I am a strong believer that making your own magic items is much more fun and entertaining then using the ones in the DMG. I mostly use those as a baseline to draw inspiration from. I like almost every wondrous item, but I often modify weapons and armor. I really like the freedom, and often tailor the item to my characters.
There was some controversy at the game table recently, over a "Stupid/useless" magic item.
I ran a kobold encounter. Basically, some kobolds had attacked a gnomish village, and gotten their hands on some cool weapons and magic gear. When looking in the armory, one kobold found a suit of plate armor (Which he was most definitely not proficient with) and a vorpal blowgun. Instead of chopping someones head off on a Nat 20, it blows their head up. The encounter wasn't super deadly, and the players took care of it. Since the Kobold was just a bit too small for his plate armor, he got disadvantage on all attack rolls. I didn't end up blowing any of the players heads off, and they won the day. A quick detect magic spell deemed the blowgun magical, so the players snagged it and when on with their day.
The surviving gnomes reclaimed the town, and through the chaos were none the wiser that their prized blowgun was missing.
The controversy started when the players were experimenting with the blowgun. They didn't really see that it was capable of. The kobold was slaughtered by the fourth round, and all of its shots missed (Due to decently high PC AC, and it having disadvantage). This is when they got kind of mad. The blowgun is just a regular blowgun, but with the vorpal property, not the +3 attack/damage bonus. I was kind of expecting for them to return it to the gnomes when they were done, after realizing they had no use for it. Maybe the gnome would give them something in return. But the party wanted otherwise.
The blowgun only does 1+Dex mod on a hit. By now most of the party has decent weapons, and the one ranged character already has a longbow much more powerful than the measly blowgun. The party was mad because I gave them an extremely underpowered weapon with a legendary property. They straight up wanted me to hand them a vorpal greatsword. That would break my game, and probably make them even more unhappy.
It started as a little joke, something stupid that I just wanted to throw into my game. Now I'm afraid of my other ideas I haven't tried yet. Things like a magical meat tenderizer (Its a beefed up light hammer), a monk who fights by hitting people with a grappling hook, and a chefs cleaver (Reskinned dagger). I want to have the freedom to put what ever I want in my games, but it causes a sense of conflict at the table.
I have a magically enchanted pillow in my game that ensures the cool side is always up providing maximum comfort in sleep. The only magic on it is to have a cool side. If there was something like a nightmare dream situation, I'd give them advantage on resisting it under its use but that's about it. Have fun with your enchants.
If they want to whine about it, fluff it in as a students project they had worked on and won a competition with. The base weapon is nothing, but the mastery over the actual enchanting was prodigious and they can highly respect the craft. Make that enchanter part of the game so the party can at least have some hope of finding the super awesomely amazing Rambo machete with a throwing property of teleporting boomerang that causes armor reduction, poison, tears from remembering a long lost dog, and the ability to speak abyssal in their targets but that's all they can speak from now on therefore causing everyone to think they are possessed.
Don't be upset by your parties reaction to what essentially is a fun gimic weapon that is capable in it's own right. If anything it flushes out the world more because magic items are not based on this one group of adventurers. Keep up with your ideas, the tenderizer could ass bonuses as well to cooking on a performance or survival role. The monk fighting with a grappling hook sounds awesome and I suggest you look into an old film called "Master of the flying Guillotine".
I am a big fan of custom magic items too. I think it is fine (the vorpal blowgun), but different tables vary. I would not give them a vorpal greatsword.
If your players are like I am when I play, or my other players when I DM, we harvest and loot most enemies we encounter. And then with some creative thinking, I try to come up with some custom magic items out of it.
Two examples:
As a player in a group, we killed a Shadow Drake, which turns invisible in darkness. We gathered a bunch of scales, hide, etc, and were carrying it for a while. Then I came up with the Cloak of Shadow Protection, which grants half cover in dim light or darkness. We made some additional skill checks, and paid a leather worker 200gp each to make them.
As a DM, my players killed a Nimblewright which has constant advantage on saving throws against magic. When my players salvaged its corpse, I told them they could make rings or amulets that had part of that ability. One of the party members is a jeweler, so a few checks later, and they have 3 Rings of Spell Protection.
There is absolutely room for quirky, fun items in games. But there does need to be a balance. From a player perspective, the majority of "reward" type items should be, in some way, useful. That doesn't mean powerful. But there should be some way to get some benefit to the individual or the party out of them, even if it's a mundane thing.
In the case you've described, the Vorpal Blowgun was kinda worthless to the party. The ranged characters had better weapons. The spell casters weren't about to spend a Feat to go get the proficiency to use the Blowgun correctly. So it's effectively just another form of gold for the party to spend, but given the party you've described it kinda sounds like they have a lot of that, too.
If anything, the party might have not thought a lot about it one way or another, and you might have made it seem special, and now the party has just latched onto that.
It is your job to make the Equipment fit the NPCs who are using it. I would even randomise treasures in a treasure hoard. Your players are not shoping, they kill and loot. You don‘t get a selection of custom-fit equipment there. Thats what shops, blacksmiths and magicians are for.
If your party insist on every magic item being a strict upgrade to what they already have then they will not be finding many magic items. From a tactical perspective giving them items that will only be situationally superior to what they already have makes for some interesting combat decisions, and I am making narrative use of items that are outright liabilities. Items that are "of no use" to them could also be sold, given as bribes, hidden away in case they lose their primary weapon...
So I think that considering it useless shows they far too dismissive of an interesting item, also as someone else mentioned, having the whole world revolve around the party is a bit peculiar in terms of world building.
I really like the idea of killing monsters and salvaging the remains. I’ve always wanted to play a halfling lore bard who went to college to find the secrets of cooking, only to be sucked into an adventuring party. There is enough support with the gourmand feat, and the special use of cooks untensils presented in XGE. I think the same could be applied to an artificer.
Maybe I can point that out to the players. If they want a vorpal greatsword, go to the fallen human kingdom, fight through a fallen desert temple, acquire a very rare +3 greatsword, then go to the center of the elemental plane of fire, through both weapons into the sacred forge, and the enchantment will be bound. Boom vorpal greatsword.
I’ll tell the players, if they want a magic item, they better go craft it themselves.
So a ranged weapon with a 5% chance of instant kills, and they are complaining? It's a perfect weapon for the situation. Assuming the gnomes are tinkerers it's exactly what you would find. I think it has a great place in your game and the players need to adjust or sell or trade it, it's not your job to play jolly old saint Nick.
I think your players are acting like spoiled brats. >D
Personally, I think the whole thing would have been great fun and a lot of laughs.
I totally agree - if they want a something like that (a specific super powerful magic item), then they can go ahead and start a campaign to find/create one. :)
It is your job to make the Equipment fit the NPCs who are using it. I would even randomise treasures in a treasure hoard. Your players are not shoping, they kill and loot. You don‘t get a selection of custom-fit equipment there. Thats what shops, blacksmiths and magicians are for.
In general it's important to have periodic upgrades, but this specific treasure reads as plot device / Goodwill toward services from the gnomes that the players now have as a toy instead.
Your party needs to lighten up. Also, the blowgun has a 5% chance to insta-kill most enemies. So when up against an enemy with low AC but insane health and only one head... Just use the blowgun. It won't beat them in damage but if you can land a crit, then boom, they win. There are multiple ways to grant advantage to the blowgun attack to increase crit-potential, too. So in what way is this a useless item? And hey, blowguns are great ways to impart knockout poisons too...
Why not keep it and if they ever get a lot of gold they can maybe find somebody who can transfer the property into a different weapon? Your party really need to start being grateful and use their imagination. They've been given an instant-win item. They should be ecstatic.
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Depends on the tone of your games. My campaigns tend to be set in gritty, more realistic settings, which would contrast too strongly with sillier stuff.
Having said that, I have had comical campaigns. I remember one of the PCs found a magical bow that would release its string at exactly the right moment, all but guaranteeing a hit. The bow also had an ego, and was incredibly cavalier. He would shout out racial slurs and personal insults whilst calling for the charge, literally trying to pull the thief character who wielded him along. He was less of a problem after we gagged him.
What Im getting at is that setting is everything, and unless your setting is dark and somber, theres easily a place for the sillier stuff.
What survivor101 said. Depends on your game and the tone, background, lore, etc. In my games, typically, making a magic item more complex than a potion or scroll is such an undertaking that making something trivial simply isn't worth the effort. It'd be like those Rube Goldberg machines; an incredibly complicated device with multiple steps that takes up an entire room, has dozens of moving parts, and does something like stir your coffee.
Assuming you're doing anything like the 'typical' D&D game, if all else fails, remind your players that they can just sell the thing if they don't want it.
Custom magical items are great even if they are ridiculous. Hell it makes it more fun a lot of the time. I always get a kick out of watching the players come up with interesting ways to use the items.
In my current campaign, stupid magic items are pretty frequent. There's a shop that I keep having pop up that has a bunch of oddities of various usefulness. My party seems to really appreciate this and can get a good laugh out of the more funny and useless items. I think they have a great place in the world and players need to just learn that not every item needs to give them a huge bonus.
My favorite stupid magic item is a sword with a chicken-shaped hilt, that whenever a creature is attacked with it, each chicken within 60 feet is automatically frightened for 1 minute.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
My favorite stupid magic item is a sword with a chicken-shaped hilt, that whenever a creature is attacked with it, each chicken within 60 feet is automatically frightened for 1 minute.
Link would have loved that sword in the Zelda games.
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
My favorite stupid magic item is a sword with a chicken-shaped hilt, that whenever a creature is attacked with it, each chicken within 60 feet is automatically frightened for 1 minute.
Link would have loved that sword in the Zelda games.
It's called the "Sword of Chicken Chickening".
I gave it to my players at like level 7, and they said, and I quote, "What the heck am I supposed to do with this?"
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
My favorite stupid magic item is a sword with a chicken-shaped hilt, that whenever a creature is attacked with it, each chicken within 60 feet is automatically frightened for 1 minute.
Link would have loved that sword in the Zelda games.
It's called the "Sword of Chicken Chickening".
I gave it to my players at like level 7, and they said, and I quote, "What the heck am I supposed to do with this?"
I am a strong believer that making your own magic items is much more fun and entertaining then using the ones in the DMG. I mostly use those as a baseline to draw inspiration from. I like almost every wondrous item, but I often modify weapons and armor. I really like the freedom, and often tailor the item to my characters.
There was some controversy at the game table recently, over a "Stupid/useless" magic item.
I ran a kobold encounter. Basically, some kobolds had attacked a gnomish village, and gotten their hands on some cool weapons and magic gear. When looking in the armory, one kobold found a suit of plate armor (Which he was most definitely not proficient with) and a vorpal blowgun. Instead of chopping someones head off on a Nat 20, it blows their head up. The encounter wasn't super deadly, and the players took care of it. Since the Kobold was just a bit too small for his plate armor, he got disadvantage on all attack rolls. I didn't end up blowing any of the players heads off, and they won the day. A quick detect magic spell deemed the blowgun magical, so the players snagged it and when on with their day.
The surviving gnomes reclaimed the town, and through the chaos were none the wiser that their prized blowgun was missing.
The controversy started when the players were experimenting with the blowgun. They didn't really see that it was capable of. The kobold was slaughtered by the fourth round, and all of its shots missed (Due to decently high PC AC, and it having disadvantage). This is when they got kind of mad. The blowgun is just a regular blowgun, but with the vorpal property, not the +3 attack/damage bonus. I was kind of expecting for them to return it to the gnomes when they were done, after realizing they had no use for it. Maybe the gnome would give them something in return. But the party wanted otherwise.
The blowgun only does 1+Dex mod on a hit. By now most of the party has decent weapons, and the one ranged character already has a longbow much more powerful than the measly blowgun. The party was mad because I gave them an extremely underpowered weapon with a legendary property. They straight up wanted me to hand them a vorpal greatsword. That would break my game, and probably make them even more unhappy.
It started as a little joke, something stupid that I just wanted to throw into my game. Now I'm afraid of my other ideas I haven't tried yet. Things like a magical meat tenderizer (Its a beefed up light hammer), a monk who fights by hitting people with a grappling hook, and a chefs cleaver (Reskinned dagger). I want to have the freedom to put what ever I want in my games, but it causes a sense of conflict at the table.
In my opinion your players need to grow up, smell the flowers and enjoy life.
Not everything in a treasure horde is going to be the exact special thing they asked Santa for. Have some fun.
I have a magically enchanted pillow in my game that ensures the cool side is always up providing maximum comfort in sleep. The only magic on it is to have a cool side. If there was something like a nightmare dream situation, I'd give them advantage on resisting it under its use but that's about it. Have fun with your enchants.
If they want to whine about it, fluff it in as a students project they had worked on and won a competition with. The base weapon is nothing, but the mastery over the actual enchanting was prodigious and they can highly respect the craft. Make that enchanter part of the game so the party can at least have some hope of finding the super awesomely amazing Rambo machete with a throwing property of teleporting boomerang that causes armor reduction, poison, tears from remembering a long lost dog, and the ability to speak abyssal in their targets but that's all they can speak from now on therefore causing everyone to think they are possessed.
Don't be upset by your parties reaction to what essentially is a fun gimic weapon that is capable in it's own right. If anything it flushes out the world more because magic items are not based on this one group of adventurers. Keep up with your ideas, the tenderizer could ass bonuses as well to cooking on a performance or survival role. The monk fighting with a grappling hook sounds awesome and I suggest you look into an old film called "Master of the flying Guillotine".
I am a big fan of custom magic items too. I think it is fine (the vorpal blowgun), but different tables vary. I would not give them a vorpal greatsword.
If your players are like I am when I play, or my other players when I DM, we harvest and loot most enemies we encounter. And then with some creative thinking, I try to come up with some custom magic items out of it.
Two examples:
As a player in a group, we killed a Shadow Drake, which turns invisible in darkness. We gathered a bunch of scales, hide, etc, and were carrying it for a while. Then I came up with the Cloak of Shadow Protection, which grants half cover in dim light or darkness. We made some additional skill checks, and paid a leather worker 200gp each to make them.
As a DM, my players killed a Nimblewright which has constant advantage on saving throws against magic. When my players salvaged its corpse, I told them they could make rings or amulets that had part of that ability. One of the party members is a jeweler, so a few checks later, and they have 3 Rings of Spell Protection.
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There is absolutely room for quirky, fun items in games. But there does need to be a balance. From a player perspective, the majority of "reward" type items should be, in some way, useful. That doesn't mean powerful. But there should be some way to get some benefit to the individual or the party out of them, even if it's a mundane thing.
In the case you've described, the Vorpal Blowgun was kinda worthless to the party. The ranged characters had better weapons. The spell casters weren't about to spend a Feat to go get the proficiency to use the Blowgun correctly. So it's effectively just another form of gold for the party to spend, but given the party you've described it kinda sounds like they have a lot of that, too.
If anything, the party might have not thought a lot about it one way or another, and you might have made it seem special, and now the party has just latched onto that.
It is your job to make the Equipment fit the NPCs who are using it. I would even randomise treasures in a treasure hoard. Your players are not shoping, they kill and loot. You don‘t get a selection of custom-fit equipment there. Thats what shops, blacksmiths and magicians are for.
Attack: [roll]3d20dl2+6[/roll] Damage: [roll](if([roll:-1:critical], =0, 1d8, 2{1d8}.expand()))+4[/roll] Sneakattack: [roll](if([roll:-2:critical], =0, 2d6, 2{2d6}.expand()))[/roll]If your party insist on every magic item being a strict upgrade to what they already have then they will not be finding many magic items. From a tactical perspective giving them items that will only be situationally superior to what they already have makes for some interesting combat decisions, and I am making narrative use of items that are outright liabilities. Items that are "of no use" to them could also be sold, given as bribes, hidden away in case they lose their primary weapon...
So I think that considering it useless shows they far too dismissive of an interesting item, also as someone else mentioned, having the whole world revolve around the party is a bit peculiar in terms of world building.
I really like the idea of killing monsters and salvaging the remains. I’ve always wanted to play a halfling lore bard who went to college to find the secrets of cooking, only to be sucked into an adventuring party. There is enough support with the gourmand feat, and the special use of cooks untensils presented in XGE. I think the same could be applied to an artificer.
Maybe I can point that out to the players. If they want a vorpal greatsword, go to the fallen human kingdom, fight through a fallen desert temple, acquire a very rare +3 greatsword, then go to the center of the elemental plane of fire, through both weapons into the sacred forge, and the enchantment will be bound. Boom vorpal greatsword.
I’ll tell the players, if they want a magic item, they better go craft it themselves.
So a ranged weapon with a 5% chance of instant kills, and they are complaining? It's a perfect weapon for the situation. Assuming the gnomes are tinkerers it's exactly what you would find. I think it has a great place in your game and the players need to adjust or sell or trade it, it's not your job to play jolly old saint Nick.
I think your players are acting like spoiled brats. >D
Personally, I think the whole thing would have been great fun and a lot of laughs.
I totally agree - if they want a something like that (a specific super powerful magic item), then they can go ahead and start a campaign to find/create one. :)
In general it's important to have periodic upgrades, but this specific treasure reads as plot device / Goodwill toward services from the gnomes that the players now have as a toy instead.
Your party needs to lighten up. Also, the blowgun has a 5% chance to insta-kill most enemies. So when up against an enemy with low AC but insane health and only one head... Just use the blowgun. It won't beat them in damage but if you can land a crit, then boom, they win. There are multiple ways to grant advantage to the blowgun attack to increase crit-potential, too. So in what way is this a useless item? And hey, blowguns are great ways to impart knockout poisons too...
Why not keep it and if they ever get a lot of gold they can maybe find somebody who can transfer the property into a different weapon? Your party really need to start being grateful and use their imagination. They've been given an instant-win item. They should be ecstatic.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Depends on the tone of your games. My campaigns tend to be set in gritty, more realistic settings, which would contrast too strongly with sillier stuff.
Having said that, I have had comical campaigns. I remember one of the PCs found a magical bow that would release its string at exactly the right moment, all but guaranteeing a hit. The bow also had an ego, and was incredibly cavalier. He would shout out racial slurs and personal insults whilst calling for the charge, literally trying to pull the thief character who wielded him along. He was less of a problem after we gagged him.
What Im getting at is that setting is everything, and unless your setting is dark and somber, theres easily a place for the sillier stuff.
What survivor101 said. Depends on your game and the tone, background, lore, etc. In my games, typically, making a magic item more complex than a potion or scroll is such an undertaking that making something trivial simply isn't worth the effort. It'd be like those Rube Goldberg machines; an incredibly complicated device with multiple steps that takes up an entire room, has dozens of moving parts, and does something like stir your coffee.
Assuming you're doing anything like the 'typical' D&D game, if all else fails, remind your players that they can just sell the thing if they don't want it.
Custom magical items are great even if they are ridiculous. Hell it makes it more fun a lot of the time. I always get a kick out of watching the players come up with interesting ways to use the items.
In my current campaign, stupid magic items are pretty frequent. There's a shop that I keep having pop up that has a bunch of oddities of various usefulness. My party seems to really appreciate this and can get a good laugh out of the more funny and useless items. I think they have a great place in the world and players need to just learn that not every item needs to give them a huge bonus.
My favorite stupid magic item is a sword with a chicken-shaped hilt, that whenever a creature is attacked with it, each chicken within 60 feet is automatically frightened for 1 minute.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Link would have loved that sword in the Zelda games.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
It's called the "Sword of Chicken Chickening".
I gave it to my players at like level 7, and they said, and I quote, "What the heck am I supposed to do with this?"
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Scare chickens with it. Obv
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