In 1992, when I started to play AD&D, my very first character was the Witch class, and you were able to receive 1500XP points worth of magic items given to you by an otherworldly source, that 1500XP was my first magic item and to this day is my favorite, the Figurine of Wondrous Power (Gold Lions). I am not even sure if they are used now, going to have to look them up and see after I post this.
In 1992, when I started to play AD&D, my very first character was the Witch class, and you were able to receive 1500XP points worth of magic items given to you by an otherworldly source, that 1500XP was my first magic item and to this day is my favorite, the Figurine of Wondrous Power (Gold Lions). I am not even sure if they are used now, going to have to look them up and see after I post this.
Yeah from the Pathfinder book..
Figurine of wondrous power, golden lions, those lions saved my Witch caster booty so often!
Helm of brilliance. No questions asked.
Name your favorite wondrous item, from anywhere. If it isn't in the Pathfinder Core book, cite what book it's in and give a brief description of what it does..
Pearl of Wisdom
Particularly effective when swallowed...you just have to keep swallowing it.
I was always kind of drawn to the quirkiness of the apparatus of Kwalish myself. That, or maybe a trusty, multi-function crystal ball with telepathy.
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I'm going for functional, simple, and useful for your whole career...bag of holding.
Yeah, but then you have to keep getting bigger and bigger ones. Nothing tops the portable hole.
Well, unless you wanted to go for the Spelljammer item the "Hold of Holding". Nothing like a space vessel that can hold an entire castle in its belly.
When I was a wee tot, I used to pretend I had an apparatus of Kwalish. Like, not even playing D&D.
Nolzur's marvelous pigments are another top pick.
Heward's Handy Haversack is mine :)
Heward's Handy Haversack is mine :)
Same. Oh how I have wished for a handy haversack.
As a player, I generally like quirky wondrous items far better than the ultra-powerful ones. The folding boat (or, as I like to call it, Boat-In-A-Box) was high on that list. Rarely did my lizardman character ever need to use it - but man, was I glad to have it when he did (the GMs in our gaming group love sharks, myself included).
For sheer awesome factor, though, I'm gonna go with the cloak of the bat. I ran a NE warmage in a campaign awhile back who got one as a randomly rolled treasure out of a hoard, and I took great pains to wreak bloody terror with it for the rest of the game.
Hanging from ceilings and flinging ball lightning is what fantasy RPGs are all about.
Incidentally, only two items from RPG Superstar have found their way into my home game: the horn of the dark hunt, which was ideal for a series of adventures I ran where the party tracked a ghost dragon, and a twintone lute (a variation on the twintone flute, which we decided looks like a prog-rocker double-necked guitar). Thanks for those. I'm thinking of dropping some pants of the many monkeys into a treasure hoard, but my players just don't use the word monkey in casual conversation often enough since the apelord PC retired and got replaced by a warlock.
Bag of tricks. And not one of the good bags that lets you toss bears or rhinos at people; no, i always wanted one of the stupid hamster and cat summoning ones. Yes, I'm strange.
Mirror of Mental Prowess without hesitation.
Chime of opening, useful from time to time even at epic levels.
Those are hot, yeah. :) One of the times I actually remembered to roll to see if a random item was cursed, I came up with a cursed chime of opening. The curse type was "opposite effect."
The party wizard failed to discover that it was cursed... and they decided they didn't need it. So they sold it, and at that point I just couldn't resist telling them that they'd passed on a chime of fastening. And there arose a great wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
cloak of the mountebank
I just wish it had more daily uses!
The Handy Haversack is my #1 as well, followed closely by Earrings of the Wolf from Dragon Magazine #334 (when I can convince the rest of the party to invest in them, that is...)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to teh Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
Mirror of Mental Prowess without hesitation.
same here.
1. Deck of Many Things
2. Ghost Rod
3. Cloak of the Manta Ray
4. Well of Many Worlds
5. Ring Gates
Robe of Useful Items.
LOL!
I have had a robe of useless items magic item that I give out at convention games that has proven to be quite popular. They once even found a use for the severed horse's head.
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The Rod of Ropes, Deck of Illusions, and the Ring of Waterwalking(I know it isn't a wondrous item, but it an awesome ring!) are some of my other favorites.
My favorite is the decanter of endless water. With a little creativity, there's not limit to the number of uses you can find for that thing!
Hey guys, the dwarven barbarian forgot to buy soap again!
Apparatus of Kwalish was always a favorite of mine. In one memorable campaign we got hold of the biggest of the Bag of Tricks and that had a lot of memorable moments, too.
The hat of disguise was absolutely perfect in a number of situations some of my characters found themselves in recently. Wonderful, simple theatrics are possible.
But I have to give it up to the near-genius of the portable hole. I let one of my players craft one once — he spent a week in-game knitting it — and it became the party's most prized possession, functioning as everything from a parachute to a lake drainage device to an egg incubator to a way to carry around a hundred dead bodies. So multipurpose.
I forgot the most important item all my characters have, the ring of nine lives. Not a wondrous item, but well it has saved my characters....well 9 times!
Can't argue with the portable hole and the bags and haversack. I think its good we don't have the haversack around, you know how the women can fill up their purse....imagine the mess that would be inside the haversack!!!
My favorite is among the cheapest in the list so far -- shiftweave, from the Magic Item Compendium. It's a cheapo 500g magical clothing option that has 5 different preset outfits it transforms into on command. So, your adventurer can have his grungy but expedient explorer's outfit on while trekking around in the dungeon, but doesn't have to carry around a noble's outfit, church clothes, etc, and doesn't have to spend any time changing clothes. There's no mechanical benefit for it, but it's a nice roleplaying item.
The hat of disguise was absolutely perfect in a number of situations some of my characters found themselves in recently. Wonderful, simple theatrics are possible.
How could I forget the hat! Yeah, that was one of my lonely-little-boy make-believe items too. :)
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My favorite is among the cheapest in the list so far -- shiftweave, from the Magic Item Compendium. It's a cheapo 500g magical clothing option that has 5 different preset outfits it transforms into on command. So, your adventurer can have his grungy but expedient explorer's outfit on while trekking around in the dungeon, but doesn't have to carry around a noble's outfit, church clothes, etc, and doesn't have to spend any time changing clothes. There's no mechanical benefit for it, but it's a nice roleplaying item.
Hm... so that's how Niko_Kaze is doing it. At least I know what it is now. Thanks Zurai!
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I forgot the most important item all my characters have, the ring of nine lives. Not a wondrous item, but well it has saved my characters....well 9 times!
Can't argue with the portable hole and the bags and haversack. I think its good we don't have the haversack around, you know how the women can fill up their purse....imagine the mess that would be inside the haversack!!!
By definition there would be no mess with the haversack and it wouldn't take them an hour to find their car keys!
Slate Stirge figurine of wondrous power from Lair of Maldred The Mighty.
And Handy Haversack...
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Dragon Annual 1 had some way overpowered Witch items, one of which was the Hornet Cape (or something), that allowed the wearer to fly, turn invisible and shoot 'stingers' (little energy blasts). It was like a superhero item!
But yeah, for adventuring, the Handy Haversack is always number one on the list. For the real world, a Mirror of Mental Prowess sounds pretty cool.
Sovereign Glue, the solution to many problems.
...and Universal Solvent for everything else. :)
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Helm of brilliance. No questions asked.
Amusingly, same here.
Not that I've ever actually SEEN one used in a campaign, though I did place one as a treasure in an adventure I wrote when I was like 12 or so (but never actually ran). One also appears in Tiamat's hoard at the end of H4 Throne of Bloodstone, though it has a rather large chance of being destroyed before you ever get it, and even if you do it's literally the last encounter of the campaign, so it's not like you even get to use it.