HYPERBOREA » Magic Items

Iron Ranger · 6/11/2019 6:12 pm

Caveman wrote:
At BlackKnight is place what you want,,,

At Blackadder, yeah noticed the % were sometimes higher myself, but are they high enough?

(To any, help) My problem in creating a scenario, is what to place?

Example if a low level scenario: 1-3 levels, it should be +1 dagger, a CLW potion and a few minor items for whole dungeon..

But truth is I creating an ancient Hyperborean tomb-complex, a massive 3 level dungeon and it is meant to be a tomb that is (mostly) 95% untouched by outside hands in a thousand years and full of these Hyperborean lords and sorcerers and if I allow a bunch of 1st level to loot their tombs, they will walking away with priceless treasures, magical and otherwise because it fits the essence of the location, but feels to me like it might destroy the balance of the game.

I must admit it has put a halt to my mental focus on finishing the complex and is like a small mega-dungeon and it is frustrates pondering what to add to each tomb and considering most tombs are not even got an animated skeleton in it or a zombie, just open it, see a 800 gp gem encrusted necklace, two rings worth 500 gp and a +1 longsword? and this is a 1st level scenario, they be laughing to the bank; and an added note: as jewellery is 1,000 years old it worth 2 to 5 times more to an interested collector?

So, theory is how can I judge treasure even using the chart if in fact there is no monster there. For in truth the monster (dead Hyperborean) was once a 12 level sorcerer and was buried with a lot of his possession in case he was brought back to life in the future (a typical mental hope of a dying Sorcerer-king)?

Most frustrating...

Truth is the dungeon is an expansion of the Dungeon in the Blue book of Zenopus' Ruined Tower and as it was for beginning characters and I was attempting to keep it the same (a beginning character's dungeon for 1-3 levels), but I am starting to think it should be for 6+ level and it is ruining my desire to keep it a 1st level; at least for start of adventure...

Any suggestions?

Just because they have it, doesn't mean they understand how to use it.

Caveman · 6/12/2019 5:03 am

Cheers folks, that good advice, I feeling better now, do not stop the ideas if you have them, thinking I just need a few more...

@ Giz, yeah, charges, good thinking a wand of Magic missile, with only 5-10 charges, can be fun.

Yeah, there is a 3rd level in dungeon, I guess the 1st level can be for 1-3 level characters, but down below, I can up grade to 4-6 for second level and 7-9 for the third...

Thieves' Guild, hmm, good idea.....

@ BA, good idea, will give it some thought, the mind is at peace with the Cosmos and the dark side is rising!

@ Iron Ranger, aye, I can merge this with BA idea, a staff of Power that only a 20th level sorcerer can use from a time gone by is worth a laugh; I placed it in last chamber of third level, Ha.

Yes, this is working, time to create...

Chainsaw · 6/12/2019 8:41 am

My group acquired a Wand of Freezing at level one, used it very effectively for a bit, then lost it a level or so later during a carousing mishap. Such is life!

I try to be more generous on magic items because I want to compensate for the tendency to make them "special" that often results in making them so rare as to be irrelevant to game play. There's so much fun, cool stuff, no need to leave it collecting dust in the books.

mavfire · 6/13/2019 12:47 pm

I like the idea of magic items, specific to the adventure, something that may give the PC's an edge on some of the more difficult encounters (if used right). With that in mind, I like to limit them a bit with either a minor curse (perhaps they cannot get rid of it, or it attracts certain beings to it) or with a limited amount of charges. I agree with chainsaw, there is too much good stuff to waste it. It can always be made rid of, if it is breaking things.

For Lost cairns because of the nature of it, there is a need of silver weapons to help eradicate some of the nasties, so many of the tombs have simple siver daggers, which due to its' softness only lasts for a few encounters. It is a self limiting item. And though it loses its effectiveness in combat, it does not cease being silver and hold value!

In that same vein, try a Lead Sword +1 (requiring a 17+ STR to wield and dulling quickly), or a crystal staff +1 with a chance of breaking and becoming useless. Or even that rare golden hammer +2 that becomes so malformed after two hits that it becomes just value for its gold.

There are a ton of different ways if you are creative to come up with self limiting items that may break the game for a session or two, but really are great for roleplay and fun.

Last edited by mavfire (6/13/2019 12:50 pm)

gizmomathboy · 6/13/2019 1:59 pm

Plus rolling up loot ahead of time gives you stuff to equip the monsters and such with.

"WTF didn't that bandit use those potion of giant power?

Really am not afraid of giving my players some rather potent stuff. They have a pistol that effectively casts a heal spell on the target. However they don't know how many charges it has. They do know that last charge will be a disintegrate spell. At least...I don't think they know how many charges it has.

Hell, they got a skyship from the ghost ship module and are reticent to use it. Sure, it has a finite fuel supply (for now), but it's a resource to be used.

Then again, they also are wary of the idea of lands and title from the druid of Dunwich to help figure out what happened to some missing villagers. Although out of their party discussion I have ideas for Reformed Druidism and Druid Orthodox. I kinda think their instincts are a bit off...

Last edited by gizmomathboy (6/13/2019 2:00 pm)

gizmomathboy · 2/04/2020 7:12 pm

So...skyship question.

I need to figure out how much fuel it consumes while "idling", basically floating but not flying about.

When flying at its faster rate it's consuming about 9 diamonds per hour (assuming a 10 hour flight day and doing 90 miles in a day).

I'm thinking like..10 diamonds for the rest of the day, to give an even 100 diamonds per day. Even in general 10 diamonds for being "on" all day seems ok to me.

They like to camp in the skyship at night, which isn't dumb.

Thoughts, comments, pithy remarks?

Chainsaw · 2/04/2020 8:29 pm

Luxury yachts, man, gas is a b****.

mabon5127 · 2/04/2020 8:48 pm

Part of the fun is trying to find just the right landing spot!

I would assume most if not all of the fuel would be to resist gravity and movement to be a much lower cost, particularly given the very low rate of speed. I'd just charge them the same regardless. Then attack them with pterodactyls.

My folks piloted the ship in shifts to get a 24 hour travel day.

gizmomathboy · 2/05/2020 12:21 am

they've taken to the pattern of taking out the fuel and hiding hit so folks can't steal the ship.

They also park it far from prying eyes as best they can.

gizmomathboy · 2/05/2020 7:54 am

Chainsaw wrote:
Luxury yachts, man, gas is a b****.

Ass, grass, gas, or green diamonds. No one rides for free.

Handy Haversack · 2/05/2020 8:25 am

Anything and everything that adds friction -- why not INCREASE the rate of consumption when it idles. These were meant to fly!

Aerial monsters should 100 percent be noticing the thing. Ancient war machines abandoned in sinks of spoiled magic should be suddenly reactivated when it flies by, corrupted programming sending them off stalking it, leaking eldritch mutagens as they go. Literally every person who sees it should be selling that info to anyone they can until some real badasses shoo everyone else away and come to take it!

That is: mo' money, mo' problem. The airship is cool, but it should always and only be an adventure attractor, I feel.

Chainsaw · 2/05/2020 9:36 am

Handy Haversack wrote:
Anything and everything that adds friction -- why not INCREASE the rate of consumption when it idles. These were meant to fly!

Aerial monsters should 100 percent be noticing the thing. Ancient war machines abandoned in sinks of spoiled magic should be suddenly reactivated when it flies by, corrupted programming sending them off stalking it, leaking eldritch mutagens as they go. Literally every person who sees it should be selling that info to anyone they can until some real badasses shoo everyone else away and come to take it!

That is: mo' money, mo' problem. The airship is cool, but it should always and only be an adventure attractor, I feel.

You are an evil genius! Love it.

Handy Haversack · 2/05/2020 9:47 am

Chainsaw wrote:
Handy Haversack wrote:
Anything and everything that adds friction -- why not INCREASE the rate of consumption when it idles. These were meant to fly!

Aerial monsters should 100 percent be noticing the thing. Ancient war machines abandoned in sinks of spoiled magic should be suddenly reactivated when it flies by, corrupted programming sending them off stalking it, leaking eldritch mutagens as they go. Literally every person who sees it should be selling that info to anyone they can until some real badasses shoo everyone else away and come to take it!

That is: mo' money, mo' problem. The airship is cool, but it should always and only be an adventure attractor, I feel.
You are an evil genius! Love it.

<Sideshow_Bob>Guilty as charged.</Sideshow_Bob>

The greatest moment when my players had the airship: they flew it into an underground town where they heard there was an artificer who could give the magician a new arm (which he'd had to cut off because of reasons). The town is under attack by a vegetative hivemind monster that has hauled all the corpses out of the graveyard. and animated them as vine zombies. There's a ranger barricaded in the tower with a laser rifle picking off any walking corpse he can. Uninfected people are running screaming through the streets. Something is coming up from an even deeper tunnel. And then all the corpses removed their own kidneys and threw them as grenades. And the airship slowly backed away ... beep beep beep beep beep.

gizmomathboy · 2/05/2020 9:47 am

Indeed Handy is.

I think I'll add that flavor in...

They have been pretty good about concealing it...but there are eyes in lots of places.

mabon5127 · 2/05/2020 10:37 am

Handy Haversack wrote:
Anything and everything that adds friction -- why not INCREASE the rate of consumption when it idles. These were meant to fly!

Aerial monsters should 100 percent be noticing the thing. Ancient war machines abandoned in sinks of spoiled magic should be suddenly reactivated when it flies by, corrupted programming sending them off stalking it, leaking eldritch mutagens as they go. Literally every person who sees it should be selling that info to anyone they can until some real badasses shoo everyone else away and come to take it!

That is: mo' money, mo' problem. The airship is cool, but it should always and only be an adventure attractor, I feel.

The Ship quickly became more trouble than it was worth. They went from grand schemes of using the thing for world domination to we can't wait to get rid of the darn thing. They ended up selling it to the Cloud City Amazons, becoming embroiled in an Amazon civil war and barely getting out alive.

Handy Haversack · 2/05/2020 10:42 am

mabon5127 wrote:
Handy Haversack wrote:
Anything and everything that adds friction -- why not INCREASE the rate of consumption when it idles. These were meant to fly!

Aerial monsters should 100 percent be noticing the thing. Ancient war machines abandoned in sinks of spoiled magic should be suddenly reactivated when it flies by, corrupted programming sending them off stalking it, leaking eldritch mutagens as they go. Literally every person who sees it should be selling that info to anyone they can until some real badasses shoo everyone else away and come to take it!

That is: mo' money, mo' problem. The airship is cool, but it should always and only be an adventure attractor, I feel.
The Ship quickly became more trouble than it was worth. They went from grand schemes of using the thing for world domination to we can't wait to get rid of the darn thing. They ended up selling it to the Cloud City Amazons, becoming embroiled in an Amazon civil war and barely getting out alive.

Exactly! That's how you do it!

grodog · 2/07/2020 1:15 am

_So_ looking forward to seeing you guys next month! :D

Allan.

Handy Haversack · 2/07/2020 8:19 am

grodog wrote:
_So_ looking forward to seeing you guys next month! :D

Allan.

Right back atcha, Allan!

The NYCrew is bringing yet another player along this year! Our cleric, Gary Blevins!

Ghul · 2/07/2020 11:36 am

Chainsaw wrote:
Handy Haversack wrote:
Anything and everything that adds friction -- why not INCREASE the rate of consumption when it idles. These were meant to fly!

Aerial monsters should 100 percent be noticing the thing. Ancient war machines abandoned in sinks of spoiled magic should be suddenly reactivated when it flies by, corrupted programming sending them off stalking it, leaking eldritch mutagens as they go. Literally every person who sees it should be selling that info to anyone they can until some real badasses shoo everyone else away and come to take it!

That is: mo' money, mo' problem. The airship is cool, but it should always and only be an adventure attractor, I feel.
You are an evil genius! Love it.

I concur. If you ever seek to squash the hopes and dreams of your players, just ask for advice from Handy Haversack! LOL

Handy Haversack · 2/07/2020 11:49 am

Ghul wrote:
Chainsaw wrote:
Handy Haversack wrote:
Anything and everything that adds friction -- why not INCREASE the rate of consumption when it idles. These were meant to fly!

Aerial monsters should 100 percent be noticing the thing. Ancient war machines abandoned in sinks of spoiled magic should be suddenly reactivated when it flies by, corrupted programming sending them off stalking it, leaking eldritch mutagens as they go. Literally every person who sees it should be selling that info to anyone they can until some real badasses shoo everyone else away and come to take it!

That is: mo' money, mo' problem. The airship is cool, but it should always and only be an adventure attractor, I feel.
You are an evil genius! Love it.
I concur. If you ever seek to squash the hopes and dreams of your players, just ask for advice from Handy Haversack! LOL

They knew what they were signing up for!