I am thinking about replacing some of the magic items that the players can find in the campaign as most of them are rather generic and boring for experienced players. My players know most of the stuff from the DMG so I am thinking about using items and weapons from other sources, maybe replacing Alakast and including some cooler intelligent weapon/thing that's available at an earlier level or even an artifact. Maybe even using some Weapons of Legacy or stuff from other sources such as the BOVD.
What kind of memorable items/weapons did you replace the ones given in the adventures with?
I really like the Wheel of Time series so I replaced Alakast with a weapon from it. It was called an ashandarei, and it was essentially a quarterstaff with a blade about the size of a shortsword on one end. It's pretty much the same as the Alakast as written except for a couple of things- for one I made it adamantine, and for two the blade end is slashing instead of bashing and threatens on a 19. It's mostly a joke that the PC who's playing a cleric with the Scion of Surabar trait will get, since he's also read the whole series and I think he'll end up using the weapon- it's an exotic weapon for anyone but him, with the appropriate penalties for use.
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Actually, I never had to modify the magic items. I DESCRIBED them cool.
If you're quite good at improvising and describing, you can have ALL the cool magic items your players might like.
Heck, one of the character actually gave away +2 bracers of armor for a +1 bracers of armor whose design she liked better (and I totally improvised it...).
If you DESCRIBE the object, there will be no "lame" item.
If I tell them "the guy is wearing some bracers" they'll just shrug.
If I tell them "the guy is wearing bracers shaped like intertwining leaves of ivy, crawling up to his elbows", you can be sure they'll like the object even more, even if it's just a "lame" pair of +1 bracers of armor, and not a supercool intelligent bracer.
The same applies to wands and scrolls.
I think in a past Dungeon magazine, there were tables to generate personalized scrolls, potions and wands... They'd be really useful to you (or any DM as well).
One of my players found a Cloak of Charisma. So I begin to describe it as such:
"The length of this deep maroon cloak reaches to your knees. It's lined with white fur (DC 15 Nature check reveals it to be from a Winter Wolf). The ends of the golden rope ties are genuine pearls."
Without a touch of humor or irony he says "I'll just write red cloak."
I wanted to strangle him.
I'm a huge fan of describing magical item and making them come to life. I DM a group that have been playing since the box set first appeared so reinventing items is a necessity. I also find that players want to find out more about an item if they like the way it looks and this provides excellent opportunities for little side treks. Any time a players shows genuine interest in something and takes the time to follow something up without being directed should not be ignored. I love players taking the initiative to further their characters and magical items are a useful tool that is rarely used for this purpose by most.
Making an item hold secrets that are only revealed as the campaign progresses is a great method of making even the most mundane item valuable. Weapons of Legacy is a useful tool but can cause players to become more obsessed with power and what the item can potential do for them. If instead you hide the items potential only unleashing it unexpectedly or after they learn of its its nature as they progress, then this item becomes a fantastic tool to further the character and the story line.
For example I wrote up in a document I posted here many months a go about a ring of feather falling that had strange groves etched along its underside. This item is nothing more that what it appears in terms of magical powers but when place in the round identation found upon one of Fetors tomes it acts as a key.
A few scrolls:
- A scroll that a secret message written along its edging
- A scroll with instruction on Flood Festival events written on itd back giving the owner benefits to these events
- A scroll case that had a secret compartment that reveals answers to a disappearing Bluewater acedemy professors disappearance
Anyhow personalising magical items and adding description makes the mundane into the special and afterall that is what 'magical' items should be now isn't it.
Well done on all your work
Delvesdeep
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Don't forget about item marks.
I play in a low-magic setting, where there are no "magic shop", nor the "wal-Mart" of magic, the Red Wizards enclave: ever heard of the Greyhawk setting*? :-P
Magic items are rare, and all of them are masterwork. Even a ring of protection +1 is something the crafter created after designing and choosing a suitable vessel for the magic.
One of my players (a filthy rich gnome, a cleric of Zilchus who's buying all of Hommlet) is now collecting all the creations of a famuos crafter who signs all of his pieces with the sign of a leaf...
He's found a pair of bracers of armor and a dagger, for now. ^_^
*It was not meant to be sarcastic: in fact, here in Italy there are REALLY few people knowing Greyhawk.