Useful items you can plant in your campaign world

[Vallumartu]

This is meant as a fun little exercise.
what custom magic item would you plant/craft in your campaigns?
things that arent in the books, but would be eminently useful, like;
a 'ring of gentle repose' for the tomb of a great king or hero.
a 'gate of detect disease' for the wealthiest brothels in your capital.
not to mention a 'bar of prestigitation' to clean and colour your clothes and dishes, 'needle of mending' anyone?
how about an 'ambassadors earring'; detect magic and arcane mark effect on it. the arcane mark guarantees providence and it glows if the wearer is under any magic effects (one color if hes under an enchantment effect, another if he's under an illusion, etc.)

what other type things would you expect to see in a magic rich society where not everyone is looking for a fight or adventure?

[LordKailas]

I can only think of a handful of items.

A chest that is permanently enchanted with the spell Secret Chest. A wealthy shopkeeper or bank could use something like this as a magical vault or as safety deposit boxes.

A death shroud that casts disintegrate on corpses it's placed over in order to prevent low level resurrection magic. Useful for assassination of high profile targets.

I know it's not quite a "custom magic item" like you're looking for, but I had a high level spell caster that ran a "spa" using create demi plane and applying the bountiful and positive energy traits to it. Polymorph any object had been used on the staff (my followers who were running the place) in order to enhance the atmosphere to look like nymphs, dryads, etc.

Now, the problem was that my followers were treated as being undead for purposes of negative and positive energy and so in order to protect them (and to go with the "theme"). I created manacles of planar adaption for them to wear. This not only meant that now my followers wouldn't be harmed by the "paradise plane" but that any well meaning individual who attempted to "free" them would end up killing my follower as the positive energy from the plane would start causing open wounds to appear all over "the prisoner's" body.

[Mark Hoover 330]

I don't know if its useful, but here's one I used in a homebrew a little while ago: Dust of Corpse Confusion.

So this is a cult of heretical Pharasmin with a Witch leading them; she has the spell Sculpt Corpse. Their heresy was that upon death, during funerary rites, an owl-masked outsider would come to reap the soul of the fallen. However the witch had convinced her followers that these reapers had become corrupted and were dealing in the soul trade with other evil beings. Therefore to confuse Pharasma's handmaidens the corpses were disguised in the final moments of internment.

Now the plot of the adventure revolved around hags and evil creatures of the First World stealing souls, but the Dust of Corpse Confusion was the substance the witch was manufacturing with Sculpt Corpse to provide the disguises of the dead. The PCs were sent to find one specific noble's cousin and return with the remains. Since they couldn't recognize the poor man's body they had to interrogate the cultists while keeping them alive. It was a rare opportunity for roleplay in my game!

[Guardianlord]

I have made a few Mundanely magical items over the years.
these are part of my Cactus Juice Drink table (For when the players are blackout drunk and hallucinating - based on the Elder Scrolls quest a night to remember).

Druman Nobles Rugs: Designed to allow Druma Nobles to move across areas that the poor or dirty might be found. 400ft range, attune after being in place for 24 hours, allow for up to 5 Dimension doors a day from one rug to the other.

Ustalav Neck guard of Sunlight: Silver and leather neck guard (+1 vs neck bites) that charges in the sunlight. After 8 hours of sun exposure the clasp can be released to cause a Harm undead channel positive energy burst centered on the wearer 1/8 hour charge. Obviously intelligent undead would dislike anyone wearing this.

Molthune Stone of Alignment: Different shape and sub powers based on the wielders major alignment key. Mostly on damage type, and a cantrip level effect. otherwise just a stone.

False Razmirian priest mask: A mask that bolsters the wearers defences against corruption. Has positive scriptures inside that appear in the wearers vision to counteract Heresy statements.

Kellid Zoic Fetish. Place a creatures blood within and act as if you had Favoured enemy plus awareness of any within 120ft of you for a week.

And Lastly my Favorite:
Nexian poppet: A little poppet doll dressed like the grand wizard. Hat and all. Place a gem at the tip for a 1/gem ability, again cantrip level (or so). Consumes the gem per spell.

I have many more, but they are more traditional weapons for adventurers.

[Meirril]

One of my favorite "custom" magic items to drop into a campaign was a modified portable hole. It has a flushing toilet, lotioned toilet paper, a large mirror over a basin that fills with warm water. A cabinet that has freshly laundered towels in it. If the towels are removed they are not replaced. If any cloth items are left in the portable hole they get cleaned and placed in the cabinet. There is also a shower with nozzles that produce liquid soap as well as cold and hot water.

The plaster walls are cracked in places, revealing boards behind the plaster. Occasionally skittering sounds and tittering laughter comes from behind the walls. No one has ever investigated. All of the fixtures have a cow motif.

if you place the portable hole on the ground the shower's frame forms a sort of ladder. Otherwise you enter next to the sink.

Another item I threw into a campaign was a black stone that faintly radiates necromancy. Every time a creature dies within 30' of the stone it gains a charge. It can be used to cast any necromantic spell you know, at a cost of 10 charges per spell level. It can hold 100 charges.

[avr]

Apport item is a lower level spell you can base a security deposit box / vault on. If there's no opening in the safe it's hard to pick the lock. Not quite as secure as secret chest but pretty good.

Using permanent animated objects to create a horseless carriage, or to pull a carriage isn't a bad idea. You can even make flying craft that way.

A self-repairing enchantment for expensive and fragile things - a stained glass window for example - might work better than trying to find all the bits and then getting someone to cast a spell to fix it.

[Shiroi]

You can put dust of dryness at the top of a really long cylinder full of water with a piston at the bottom, have it attached loosely to the lid. When you close the lid, the dust abosrbs all the water instantly, pulling the piston up by the sudden vaccuum. When the piston hits the dust, it releases the water and pushes the piston back down. Open the lid, apply dust, close lid.
This is massive single stroke horsepower, expensive but strong enough to theoretically power a lot of fun operations like drilling machines and repeating siege rams.
Not quite a new magical item, but a new way to use an old one that might be interesting to see in a campaign world.

An teapot mixed with a flame enchantment and prestidigitation. It just always stays hot and makes water put inside taste like tea. Add whatever else you want, still just tastes like tea. Great for hiding the taste of your medicine... Or other less healthy substances.

A cask and a spiggot, enchanted separately, make a great magical puzzle. If you aren't paying close attention it all just looks like one big enchantment. The cask refills with more ale, great for parties, but the spiggot removes the alcohol from a drink poured through it. Unlimited alcohol free ale, fixed if you're thorough enough to investigate and separate the magical fields and replace the spiggot. Bottom shelf stuff, fills at a cask a day, not incredibly impressive but worth a decent sale to a tavern if you figure out the puzzle.

Alchemical piggy bank, with the law of equivalent exchange inscribed. Put coins in of one currency, take coins out in any currency at appropriate exhange rates. It takes a coin of low denomination from the higher of the two rates every time you change your currency, because convenience is also part of the exchange. This does mean if you only put one coin in, it just gets eaten since that coin is now the lowest coin input of the highest currency in the transaction...

A box of gentle repose is a refrigerator that doesn't get cold. Bonus points if you add remove disease and remove poison spells, in case it was bad before you put it in there.

[Mark Hoover 330]

avr wrote:

Apport item is a lower level spell you can base a security deposit box / vault on. If there's no opening in the safe it's hard to pick the lock. Not quite as secure as secret chest but pretty good.

Using permanent animated objects to create a horseless carriage, or to pull a carriage isn't a bad idea. You can even make flying craft that way.

A self-repairing enchantment for expensive and fragile things - a stained glass window for example - might work better than trying to find all the bits and then getting someone to cast a spell to fix it.

With a big enough rug, levitate and animate objects, could you have a flying carpet that literally flaps wings and flies you around?

[Mark Hoover 330]

Also, if you put Animate Objects on something permanently, does it change to Construct? If so, does that further mean it's a legal target for Ant Haul?