Do you like to use the same command words for all your magic items?
Do you make em up depending on its powers?
How do you come up with command words?
I'm making a Dagger of Reduce Person that will shrink me one size category and increase my Dexterity 2 points when I pull it.
I was thinking about "let's get dexterous"
I use "Boom shocka locka" almost exclusively
Why would you need a command word for a magic item?
"Sha-bam Bitches"
>>44301324
Not all magic effects are continuous.
Or sometimes you want an On/Off switch
Bankai
AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA!
>>44301021
I am an unrepentant weeaboo with no taste at all, so I tend to use [verb], [item name].
>>44301864
I think you mean 'henshin'.
>>44304627
>implying that's not one of the things from that series that deserved to be in a better story
>>44304836
How about having many magic items that all activate on the same word?
"Pickled Peppers" Fireballs, Color Sprays everywhere
>>44305987
What about when your command word comes up in everyday conversation?
Always in the language of the creator to start out.
My players have found two giant made items, one with the giant word for "Grow" and the other with the giant word for "Fire". In giant in the setting however they have words spells the same and only have difference depending on pronunciation and special grammatical characters that denote pronunciations. So there are two alphabets, their spelling one and their pronunciation one.
Single words generally don't use the second, so the first could also be "feast" or "hunger", and the second could also be "sun" or "burn".
>>44306061
Fireballs, Color Sprays everywhere. The visit with the royal chefs wouldn't go to well.
>>44301021
Not so much as a command word as several command songs
>>44306107
>two alphabets because of tonal meaning
Languages that have diction changes based on tonality do not differentiate their respective alphabets. They either use accent marks or entirely different ideographs. Just an FYI.
Source: I'm a professional linguist.
>>44301021
Having the same command word for all of your Magic Items is like only using one password.Doesn't stop me from doing so however.
>>44301021
I prefer to use command motions for my magic items, or special abilities that trigger when specific conditions are met. For example, one of my games included a longsword that became engulfed in magical flames but only if the blade was chilled to below 0 Celcius. The party had a fun time using low-level frost spells to 'rev up' the weapon, and the warrior actually dabbled a little in sorcery just to pick up a decently powerful cold spell to supercharge the enchantment.
Another character had a bracelet that gained charges and, when the user put their hand out, palm flat, would consume a charge to create a Shield spell for up to 1 minute. It had a maximum of three charges, but the only way to regain a charge was to leave the bracelet in a bucket of salt water for eight hours. Apparently the merfolk who created the item didn't think this would be a problem, and it led to some amusing situations for the party.
I've got a thing for quirky magic items, if that isn't obvious already. Command words make items feel a bit simple and direct, I like ones with a bit more colour to them.
>>44309494
This is exactly the kind of ideas I was looking for!
What else ya got?
>>44311226
Those are both from a game I'm currently working on. Other examples include:
- A sword that ignores protection from armour, but only if it's swung vertically down in a roughly perfect arc. Basically, only triggers if the d20 result is a multiple of 4.
- A suit of chainmail that causes anyone within a few yards of the wearer burst into flame if they tell a lie with intent to deceive (not out of sarcasm, only out of ill intent). The greater the lie, the greater the flames. It's a unique artifact, and the effect applies to the user at double strength. If they make a promise and break their word, or if they say something and prove otherwise, they are burned to a crisp and the armour vanishes.
- A foot-wide ring that makes any object that passes through incorporeal for three seconds. Useful for tossing objects into safes or through doors.
- A completely normal looking pair of coins, one of which will constantly roll in the direction of the other if placed on its edge.
Wands, staves, and rings usually have bizarre or unusual methods of regaining charges. Some need to be kept in a leather bag out of the sun, others only regain charges when buried in fresh grave-dirt. A few require a specific ritual, sacrificing something of value in exchange for power. The stronger the item the more difficult the requirement is, generally speaking.
>>44301021
I think about what the item's creator would set as a password.
>>44301021
Go-go Magic [item name]
>>44301021
We Bleach now
>>44311746
I love all of these.
I once made a vampiric dagger that only worked because the soul of a vampire was trapped inside of it. The sheath for the dagger was actually a small coffin and it had to be kept in the coffin during the day or the vampires soul would burst into flames and the dagger would become a normal dagger. The upside though was that you gained half the amount of damage you dealt with the dagger as healing.
I also had a magic coin that when flipped would either give you a +1 luck bonus to all rolls for the day or a -1 bad luck bonus depending on which side it landed on
>>44314218
Those are pretty awesome, anon!
In one game I played in (I'm usually the GM these days) my character got a magic circlet that let her convert the damage her spells did into different types. For example, she could turn her Fireballs into dealing cold damage, or force damage, or even something like profane damage. The more strange the damage type the more charges it required, and the circlet recovered charges by absorbing Evocation spells that were cast directly into it. It was pretty nifty.
In another game the GM gave us a dagger that bypassed whatever damage reduction a creature had, no matter how epic it was or what material it required. Unfortunately nobody in the party could use daggers properly so we only ended up using it twice.
Probably my favourite magic item I ever played with was the Eye of Gygax. A purple gemstone, it required that you replace one of your eyes with it in order to function. 90% of the time it did nothing, about 5% of the time it prompted my character to say bizarre things, and the other 5% it gave him incredible insight into the creatures they were fighting. More or less, it let my character break the 4th wall every now and then, like "Don't worry about it, I've still got eight hit points left." Then he'd blink, scratch his head, and wonder what the hell he'd just said. We never used it enough to be annoying but occasionally it would reveal stuff like a monster's hit point total, or its energy vulnerabilities. Mechanic-wise it functioned like the Archivist monster analysis class feature, I could use it at will but it would only work on a natural 20, and on a natural 1 I'd be dazed until the end of my next turn.
