Quirks, Flaws, and Imperfections in Magic Items

This document exists because I firmly believe that magic item usage in D&D should be a meaningful decision for players, not an automatic one.  As such, adding costs in the form of quirks, flaws, and imperfections to items make players truly think about the merits of using an item at any given time.  Either as part of a custom item or merely attached to something from a published source, these twenty options provide the DM with an imperfect method of balancing otherwise potent magic items.

Remove Curse spells do not remove these traits, and they have no affect on attunement, because these traits are not curses – they do not bind the cursed item to the user, they merely affect the user when the item is used.  Successfully unbinding one of these traits typically destroys the item in the process.

Some of these suggestions work better with certain types of items than with others.  Mixing and matching these effects can also make for some entertaining items.  Durations of these effects vary between long rests and entire sessions.  This is to prevent people gaming the system and the whole exercise being a waste of time.

Erol Otus, from Moldvay Basic, 1981

 

1.  Exhaustion. Each use of this item leaves the user with a level of exhaustion. 
2. Footprints. For the next several hours, the user’s footprints glow, sear, form chalk outlines, steam, or otherwise make it readily apparent which way the user went.  These footprints remain for the rest of the session.
3. Glows. Using this item places a Faerie Fire upon the user.  This particular version lasts until the next session.  The color of the glow may be dictated by wielder’s alignment, by random, or may be a specific color each time. 
4. Volume.  Using this item either makes the wielder mute until after the next long rest or forces them to shout everything until after the next long rest.  Roleplayers rejoice!
5. Synesthesia.  Activating this item affects the user’s voice, and their words come out and appear above them in glowing letters.  These words are visible to anyone with eyes, and of course, the words can still be heard.  Shouted words are LARGE AND IN ALL CAPS, while whispered words are far smaller.  All of the words glow bright enough to see by.
6. Addictive.  Using the item forces a Wisdom save DC 12 or immediately use it again, even if not a tactically sound move.  That time forces a DC 14 save.  The next time a DC 16.  Etc.  If a wielder successfully saves, the next time used starts at the DC left off on.  This is how stories of berserkers begin…
7. Senseless. Using the item renders the user temporarily blind or deaf until after the next long rest.
8. Reduces stat. This item is powered by its wielder’s Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.  Activating the item reduces the appropriate stat by 2d4+1 (or a fixed amount, as you prefer) for the rest of the session.
9. Vulnerability. When carried, this item makes the carrier/user vulnerable to 1d6: 1 silver, 2 iron, 3 wood 4 fire 5 water 6 truth.  Alternatively, when activated, the user becomes vulnerable to that substance for the rest of the session. 
10. Spell immunity. The bearer/user is immune from all spells of specific levels (typical 0 and 1, or 2, or 3, etc).  All spells, enemy, ally, and self, fail to work on the PC.  Discarding the item helps, but the immunity takes a month to wear off.
11. Enrages.  All living and unliving things that encounter you are enraged and want to ruin you (physically or in reputation, if they cannot reasonably win a fight.  Even allies are affected, but their familiarity nets them a DC 14 save to not attack.  EDIT: It might just enrage beings of a certain race or species.
12. Draws fire.  The user mystically draws the attention and anger of all opposing combatants, so when in doubt, they attack the user and try to kill him/her dead.
13. Magic Surge.  When used, a blue sphere of light surges out from the user for 60’ in all directions. All spells cast in that 60’ radius automatically force a roll on a good Wild Magic table.  This affect wears off after a full night’s rest.
14. Lucid Dreaming.  Using this item guarantees strange dreams or visions during the next long rest; even creatures that typically don’t dream are affected by it.  Some of these dreams are oracular in nature, providing a hint or answer to a current problem.  Others are hellish nightmares, resulting in the long rest being disrupted. 
15. Unlucky.  This item is powered by fate.  Activating it makes the user roll at disadvantage the rest of the session.
16. Vampiric. This item is powered by allies’ spell slots, luck, or hit points.  Never the bearer/user, though.  Just their allies.  If there are no allies to drain, the item fails to function. 
17. Magic Draining.  This item is powered by other magic items or spell slots.  When used, the nearest item loses a charge or becomes useless if a single-use item.  If no items are available, the wielder loses their highest spell slot for a month.  Should the wielder not have an item or spell, the power is leeched from the nearest such item or caster.
18. Forgotten.  With each use of this item’s power, a necessary NPC utterly forgets the PC’s existence. Family, friends, and patrons – all are eligible.  In theory, a PC might forget the other PC, but that requires actual roleplayers and DM scheming.  One person forgets per use.  A PC utterly forgotten by all s/he knows dissipates into nothingness.
19. Haunted.  This item has one or more ghosts bound to it; exorcising them probably disenchants the item as well.  The ghost might be the creator, the first wielder, or one or more beings slain by it, if a weapon.  Go all American Werewolf in London and the ghosts only begin manifesting after the first being slain.  Of course, they all have their own agendas and offer all sorts of commentary. 
20. Elemental.  Activating this item creates a wave of elemental energy that deals damage to all in a 60’ radius, to all but the wielder.  The element type may be random or may be static due to nature of item. 

Fey Bargains

In many DnD games, bargaining with Fey beings is an option.  Fey being Fey, they have no need or desire for mundane things like gold or mortal magic.  Instead, their prices are more intangible, more meta.  Players being players, they readily accept such bargains, thinking they can weasel out of them or that they will otherwise emerge unscathed. 

The Fairy Market, by Charles Vess

Here are 10 prices for a Fey to ask.  What they need these things for is entirely their business, and prying mortals will regret asking.

1.     Your last breath.  Mechanically, this means your PC now only gets two death saves instead of three.  (I read this on Facebook, so if it is yours, thank you).

2.     Your luck.  Only three times, and only temporarily.  Mechanically, this means your PC rolls at disadvantage for everything for an entire session.  Three sessions, actually.  At the start of each session the DM (or the player under DM supervision) rolls a d6.  On a 1 or 2, this cost is paid.

3.     Your <stat>.  Stats are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.  Only three times, and only temporarily.  Mechanically, this means your PC loses 2d4+1 in the named stat for an entire session.  Three sessions, actually.  At the start of each session the DM (or the player under DM supervision) rolls a d6.  On a 1 or 2, this cost is paid.

4.     Your innocent rest.  Only three times.  Mechanically, this means your PC suffers nightmares during a long rest, so it has no benefits.  Each time a long rest is attempted, roll a d6.  On a 1 or 2, this cost is paid.  Note that RAW, no more than one long rest can be attempted in a 24-hour period.

5.     Your voice.  For an entire session, your PC cannot speak, sing, or cast spells with verbal components.  Whether or not the Fey chooses to impersonate you with your voice and stir up mischief is entirely up to the DM.  At the table, the player should embrace this role-playing opportunity.  At the start of each session the DM (or the player under DM supervision) rolls a d6.  On a 1 or 2, this cost is paid.

6.     Your memories and experiences.  This Fey is particularly jaded and is looking for some new thrill.  Living vicariously through a mortal will suffice.  Mechanically, this means that whenever experience points are doled out, the DM (or player) rolls a d6.  On a 1, the PC gains no experience points for the session.  This continues until the Fey is satisfied or convinced to stop.  Alternatively, the player throws out the PC’s backstory and plays dumb if encountering someone or something from it.

7.     Your sense of purpose and being.  For an entire session, your PC is afflicted with terminal ennui.  Mechanically, this means making a DC18 (or more or less, depending on the Fey bargained with) Wisdom save to do anything meaningful: travel, cast, fight, use skills, heal someone, heal self, eat, drink. The only things the PC can do without issue is sigh loudly, talk about how pointless everything is, wear black, and write bad angsty poetry.   At the beginning of each session, the DM (or player) rolls a d6.  On a 1 or 2, this session goes goth for the PC.

8.     Your service. At some point, the Fey will need something accomplished, and the PC is contractually obligated to see that task through or die trying. Mechanically, this means that the Fey can summon and command the PC to act for it. If the PC refuses, they act under a Dominate Person spell until the task is accomplished (or they die, which is far more likely). Unbeknownst to the PCs, their own bonds tie them together, so that when the PC is summoned and given the task, the rest of the party travels with him or her. Note that the rest of the party is free to refuse, but the PC that made the bargain must fulfill it. Whether or not this service takes one session or spans several is up to the DM and players.  This happens at the DM’s choosing – probably when nothing else is planned.  If nothing else, the Fey needs an item retrieved from the Gardens of Ynn or the Stygian Library.

9.     Your aggression and desire to harm.  This bargain makes the PC a born-again pacifist for an entire session.  Mechanically, the PC spends the session avoiding combat, or defending self but not striking back.  Running away, surrendering, negotiating, healing, holding torches, and anything else that results in not harming others, to include explanars, undead, constructs, and other such things, is still possible.  If the PC does inflict harm on another (DC18 Charisma to try), that damage is dealt tenfold back on the PC. 

10.  Your magic.  The Fey needs to fill a battery with sorcerous power, and your magic will suffice.  It needs 3d6x10 spell levels to fill the battery.  Mechanically, this means that each time the PC casts a spell, the player rolls a d6, and on a 1 or 2, the spell fizzles and the spell levels go to fill the battery instead. So that Fireball is considered three spell levels, unless upcast to 5^th level, then it is worth five.  The spell slot is regained as normal with a short or long rest.  Once the battery is full, spells stop fizzling.

Whether or not you roll for the price or choose something fitting is entirely up to the DM … and the Fey in question.

Edit: I found THIS d100 table of non-gp payments, and it fits with this post. 

Edit: I also found this d100 table at d4 Caltrops - so you know it'll be good!

Alone Time with MegaMek and MekHQ

I haven't written much lately because my free time has been absorbed with the latest stable version of MegaMek and MekHQ.  There are many posts in draft form, needing completion, but for now, it has been computer games.

For those unaware, these two free games simulate all the fun of table top Battletech games without the need for having a room dedicated to painting and storing (and using) minis and terrain.  What is Battletech? It is a wargame set initially in 3025 where humanity is at war with itself, and has been several hundred years. Battlemechs are giant human-piloted war machines and the principal means of solving political issues.  Players are typically mercenaries trying to keep their 'mechs functional and units financially solvent.  Sarna's Battletech Wiki addresses ALL the in-game lore, of which there is centuries worth.

Rifleman by Shimmering-Sword on DeviantArt

There are multiple units and regiments saved on my hard drive for earlier versions of the game.  My experience, though, is that the unit and planet knowledge gets too large and the saved games just stop loading.  Downloading the latest version of Java helps, but sometimes, I just have to shelve the game for awhile.  Which is a shame, because my first unit has at least two regiments' worth of short fiction in the individual biographies of each pilot and several techs and vehicle crewmembers, fiction that is effectively lost.  In Battletech, a regiment is approximately 108 'mechs, plus air support, armor, infantry, and artillery, for a proper combined arms approach.  While I still have to rely on the Bot to fly my air support, I have worked out the rest of the combined arms, and it is good.  So, yeah, lots of character sketches gone.  

With this latest unit - the Heartbreakers, founded in 3025 - I have expanded the initial company to a full battalion of 'mechs, with plans for appropriate aerospace and armor (and maybe artillery) support.  I play Against the Bot and the bot provides lots of delicious salvage, to include three Awesome 'mechs.  For those unaware of the beauty of this 'mech, I'll let Tex of the Black Pants Legion explain:

While the Awesome is near the top of my favorites list, what I find perfect is the Wolverine-M.  It jumps, it pummels, and its' kicks are big enough to leg a light 'mech, providing me more salvage.  Coupled with a skilled pilot, typically with the Melee Master and Jumping Jack abilities, and this version of the Wolverine is a fast nightmare for armor and light 'mechs.

Yes, I am aware of several Battletech and Mechwarrior computer games, but of them, I prefer MekHQ, and not just because it is free. I enjoy the minutia of managing a mercenary company: hiring new employees; leveling veterans in the unit; salvaging, repairing, and replacing equipment; negotiating new contracts; writing (questionable) fanfiction about the units; managing the TOE of each lance and company; fiddling with the options (and there are so many options); the turn-based combat.  

Now, I have a box of plastic minis, from the first round of Alpha Strike lances that Catalyst produced, as well as a decent selection of Heroscape terrain, and one of Stratagem's roll-out hex printed map to lay it all out on.  The boys love playing 'robots' with the whole mess, and frankly, it IS fun to build maps and move minis about them.  Time spent setting up and taking down is typically longer than the actual playing, though, so mostly it is a now-and-then game.

As an aside, I debated supporting the kickstarter for the new version of Lance Packs that match the 'mechs in the recent box sets, but in the end refrained.  I don't regret it, but I admit to hints of want when I see them.

A Warhammer, Phoenix Hawk, Rifleman, and Commando (I think) - so sweet.

Storytime: the one time I attended GenCon, I stumbled onto an open game that was the Battle of Tukkayid.  I was assigned to the Inner Sphere, and given control of an Awesome and a Catapult.  A squad of Elementals did in the Awesome, and the Catapult joined the Awesome in death a few rounds later.  In the end, both minis became wreckage - represented by large washers - on the huge table-top map.  They joined the dozens of washers already there.  In Battletech lore, that is a historical battle, stopping the Clan Invasion in its tracks.  For college-age me, it was just awesome.

  

Awesome by Shimmering-Sword on DeviantArt