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Dungeons & Dragons Magical Items Roleplaying

DnD Ref Magical Item Creating Unique Items

Dungeons and Dragons – Mystara

Magical Item – Creating Unique Items

This is a resource for players and GM’s to build unique versions of any of the magical items with either a roll or a choice on the lists below. If as a player, discuss your reasons behind the choices you made.

Property – Creator

  1. Aberration – The item was created by aberrations in ancient times, possibly for the use of favoured humanoid thralls. When seen from the corner of the eye, the item seems to be moving.
  2. Celestial – The weapon is half the normal weight and inscribed with feathered wings, suns, and other symbols of good. Fiends find the item’s presence repulsive.
  3. Dragon – This item is made from scales and talons shed by a dragon. Perhaps it incorporates precious metals and gems from the dragon ‘s hoard. It grows slightly warm when within 120 feet of a dragon.
  4. Shadowlands – (was Drow) The item is half the normal weight. It is black and inscribed with spiders and we bs in honour of Rafiel or Atzanteoltl. It might function poorly, or disintegrate, if exposed to sunlight for 1 minute or more.
  5. Dwarf – The item is durable and has Dwarven runes worked into its design. It might be associated with a clan that would like to see it returned to their ancestral halls.
  6. Elemental Air – The item is half the normal weight and feels hollow. If it’s made of fabric, it is diaphanous.
  7. Elemental Darkness – This time is dull and you have advantage on hide checks when trying to have the item go unnoticed.
  8. Elemental Earth – This item might be crafted from stone. Any cloth or leather elements are studded with finely polished rock.
  9. Elemental Fire – This item is warm to the touch, and any metal parts are crafted from black iron. Sigils of flames cover its surface. Shades of red and orange are the prominent colours.
  10. Elemental Water – Lustrous fish scales replace leather or cloth on this item, and metal portions are instead crafted from seashells and worked coral as hard as any metal.
  11. Elf – The item is half the normal weight. It is adorned with symbols of nature: leaves, vines, stars, and the like.
  12. Fey – The item is exquisitely crafted from the finest materials and glows with a pale radiance in moonlight, shedding dim light in a 5-foot radius. Any metal in the item is silver or mithral, rather than iron or steel.
  13. Fiend – The item is made of black iron or horn inscribed with runes, and any cloth or leather components are crafted from the hide of fiends. It is warm to the touch and features leering faces or vile runes engraved on its surface. Celestials find the item’s presence repulsive.
  14. Giant – The item is larger than normal and was crafted by giants for use by their smaller allies.
  15. Gnome – The item is crafted to appear ordinary it might look worn. It could also incorporate gears and mechanical components, even if these aren’t essential to the item’s function.
  16. Halfling – The item is practical, but beautifully made, usually in homage to nature, food or luck. It is small when not used, taking up half the normal weight when not worn.
  17. Human – The item was created during the heyday of a fallen human kingdom, or it is tied to a human of legend. It might hold writing in a forgotten tongue or symbols whose significance is lost to the ages.
  18. Undead – The item incorporates imagery of death such as bones and skulls, and it might be crafted from parts of corpses. It feels cold to the touch.

Property – History

  1. Arcane – This item was created for an ancient order of spellcasters and bears the order’s symbol.
  2. Bane – This item was created by the foes of a particular culture or kind of creature. If the culture or creatures are still around, they might recognize the item and single out the bearer as an enemy.
  3. Heroic – A great hero once wielded this item. Anyone who’s familiar with the item ‘s history expects great deeds from the new owner.
  4. Ornamental – The item was created to honour a special occasion. Inset gemstones, gold or platinum inlays, and gold or silver filigree adorn its surface.
  5. Prophecy – The item features in a prophecy: its bearer is destined to play a key role in future events. Someone else who wants to play that role might try to steal the item, or someone who wants to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled might try to kill the item ‘s bearer.
  6. Religious – This item was used in religious ceremonies dedicated to a particular deity. It has holy symbols worked into it. The god’s followers might try to persuade its owner to donate it to a temple, steal the item for themselves, or celebrate its use by a cleric or paladin of the same deity.
  7. Sinister – This item is linked to a deed of great evil, such as a massacre or an assassination. It might have a name or be closely associated with a villain who used it. Anyone familiar with the item’s history is likely to treat it and its owner with suspicion.
  8. Symbol of Power – This item was once used as part of royal regalia or as a badge of high office. Its former owner or that person’s descendants might desire it, or someone might mistakenly assume its new owner is the item’s legitimate inheritor.

Property – Minor Power

  1. Beacon – The bearer can use a bonus action to cause the item to shed bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet, or to extinguish the light.
  2. Compass – The wielder can use an action to learn which way is north.
  3. Conscientious – When the bearer of this item contemplates or undertakes a malevolent act, the item enhances pangs of conscience.
  4. Delver – While underground, the bearer of this item always knows the item’s depth below the surface and the direction to the nearest staircase, ramp, or other path leading upward.
  5. Gleaming – This item never gets dirty.
  6. Guardian – The item whispers warnings to its bearer, granting a +2 bonus to initiative if the bearer isn’t incapacitated.
  7. Harmonious – Attuning to this item takes only 1 minute.
  8. Hidden Message – A message is hidden somewhere on the item. It might be visible only at a certain time of the year, under the light of one phase of the moon, or in a specific location.
  9. Holy Symbol – When attuned it is treated as a Holy Symbol of the Deity it is created for.
  10. Illusion – The item is imbued with illusion magic, allowing its bearer to alter the item ‘s appearance in minor ways. Such alterations don’t change how the item is worn, carried, or wielded, and they have no effect on its other magical properties. For example, the wearer could make a red robe appear blue, or make a gold ring look like it’s made of ivory. The item reverts to its true appearance when no one is carrying or wearing it.
  11. Key – The item is used to unlock a container, chamber, vault, or other entryway.
  12. Language – The bearer can speak and understand a language of the DM’s choice while the item is on the bearer’s person.
  13. Loyal – Item cannot be picked up, stolen or moved by anyone unless you are attuned to it or its owner is dead.
  14. Sentinel – Choose a kind of creature that is an enemy of the item’s creator. This item glows faintly when such creatures are within 120 feet of it.
  15. Song Craft – Whenever this item is struck or is used to strike a foe, its bearer hears a fragment of an ancient song.
  16. Strange Material – The item was created from a material that is bizarre given its purpose. Its durability is unaffected.
  17. Temperate – The bearer suffers no harm in temperatures as cold as -20 degrees Fahrenheit or as warm as 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
  18. Unbreakable – The item can’t be broken. Special means must be used to destroy it.
  19. War Leader – The bearer can use an action to cause his or her voice to carry clearly for up to 300 feet until the end of the bearer’s next turn.
  20. Waterborne – This item floats on water and other liquids. Its bearer has advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks to swim.
  21. Wicked – This has an attuned and an unattuned power
    • Unattuned: When the bearer is presented with an opportunity to act in a selfish or malevolent way, the item heightens the bearer’s urge to do so.
    • Attuned: the character has disadvantage in relation to not taking selfish or malevolent actions

Property – Quirks

  1. Blissful – While in possession of the item, the bearer feels fortunate and optimistic about what the future holds. Butterflies and other harmless creatures might frolic in the item ‘s presence.
  2. Confident – The item helps its bearer feel self-assured.
  3. Covetous – The item’s bearer becomes obsessed with material wealth.
  4. Frail – The item crumbles, frays, chips, or cracks slightly when wielded, worn, or activated. This quirk has no effect on its properties, but if the item has seen much use, it looks decrepit.
  5. Hungry – This has a unattuned, attuned and awakened quirks
    • Unattuned: This item’s magical properties function only if fresh blood from a humanoid has been applied to it within the past 24 hours. It needs only a drop to activate.
    • Attuned: a hungry attuned item becomes hungrier wanting life from its attuned owner only, taking 1 hp to activate for 24 hrs, this can’t be recovered by any means during this time, and can’t be removed or unattuned. If you feed it another 1 hp during that time you reset the duration to 24 hrs but loose another hit point until you start a long rest after it is no longer attuned.
    • Awakened: a hungry awakened item can no longer be removed.
  6. Loud – The item makes a loud noise-such as a clang, a shout, or a resonating gong-when used.
  7. Metamorphic – The item periodically and randomly alters its appearance in slight ways. The bearer has no control over these minor alterations, which have no effect on the item’s use.
  8. Muttering – The item grumbles and mutters. A creature who listens carefully to the item might learn something useful.
  9. Painful – The bearer experiences a harmless flash of pain when using the item.
  10. Possessive – The item demands attunement when first wielded or worn, and it doesn’t allow its bearer to attune to other items. (Other items already attuned to the bearer remain so until their attunement ends.)
  11. Repulsive – The bearer feels a sense of distaste when in contact with the item and continues to sense discomfort while bearing it.
  12. Savings – The item gives you a feeling of accomplishment every time you put items in your storage, and a feeling of dissatisfaction whenever you take something out of it.
  13. Slothful – The bearer of this item feels slothful and lethargic. While attuned to the item, the bearer requires 10 hours to finish a long rest.

Property – Rarity

This is the basis of the items value in the game, loosely connected to its power level of the item. If creating an item and trying to find where it falls a good rule of thumb is comparing the spell level of the item to the spell scrolls, or to a similar item if one exists. Both give a good starting point for the times rarity.

On modifying existing items to merge magical items together, a merged item take the highest rarity of its properties, then adds one level for every other rarity property added to the item. Nothing can be added to a Legendary item.

Property – Attunement

In the base version of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, you have either an item that can be used by anyone, or one that has attunement. What has changed in my setting is that all items have five levels of power based on their overall design.

  • Relic Property – All items have additional power to the race that created the item template that is used as the formula for making the item. This can enhance the standard and attuned properties.
  • Standard Property – This is the unattuned version of the item, if it had an attuned property in the original, now it will have a lesser ability, which maybe a subset or limited version of its attuned ability.
  • Attuned Property – This takes up one of the limited slots of attunement a character can achieve. This has been expanded to two slots and one slot per Tier of character instead of the base games three slots.
  • Awakened Property – This is a story event and is unique for every item and should also provide a guideline on how to move to making it Exalted and in honour of a specific god.
  • Exalted Property – You have unlocked a higher level of power for the item in the name of a specific god.

Property – Relic

All magical items are relics, linked to a specific race, and besides the attunement bonuses, are treated as one category less for discovery in a community based on that race. For example a Shop in the Five Shires is more likely to have Halfling relics than any other type of magical item.

On the reverse side of this is that relics opposed to the culture where you are buying it is treated as one category higher when trying to find or discover them in shops. Using the Five Shires for example again is that all Dwarven relics are less likely to be found than most other items.

Property – Expendable

While starting with half the cost of a non-expendable item, all items with the expendable trait have the Harmonious Minor Power allowing for them to be attuned in a Minute (10 rounds) to gain a stronger benefit from its use.

Property – Artefacts

Artefacts are a special type of magical item that is still under development.

This is a combination of D&D 5th Edition and D&D BECMI rules to create unique and scary items of power.

On my todo list is to following:

  • have a set of powers associated with the Spheres
  • A set of base abilities that have the progression of a magical item defined
  • A set of abilities that call upon the gods powers that have a price to use and a chance of something nasty happening as a backlash of godly magic
  • A handicap for picking up the item
  • A predefined way to undo the backlash and handicap

Property – Lesser Magic

Magical items can add properties of items of lower rarity to existing items, helping to make unique items that still count as a single attunement slot. This is not a common thing and will be done as a limitation of one item merge per character tier. So at levels 6 to 10 you can have an item with the properties of three magical items, at 3rd tier you can have an item which combines four items, and at fourth tier an item that conbines five other items.

This is a limitation that the GM can alter for story reason on campaign specific items or artefacts, but players will not be able to buy or enchant items beyod this.

Property – Aspected

There is the intention of having a aspect for every level, these are not magical items in their own right and are still under constuction so will be of limited access in the games themselves.

  • Item Upgrade – Element Aspected – Rare – 12,000 gp
    • Standard – Weapons deals 2d6 elemental damage
    • Attuned – Weapons deal 4d6 elemental damage
    • Relic – Aspercted power based on the item relating to that aspect.
      • Air – An air aspected character can ready this item as a free action on their turn, even calling it to them if it is within 60 ft of them

Design Notes

Items options here having multiple ways of dealing with a character depending on your level of investment in the item is under consideration. There are examples under Minor Power and Quirk.

Content Updates

  • 2021-08-26 – Updates the menu.
  • 2021-05-01 – Added in the Lesser Magic and Aspected properties.
Magical Items

Magical Items in Mystara Overview, Campaign Items, Creating Unique Items

Downtime Buying and Selling Items or Crafting Items

Types: Armour, Blessings, Books, Charm, Epic Boons, Marks of Prestige, Potion, Ring, Rod, Rune, Scroll, Staff, Wand Overview, Weapon, Wondrous Items

Relics of: Dragonkind, Dwarves, Elven, Genasi, Giantkind, Gnome, Halfling, Human

Tuesday Items: T001, T002, T003, T004, T005, T006, T007, T008, T009, T010, T011, T012, T013, T014, T015, T016, T017, T018, T019, T020, T021, T022, T023, T024, T025, T026, T027, T028, T029, T030, T031, T032, T033, T034, T035, T036, T037, T038, T039, T040, T041, T042, T043, T044, T045, T046, T047, T048, T049, T050, T051, T052, T054, T055, T056, T057, T058, T059, T060, T061, T062, T063, T064, T065, T066, T067, T068, T069, T070, T071, T072, T073, T074, T075

Wednesday Items: W001, W002, W003, W004, W005, W006, W007, W008, W009, W010, W011, W012, W013, W014, W015, W016, W017, W018, W019, W020, W021, W023, W024, W027, W028, W029, W030, W031, W032, W033, W034, W035, W038, W039, W040, W041, W042, W043, W044, W045, W047, W048, W049, W050, W051, W052, W054, W055, W056, W058, W059, W061, W062, W063, W064, W065

Friday Items: F002, F005, F006, F007, F008, F009, F010, F012, F014, F016, F019, F025, F026, F027, F028, F029, F030, F031, F032, F033, F034, F035, F036, F037, F038, F039, F040, F041, F042, F043, F044, F047, F048, F049, F050, F051, F052, F054, F055

D&D 5E in Mystara

D&D MenuAdventures, Artefacts, Backgrounds, Classes, Dominions, Downtime, Feats, Gazetteers, Gods, Magical Items, Monsters, Organisations, Pantheons, Races, Ranks & Titles, Rune Magic, Secret Crafts, Settlements, Spells, Timeline, Weapons Mastery

WRATH: Campaign, Design

Game ManagementAnnotated Stat Block, Character Creation, Choosing a New Campaign, Gaming over Skype, GM’s Luck Roll, Tracking Experience

Class Builds
Artificer – Bombardier (Tinkerkin),
Barbarian – Totem Warrior (Plamin, Camdu),
Bard – College of Valour (Sunfey),
Druid – Circle of Dreams (Woodfey), Circle of the Tree of Life (Seasonfey),
Fighter – Battlemaster (Seashire), Eldritch Knight (Kerendan), Weapons Master (Lani), Weapons Master (Stonebound),
Monk – Way of the Elements (Tidal),
Paladin – Oath of Radiance (Sunfey), Oath of Vengeance (Firechild),
Sorcerer – Wild Magic (Shadowfey),
Warlock – Celestial (Llewell),
Wizard – Bladesinger (Nerye),
Dragon – White (Calcryx).
Multiclass – Cleric/Wizard (Xhall), Rogue/Cleric (Dracnomir), Rogue/Sorcerer (Yodrey), Wizard/Rogue (Traladaran)

FloorplansThyatian

Session RecordingsCampaign Journals

Library of Books

B5, d20 System, Pathfinder, SW

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This site is constantly under revision, no blog posts are final as this is a work in progress place for me to develop my game settings and rules. Some posts might be placeholders for future content, so feel free to check back later for updated information.

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By thedarkelf007

I am a long term gamer, I run 6 RPG's a fortnight, host board game, card game and LANs each about once a quarter and have an addiction to buying more games. Games I am currently running are Pathfinder (1st and 2nd Edition) and Dungeons and Dragons (5th Edition).

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