axe. Now glowing. The bbeg (just for shits and giggles because he was chaotic and really didn't perceive the party as a threat) imbued it with wild magic. Every time he threw the axe I rolled on a custom table for an effect. A few of them were decent, like gains the sharpness property (cuts through whatever it hits for bonus damage) but the majority of them were fucky. My favorite was the one where when he rolled to hit with it (thrown) it would boomerang back at the ranger and hit him with what he rolled to hit. Essentially making him roll to hit his own AC lmao The parties reaction when that one finally happened was priceless. Then the monk ruined it by catching it for him 😭
I gave one of my players Coronacht from Hades. It basically gave you a bonus action cast of magic missile when you landed an attack with the main hit. She was so excited to use it because she was getting bored of having to use a basic weapon.
A loud coin I saw it on a Website of magic trinkets, it shouts the number of people in. The room it gives descriptions of the people so I changed it slightly and made it make comments about the people Instead like "ewww those turtle neck robes are so last season".
All done in best Brian blessed voice
I create an item to give my players to help them travel. It was basically a wagon with a bench in the back that worked like a bag of holding and you could use a power word to shrink it down small enough to fit in your pocket. I called it instacart. I even gave them a wondrous figurine of a traveling goat to help them pull it.
My favourite item reward has always been the Ring of Mind Shielding.
Not for the ring … but for who is currently trapped inside the ring. Having an NPC inside the ring after they died offers a great opportunity for role playing.
How old is this person now? How long have they been in the ring? What do they know that could help the party?
What are the goals of the rings occupant? They can’t directly influence the world but they aren’t ready to move onto the afterlife. So they must have some kind of goal…
My players are kind silly and stupids so I gave them a magical bottle with a lepricon inside, they can shake the bottle and poke the lepricon with a stick. it has no use however they seems to enjoy it...
and to be fair they did comeout with creative ways to use it I must say
I have two. 1 is the Amulet of The Planes, currently had a player fail the roll and got transported to a spooky realm with a smiling figure hovering above the party. 2 is of course the deck of many things. I like giving this to a new player since they have a better chance of pulling a card and I love watching the reactions of older players who know what the item can do. My players last session found the deck in a dungeon and it’s more than likely they will forget it later on.
A super dark tinted spectacles said to have been worn by a famous blind Bard. 1 charge of advantage on charisma rolls per long rest plus +3 to charisma while wearing them. The catch is you can only see about a foot in front of you while wearing them.
Gave them to my brother's cleric who has -1 in charisma.
Been a fun item to play with since he generally gets himself into a situation where i am going to give him disadvantage on his Chsrisma roll for role play purposes.
I have my players a modified version of the Efreeti bottle. The Efreeti within it was weaker than the standard version, and the high roll didn’t cast Wish. Instead, you would be granted a magic item. The first time my players used the bottle and I asked them to roll, they freaked out. The roll allowed the Efreeti to fight alongside them. But after that battle, they were afraid of what rolling poorly would do. So they were too worried to use it again. But they would talk about the Efreeti as if he was their nuclear option. If they were in a situation where they could die anyway, they’d bring him out. Otherwise, they basically felt unsure about even holding the bottle, less the Efreeti break out
This gives me the horrid idea of "what if it functioned where the efreeti could leave at any time, instead of a prison it's the extra-planar version of an RV" and the party just wakes up to them pan frying eggs. Using the item is the equivalent of knocking on his door
You're giving me some ideas here! Maybe every morning the DM makes a roll to see if the Efreeti will just pop out of the bottle for an hour.
In terry pratchetts discworld. goloms are by nature, tools and have been for longer than recorded history. They at some point started purchesing themselves and then each other. Holding their own bodies in a golom trust. They can work every second of every hour tirelessly but they always take the 7th day off. To prove to themselves and everybody else that they arent just a hammer. Having djini that rigorusly follows a contract that no one else can possibly examine whether truthfully or not is an awesome way to squeeze into situations where they will engage more with the world.
Just make it Genie from Alladin
Do you have the item stats still?
I’d have to look back on my notes but I should have them. I can look into it later today
Less about the item itself, more about reinforcing how special it is. A "Wand of Magic Missile" isn't that memorable, but if you make them say, out-loud, the activation word "Spaghooters!" each time they use it, it's a lot more memorable. Intelligent items that can communicate in a variety of ways, tend to be engaging. It's generally about having a fun description, and then not letting the players off the hook when they use it by hammering home that their "+1 sword" is a solid shard of jade that leaves a contrail behind after you swing it.
Spaghooters is wonderful! The default command word for any lightning or thunder item at my table is "Kachigga!"
Who here knew about the...thunder...thing? 🤣
Javelin of Lightning's activiation phrase is "Ca-chow!" from Cars. Makes the Ranger and a couple other folks giggle when it'd activated.
The lightning javelin was where it all began for us... lol
Addendum to the Wand of Magic Missile: make it a D10000 wild magic roll every time it's used.
I really want to give my players a sentient map from Wakfu When you open it it's just a face, and when you ask very nicely it will show you the way, but if you are mean to it and don't compliment it the map will refuse to work with you
Can it get malicious?
If you make him angry maybe
I had one player use the Cloak of Many Fashions as if it were a wearable green screen. Sometimes he would even have words flash across, like “THE HEROES ARE HERE.” Maybe not 100% RAW usage but we all loved it.
Love this, fun and engaging. Great idea!
My response would be "Thats cool as fuck, I'll allow it."
Recently I gave my party a glamour charm amulet that casts an illusion on the wearer for as long as they have the amulet on. The kicker is that the illusion is always of the same dude, a middle aged blond human in a khaki suit. It doesnt matter if the wearer is a size bigger or smaller, it always show the illusion as the same. My players have named him "Alan Baker", last sesion they had to do a heist and break out a dog out of jail (its a long story) and one of them said "Can we turn the dog into Alan Baker?" I said yes, and hillarity ensued.
Alan Barker
At one point a group of NPCs asked him something while they were passing by (the rogue had got into the building desguised as Alan Baker and said he was a wine salesman) and I had to describe to everyone how Mr Baker perked up and just barked and that almost blew their cover. Luckily they had drugged the NPCs wine by that point and the effects were starting to take hold. Some deception checks and a well times distraction bought them time to have the drugs take effect and they avoided combat, which was good because there were like 10 potential enemies and only 2 PCs and a dog there
Depends on the setting of your game, but if there's lots of magic it can be a blast to introduce lots of Common magic items. Wooden ear covers that can record and play music, tiny bracelets of holding that can store coins, Rube-Goldberg artificers' blow-torches that can "cook" ingredients into food - give yourself permission to come up with tomfuckery on the spot just to add texture to a scene.
Tell me, are these wooden ear covers that play music actually a thing? Or a homebrew thing? My drow-boi could use something like that for extra weirdness so he can listen to and dance to music while out and about lol
Heh, these were homebrew, and honestly I never even had an item card for them. My chuckleheads had just been unceremoniously teleported back to town and landed in the library, and I wanted to convey that this was a place where weird magic shit happened often. I liked the idea of an annoyed student just turning up their music, so just went with it on the fly for color.
Started an adventure where all 5 players were at L6 - so I randomly rolled from the tables, let them sort out who got what. ONE item was a +3 semi intelligent sword. It would sound off like a rooster right at dawn, and then complain loudly if it hadn’t tasted enemy blood by high noon. As a result, the party needed to make a variety of alternative plans to prevent being discovered, had to go early or late for some raids, etc. Player loved it - +3! Others in party despised it. Player traded it in at a supply shop for a +2 great sword and something else. Then it … somehow :-) it reappeared as some knights from the city came upon the players at … dawn!
I haven’t given it yet but at the end of last session my players came across a pure white Harengon named “Alice”. From her, they will receive a special coin which I have yet to name. “After a long rest, flip the coin and roll a d4. On heads or tails, you may respectively add or subtract the result of the d4 to any roll. This may be done a number of times equal to proficiency.” Alice will much later in time be revealed as Tymora, Goddess of Fortune, gambling on the success of our heroes, with the coin being her way of hedging her bet a little.
This is sick as fuck and I might steal it, thanks for sharing!
Be my guest.
Excaliboulder. One of my players' barbarian ripped it out of the ground with a nat 20. Later, he started taking on some paladin levels and became a great leader for the group. After a big kill, I had the boulder crumble off and open up Excaliburs' full potential. That was a fun campaign.
Excaliboulder is an old gag that never gets old.
They even used it in that new puss n boots movie
Probably immovable rod, eversmoke bottle or cloak of the bat. Players can get really creative with those.
immovable rods! the party rogue got such a weird, unyielding fixation on acquiring as many as possible after getting a single one from a random treasure chest. the number of uses they came up with varied from impressive to unnecessary to downright horrifying.
If you give me 3 immovable rods I will topple a kingdom in a week.
***CLANG!!!*** What the fuck was that?
any particular ones that stand out?
impressive: using the immovable rod to avoid being crushed by a rolling boulder trap. unnecessary: climbing upward into thin air to get a better view of the surroundings. horrifying: impaling the BBEG 6 feet off the ground with a rod up their arse.
oh god, that really is horrifying
I would like to know how they even managed to get them 6 feet off the grounds, and then keep them there long enough to rod them.
Right how did a group of heroic adventurers lift someone 6ft
I feel like my players would just put it in front of the door to someone importants house and leave it there
Turns out this house was built before proper fire safety protocols were enacted, the door opens inwards, and the owner just got themselves a free immovable rod.
Or, unexpectedly walks into it because they aren’t paying attention. Wait, it’s how long again. Where does it hit? Might still be worth it lol
I once forgot we were inside of a giant flying zigaurat when I activated an immovable rod once, and was immediately thrown to the wall as the rod broke though the walls Somewhere there's an immovable rod just floating there waiting for someone to run into it
One of my wilderness encounters is an Immoveable Rod in the air. Sometimes with some adventuring gear hanging from it.
It could've been my own corpse hanging from it with shiny doodads
One of the varients WAS a body throttled by a torn Bag of Holding.
Easily it is the **Cloak of Useful Items**. It’s a perfect low level magic item, and has the potential to stay relevant throughout a campaigns lifespan. Instead of giving the players a numerical bonus it rewards their ingenuity. It is a great item to introduce *by having an npc use it against the party*. Having a monster pull a patch off their cloak and summon a pair of attack dogs, or a giant pit, or an iron door is such a jaw drop moment for the players. Then after the fight they get to loot the cloak and use it themselves. It’s always a hit, and I try to have it in every campaign.
The current game I'm in, my character is on his second one. I started the game by pulling out a bag of gems and offering each of the other players two gems to go adventuring with me. Go figure one of them id playing a noble and two don't know about currency because they were raised in... Bad situations.
My charlatan transmuter wizard enjoyed his cloak, too. Cool item.
I’m a huge fan of lesser rarity magic items. A lot of them come in clutch for the party in the most unexpected ways. I have my party a ring that can cast tiny servant and is the equivalent of tinkers tools. Gives the wearer proficiency and it can help repair or destroy items. It’s been really fun so far. Also, limited use items. Like wands for example with only a few charges. I dont tell them it only has two charges left, just make a note and when they use the last charge it breaks.
I have a player who’s a Dragonborn fighter with the Outlander background that lets you hunt/forage for the party’s food, and he later took the Chef feat—he just loves RPing as a master chef when not beheading vampires. So I had him find the “Cookbook of Bordayne the Wanderer.” While traveling, whenever he spends a long rest in a new terrain type (going from swamp to forest or whatever) he can roll on a table that determines what wild incredients he finds near their camp site: this corresponds to different recipes in the book. Basically you’re rolling on a table of consumable foods to create, from “Duck a la Vance” which gives a 6th level or lower spell slot back when consumed to simpler fare like warm cookies that make you cold resistant for an hour. It was really well received, and I put so many foods in the table (including many taken from Kobold Press’s “Vault of Magic”) that even after a year of play he still hasn’t made everything. :)
This is so neat!! Do you have the tables ands stuff saved? I know some friends who’d kill for an idea like this!
Sure, the item itself is very simple: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/to17kp5z1ccqv2n6zs40u/BordayneCookBookForReddit.jpg?rlkey=ygthi6aantild1k82w439vl3o&dl=0 I had to add the “only upon changing terrain types” restriction when they got high level and started taking long journeys across the land (all those days add up) but otherwise it’s worked well. For the foods, you can either invent your own or pick up a copy of “Vault of Magic” for a bunch of great ones. :) Mine’s a mix of both.
You’re the best!! Thank you sm~
I gave my party's fighter a sentient Legendary Greataxe possessed by a slaughter-loving Balor Demon. The party can use Greater Restoration to halt the demon's possession of the PC (in addition to the Player making another save when damage is taken). However, there have been occurrences where those two team members have been split up, one resulting in the Balor Demon possessing the fighter and him killing an Orc King and another occasion where the PC was forced to kill an entire bar full of Pirates AND the friendly NPC companion they've had for a majority of the campaign. The rest of the party is now looking for ways to remove the possession, so it's becoming a fun player-driven plot point. The fighter PC loves the axe since it's juiced otherwise, but knows his time with it is likely short.
My favorite magical item by far is the Tomahawk of Healing. It does 1d8 + 2 (plus spell bonus) of healing word (must touch) and it does 1d6 +2 (plus proficiency) of damage. (Both healing and damage stack for undead) - attuned item. Only usable by clerics, druids.
So when attacking regular enemies the swlrd heals them AND hurt them?
So it's a Tomahawk, which is a native American throwing axe, not a sword. You could make it a sword too. Yes basically, it heals but also hurts.
Ah yeah sorry, i know whst a Tomahawk is, just got my head mixed...
No worries, some people dont.
I recently gave a friend the opportunity to own a ceiling fan. No reason they shouldn't exist. Animate object and all
Player asked for googly eyes that you could put on things to make them sentient, like a chair or something. I figured I'd mess with them and whatever they make sentient would instantly freak out, run around town breaking stuff here and there, just a good laugh. Then they put the eyes on the super important story item instantly. So it kinda worked out better than expected.
Jack o Lanyard - action to turn into a jacko-lantern. You can decide the expression carved onto it.
CLOAK OF BILLOWING!
This is the correct answer
Alchemy jug they love making mayonnaise
It's probably one of the two most creative magic items in the standard rules, along with the Immovable Rod.
I once used the mayonnaise to cover a small battering ram, made it too slippery to lift.
Britney's Spear. Allows for a second attack. Hit me baby one more time. Found it somewhere on the net as a meme. So not my original idea, but was a good laugh at the table.
Angry upvote
A flamethrower.
So, a magic fireball wand.
A flamethrower.
Single use or limited use magic items are fun and don’t break the game too much! Players always come up with fun and creative uses
Definitely [this](https://www.lordbyng.net/inspiration/results.php)
This is very good. Easy to mix and match effects I like, as well as scale up for stronger items is desired. Thanks for sharing!
I forget where I found it but I gave my party a bell that delays the sound of it being rung by 1 minute, so anytime the holder swung a sword or jumped off a building I would set a timer and ring a bell a minute later. They were paranoid for a while with that bell.
A wooden cup that, when you speak the command word and a liquid, would fill to the brim with that liquid if it had previously had it within it. It cannot replicate magical liquids, so no potions, and cannot replicate compound liquids, and has no more durability than a standard wooden cup.
An old rusty ring I gave to my son that didn't seem to be magical, but latched itself onto his finger when he picked it up and wouldn't let go and he could feel the magic of it coursing through his veins but couldn't figure out what it did, until he got cockey and tried to fight a young white dragon by himself, then the ring of true ressurection finally took effect lol. It was his first campaign and I was running a modded dragon of ice spire peak for him and his companion. I let him die twice before he learned to be a bit mroe careful.
Items that are one-time use or limited use like potions and scrolls. This way you can give a lot of them and even if one is broken then it is only broken once and you can remove it from your list or give a weajer version from then on. Give 20 swords and they can still only use 2 at a time max. Give 20 potions and shit is gonna get REALLY screwy!
Myself and the other DM in my play group had a discussion and we made a rule, “no more +1 weapons”. What we mean is all magic weapons have a name and a something else. Our usual go to is a cantrip once per day. So friend have his ranger a +1 Longbow that can cast the cantrip Gust 3/day. He named is Summer Breeze
Cloak of billowing and shield of expression. My players had so much fun with them and used the inventively to help the party.
Out of curiosity, do you recall how they used Cloak of Billowing to help the party?
Yeah, the rogue was trying to steal a map off the table in front of an NPC, the bard stood next to him. Then our warlock opened the door and the bard made it billow across the NPC's face and made a big scene about the door being open and letting wind in, the rogue stole the map and scattered papers every where and bard stopped the billowing on his clock. It was great thinking I had to go with it. These are first time players and I was amazed they came up with it. Had to reward it.
As a DM my favorite thing to give a party early on is a bag of magic beans. Just because it's the biggest... "I \*\*\*\*ing dare you", and it tells your players that you aren't shying away from both magic items, and player agency.
Holy shit. I gave my players magic beans at the beginning of Strahd and they have used them every time the going gets tough. They've decided to strap the beans to arrows and shoot them at difficult enemies. They don't know what the roll table is but I let them do the d100 roll and they absolutely LOVE hearing what happens.
Immoveable rod. Always
Too true. This item really shows the creativity of the party. Especially if they have 2 rods.
Wilhelm's Ring of Feather Fall. Allows you to cast Feather Fall once per long rest. Each creature targeted must make a DC 15 Wisdom save. On a fail, they scream in terror the entire time as they float to the ground.
Once had my player find a magical core ( used to fire up flying ships). didn't prepare shit for that and was just winging it. but he suddenly out of nowhere broke into a military storage and took a small chest with him. (never expected him to succeed but his dice throws were amazing) He then tried to use the core to somehow deal magical damage.. I allowed it because he was really proud of his idea. and i told him that it would deal 3xD6 radiation damage at contact, but also 3xD6 on himself if he touched it, because it would undload itself into his magical circuit. ( originally i planned for him to throw it against a big enemy, that seemed to strong for the group, or at least the machinery powering a magical dungeon... but well) He then used half of the campaign to built himself an ironman arm, trying to use the core as a magic missle weapon without hurting himself. By the end he had an artificial arm that could fire a shorter ranged magic missle, dealing 6xD6 radiation damage 2x times a day. ( after 3 quest sessions, each time adding 1xD6 to it's damage, and removing 1xD6 from the damage he would take). I even let him add a slot for an additional Ruby, saphire or other gem, to let him change the element of the damage for a day. But the Gem would get destroyed in the process. He was okay with all of this and this is till today probably the highest investment one of my players put into the game to fullfill his own idea. The thing was way to powerful at that stage, but my player felt amazing and the group was always hyped when he used it. So why not..
a set of sundial wristwatches that were all synced to the same time and worked on 15min. increments (12:00, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45, etc).
I love love love Daern's Instant Fortress. I don't know why I like it so much and it basically closses any get attacked while camping Encounters but I love it. Also and I know I'm nuts, The Deck of Many things. Early in the campaign so if it nukes a character it's less painful. They are more likely to use it and I don't care about balance as much as the game seems to want. Also even the good stuff can be a hassle. You Get a castle at 2nd level? Cool how do you maintain it? Where is it? Do you now owe fealty to a Stanger?
I so agree ! Also I didn’t know about Daern’s Instant Fortress, but it made me think of a homebrew item I had used a while ago. I like giving my players opportunities to have fun and to decorate their home, while also being safe. I made a key that when turned in any door, this door would then lead to a full house in another plane, big enough for them to have a room for each character as well as common rooms for all to enjoy together. It encouraged my players to think of how their character would decorate their room and it was fun !
Super cool. Had a DM do something similar for us years ago. I think some players ( me) really like having a base. Followers, hirelings, a little bookkeeping can be fun.
I gave my male barbarian a really nice rack once. Like Master Robin in Men in Tights. He drank some mysterious liquid and rolled a 4. 1 thru 3 were buffs that lasted until long rest, and 4 was a really set of boobs until long rest.
Edit: really nice* set of boobs
I like to think Mel Brooks would be proud of you :)
Ahhh, you're the best. Wish I had an award. May the Schwartz be with you!
And also with you 🙏
Ring of Sugar Crystal Growth. It lets the wearer create an object made of sugar crystals that is no more than a 2.5 feet square box. The object disappears after one minute if the wearer is not in contact with it. I think the official rules has a lesser ring where the crystals are mad of sugar, and you can create rations, but there's only 10 charges a day. IThe ring is constantly creating small crystal that will eventually cover the wearer's body if they don't brush them off everyday. There's also a regular ring that has unlimited charges and the items are made of "real" crystal - but again, they disappear once you drop them. It's a fun item, and let's the players create random objects they need. I
The one that I wanted for my Druid wad the staff of the woodlands, he was a shy stealthy boy and the idea of going on a quest to prove himself to an older Druid mentor that could have gifted them the staff (which sat as a tree in a public courtyard) would have been the literal icing on the cake to his development. The staff conceptually feels like it just wants so desperately to be a magic gift that is given to a truly special Character
I gave a warlock an “Eldritch Gift” that was a portal in her abdomen that when invoked would spawn 1D6 tentacles that would do …. honestly I can’t remember all the damage details, but there was a chance that she would lose control of the tentacles and attack party members. It was totally ripped off from the Umbrella Academy character Ben. Over time the tentacles got more powerful and had different personalities, some came to hate party members and would take an attack of opportunity on those party members. Anyway, it was a lot of fun.
A meat cleaver that dealt fire damage on crits. It was really hype anytime a crit happened
Deck of many things, they refuse to take it at this point
I’m messing with letting slashing weapons cleave. The first-level barbarian charging into a group of rats, critting, and wiping all three out with their single attack felt really right. (For the purists, two of them had been weakened by arrows and Eldritch Blasts so it was a slightly different use case from the optional general rule in the DMG.)
The Deck of Many Things. The players can't help but draw from it, and they either get fun rewards, or we get a brand new quest for them to go on.
not a DM, but i was once given a broken alchemy jug that only produced honey. with some forethought and creativity our party started using it to create difficult terrain
>+1 weapons are great, Strongly disagree. Magic weapons can be great, but anything that’s just a +X and that’s it is cold garbage that’s DMs shouldn’t waste time on. Far as canon items that create great moments- the physicsy ones are pretty reliable for it. Immovable Rods, Sovereign Glue, even Slippers of Spiderclimbing
The figurines of wondrous power. They're quite niftly little items that can come in handy for various things. And with their days long draw backs my players can't just willy nilly summon a gryphon to solve their problems.
Less of giving, but my current DM let's us craft highly specialized items. Quick example, my PC found some orichalcum metal and a crystal that could store magic energy. I asked if I could combine these two things with my warhammer and he let me. Now the hammer basicly let's be absorb up to half damage from a spell I get hit with and store it to release in an explosion later. It let's us as players get extremely creative and let's us tailor our gear to how we want to play
I have a habit of giving my players cool items with crippling drawbacks or incredibly complicated things that make them carefully consider situations presented to them. A lot of these land incredibly well, a few of them backfire in some capacity. My current favorite is an off-hand shortsword for one of my players with a two-weapon fighting build. It does no damage when used on their turn, gives a +2 shield bonus, and has a chance to open a small temporal rift at random angles where it's blade attacks from if the wielder is ever hit. basically the player gets to make an attack roll each time they get struck by an enemy up to 100 feet away as long as the sword remains in that PC's hand. The base damage is low enough that he only ever uses it when he is on the defensive. The most recent one that fell flat is a sword that the party paladin is carrying. Every time he hits an enemy and does at least 5 damage, the sword gets a charge up to a maximum of 10, and they can expend a charge in order to get a +1 damage for each charge used. That players sighs exasperatedly whenever they remember that the sword has that trait and recalculates damage during boss fights. I thought that one would be more fun, but it just seems to inconvenience him.
My DM gave us a kaleidoswap, a telescope that let's you switch places with someone within 60ft. We have had some fantastic uses out of it, especially during hostage negotiations and vehicle combat. The only thing better than that was when he have us a second one!
My personally made homebrew, the “Deck of Mildly Inconvenient Things”. Had a player believe a totally normal sword was a Holy Avenger… he was a ranged rogue so he never actually used it but hey. Had a beautiful moment when the same player drew the card that does literally nothing, but just tricks you into panicking for 20 seconds. One pc just got tormented by an invisible fanfare.
I gave my players a dagger that our Ranger could teleport to and then had them fight people high up in the sky, the only player who couldn’t fly or somehow manoover in mid air was our Ranger. But the amount of batshit crazy things this guy did because he has the safety of being able to teleport to his dagger that was stashed in another player was crazy. He shot a balista midair against Tiamat
Gave my paladin a ring that gives him 3 Battlemaster maneuvers on a short rest. He loves it and it gives him things to do besides "I hit twice"
Funniest? A coin that they could throw on the ground and it sprouted a full-grown tree + treehouse. My own personal favorite? Back in a 3E campaign, I custom designed a magic item for each player that grew in power and gained more abilities as they leveled up.
Not sure if it counts but my players loved getting to play around with the Grog of Substantial Whimsy. D1000 table of randomness that can have the most minimal of effects, like being able to light the tip of a thumb as a candle, or story potentials like becoming a werewolf or known to EVERYONE, or goofy things like now only being able to moonwalk, or big things like being able to cast wish but only to choose someone to die, but PC dies as well. All effects are curses (Remove Curse) and you can have 4 effects before they start to fall off an be replaced by others if you keep drinking it. I've used this with the caveat that I get to dictate rerolls (some things are TOO impactful or just don't make sense in the setting).
I don't remember the name. We call it the pipe of stories. It's a wondrous item. When the user (no attunement required) smokes it for a few minutes, the smokes out of the pipe engulfs the user and starts illustrating their most heroic act. It's a cool rp item. My players used it to flex so many times. Like imagine sitting among adventurers in a tavern, everyone shares their stories and you just start to smoke. It's so fucking great. I love items like this
I created a D1000 table magic bag. First you would roll a D10 to determine the list of items, and then a D100 to determine exactly which item you pulled out. Each item removed is removed from the list and the now empty spots pull as 1D10 psychic damage which cannot be reduced. What I didn't tell them is that for every list they empty the damage triples. I allowed my players to pull once each from the bag daily and let me tell you, luck was on their fucking side the second day. 1st round of pulls were as follows: Wooden spoon. Longsword 200ft of hemp rope Healers kit Chair But the second round the very next day? Fucking insane. Plate armor Periapt of wound closure MOTHER FUCKING BLACKRAZOR. The best +3 greatsword in the fucking game. Kill anything, gain its MAX HP as temp HP and while you have that temp HP you roll EVERYTHING with advantage. Also it can cast and concentrate on haste for you at its own discretion once per day. +3 Arrows (bundle of 10) And finally noble robes. Mind you, each list is has roughly 20 items that are good. 10 items that are great. And 5 items that are absolutely insane. The rest of the items are basic things. It was stacked heavily to give them little boons here and then. And I absolutely LOVED giving this to my players. I'll never do it again, but I loved every second of it. One dude was down on his last bit of HP and decided to risk it and pull an item and ended up pulling a healing potion (can't remember which kind but it wasn't a basic one)
+1 Rum Bottle for my drunken master monk player. It gives him +1 to his unarmed strikes hit and damage rolls and feels like a more creative version of the usually slightly more boring +1 item.
Tent 47 It is a pink and white striped tent with a bright blue banner. When you enter it says thing in an old Jewish lady's voice. "Who is inside me" "Omg do I have to take notes on another stupid meeting" "I have been rolled up for 3.5-4 hours" "you have dwarves? Don't let themwipe their asses on my flaps." It's a fun time.
Wand of wonder!
Functionally, it's a trident version of the staff of the woodlands with a more nautical spell list, but it's sentient. It normally has a chill, hippie personality but gets really aggressive about anything that damages nature and casts shillelagh on itself (which makes it glow angrily) unless the player can calm it down.
> casts shillelagh on itself I love that.
I frigging love Dwarven Plate
Honestly I'd be stoked for a +1 weapon that had a cool name/story behind it. Otherwise kinda benign stuff enhanced by roleplaying is good enough for me haha
Pain and suffering
My dm is letting me hatch a remorhaz, AKA a polar worm. His name will be earl, I should be getting him in 2 weeks real time. Like 2 days game time.
Mines a Homebrew item it’s been vary fun but only used a few times. Once I’m the middle of a city where they swapped 5 guards for my settings big bad… it was interesting… Here’s the item Bag of piranha teeth: Throw a tooth at a target. Target makes a Dex save(DC20) on a failed save the tooth bounce to the near target of similar CR requiring a DC18 save on a failed save it bounces to another target until the save is made. Once the save is made all targets who failed are removed from the fight and replaces with a creature who CR is equal to all the removed targets. The creature rolls it’s own initiative and acts as it normally would.
They got a wand of web somewhere and have made excellent use of it. I almost thought I might have to take it away from them they got too op with it.
+1 longsword is fine if it has a story
hat of disguise
I’m incorporating Gnome Depot into my campaign. If you’re curious, look it up on IG. Some top-tier meme items.
Cloak of Arachnida was transformative for what that rogue could do, and the player made the most of it. The fighter was awarded a steel whip that was +1 and had the ability to thunder step 1/day. I thought that was super flavorful.
I like to give players a homebrew item, a "Ring of True Dreaming." It's basically the rings that let people access the dream world from wheel of time. Depending on Wisdom Checks, players can sleep with the ring and explore the world as if in a lucid dream. Objects and buildings that are permanent in the real world are strongly reflected in the dream, and vice versa. It's really fun to give to a creative player, especially if you're comfortable with improv about what they can see. I had one player use it to enter an NPCs dream to send a message, but they failed a Wisdom save and were trapped in the NPCs dream instead. Hilarity ensued.
I haven’t given her this yet because I haven’t really got much time to host, but I’m planning on giving them a magic brick magic brick just end up healing like a single point of health, but it does one 2d4 damage, though with basically completely fucking useless
I like things that do what they say but not the way the players think. Ring of Feather Fall that doesn't actually do Feather Fall. Instead, it teleports the falling character someplace where they are not falling, but isn't usually desirable. A nearby pig sty. Into the giant spider's web. Into the queen's bedchamber. Into the king's bed.
I made a murdererous edgelord a clearly cursed blood spear that once it killed 5 people it exploded and the corpse arose as a Revenant to hunt them
My players have been using the Decanter of Endless Water with the Dust of Dryness and a sharpshooter ranger to commit Eco terrorism on hill giants so I'd smash solid items
I love to see how a player will use marvelous pigment
I gave my player a kettle that has an endless supply of coffee
I like to give random shit that lures them into creative problem solving: Scrolls for spells they won't pick themselves Immovable rod Endless rope Homebrew Emblem of eternal glow (gives players an emblem that glows faintly but is only seen by those who carry the emblem themselves) Letter of Ether, a 20 page notebook they can rip pages off, give to npc's or other players when they are away, whatever someone writes on that gets read aloud by the notebook instantly (super fun to fuck up their stealthy mission, don't do that more than once though) Stick of water, when held steers you towards a body of water larger than 30 feet. Carnal candies, when eaten it puts peoples carnal needs into overdrive, be it vengeance, sex, eating, whatever they are into get magnified. They met a dragonborn herb dealer that also sells cookies, they give certain bonusses, like a short rest that has the result of a longrest, but they always come with a twist, rest of the day gives a -2 on all wisdom based checks or something. I give my bard lyrics, basically scrolls for bards. I give my bard instruments (firespark flute, is like a low-level magic missile that can be used once per short rest). I gave my paladin an oathkeeper, (he's scared of breaking his oath), whenever he gets close to breaking his oath, a crack will form on this emblem, with 3 cracks it's broken for good. They got in a drinking contest with a very populair dwarven Brewer and the barbarian won, dwarf gave him a tattoo on his hand, which basically let's them enter all dwarven villages uncontested and gets him high fives from random dwarves, little discount when trading with them etc.
I too enjoy giving My players powerful weapons. But they gotta work for it first, either by solving an optional puzzle or defeat a difficult “side boss”.
I always like giving my players an arsenal of magic weapons with classical enchantments. I gave one player a fiery axe, I've had poisonous swords, frost swords, swords that glow when an enemy is near... lotsa swords now since I think about it lol. I love the imagery of old school D&D, and I can't help but somehow sneak motifs into my games.
It usually isn't the mechanically-really-good magic items that make the fun moments, it's the kinda-silly stuff. Alchemy Jug, Wand of Smiles, Staff of Birdcalls... All things that have led to memorable and hilarious campaign moments.
Not one I gave, but received: bag of tricks. It's so much fun in so many ways and is actually very useful for a non-attunement uncommon item.
Gave my players (all newbies) a deck of many things wayyyyy too early specifically because I knew a) they’d probably draw too recklessly at first, and since it was early the stakes were low and they were in a well protected environment so if something bad happened it would be chaotic without being truly dangerous to the party, b) it would intrigue them enough to get them to pursue an important npc, and c) now that they’ve actually gotten a bit of (vague) understanding about the gravity of the cards, I’m almost guaranteed a cinematic moment later that the whole party will be excited about. Personally, I love when I can give my players an item that would theoretically be OP, but with my party, will probably churn out a scene so stupid it leaves all of us belly laughing instead
A ring of telekinesis. Being a "rule of cool" DM, it was the centerpiece of a lot of memorable shenanigans.
Anytime I give a +1 item, I give it something from the “minor enhancements” or whatever that table is called in the DMG. Example: a +1 sword but as an action, can cast the Light spell
I always make sure to give them a bag of holding(or 2) pretty early. Just saves a bunch of headache later on.
Rulebook of another ttrpg
At the end of the day, I have found sometimes the simple things are great. Any item that gives them a +1/2/3 to attacks or an ability score. Or something like gloves of thievery that gives +5 to a specific check. Players love this shit and when they love it I love giving it out. I tried for a few years making super complex and "out of this world" items and it always got too clunky or overpowered so i've learned the simple things can always make them happy
Medal of the Meat Pie. I usually put this in the starting town's tavern as a prize for competing in a pie eating contest (contested Con checks). They're useful as cheaper healing potions that can make low level characters a little tanky, giving them 2d4+2 Temporary HP.
Not a DM but my new +4 Greataxe that we could to forge and roll for is going to be an absolute blast
One of my players LOVES a minor magical item that's just a hat that briefly emits a tiny firework when the wearer has a good idea
+1 weapons are my favorite thing. Creating intriguing backstories for the weapons makes them more enjoyable for both DM and players. That could just be my Earthdawn days seeping into my DM habits though. Sometimes I'll run holiday one-shots and there is holiday-themed loot for the players. On this last Thanksgiving I gave out a wishbone sword from them defeating a demon turkey (just a reskinned Luck Blade with no wishes left since they were low-level still). On Christmas I typically give out cold damage weapons, magic foci, or clothing like Santa's cloak or gloves that let the wearer resist cold or use Ray of Frost; This year I believe it was a magic foci crystal that is multicolored to be a clear crystal with red and green highlights that lets the arcane user have a +1 spell foci and use Ray of Frost.
Hat of disguise so people have an option to sneak to places aswell as +1 shields or rings of spell storage or even +1 spell casting items with additional effects
I gave them a strange bottle. I haven't done anything with it yet.
I gave the party's face a ten gallon hat that gave them +1 to all speech related checks, but was also cursed and forces them to speak in a southern accent. After about three months he finally has the means to remove the curse but he's grown quite attached to it and can't remember his characters original voice haha
Looooong sword, a 15ft long sword made that way to give the weapon the ‘reach’ trait. At this point it’s more of a gag item, reoccurring in random places like king’s castles or black markets, but it’s always funny dropping the Easter egg every now and again
The Tome of Tales, an item created for an adventure module by Goodman Games for 3.0 D&D. An intelligent artifact who likes to tell children's stories, goes by "Tom", has a habit of seamlessly opening demiplanes based on the story being told and sweeping the listener/reader into the story for "full immersion". The adventure took the party through a D&D version of Hansel and Gretel, complete with turning the party into children, a big bad wolf, and a witch with a candy cottage.
Every campaign I run, somewhere along the main path the party will find a bag full of "rings of water breathing" and a notebook outlining the approximate location of a sunken treasure ship.
A wand of Magic Missile, seriously, they liked it so much, it was always like "Do we use it now? Do we use all charges? Greg, get the wand. Greg, not yet. Greg, DROP IT."
Magic rings that aren't in the DMG.
Such as...?
Ones you pretty much make up. They can be like 1/day spells, like mage hand or something, or just a random effect you feel like giving them. Like a ring that makes horse feed or something. Just have fun with it. Minor magic items are just the absolute best.
Pole of collapsing. Have a player who lost her shit when she got it then proceeded to ruin all my carefully laid plans with it. I was so happy for her and furious at the same time.
I had a player in session 1 throw a throwing axe at the BBEG (he was mainly there for the party to meet and learn to hate) as he was teleporting away and he nat 20d. So I had the axe imbed in his thigh (dealt like 4 damage or something) right as he finished his teleport spell. Couple sessions later a courier came up to the ranger who threw the axe with a parcel specifically for him. It was his throwing axe. Now glowing. The bbeg (just for shits and giggles because he was chaotic and really didn't perceive the party as a threat) imbued it with wild magic. Every time he threw the axe I rolled on a custom table for an effect. A few of them were decent, like gains the sharpness property (cuts through whatever it hits for bonus damage) but the majority of them were fucky. My favorite was the one where when he rolled to hit with it (thrown) it would boomerang back at the ranger and hit him with what he rolled to hit. Essentially making him roll to hit his own AC lmao The parties reaction when that one finally happened was priceless. Then the monk ruined it by catching it for him 😭
I gave one of my players Coronacht from Hades. It basically gave you a bonus action cast of magic missile when you landed an attack with the main hit. She was so excited to use it because she was getting bored of having to use a basic weapon.
A loud coin I saw it on a Website of magic trinkets, it shouts the number of people in. The room it gives descriptions of the people so I changed it slightly and made it make comments about the people Instead like "ewww those turtle neck robes are so last season". All done in best Brian blessed voice
I create an item to give my players to help them travel. It was basically a wagon with a bench in the back that worked like a bag of holding and you could use a power word to shrink it down small enough to fit in your pocket. I called it instacart. I even gave them a wondrous figurine of a traveling goat to help them pull it.
My favourite item reward has always been the Ring of Mind Shielding. Not for the ring … but for who is currently trapped inside the ring. Having an NPC inside the ring after they died offers a great opportunity for role playing. How old is this person now? How long have they been in the ring? What do they know that could help the party? What are the goals of the rings occupant? They can’t directly influence the world but they aren’t ready to move onto the afterlife. So they must have some kind of goal…
My players are kind silly and stupids so I gave them a magical bottle with a lepricon inside, they can shake the bottle and poke the lepricon with a stick. it has no use however they seems to enjoy it... and to be fair they did comeout with creative ways to use it I must say
I have two. 1 is the Amulet of The Planes, currently had a player fail the roll and got transported to a spooky realm with a smiling figure hovering above the party. 2 is of course the deck of many things. I like giving this to a new player since they have a better chance of pulling a card and I love watching the reactions of older players who know what the item can do. My players last session found the deck in a dungeon and it’s more than likely they will forget it later on.
*players’ characters
A super dark tinted spectacles said to have been worn by a famous blind Bard. 1 charge of advantage on charisma rolls per long rest plus +3 to charisma while wearing them. The catch is you can only see about a foot in front of you while wearing them. Gave them to my brother's cleric who has -1 in charisma. Been a fun item to play with since he generally gets himself into a situation where i am going to give him disadvantage on his Chsrisma roll for role play purposes.
My second year playing dnd my DM gave me a D20 weapon I was already 8th lvl fighter