Spiceing up items?

[*Neiska]

Hi Hi everyone,

Well, I was chatting with one of the Dm's a bit ago, and we were discussing the monsters and their drops. We both seemed to agree on the "blandness" of items, and I have a few ideas/suggestions reguarding some handmade items with special properties from the toolset. I made them for a few different servers, and they really seemed to be a big hit.

Chaos Shield~This property, when on a weapon works when you hit things. On armor, it might work when you are hit. In both cases, it is only 2% chance for it to function.

Chaos shield is a leftover property from the first version of NWN, that still works. Every so often, it will pop a random spell, taken from a pre-generated list. All spells are casted at level two, so the saving throws and whatnot are very easy to pass. But the property is still very useful and fun, also its a nice little IC touch for some peoples classes/roleplay.

Here is a short list of the more common effects from chaos shield~
Daze (for 1 round)
Lightning bolt (2d6 damage)
Knockdown
Elemental Shield

There are a few other things, but those are the most common. Again, it doesnt pop every time, only a 2% chance of it, but it is a little niceity people seem to enjoy. Also works great for monsters too.

Spellstaff~This is an odd property, left over from NWN1 again. What it does, is it casts an improved version of the spell Acid Fog. Instead of one, it effectively stacks 3 atop of one another at once. Instead of the acid damage hitting a monster or player once a round, it hits them 3 times. I more used this property as an inventory item for monsters, so that they can suprise players by suddenly smacking them for lotsa acid damage. But, its worth mentioning here.

Evil Blight~This spell is normally not aviable to any class of any level. But it is a default toolset spell. Usually I make a wand or rod out of it, and always seems to have been a big hit when I did.

Evil blight is a school less spell (from what i can tell). It is a curse, lowering every stastic by three if you fail a saving throw. I think it is a will save, but dont quote me. The spell does allow spell resistance. Anyway the neat thing about this spell, is that it stacks with other curses aviable to players, but it will not stack with itself. So all of a sudden, Cursing things becomes a viable option. Great for those Witch/Warlock/Evil Curseing type of players.

Usually I either made it into a wand with 50 charges and costs 1 charge a cast, or made it into a little rod like the rod of frost, with unlimited charges. Depending upon the magic level of the Server. But the reason why this one was always a big hit, was because it works wonderfully with curses and other forms of arcane combat, like cloudkill and whatnot. Anyway, just a lil niceity some people may enjoy.

Lyrics of the Lich~Yet another leftover item property from the first game. It casts an effect very similar to Horrid Wilting. Just a small area of effect, for negative energy damage. But the most ive seen it do was about 40 or so, so horrid wilting does do more damage typically. I used to make a "cursed" instrument with this one, specially for the bards who are often forgot about. Just a lil niceity for a "cursed song", and its really helpful for bards who take more than 1 level of it, who seem to have a hard time. But just another lil niceity.

Negative Plane Avtar~This item property, is a bit odd. I dont think its from the first game, but its sort of a doozy. First of all, it only works for female characters. It doesnt do anything for male characters at all from what i can tell. Secondly, it is baised on your alignment, as a special polymorph spell~

If you are any form of Good, it doesnt do anything.
If you are any form of Neutral, it polymorphs you into a water elemental.
If you are any form of Evil, it polymorphs you into a Succubus.

The effect works just like other polymorph spells. You get the copied monsters stats and abilities and whatnot, and lasts for the same duration. Mostly, i made it into a little widget with charges, and handed them out to female characters. The polymorph effects are pretty weak, so this was mostly a fun/roleplay item. Being able to polymorph into a Succubus people seemed to have alot of fun with. I did make sure to put on the item that it was just a polymorph spell however, and that people shouldnt rp being a "real" Succubus.

Eldrich Blast~This item property, acts as a bonus feat. Adding from +1d6, to +9d6 for an eldrich blast. For warlocks whom have a stronger blast than the level on the item, it doesnt do anything, because it wont stack. However, I always in the past made it a little 1d6 blast. And this property really comes into the light when used by any non-warlock class. It gives them a very small version of the blast as well, casting it in the exact same manner as the warlock does. I always made this property just a little 1d6 blast, and people seemed to really enjoy it, because it has a varity of uses~

Warrior/Melee classes without bows, can shoot things from afar. Not for much damage at all, but its still possible.

It makes a great backup for Wizards, Sorcerers and the like, for when their spells run out.

It also makes a wonderful RP property, for those half fiends, fey bloods, and whomever else out there has rp reasons to have a very minor combat ability.

Again, this is an un-essenced, unshaped blast. It does however many d6 you decide to make it, to 1 single target. It may be useful at low level, somewhat useful mid level at times, but not very useful at all in later levels. Spending a full round to attempt 1d6 damage to most epic levels is a waste of a turn, so its not unbalancing. Anyway, I felt this item property would be worth mentioning.

Rogue's Cunning~This is another spell effect, from the first game i believe. It is a skill buff, applying to all "rogueish" skills. Such as Bluff, Diplomacy, Move silently, Hide, Listen, and so on. I believe the bonus to all is a +3, but I'm not sure. Anyway I tended to make this one into a hood or ring with charges. It was a big big hit with the rogue's and swashbuckler types, who are all too often forgot about. Again, all it is, is a skillup spell. Giving you a bonus that stacks with other spells to certain skills. This one ranges from useful, to strictly for rp only. But it is harmless enough for the Server's Level of balance I believe.

Improved Breathweapons~Its possible to make a "token" to sit in a players inventory, with a clickable breathweapon effect. You can choose any of the dragon breath's for this spell ability. I would give these to players with approved backgrounds/dragon disciple levels, who wished to rp other dragon types. You can even add the metalic dragon breathweapons, such as fear, slow, weaken, and whatnot. The "nonlethal" ones. There is even a "negative energy" one, for shadow dragons and the like. The lethal ones, do more damage than the default RDD breathweapon.

But the best part is, is that the breathweapon advances with the player. The damage and saving throw DCs go up as the player level increases, just like a real breathweapon would. It seems to be baised off the players level. At max level, the breath weapon seemed to do about 15d6 or so damage, (60-75 or so is the most i remember seeing it do) with a saving throw of 22 or thereabouts. The saving throw is baised off a players stat, but I am unsure which one, so it is hard to pin down an exact saving throw for you.

*An important note though, is only the Fire Breath, and the Acid Breath have visual effects. The rest are invisable, with no effect seen for useing the Breathweapon*

Its just a nice varity for the Dragon fans out there, and its much better than the almost laughable breath weapon they get. And its great for rolepaly too, for people who want to rp other dragon types than Red.

Ioun Stones~ You can create Ioun stones with the toolset as well, and by not giving them the "bonus feat" property, but the "cast spell" property, you skip the visual effect, and they still function as normal. Ioun stones give a teensy little bonus to things. There is One for every Stastic, and one for AC. The bonus is +1 for the stats, but +2 to Armor Class. The Armor Class is Deflection baised. And None of the stones stack with bonuses from other sources, such as items or spells. A great reward for low level players, and lower level quests and bosses. In the past, i made them clicky items from the inventory, with either charges, or unlimited uses per day, depending on the Servers magic level.

There are other item properties, but I feel these are the best one's to use, considering the Server's magic item limit. Most of these are not that powerful, and add some spice to things. And I think they would be good for Items for Monsters to use, Players to use, or Both. They really arent unbalancing, and are great "for fun", or roleplay items.

Just felt I would share my toolset experience, and let people know you can make "fun" items, without making them powerful or unbalancing. Many of these would be great rewards for Bosses/Rare Spawns/DM Events and the like.

Thank you for your Time! And I hope some of you like the ideas and suggestions!

XOXO
Neiska

[*Mabus]

There are a couple staves which cast eldrich blast. One I think is a 1d6 version and the other is a 2d6 I think. They're sold by the caster merchant in the bazaar.

[*Mr_Otyugh]

We've actually used quite a few of those already, currently we have a lot of items that aren't in loot tables because it is limited to set number, but I hope we'll soon manage to get it made more varient in general... as you've no doubt seen it's generally just weapons/armors as magic items.

Thanks for bringing it up eitherway though.

[*Lost and not Found]

Do any of those lists contain Staff of Fiendish Darkness? My drow is looking for one.

[*cryptc]

I do love fun possibilities to this :) and as has been stated, the loot system will be revamped to have more fun stuff... a few of those you mention are already in the server, a couple I've already considered (and might be put in at some point), and some like Evil Blight I'd never heard about before and sounds fun :)

Lyrics of the Lich is one I've mostly discarded admittedly, since its basicly a ton of powerful spells for a high level bard, but otherwise they aren't really overpowered...

[*Lost and not Found]

Things with One Charge or X times it can be casted per day?

There these One Charge items sold by a Hag-Spawn Witch... I call the character a Hag-Spawn Witch...

Reminds me of a Hag-Spawn---

[*Theorum Of Neutrality]

Things with One Charge or X times it can be casted per day?

There these One Charge items sold by a Hag-Spawn Witch... I call the character a Hag-Spawn Witch...

Reminds me of a Hag-Spawn---

... You mean the hag?

[*Theban Soldier]

Flametwin is another one of these great "forgotten" item properties. Basically, it makes a short lived duplicate of the item user, as a flaming outline, that fights in melee for 5 rounds.

[*ovarf]

I there are Flame Twin scrolls in the drop table (i have one) and also Ion Stones as well, thou I have only seen them drop in the Abbys so maybe have them drop in a lower level area so they might be more useful to the players that find them.

[*Sane Madness]

What of an armor with cure critical wounds on hit? An armor that most of anyone wouldnt want it like , I dont know, a padded?