I haven’t created a new collection of magic items in a bit, so what if I just share with you a bunch of things I’ve created for my Aurikesh and Dragon Heist (now long post-Heist – we just continued the campaign with them doing their own thing) campaigns?
Spells with asterisks are my own creations, most of them posted elsewhere in this blog.
Cloak of the Winter Wolf
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
This cloak is made from the pelt of a winter wolf. While you wear it, you have resistance to cold damage, and if you have the Wild Shape feature, you gain one additional use of it, and regain that use when you finish a short rest.
Crimson Choker
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
This choker is made of fine bones and red silk. As a reaction when you are wearing the choker and you are hit by an attack that deals piercing or slashing damage, spend 1 charge to gain resistance against piercing and slashing damage until the beginning of your next turn. The choker has 4 charges; regains 1d4 charges at dusk, and 1 charge when you deal a critical hit with a piercing or slashing weapon.
Emerald Eye of Rivenda
Wondrous item, uncommon
The emerald eye is a sphere of emerald, four inches in diameter. As a bonus action while holding it in hand, you can gain truesight for 1 minute. During this time you are magically silenced and unable to write coherently. Characters able to speak sign language can still sign effectively. You can use this property once, and regain the use of it after 1 hour.
Greensong Amulet
Wondrous item, uncommon
While you wear this amulet, you know the spells entangle, heal beast*, and protection from poison. You can cast one of these spells without expending a spell slot. Once used, the amulet regains the ability to cast a spell this way at dawn.
Mask of the Warrior Goddess (Mask of Sioctana)
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement by a cleric or paladin)
While you wear this bronze mask, you gain an additional use of Channel Divinity if you have any uses of the Channel Divinity feature. You regain this use of Channel Divinity when you finish a long rest.
When a creature you can see is hit by an attack or fails a Dexterity saving throw, you can use Channel Divinity as a reaction to teleport to a space within 5 feet of them. They take half damage from the attack or failed saving throw.
Necklace of Golden Fortune
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
This necklace has three large gold coins on a golden chain. While you wear it, when you roll an 18 or 19 on an attack roll, you can expend a charge from the necklace to make the attack a critical hit. The necklace has 3 charges and regains all expended charges each day at dawn.
Ring of Icy Doom
Ring, legendary (requires attunement)
This ring is made of necromantically-infused ice taken from Thanatos, the 333rd layer (some sources say 113th layer) of the Abyss, ruled by Orcus (and, previously, by Kiaransalee). While you wear this ring, you gain:
- +1 bonus to AC and saving throws
- Resistance to cold damage
- As a bonus action, you can deal 2d6 cold damage to yourself and creatures within 10 feet of you.
- Your weapon attacks and unarmed attacks that hit deal an additional 1d6 cold damage.
- You learn each of the following spells: cone of cold, flesh to stone (transforms a creature into ice rather than stone), Otiluke’s freezing sphere. You can cast each spell once without expending a spell slot (spell save DC 18), and regain the ability to do so at dawn.
- You can cast plane shift to travel from the Material Plane to Thanatos, or from Thanatos to the Material Plane. You can use this property once, and regain the use of it at dawn.
- You can cast storm of vengeance (spell save DC 18) without expending a spell slot. All damage you deal with this spell is cold. You can use this property once, and regain the use of it once a month when the moon enters its new phase.
- Cursed: When you put this ring on your finger, you become attuned to it. If you don’t have any open attunement slots, you become unattuned from one random item so that you can attune to this ring. You can’t end your attunement to this ring except through your own death.
Rod of Soulsight
Rod, uncommon
While you hold this rod, you know the spells heart’s desire*, sinister extraction*, and soul delve*. You can cast one of these spells without expending a spell slot. Once used, the rod regains the ability to cast a spell this way at midnight.
Design Notes
One of the design goals you’ll notice here is creating magic items that make sense and fit the power level while not requiring attunement. I don’t hate the attunement rules to speak of (though I’m not wild about how they work for two-weapon fighters and weapon-and-shield fighters). Have I stretched that power level? Maybe.
The ring of icy doom is absolutely not intended for PCs to actually use. It’s a ridiculously powerful item that a bunch of NPCs are seeking and fighting over in (my version of) Castle Never, in Neverwinter. It’s me messing around in the whys and wherefores of a Realmslore deep cut.
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I really like the mechanic of the Greensong Amulet and the Rod of Soulsight. The choice between three thematically linked spells is a nice way to add some versatility without greatly increasing item power.
I kinda feel like the Cloak of the Winter Wolf would be more interesting if instead of granting an extra use of Wildshape it granted the ability to assume the form of a winter wolf using Wildshape 1/day. It’s fine as it is, but magic items that expand the options of Wildshape seem like obvious design space that I rarely see filled.
The Emerald Eye of Rivenda seems like a really cool item that is deeply linked to in-world lore. The specific carve-out on sign language for communication is interesting and I would love an explanation as to why that works, but writing which also probably uses the hands, does not.
The Necklace of Golden Fortune feels like it could have its attunement removed if it was an expendable item rather than a recharge one. I like it mechanically.
Thanks for the comments!
I’m glad you like the Greensong Amulet and the Rod of Soulsight. They drew a lot of interest from the players when they encountered a merchant willing to sell them – magic item merchants are rare but not completely unknown in Aurikesh. I just give them a very limited list of goods, usually.
On the Cloak of the Winter Wolf – a little over five years ago, I wrote this and you commented on it, so you might enjoy it again. I generally agree with your point; for this specific item I wanted to make it very appealing for a Circle of the Stars druid in my post-Dragon Heist campaign. Adding in a further “and 1/day you can use Wild Shape to become a winter wolf” clause could be really cool.
The Emerald Eye of Rivenda is a minor holy relic held by a local temple, in the Aurikesh campaign. As to why sign language still works – I don’t have a strong narrative reason right now, I just thought that sounded interesting as a workaround available to characters who learned sign. The players haven’t shown a ton of interest in doing anything to acquire the Emerald Eye, so it’ll probably go unanswered.
I agree about the Necklace – if it were a 3-use consumable, I definitely wouldn’t charge attunement for it. The inspiration for this is sort of funny – in a Tomb of Annihilation game I played, I had a homebrewed magic spear that had a power-up mode. While powered up, it dealt extra damage and expanded my crit range to 19-20. The power-up ended after 1 minute or I scored a crit. So from that point forward, something like 6-8 times over the course of the campaign, in the same round that I activated the power-up, I would roll a nat 20. Never, ever a 19. Not even one time. So I wanted something that would reward 18s and 19s without having a weird moment on a 20, if that makes sense.
Interesting selection. Naturally, I would like a bit more description about their appearances, who make them, and so on. And a few questions:
Can you end the effect from the Emerald Eye early and regain the ability to write? Can you cast spells without verbal components while under the effect?
It seems that the Ring of Icy Doom should have some sort of obvious aura and some sort of interaction with Undead given its origin point (maybe corporeal undead within 10′ of you gain +1 to Armor class and inflict an additional 1d6 point of cold damage with melee attacks as they are infused with the ice of the abyssal realm?)
My intention is that you can’t end the Emerald Eye’s effect early to communicate what you see. My hope is that making it just a little more difficult to communicate what you see is interesting and fun at the table. You can’t cast spells with verbal components while affected.
That sounds like a cool extra power for the Ring of Icy Doom, yeah!