Monkey Paw Magic Items

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In another thread, someone suggested enchanting arrows that bestow cure
spells on their targets, which I envisioned as an amusing, but still
useful item, the Monkey Paw Healing Arrows.

That got me thinking about other possible Monkey Paw items. What items
have you created or seen in your games that are too useful to discard,
but have side effects that make you reticent about using them?

I'm not really thinking of items like a Deck of Many things, or
Artifacts with major disadvantages built in. More like a +1 Sword with
Bane: Demons on it that deals the Bane damage to the target and wielder
alike. When you gotta kill a Demon, you gotta kill a demon!

That sort of thing.

Monkey Paw Healing Arrows: The user fires these at a target. If the
target is hit, they deal standard damage for the arrow type,
concurrently with applying 2d8 healing. Critical hits can happen.
Undead take the regular arrow damage (doubled if critical hit, as
normal, plus 2d8 damage from the healing effect).

So: What ideas do you have for items that fulfil the Prophecy of: "If
it seems too good to be true, it is still good, but be careful!"

DWS

 

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David Serhienko <david.serhienko@ndsu.nodak.edu> wrote:
> In another thread, someone suggested enchanting arrows that bestow cure
> spells on their targets, which I envisioned as an amusing, but still
> useful item, the Monkey Paw Healing Arrows.
>
> That got me thinking about other possible Monkey Paw items. What items
> have you created or seen in your games that are too useful to discard,
> but have side effects that make you reticent about using them?
>
> I'm not really thinking of items like a Deck of Many things, or
> Artifacts with major disadvantages built in. More like a +1 Sword with
> Bane: Demons on it that deals the Bane damage to the target and wielder
> alike. When you gotta kill a Demon, you gotta kill a demon!

I had a sword sort of like that IMC, though not as direct as that.

This was in 2e, so we didn't have the 'bane weapon quality'. In this
case, it was a sword heavily tuned against demons. The more powerful
the demon, the more damage it would do. An imp might take normal damage
plus a small bonus, a demon lord might take four or five times normal
damage (notes long lost). It could detect demons. It could exorcise
demons (attack the possessed creature; each blow meant a save (vs.
spell, IIRC) or be forced out -- it's not a *nice* way, but worked...
eventually, often without killing the 'patient'). It had a few other
abilities I don't remember off the top of my head.

It also telepathically called to demons in range. I pictured it
something like "You're listening to station DMON, come and get it!"

It was a *great* weapon on the prime plane. It's disturbing how many
paladins didn't learn from history what happens when you invade hell
with it... and why it kept showing up against in the prime plane.

At one point I considered having it appear with a note, "send more
paladins, the last ones were wonderful".


Another sword had been created for a congenitally blind prince. Made of
glassteel, it had a +1 bonus and prevented magical blinding (a blindfold
would work, or blinding physical damage, but a Ftr1 could stare at a
/prismatic sphere/ and observe the pretty colors), and gave a bonus
against sight-based magics.

If you were 'permanently blind', however (i.e. not blindfolded) it
became a +3 weapon, provided sight, illusion detection, and (uses/day)
/truesight/.

To gain greatest benefit from the weapon, you had to be blind -- which
had 'no cost', as long as you had the sword. No self-respecting DM
would let it be that 'cheap', of course.


There was an assassin's dagger/shortsword (I forget which). Gave all
sorts of handy abilities for an assassin, when used in the course of an
assassination. A ceremony had to be performed to get the various
abilities (including /spider climb/, /passwall/, /invisibility/, etc.).
It could be rested on the target and paralyze him, and provide a mental
link between the assassin and the victim that allowed him to interrogate
the victim. When removed, a save vs. death had to be made, with a -1
penalty per round of contact. If successful the victim took no damage
and could act.

*However*, when the victim died the spells 'went away' -- it'd help you
get in, but getting out was your own problem. Also, after the ceremony,
if you failed to kill the dedicated victim the blade would turn on you
and (eventually) force you to suicide. Using the blade, of course.

> That sort of thing.
>
> Monkey Paw Healing Arrows: The user fires these at a target. If the
> target is hit, they deal standard damage for the arrow type,
> concurrently with applying 2d8 healing. Critical hits can happen.
> Undead take the regular arrow damage (doubled if critical hit, as
> normal, plus 2d8 damage from the healing effect).

Undead don't suffer criticals normally; is this a feature of the arrow?


Keith
--
Keith Davies "English is not a language. English is a
keith.davies@kjdavies.org bad habit shared between Norman invaders
keith.davies@gmail.com and Saxon barmaids!"
http://www.kjdavies.org/ -- Frog, IRC, 2005/01/13

 

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Keith Davies wrote:
> David Serhienko <david.serhienko@ndsu.nodak.edu> wrote:

Msnip>

>>Monkey Paw Healing Arrows: The user fires these at a target. If the
>>target is hit, they deal standard damage for the arrow type,
>>concurrently with applying 2d8 healing. Critical hits can happen.
>>Undead take the regular arrow damage (doubled if critical hit, as
>>normal, plus 2d8 damage from the healing effect).
>
> Undead don't suffer criticals normally; is this a feature of the arrow?

Erm, think-o on my part. Undead wouldn't take critical damage. Just
the damage fromthe healing effect.

THanks for noticing my being brain dead.

DWS

 

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David Serhienko wrote:
>
> Monkey Paw Healing Arrows: The user fires these at a target. If the
> target is hit, they deal standard damage for the arrow type,
> concurrently with applying 2d8 healing. Critical hits can happen.
> Undead take the regular arrow damage (doubled if critical hit, as
> normal, plus 2d8 damage from the healing effect).

You already acknowledged the undead crit-immunity, but there's another
thinko you might have missed: arrow criticals are most often triple
damage, not double damage.

--
Nik
- remove vermin from email address to reply.

 

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Nikolas Landauer wrote:
> David Serhienko wrote:
>
>>Monkey Paw Healing Arrows: The user fires these at a target. If the
>>target is hit, they deal standard damage for the arrow type,
>>concurrently with applying 2d8 healing. Critical hits can happen.
>>Undead take the regular arrow damage (doubled if critical hit, as
>>normal, plus 2d8 damage from the healing effect).
>
>
> You already acknowledged the undead crit-immunity, but there's another
> thinko you might have missed: arrow criticals are most often triple
> damage, not double damage.

Shh. Don't disturb my brain...its SLEEPING.

 

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Keith Davies wrote:
> I had a sword sort of like that IMC .... [It was] heavily tuned
> against demons .... It also telepathically called to demons in range
> ....

And that reminds me of an artifact I created for one of my AD&D
campaigns. I had just taken over the game from a Monty Haul DM who had
awarded an artifact to each PC. He didn't specify the items or their
powers before he quit DMing, so I made them up myself. Most of them had
the same kind of disadvantage as Sauron's One Ring: If you didn't have
the power and knowledge to wield them properly, they had unfortunate
side-effects. Unlike the One Ring, most of the side-effects were
slightly comical (it being a light-hearted game).

The bard got the /hero's bow/, which required no ammo and never missed
its target (similar to Hank's bow). Unfortunately, it also left bright,
long-lasting tracers in the air that pointed straight back to the
wielder. It also sung the wielder's praises, making stealth and sniping
absolutely impossible.

The cleric got a magic shield (I've since forgotten the names of the
other items). On command, it would attract all incoming weapons to
itself and adhere to them like sovereign glue. A bit of vinegar or
another command word would release the weapons. This effectively made
the bearer immune to ranged attacks, since they would all impact
harmlessly on the shield. Unfortunately, the PCs didn't know the command
word to release items, so the cleric was always getting stuck to nasty
things like giants' clubs.

The thief got a magic bandana that could be stretched to any size; it
was nigh indestructible, and a single drop of dye would change the color
of the whole cloth. A command word would restore it to the size of a
bandana, but again the PCs didn't know the command. The player who got
it seemed to think it was useless, but the other players later said that
it was the most useful of the artifacts overall.

The pacifist love-priest (played by the Monty Haul former DM) got a
magic mirror. IIRC, it was a combination true-seeing & scrying device,
but it mostly just showed you stuff that you didn't want to see -- in
practice, it more like a combination palantir & fun-house mirror.

I don't remember exactly what the psionicist's eyeglasses did, except to
make him look like a bug-eyed nerd. I think they may have also had a
true-seeing effect.

I think the samurai-paladin got a magic katana or sheath; I can't
remember for certain. I don't think we ever defined its magic powers,
either. IIRC, I let the player define its abilities, so long as it was
on par with the other items, and I don't think he ever finished.
--
Bradd W. Szonye
http://www.szonye.com/bradd

 

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On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 19:46:52 -0600, David Serhienko
<david.serhienko@ndsu.nodak.edu> scribed into the ether:


>That sort of thing.
>
>Monkey Paw Healing Arrows: The user fires these at a target. If the
>target is hit, they deal standard damage for the arrow type,
>concurrently with applying 2d8 healing. Critical hits can happen.
>Undead take the regular arrow damage (doubled if critical hit, as
>normal, plus 2d8 damage from the healing effect).
>
>So: What ideas do you have for items that fulfil the Prophecy of: "If
>it seems too good to be true, it is still good, but be careful!"

The Sword of Fire...first appeared (AFAIK) in an old text MUD, and was
shamelessly stolen in Baldur's Gate II...

On critical (or if you want to be really sadistic, on-hit): 4d6 fireball
centered on the target. Wielder not immune.