Creating Magical Items! (GM Tips w/ Matt Mercer) 

I imagine he just comes up to you doing a killer Dwarven voice because he's been drinking XD

The best "celebrities" are "real" celebrities. The people who are themselves around us common folk. It shows how genuine they are.

@@Not_Ciel When we parted ways, he yelled "have fun! GET DRUNK OFF YER FUCKIN ARSES!!!" To me and my friends

@@jigsaw924 that is absolutely incredible

@@jigsaw924 I imagine him shouting that in a dwarven voice

HAHAHAHA, that's amazing!

Oh damn, it's Matt!

So has PC used a spell of Silence before using it? Or is it Deafness? I forget.

If your spellcaster is strong enough to cast silence, they're strong enough to cast lesser invisibility.

Kryos nk

This gave me an actual, not too bad item idea: An item (could be a ring) with a detection ability, that on first use disintegrates and transfers it's ability to the bearer in form of a curse. That way (unless the curse is lifted) the player can always passively detect things, but will take damage in the process. (Can't wait for a "player killed by detecting nearby treasure" or "killed by being lied to" situation^^)

OW OW OW OW OW! Yeah, that's fire, all right!

I need to add this to my game XD

Ring of Disintegration Target: Self

Neoxp321 reminds me of when I played morrowind. I would make a high-value ring with fire damage on self. The merchant. would equip it, and burn to death, and I would loot their corpse and shop.

That's a tempting one to give to my new players... I might have to sing though. I'm not sure they can handle that... or I. Mostly because I'd probably fail to resist the temptation to burst into silly songs like: _"Gonna take your mama out tonight, gonna skewer her trough real good... What, no? I wasn't... Soooo what are we killing today?"_ or _"I believe in a thing called loooooooove... Oh, hey! I was just... singing songs of violence and murder. Yup, I'm a scary sword..."_ or _"Near, far, where ever you are, I believe in a stab trough the... Oh, hi... I was just eeeeh... so how's your day?"_ or something like that, when one of my players draw it. I'd probably have to make up so many intro songs for that damn sword in the end. Does sound like odd fun though xD

reminds me of Rick Riordan's take on Sumarbrander, lol

"look man i have one request. could you stop using me to shave? its a little demeaning for a sword of incredible magical power being reduced to a toiletry once a day"

I couldn't resist, so I made a sentient sword with the gnome barbarian in mind. In case anyone wants to use it, here's the stats: *Silversong* _Weapon (longsword/greatsword), uncommon (requires attunement)_ Silversong is exquisitely crafted from silvered mithral and weighs half of a normal longsword. It also glows with a pale radiance - moonlight, shedding dim light in a 5-foot radius. You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon. It also has the following additional properties. *Gleaming.* Silversong never gets dirty. *Song Craft.* Whenever Silversong is struck or is used to strike a foe, its bearer hears a fragment of a song - sung by the blade. *Metamorphosis.* While attuned to Silversong and wielding it with two hands you can use a bonus action to transform Silversong into a greatsword, or from a greatsword to a longsword. The greatsword does not have the “Heavy”-feature, and can be wielded by smaller characters. The transformation does not grant the user proficiency with greatswords or longswords. *DM information* *Sentience.* Silversong is a sentient chaotic neutral weapon with an Intelligence of 14, a Wisdom of 12, and a Charimsa of 18. It has hearing and normal vision out to a range of 30 feet. The weapon can speak, read and understand Elvish and Sylvan, and can communicate with its wielder telepathically. Its voice is deep and jovial. While you are attuned to it, Silversong also understands every language you know. *Personality.* Silversong speaks with a deep jovial tone. It usually sings familiar sounding songs, but the lyrics tend to be altered to involve violence and death. The swords purpose is to defeat worthy opponents and elevate its user to the greatest warrior ever known. Silversong is very loyal to its wielder. Once attuned it cannot be attuned to another, unless its current user dies or the new user defeats the previous user in battle. Silversong loves nothing more than a good fight and a good song. If the sword goes unused for three days or more, without seeing any fighting or hearing any singing, a conflict between it and its wielder occurs at the next dawn. DC 16 Charisma saving throw. *History.* Silversong was once used as a symbol of power, reserved for the greatest warrior in the yearly competitions between the greatest warriors of the Summer Court and the Gloaming Court. It was lost to a mortal on the material plane long ago, when the current champion lost a duel with a mortal warrior. Since then it has seen many users, all of which have fallen in glorious battle. Obviously, when you use a bonus action to transform it the blade will sing: _"You've got the touch! I've got the power!"_ I'm hoping it'll be a useful item both for occasional advice to new players and for a bit of humor in what will probably be a dark campaign, seeing as - if they want to continue past my custom intro adventure - I'll transition into Curse of Strahd. Too bad it'll probably be weeks before I have time to run the game. :(

Anyone remember Steve from Dark Cloud 1?

*THIS SHALL NOT STAND*

That's actually a interesting concept. Maybe later or in a different campaign when he's older, add negative effects to the blade so it's not as op and more of a gamble. Not deck of many level negative effects, of course, but small things. Like have a opposite for each positive. Instead of fire, something silly and overall harmless like smoke comes out. Instead of a physical shield, maybe an amusing toy shield appears, instead of a temp dragon, a adorable lizard appears. Things which are slightly inconvenient but could still actually be useful if used creatively. Smoke to cover a attack, a toy shield to trick them into lowering their guard, a adorable lizard distraction.

@@RikkuTakanashi I don't think the power is so much of a problem, I'd say having an extra roll on every attack would get annoying eventually once you get multiple attacks each turn though.

i'm just going to casually steal this idea

I love the idea of that sword. I’ll probably tweak it so there is one crystal in the sword to start. There will be several empty crystal mounts to find and add to the sword as the player gains levels.

I like it, I steal your idea :D

I like it. It gets them to participate in the RP aspect of the game, as well. And honestly, who doesn't love a good (bad) pun?!

Raymond Hames what if it wasn't witty

*exiting a cave to outside where the sun is high* Its getting a little *puts on glasses* bright out here

That’s awesome, gonna steal it sorry

Abelhawk lol I had a similar experience it was less op thoe you rolled a d20 and for every one off you were to a 20 you moved 50 feet away from your target it had a range of only 2000 feet and on your plane so it was less op if it worked it was a ring also

He likes from how op it is, but the con of the item is so great that anyone would be very cautelous with using it

@Sean Fisher I'm DMing my more experienced players though a very long campaign and I game them this little beauty. Its fun but so evil at the same time. My fav item. I found it on the wiki. Staff, legendary (requires attunement by a spellcaster) This staff has 7 charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend 1 of its charges and target a creature up to 60 feet away from you. Roll d100 and consult the following table to discover what happens. The staff regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the staff's last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the staff crumbles into dust and is destroyed. If no target is designated, the staff automatically targets the nearest available creature within 60 ft, or yourself if no other creature is available. If any creature dies as a result of using the Wabbajack and is not brought back to life by other means, it is restored to its original state after 1d4 weeks at the place where it died. Wabbajack Table % (d100) Result 1-8 You deal 6d6 nonlethal fire damage to yourself and catch on fire. 9-14 You transform the target creature into a wraith under the GM's control for 10 minutes. 15-17 You transform the target creature into a metal bucket for 1d4 hours. 18-23 You transform yourself into a chair for 1d4 days. 24-27 The target creature must succeed a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or take 1d20 necrotic damage. 28-33 The target creature must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be knocked unconscious for 1 minute. 34-42 All creatures within a 100-foot radius of the target take 1 radiant damage and the target takes necrotic damage equal to the number of creatures affected. 43-49 Make a DC 25 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you suffer 4d10 nonlethal damage. On a success, you gain 100 temporary hit points for 1 minute. 50 Roll 1d6-1. You may cast any one spell of this level once within the next 24 hours without expending a spell slot or material components. If the spell is not cast at the end of that period, it is wasted. 51-59 The target must make DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 2d10 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The target also catches on fire. If a creature succeeds on its saving throw, you take the remainder of the damage. 60-71 You cast the polymorph spell, transforming the target into a rat. 72-73 Make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you take 100 damage of a damage type of your choice. On a success, you take 10 damage of a damage type your choice. 74-80 The target creature must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be polymorphed into a flumph for 1d4 rounds. 81-86 Each creature within 5 feet of the target takes 2d10 radiant damage. Make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you also take 2d10 radiant damage. On a success, you deal an additional 4d10 necrotic damage to the same targets you affected before. 87-90 You transform the target creature into a magical +3 longsword you are automatically proficient in. The creature is completely aware of its surroundings and the happenings while it is the sword. This effect wears off after 24 hours. 91-99 Make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, you take 2d10 fire damage. On a successful save, you resist fire damage until you finish a long rest. 100 The target creature must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be polymorphed into a pile of 1000 platinum pieces for 24 hours. All of the platinum vanishes at the end of the duration and the creature reappears where the effect took place.

Abelhawk Did you use it more than once?

Mystogan .Ravenheart The Wabbajack? Isn’t that Sheogorath’s artifact, from The Elder Scrolls? I wasn’t aware it was on the D&D wiki. Edit: Okay. That was an “April Fools” homebrew page, with a warning that it may destroy game balance. The item is, indeed, taken from The Elder Scrolls. It is not a “real” D&D item. (Although, if anything were to cross realities, it would be this.)

OrangeyChocolate is that a terry pratchet reference? "Who watches the watchmen?"

It's a very, very old Latin phrase that, even today, gets applied to police in discussions about surveillance and abuse of power. "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" -> "Who watches the watchmen themselves?"/"Who watches the watchmen?"

holy shit hahaha, this is awesome

i wish my players would think of things like that. Instead i give them dozens of interesting things to play with and they just wanna keep hitting things with sticks and fireballs.

And thus I dub this object "Cloak of Constriction".

zoid5 Using it as a weapon is literally the first thing I thought of when you described it. Sounds about right for a first-time GM.

Players will weaponize anything.

So how did it clean itself? Did everything that wasn't kitty litter dissolve into nothingness once a day? If so... It'd be far from useless

@@justinjacobs1501 someone decided to store their lucky turd in the box and it was gone the next time they checked on it

I want that item in real life...

PRESTIDIGITATION!!!!!

Well, they don't do much against enchanted cloacks, admittedly.

Good point, Matteo Bortolotti. Giant moths? I'm a believer in all items taking wear and tear damage, even magical ones.

what if it isn't metal like a wand, staff, cloak a bone (or any non-metal) ring?. . . and magic armor or a magic weapon that can rust isn't that great of an item, the whole point of a magic weapon is it is special . . . if it can be destroyed by simply rusting (a legendary or even a very rare or just rare metal weapon or armor shouldn't be that vulnerable) it kind of sucks

Althought, the good old-fashioned thieves can also do the trick.

Matteo Bortolotti the reason their magical item stops working could be the next adventure hook. A devil has stolen the items soul. An awakening of a forgotten Deity has taken back the power imbued within the item. The greatest thing about pen and paper RPGs is the freedom to mold the world 😀

Give it to an ettin and watch the conflict ensue..

...Did it blow him a kiss when he woke up?

Amazing

David Hyland is this a fire emblem sacred stones reference? Cause if it is, I appreciate more FE fans putting FE references in DnD.

Or acid damage against a Clay Golem, then that thing's just Russian Roulette (Clay Golems heal from acid damage instead)

I have a similar one for a Barbarian that uses warhammers. For each kill, the weapon gains a charge. The charges are represented by a gem manifesting onto the head of the hammer per charge. The wielder can expend any number of charges onto a single attack and gain 3d8 of a random damage type amongst 6. Effectively a smite that builds over time and incentivizes finishing off an enemy and combo into another one. Really fun to see the player mess around with it Edit: spelling is hard leave me alone

Those are great!

That arrow is downright cruel.

Party ended up hiring an NCP ranger. They were fighting an evil wizard, who transfered his soul into a mythir golem and wanted to conquer the realm. Party didn't tell the NPC about the arrow's magic, but told to shoot in on their mark. It destroyed the wizard, but ranger (who was in the back in a sniping position) left before they returned. He later became party rival, constantly ruining their plans, reputation, setting traps and in the end made a deal with an archfey to control an army of beasts, seeking revenge on the party for tricking him into killing his true love. Those players learned a valuable lesson, had to resurrect their fighter and lost their rogue.

demilung that's rough, but it made for quite the story.

An idea I've always had is: The Ring of Fire (song reference) - cursed - all fire based spell are maxed out - immune to cold damage - can only sing like old country songs (no normal talking) - sets you on fire, gets worse over time - wearer may not remove (another party member must take it off your hand) - optionally it may unlock extra spells/discount fire spells The lore is basically it is tapped into a major heat source (like the actual sun) but the destruction of another item in the set cursed the remainder of the set. And the actual benefits should be op but still ballanced. Ideally a player starts with it or with a desire to obtain it and a longterm goal of breaking the curse.

I don't know that much about Magic Horns but I know a guy who's basically an expert, let me write him a letter, he should be here in a few days.

I've actually used that ingame where a merchant will have people who deal with certain specialities like magical rings, magical armour etc. and contact them first before buying (they don't want to get ripped off). Not every town is going to have a merchant that knows how to discern magical items but the Merchants guild would likely provide a list of contacts to them of people who do. Hey there's a reason they pay their guild membership!

By "barter", I'm assuming he meant "haggle"...

haggle is what commoners do, barter is what nobles do.

in my last campaign i had a shop called "pawn of the dead" where a dwarf zombie pick harris, his son big hogg, and his old man- they never knew what was gonna walk through that door. pick harris may not know much about magic decks of cards, but he had a buddy who specializes in shit that derails campaigns

Nathanos49 "Aaron A Aardvark 078654....."

better yet, They should pay him to do audio books of DnD. EVEN BETTER idea, an app like Siri but we'll call it DM, and you can ask it to bring up rules and it'll be Matt's voice.

Do phone books still exist?

@@Ser_Nathor Shit we need to get Matt Mercer in on this idea.

@@r.r815 varies from county to county. Depends on whether they still budget for it I guess.

Benedikt Geierhofer only a truly evil man would give that to their party

You always roll a n-n-nineteen when using the d20, but somehow the save needed is always a 20

This is the most evil thing of have heard of ever. Ever!

Isn't that basically a disintegrate spell?

It's something a non-spellcaster can use.

Yeah a consumable item that replicates the effect of a spell.

OP af

That is called an Arrow of Mass Destruction, and it's one of the most popular items in existence. As I recall the earliest I've seen someone mention it was from a 2nd Edition D&D thread

Joey Enochs Should never underestimate the creativity of PC’s

Y’all know what Berserk is

Wait... so does he have a demon arm now or just a sword where his arm once was?

Sounds like my bf's character and his demon sword adventures lol

@@ShapCast Sounds to me like he has a sword for an arm and he's a demon magnet.

thats so very evil, i love it.

I gave a party member a Great Axe +2, but it turned out it was cursed with the soul of it's previous owner. It always complained when it didn't get any blood to drink and groaned in pain when the player sharpened it. It was pretty fun, and the interactions between the player and the item were pretty hilarious.

Sounds like a (special) sword of Morrowind, pretty cool!

My friends and I are playing a much less than serious campaign using the Final Fantasy variant of Pathfinder. One of said friends has a sentient sword with a few trait that he rolled randomly off of a chart. One of these traits is 'screams when excited'. I play a Chrono-dancer with a very stripper-esqe physique. The damn sword will not shut up.

Take it one step beyond. After a while, the sword starts to admonish you for using it. After you kill a bandit that was trying to rob you, for instance: "He had a family too, you know." "Great, now who's going to feed his kids?!" That sorta stuff.

One time a DM gave us a sentient greataxe+3, it loved bloodshed, at first we liked it because it would sing to us in dwarven and go "WEEEEEEE" when killing someobody then it took control of the barbarian, we liked less that moment

you may want to be careful with that because if you turn a bag of holding inside out ALL items within it fall out of it . . . turning it inside out doesn't destroy the bag either just put it right again and it is good as new . . . if you have a smart thinking player and someone on the run just gives it to them they could want to know what is in it right away and either by sheer luck, research or meta-gaming (which could be shot down by the DM) they could end up with a legendary item way before you want them to . . . come up with a back up plan just in case would be my advice

Or he could just tell them "That's not how the bag works." Problem solved, argument done, Legendary Item kept secret until the DM reveals it! :D

Kaipyro67ALT if he just told them thats not how the bag works that would be bad DMING. Also nost DM's alow the player to try what ever and if it doenst work it doesnt work. No DM just flat out tells people "thats not how that works"

why not? It is his world and if bag of holding is not common object in it then they will have to research it first. Otherwise it would be meta-gaming as their characters have no prior experience with said bag.

Why not have the legendary weapon be in a secret pocket that won't open unless you KNOW it's there? It might be detectable using magic though, as to not make it OP. But also if the players are dumbwitted they may accidentally find it thanks to a detectionspell or the likes in some other instance.

Absolutely ^.^ Whether it's actually useless or not depends on your players. Creative players have a tendency to find unexpected uses for even the most useless of joke items.

I want this in real life

Uh useless!???

@@ericaheathrow7085 Its still a magical musical instrument for a bard....

If magic is part of the item, it is considered magical. Though I don’t know who’d call that useless

Also, it killed him.

What? It killed him?

When Craven Edge hits a foe, on a failed DC12 Con saving throw it takes 1 point of strength from the target and gives it to the wielder, until the wielder has 25 strength. Once it gets there, the owner deals 2D6 necrotic damage on all successful hits until their next short rest. When they take a short rest while at 25 strength, they must succeed a DC16 Con saving throw or have their own soul devoured by the blade and instantly die.

Aren't there restoration spells that would replace an eyeball or two?

Tony A There was no restoration magic in the setting (it was a Weird West style setting) and all magical items came with a price like that, some minor, some major.

Too harsh for a non-killer campaign

So basically Izanagi, but reverse.

@@andrewpenn1145 Does Izanagi create life by growing extra eyes on the user?

I feel like that would be a sword of infinite knowledge depending on how old it is.

then*

@@delcidkidv250 That could be infinite torment, too... Unless your a genocidal maniac...

That's instant character death...

argella1300 That luck item would be problematic long term. It would be good if it turned your 1 into a 20 but your next 20 turns into a 1. It would give the player some risk and reward.

Simo Not necessarily. Remember that legendary monsters can still use a legendary action to dodge or block any action they like, and they'll get 3 of these a battle. Increasing the item's power to, say, make it immune to legendary action could be interesting past a certain level.

I personally would have the luck item allow the player to reroll the natural 1 and if you want maybe change it to 3 times per week.

Isn`t that basically what a focus does ?

@@tristan9998 No

@@tristan9998 not even in the slightest.

I think it's a good idea. It doesn't look OP to me.

Pyrrhic Loser this is pretty good, so long as you keep the other damage types spread out enough for it not to learn them all too fast.

Pyrrhic Loser That's really creative!

Good, but make it take an action to switch damage types; this will make them have to be strategic about when to change it, and prevents them from going too overboard in battle.

Only if you can only change it on a long rest.

So, God?

When he said that i was immediately reminded of the current CR campaign. Spoilers Caleb had a "necklace/shackle" of no magic forced on his neck in the happy fun ball. He kept it and has been slowly tinkering with it to make it usable against a certain wizard. He finally got it working but since it requires a contested grapple check he gave it to beau to use for him. I like the idea of repairing an item you had used against you and reaching the point where you give yourself a quest to find a missing peice of some kind.

That would be so cool.

Aren't players already extremely obsessed with their character's fashion

+A Pathetic Lie Some are (so am I) but most people I play with do not really care about their characters fashion.

Most bards have that characterisic anyway...

Bob, from Dresedn Files?

Greyhawk God's are so much better. The dice of Olidammara are great.

'Taco Tuesday'? . . . a General Sam fan i take it, LOL "you're hurt, here let me stab you to make it better" . . . those swords sound gimmicky and silly more than they are useful

There is a mod in skyrim, the Random Axe of Kindness, it is an axe, that heals who is hit.

A. What does the Sword of Taco Tuesday do? B. get ready for him to use them in some stupid, inventive way to kill your bbeg, like hitting himself with the rapier so he never dies, choking the bbeg to death under a sea of pigs, or sticking some metal to him and throwing the magnet sword over a cliff.