Hello /tg/, I need your help. I'm currently working on some world building and have reached a point where serious magic items are introduced. The thing about them, is they need to be both a Boon, and a Bane, as well as possibly help along in solving puzzles. There is no set game system as of yet, so it only has to be cool concepts.
Here are a few I've gotten already:
>A stop watch, that lets the player reverse time, but for each second they use it, they age forward by a year. Effectively, only able to use it for two minutes.
(In a setting such as DnD 3.5, they could use it to abuse combat, reversing time by 6 seconds, granting a second round of attack.)
>A flask, that revives a character fully, but in order to be refilled, the person who wants to fill it needs to use their own life force to do so, giving up a significant portion of their life to do so. (Something like a permanent -4 to CON).
>A syringe that boosts all physical stats by +6, but only lasts an hour, and after each use permanently reduces those stats by 1. Possible Will save not to become addicted to it.
>>46757284
These are retarded.
You don't need negatives with magic items.
>Magic Items
Also looking for these.
Someone suggested the Cloak of Billowing last thread. It does nothing but waft in a cool fashion on command, even on a completely still day.
>>46757284
No one would use these except maybe the watch for a second or two
>>46757661
>>46757960
I've got to agree with these guys.
I can see those items going completely unused until some character makes a last-ditch effort with the intention to die. They're just not good enough for the effects.
Instead, why don't you make magic items with no drawbacks, but only weakly beneficial usages? Or drawbacks that are not so severely crippling.
>A watch which can reverse time, but only accumulates charges of a second each once per week. Found in the pocket of a man killed two months prior.
>A flask which revives a character to the degree of the lifeforce contained within - can only be filled willingly, and the person doing so can either do so gradually or in one shot (to raise the dead either requires giving one's life, roughly five years of the equivalent of giving some blood once a month, or somewhere in between).
>A syringe that boosts all physical stats by +6, but only lasts an hour, and will temporarily reduce those stats to -3 from their original values for the following 23 hours.
What do you guys think?
>>46758165
That's a thought. I wouldn't have asked for advice if I didn't need it, and it does offer a different point of view I wasn't seeing. Thank you.
>>46757284
The stop watch is useless to half-orcs and humans and completely spammable by elves.
The flask is retarded, the syringe is retarded. Who is going to permanently gimp their character for effects that can be reproduced with a spell slot?
>>46758219
Essentially, the items are gifts towards the beginning of the adventure, in a very low magic setting, with races outside of humans very close to non existent.
>>46757284
Don't introduce time travel without good reasons, it's a whole can of worms.
Think about it: Immortals like some elves or undeads can abuse the watch.
>>46758263
In a very low magic setting you should not give away magic items. Make them rare. Make them special.
I would give starting players at most potions (made with natural herbs). If you want to be mean, add a possible (temporary) nasty side effect.
