My Magic Items 1.0

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My Magic Items 1.0
« on: April 25, 2013, 02:37:00 AM »
So, I have been working on some magic items that my players are going to find during their first dungeon crawl. I just want to get feedback on the power levels and all of that. They are being converted from Crown of the Kobold King.

> Lightning Arrows (Using these deal class damage but ignore armor)

> Mithril Plate Armor (Armor 3, no clumsy tag)

> Glintaxe: An beautifully engraved and made axe. It bears the inscription Glintaxe. (Sheds a ghostly blue light like a torch, When used to Hack and Slash that moves becomes b[class damage].

> Boots of Elvenkind: A pair of finely made leather traveling boots. (Wearer takes a +1 forward on all moves requiring stealth or sneaking around)

> Grasp of Droskar: A left handed black iron gauntlet that changes size to fit any humanoid person. Placing the gauntlet on your left hand causes excruciating pain as you forearm and hand is transformed into a dense black stone. You take a -3 forward to attempting any fine motor skills with the left hand and you cannot carry a shield or use a secondary weapon in you let hand. It is said only powerful magics or blessings can remove it once it has been donned. (Increased the characters  Strength by 2, deals class damage +1d4 when using their left hand to hack and slash but takes a -1 forward when using other weapons).

> Soul Chain: This chain was left but the Forge Spurned and if left unclaimed the Forge Spurned will respawn some time later. If claimed, the chain has twenty links and it wraps around the body of the wearer. Once claimed, the chain wraps around the users body and turns them into an hungry undead. They automatically gain these moves;

* In Death Sustained: You don’t need to eat or drink and are not affected by poison. If a move tells you to mark off a ration just ignore it.

* Turned from Life: You must Defy Danger to enter consecrated ground or resist being pushed back by a strongly presented holy symbol.

The chain is a powerful item and for every ten links it grants a +1 bonus to class damage, provides 1 point of armor, and does piercing 1. This specific chain has 20 links for a total of +2 to class damage, 2 piercing, and provides 2 armor. When you use the chain in battle Roll + CHA;

On a 10+: You can resist the Soul Chains need to aquire another to soul to forge another think but take -1 ongoing to this move. The penalties stack until a new soul link is added to the chain.

On a 7-9 Choose one;
* The battle puts you in a worse spot you were in before or you end up harming something or someone that is important to you
* The chain spurns you on to take a soul for another link, end the life of a surrendered opponent or lose half of you hit points rounded up.
* The chain draws upon your life force, reducing a stat point (GM's choice) by 1 until you use the chain in battle again.

On a 6-, the chain forces to you take a hostage to use their soul to add another think to the chain. You will fight defensively if anyone tried to stop you but will do everything in your power to add another link to the chain.  


> Crown of the Kobold King: This burnished bronze crown is set with various spikes and knotted wire. (+2 bonus to Charisma, grant the wearer Armor 2, makes the wearer immune to any type of fear effects, and spell casters take +1 forward when casting spells).

> Heartripper Dagger (+1 bonus to class damage, if the dagger is used against a completely helpless (tied up, completely unawares, etc) the Heartripper dagger pulls the heart from its victim and you can use the heart for one of these benefits;

* Consume the heart and regain all lost HP or get rid of any ailment.

* Utter a command word and the heart bursts into flame and crumbles into ash and causes the dagger to do +1d4 fire damage that ignores armor for the next month.

* You may speak another command word and the heart bubbles and smokes. Breathing in the smoke allows glimpses of far off places or of the future.

Re: My Magic Items 1.0
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2013, 10:35:56 PM »
Any Thoughts?

Re: My Magic Items 1.0
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2013, 04:40:50 AM »
I generally find them a little boring; with the exception of e soulchain and the heartripper, they are basically an +1 item. I'm confident you have checked the magic items chapter and read the first paragraph: magic item are much more than a +1 (or b damage, or +x).
The soulchain is, imho, far too powerful and a little confusing in application: do you get an additional move (to be triggeres appropriately) or it works for any hack and slash move (using cha instead of str)?
Why providing a detailed 6- move? I expect to GM to do the most appropriate hard move on a failure; detailing it you are basically cutting the GM role.

Heartripper: i do not see the need of having a +1damage against helpless victims; you should be able to do wathever you like with them.
I like the third power and to some degree the first one. I do not like at all the second one; i would prefer a "when you deal the killing blow with this blade you have +1 (or 1d4 damage ) forward. Giving the bonus for one whole month seems a little excessive (and oblige you to keep track of days.

Re: My Magic Items 1.0
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2013, 01:16:40 PM »
Ya, I see your points on some things. I was maybe to directly translating them. Let me try this (I also have better ideas for some magic items down the road). I am also not going to let them get the soul chain because I have a better idea down the road but it is not really a weapon...anyway;

> Lightning Arrows (The do stun damage)

> Mithril Plate Armor (Armor 3, no clumsy tag)

> Glintaxe: An beautifully engraved and made axe. It bears the inscription Glintaxe. (Sheds a ghostly blue light like a torch, When used to Hack and Slash that moves becomes b[class damage].

> Boots of Elvenkind: A pair of finely made leather traveling boots. (Wearer takes a +1 forward on all moves requiring stealth or sneaking around)

> Grasp of Droskar: A left handed black iron gauntlet that changes size to fit any humanoid person. Placing the gauntlet on your left hand causes excruciating pain as you forearm and hand is transformed into a dense black stone. You take a -3 forward to attempting any fine motor skills with the left hand and you cannot carry a shield or use a secondary weapon in you let hand. It is said only powerful magics or blessings can remove it once it has been donned. (The character can take 1 forward on all + STR rolls made with this hand, deals class damage +1d4 when using their left hand to hack and slash but takes a -1 forward when using other weapons).

> Crown of the Kobold King: This burnished bronze crown is set with various spikes and knotted wire. (The character can take 1 forward when rolling + CHA, grant the wearer Armor 2, makes the wearer immune to any type of fear effects, and spell casters take +1 forward when casting spells).

> Heartripper Dagger (If the dagger is used against a completely helpless (tied up, completely unawares, etc) the Heartripper dagger pulls the heart from its victim (automatically killing the victim) and you can use the heart for one of these benefits;

* Consume the heart and regain all lost HP or get rid of any ailment.

* Utter a command word and the heart bursts into flame and crumbles into ash and causes the dagger to do +1d4 fire damage that ignores armor for the next 24 hours.

* You may speak another command word and the heart bubbles and smokes. Breathing in the smoke allows glimpses of far off places or of the future.

Re: My Magic Items 1.0
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2013, 05:45:56 AM »
To build upon the idea that 'magic items should be more than just stat bonuses':

Lightning Arrows: fire one of these and it transforms into a bolt of lightning. Hit something made of metal, or into water, and it'll damage and stun everyone touching it. Fire into the sky and you might attract stormclouds or storm archons [maybe exchange for some other sky creature relevant to your world].

Mithril armour and Glintaxe are fine, just that they are not Dungeon World-class Magic Items. Masterwork, special materials. These things obviously have a place and I'm not saying don't use them, but when awing the players with magic items, aim higher.

Boots of Elvenkind: A pair of finely made leather traveling boots. When walking, your footsteps make no sound at all. When running on naturally uneven ground (forests, underbrush, swamp) you never stumble or trip.

Grasp of Droskar: A left handed black iron gauntlet that changes size to fit any humanoid person. Placing the gauntlet on your left hand causes excruciating pain as you forearm and hand is transformed into a dense black stone. The fingers of that hand cannot move, but your left arm is now pretty much a mace. It's at least as hard to make a dent in as regular stone, maybe it's indestructible. It's said only powerful magic can make the gauntlet come off.

Crown of the Kobold King: This burnished bronze crown is set with various spikes and knotted wire. When you wear it, you are filled by the spirit of an ancient dragon and lord of kobolds. All who see you recognise your royalty. It grants 2-armor, too.

Heartripper Dagger: If the dagger is used against a completely helpless (tied up, completely unawares, etc) the Heartripper dagger pulls the heart from its victim (automatically killing the victim) and you can use the heart for one of these benefits;

* Consume the heart and regain all lost HP and all debilities that the victim did not have.

* Utter a command word and the heart bursts into flame and crumbles into ash and causes the dagger to do +1d4 fire damage that ignores armor for the next 24 hours.

* You may speak another command word and the heart bubbles and smokes. Breathing in the smoke allows glimpses of far off places or of the future.



Most often, just describe what happens, no mechanics. "Your hand is flippin' made of stone, how are you holding those lockpicks?" is completely legit without the specified -3 penalty. That kind of all-inclusiveness is what allows for loads of weird stuff when playing DnD RAW. Better just trust that if the fiction tells us something doesn't make sense, the fact that the emchanics doesn't give it a -5 is not reasin it works as normal. If you can't do it, you don't do it.