It’s been an incredibly busy month here, with several writing commitments and the fundraiser event for Citadel LARP. I look forward to telling you more about those writing projects – an adventure! boss monsters! and more! – but this isn’t that post. Today I’m doing new magic items, half from a recent session of Aurikesh and half made new for this post.
Bounty Hunter’s Bracer
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
While you wear this bracer, you can move a creature up to your size that you grapple without reducing your Speed, as chains wrap around a part of the creature. If you teleport, you can bring one creature that you are grappling with you. If the target teleports, you can choose to teleport with them.
Claws of the Hag
Weapon (gauntlets), rare (requires attunement)
You must wear both of these magical gauntlets to use their effects. While you wear them, you can deal 1d6 slashing damage with your unarmed strikes, and you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls you make with them. When you make an opportunity attack with them and hit, the target rolls a DC 14 Constitution saving throw; on a failure the target gains the Poisoned condition until the end of your next turn and their speed is halved.
Mask of the Silver Skull
Wondrous item, rare
While you wear this mask, you know the spells False Life, Gentle Repose, and Mirror Image. You can cast one of these spells without expending a spell slot. Once used, the mask regains the ability to cast a spell this way at midnight.
Porphyry Dungeon Heart
Wondrous item, very rare (optional attunement)
This porphyry stone, in the shape and about twice the size of a human heart, pulsates slowly and oozes thick black blood. Each of these is tied to a specific dungeon, and it would be unusual but not impossible for a dungeon to have more than one Porphyry Dungeon Heart. While you are in the dungeon associated with this stone, you gain resistance to damage dealt by traps. This feature works while not attuned to the heart.
If you attune this item, while you are in the dungeon associated with the stone, you gain the following:
- +5 bonus to ability checks to notice or open secret doors
- +5 bonus to ability checks to notice or disarm traps
- +5 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks
- You can cast passwall once without expending a spell slot. You regain the use of this feature each day at dawn.
Ribbon of Revivification
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
This ribbon is placed on the neck of a creature that has been dead for less than 1 minute, as an action. The dead creature returns to life with half of its maximum hit points, and it is attuned to the ribbon, ending attunement to an item of your choice if necessary. The creature dies instantly if the ribbon is removed or the creature ends its attunement to it. The ribbon is destroyed if you die while attuned to it.
Scimitar of Fire-cleaving
Weapon (scimitar), uncommon (requires attunement)
When you wield this weapon and take fire damage, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage you take by 1d6. If you have the Parry Maneuver, you can roll and expend a Combat Superiority die to reduce the fire damage you take by your superiority die result + your Dexterity modifier.
Design Notes
Yeah, I’m all over the place with this one. Kind of like my current list of projects. The Bracer of the Bounty Hunter and the Claws of the Hag both came out of a whole Carceri storyline in my Aurikesh campaign – the Bracer was part of how a farastu kidnapped one of the PCs, and they took the Claws from a hag they had to kill to escape Carceri.
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A fun selection of items as usual.
The Bounty Hunter’s Bracer is getting added to my shortlist for my current game as possible loot. I have two different PCs that both like using grapples.
I don’t really have anything to say about the Claws of the Hag. It is always nice to see an item that interacts with unarmed strikes because I feel like they are an underserviced part of the game.
Mask of the Silver Skull is fun and similar to an item I created in 4th edition, the Savereon Deathmask, which my lich character wore to hide his nature and keep himself from rotting.
The Dungeon Heart is a really interesting idea, but I worry that its existence would trivialize the challenge of a dungeon, especially in the hands of a rogue or similar character.
I really like the Ribbon of Revivification. The story potential is great, especially since it is an attunement item you can’t get rid of without dying. In a game where you don’t treat death as a mild inconvenience (which admittedly is not most D&D) using the Ribbon immediately creates the need for another adventure to solve the problem of getting rid of the Ribbon. I’d be inclined to make it uncommon just so it is more likely to fall into lower-level PC hands.
The idea of the Scimitar of Fire-Cleaving is an interesting one. Having a weapon as a protective item rather than tying this to a piece of armor is cool. Having it be boosted by having the Parry Maneuver is also interesting, though extremely specific. Kind of makes me want other weapons that are designed to key off of the other maneuvers.
Thanks for the comments!
The idea of the Dungeon Heart is that you’d only acquire it mid-to-late in exploring a dungeon, when you want the PCs to feel like they’ve mastered some of the space and can take on its boss on a more equal footing. Chasing that becomes a secondary goal within the whole dungeon, and I think that could be a lot of fun.
I agree about kicking the Ribbon down to uncommon.
The Scimitar has been in Aurikesh since D&D Next. It springs out of the cool image of using the blade to cut through an incoming blast of fire. My wife has played a Battle Master since the very earliest moment of public playtesting, so access to something like the Parry maneuver was always on the table for her. Two sessions ago, she handed it off to another Battle Master PC, so the focus doesn’t feel so specific as to be useless. 😉