# Magic Item Descriptions
Each name/characteristic includes its action type, usage, description, power. Quirks can be optionally assigned based on the GM’s ruling.
# Arrow, Crossbow Bolt, Slingstone
In general, ammunition is one-use, hit or miss, and, like other one-use items, ammunition doesn’t confer quirks on its user.
# Default Bonus
Expands crit range by 1 (adventurer, champion, and epic tier, always a 1-point expansion rather than 1 point per tier). Ammunition takes the bonus of the weapon that shoots it, just like mundane ammunition does.
# Adventurer
# Arrowroot
When you hit with an attack using this ammunition, the target is stuck until the end of its next turn as roots burst forth from the ground to trip and entangle it.
# Assassin’s Arrow
+1d10 damage if you hit with this arrow during a surprise round. If you’re a rogue, you may also apply your sneak attack damage if you hit with this arrow at any time.
# Biting Skull
Arrows and bolts with this property have the skulls of rats, snakes or other vermin attached just behind the arrowhead. Sling-stones with this property are actually tiny chattering skulls. The animated skulls bite and shriek distractingly when they strike; a creature hit with this ammunition has its Initiative reduced by 4.
# Bitter
A target struck by one of these barbed missiles takes a -2 penalty to all saves until the end of their next turn.
# Blackthorn
When you hit with an attack using this ammunition, the target becomes stuck until the end of its next turn, as thorny vines explosively grow from its wound.
# Bolt of the Legion
You deal +1d6 damage on a hit. Any allies who make ranged attacks at the same target you just hit also deal +1d6 damage on a hit. This effect ends as soon as an ally misses with a ranged attack, or at the start of your next turn.
# Briarfoot
A thicket of thorny bushes grows around the target of this ammunition, or around the area where the ammunition strikes. Hit or miss, the target and each creature engaged with it, or next to it, takes 3 damage from the thorns the next time those creatures move (including popping free) without teleporting, 6 damage at champion tier, and 9 damage at epic tier.
# Demonseeker
When you attack a creature with the demon type with this ammunition, hit or miss, the target take a –2 penalty to its next d20 roll.
# Dragonbolt
When you attack a dragon with this ammunition, target PD instead of AC. On a hit against a dragon, the attack deals double damage (triple damage on a crit). In addition, on a natural odd hit against a dragon, it loses flight until the end of its next turn; and on a natural even hit against a dragon, it’s hampered until the end of its next turn.
# Dreamshot
This ammunition is psychically imbued. When you hit with a natural 16+ attack roll using this ammunition, make a ranged basic attack as a free action against a different enemy that is nearby the original target. The second attack targets MD and does psychic damage.
# Earthbinding Arrow
A creature struck by an earthbinding arrow loses the flight ability and cannot fly until it makes a successful save at the start of its turn. An earthbinding arrow can only affect creatures of the same tier as itself, or lower, and the difficulty of the save depends on whether the target of the arrow or the shooter is higher level. A higher level target only needs an easy save, a same-level target needs a normal save, a lower level target needs a difficult save.
# Elf Shot
If you’re attacking from ambush, you get a +5 bonus to your attack roll.
# Enchanter’s Arrow
A glass arrow forged in silver fire, with a glimmer of that flame still within. When you hit an enemy with an attack using this ammunition, the target is vulnerable to full recovery arcane spells until the end of the battle.
# Energy
This ammunition has been enchanted with one of the following types of energy: acid, cold, fire, radiant, lightning, thunder. An attack using this ammunition deals that type of damage.
# Explosive
Hit or miss, this projectile does 1d6 damage to any one other foe near to the original target, 2d6 to two other enemies at champion tier, and 3d6 to three other enemies at epic tier.
# Flintfire Bolt
When you attack using this bolt and the natural roll is equal to or less than the escalation die, the target takes ongoing fire damage equal to twice the attack roll, triple the roll at champion tier, and five times the roll at epic tier.
# Forceful Impact
When you hit with an attack using this ammunition, the target also pops free from each enemy engaged with it.
# Gravewood
The wood for this ammunition came from a tree that sprouted from a grave. The crit range of this ammunition expands by 2 (usually to 17+) against undead creatures, and on a hit against an undead creature, the attack deals double damage (triple damage on a critical hit) and the target becomes hampered and stuck (save ends both, or hard save ends [16+] on a crit).
# Incineration
Creatures slain by ammunition with this property are reduced to ash when they die. They’re not going to come back as zombies, or rise as vampires, or be used as husks by demons.
# Invisibility
If you miss with this arrow, you become invisible until the end of your next turn, or until you attack, whichever comes sooner.
# Judgment
When you hit an enemy with this ammunition, you receive a brief moment of insight into the foe. You might see something they’ve done recently, or learn why they’re in this battle, or glimpse something of their plans. You may then choose to either add another +1d6 radiant damage onto the attack, +2d6 at champion tier, and +4d6 at epic tier or deal your miss damage instead of your hit damage.
# Keen
When you make an attack with this ammunition, the crit range of that attack expands by 1 (usually 18+ including the default bonus).
# Lethal Strike
You deal +1d10 damage on a hit, +2d10 at champion tier, and +4d10 at epic tier.
# Lucky Stray
On a miss, you can make a basic ranged attack against another foe that is near the target or along your line of sight to the target (between you and the original target or past the original target).
# Magician’s Bolt
This ammunition has sigils that light up when it’s fired. When you hit an enemy with an attack using this ammunition, the target is lit up and your allies gain a +1 attack bonus against it until the start of your next turn. When you roll a natural even miss with this ammunition, the bolt isn’t expended and teleports back to you.
# Missile of Challenge
This item is of use only to paladins – and even then, only to paladins with the paladin’s challenge talent. When you hit a foe with this missile, you may choose to challenge them as if you’d struck them with a melee attack.
# Nemesis
This ammunition has been enchanted against one of the following groups of monsters: dragon, giant, orc, or undead. An attack against the designated nemesis with this ammunition can be rerolled once if it misses. When you use this ammunition, however, it allows each monster of the same group to reroll one attack against you that misses this battle. If you use this type of ammunition two or more times against the same creature group this battle, monsters of that type can instead reroll each attack against you that misses this battle (once per attack).
# Ogre Shot
When you hit with this ammunition, ignore the target’s damage resistance, and the target is vulnerable until the end of your next turn. When you score a critical hit with this ammunition, the target also loses all damage resistances until the end of the battle.
# Piercing Shot
When you hit with an attack using this ammunition, until the end of the target’s next turn, it’s affected by one of the following conditions: dazed, hampered, stuck, or vulnerable as you target a specific part of its body like a hand, eyes, etc.
# Prankster’s Arrow
When you hit with an attack using this ammunition, the target is vulnerable to your next attack; and when you miss, the target takes extra psychic damage equal to your level.
# Quickling Arrow
You can attack during an ambush no matter what your initiative roll was.
# Ramshead
Firing this magic arrow at a non-magical door will bust it wide open. Magical barriers and magically sealed doors roll a save to resist the arrow’s power; GM determines the save on a case-by-case basis.
# Roaring
When you miss an enemy with this ammunition, deal extra thunder damage equal to twice your level.
# Rogueshot
As a quick action during the first round of battle (or surprise round), roll a d6. When the escalation die reaches that result, make a ranged basic attack using this ammunition as a free action in addition to taking your normal turn in initiative order that round.
# Ropeshot
When you hit with an attack using this ammunition, the target is stuck (save ends). Out of battle, you can use this ammunition to roll twice when making a skill check to climb, which expends the ammunition also.
# Screwshaft
This magical arrow burrows through even the thickest scales and toughest muscles. When you hit a nonmook enemy with this ammunition, repeat the attack against that enemy. If you hit with the attack and that enemy is also large or huge (but not double- or triple-strength) or larger, repeat the attack a third time.
# Seeking
You deal +4 damage on a miss, +10 at champion tier, and +25 at epic tier.
# Shifting
In addition to its usual damage, this arrow inflicts 1d6 fire, lightning or acid damage, chosen when fired, +2d6 damage at champion tier, and +3d6 damage at epic tier.
# Slingstone of Courage
This ammunition deals +2d10 damage when it strikes a foe from a higher tier (so, if you’re an adventurer-tier character, you deal the extra damage when you hit a creature who’s 5th level or higher.)
# Smite-Seeker
When an attack using this ammunition misses, reroll the attack with a –5 penalty against a random enemy that this arrow has yet to target, and if the reroll misses it retargets again with a –10 penalty. If the second reroll misses, the ammunition flies out of the battle in search of the nearest evil-doer.
# Spellbound
You may cast one of your Close spells onto the missile. When the missile is fired, the spell takes effect as if you were standing at the spot where it fell. So, you could charge an arrow with lightning fork and fire it at a far away group of foes. The missile must be fired quickly before the magic burns it out – either cast your spell and shoot the missile yourself next round, or cast the spell on an ally’s missile and have them fire it.
# Steel Rain
This ammunition is crafted from hundreds of spikes that have been magically transformed into a single projectile. Make a basic ranged attack using this ammunition against 1d3 + 1 enemies in a group. The attack deals half damage on a hit and no damage on a miss.
# Stone-Piercing
Enchanted for battle in the Underworld, stonepiercing projectiles pass through solid stone – but not other barriers – as though it was empty air. Stone cover offers no protection against this ammunition. You can even fire through walls, if you have some other way of discerning your foe’s position than sight (or, more likely, you’ve got so many dwarves with stone- piercing bolts that you can pepper every inch of the cave wall and be sure of hitting a goblin.)
Note: We’re not sure how far stone-piercing bolts actually… go. For if all the earth and stone’s no more than empty air to ‘em, then there’s a fair to middling chance they just keep falling forever all the way down through the Underworld, until they hit someone or fall out the bottom of the world. Grunbolt, dwarven adventurer.
# Swift Shot
Once per battle, if you’ve got elven grace, and you get an extra standard action, and you use that standard action to make a ranged attack with this ammo, then the size of the die rolled to determine whether or not your elven grace triggers doesn’t increase. If you’re not playing a wood elf archer, your eyes probably glazed over two clauses back.
# Twin
When you attack with twin ammunition, a second projectile materializes out of the first and targets the same or a different enemy. Make a free action basic ranged attack for it with a +8 attack bonus instead of your normal bonus, +12 at champion tier, and +16 at epic tier.
# Vulnerability
When you hit with an attack using this ammunition, if the target is from the same tier or lower than the ammunition, it’s also vulnerable to all attacks until the start of your next turn.
# Wing-clipper
When you hit with an attack using this ammunition, if the target is from the same tier or lower than the ammunition, it loses the flight ability (save ends). If the target is presently flying, it must attempt to land during its next turn.
# Champion
# Flaming
Bursts into fire as it flies. You deal 8 extra ongoing fire damage on a hit (epic: 20 ongoing fire).
# Ghost Arrow
This arrow’s damage is force damage, so it can hit wraiths and other pesky resist damage ghosts without any problems.
# Ice-bolt
This missile freezes as it flies. When you hit with an attack using this ammunition, the target also takes 6 ongoing cold damage (epic: 10 ongoing cold) and is stuck until the end of its next turn.
# Mortal
Damage caused by this arrow cannot be healed easily. It takes two points of healing to cure one point of damage from an attack made with this arrow.
# Serpent Arrow
On a hit, this arrow also inflicts 5 ongoing poison damage on the target (epic: 15 ongoing poison). On a miss, the arrow falls to the ground and becomes a snake. If the target of the attack does not move away from the snake (or spend an attack killing it), the snake attacks again on the same initiative as the missile attack next round. The snake attacks with +10 vs. AC, and deals 5 ongoing poison damage on a hit. The snake keeps attacking until the target moves away or kills it. (Epic: +15 vs. AC and 15 ongoing poison damage).
# Epic
# Death
When you hit with this ammunition and deal damage, if the target has 40 hp or fewer after the hit, the creature drops to 0 hp. If it hits but fails to drop its target, the ammunition is not used up. It must of course be retrieved.
# Dolorous Bolt
This crossbow bolt inflicts a special form of ongoing damage – the victim takes 50 damage, but suffers that damage every full recovery instead of every round. There is no save against this damage, and nothing less than a Wish spell can remove it. The damage recurs at the exact same time every full recovery. Some creatures may simply die, but anyone worth shooting with an epic-tier weapon probably has the hit points and healing to survive the ongoing hit point damage. The constant pain and the knowledge that the agony’s going to recur every full recovery for as long as they live are other matters entirely.
Note: One of the Crusader’s madmen shot the King of the Stone Giants with a dolorous bolt. Around the same time, you start hearing stories that the Dark Gods can cure any injury if you swear to serve them forever. Think the Crusader’s mad enough to risk a war with the giants on the off-chance of snaring their king’s soul? - Hresta, half-elf ranger
# Uncanny
It warps the forces of necessity and miracle as it flies. When you attack with this ammunition, use the target’s lowest defense instead of the defense your attack would normally target.
# Armor, Robe, Shirt, Tunic
Most magic armor powers can apply to heavy armor, light armor, or even no armor (robes or other clothing).
# Default Bonus
+1 AC (adventurer); +2 AC (champion); +3 AC (epic).
# Adventurer
# Ancestor’s Plate
Heavy Armor Only
The default bonus of this armor increases by +1 if you are a dwarf (or have a positive relationship with the Dwarf King), as long as you are not fighting dwarves or those linked to the Dwarf King.
Quirk: Gruff and stoic.
# Animation
Recharge 11+: This armor smells musty and foul, even when newly cleaned. It has a faint magical aura, but its true powers only activate when the wearer falls in combat. If you fall below 0 hit points, you can keep fighting as the armor infuses your wounded body with necromantic magic. You still have to make death saves, and you still die if you fail all your death saves or get dismembered by going to negative half your starting hit points.
Oh, you also become vulnerable to radiant attacks. And if you die while animated, it’s a dead cert (ahem) that you’re coming back as some sort of undead.
If you don’t already have a relationship with a prominent lich, you soon will.
Quirk: Hungers for the life force of living beings.
# Blackscale
Recharge 11+: When you or a nearby creature takes acid damage, pop free from each enemy engaged with you.
Quirk: Secretive.
# Blazing Beacon Armor
Heavy Armor
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: You may activate blazing beacon armor when you hit an enemy with a melee attack. While active, the armor’s bonus to AC increases by 1. It increases again by +1 if you hit again, to a maximum of +2, +3 at champion tier, and +5 at epic tier. However, if you miss or are hit by an attack, the armor deactivates and the added bonus is lost. When active, the armor glows with a burning holy light whose brightness is proportional to the bonus to AC, making you the most obvious target on the battlefield.
Quirk: Foolhardy.
# Blessed Robes
Light Armor
Recharge 11+: When an attack hits you, you gain a +4 bonus to all Defenses until you attack or until you are hit again.
Quirk: Sings or hums hymns when nervous.
# Bluescale
When you take or deal lightning damage, gain a +2 bonus to PD until the start of your next turn. This bonus stacks with other magic items.
Quirk: Bites things when frustrated.
# Bonemail
Recharge 11+ after use: When you roll a death save, increase this armor’s AC bonus by +1 (cumulative) until your next full heal-up.
Quirk: Can’t stand growing things.
# Breastplate of Brazen Entries
Recharge 6+: When you fail a skill check to force open a door, chest, or similar object, reroll the check and gain a bonus to the roll equal to this armor’s default bonus.
Quirk: Headstrong.
# Butterflies
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: Hundreds of brightly colored butterflies cling to this armor, strangely undisturbed by the din of battle or other unpleasant conditions associated with the adventuring life. They sometimes flutter around the wearer. New butterflies sometimes crawl out of joints or gaps in the armor, although there are no chrysalises or hiding places on the inside. It’s just one of those things.
You may send the butterflies off to protect an ally. That ally gains the magical protection of your armor instead of you (the bonus from your armor stacks with theirs). The butterflies return to you at the end of your next turn.
Quirk: Fragile sense of self.
# Chameleon Armor
Recharge 6+: You can blend in with your surroundings, becoming effectively invisible as long as you don’t move or attack. If a foe knows where you stopped to become invisible, your miss chance against their attacks is only 25% instead of the usual 50%.
Quirk: Insects, when prepared correctly, add much-needed crunch to any dish. Share this culinary discovery with your friends.
# Chemise of Dusk
Gain a +2 bonus to all defenses against ranged attacks at night or while you’re underground. This stacks with other magic item bonuses.
Quirk: Takes cat naps.
# Clever Step
Light Armor
You gain a +4 bonus to all defenses against opportunity attacks.
Quirk: Likes to dance little jigs.
# Crystal-plate
This ‘living’ armor becomes tougher the more it is struck. When an enemy scores a critical hit against you, you gain a cumulative +1 bonus to AC until your next full heal-up. Keep getting critted? Then keep upping your AC.
Quirk: Foolhardy.
# Darkness
Shadows congeals around this armor, sheathing the wearer in a shell of darkness. This armor gives an additional +1 bonus to AC when the wearer is in the shadows (at night, or underground or indoors and away from any light sources). Its AC bonus is reduced by 1 when in direct sunlight or next to a light source.
Quirk: Finds bright lights painful. Skin becomes alarmingly pale. Also, allergic to garlic.
# Deathknight
Recharge 6+: When a nearby ally becomes staggered, increase this armor’s AC bonus by 2 until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Likes chewing on bones.
# Deathshroud
When you or a nearby ally fails a save, you gain a +2 bonus to AC until the end of your next turn.
Quirk: Likes to sleep in a coffin or on grave dirt.
# Divine Passage
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: When activated, this armor glows with holy light. You gain a +5 bonus to attempts to disengage from undead or demons. If an undead or demon intercepts you, you may avoid the intercept and move past without provoking an attack of opportunity if you roll an 11+ on a d20. This effect lasts until you stop moving.
Quirk: Hates to be confined.
# Dragonhide Shirt
This shirt gives resistance 12+ against either fire, lightning, acid, cold or poison, depending on whether the dragon whose hide you’re wearing was red, blue, black, white, green, brass, bronze, copper, silver, or gold. Wearing a dragonhide shirt gives a -4 penalty to any Charisma skill checks when trying to negotiate or placate a dragon.
Quirk: You can only get comfortable when lying on coins and jewels.
# Dress/Shirt of Contingencies
Recharge 11+: This courtly clothing has ribbons that animate to pass you objects that you have previously concealed within its voluminous skirts or sleeves. Take a non-attack standard action, move action, or quick action that involves your equipment (reload a heavy crossbow, drink a potion, etc.). You can’t use the action to move anywhere, only manipulate equipment.
Quirk: Has killer fashion sense.
# Druidic Woad
1/Day
When an attack hits you, you can change the defense the attack targets.
Quirk: Dresses very light.
Note: Counts as no armor, but still occupies the armor slot.
# Duskchain
Recharge 11+: When a nearby creature you can see teleports, you can teleport somewhere nearby you can see as a free action.
Quirk: Likes to sneak gifts into other’s belongings.
# Fiendbane
This armor is covered in screaming faces— decorations or something more? When an attack by a demon or devil misses you, it deals no damage and has no effect.
Quirk: Hates demons—like really hates demons.
# Flamesteel
Recharge 16+: The scales of this armor have a flame motif. When an enemy fails to disengage from you, make a basic melee attack against it that deals fire damage. If that attack misses, this power recharges.
Quirk: Pyromaniac.
# Formic Armor
Heavy Armor
As if the antennae on the helmet didn’t give it away, this armor was made by (and from) giant ants. (Don’t worry – they’re cool with you wearing the exoskeleton of their dead relatives. Ants are like that.) You get Acid Resistance 12+.
Quirk: Interprets smells as speech.
Note: Giant ants. Why did it have to be giant ants? - Arthak, orc blood mage.
# Fur Shirt of Vitality
Light Armor
Add the armor’s magic bonus to the total hit points restored when you receive healing from any source, bonus twice at champion tier, and bonus x4 at epic tier.
Quirk: Wild and raucous.
# Ghostplate
Recharge 11+: When you take damage from an attack targeting your AC, take only half damage unless damage resistance has already halved the damage.
Quirk: Fears holy ground.
# Gladiator’s Armor
Recharge 16+: Reroll a missed attack and gain a bonus to attacks that depends on the number of creatures watching (not participating in) the battle: +1 for a single bystander, +2 for a small crowd, +4 for a large crowd.
Quirk: Shows off.
# Goldenscale
You don’t take miss damage from scaled creatures (dragons, dragonics, serpents, kobolds, lizardmen, etc.).
Quirk: Contemptuous of those less powerful.
# Greenhide
This armor is made from the wing membrane of a green dragon. Gain resist poison damage 16+ and a +4 bonus to saves against effects and conditions caused by attacks that deal poison damage.
Quirk: Distrusts elves.
# Heedlessness
You gain a +4 bonus to all defenses during your first turn in battle.
Quirk: Needlessly provocative.
# High Clergy’s Robe
Light Armor
Recharge 11+: Until the end of the battle, double the armor’s default AC bonus against weapon attacks.
Quirk: Eager to face the forces of evil.
# Idiographic Robe
Recharge 16+: This silk robe’s lining is embroidered with spells. When a nearby enemy hits you with a spell attack, that enemy rerolls the attack with a –2 penalty. If the attack hits, one of your full recovery spells recharges.
Quirk: Haughty.
# Imperial Plate
Heavy Armor Only
This armor was forged using dragon breath. You have resist 16+ to the attacks of dragons and related creatures.
Quirk: Sneezes when anxious.
# Incense
Heavy Armor
Recharge 11+: This armor’s ornate pauldrons contain censers (containers for burning incense). Until the end of the battle, each demon, devil, and undead that attempts to engage you must roll a normal save. On a failure, that creature can’t engage you. If you engage one of those creatures, it has no effect on it.
Quirk: Always filling the air with incense.
# Inspiring
Any nearby allies may use your hit point total instead of their own to determine if they’re affected by fear. If you’re not scared, they’re not either.
Quirk: Roars a battle cry at the start of every fight.
# Iron Will
The default AC bonus applies to Mental Defense as well.
Quirk: Prone to abstract speculation.
# Last Stand
Heavy Armor
You gain a +4 bonus to AC while you have no recoveries left.
Quirk: Has a high pain tolerance.
# Leafmail
This armor magically changes its coloration and blends with the vegetation. While you are in forested or wooded terrain, double this armor’s default AC bonus and gain a bonus to initiative rolls, stealth skill checks, and disengage checks equal to the doubled bonus.
Quirk: Hates axes.
# Mage’s Leather
Recharge 16+: This armor isn’t made from a wizard’s hide, but can save a magician’s skin sometimes. When you cast a full recovery spell, teleport somewhere nearby you can see, recharge 11+ at champion tier, and recharge 6+ at epic tier.
Quirk: Twitchy.
# Martyr’s Armor
Free Action
Recharge 6+: If you are knocked unconscious or slain, you may apply your armor’s magic AC bonus to an ally’s AC for the rest of the battle, or until you are revived. This bonus stacks with any protection given by the ally’s magic armor, if any.
Quirk: Casts away unneeded worldly goods.
# Naga Hide
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: While staggered, shed this armor (losing its AC and default bonus until the end of the battle) to heal using a recovery.
Quirk: Can’t tell fakes from the genuine article.
# Nightshirt
Light Armor Only
This chain shirt of blackened links is as fine as silk. Increase the AC bonus of this item by 1.
Quirk: Always looking for hidden treasure, secret doors, etc.
# Noble’s Undershirt
Light Armor Only
This armor can be worn unobtrusively under clothing. You gain a +2 bonus to AC while you’re helpless, stunned, vulnerable, or weakened. You also have this bonus at the start of each battle until you take an action.
Quirk: Snorts when laughing.
# Owl-feather
Light Armor Only
Recharge 11+: This feathered armor grants its wearer amazing wisdom. When an enemy hits you with an attack that targets AC or PD, that enemy rerolls the attack against your MD instead.
Quirk: Myopic in their goals.
# Perfection
Heavy Armor
You gain a +1 bonus to all defenses while at maximum hit points.
Quirk: Made uneasy by the sight of blood.
# Perseverance
Quick Action
Full Recovery
If you are staggered, you regain an expended power as if you had taken a quick rest. You automatically regain a once-per-battle power, but a recharge power requires a successful recharge roll. You can regain a species power, class power, or magic item power this way.
Quirk: Repeats stories over and over.
# Putrid Deeps
Heavy Armor
This air-tight sealed armor was created for dwarven expeditions to reclaim the poisoned halls of the Underhome. The wearer gains resist poison 18+ and resist acid 18+; however, the wearer becomes dazed (–4 to attack) until the end of their next turn in any round in which they are targeted by an acid or poison attack. In addition, the wearer of the armor may cast light at will.
Quirk: Unnaturally drawn to terrible or terrifying smells.
# Red Lightning
When a demon or devil hits you with a melee attack, it takes lightning damage equal to 1d6 times your level.
Quirk: Misinterprets jokes as insults.
# Redscale
1/Battle
When an enemy hits you with a melee attack, the enemy takes twice your level in fire damage.
Quirk: Practices pyrography (burning patterns into wood or leather).
# Robe of Blurring
Recharge 16+: The silk for this translucent robe is spun by the ghosts of moths. Enemies have a 50% miss chance against you for 1d2 rounds. If you are also affected by a blur spell, the % miss chance stacks.
Quirk: Sly.
# Rooted Armor
Heavy Armor
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: Roots and tendrils trail from this suit of heavy armor. On command, the armor roots itself to the ground, increasing its AC bonus by +1 but keeping the wearer stuck. Freeing the armor from the ground and ending the stuck condition takes a standard action; the +1 bonus to AC is lost as soon as the wearer becomes unstuck.
Quirk: Heavy sleeper.
# Rotted
Light Armor Only
While you are taking ongoing damage or are helpless, gain a +2 bonus to AC and PD.
Quirk: Concerned their skin is disintegrating and will consider odd procedures to prevent that.
# Rune-smithing
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: Create and apply a magical rune to a weapon that you are holding. This does not require you to be carrying a rune and does not expend a rune that you are carrying. Roll for the effect as normal, and remember that rune bonuses don’t stack with a magic item’s inherent bonus.
Quirk: Chronic chronicler.
# Scarab War Kit
Heavy Armor
Recharge 16+: When hit or critted by a huge creature, reduce the damage by half.
Quirk: Kill or attack insects without even thinking about it. Even if that’s unwise.
# Scars
This ‘armor’ consists of magical brands and scars that strengthen your flesh until it becomes as tough as iron. You gain the bonus to AC even when naked, and this armor cannot be removed. You may wear other armor over it, but magic bonuses to AC don’t stack – use the best one. The armor of scars only takes up a slot if it’s the most powerful magic armor you’re wearing.
Quirk: Stoic in the face of pain.
# Solidity
Heavy Armor
It’s harder for you to be teleported if you don’t want to be moved. If an enemy’s spell or power teleports you in battle, you may defer being moved for one round, a number of rounds equal to the escalation die, +1 at champion tier, and you’re not going anywhere at epic tier. The teleport effect kicks in at the end of your turn when the deferment runs out.
Quirk: Seizes on a trivial point and won’t let go.
# Sorcerer’s Leather
Heavy Armor
This counts as heavy armor, but arcane spellcasters don’t suffer an attack penalty to their spells while wearing it. The attack penalty still applies to their melee and missile attacks, though.
Quirk: Addicted to spellcasting.
# Spectral Armor
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: The shreds and tatters of rotten cloth that hang from this armor flutter in a breeze that no-one else can feel, because this armor is half in the ghost world. Activate it, and you can step fully into the ghost realm for a brief time. While ghostly, you can move through solid objects, but you can’t end your turn inside one. You get resist damage 12+, but can be damaged normally by force damage. Everyone else gets resist your damage 12+ too.
You remain ghostly for one round. If you want, you can try to stay ghostly by spending a recovery to let you begin making hard saves (16+) at the end of each turn. Pass the save, and you can prolong your ghostly status for another round. You can stay ghostly as long as you keep making saves. If you somehow spend your last recovery to stay ghostly – well, you’ve just lost your connection to the living world. Maybe you can find your way back. Maybe you’ll drift forever alone in a grey emptiness.
Quirk: Pained by bright lights.
# Spellthread Shirt
Recharge 11+: When you cast a spell that targets yourself, you also charge the shirt with that spell. When the shirt is charged, you may activate it as a free action to gain the benefits of that spell for one round. The spell has to be one that lasts for an entire battle – you can’t charge it with dimension door or teleport. For example, if you cast blur on yourself in one fight, you could use the shirt to blur again for one round in a later battle. The shirt’s appearance changes to reflect the stored spell – if you’ve got a feather fall in it, it’s puffy and silky; if it’s storing water breathing, it’s green and clings to your skin.
Quirk: Compelled to change your hairstyle and wardrobe to complement the shirt.
# Splendor
Enemies engaged with you take a –2 attack penalty against allies without splendor.
Quirk: Fastidious about clothing and gear.
# Stonemail
Heavy Armor Only
You gain a +2 bonus to AC, PD, and saves while you are standing on solid stone. Quirk: Fear of ships and open water.
# Swift Fury
Recharge 16+: When an enemy crits you in melee, you may immediately take an opportunity attack against that enemy.
Quirk: Unsettlingly cheery, especially in the face of danger.
# Thrice-Forged
Heavy Armor
Raise your critical hit threshold by 1, by 2 at champion tier, and by 3 at epic tier. Your critical hit threshold can’t go above 20, but this armor ameliorates the effects of vulnerability and other conditions that make you more likely to suffer critical hits.
Quirk: Praises the craftsmanship and superiority of dwarven goods at every opportunity.
# Unfettered Grace
While wearing this armor, you feel even more agile and limber than you do while wearing normal clothing. You gain a +2 bonus to disengage checks and any skill checks related to gymnastic ability, tumbling or poise.
Quirk: Show-off.
# Unremarkable
While wearing this armor, you look like… well, the main distinguishing feature is the armor’s… people chiefly remember that you… were wearing armor and… that’s about it. In addition to being utterly unmemorable to casual observers, the armor makes you appear less dangerous in combat. If two or more allies are engaged with the same foe as you, their attacks that target only you take a -2 penalty.
Quirk: All your deeds, good and bad, get attributed to other people.
# Unyielding Plate
Heavy Armor
Recharge 16+: You don’t fall unconscious when reduced to 0 hit points – you can keep fighting, but you’re weakened (-4 to all attacks and defenses), and you don’t need to make death saves. You still die when reduced to a negative score equal to half your maximum hit points. (Champion: Three quarters of your maximum hit points; epic: equal to your maximum hit points).
Quirk: Cold and unsympathetic.
# Victorious Secret
This magically reinforced garment can be worn unobtrusively under regular clothing. It counts as light armor for attack penalties and its default AC bonus. Additionally, it has concealed dimensional pockets that can hold up to a backpack’s capacity without the weight.
Quirk: Never on time, always late or early.
# Vestal Vestments
Recharge 11+: This armor has sacred texts sewn to its lining or inscribed upon its surface. When you cast a spell that increases the AC of you or an ally, increase this armor’s default AC bonus by +2 until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Burns the dead.
# Warding
You gain resistance 12+ against attacks targeting Physical Defense or Mental Defense.
Quirk: Stretches and meditates whenever inactive.
# Whitehide
Made from the soft under-skin of a white dragon, this armor is cool to the touch and makes you harder to detect. You gain a +1 bonus to all defenses at night or while underground. This bonus stacks with other magic item bonuses.
Quirk: Fear of graveyards, tombs, etc.
# Champion
# Captain’s Armor
At the start of a battle, you may choose to reduce this armor’s bonus to +1 for the rest of the battle and give up to five allies a +1 bonus to their AC, as long as all the chosen allies are wearing non-magical armor.
Quirk: Paternal attitude towards allies
# Dress of Deathless Grace
Light Armor Only
Recharge 16+ after use: The pearls on this dress are slightly stained with blood. When an enemy hits you with an attack that targets MD, that attack targets AC instead.
Quirk: Courteous but cold.
# Ether-Combusting
This armor looks like oddly reddish steel, but to the eyes of a creature that exists half in this world and half in the realms between – demons, phase spiders and the like – you look like you’re wearing a blazing pillar of fire that sets the very fabric of reality ablaze wherever you go. Whenever a nearby foe teleports, you automatically blast them for 2d8 fire damage (epic: 4d8).
Quirk: Terrified of being teleported.
Note: You never said there was a dress code. - Dracerys, Dark Elf knight; said as he entered the sanctum of the High Elves in the Queen’s Wood
# Evard’s
Recharge 6+: This strange armor looks like a tangle of black bandages, held together with leather straps. In battle, the bandages writhe and flail with a will of their own. When you use the armor, you may make an opportunity attack on any nearby enemy that provokes one, even if you’re not actually engaged with them. Alternatively, if you’ve got the sneak attack power, you can activate the robe to have it count as an ally engaged with your target for one attack, letting you deal sneak attack damage.
Quirk: Speaks in a throaty, watery voice, like you’re half-drowning all the time.
# Perfect Guard
Heavy Armor
Recharge 11+: On command, your armor seals itself completely. Tiny panels of diamond-glass lock in place over your eyes, and the joints of the armor mesh together like cogs so that you are completely encased in dwarven steel – just long enough for the incoming attack to wash over you. You take half damage from any one attack that targets PD.
Quirk: Always favors the direct approach, even when it’s clearly a bad idea.
# Plate of the Automaton
Heavy armor
While wearing this armor, you may enter into a trance that fulfills your need for sleep, but lets your body continue with some mindless repetitive task. You could, for example, ‘sleep’ while marching, or while patrolling for monsters, or while digging graves. You are vaguely aware of your surroundings while in a trace; you could even hold a conversation or fight a battle, but you’d be hampered throughout in the latter case.
Quirk: Monotonous speech.
# Platinum Armor
1/Day
When an enemy scores a critical hit against you, you take normal damage instead and can heal using a recovery.
Quirk: Lives in the past.
# Robe of Preservation
Recharge 16+: This soft grey robe automatically activates when you are knocked unconscious. It teleports you to a safer location nearby – it might bring you out of the room in a dungeon, or drop you at the feet of the party cleric, or just stuff your unconscious body into a cupboard. The robe remains behind when you teleport, falling empty to the ground where you stood.
Quirk: Heedless of danger.
# Soulbound
Gems in this black carapace seem to pulse in time with your heartbeat. When you heal using a recovery, gain a +2 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Aggressive.
# Thirsty Iron
Heavy
Blood splattered onto the surface of this armor (usually made of iron) seeps in instead of flowing off it. While you are taking ongoing damage from an effect created by an enemy, gain a +3 bonus to AC.
Quirk: Drinks blood.
# Tombweb
When you take necrotic damage or take damage from an attack by an undead creature, gain temporary hit points equal to your level.
Quirk: Enjoys the sensation of spiders crawling on their skin.
# Tremors
Recharge 11+: You cause a minor quake, and each nearby non-huge (or larger) non-flying creature in the battle can roll a disengage check as a free action. Each affected creature loses its move action during its next turn.
Quirk: Agoraphobia.
# Unrelenting
You may drain and heal using Recoveries from your nearby allies on a two-for-one basis – one nearby ally loses two Recoveries, you get the healing benefit of one of them. The armor activates automatically when you go below 50 hit points. You get to pick who you drain – they don’t get to refuse, but can cut you off forever after being drained. If an ally cuts you off, you may never drain them with the armor again.
Quirk: Callous.
# Vampiric
When you stagger a non-mook enemy or drop a nonmook enemy to 0 hp, gain a +2 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Averse to holy symbols.
# Epic
# Armor of the Ancestors
The dwarves of ancient days wore this very suit of armor. Whenever a hero who wears this armor falls in battle – and they always fall atop a high heap of slain foes – the suit is recovered and repaired so that another worthy dwarf may take up the burden. Obviously, this suit is only worn by dwarves.
While wearing this +3 armor, you gain the feats that’s your best shot, toughness and skilled; the latter feat augments some dwarfy skills you possess, ideally one that expresses how much you venerate and respect your ancestors. If you already have any or all of those feats, the armor’s overlapping bonus feats can be applied to other abilities, as long as they’re in keeping with the ways of the dwarven ancestors.
Quirk: Gets confused between past and present. The past was better, damn it.
# Chained Demon
Recharge 6+: Yep, this is a demon—chained, beaten, and forged into armor. When an enemy engaged with you moves away (yes, even if it successfully disengages or pops free), its movement stops, it’s still engaged with you, and it takes 20 damage.
Quirk: Enjoys bossing others about.
# Lavamail
Heavy Armor Only
When an enemy without fire resistance moves into engagement with you, it takes 10 fire damage.
Quirk: Love of deep places.
# Master-Forged
Recharge 16+: Activate this ability when you are the last player character left in the battle and at least two of your allies have been knocked unconscious or killed. For the rest of the battle, you may heal using one recovery per round as a quick action.
Quirk: Sings songs of ancient days.
# Scales of Umbraxatar
Recharge 16+: Only sorcerers can benefit from this armor. Only sorcerers are mad enough to wear it. This armor is made from scales taken from Umbraxatar, living dragonscales infused with the power of the Shadowfell. You gain an extra Sorcerer talent, which must be spent on either Blood Link or Chromatic Destroyer Heritage. Got both those talents already? Then have a free feat, which must be spend on augmenting one of those talents. You may also channel Umbraxatar’s power. This lets you gather power as a quick action, but Umbraxatar gets a say in the spellcasting. He might have his own ideas about the choice of targets, or demand that you carry out some particular course of action or repay him by doing him some service. Of course, if you’re wearing this armor, you must be a loyal ally of a chromatic dragon, and so you will have no qualms whatsoever about letting him sniff around inside your soul…
Quirk: The dividing line between you and Her gets blurrier every full recovery.
# Soul-drinking
When a nearby ally becomes helpless or dies, gain a +3 bonus to AC until the end of the battle or until that ally is no longer helpless or dead. If a death triggers this effect, the good news is you know exactly where your dead ally’s soul is.
Quirk: Thirsty—but not for mortal drink.
# Stormwing
Move Action
Recharge 11+: This armor, which usually is a breastplate of some type, has demon wings attached to the back. When you use this power, you gain flight with your next move action and your next attack roll this battle that hits deals 3d12 extra lightning damage. If your flight ends before you land or rab onto a secure surface, you fall.
Quirk: Loves storms.
# Stygian Iron
1/Day
When you fail a death save, you succeed instead and gain a +2 bonus to all defenses until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Depressed.
# Belt, Swordbelt, Kilt, Skirt, Girdle, Sash
# Default Bonus
Increase your maximum recoveries: by 1 (adventurer); by 2 (champion); by 3 (epic).
# Optional Default Bonus
Don’t increase your recoveries depending on the tier. Instead, the item gives you one extra recovery. But when you heal using that recovery, you don’t roll and the hit points you heal depend on the tier of the item: 20 hp (adventurer); 50 hp (champion); 125 hp (epic).
# Adventurer
# Belt of Burning Betrayals
1/Day
While you’re staggered, when an ally either disengages from an enemy engaged with you or uses a power that allows a different ally to use a recovery, you heal using a free recovery.
Quirk: Keeps a list of grievances.
# Belt of Dials
By spending 1d3 + 1 rounds (or about half a minute outside combat) turning the decorative brass buckles, you can make yourself younger or older, taller or shorter, fatter or thinner, change your hair length, etc. It’s not quite as versatile as a wizard’s disguise self spell (you’ll end up looking like a distant cousin), but creatures that can see through illusions can be fooled by the physical transformations bought on by the belt. You set the duration of the change (anything from seconds to permanent change).
Quirk: Physical dysphoria.
# Belt of Fists
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: Make a basic unarmed attack, and increase your damage dice for that attack by one size.
Quirk: Enjoys pugilistic contests.
# Belt of Humility
Free Action
Recharge 11+: This simple leather belt allows you to automatically succeed at a saving throw (including a death save) or to use a recovery to heal, but only when you really need it. You may only use this item when you’re at 10 hit points or less, or in a similarly dire situation. After using the belt, you must repay your debt to the cosmos, either by sacrificing another true magic item, or by undertaking a quest with no hope of reward.
Quirk: Incapable of saying no to a request for aid.
# Belt of Illusions
Recharge 16+: This belt works like the change self ritual, altering your appearance by cloaking you in a magical disguise.
Unlike the spell, though, you can disguise yourself as a specific person without penalty. There’s a trick to it, though – there’s a leather pouch attached to the belt, and the illusion’s based on whatever you put into the pouch. The more personal the item, the better.
Say you want to appear to be an orc warrior so you can sneak into an orc-infested dungeon without raising the alarm. If you pickpocket an orc guard and stick whatever orcs keep in their pockets into the pouch (gobbets of raw meat, probably, and fangs, and stones that look like they might be good for smashing skulls), then the belt obligingly disguises you as a generic orc warrior. However, if you could steal the tribe shaman’s holy symbol, then the belt might disguise you as the shaman herself.
The illusion lasts for ten minutes, and whatever item you place in the pouch is consumed when the duration expires.
Quirk: Insists on elaborate systems of passwords and magic wards to defeat rival shapeshifters and doppelgangers.
# Belt of Many Eyes
1/Day
When you are ambushed, take a standard action before the ambushers take their turns— essentially you are ambushing the ambush.
Quirk: Finishes others’ sentences.
# Belt of Miscibility
You can benefit from the effects of two potions at once/
Quirk: Likes to eat weird combinations of food.
# Belt of Primordial Giant Strength
Recharge 16+: This power can only be used if you are fighting at least one non-minion giant or an undead version of a giant! Until the end of the battle, you have your own personal escalation die. It starts at 2 when you use this power and rises by 2 every round, maxing out at 6.
# Belt of Skulls
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: This belt is empty when found. Once per level, when you defeat a foe whose level is higher than yours, you may mount that foe’s head on your belt as a trophy. (The belt’s magic shrinks the head to fit.) You may activate the belt when you make an attack; instead of rolling the dice, your natural attack roll is equal to 5 + the number of skulls on the belt. Large monsters count as two skulls; huge monsters count as three skulls (so, theoretically, you could get a natural attack roll of 35 if you have 10 huge skulls on your belt.) You may not swap out skulls – you must stick with your original trophies.
Quirk: Haunted by ghostly voices from the skulls.
# Belt of Swift Escape
Recharge 6+: When you disengage from a foe, you may make an immediate save against any one condition or any ongoing damage inflicted on you by that foe.
Quirk: Takes the easy way out.
# Belt of Swift Travel
You can sleep and heal while riding; better yet, any steed you sit upon while wearing this belt does not suffer from fatigue, and needs only a little food and water to keep going indefinitely.
Quirk: Only comfortable on a horse.
Note: Back when the world was young, they made belts of swift travel for the Emperor’s dragon-riders. The dragons still remember them, and honor the sacrifices of their riders. If you find a belt of swift travel that looks very, very old, and if it’s got rings on the hips where straps might go, then maybe you’ve one of those dragon-belts, and you can ask a favor of a dragon of Axis. One favor, in memory of fallen heroes. - Synix Alacostar, Wizard of Horizon
# Belt of Teeth
As the name suggests, this wide leather belt has tusks and teeth sewn onto it. When you succeed on a death save, you can make a basic attack or at-will attack against an enemy engaged with you as a free action.
Quirk: Ungracious—they bite the hand that feeds them.
# Black Belt
Recharge 11+: When an enemy hits you with a melee attack, either force the enemy to reroll the attack; OR deal acid damage equal to 1d6 times your level to that enemy.
Quirk: Performs individual training exercises (kata) during downtime.
# Blademaster’s Belt
One magical sword sheathed on this belt gains a +2 bonus to recharge rolls for its own powers.
Quirk: Worries too much about tiny details.
# Blood-Red Kilt
Standard Action
Recharge 11+: “Attack” a dead enemy to heal using a free recovery.
Quirk: Neglects to clean blood from weapons.
# Blue Silk Girdle
The layers of enchanted material in this wide belt-like garment produce tiny sparks when they rub together. As far as observers are concerned, it looks like a wide band of layered cloth. You can hide handheld items in this garment and they are magically concealed. Anyone trying to find the items must roll a hard save (16+), and searches also will receive a series of tiny shocks for their trouble.
Quirk: Libertine.
# Cincture of Famine
Wearing this girdle gives you a very tiny waist, and removes your normal need for food, water, and air, though this effect doesn’t protect you from any attack.
Quirk: Hungers for normally inedible things.
# Cincture of Potions
2/Day
When you drink a healing potion stored on this belt, roll the recovery twice and use the higher result.
Quirk: Eager to try new things.
# Dusk and Dawn
Recharge 6+: Heal with a free recovery at the moment of sunset or sunrise.
Quirk: Struck by existential angst in the middle of the night.
Note: Only a fool would rely on the magic of the setting sun. Few monsters are polite enough to wait until two minutes before sunset before attacking so your belt can heal you in the middle of the fight. - Dracerys, dark elf knight
# Dwarven Might
Recharge 11+: When you fail a Strength skill check, you succeed instead.
Quirk: Sings dwarven drinking songs.
# Giant Health
Like most belts, this increases your maximum recoveries by 1 (champion by 2, epic by 3). In addition, one bonus recovery given by this particular belt is giant-sized – you get to roll d12s instead of your normal recovery dice when you spend it. You choose when you tap this extra-large recovery.
Quirk: Formidable appetite.
Note: Formidable smell, too. Wear that belt for long enough, and you start smelling like a giant’s armpit. You don’t notice it in Horizon, because that whole place stinks of sulfur and ozone and bat guano anyway, but just take a sniff at the Archmage’s guards when they go traveling. - Hresta, half-elf ranger
# Girdle of Deceit
When wearing this girdle, people keep mistaking you for somebody else. Usually, it’s the person they were expecting to see who most resembles you – if you’re a young woman, and you’re sneaking around the duke’s mansion in the dead of night when a servant discovers you, this belt might ensure he mistakes you for a maidservant or the duke’s daughter. If you’re a hulking half-orc barbarian in the same situation, the servant might mistake you for a bad dream. Any interaction beyond the perfunctory breaks the illusion – if you give the other person any reason to question their misconception (like, say, the duke’s daughter asking the way to the treasury), then they’ll see through the belt’s magic.
Quirk: Intensely curious.
# Girdle of Gigantic Strength
This wide belt is decorated with runes worn smooth by time. You gain a +2 bonus to Strength skill checks, +4 at champion tier, and +6 at epic tier.
Quirk: Needlessly loud.
# Girdle of Oaths
Like other magic belts, this one increases your maximum recoveries by 1 (2 for champion, 3 for epic). The girdle of oaths can also give you an unlimited number of bonus recoveries – the catch is that each one comes with a cost, and the cost keeps rising. The first free recovery requires a minor service or complication. After that, the price goes up. Whatever the belt asks of you will always be useful to the belt’s true master, so it might ask you to recruit others to their cause, or donate magic items or treasure, or slay enemies of the belt’s true master.
Refuse, and at the worst possible moment, the belt will take back the health it’s given you, and you’ll take damage equal to the healing provided by the belt in the past.
Quirk: Mercenary in all things.
# Girdle of Resurgent Justice
Recharge 11+: When you rally, one nearby ally heals hit points equal to twice the number of recoveries you have left, two nearby allies at champion tier, and three nearby allies at epic tier.
Quirk: Over-indulges.
# Girdle of Second Chances
These girdles are popular with nobles who like to hide girth gained through over-indulgences, while being assured of the safety of their food and drink. You have resist poison 16+, and when you save against ongoing poison damage or effects caused by attacks that do poison damage, roll twice and take the best result. In addition, once per full recovery, you can drink a potion as a quick action.
Quirk: Extreme epicurean.
# Girdle of the Gods
Recharge 11+: When you first receive this item, pick the god it’s dedicated to. You may heal using a recovery when you perform an act pleasing to that god, or when you’re in or near a place associated with that god. So, if you pick a war god, then the belt might let you rally after you slay a foe. If you pick a harvest god, then you get to rally when defending farmland, or at the end of summer (or maybe you can argue that, symbolically speaking, it’s the autumn of the encounter when the escalation die is 5+, so you can heal then.)
Quirk: Bound to observe religious holidays. All of them for the god in question, no matter how obscure or moribund.
# Girdle of the Grave
Recharge 11+: Until the end of your next turn, the first 5 points of necrotic damage you suffer in a turn heals you instead of reducing your hit points. So, if you get hit for 8 necrotic damage, that’s a net gain of 2 hit points (+5 hit points, then -3). (Champion: heal with the first 10 points; epic: heal with the first 25).
Quirk: Doesn’t really see what’s wrong with the undead. Lovely people, once you get to know them.
# Glorious Rally
When you rally, you gain 4 temporary hit points that last until the end of your next turn, 10 temp hp at champion tier, and 25 temp hp at epic tier.
# Grave Dirt Girdle
Recharge 11+: This belt has pouches containing grave dirt. When you heal using a recovery, until the start of your next turn, you: gain resist damage 16+ against all damage, can pop free from each enemy engaged with you as a move action, and can move through solid objects but not end your turn there.
Quirk: Likes to be near graveyards.
# Heroic Resolve
Recharge 11+: You can use a recovery to prevent all damage from an attack (including ongoing damage), but not effects.
Quirk: Has terrible heartburn.
# Kilt of the Mountains
Recharge 16+: When you activate this kilt, you may walk on walls or steep cliffs as if they were level ground. You can run straight up a vertical wall – just stay clear of the ceiling, as the kilt’s magic fails if you go upside-down. The kilt’s effect lasts for the rest of the battle.
Quirk: Sworn to abjure underwear of all forms.
# Kilt of the Swamp Leech
Recharge 11+: The power of the lizardfolk shamans who wove this kilt flows through you. After an enemy targets you with an attack, you may activate this belt to leech off their good luck. You use the same result that they used to attack you for your next attack.
Quirk: Takes advantage of others.
# Kilt of Wild Magic
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: Talismans and fetishes of ancient magic hang from this kilt. Sometimes, when the chaotic forces align, the wearer can channel cosmic energy to fuel works of great spellcasting. Of course, there’s also a chance that those chaotic forces can rip the wearer’s soul to shreds. When you cast a spell or use an item, you may activate the kilt and roll a d6. If the result is less than the escalation die, then the recharge roll for that power drops by 5 (so, an item that’s recharge 11+ becomes recharge 6+). Full Recovery spells affected by this item become recharge 16+.
If you roll equal to or higher than the escalation die, then you take damage equal to your level multiplied by the value of the escalation die.
Quirk: Reads meaning into patterns, like the flight of birds across the evening sky or the ripples in a windtossed lake.
# Knightwheel Sash
Recharge 6+: If you’re a dwarf, use the human species power quick to fight at the start of a battle. If you’re a human, use the dwarf species power that’s your best shot? during a battle.
Quirk: Surprisingly optimistic about dire situations.
# Last Word
When you heal using your last remaining recovery, you heal 30 additional hit points (champion 75 hp; epic: 200 hp).
Quirk: Stubbornly independent.
# Potion Belt
Recharge 16+: Drink a potion stored on this belt as a quick action instead of a standard action. (It also provides slots for up to six potions.)
Quirk: Constantly attempts to refill everyone else’s drinks. Or potions. Or ration bags.
# Resilience
Recharge 16+: When you rally, you can use a second recovery to heal after using the first (and seeing the recovery roll).
Quirk: Grinningly optimistic.
# Sash of Subtle Arguments
Recharge 6+: Minute inscriptions of obscure philosophical debates cover both sides of this silken belt. You may ignore any one condition affecting you until the start of your next turn. You don’t suffer the penalties or ongoing damage from that condition, but you may not make a save against that condition if it allows a save.
Quirk: Delights in getting into arguments.
# Sash of the Swan Song
When you become helpless, you can pop free from each enemy engaged with you before becoming helpless.
Quirk: Dances when walking.
# Serpentkind Sash
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: You (and your equipment) transform into a pile of harmless snakes. While you are a pile of snakes, you can’t be intercepted or targeted with attacks, and you can’t cast spells or make attacks. Changing back is a move action; you also change back at the end of battle if you haven’t already.
Quirk: Ssstresssed sssilibant sssoundsss.
# Swordbelt of the Keen Blade
Recharge 11+: One magical edged or piercing weapon worn on this belt has its critical range increased by 2 at the start of the battle. This bonus is lost for the rest of the encounter when you actually score a critical hit with that weapon.
Quirk: Always engaged in preparation and maintenance; you are incapable of staying idle even for a moment.
# Swordbelt of the Slayer
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: You are drawn to prey on the weak and the dying. When you use the belt, you get a +1 bonus to your attack as long as you attack the enemy with the fewest hit points. (Champion: the effect lasts for three rounds; epic: until the end of the battle).
Quirk: Merciless.
Note: Fighting against the Lich King’s armies isn’t like fighting against mortal foes. Living enemies need to sleep, and eat, Their numbers grow fewer over time as soldiers get sick, or desert and go home, or turn to looting and pillaging instead of fighting. The undead, though – their armies get stronger over time. Those monsters avoid pitched battles at all costs – why go to war against the Imperial Legion, when you can slaughter a dozen peasant villages and turn all the dead into more zombies? It’s like fighting a plague. Swordbelt of the Slayer? Pah! Swordbelt of the Pestilent Coward, more like! - Sir Tanteer, paladin of the light
# Taskmaster’s Belt
Recharge 6+: This ugly iron belt is of benefit only when partnered with a magic weapon that deals extra dice of damage when a particular condition is met. Activating the belt lets you ignore your weapon’s condition for one attack.
Quirk: Intolerant of the failings of others.
# Tinker’s Belt
When you take damage from a trap and the natural attack roll was odd, take only half damage from that attack.
Quirk: Constantly mumbles.
# Unseen Swordbelt
Spells of blinding and hiding woven around the ornate scabbard on this belt prevent it from being seen or noticed by any except exceedingly powerful and cunning entities (epic-tier characters, or champion-tier characters who specialize in divination or awareness). With your sword or other weapon hidden on this belt, you appear to be unarmed until you draw it.
Quirk: Takes unholy delight in making swordbased puns, as if subconsciously trying to draw attention to the invisible sword.
# Victory by Inches
You must carry a single magic melee weapon that you keep attached to this item for it to manifest its power. When using that weapon, apply the weapon’s magic bonus to miss damage.
Quirk: Have a hard time taking no for an answer.
# Woodrunner’s Kilt
While wearing this loose belt, you can run through the branches and treetops as though running on firm and level ground. The belt only allows you to run – if you stop to fight or do anything other than run swiftly, then it provides no benefit and you may fall or be otherwise impeded by the terrain. Running in forests, though, you’ve got covered.
Quirk: Restless.
# Champion
# Ligature of the Lich
When you heal using a recovery, gain a +4 bonus to saves until the end of your next turn.
Quirk: Seeks ways to unnaturally extend life.
# Resurgence
Recharge 16+: When you drop to 0 hit points or lower, heal using a recovery before falling unconscious.
Quirk: Bursts forth with wildly optimistic comments from time to time.
# Sash of Suppleness
Recharge 6+: A silky sash worn as a belt. When an attack hits your AC and deals 16 damage or less, change that hit into a miss (epic: 40 damage or less).
Quirk: Always stretching, even when it would be more polite or sensible to not be doing so.
# Epic
# Belt of Phylacteries
When you have no recoveries remaining, roll a save. If you succeed, you regain a recovery.
Quirk: Fears others will steal their soul.
# Kilt of the Mad Archmage
Recharge 11+: When you drop one or more foes with an arcane spell attack, heal using a recovery and gain a +4 bonus to attack rolls with spells until the end of your next turn.
Quirk: Roll eyes and giggle too often for comfort.
# Totem Kilt
A hide-and-fur skirt bedecked with garish tribal charms, totemic symbols, and spirit knots. You can reroll the first death save you make each battle. Add +2 to the roll.
Quirk: Sometimes speaks with the voices of ancestors.
# Vitality
Whenever you take ongoing damage, roll an immediate save to end the effect without taking damage first.
Quirk: Fascinated by patterns.
# Book, Scroll, Tome, Grimoire
Mastering a book requires a course of study and practice, usually accomplished over a full recovery or more. Sometimes a book will reject a reader, leaving them either confounded or disturbed.
# Default Bonus
None.
# Adventurer
# Book of Justice
This book is a record of (so far) unpunished injustices. When you read this book, select a monster subtype of your choice. You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls, defenses, and saves, and your crit range expands by 2 against that monster and effects created by that monster. You can change the monster chosen when you level up.
Quirk: Holds grudges.
# Book of Light
Reading this book gives you a connection to higher powers. When you heal using a recovery, you shine with an inner light and either heal extra hit points equal to the escalation die, twice the escalation die at champion tier, and three times the escalation die at epic tier OR deal that much radiant damage to each enemy engaged with you.
Quirk: Always calm.
# Book of Shadowed Secrets
1/Day
Deciphering the hidden messages within this book (attuning it) allows the reader to learn many secrets involving locks and keys. When you fail a skill check to open a lock or disarm a trap, describe a strange way to repeat the attempt (jamming a lit candle into a keyhole, humming to disarm a trap, etc.) and reroll the skill check with a +4 bonus.
Quirk: Repeats gossip.
# Codebook of Nefarious Machinations
Whenever your group suffers a campaign loss, you gain a temporary 1-point positive relationship with the a shadowy mastermind. This positive relationship is lost once you gain some benefit from the mastermind; you must then explain how your party’s defeat played into the mastermind’s stratagems, and now you’re getting your payoff.
Quirk: Leaves apparently meaningless messages hidden in the most unlikely places.
Note: No, really, it’s a good thing we got shipwrecked. I can’t tell you why, but trust me, it’s all part of the Plan. It’s also a good thing that we were able to salvage this barrel of wine. That’s not part of the Plan, I just want a drink. - Stormcrow Jacen, not even bothering to pretend he’s a “merchant” at this point.
# Codex of Foreshadowed Victory
Recharge 16+: When you roll initiative, gain a +10 bonus to your roll after seeing it.
Quirk: Jumpy.
# Compendium of Observed Ritual
Exhaustively complete and exhaustingly pedantic, this book purports to record all known rituals, barring a few diabolical ones censored by the compilers. While following the instructions in this book makes ritual casting take much longer (2d4 hours, and you can’t use high arcana to hasten matters along), it can also improve the efficiency of the ritual. Roll a d6; on a 6, then the components used to fuel the ritual aren’t expended, as the book describes a method to tap some other power source.
Quirk: Becomes obsessed with pointless ceremony and ritual.
# Deeds of the Wizards of Neem
Quick Action
1/Day
You experience a flash of insight and can swap two unexpended spells (spell slots) that you know for one wizard spell that is lower level than both expended spells. You cast that spell using your primary spellcasting ability. The swap remains in effect until your next full heal-up.
Quirk: Conceited.
# Enchiridion of Heroism
Recharge 11+: This book is a how-to manual on heroics. When you roll for a skill check that could be described as heroic and self-sacrificing, gain a +4 bonus to the roll.
Quirk: Heroic, to a fault.
# Herbal Compendium
This isn’t just a book – if you’ve got a copy of the herbal compendium, then you’ve also got bags of dried herbs, gardening tools, dirt under your fingernails and things growing in your hair. You get a +4 bonus to any skill checks relating to herb lore and plant life, and you almost always have a herbal remedy to deal with a problem or free-form challenge. At the very least, you can say what sort of herb could help in the current situation, and you know the regions it’s said to grow in.
Quirk: Always grubby.
# Hymnal of Echoes
This book contains songs written in a secret divine language. When you have read the book and attuned to it, you gain one 1st level bard song, 3rd level at champion tier, and 7th level at epic tier that you cast using your best ability instead of Charisma. Rereading the book during a full heal-up lets you switch songs. If you are a bard, the song is an extra song in addition to the ones that you normally know.
Quirk: Sometimes starts accidentally speaking the divine language instead of their own.
# Hymnal of the Divinities
This item allows its bearer to roll to sustain bard songs sung by an ally. Both you and your bard ally get to make a roll to sustain; as long as one of you succeeds, the song may continue. You may keep sustaining a song even if the bard is dead, unconscious or otherwise unable to sing.
Quirk: Puritanical, especially when it comes to frivolous entertainments.
# Litany of the Light
Recharge 6+: In order to benefit from this book’s effect, your character must have recently preached or recited an extract from it to your allies, so it’s of no use when ambushed or if you don’t have time to prepare for battle. When you cast a divine spell that targets more than one ally, you may target one additional ally who listened to your preaching earlier.
Quirk: Loves the sound of your own voice.
# Manual of Enlightened Flesh
You gain a +1 bonus to all skill checks based on Str, Con, or Dex.
Quirk: Takes heightened satisfaction in their own physical prowess.
# Map of the Deeps
While attuned to this item, you gain a 2-point skill related to “knowing secret dwarven tunnels.”
Quirk: Love of gemstones.
# Scroll of Darkness
This mind-blasting scroll reveals the secrets of the Dark Gods. The scroll is only a few pages long, but you find yourself reading it again and again, and each reading brings new insights into the nature of life and death. As long as you possess the scroll, you have a 3-point skill related to knowledge of evil deific figures.
Quirk: Not so much a quirk as a health and safety warning – if this item takes over, then you’ll be sacrificing virgins on altars in no time.
# Scroll of the Fortuitous Outlook
Quick Action
Once per Battle
Make a recharge roll for a recharge power you expended this turn (including a magic item power) If successful, you regain that power this turn.
Quirk: Paranoid about the weather.
# Scroll of Seven Subtle Serpents
Recharge 6+: When you make a melee attack based on Dexterity, Intelligence, or Wisdom, evoke a special ability of your choice. Pick the ability from one of the following options after seeing whether the attack is a hit.
- Deal +1d6 damage on a hit, +2d8 at champion tier, and +4d10 at epic tier.
- Deal +1d4 damage on a miss, +2d6 at champion tier, and +4d8 at epic tier.
- Gain a +1 bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn.
- Pop free from one enemy.
- Gain 1d10 temporary hit points, 3d8 at champion tier, and 8d8 at epic tier.
- Roll a save against an ongoing save ends effect.
Quirk: Always in constant motion, or swaying gently when still.
# Scroll of the Unerring Shaft
Recharge 11+: When you miss with a ranged weapon attack, turn that miss into a hit, dealing your ranged basic attack damage with the attack instead.
Quirk: Sings snatches of nonsense.
# Seared Book
Recharge 11+: It’s hard to tell that this lump of charred and ruined paper was ever actually a book, but that doesn’t stop you reading it obsessively, trying to find wisdom in the burnt, acid-scarred pages.
When an enemy is slain by an acid attack – you don’t have to be the one who actually delivers the killing blow, you just need to witness it – you may either take an extra move action in your next turn, or learn one secret held by that enemy related to personal matters, or to politics, intrigue or crime. The answer appears in the pages of the seared book. Think of it as a forced final confession, or a strange variation on a speak with dead ritual that uses acid as a medium.
When an enemy is slain by a lightning attack, you may either immediately cast an at-will spell as a free action, or learn one secret held by that enemy relating to arcane or spiritual matters.
When an enemy is slain by a fire attack, you may either take an extra standard action in your next turn or learn one secret held by that fallen enemy related to practical matters (anything not covered by the other two).
Quirk: Drawn to ruined places and ancient battlefields.
# The Adventurer’s Cookbook
1/Day
When you take a quick rest, one PC (including you) can eat something you’ve prepared to heal to 1 hp above staggered. Of course, to get the benefits requires eating what you cooked. . . .
Quirk: Cannibalistic urges.
# The Hammer of Ages
Recharge 16+: The stone cover of this book is pitted and worn. As a standard action, identify nearby and far away demons, devils, spirits, undead, and possessed characters—even if they are hidden, invisible, or disguised by illusion. The book also counts as an arcane or divine implement with a default bonus equal to its tier against enemies of a type it can identify.
Quirk: Paranoid inquisitor.
# Tome of Demon-binding
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: A heavy book, bound in demon skin. When you use the power, 1d3 random nearby demons and devils become stuck (hard save ends, 16+).
Quirk: Sadism.
# Tome of Relics
1/Day
This tome details the secret history of certain magic items. Expend a recharge or full recovery spell to recharge a magic item power.
Quirk: Treasure aficionado.
# Tome of the Divinities and their Deeds
Recharge 16+: When you cast a divine spell, heal using a recovery and add +1d6 hit points to the total, +2d8 hp at champion tier, and +4d10 hp at epic tier.
Quirk: Sees the hands of the gods operating subtly through the natural and social world, and makes others aware of it.
# Tome of the Open Mind
Recharge 16+: When you roll a skill check using Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma and dislike the result, reroll the check.
Quirk: Annoyingly curious.
# Champion
# Tome of Beasts
This tome contains anatomical and cryptozoological diagrams. After each full heal-up, choose a specific creature. Until the end of the full recovery, you gain a +3 attack bonus against that specific creature (e.g., “the stone golem that we saw yesterday”); a +2 attack bonus against creatures of the same species or ilk (e.g., stone golems); and +1 attack bonus against creatures of the same type (e.g., constructs).
Quirk: Always consulting the tome.
# Tome of the Thirteenth Prime
1/Battle
Once you have read the 41 lessons in this book and attuned it, your unarmed and weapon attacks that have no other damage type now deal radiant damage. When you hit a target with an unarmed or weapon attack, it takes 1d8 extra radiant damage (champion: 2d8 damage; epic 3d10 damage).
Quirk: Fear of numbers, especially the one between twelve and fourteen.
# Manual of Puissant Skill at Arms
Recharge 11+: When you miss with a melee attack, reroll the attack using +15 as your attack bonus instead of your own bonus (epic: +20). If an arcane spellcaster reads this manual, it hurts their brain and permanently reduces their maximum hit points by 4 (epic: by 10).
Quirk: Constantly checking self out and flexing, and seems to want to be caught doing that.
# Manual of the Realms
Move Action
2/Day
This manual has more pages on the inside than its size would suggest. When you use the manual, you can teleport somewhere nearby that you can see.
Quirk: Distracted by visions of other realities.
# Manual of Victory
Recharge 16+: Those who study this monograph on total warfare come to understand that a bloodless victory is a hollow one, and that it is only from sacrifice and suffering that true glory arises. The first time one of your allies falls on the field of battle (drops to 0 hit points or is otherwise slain or incapacitated), choose one of the following effects:
- Increase the escalation die by 1
- Take an immediate standard action for free
- Increase your weapon damage dice by one step (d6s become d8s, d8s become d10s) for the remainder of the battle
Be warned, though – if the fallen ally is healed and returns to the fray, it throws your tactical calculations off, and you no longer benefit from the escalation die for the rest of the battle.
Quirk: Refight famous battles in your head or on the tabletop.
# Manual of the Numinous Realms
Recharge 11+: Bound in orichalchum, written in silver ink on the finest vellum, and illustrated with strange diagrams that move on their own, the manual describes the interplay of elemental forces and spiritual currents that underlie the illusion we call reality. By manipulating these fundamental levers of reality, you may accomplish great feats of magic. When you miss all targets with a full recovery spell, you give up that spell’s miss effect (if any) and cast another full recovery spell as a free action.
Quirk: Fears unlikely consequences and improbable coincidences. If only you fools could see how all things are interconnected, you too would fear the calling of the birds in the trees when the wind is from the west and there’s a woman in a red shawl nearby!
# Palimpsest of the Living Land
Recharge 11+: This collection of philosophical writings, arcane ravings, philosophical dirges and mystical revelation has been handed down from druid to druid over the Ages, with each generation adding to the wisdom of those that have gone before. The writings describe the wild world before the civilizing influences of industry and emperors, before rule-bound magic and petty gods, before roads and farms and cities.
Druids don’t take kindly to outsiders stealing their sacred texts.
When you make an attack roll, after finding out if the attack hits, you may change the attack roll to a value that depends on your surroundings. In a city or other outpost of civilization, it’s 1d6. In a region that’s mostly wild, but is still marked by signs of civilization (roads, farms, stone buildings), it’s 2d6. In the wild woods, deep desert and other regions of pristine wilderness, it’s 3d6. If you’ve recently helped nature reassert itself by destroying those pesky signs of civilization, have another +1d6, or even 2d6 for a really crushing blow to the Empire.
So, theoretically, if some druid was defending the heart of the Wild Wood (a 3d6 region) and had just dealt a terrible injury to the forces of civilization (+2d6), she could reroll a missed attack and substitute 5d6 for a d20 roll.
Quirk: Reads messages from the living world in the shape of trees and the colors of the leaves.
# Epic
# Labyrinthine Grimoire
Recharge 16+: When this book is opened, your body falls to the ground, helpless. Your mind enters a seemingly infinite library, a maze of book-lined passageways and vaults that contains all the knowledge of the universe. You may swap out any one spell for any other spell you have access too – once you find that spell in the library. At the start of your turn, make a skill check using a suitable magical skill against DC 25. If you succeed, you wake up. If you fail, you’re still stuck in the library and remain helpless for another round. If you roll a 1, well, something crawled out of the library and into your body while you were detained, like a book-spirit desperate to get written into reality. You can use the grimoire outside of combat, but it’s up to the GM how often you get to make skill tests to find your way back – life or death situations are great for focusing one’s mind on the task at hand.
Quirk: Bibliophile.
Note: My master once owned the Labyrinthine Grimoire, and consulted it some sixty-nine years ago. He has yet to return. If, when searching the infinite library, you happen across an absent-minded old wizard with a purple beard, please break it to him that he’s been dead for sixty-four years and a considerable amount of paperwork has built up in his absence. - Gerolt, the Eternal Apprentice
# Scroll of the Serene Sky
1/Day
Once you’ve mastered the lessons in this book, your feet no longer directly touch the ground as you move (unless you wish them to; this doesn’t prevent falling damage, but might lessen it or allow you to avoid certain traps as the GM wishes). Until the end of the battle or scene, you gain flight.
Quirk: Fears dirt and germs.
# Tome of Arcane Mysteries
Recharge 11+: When you make an attack roll with an arcane spell, after finding out whether the attack hits, change the attack roll to a 10 instead of the natural roll.
Quirk: Doodles insane geometrical designs.
# Tome of Enlightenment
When you prepare spells, you may leave one slot empty. You may fill that slot with a spell whenever you need it. So, you could leave one ninth-level cleric spell slot free, and fill it with resurrection if a party member dies, or overworld travel if you need to get somewhere in a hurry, or a 9th level turn undead if you’re ambushed by the Lich King’s forces.
(If your class doesn’t have spells, you may leave a power or feat slot empty when you level instead.)
Quirk: Loves abstruse philosophical arguments and theological debates.
# Boots, Shoes, Sandals, Slippers
# Default Bonus
Disengage checks and other checks involving fancy footwork: +1 bonus (adventurer); +2 bonus (champion); +3 bonus (epic).
# Adventurer
# Anklets of Adumbration
Recharge 11+: This jangling ankle jewelry goes quiet when you need to sneak about. Use the rogue’s shadow walk power and treat the MD attack of that power as if you hit.
Quirk: Dislikes shoes.
# Boots of Convenience
Recharge 11+: When you’re not engaged, you may choose to temporarily be nearby or far away when targets are chosen for an attack, regardless of your actual physical position on the battlefield. So, you can be nearby the cleric when she casts heal, but then snap back to far away when the evil spellcaster fireballs the area. Quirk: Whenever you visit a tavern or other gathering-place, you attract a retinue of sycophants and ne’er-do-wells who vanish whenever you might ask them a favor.
# Boots of Demonkind
While wearing these cloven-toed boots, your creature type is demon or your normal creature type (whichever would be most beneficial in the situation). In addition, when you use an action to move, you gain resist fire 18+ until the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Admires demons.
# Boots of Elvenkind
You gain a +4 bonus to skill checks to walk quietly.
Quirk: Develops a love of elegant elven poetry.
# Boots of Ferocious Charge
Whenever you move to engage a foe first and then make a melee attack against it during the same turn, you deal +1d6 damage, hit or miss, +2d8 at champion tier, and +4d10 at epic tier.
Quirk: You like to start fights as much as you like to finish them.
# Boots of Joy
Recharge 6+: These elegant boots lighten your heart, and make you want to dance at every opportunity. You may take a free move action immediately when you roll a natural 20.
Quirk: Merry.
# Boots of Land-striding
1/Day
Until the end of the battle, you can move as a free action once each turn. Used outside of battle, these boots let you run at top speed for half a full recovery, making a journey on foot that takes days take only hours.
Quirk: Impatient.
# Boots of Sure Feet
You can walk or run normally through terrain that would usually slow one down, such as rubble, undergrowth, muck, etc. The boots don’t protect you against damage or similar effects incurred from inhospitable terrain.
Quirk: Becomes exceptionally picky about diet.
# Boots of the Dragon Rider
Recharge 6+: When you would fall, roll a normal save. If you succeed, you avoid falling and remain as close as possible to the location you were when you started to fall.
Quirk: Hot-headed.
# Boots of the Hero’s Footsteps
These travel-worn boots have been all over the Empire, and they remember every step. Sometimes, you’re beset by intense déjà vu, as memories from the boots leak into your mind. This only happens in places where the boots have been before. When it goes, you either get a +4 bonus to a Wisdom skill check related to navigation or finding paths, or a +4 bonus to a Dexterity check to avoid unexpected hazards that the boots have encountered before.
Quirk: Your feet instinctively lead you towards the nearest inn.
# Boots of the Nightmare Prince
Recharge 11+: When an enemy moves out of engagement with you, teleport back into engagement with that enemy after it finishes its movement.
Quirk: Enjoys stalking others.
# Boots of the Roaring Pines
Double this item’s default bonus to disengage checks, and apply that bonus to skill checks to navigate difficult terrain (thick mud, clinging vines, shifting rubble, etc.) as well as saves against being stuck.
Quirk: Eager to charge into battle, into taverns, into caves . . .just a lot of running everywhere.
# Boots of Water Walking
As long as you don’t stop moving, you can walk on water. You start sinking after any turn in which you don’t take a move action.
Quirk: Twitchy.
# Clawed Boots
Move Action
Recharge 11+: The lion-fur that lines these boots conceals magical bone claws that sprout from their ankles. You may leap upon a foe of equal or greater size while wearing these boots; when you do so, the claws dig in and keep you attached to that enemy. The enemy has a -2 penalty to attempts to disengage or pop you free, and if the enemy does disengage by any means, your boots inflict 1d10 damage on it automatically, 2d10 at champion tier, and 4d10 at epic tier.
Quirk: Likes high places and elevated positions.
# Dancing Boots of the Corsair
Once per battle, the wearer of these boots may make a tremendous leap, effectively flying for one move action. However, the boots are extremely sensitive to magical songs, such as those sung by bards. The first time in a battle that anyone uses a magical song or music, the boots compel you to dance a merry jig. You get to make a normal save to resist (or an easy save, 6+, if you know the song is coming and can brace for it); if you fail, you’re dazed.
Quirk: Can’t resist a party.
# Dead Man’s Boots
Recharge 11+: If you’re knocked unconscious or otherwise rendered helpless or incapacitated while wearing these boots, then you get to pick a nearby enemy and make a +10 attack vs. MD against that foe, +15 at champion tier, and +20 at epic tier. If you hit, that foe takes a fancy to your boots and tries to loot them from your unconscious body at the earliest possible opportunity. The enemy won’t take absurd risks to get the boots, but might choose to go after your boots rather than pressing the attack against the rest of the party. You’ll probably occupy your target for at least one round.
The magic of the boots works best against greedy humanoids. Targeting a foe that wouldn’t normally wear boots or care about fashion means a penalty on your attack (GM: -4 sound good to you?). Targeting the sort of foe for whom looting the bodies is second nature gives a bonus to the attack (so, using the boots on goblins, kobolds, bandits, thieves, ghouls or adventurers is worth +4 or so).
On a natural 20, then the chosen enemy is so obsessed with the boots they become confused (save ends).
Quirk: Hey, these are really nice boots.
# Deathwalker Greaves
1/Day
While you’re in a graveyard or other area with a strong ‘dead’ vibe, phase through solid objects as part of your normal movement, passing through tomb doors and striding through tombstones for example, until the end of the battle or scene.
Quirk: Talks to the dead.
# Dragonstep Shoes
Recharge 6+: When you stomp in these shoes it sounds like the footsteps of something large, and you leave appropriate footprints. Gain a +4 bonus to a skill check to frighten or intimidate.
Quirk: Take up space, make noise.
# Dwarven Doomsteppers
You gain a +2 bonus to miss damage with melee attacks, +4 at champion tier, and +6 at epic tier.
Quirk: Tromps and stomps loudly.
# Face-Stomping Boots
Recharge 6+: When a foe you’re engaged with becomes staggered, you may automatically inflict 5 damage on them immediately, 10 damage at champion tier, and 25 damage at epic tier. You don’t have to be the one who staggered them to trigger this item.
Quirk: Hates bugs and other things that crawl.
# Fire Walkers
Move Action
Recharge 16+ after use: When an enemy attacks you and deals fire damage, teleport someplace nearby you can see.
Quirk: Drawn to open flames.
# Footpads of the Footpad
Recharge 16+: When activated, the wearer of these boots can fly! You can soar to the height of, oh, about half an inch, maybe. And only over solid ground. The virtue is that you don’t leave footprints, set off pressure plates, and have a much easier job balancing on thin or precarious surfaces like a ledge or narrow branch, gaining a +5, +10 at champion tier, and +15 at epic tier bonus to such skill tests. The magic of the boots lasts only a few minutes.
Quirk: Shady. You ooze criminality. People look at you and think “now there goes a shady, suspicious cutthroat who might rob me.”
# Glass Slippers
Recharge 6+: Your attire changes to suit the occasion. You gain a +2 bonus to a skill check to do something like fast talk your way past guards or appear that you belong in places where you ordinarily would not.
Quirk: Envious of others’ relationships.
# Gravewalker’s Shoes
When you move, everyone nearby feels a sudden, inexplicable chill that seems to be in time with your footsteps, as if you’re walking on their grave right now. You get a bonus of +2AC against opportunity attacks provoked by movement, but this bonus is lost for the rest of the turn if one of the opportunity attacks hits.
Quirk: You disconcert and discomfort people just by being there.
# Greaves of Reengagement
1/Battle
When an enemy disengages or pops free from you, roll a normal save. If you succeed, you pop free from any other enemies engaged with you and move back into engagement with that enemy.
Quirk: Can’t stand saying goodbye.
# Hare-foot Boots
When you roll a natural 16+ on a disengage check, you can move again as a free action.
Quirk: Paranoid they’ll be eaten.
# Iron Slippers
Recharge 16+: When you disengage from one or more enemies, one enemy that you disengage from takes ongoing damage equal to your level and becomes stuck (save ends both) as its feet burn and it’s forced to dance.
Quirk: Laughs at the misfortune of others.
# Iron-Shod Boots
Recharge 6+: When someone intercepts you, stomp on them for 1d8 damage, 2d10 at champion tier, and 4d12 at epic tier. If this damage kills your foe, you can keep moving as if you hadn’t been intercepted.
Quirk: Runs roughshod over other people’s feelings.
# Masterworks of the Cobbler-Sprites
These elegant shoes are always found in absolutely pristine condition, and always are perfectly fitted to the feet of the wearer as if a legion of invisible master cobbler faerie sprites had worked diligently all night. That’s probably because these shoes come with a legion of invisible master-cobbler spirits bound to them. If the shoes are ever damaged or soiled, the cobbler sprites repair them overnight.
Now, if the sprites arrive at night and find the shoes are not in need of repair, then the diligent craft-spirits do not stand idle. Instead, they turn their tiny invisible hands to other jobs that need doing. In game terms, whenever you take a full heal-up, you may specify what act of building, maintenance or service the spirits do for you. They won’t fight, but they could repair part of a damaged castle, clean all your equipment and polish your armor, prepare and serve a seven-course breakfast, or just repair the footwear of anyone else in the party. The spirits are cobblers at heart, and prefer mending shoes to any other tasks. They become vengeful if their masterwork shoes are deliberately destroyed or defaced.
Quirk: All other shoes seem to fit very badly.
# Sandals of the Creator
When you roll a natural 13 or 20 on a disengage check, you can heal using a recovery.
Quirk: Architectural critic.
# Shoes of the Doe
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: The wearer of these deerskin moccasins is astoundingly fleet of foot. Out of combat, you can run as fast as a horse, and with similar endurance. In combat, you may activate the shoes to take a bonus move action in a round.
Quirk: Easily startled.
# Silken Slippers
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: Scuttle or leap someplace nearby you would not normally be able to (across a pit, up a high wall, etc.). This power is not teleportation, so you can’t pass through solid objects and you still could suffer opportunity attacks if you don’t disengage.
Quirk: Loves spiders.
# Silver Slippers
1/Battle for Each
When you pop free or disengage from a mook, one mook that you were engaged with takes damage equal to twice your level. When you take miss damage from an enemy’s attack, you can pop free from that enemy.
Quirk: Giggles unnervingly.
# Slayer’s Boots
Recharge 11+: When one or more creatures attempt to intercept you while you’re moving to engage an enemy during your turn, you dodge past them instead so they can’t intercept.
Quirk: Recites death poems of ancient heroes. At length.
# Slippers of Astral Travel
1/Battle
These curly-toed slippers are made from phase-spider velvet. When an enemy intercepts you, you teleport back to the spot from which you started your move (epic tier: and can retake the move action with a new destination).
Quirk: Always looking over your shoulder.
# Soul-striders
Recharge 11+ after use: When a nearby creature dies, teleport next to that creature.
Quirk: Hears their own heartbeat constantly.
# Surestep Boots
Recharge 11+: There’s always something to step on. When you activate these boots, you can be assured that your very next step will be onto something safe and solid, no matter the situation. If you step into a river of lava, you’ll put your foot on a cool rock. If you jump down a cliff, you’ll step on a ledge or a branch. Jump off a roof, land on a balcony or a flagpole. Leap into the ocean, and you’ll land on a sandbank or a piece of floating wreckage or a trusty sea-turtle. Depending on the circumstances, the boots may give you a +4 bonus to skill checks related to unlikely swashbuckling and acrobatics.
Disclaimer: the magic of the boots is good for one (1) step. Any and all future steps are outside the purview of these magic boots. You can step off a flying realm and set foot on a seagull or a floating rock, but your next step after that is your own problem. (Here’s where you start spinning the GM a yarn about how one of your skills totally counts for riding a seagull while balancing on one leg.)
Quirk: Impetuous.
# Threatening Boots
These boots have spiked cleats. When you disengage, expand the crit range for your next attack by 1.
Quirk: Eager to fight.
# Trickster-Fox Socks
Recharge 11+: These long sock-like boots let you leave animal footprints instead of your own. Gain a +4 bonus to a skill check to hide your trail, or to track a creature via footprints, until the end of the battle or scene.
Quirk: Compulsive rhymer.
# Wise Eyelet Boots
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: If you were the last creature to take its turn this round, you pop free from all enemies.
Quirk: Hesitates before speaking.
# Champion
# Errant Boots
With these boots, you walk the paths of dream. Whenever you dream a true dream, you may teleport to a place glimpsed in that dream. You don’t get to control where that place is; you dream of somewhere, and you wake up there.
Don’t take this item until you really enjoy being tossed across the world by the whims of fate. Of course, if that sounds like a barrel of laughs, or a barrel of worthy heroic demon-smiting, then go for it.
Sometimes – perhaps when the stars align, perhaps when Bahamut has a moment of respite in his eternal struggle, or perhaps when it suits the GM – the boots allow several others to teleport too. Actually, ‘allow’ is the wrong word to describe the act of being kidnapped by someone else’s footwear.
Quirk: Collects souvenirs.
# Killer Heels
Move Action
Recharge 16+: Teleport somewhere nearby you can see, and one enemy engaged with you either before or after you teleport takes twice your level in damage.
Quirk: Insecure about height.
# Sandals of Wall Striding
Recharge 6+: Until the end of your next turn, you can move normally along a wall or vertical surface as if you were flying.
Quirk: Has compulsion to snatch small insects out of the air and pop them into mouth when they think no one is watching.
# Seven League Boots
Move Action
Recharge 16+: These traveling boots allow you to cover huge distances with every stride. In combat, you may move to any point you can see as a single move. This isn’t teleportation – you must disengage, may risk opportunity attacks or be intercepted. Out of combat, the boots let you cover huge distances very quickly. However, skill checks may be required to avoid becoming lost or to dodge hazardous terrain, like tripping on a mountain as you stride across the world.
Quirk: You start sleepwalking.
# Slippers of Absence
Recharge 16+: You become invisible until the end of battle, or until you attack. However, you must specify one nearby foe who is unaffected by the slippers’ magic (and there has to be a nearby foe for the slippers to work). If that foe dies when you’re still invisible, specify someone else. The chosen person doesn’t have to be someone in line of sight, just someone nearby.
Out of battle, the slippers work for about five minutes, but the GM gets to pick who can see you and who can’t.
Quirk: Speaks in a whisper.
# Verdant Boots
Plants sprout instantly in your footsteps. You can easily be followed when walking – all your pursuer needs to do is look for the wide path of riotous vegetation that springs up in your wake. These books are banned on all Imperial highways and in cities, as one casual stroll can ruin a paved road as trees and plants push up between the stones.
In combat, the growth of plants around your feet hinders your foes. Enemies take a -2 penalty to attempts to disengage from you, as they’ve also got to pull themselves free of the thorn bushes and twining plants you’ve inadvertently caused to grow around you.
Quirk: Suffers from hayfever.
Note: In the village of Hawhedge, the punishment for many crimes is to spend a full recovery walking up and down the fields in the “Boots of Justice”. They’re a pair of verdant boots, only with a ball and chain attached to each boot. The ball’s hollow and pierced with lots of little holes, and the villagers fill it with seeds of whatever plants they want to grow that full recovery. - Synix Alacostar, Wizard of Horizon
# Epic
# Boots of the Demon Prince
Standard Action
Recharge 11+: Activate these blood-red boots, and you open a one-way portal to the infernal realms at your feet. You become stuck until the end of your next turn. At the end of your next turn, assuming you’re still conscious, you and anyone engaged with you sinks into the portal and arrives… well, maybe in the nearest hellhole, or in the Abyss, or somewhere even worse.
The boots return you – just you – to the same spot in the material plane after a few minutes. If you activate the boots in a fight, you’re definitely not coming back until after the battle’s done. Anyone you bring with you has to find their own way out of this hellish place.
Quirk: Your footsteps have a strange echo, as if some fiend doth close behind you tread. If the boots take over, the fiend possesses you.
# Boots of the Imperator
1/Day
The soles of these boots contain flecks of lava stone from deep under Axis. When an enemy engaged with you hits you with an attack, that enemy takes twice your level in fire damage, is stuck until the end of its next turn, and must reroll the attack against you as you stamp your foot and produce a small patch of lava under it.
Quirk: Acts imperious.
# Bracers, Hand-Wrappings, Vampraces
Bracers occupy the same type as magic melee weapon in terms of bonuses.
Monks get magic-weapon style powers from magical bracers. A monk wearing magical bracers can’t use a magical melee weapon at the same time.
Non-monks generally don’t benefit from bracers.
Bracers have the same types of powers as other melee weapons. Use the melee weapon magic items to determine bracer powers, and assign one of the following monk-specific quirks.
- Speaks too often in terse shouted syllables.
- So disciplined that dancing, hanging out, and even sitting down is a mental hurdle.
- Unable to sleep without performing an exhausting workout first.
- Certain that intimacy with another being depletes one’s ki.
- Unable to avoid helping smaller innocent creatures in distress.
- Always rises at least an hour earlier than everyone else in their group, community, or adventuring band.
- Unable to curse or say negative things about people, even if they are true.
- Uncomfortable sleeping in the same spot they slept in the night before.
- Likes to paint watercolors in their spare time.
- Longs for victory in official martial tournaments.
- Trash-talks during battle.
- Tells detailed stories about great martial arts battles of previous centuries.
- Always uses a quick action to pose over the prone body of a just-defeated foe.
- Corrects everyone else’s posture, sometimes even in the middle of battle.
- Has a fondness for sweets, followed by a punishment regimen of only fish soup.
- Compelled to climb stairs using their hands instead of feet.
- Insists on always moving silently, breezing in and out of situations that in social terms require small noises and acknowledgements.
- Can’t abide “fancy” food without heartburn (or at least complaints of heartburn).
- Insists on being the first to go into a room.
# Adventurer
# Agony
1/Day
When you roll a natural 1 with an unarmed attack, you can lose hit points equal to five times your level to turn it into a natural 20.
Quirk: No pain, no gain.
# Black Lotus Bracers
Recharge 11+: When you score a critical hit with an unarmed attack, either you regain a point of ki; OR you or a nearby ally regains a once-per-battle power.
Quirk: Collects rare items.
# Claws of the Demon
These leather hand-wraps are made from hide taken from a demon’s arms. You can spend a point of ki to gain a +4 bonus to a physical skill check.
Quirk: You hiss when practicing your attack forms.
# Deathwatch Beetle
Your crit range with attacks made using these bracers expands by 1 (usually to 19+) against beasts, dragons, giants, and humanoids; and by 2 (usually to 18+) against plants.
Quirk: Enjoys the smell of carrion.
# Dragon-skin Hand-wraps
Standard Action
1/Battle
Make a melee basic attack against up to three enemies, dealing only half damage with the attack, hit or miss. These attacks deal one of the following damage types, chosen when you attune to this item: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison.
Quirk: Taunts opponents during battle.
# Leaf Hand-wrappings
The magic of the living leaves changes on the season. In spring, you gain a +1d4 bonus to all disengage checks. In summer, when you heal using a recovery during battle, you heal an additional 1d4 hp. In autumn, your unarmed attacks deal 1d4 extra fire damage on a hit. In winter, your unarmed attacks deal 1d4 extra cold damage on a miss. At champion-tier, the bonus increases from 1d4 to 2d4; at epictier, the bonus increases to 2d8.
Quirk: Likes open skies, fresh rain, and sunlight.
# Prayer-wheel Bracers
Recharge 11+: The outside of these bracers is inscribed with prayers and spins when you attack. When you hit an enemy with a melee attack, rally if you have not yet rallied this battle.
Quirk: Dutiful.
# Seven-Prayer Wrappings
Recharge 16+: Until the end of the battle, your attacks deal radiant damage, and once per round an enemy you hit with an attack takes 2d6 extra radiant damage, 3d10 damage at champion tier, and 4d12 damage at epic tier.
Quirk: Uses phrases that piously invoke the gods.
# Scorpion Bracers
Recharge 11+: When you score a critical hit with an unarmed strike, you can instead deal the damage from that attack as ongoing poison damage (hard save ends, 16+).
Quirk: Betrayer of trust.
# Shadow-strike Bracers
2/Day but 1/Battle
Attacks made using these bracers deal necrotic damage. When you make an attack using these bracers, target an enemy’s PD instead of AC.
Quirk: Practices fighting blindfold.
# Soaring-leaf-on-wind Bracers
1/Day
Until the end of the battle or scene, gain a +4 bonus to d20 rolls that are not attack rolls or death saves, and take a –4 penalty to death saves—in most cases that means you’ll need a 20.
Quirk: Repeats catchphrases during battle.
# Spiked Hand-wraps
Your crit range against demons and devils expands by 1, and when you score a critical hit against them, you deal triple damage instead of double damage.
Quirk: Scourges self.
# Ten-Dragon-Punch Bracers
When you score a critical hit, your crit range expands by 2 until the next time you score a critical hit, the next time an enemy scores a critical hit against you, or until your next full heal-up.
Quirk: Practices in the dark.
# Champion
# Iron Petal Bracers
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: When you drop a non-mook enemy, pop free from each other enemy engaged with you, and you can move somewhere nearby.
Quirk: Recites names of enemies at sunrise.
# Epic
# Bracers of Irresistible Discipline
These leather bracers are warm to the touch. When you score a critical hit, you can choose to pop free of each enemy engaged with you.
Quirk: Plays with fire and likes to walk across hot coals.
# Chalice, Goblet, Grail (Implement)
# Default Bonus
Attack and damage with an arcane or divine spell or attack: +1 (adventurer); +2 (champion); +3 (epic).
# Adventurer
# Bad-Blood Bowl
Quick Action
1/Day
Spend a recovery to coat your weapon or the weapon of an ally next to you with a deadly toxin. Roll your recovery dice but don’t heal. The next attack using that weapon that hits deals ongoing poison damage equal to the recovery roll, and half that much ongoing poison damage on a miss.
Quirk: Licks blood off weapons after use.
# Consecrated Chalice
Recharge 11+: Spend a recovery and a nearby ally heals using a free recovery.
Quirk: Bloviator.
# Druid’s Cup
Recharge 11+: Spend a recovery to infuse the cup. The next willing creature to drink from the cup turns into a woodland creature as per the druid’s scout form power. This infusion ends during your next short rest if not used, but you don’t regain the recovery.
Quirk: More comfortable being around animals than humanoids.
# Glass of Fire
When you make an attack, you can spend a recovery to add fire damage equal to 10 times your level to the attack, hit or miss (if the attack targets more than one creature, divide the extra damage among the targets).
Quirk: Consumes spirits.
# Grail of Execration
You can spend a recovery to cast the charm person spell at your level using the modifier of the highest of your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma for the attack roll.
Quirk: Desires to corrupt others.
# Iron Grail
When you make an attack using this implement and miss, you can spend a recovery to reroll the attack using two d20 and taking the higher result.
Quirk: Levity causes you pain.
# Ivy-covered Bowl
Spend a recovery to fill the bowl with some of your blood. As a quick action, pour out the blood to create a deep pool of blood, enough to flood a room to knee-height, or turn a forest clearing into reddish mud. Until the end of the battle or scene, each creature nearby the bloody pool or area takes a –4 penalty to disengage checks and saves against the stuck condition. After the end of the battle or scene, the blood will dry and turn into thick, tough, clinging vines, making the area impassable unless the vines are hacked through.
Quirk: Believes sacrifices must be made to maintain the balance of the world.
# Primal Grail
1/Day
Spend a recovery to allow a nearby ally to heal using two free recoveries.
Quirk: Drinks blood. What, it’s not ghoulish; blood is a good source of protein, and others should not be so squeamish.
# Skull Grail
1/Day
Spend a recovery to reroll a recharge roll for a spell. If the reroll fails, start the next battle with 15 temporary hit points, 30 temp hp at champion tier, and 50 temp hp at epic tier.
Quirk: Collects trophies.
# Spiked Chalice
Spend a recovery to prevent a nearby enemy from healing until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Envy those more powerful than you.
# Tarnished Chalice
Recharge 16+: Spend a recovery and roll your recovery dice but don’t heal. The next creature targeted by an attack from one of your allies this battle takes that amount of necrotic damage, hit or miss.
Quirk: Debauched.
# Champion
# Goblin Goblet
Quick Action
Spend a recovery to create a bloodred sniveling goblin (using the baseline stats, actions, and player control for a ranger’s animal companion of your level except that its hit points equal your recovery roll). The goblin lasts until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Enjoys having lackeys to boss around.
# Hallowed Grail
1/Level
When an ally dies, permanently spend a recovery and roll a d20. On a 16+, that ally returns to life and has 1 hp; otherwise, that ally returns to life at the end of the battle with 0 hp.
Quirk: Prone to moments of paralyzing doubt.
# Ruby-Decorated Goblet
Standard Action
1/Day
You can cast the wizard cantrip spark at-will. When you use the full recovery power, spend a recovery to cast the wizard spell fireball at 5th level (epic: 7th level), using Wisdom or Charisma for the attack roll if you wish. Quirk: Finds fire fascinating.
# Sapphire-Studded Goblet
1/Day
Spend a recovery to regain an expended full recovery spell or recharge spell. If it’s a recharge spell, make a recharge roll for it. If you succeed, you regain the spent recovery, and you still regain the spell if you fail.
Quirk: Covets knowledge.
# Epic
# Blessed Vessel
1/Day
Spend a recovery to draw the attention of the forces of light to you as you make a plea. Reroll an advantages roll made for a positive relationship with a deific figure.
Quirk: Tells the truth.
# Onyx-Covered Goblet
Quick Action
1/Day
Spend a recovery to drop one nearby enemy that has 40 hp or fewer to 0 hp.
Quirk: Cruel in petty ways.
# Cloak, Mantle, Cape
# Default Bonus
Physical defense: +1 PD (adventurer); +2 PD (champion); +3 PD (epic).
# Adventurer
# Adroit Avoidance
Recharge 6+: When an attack or effect deals ongoing damage to you that a save ends, you can roll an immediate save against it.
Quirk: Doesn’t notice social slights or insults.
# Animal-Shape
Standard Action
Recharge 11+: There are several different types of cloak, each of which allows you to take on the shape of a particular animal. The same rules apply to all of them.
- Changing shape into an animal is a standard action. Changing back by taking off the cloak is a quick action.
- You automatically change back if you’re knocked unconscious, fall asleep, or suffer a critical hit.
- Some cloaks allow you to fight in animal form, but you use the stats for a ranger’s animal companion of two levels lower than your actual level (minimum 0), and you don’t add the escalation die to your attacks. On the bright side, you get to use your own hit points.
- You can’t cast spells, use items or speak while in animal form. You can communicate through gestures and adorable animal interpretive dances.
The cloak resembles the sort of animal you can turn into – so, a bearskin cloak might let you become a bear, a wolfskin cloak lets you turn into a wolf. A shimmery, filmy, scaly cape lets you become a salmon. Classic animal shapes include: bear, wolf, bat, cat, squirrel, seal, fish or bird. The Champion tier version of this cloak lets you take on the form of any common animal.
Quirk: Take on traits of the animal you become. (champion: Values animals above other people of your kind.)
# Cape of Flight
Recharge 16+: When you activate this cape, you may fly until you attack or are hit by an attack. Most versions of this cape grant flight by transforming into a diaphanous greatcloak that catches unseen updrafts and lifts you up like a leaf on the wind; others just conceal the bat wings you grew when you first put on the cloak.
Quirk: Drawn to bright lights and exposed flames, like a moth.
# Cape of the Champion
1/Level
When you fight in spirit, your allies gain a +1 bonus to all defenses and saves until the start of your next turn. Once per level when you die, if one or more of your allies also died in the same battle, one of you survives as if they had succeeded on a death save, and the others are actually dead (determined randomly).
Quirk: Morbid sense of humor.
# Capering Cape
1/Battle
This embroidered cape swishes dramatically when you move. When an enemy disengages from you, take a move action but you can’t re-engage that enemy.
Quirk: Dances at odd moments.
# Cloak of Anonymity
While wearing this cloak, you blend in with crowds. People ignore you, and overlook anything else that’s strange about you. You could be a ten-foot-tall fanged demon who constantly weeps poison, and no-one would look twice when you walked past them in the marketplace. The cloak’s magic can’t hide you if you do something out of the ordinary. If someone is specifically looking for you, you get a +4 bonus to checks to hide in the crowds.
Quirk: Wants to do whatever common people do.
Note: Beware! Beware! Monsters and demons walk amongst you unseen! They wear masks of flesh, or cloak themselves in illusion, so you do not see them as they work their evil. I say to you all – you are a slave to devils, and vampires feed on your children, and your soul is meat for the beasts of the hells, and you are blind, blind to all this! Only those blessed by the Dark Gods can see the truth! Join the Crusade, and the veils will be lifted from your eyes, and you can fight back against the invisible horrors that have ruled you all your life! Join us, and see! Join us, and fight! - Erach, crazed preacher
# Cloak of Gold
To most people, this cloak looks drab and threadbare, so shabby that a beggar would be ashamed to wear it. However, certain people can see the cloak for what it really is – a shining mantle of golden light that makes you a blazing beacon of hope. Innocents, paladins and those touched by the Bahamut’s blessings can see the true cloak, as can evil-doers and servants of dark powers who should rightly fear the approach of one of his champions.
In short, if someone reacts to your cloak, then there’s something special about them.
Quirk: Frets constantly about seeing the cloak as drab and threadbare.
# Cloak of Lizards
Recharge 16+: This folds of this scaly cloak quiver and move of their own accord, as if something – a lot of somethings – scurries around beneath the fabric. When activated, a swarm of silver lizards rush out of the cloak and distract your foes. You and any nearby allies may pop free.
Quirk: Delights in sleight-of-hand and other dramatic tricks.
# Cloak of Misdirection
Recharge 16+: When engaged by two or more enemies, if one of them strikes you with a melee attack, you may activate the cloak to have that melee attack also strike another engaged foe. The same attack roll is applied to this new extra target, so it is possible that an attack that hit you still misses the second target. You may not use any powers or abilities that avoid attacks or negate damage in conjunction with the cloak – you have to feel the pain before you can share it.
Quirk: Gets into fights a little too readily.
# Cloak of Plausible Deniability
Recharge 11+: When you activate this cloak, you may take one quick action as if you were standing at a nearby point you can see. You don’t actually move—there’s a brief flickering projection as you’re in two places at once. You still draw opportunity attacks if you cast a ranged spell or take any such action while projecting.
Quirk: Secretive.
# Cloak of Shelter
Recharge 6+: One nearby ally may use one of your Defenses (AC, MD or PD) when targeted by an enemy attack. The choice to substitute your Defense for theirs must be made before the attack; however, if the attack hits, the cloak’s power is not expended.
Quirk: Attract those in need of alms and aid everywhere you go.
# Cloak of Shifting Allegiances
When you attune to this cloak, and during each rest, roll a d8 twice and reroll duplicates
| d8 | Damage Type |
|---|---|
| 1 | Acid |
| 2 | Cold |
| 3 | Fire |
| 4 | Force |
| 5 | Lightning |
| 6 | Poison |
| 7 | Psychic |
| 8 | Thunder |
The cloak grants resist damage 16+ to those damage types until your next rest.
Quirk: Frequently changes “best friends.”
# Cloak of the Grey Lady
Recharge 16+: When an undead creature attacks you and hits (but does not crit), change that attack into a miss instead.
Quirk: Treats undead as if they are still alive.
# Cloak of the Underworld
The cloth of this scratchy grey cloak matches the color of the surrounding rock, giving a +4 bonus to checks to hide whenever blending in with the surrounding stonework would be an advantage.
Quirk: Sees meaning and patterns in the cracks in the paving stones.
# Chasuble of Fell Might
This item’s cloth is woven from the hair of enslaved spellcasters. When you cast a full recovery spell against a target vulnerable to radiant damage, the target is also vulnerable to your spell attack, and takes triple damage if you score a critical hit against it.
Quirk: Collects trophies from the dead.
# Delver’s Hood
You can see in darkness, and magical darkness doesn’t affect you.
Quirk: Star-chaser.
# Demonhide Cloak
Recharge 11+: Demons are hard to kill. That means it’s hard for them to die. You’re wearing a cloak made from the skin of a trapped demon. Roll 1d6 at the start of battle to see what power the cloak can manifest in this fight if you choose to activate it.
| d6 | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | +4 temporary hit points, +10 at champion tier, and +25 at epic tier |
| 2 | Resist Fire 6+, 11+ at champion tier, and 16+ at epic tier |
| 3 | True Seeing – you are immune to invisibility and see through any illusions |
| 4 | Demonic speed – once per battle at the start of your turn, roll a d8. If the result is equal to or lower than the escalation die, you get to take an extra standard action this round, d6 at champion tier, and d4 at epic tier |
| 5 | If a nearby demon teleports, you may choose to teleport with it. You arrive engaged with the demon. |
| 6 | +1 to all attacks against demons |
Quirk: Goddamn smart-mouth cloak thinks it’s so smart, speaking through your mouth.
# Doppelganger Cloaks
These cloaks are always found in pairs. To activate the set, wear one cloak and leave the other cloak where no-one can see it. When you leave, the other cloak will come to life and conjure an illusory copy of you. This copy will go about its business, roughly mimicking your full recovery-to-full recovery life as best it can. When you return to the place you buried the cloak, your doppelganger will return and then whisper a onesentence message that sums up its exploits while wearing your face (“went to the market”, “visited your aunt”, “worshipped the dark lord” and the like) before vanishing back into the cloak.
The function of the cloak is to create a semi-reliable alibi to hide illicit activities (like being a devoted follower or organizing priest of the Cultist!). The doppelganger will always try to avoid the original if possible, and will only willingly meet its progenitor at the spot where it was ‘born’—the private spot where the empty cloak was hidden. If by some mischance a meeting between the two cannot be avoided, the doppelganger vanishes prematurely.
The illusory duplicate cannot attack, and vanishes if it takes any serious damage. It’s semi-solid and can perform basic tasks, but not with any degree of skill or accomplishment. For example, if you usually chop wood all full recovery, then your cloakdoppelganger will also chop wood, but it’ll do a poor job and can’t attack with the axe.
Quirk: Exceptionally paranoid.
# Dragonskein Mantle
Spend a recovery to transform into a young normal-sized dragon (epic; large dragon) until the end of the battle or scene. Your defenses, hit points, ability scores, etc. remain the same; however, you can’t use any of your normal attacks, spells, powers (including other limited-use magic item powers), or any limited-use feature or talent.
On the other hand, you gain flight and the two attacks listed below (with increased ability modifiers at champion and epic tier), as well as resist damage 16+ to one of the following types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. The choice of damage type is made when you attune to this item.
Claws and bite (level + highest ability modifier) vs. AC (2 attacks)— 1d6 times level damage.
C: Dragon breath (level + highest ability modifier) vs. PD (1d3 nearby enemies in a group)— 1d4 times level damage of the same damage type you resist while using this item’s power.
Quirk: Desires to become a dragon.
# Elven
Add +4 to checks to hide in natural surroundings.
Quirk: Prefers the finest things in life; of course, they are elven.
# Evasion
Recharge 6+: When you take damage from an opportunity attack, take 20 less damage from it, 40 at champion tier, and 100 at epic tier
Quirk: You can’t answer a question directly even if you want to.
# Fiend’s
Recharge 16+: When an enemy scores a critical hit against you, it must reroll the attack and you can teleport somewhere nearby you can see after the attack. If the attack deals fire damage, the attack misses instead (no reroll required).
Quirk: Ravenousness.
# Hame of the Tunnel Panther
Full Recovery
Once per full heal-up, while wearing this cloak, you may send forth your mind as the shadow of a tunnel panther. In this trance, your mind roams around the surrounding area, and you wake knowing the answer to one of the following questions (GM’s choice!), 2 questions at champion tier, and 3 questions at epic tier:
- What is the biggest monster in the area?
- Where is a foe that we encountered signs of earlier?
- Where does the air smell foulest?
- Where does the air smell freshest?
- Where is the nearest source of clean water?
- Where is the best ambush site?
Quirk: Lurks melodramatically and speaks as if pouncing.
# Indivisibility Cloak
1/Day
The metal threads in this cloak make it hard to cut. A critical hit against you becomes a regular hit, or a regular hit becomes a miss.
Quirk: Certain of own immortality (as long as you have the cloak).
# Invisibility
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: You become invisible. As you’ve got to hold the cloak around you to maintain the invisibility, you can’t take standard actions while invisible, which means (mostly) no spellcasting or attacking. You can drop the invisibility at the end of any turn; you become visible immediately, and can act normally on your next turn.
Quirk: Paranoid about other invisible creatures, lurking invisibly nearby.
# Living Cloak
This scarlet cloak won’t let you unknowingly walk into danger. When you fall far enough to be hurt or move into an area and trigger a trap, roll a hard save (16+). If you succeed, the cloak animates and keeps you from falling or drags you away from harm, normal save at champion tier, and easy save at epic tier.
Quirk: Misinterprets harmless situations as dangerous.
# Mantle of Divine Grace
Recharge 6+: Negates 15 points of necrotic damage you would otherwise suffer from an attack, 30 damage at champion tier, and 60 damage at epic tier.
Quirk: Innocent and unworldly.
# Mantle of Gloom
Quick Action
1/Round
With a swish of this black silk cape you can extinguish a nearby or far away nonmagical light source (blowing out a lantern or torch, slamming window shutters closed, dimming a magical light, etc.). Another swish relights a torch, opens shutters, etc. Quirk: Makes dramatic entrances.
# Mantle of Golden Scales
1/Day
Until your next rest, or until you roll initiative, you transform into a small, harmless gold dragon. While in dragon-form, you can’t fight, cast spells, or use powers (you need to concentrate to maintain the form), but you can do things like fly, use your breath weapon for mundane tasks like lighting torches, and other non-combat-oriented actions. Your hit points, defenses, and other stats remain the same.
Quirk: Obsessed with eggs (and guarding them).
# Mantle of Ice
Recharge 11+ after use: When an attack that deals cold damage targets your PD and misses, gain temporary hit points equal to the damage you would have taken if the attack had hit.
Quirk: Always too warm for comfort.
# Mantle of Lost Cities
Dwarven historians weave ornate cloaks of this sort from silver wire and rams-hair. While wearing this mantle, you see any dwarven structure or handiwork both as it is and as it was at its height. So, if you entered a ruined dwarven citadel, you would see both the current dilapidated ruin and, overlaid on that, what the citadel looked like when it was fully manned and intact. This double vision may be useful when exploring ruined areas or searching for lost treasures. For instance, you might know that there’s a door beneath a particular piles of fallen rocks, or recognize a rusty broken sword as the remains of a potent magic weapon.
Quirk: Besieged by nostalgia.
# Mantle of Mists
Recharge 16+: This hooded mantle is woven from fog. Until the end of the battle, attacks against you have a 20% miss chance, 25% at champion tier, and 30% at epic tier.
Quirk: Overly sneaky.
# Mantle of the Abbot
You can turn water into wine, stones into bread, and do similar tricks that ensure that your group always has food and drink enough to spare. You can’t limitlessly perform your gastronomic tricks—no transforming rivers into mead or turning dungeon walls into cake, well, at least not without the help of a deific figure.
Quirk: Worries about precedence (who does what first, who gets best seating, etc.).
# Mantle of the Necromancer
Undead creatures take a -2 penalty to their attacks against you if they are also engaged with one or more of your allies.
Quirk: Ghosts and other undead spirits regularly petition you for aid.
# Mantle of the Warlord
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: When fighting alongside allies that don’t normally get to add the escalation die to their attacks (summoned monsters, ranger’s pets, druids in animal form, most NPCs, those suffering from fear), you may choose at the start of your turn to give up the bonus from the escalation die until the start of your next turn. If you do so, all nearby allies who could not otherwise do so may add the escalation die to their attack rolls.
Quirk: Shouts like a drill sergeant.
# Nocturnal Coat
The eyes inscribed on this coat’s many brass buttons sometimes blink. You gain a +3 bonus to skill checks for rituals you perform at night (champion: +4, epic: +5).
Quirk: Prefers to do all important things at night.
# Pale Mantle of Suffering
This cloak is usually pale white, but becomes redder and darker as its power grows. You heal 2 hit points, 4 at champion tier, and 10 at epic tier whenever an enemy suffers ongoing damage caused by one of your attacks. Rumors that certain Drow nobles wear pale mantles that are so blooddrenched they appear black as night are quite accurate.
Quirk: Delights in the suffering of others.
# Purple Mantle
While wearing this fine purple cloak, others instinctively see you as an individual of wealth or influence from the upper echelons of society. In the Dragon Empire, they assume you are in some way noble; other cultures interpret your magically enhanced station differently. The cloak does not give you any automatic bonuses to interactions, but may alter the sort of interactions you experience (the wealthy noble sees you as a peer and holds a feast in your honor; the brigand lurking in the inn sees you as a target and tries to rob you).
Quirk: Has trouble holding onto money.
# Raven-feathered Cloak
Recharge 16+ after use: Gain flight until the start of your next turn. You will fall if you don’t land at the end of your turn. When you fall and would take damage, you can use the power as a free action to take no damage, but you land immediately.
Quirk: Prefers high places.
# Recovery
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: You heal using a recovery and add +4 hp to the total, +10 hp at champion tier, and +25 hp at epic tier.
Quirk: You grow small extra appendages that slowly wither away over days or weeks.
# Scout’s Cloak
Gives +2 to attempts to hide in darkened areas, or at night. You may share this bonus with up to two other nearby allies.
Quirk: Paranoid.
# Shelter
This long cloak with a full hood keeps you warm and dry, regardless of the elements, barring full immersion in water or other liquid.
Quirk: Prefers the outdoors.
# Shroud of Protection
Recharge 11+: You may activate this cloak in response to being targeted by any non-melee attack by pulling it over your body to shield you from the blast. You choose to use the cloak before damage is rolled. You take half damage from the attack, but lose your next standard action.
Quirk: Nervous.
# Shroud of Webs
1/Day
You make saves against the stuck condition at the beginning of your turn as well as at the end (even if the condition isn’t a save ends effect). When you use the full recovery power, block a doorway or similar-sized opening with a web as though you were casting the hold portal ritual.
Quirk: Loves traps and ambushes.
# Spy-Master’s Cape
Recharge 16+: The magic in this dark cape allows you to teleport to any nearby or far away location you can see, but only when you are hidden from the view of all other observers. You may use the cape at the moment of discovery to escape. For example, if you’re trying to hide from a band of orc scouts, and one of them discovers your hiding place, you may teleport as a reaction just before he sees you. Once he looks directly at you, the cloak cannot be activated.
Quirk: Ends conversations by leaving abruptly when the other person looks away.
# Stalwart
Recharge 16+: When an attack against your Physical Defense hits, make the attacker reroll the attack and use a PD of 15 instead, 20 at champion tier, and 25 at epic tier.
Quirk: Always the last to retreat or avoid danger.
# Steelcloak
Recharge 6+: For the rest of this battle, or until you are hit by an attack that targets AC, your cloak’s bonus applies to your AC as well as your PD.
Quirk: You move as though carrying a heavy weight.
# Swirling Cloak of the Swashbuckler
Recharge 11+: Use the rogue Swashbuckle talent without spending momentum.
Quirk: Laughs at danger. Literally.
# Thousand Rainbow-Scale Cape
This cloak is embellished with tiny scales taken from all types of scaled creatures (not just the usual five dragon types but also strange purple-, gray-, yellow-, pink-, and orange-hued scales are found on this cloak). When you attune the cloak, choose one of your talents, and a talent from another class that works with your current class. After each full heal-up, determine which of these talents (including its feats) will be available to you. Once per full recovery when you roll initiative, you can swap these talents.
Quirk: Of two minds about things.
# Two Worlds Cloak
Recharge 16+: When you teleport, you may bring one extra passenger along with you, wrapped in the voluminous folds of this purple silk cloak.
Quirk: Emotional obsession with your extra passenger.
# Whirlwind Cape
Move Action
Recharge 6+ after use: Fly in a spinning whirlwind, descending to the ground at the start of your next turn. If you fail the recharge roll, you lose a recovery (and your lunch!). If you succeed, you regain the power and can use it again before descending without the failure effect.
Quirk: Impulsive daredevil.
# Champion
# Castellum Chasuble
Recharge 6+: The wearer of this garment gains the ability to commune with castles and other stone fortifications, though just because you can talk to a building, doesn’t mean it has anything interesting to say. When you seek to gain useful information from a structure, roll a ridiculously hard skill check (or a hard skill check if it’s a religious structure of some sort). If you succeed, gain useful information.
Quirk: Wishes to serve the Cathedral of Santa Cora.
# Cloak of Bilocation
Recharge 16+: For the rest of the battle, or until you’re taken out, there are two of you – or one, in two places at once. You don’t get any extra actions, but you can divide your actions between your two copies as you wish. Everything’s shared between the two – damage and conditions apply to both of you. You can engage multiple foes, but take a -4 penalty to any opportunity attacks you make beyond the first each round. You can even both engage the same enemy for the purposes of powers like sneak attack.
When the battle ends, pick which you stays, and which one vanishes.
The epic version of this cloak gives you an extra standard action in the turn you activate the cloak.
Quirk: You argue with yourself. And lose.
# Cloak of Escape
Recharge 11+: The wearer seems to almost vanish in the billowing black folds of this overlarge garment. When included in the list of targets for an attack that strikes multiple targets, if there is at least one nearby ally who is a valid target for that spell but is not already targeted by it, you may use the cloak of escape to force the attacker to choose another target instead of you. For example, if an enemy casts a spell that targets two nearby creatures, and there are two other player characters nearby, you may use the cloak to ensure the spell attacks the two of them instead of you.
Quirk: Gregarious.
# Guardian
Recharge 11+: When a foe you’re engaged with targets your ally with an attack that doesn’t include you, make that enemy target you instead of that ally. Declare your choice before the attack is rolled. (Epic: recharge 6+.)
Quirk: Compelled to the defense of others, even those who might not need defending.
# Mantle of Vampirism
1/Day
Until the end of the battle, you know which enemy has the fewest hit points (or are tied for fewest). Once this battle when you hit that enemy with a basic attack or at-will attack, you regain a recovery, and if that attack drops the enemy to 0 hp, you can heal using that recovery.
Quirk: Grows fangs, or becomes focused on trying to grow fangs.
# Epic
# Bat-winged Cloak
1/Day
When you drop a creature to 0 hp, you gain flight until the end of the battle or scene.
Quirk: Doesn’t always know when to stop fighting.
# Bearskin Cloak
1/Battle
When an enemy targets your PD with an attack and misses, gain a +4 bonus to your next attack roll against that enemy.
Quirk: Forager.
# Cloak of the Dead World
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: When you hit a nearby foe with an attack, your cloak engulfs them and draws them into a nightmare realm. Survivors have reported seeing a dead world of grey desolation, inhabited only by shambling zombies ruled by a prominent lich from a citadel of bone. The vision inflicts 4d10 psychic damage on your enemy. The target is swallowed by your cloak and vanishes from the battlefield until the start of their next turn, at which point they emerge at a point nearby of your choice.
Quirk: Spouts apocalyptic prophecies about how we’re all doomed, utterly doomed.
# Inviolability
Recharge 16+: When an attack against your Physical Defense hits, change that hit into a miss instead.
Quirk: Attempts stunts of toughness and daring that a person less convinced of their invulnerability might be wise enough to avoid.
# Mantle of Dark Power
Recharge 11+: This hood casts odd shadows over your face when raised. When a spell attack targets your PD, heal using a recovery (before the attack roll).
Quirk: Hatred of arcane magic.
# Gloves, Gauntlets, Mitts
# Default Bonus
None.
# Adventurer
# Ambidexterity
Recharge 11+: When you roll a natural 16+ with your first melee attack during your turn while wielding a weapon in your off-hand, make a melee attack with the weapon in your off-hand as a free action, using +10 as your attack bonus, +15 at champion tier, and +20 at epic tier.
Quirk: Writes with both hands at the same time on different parts of the page. It freaks people out.
# Arcane Contacts
These gloves improve your ability to contact, detect, and distinguish supernatural forces, provided you can touch some material object connected to a force. The gloves provide no protection against the supernatural forces that touching an artifact might usher into your soul.
Quirk: Always cracks knuckles.
# Archer’s Gauntlets
Recharge 16+: When you miss with a ranged weapon attack, reroll it using +10 as your attack bonus, +15 at champion tier, and +20 at epic tier.
Quirk: You’re quiet. Too quiet. Say something.
# Bear Arms
Recharge 11+, or 11+ after use when in natural surroundings in which bears might live: Reroll a missed at-will attack or basic attack and take the result you prefer.
Quirk: Reluctant to remove gloves, making everyday tasks difficult.
# Burning Mittens
These fingerless gloves are studded with rubies. While you are grabbed (or swallowed, engulfed, etc.) by an enemy, that enemy takes twice your level in fire damage at the start of its turn. You can also cast the wizard cantrip spark at-will as a quick action.
Quirk: Enjoys lighting fires.
# Detachable Gloves
You may remove your hand and send it scurrying across the ground like a five-legged spider. Not only is this hilarious at children’s parties, but you may control your detached hand by remote thought, allowing you to perform actions at a distance. Even when on detached duty, your hand shares your allocation of actions, so if you want the hand to cover any distance, you’ll need to spend a move action on it. You can’t attack with your hand, but can cast spells through it that rely on touch. If anyone injures your hand, you suffer the damage.
You can reattach your hand by picking it up and touching it to your wrist.
Quirk: Evil hand. Or good hand. Hand of opposite alignment to you, anyway.
Note: Some years ago, it was fashionable in Glitterhaegen to wear detachable gloves. So many hands went astray, especially after parties, that the specialized profession of handfinder evolved. Indeed, the Worshipful Guild of Handfinders is still in operation, though I have no idea what they do now that the gloves have fallen out of common use. - Synix Alacostar, Wizard of Horizon
# Dragon’s Claw Gauntlets
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: This elaborate steel gauntlet is made to resemble the claw of a dragon. Your next attack that would normally target AC now targets MD instead, as you hew at your enemy’s soul.
Quirk: Quick to judge.
# Dragon-Rider’s Gloves
Recharge 11+: You do +1d8 damage with long-hafted weapons (spears, lances, polearms – anything that qualifies for reach tricks) for the rest of the battle, as long as you’re mounted on a steed of some sort, +2d8 at champion tier, and +4d10 at epic tier.
Quirk: Condescending.
# Gauntlets of Axes
1/Day
You summon forth a pair of golden axes. Until the end of the battle, you can attack with the axes as if they were heavy one-handed magic weapons with a default bonus of this item’s tier. You have no attack penalty with these axes, can use two-weapon fighting with them, and use your best ability modifier for attack and damage rolls. Out of battle, you can command the axes to undertake some axe-related task (chopping down a single tree, destroying a door, etc.), which they will magically complete (and using your attack stats if needed).
Quirk: Whittles little toys.
# Gauntlets of Clobbering
Recharge 16+: You deal +1d8 damage with two-handed weapons until the end of the battle, +2d8 at champion tier, and +4d10 at epic tier.
Quirk: Clobber first, talk later.
# Gauntlets of Maiming
Recharge 16+: These nasty, spiked gauntlets are invariably caked with blood and gore, no matter how much you scrub them. When you inflict a critical hit that does not kill your opponent, you may describe how your attack is especially painful, and may involve chopping off limbs or skewering organs. The GM might even let this hamper or daze your enemy, or give a penalty to a particular special attack (“how’s that manticore going to make a tail spikes attack now that I’ve cut off his tail!”)
Quirk: Squeamish and gentle outside of combat.
# Gauntlets of Revelation
Recharge 6+: When you hit an enemy with a melee attack, you momentarily disrupt anything that stops people from seeing that foe as they truly are. So, if the enemy’s shapeshifted, or invisible, or cloaked in an illusion, or has charmed people into believing a lie, they see the truth for a brief time. The enemy’s deceits reassert themselves at the start of the enemy’s next turn.
Quirk: Paranoid.
# Gauntlets of Swift Striking
Recharge 6+: Increase your initiative by +2d6 for this round only, by 13 at champion tier, and you’re going first this round no matter what. at epic tier
Quirk: You already assumed the quirk for this item was ‘jumps to conclusions’, right?
# Gauntlets of the Titan
These heavy gauntlets carry in them the spirit of the mightiest giants. Their power is sluggish and slow to wake, so they are of no benefit in combat, but they give a +6 bonus to Strength checks outside of combat.
Quirk: Constantly flexes hands, clenching and releasing and clenching again. Occasionally crushes random small objects.
# Gloves of Adhesion
The fingers of these gloves stick to any surface, giving a +4 bonus to skill checks to climb or hang on. The stickiness of the gloves lingers even after you stop using them, making your touch clammy and unpleasant.
Quirk: Loves heights.
# Gloves of Elven Glories Past
You gain a +2 bonus to last gasp saves, and when you hold ruined or aged items they appear as new (perfect for reading tomes spoiled by age or temporarily un-rusting a key). A side effect of being attuned to these gloves is that you do not age in a conventional sense.
Quirk: Melancholy nostalgia.
# Gloves of Glimpsed Sorrow
Recharge 11+: Should anyone else touch your gloved hand, they receive a momentary psychic flash of some terrible tragedy, usually inspired by whatever is currently uppermost in their minds, or whatever they fear most deeply. The victim is aware that this is a just a passing vision, and does not mistake it for reality unless they are already prone to such misapprehensions. In addition, when you attack one or more enemies, you may activate the gloves to deal an extra +1d10 psychic damage to one target of the attack, +2d10 at champion tier, and +5d10 at epic tier.
Quirk: You know that a terrible tragedy, worse than anything you or anyone else could ever imagine, will instantly befall the world if you ever remove these gloves.
# Gloves of Icy Grasp
Recharge 11+: When you roll damage dice for an attack that deals cold damage, reroll the damage dice and keep the higher result.
Quirk: Restrains emotions.
# Gloves of Mind Rot
Recharge 6+: When you hit one or more foes with an arcane spell attack, deal +1d10 psychic damage to one target of the attack, +2d10 at champion tier, and +5d10 at epic tier.
Quirk: The texture of your skin seems wrong to everyone else, but you know it’s all in their minds and often explain that to them.
# Gloves of the Forge
While wearing these gloves you should never fear working with hot iron. You have resist fire 16+, and gain a +4 bonus to saves against fire effects (like ongoing fire damage).
Quirk: Traditionalist.
# Gloves of the Kineticist
These white gloves fly off your hands and float about when you call upon their power. You can wield items (weapons, a shield, implements, etc.) as you normally would but using the floating gloves. You can’t wield extra items with the gloves (you must keep your hands relatively free for gesturing and directing the floating gloves) and two-handed items still require both gloves…but you have your hands free to do things like drink potions (it becomes a quick action), climb ladders more easily while fighting, and similar actions or climb ladders more easily while fighting and similar actions (if the action would require a skill check, gain a +2 bonus).
Quirk: Shameless self-promoter.
# Gloves of the Low Blow
Recharge 6+: Sparks and tendrils of chaotic magical energy crawl around these gloves, like coiled snakes waiting for the moment to strike. When you make a melee or ranged attack on a foe that’s vulnerable to a particular type of damage (like vulnerable to fire or vulnerable to radiant), then the gloves magically make your attack do that sort of damage.
Quirk: Refuses to admit pain or weakness.
# Gravewarden Gloves
You can touch normally intangible creatures with these gloves. When you make attacks against spirits and undead, ignore the ghostly and spirit body (and similar effects) abilities of those creatures.
Quirk: Cowardly around ghosts.
# Hands of Winter
Once you’ve got the hand, you’re stuck with it until you perish or you willingly allow someone to take it from you. Technically, your hand is indestructible, but that’s something of a moot point, as the rest of your body is still mortal. If you try to, say, catch the fiery breath of Vaeros, your hand will survive but the rest of you will be frosted ash on the wind.
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: Choose one of the following:
- add +5d10 cold damage to any one attack (if the attack has more than one target, then split the d10s among them before rolling – you could do an extra d10 to five different enemies, or hit two foes, one for 3d10 and the other for 2d10).
- allow yourself or any nearby ally to automatically succeed at a save against ongoing cold damage.
- change the weather in the local area. You can call up winter storms, blanket the land in a blizzard, or pick up and drag winter away to let spring in. You don’t have any fine control, so you can’t use this power as a direct attack.
- Do epic, hand-wavey narrative things because you’ve got a season on the end of your arm.
Quirk: Depressed.
Depending on the whims of the GM, the following may be true:
- You have to physically drag the season of winter down from the north each year, and pull it back up when it’s time for spring
- You’re doomed to freeze the hearts of anyone you love
- You get to shape giant snow castles and rule an ice-bound empire with your frozen fist
- You’re an honorary blood sibling of the Frost Giant Jarl. Or his mortal enemy. Or both.
<Note: It’s debatable if there’s one relic called the hand of winter that recurs in different forms, or if each one’s as distinct as one winter is from next year’s. To obtain the hand of winter, you need to find the current bearer (or their corpse) and touch their frozen, icy-blue hand. If they willingly pass on the curse of the hand (or they’re dead), then your own hand freezes solid and becomes living ice, while their hand unfreezes and rots instantly, as frostbite devours it completely. So, now that you’ve got an icy hand, what does it do for you? Your melee attacks and damaging spells can do cold damage instead of whatever damage they normally deal if you wish. You inflict additional cold damage equal to twice your level when you punch or touch someone. All those effects are automatic and passive – you don’t need to activate the hand for those.
Note: Hand of winter, breath of spring, Heart of summer, shadow’s fall, Seasons stop and old trees sing; When the Druid finds them all - Children’s rhyme in Eld
# Healing Touch
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: These pearly-white gloves are usually splattered with dried blood and the mud of the battlefield, but shine all the brighter for it. When you cast a healing spell (or use a power that heals in a similar way, like lay on hands), you may touch an additional target. That extra target also gets the benefit of the healing effect.
Quirk: Martyrdom complex.
# Helping Hands
1/Day
These white silk gloves leap off and fly about at your command. Until the end of the battle, you can make skill checks involving nearby objects while fighting or otherwise occupied (for example, you could pick a lock while fighting, hold a door closed or open while casting a spell, etc.).
Quirk: Show-off.
# Hummingbird Feather Gloves
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: Tasks that mostly require your hands (picking a pocket, whittling a figurine, writing a diary entry, etc.), take almost no time as your hands move almost too quickly to be seen. When you perform an action that requires your hands and a Dexterity skill check or Dex-based ranged weapon attack, roll twice and use either result. If the chosen roll is a natural even success, the action was too fast for anyone to actually see you do it.
Quirk: Hum as you work.
# Jeweled Gloves
Recharge 6+: When you cast a divine spell, allow one nearby ally to roll a save against one ongoing save ends effect as a free action.
Quirk: Alternately paranoid that people are looking too closely at your precious jeweled glove and upset that people aren’t paying enough attention to your amazing jeweled glove.
# Musical Touch
While you wear these fine silk gloves, you can play any musical instrument without instruction. The gloves, however, don’t make you any more of a musician than you already are.
Quirk: Hums and picks up tunes easily.
# Poisoned Silk
Your first hit with a melee or ranged weapon attack each battle deals +1d8 poison damage, +2d8 at champion tier, and +3d8 at epic tier. However, if your first attack in the battle is a miss, you also take poison damage equal to your level.
Quirk: Craves rare spices.
# Red-iron Gauntlets
You gain a +4 bonus to all defenses against attacks that deal fire damage.
Quirk: Plays with fire.
# Spell Deflection
Recharge 16+: These heavy metal gauntlets bear complex runes of negation. When wielding a melee weapon, you can parry a spell targeting you or an ally as a free action. To parry the spell, you roll Strength + Level vs. the caster’s MD; if you hit, the spell is cancelled and the caster loses the action they were using for the spell. If it was a limited-used spell, that use is expended if your natural attack roll was even. (It’s basically the Counter-Magic bonus spell in glove form).
Quirk: Rudely interrupts people when they’re talking.
# Spell Gauntlets
1/Day
These gloves feature sapphire-encrusted metal plates. When you miss with a full recovery spell that has a miss effect, the spell instead has no effect and you regain it at the end of the battle.
Quirk: Dismissive of non-magic users.
# Spell-Catching Gloves
Recharge 11+: The fingertips of these elbow-length gloves are made of rare metals. When a nearby ally misses every target with a spell attack, that ally can recast the spell, using your position as the origin point and with targets of your choosing.
Quirk: Eager for your friends to fail so that you look better.
# Steel Fist of the Crusader
Recharge 6+: When you hit a demon with an attack, you may roll an extra d6 for damage for every positive relationship point you have with a divine heroic figure, d8 at champion tier, and d12 at epic tier.
Quirk: Becomes increasingly paranoid about demons.
# Swordmaster’s Gauntlets
Recharge 6+: These lacy silk gloves seize control of the wearer’s hands when placed near a blade. You may make a basic melee attack as a quick action after missing with a Close spell. This extra attack is instead of any miss damage from your missed spell.
Quirk: Challenges people to sword duels.
Note: Trial by combat is a legal defense in most of the Empire. They don’t allow it in Horizon – wizards’ duels are outlawed except in rare circumstances, because, well, fireball. And they don’t allow it in Newport or Glitterhaegen, because they think they’re more civilized there. Most other places, you can find the gods’ truth on the edge of a blade. - Sir Tanteer, paladin of the light
# Sure Fingers
You gain a +2 bonus to any skill check that involves sleight of hand, strength of grip, hand-eye coordination, or similar abilities.
Quirk: Holds a pinky finger up when holding a cup.
# Velvet Gloves of Leadership
You gain a +2 bonus to skill checks to intimidate others.
Quirk: Of course, you are right . . . you are always right.
# White Gloves of the Phantom
These monogramed gloves originally belonged to a master thief. Gain a +4 bonus to skill checks involving manual dexterity.
Quirk: Leaves clues at the scene of crimes committed.
# Champion
# Black-iron Gauntlets
Recharge 11+: When you take necrotic damage, roll a save. If you succeed, instead of taking damage, heal that amount instead.
Quirk: Disdainful of those who can’t stand up for themselves.
# Cestus of Champions
These spiked gauntlets are light onehanded magic weapons, but you can still wield and hold items while wearing them. When you roll a natural 2 or 13 with a melee attack while not fighting with two weapons, you can make a basic melee attack as a free action.
Quirk: Seeks the approval of others.
# Gauntlets of Confrontation
1/Battle
You gain resist 16+ to a damage type that a weapon you are holding deals (so if your weapon deals fire damage, you gain resist fire 16+). If your weapons don’t deal damage of some type, you gain resist melee weapon damage 13+.
Quirk: Amateur juggler.
# Siege Engine Mitts
Standard Action
Recharge 11+: When you throw a stone from these heavy leather gloves, the magic of the mitts imbues it with as much weight and force as a boulder hurled from a big siege catapult. You may make a basic ranged attack by throwing a pebble, but your projectile also inflicts lots of collateral damage on the surrounding scenery. You can smash down castle walls, break down doors, collapse ceilings or tear huge holes in the ground by flinging a tiny piece of rock.
Quirk: Loves ball games, especially ones that involve knocking down targets.
# Silver-Thread Gloves
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: When an ally next to you is dying, pull their soul back into their body, and that ally automatically succeeds on their next death save (GM, your call on whether that ally gets to act or not that round).
Quirk: Fascinated with the process of dying.
# Epic
# Hell-iron Gauntlets
When you miss with a basic attack or at-will attack against a single target and roll a natural 2 or 3, you can reroll the attack.
Quirk: Has waking nightmares.
# Helmet, Crown, Diadem, Circlet
# Default Bonus
Mental defense: +1 MD (adventurer); +2 MD (champion); +3 MD (epic).
# Adventurer
# Animated Ribbons
Recharge 16+: These long scarlet ribbons animate to keep you safe. When you are helpless and an enemy tries to attack you, the ribbons pull you out of danger (for example, popping you free from an enemy about to perform a coup de grace). In addition, when you go a full full recovery without becoming helpless, during the next adventuring full recovery you gain a single use of an at-will or basic attack as a quick action as the ribbons use your weapon or spells for you.
Quirk: Keeps pointless secrets.
# Arcane Eyes
This set of 12 glass eyes levitates around your head in a halo, and at your direction, some can float off to investigate nearby objects. You can see through the eyes, giving you 360° vision and excellent night vision (gain a +2 bonus to checks to avoid surprise). Twice per full recovery outside of battle, you can send some eyes nearby to look around corners or into pits.
Quirk: Enjoys people-watching.
# Circlet of Approachability
While wearing this circlet, in regular social situations, you appear to others as someone who belongs there. You easily fit in with new groups of people, unless there is some particular reason for others to be suspicious. The circlet has no power in unusual social situations.
Quirk: Peppers speech with needless foreign words.
# Circlet of Divine Right
Recharge 6+: Gain a +3 bonus to a roll to charm, command, or influence—either with an attack or a skill check.
Quirk: Uncertain of who their true friends are.
# Circlet of Mental Fortitude
Double this item’s default Mental Defense bonus against attacks from demons and devils. In addition, you gain a bonus to saves against effects caused by demons and devils, and to death saves while fighting demons and devils, equal to the doubled default bonus.
Quirk: Suspicious of others’ true natures.
# Circlet of Noble Blood
The blood-red rubies in this golden band glow softly when new or unknown magic is nearby. You gain a +2 bonus to detect magical effects, items, and traps; and to disarm magical traps.
Quirk: Likes the finest wines only.
# Circlet of Stars
1/Day
The diamonds of this silver circlet shine when danger is imminent. When you and your allies are ambushed or when you and your allies spring an ambush on enemies and a surprise round occurs, you can take a turn during the surprise round even if you normally couldn’t.
Quirk: You believe you can see into the future slightly.
# Circlet of Stolen Thoughts
Recharge 6+: You pick up on the thoughts of those around you. You can’t choose whose thoughts you hear, and you don’t hear everything – just snatches and fragments. Unless you are familiar with those around you, you may not be able to tell which thoughts come from whose mind. You can be sneaky and get people alone so you can listen to their thoughts only, but you still won’t know everything they’re thinking, only the occasional stray emotion or image.
In combat, the circlet may give you just enough warning to avoid an attack. If an enemy’s total attack roll is exactly equal to your AC (or PD, or MD, if the attack targets a Defense other than AC), then you can change that attack into a miss by dodging at the last second. So, if you’ve got an AC of 21, and an attacker with an attack bonus of +6 rolls a 15 for a total of 21, you can change that hit into a miss.
Quirk: Pries into personal matters.
# Circlet of Swift Thought
Recharge 16+: Increase your Initiative by 4.
Quirk: The slightest delay infuriates you.
# Commoner’s Crown
Recharge 11+: This cracked and tarnished crown looks like it was once mighty, but it still holds a trick or two. Swap places with one random nearby creature that is not engaged with or next to an enemy, or that is someplace unsafe (in the air if you can’t fly, for example).
Quirk: Antiestablishmentarian.
# Coronet of Certamen
Quick Action
1/Battle
This battered metal headband shows signs of having been repeatedly struck by magic and survived. Cast any at-will spell at your level. If it’s an attack spell, it deals only half damage.
Quirk: Steely gunslinger (or spell-slinger) gaze.
# Crown of Flowers
2/Day
You can command plants to talk aloud or sing, as per the druid’s Nature Talking class feature, but only with a plant.
Quirk: Thanks plants for their sacrifice: for firewood burned, fruit consumed, etc.
# Crown of Ice
When you roll a natural even hit with an attack that targets MD, deal +1d4 cold damage with that attack, +2d4 at champion tier, and +2d8 at epic tier.
Quirk: Cold-hearted.
# Diadem of Command
Recharge 6+: You command a normally inanimate object with moving parts to fulfil its function (i.e., locks lock and unlock, clasps clasp and unclasp, doors open and close, crossbows fire, lanterns douse and light, etc.).
Quirk: Expects obedience.
# Diadem of Disguises
1/Day
Cast the ritual change self without expending ritual components; OR when an enemy targets you with an attack, briefly change your appearance as an interrupt action to make that enemy target one of its allies engaged with you.
Quirk: Not satisfied with appearance, no matter how often it changes.
# Diadem of Whispering
Your words are magically audible by any one creature you can see, as if you were standing next to them whispering into their ear. Their replies are not magically enhanced, so they can only answer if you could normally hear their words. You may change target freely, but can only whisper to one person per round.
Quirk: Gossips like a fishwife on the Shadowport docks.
# Dragonskull Helm
You have the awareness and ability to see your surroundings like some dragons. Gain a +2 bonus to detect invisible creatures and to see through illusions, and a +2 bonus to attacks against invisible creatures that stacks with other magic item bonuses.
Quirk: Disgusted by filth.
# Exquisite Mask
Recharge 6+: This painted mask animates and blends with your face. When you fail a Charisma skill check, reroll it and take the better result.
Quirk: Has stage fright.
# Gems of Elemental Magic
These gemstones float above your head like a crown. When you cast a spell that deals cold, fire, thunder, or lightning damage, you gain damage resistance 14+ to that damage type, 16+ at champion tier, and 18+ at epic tier until an attack beats that resistance, or end of battle.
Quirk: Haughty demeanor when dealing with non-wizards.
# Hat of Birds
Recharge 11+: A colony of birds nest in this now-shapeless pile of fabric scraps that claims to be a hat. The birds consider you to be the supreme being, and devoutly perform basic tasks for you like scouting ahead, carrying messages or foraging for insects. While the birds are smart, they’re not supernaturally intelligent, so their scouting is limited to reports of “danger that way, no danger this way”, where “danger” means “animals or humanoids”.
Protective druidic blessings tie the birds to your life force; as long as you’re alive, they’ll be ok even when the fireballs start flying.
Quirk: Drawn to rooftops and open spaces. Also, insects are surprisingly tasty and a good source of protein.
# Helmet of Bitter Work
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: When you heal using a recovery, add the escalation die’s value to the hp total recovered, twice value at champion tier, and 5x value at epic tier.
Quirk: Weeps silently when in battle.
# Helm of Domination
Recharge 6+: When you make an attack roll that targets MD, gain a +2 bonus to the attack after seeing the roll.
Quirk: Wears an unnerving grin.
# Helm of Fortunate Dodging
Recharge 11+: When an enemy misses you with an attack against your AC or PD, change that miss into a fumble (no damage or possibly a negative outcome).
Quirk: Easily moved to dancing by rhythmic music, and taps foot when there is no music.
# Helm of Infamy
Helmets of this type are always distinctive in design – maybe yours has horns, or is made to look like a snarling beast, or has a noticeable crest or is painted an unusual color. Anyway, it’s immediately recognizable. When you defeat a group of enemies who are all of the same type (all goblins for example, or, all elves, or all zombies, or all serving the same master), then as long as you let one of them survive to spread your legend, then your attacks deal an extra +1d4 damage against all creatures of the same type who have heard your legend. At the adventurer tier, that generally means ‘in the same tribe, clan or army, or living in the same dungeon’.
The helmet only affects one type of foe at a time. If you’re the infamous bane of the goblins of the Hag Caves, the helmet has no effect on other creatures in the Hag Caves who aren’t goblins (or goblins from outside the Hag Caves).
The champion-tier version of the helm ups the damage to +1d6, and your legend spreads to a whole region. You might be feared by every spider in Spiderwood, or every lizard man in the Fangs, or every demon in the Red Wastes.
The epic-tier helm of infamy increases the damage to +1d8, and you strike terror into the hearts of your chosen prey across the world. Even foes of that type who have never heard of you are instinctively scared of your dreadful visage.
You can change the type of foe affected by the helmet, but you must win a significant victory against that type of foe to build a new infamous reputation before you get the bonus. Your previous victims breathe a sigh of relief that their cultural bogeyman has moved on to a new set of targets, and are no longer terrified of you.
Quirk: Enjoys intimidating people.
# Helm of Psychic Armor
Recharge 16+: When an attack that targets Mental Defense hits you, cancel the attack’s non-damage effects against you.
Quirk: Won’t stop going on about “the amazing dream I had last night.”
# Helm of Psychic Retribution
Recharge 16+: When an enemy misses you with an attack that targets Mental Defense, deal 10 psychic damage to that enemy, 25 damage at champion tier, and 60 damage at epic tier.
Quirk: Stares into space often.
# Helm of the Arachnid
The helm has eight giant spider-eye lenses that you look through while wearing it. You gain a +2 bonus to skill checks to detect danger and to avoid being ambushed.
Quirk: Eats flies and other insects.
# Helm of the Beetle
You have resist poison 18+ and gain a +4 bonus to PD against close-quarters attacks that deal poison damage.
Quirk: Claustrophobia.
# Helm of the Dragon’s Soul
Recharge 6+: When casting a divine spell, you may use your Strength modifier instead of your Wisdom modifier. Alternatively, when making a melee attack, you may use your Wisdom modifier instead of your Strength modifier. Either way, for the rest of the battle, you glow from within.
Quirk: Ascetic in the extreme. Often, you’ll forget to eat or sleep.
Note: Don’t believe a lich if it tells you it’s many Ages old. The thing about liches is that we all look the same. One walking skeleton in robes looks almost exactly like another walking skeleton in robes. In fact, a lot of liches take titles that mention the color of their robes – the Red King, the Lord of Fallen Trees, the August Personage in Jade – just so people know who they are when they walk into the room. It’s easy for a lich to say they’re much older than they actually are. That’s why liches hate herald’s helms. It shows them up for the pretenders that so many of them are. Not me, of course. Why, I was there when the Lich King still had two eyes. - Baron Rotte, exiled lich
# Helm of the Ram
Recharge 6+: Add +2d6 damage to your miss damage against a single target, +4d8 at champion tier, and +4d12 at epic tier.
Quirk: Pounds fist into palm repeatedly while talking.
# Helm of the Unbowed
Recharge 16+: After the first time in a battle that an enemy attacks you with a power that targets your Mental Defense and misses, increase your MD by +2 for the rest of that battle.
Quirk: Uncompromising.
# Helm of the Undaunted Hero
Recharge 6+: When your turn starts, roll a save against one ongoing save ends effect.
Quirk: Favors traditional battle hymns.
# Herald’s Helm
This ill-fitting helmet feels like it was designed for someone bigger and more imposing than the wearer. It’s also ancient beyond compare, and marked with runes whose meanings are lost in the present Age. While wearing this helm, you’re considered a representative of Justice. This gives you a +4 bonus to any Charisma skill checks when dealing with the followers of deific figures of justice, or when dealing with metallic dragons. So will other evil entities and chromatic dragons give more weight to your words.
Quirk: Your voice is not always your own – sometimes, strange spirits speak through you.
# Horned Crown
This black crown is decorated with diamonds and pearls, and while wearing the crown you instinctively know when you are being watched. Gain a +2 bonus to detect invisible or hidden creatures, and to skill checks to avoid being ambushed.
Quirk: Haughty.
# Horned God’s Antlers
1/Day, and 1/Level the Antlers will Recharge at Sunrise or Moonrise
Cast bless OR cure wounds as a 1st level cleric spell.
Quirk: Celebrates natural rhythms.
# Horned Mask
Recharge 11+: This mask can make you look downright infernal. You gain a +10 bonus to a skill check (or checks if multiple targets and rolls) to intimidate or frighten.
Quirk: Better to be feared than loved.
# Laurel of Petals
You gain a +2 bonus to MD and to saves against effects caused by attacks against your MD.
Quirk: Extreme conservationist.
# Magic Beard of Entanglement
Recharge 6+: Depending on your character’s facial hair, this item may enter be a set of gold braids and jewels that are woven into your full and manly beard, or a false beard made of gold. Either way, when a foe you’re engaged with disengages, you may activate the beard, which grabs on and forces the foe to reroll their disengage attempt.
Quirk: Pognokleptomania – your beard steals things.
# Mask of the Rabbit
Gain a +4 bonus to MD against attacks that don’t do damage (a despoiler demon’s sow discord ability or an ogre mage’s aura of treachery, for example).
Quirk: Jumpy.
# Miter of Might
Recharge 11+: When you make a skill check using Strength, roll twice and take the better result.
Quirk: Believes in predestination.
# Roguish Cap
While wearing this cap, you bring out the sinister or mischievous side of people. They become more willingly to break the rules around you, and see you (probably correctly) as a fellow devil-may-care sort of rulesbreaker. Depending on your surroundings, this can get you involved in all sorts of criminal dealings (wear this in a dockside tavern in Shadowport, and you’ll be surrounded by self-confessed smugglers and pirates in no time) or just give you an insight into what people might prefer to keep hidden (wear it in Santa Cora, and you’ll learn gossip about how the clerics of such-and-such a temple are all crooks out to fleece pilgrims, or how the holy relic of St. So-andso is just an old skull dipped in luminous paint).
Quirk: Terrible reputation as a thief and scoundrel, no matter where you go.
# Skullcap of Wit
You can banter with a lively wit. If you already have a lively wit, it doesn’t make much of a difference. Interpret this ability narrowly enough that it might provide a bonus to a die roll that anyone really cares about only once in a campaign.
Quirk: Banters with lively wit.
# Soulshield Helmet
The MD bonus from this helmet is doubled against attacks from demons.
Quirk: Fastidious about personal cleanliness.
# Spectra Spectacles
Quick Action
1/Day
Learn the defenses, HP, vulnerabilities, and resistances of a nearby creature; OR learn the bonuses and power(s) of a nearby magic item, but not its quirks or curses.
Quirk: Rubs eyes often.
# Spidersilk Cap
1/Day
You gain resist poison 16+, and a +2 bonus to skill checks to climb and to saves against being stuck. You can also speak the secret language of spiders, though whether they have anything interesting to say is up to the GM. When you use the full recovery power, you can use the druid’s Nature Talking class feature power, but only with spiders.
Quirk: Arachnophile.
# Watcher’s Helm
1/Day
This helmet senses danger. When you are ambushed or surprised, you can act (rolling initiative and taking a turn) during the surprise round.
Quirk: Insomniac.
# Wig of Fabulous Loveliness
Recharge 6+: This color-changing wig animates at your command, altering its length and style. When you use its power, the wig acts like a prehensile limb to block blows and you gain a +1 bonus to AC and PD from attacks that target a single enemy until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Changes mind at the last moment.
# Wizard’s Hat of Conjuration
Once per full recovery, you can pull a useful non-magical common item out of this hat. The item must be able to fit through the brim of the hat, so you couldn’t pull out a siege engine or a horse. You could, though, produce a sword, or length of chain, or a saw, or a delicate vase decorated with salacious paintings of frolicking kobolds. The hat can also produce small living creatures, like rabbits or cats or doves or maybe even the aforementioned frolicking kobolds.
Quirk: Kleptomania; you unconsciously steal items and stick them inside your hat. Sometimes, you can’t find them again afterwards.
# Wizard’s Hat of Loyalty
This hat always returns to you. No matter the circumstances, it always finds its way back. Put into prison? You’ve got your hat. Ambushed in the middle of the night? You’ve got your hat. You could be stripped naked, hurled through a portal into the Abyss, and carried by a demonic roc to its nest hundreds of miles away in a nameless infernal mountain range – and you’ve find your hat waiting for you there. You may keep up to three small items in the brim of the hat (scrolls, potions, gemstones, snacks), and they’ll be with the hat when it comes back to you.
Quirk: Compelled to treat the hat as a pet.
# Champion
# Bearskull Helm
When an attack that targets MD misses you, gain temporary hit points equal to four times your level.
Quirk: Grouchy over-sleeper.
# Castlehelm
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: On command, this ornate full helmet expands to the size of a watchtower. The eyeslits are now the size of windows, and can be used as arrow-slits by archers. The face-plate is now a fortified doorway, narrow enough to be held by a single warrior. A hatch in the ‘ceiling’ of the helmet allows access to the ceremonial crest, which is now a walkway some thirty feet above the battlefield, perfect for another archer or spellcaster to rain down destruction.
The castlehelm may only be activated when there is enough space for the helmet to expand (roughly a 30’ x 30’ x 30’ area). Anyone inside that region – usually, anyone nearby the wearer – finds themselves inside the ‘castle’ when it appears. Anyone else ends up outside the instant keep. One or two characters may fight in melee from the narrow doorway of the castle, and up to three may use ranged attacks from the eyeslits and crest.
The growth of the helm is instantaneous and magical – one moment, there’s a normal-sized helmet, and the next, there’s a castle, with no apparent transition, so you can’t, say, squish a foe by trapping them between a wall and the expanding helm. While the helm is in fortress mode, you still get its bonus to MD as long as you’re inside it.
Quirk: Egotistical.
Note: Three days west of Anvil, there’s a giant suit of armor, lying rusting in the mud, all overgrown with bitterweed. I’ve seen it. Some say the helmet’s a castlehelm that got stuck, but where did the rest of the armor come from? Not even the biggest giant is that big… right? - Ljan, Acolyte of the Crusader
# Crown of Brimming Wisdom
When you fail an Intelligence skill check, you may roll another d20 immediately and add it to your total. The trouble is, if you pass, you start rambling on in a pedantic and absent-minded way for a number of rounds equal to the second d20 roll, as the crown pours more information than you actually needed into your brain and it spills out through your mouth. You can’t do anything else while rambling, although if you’re attacked, you may roll a hard save (16+) to notice, in which case you finish your erudite lecture once the fight concludes.
Quirk: Voracious reader.
# Crown of Candles
Quick Action
4/Day
Snuff one of the four magical candles on this lit crown to roll a save to end an effect on yourself (effects that aren’t save ends require a hard save). If you fail, the candle stays lit and can be reused (epic: roll a save to end an effect on yourself or a nearby ally).
Quirk: Fear of the dark.
# Crown of Leaves
Once per level, you may curse another traveler in the woods. The cursed victim is doomed to wander the woods until they perish, or until you release them (or until they’re freed by a powerful entity, or find an alternate way to leave like teleporting). Cursing people may incur the wrath of the local heroic figure or other great powers.
Quirk: Sleeps standing up, and sways back and forth gently while sleeping.
# Helm of Negation
1/Battle
When you resist damage dealt to you, one nearby ally that you can see gains the same type of resistance until the end of the battle; OR when an ally you can see resists damage, you gain the same type of resistance until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Shares food with others (and takes food without asking).
# Helm of Terror
When the escalation die is 3 or higher, you cause fear like a monster of the same level. Better yet, nearby allies who would fear you if you were a monster (i.e. their hit points are lower than your fear threshold) are immune to fear as long as you’re around.
Quirk: Enjoys intimidating people a little too much.
# Helm of the Vigilant Commander
Recharge 11+: When a nearby enemy targets a nearby ally that has 25 hit points or fewer (epic: 50 or fewer, and it’s recharge 6+), you may redirect the attack to target yourself instead. You must choose to do this before the attack is rolled.
Quirk: Savagely protective of allies.
# Iron Crown
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: When two or more enemies are engaged with you, make a basic melee attack against one of those enemies that deals necrotic damage instead of any other type of damage.
Quirk: Has an unfocused gaze.
# Epic
# Crown of Hell
When any devil first sees your horned crown, you must make a free attack using your Charisma + Level vs. the Demon’s MD; if you hit, the devil takes a -2 penalty to its attacks on you and will attack other available targets in preference to you if it can. On a critical hit, the devil may even retreat or seek a peaceful solution rather than attack such a royal personage as yourself. If you encounter a bunch of devils at once, just make one attack roll against the highest MD in the group. If you succeed, all the devils respect you.
Quirk: This crown is clearly your inheritance by right of blood. Why, is it not obvious that you are descended from the line of the arch-devils, and that the throne of the infernal realms is yours for the taking? Furthermore, is it not patently clear that anyone who dares deny your royal claim is a traitor and must be annihilated!?!
# Crown of the Mighty Strike
Recharge 16+: This slim but elegant crown wants to share your glory and thus needs you to be glorious. It continually presses you to take bold actions. If the escalation die is 3+, use your next full recovery attack power this battle as a quick action.
Quirk: Likely to make bold statements or undertake bold actions, especially by reflex.
# Garland of Feathers
When an enemy targets your MD with an attack and misses, each of your allies gains a +2 bonus to their next attack roll if it’s against that enemy.
Quirk: Believes small mammals are delicious raw.
# Tarnished Silver Crown
When an attack targets your MD and misses, deal necrotic damage equal to three times your level to an enemy engaged with you.
Quirk: Nostalgic for glories of past ages.
# Necklace, Pendant
# Default Bonus
+1 to saves when you have 10 hp or fewer (adventurer); 25 hp or fewer (champion); 50 hp or fewer (epic).
# Adventurer
# Assassin’s Amulet
Recharge 6+: When you miss with an attack, you may use the amulet to ensure that no-one notices. You don’t get to inflict miss damage. As far as any witnesses (including your target) are concerned, you did something perfectly innocent. Maybe you stumbled slightly, or perhaps you muttered to yourself.
Quirk: Obsessed with making a good first impression in any situation.
Note: Only humans and dragons are so neurotic about appearances that they’d invent such a thing. If an orc fails to land a blow, he gets angry and hits harder next time! - Arthak, orc blood mage
# Axis Stone Necklace
Recharge 6+: You gain 20 temporary hit points (champion 50, epic 100) if you are the last member of your adventuring party standing in a fight.
Quirk: Never, ever, backs down.
# Bearclaw
Recharge 11+: When you hit with a melee attack while you’re staggered, gain 10 temporary hit points, 25 temporary hp at champion tier, and 50 temporary hp at epic tier.
Quirk: Swaggers even when overmatched.
# Collar of Obedience
Recharge 6+: When a nearby ally uses a quick action to command you to do something that requires a d20 roll, you gain a +3 bonus to that action. Yes, you can put this collar on your animal companion, but it must still be one of your allies that gives the command.
Quirk: Rebelliousness.
# Cups
When you’re drunk, you don’t accidentally say or do stupid things that you regret in the morning, and your head doesn’t hurt so bad.
Quirk: Not reluctant to drink excessively in public.
# Dragontooth
You can speak, read, write, and understand all draconic languages past and present. In addition, you gain a +3 bonus to skill checks to influence dragons, and a +3 bonus to attacks that target a dragon’s or draconic creature’s MD. This bonus stacks with other magic item bonuses.
Quirk: Speaks in draconic while under stress.
# Dawn Gem
Interrupt Action
1/Day
One nearby ally you can see can use a quick action to take a standard action this turn.
Quirk: Nervous in cities.
# Earring of Fortunate Happenstance
While wearing this subtle diamond stud, your attention is magically drawn to any nearby conversations that may be of use to you. The earring is obviously of most use in crowded places, like markets or taverns or courts where there are plenty of opportunities for eavesdropping.
Quirk: Unconsciously pauses in the middle of conversations to listen on what’s going on next door.
# Last Legs
You gain a +1 bonus to saves whenever you have one or fewer recoveries left (champion: two or fewer, epic: three or fewer).
Quirk: Loves long-shot bets.
# Lens of Discovery
Recharge 11+: This lens lets you peer back in time. Roll a hard skill check. If you succeed, learn about something relevant to the adventure or campaign that happened at your location.
Quirk: Aficionado of oddities.
# Lodestone Pendant
Recharge 11+: You always know exactly where you are (depth, direction, and distance to places that you know, etc.) until the end of the battle or scene.
Quirk: Fear of becoming lost.
# Lifestone
The stones in the necklace breathe, ever so slightly. You gain a +5 bonus to death saves, if failure would kill you. You also gain a +5 bonus to last gasp saves.
Quirk: Chides others for taking risks when they have lesser magical protection.
# Light
Standard Action
Recharge 11+: 1d3 nearby undead creatures, each with 55 hp or fewer, are automatically dazed until the end of your next turn, 150 hp or fewer at champion tier, and 240 hp or fewer at epic tier. For the rest of the battle, those undead you targeted with this effect have a +1 bonus to their attacks on you.
Quirk: Restless sleep.
# Memento Mori
1/Day
Reroll (or force a reroll) of any die roll (for example, an attack roll for or against a PC, a roll to determine targets, one d10 in a d100 roll, a damage die; etc.). If the reroll fails, gain a +1 bonus to saves until your next full heal-up.
Quirk: Forgetful.
# Momentous Harmony
The pendant brings out the best in other magic items you carry, so that their quirks turn more positive, or at least become weaker if they cause trouble. If you go over your magic item limit, the pendant ceases to function (including the default bonus) and the formerly subdued magic items express themselves with renewed fervor.
Quirk: Treats all their magic items well—talks to them as if they’re alive, refers to them as “children,” etc.
# Mossy Jade
Gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls, skill checks, and all defenses against constructs and mechanical traps.
Quirk: Indiscreet.
# Mummified Monkey Paw
3/Day
When you or a nearby ally fails a save, you or that ally succeed instead, but the next ally (including you) who rolls a save automatically fails and you can’t use the mummified monkey paw to change the result.
Quirk: Uses the phrase “I wish . . .” constantly (and recklessly, considering what else this item might be capable of ).
# Necklace of Tethered Memories
Recharge 11+: As a quick action on their turn, a wounded ally you can see recounts a pleasant memory of you and can heal using one of your recoveries.
Quirk: Prone to nostalgia.
# Necklace of Bones
Recharge 16+: When you would randomly determine an outcome in the game through a die roll or some other method (such as a Psion’s High Weirdness), you can try again and take the result you prefer.
Quirk: Indecisive.
# Necklace of the Noose
This little talisman allows you to feign death perfectly. When you activate it, you ‘die’ from whatever malady is most appropriate for your current situation - you might succumb to your wounds, or appear to be blasted by a death spell, or just suffer a sudden and lethal heart attack. You appear genuinely dead to all observers – a hard skill check by a physician or a spellcaster with some sort of life-discerning spell might be sense that something is wrong, but could not say for sure if you’re alive or dead.
This illusion lasts for up to twenty-four hours. The GM decides when you awaken and in what circumstances – you’re completely unaware of what happens to your ‘corpse’ while you’re unconscious.
The champion and epic versions of this item actually disconnect your soul from your body for the duration of the illusion, so even the gods are fooled if they don’t look too closely.
Quirk: Delights in ghastly practical jokes.
# Obsidian Cameo
Recharge 16+: When a nearby enemy saves against ongoing damage, it takes ongoing damage equal to 1d3 times your level.
Quirk: Sneering superiority.
# Paired Talisman of the Familiar
Recharge 16+: You can cast an at-will spell through your familiar, as if you were standing in the familiar’s place. This means you could zap someone with a Close spell from Far Away – your pet frog hops up to them and unleashes your shocking grasp.
Quirk: Takes on behavioral traits from familiar.
# Paragon
Recharge 16+: This necklace changes shape and jewels depending on the species of the wearer. When you use this necklace, you gain another use of your species power in the battle.
Quirk: Sometimes unwittingly speaks in a language that sounds like it could be the original language of their species, if anyone else could understand it.
# Pearl of Wisdom
Recharge 11+: Reroll a Wisdom skill check and take the better result.
Quirk: Bookworm.
# Pendant of Burning Blood
Recharge 11+: Your blood is black, thick as treacle and hot as boiling oil. As a free action when you take untyped ongoing damage (so, just plain “X ongoing damage”, as opposed to ongoing psychic damage or ongoing fire damage or whatever), you may inflict an amount of fire damage equal to that ongoing damage on all foes engaged with you.
Quirk: Passionate in the extreme.
# Pendant of Passions
The pearl on this necklace subtly changes color to match your mood. When you attempt to sway others, whether by using a magical attack (like the charm person spell) or with a skill check, you gain a +1 bonus to the roll or check.
Quirk: Plays with other’s feelings.
# Pendant of Thunderous Snoring
This curious (but often vital item) has two related powers. Firstly, it grants the wearer a measure of awareness while sleeping, allowing them to communicate important information through snoring. In game terms, you may make skill checks while sleeping or unconscious, as long as you can express the result of those checks through the medium of snoring. (Spotting assassins creeping up on the party while you’re all asleep, for example).
Recharge 6+: Once per battle, you may attempt to curse a nearby enemy with your snoring by making a Charisma + Level attack vs. your target’s MD. If you hit, they start to snore. This doesn’t put them to sleep or inconvenience their spellcasting, but invisible creatures are much easier to spot when all you need to do is swing in the direction of the snoring. The miss chance for a snoring invisible creature drops to 25%, and the snoring gives a +4 bonus to any attempts to track a hidden foe by hearing.
Quirk: You also talk in your sleep.
# Periapt of Faith
Recharge 16+: Only clerics may use this item. This small pebble on a simple silver chain holds an inextinguishable spark of faith, and meditating on it can renew the spirits of those who are broken and exhausted. If you have no full recovery spells and no domain invocations remaining at the start of a battle, you may use this item to immediately regain one full recovery spell.
Champion: You can instead choose to regain one domain invocation; epic: recharge 11+.
Quirk: Irritatingly serene.
# Periapt of Second Chances
Recharge 16+: When you fail a save, one nearby ally can reroll the save for you, applying their bonuses or penalties to the roll. If that ally succeeds, you both gain whatever benefit the save grants, if applicable (for example, if the save was against ongoing fire damage and the ally was also suffering from ongoing fire damage, you would both successfully save against that damage).
Quirk: Gives unwanted advice.
# Sacred Acorn
When you would be popped free from an enemy, grabbed, swallowed whole, or otherwise moved against your will, roll an easy save (6+). If you succeed, you don’t suffer the condition or effect.
Quirk: Tries to achieve the maximum effect with the minimum effort.
# Spirit Fetish
This leather bag binds and constrains a spirit of some sort. Choose the type of spirit when you gain the item. The spirit tugs on your soul, giving you a +1 bonus to saves in certain situations. For example, a spirit of fire gives you a +1 bonus to saves against cold-based attacks. A spirit of battle might help you make saves against effects that stop you fighting and killing, but wouldn’t care about confusion as long as you’re still hitting people.
Quirk: Depends on the spirit.
# Stone of Preservation
If you fail all your available death saves (as opposed to being dismembered, or being turned to stone, or dying in some other ghastly way), you enter into a coma instead of dying. Your body becomes rigid as stone, and most external examiners assume you are dead. You can be restored to life by a suitably potent effect (healing ritual, magical rejuvenation, really excellent dwarven beer), or after several months of slumber. If the stone of preservation is removed while you’re in a coma, you perish instantly.
Quirk: Sleeps very, very soundly.
# String of Lights
Quick Action
1/Day
You can command the jewels of this necklace to detach and float around you (a free action), shedding enough light to illuminate a dungeon corridor or forest clearing. When you use the full recovery power, you can direct the lights to strobe quickly, dazing one nearby enemy until the end of its next turn.
Quirk: Pride, the kind that goes before a fall.
# Talisman of Mortification
Recharge 11+: An ugly, spiky lump of metal scrapes against your chest, reminding you that your flesh is mortal, but the cause is eternal. Before you roll a save, you may sacrifice any number of recoveries. For each recovery sacrificed, you gain a +1 bonus to your roll.
Quirk: Refuses to yield.
# Twilight Star
1/Level
The gem on this necklace glows with light equivalent to the wizard’s light cantrip at-will. The light will also protect you and remove you from danger. When you use the once-per-level power, as a free action, you can teleport somewhere far away or out of the battle, even if you are helpless.
Quirk: Unrequited love.
# Water Breathing
Recharge 6+: This band of aquamarine and pearls enables you to breathe water for a short time, usually about five minutes. The effect wears off slowly, so you’ll have warning to get to the surface.
Quirk: Hiccups in stressful situations.
# Champion
# Eggshell Pendant
1/Campaign
The first time you die, your body disappears and you are reborn from an egg. The egg appears nearby the next time your allies start a battle, which you can join after 1d3 rounds. You can rewrite your character to be more dragon-like. For example, you could become a dragon sorcerer or of the dragonborn race or one or more of your magic items might transform into something more dragon-themed.
Quirk: Fears abandonment.
# Spirit Channeling
Recharge 16+: This potent talisman lets you call on powerful elemental spirits. To use it, you must touch a magic item whose powers are expended and so is in need of a recharge. By placing a powerful spirit in the item, you automatically recharge it and it can be used again in this battle. However, the super-charged item now permanently counts as two items rather than one for the purposes of determining how many magic items you can safely carry (but not for how many times you can use it – you’re trading a once-off recharge for a permanent downside).
You can repeatedly recharge an item using this talisman, but each time you add one to the ‘item count’ of the charged device.
A kind GM might let you infuse yourself or an ally with a spirit, allowing immediate recharge of a power. A cruel GM will definitely let you stick wild elemental spirits into your fellow PCs. Sure, recharge that power. Take another hit. What could go wrong with welding elemental spirits to the souls of your friends?
Oh, if you try recharging a spirit channeling talisman with itself, it explodes and becomes a howling gate to the spirit realm.
Quirk: Eager to be helpful.
# Orb (Implement)
Only characters that are ritual casters (either as a class feature or as a feat) can attune to orbs.
# Default Bonus
Attack and damage with an arcane or divine spell or attack: +1 (adventurer); +2 (champion); +3 (epic). You can attune to up to two orbs. If you do, the recharge powers of each orb is reduced (recharge 16+ becomes 11+, recharge 11+ becomes 6+). While wielding two orbs, you only use the default attack and damage bonus from the strongest orb. However, you do get to benefit from both their powers.
# Adventurer
# Astral Warlock
Recharge 11+: Until the end of the battle; when you hit with an attack that does necrotic or poison damage, you gain temporary hit points equal to your level.
Quirk: Cackles when excited.
# Azure
Recharge 11+: When you reduce a nearby non-mook enemy (or the last mook of a mob) to 0 hp with an attack that deals lightning damage, teleport to the enemy’s location.
Quirk: Fascinated with the other blue orbs.
# Bone
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: One nearby undead creature (including you if you are undead) heals 10 hit points, 20 hp at champion tier, and 30 hp at epic tier.
Quirk: Living flesh disgusts you.
# Caerulean
Recharge 11+: When you roll a natural even hit with an attack that deals lightning damage, gain flight until the end of your next turn.
Quirk: Fascinated with the other blue orbs.
# Cobalt
Recharge 11+: When you roll a natural even miss with an attack that deals lightning damage, the target and the two enemies closest to it take thunder damage equal to your level.
Quirk: Fascinated with the other blue orbs.
# Forest Witch
Recharge 11+: When you fail to disengage, you turn into a small harmless animal (mouse, spider, cat, etc.) and disengage anyway. While you are a harmless animal, you retain the same stats and can be targeted with attacks. You can turn back to your normal form as a free action before your next action that requires you not to be a small harmless beast (attacking, casting a spell, speaking, etc.).
Quirk: Finds the sound of laughter painful.
# Globe of Darkness
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: Create a surface of mystic darkness under or next to 1d3 nearby enemies in a group and each creature engaged with them (possibly including you and your allies). Each creature targeted is stuck (easy save ends, 6+) as dark tentacles extend from the surface and grab them, the tentacles ignore you at champion tier, and the tentacles also ignore your allies at epic tier. Each creature targeted takes a –5 penalty to disengage checks until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Fear of the darkness.
# Globe of Glory
Recharge 16+: This golden globe is studded with varicolored cabochons. When you cast a recharge spell, describe a special effect as you cast it to have the spell do something extra interesting.
Quirk: Glory hound.
# Holy Mother
Recharge 11+: Cast a summoning spell as a quick action instead of as a standard action, except the summoned creature(s) doesn’t appear until the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Delays making decisions.
# Illuminated Seeress
1/Day
You knew that the attack was coming . . . you’ve known for days, in fact. When you are engaged with an enemy and are targeted by a ranged attack or close attack, change the target of the attack to an enemy engaged with you.
Quirk: Prepares for unlikely events.
# Pearl of Chaos
Recharge 11+: The colors of this oversize pearl shift and swirl. Roll for two Psion results on the high weirdness table and choose which one takes effect; if you are a Psion, both take effect.
Quirk: You start to resemble a deific or heroic figure that you have a positive relationship with (or are the least hateful of ), and over time the resemblance becomes stronger.
# Phoenix
Recharge 11+: This marbled reddish-yellow sphere is always warm to the touch. When you make an attack that deals fire damage, you can teleport somewhere nearby you can see.
Quirk: Broad-minded.
# Sacred Father
Recharge 6+: Spend a recovery to grant temporary hit points equal to your recovery roll to a creature you control, such as a summoned creature or an animal companion.
Quirk: Protects those under their care.
# Sapphire
Recharge 11+ after use: When an enemy hits you with an attack that deals lightning damage, the enemy takes half the damage (though you still take full damage).
Quirk: Fascinated with the other blue orbs.
# Seeing
Recharge 16+: A clear glass orb that magnifies things oddly. You gain a +4 bonus to skill checks to detect illusions (you still must have reason to suspect an illusion exists). This effect doesn’t continue after you use the power, though illusions revealed to you continue to be obvious to you.
Quirk: Paranoia about magical traps.
# Sphere of Verdant Growth
Recharge 11+ after use: One half of this orb is burnt wood, while moss and flowers sprout from the other half. When you deal fire damage with an attack made using this orb, you heal hit points equal to triple your level.
Quirk: Tries to take the long view.
# Sphere of Witch-mists
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: Teleport to a nearby location you can see, and if the orb fails to recharge, you can spend a recovery to regain this power.
Quirk: You prefer to remain mysterious.
# Sphere of the Arcane Princess
Recharge 11+: This purple orb is chased with gold filigree. You gain a +2 bonus to PD or MD until the end of the battle. The first time the orb fails to recharge, you gain a +1 bonus to AC until your next full healup.
Quirk: Love of luxury.
# Sphere of the Waters
Recharge 11+ after use: You can command and shape water, causing streams to part for you and other watery tricks. Talk to the GM to see what’s possible.
Quirk: Clean freak.
# Sphere of the Witchqueen
Recharge 11+: This orb is almost completely black. When you target or damage an ally with an attack, reroll any damage dice that are less than half of their maximum result (i.e., 2 or less on d6, 3 or less on d8, etc.).
Quirk: Yours is an evil laugh.
# Wise Grandfather
1/Day
Cast a spell, but don’t roll to attack or assign effects until the end of your next turn. When the spell is finally cast, double the damage it deals or double the hit point threshold for the spell.
Quirk: Often complains.
# Champion
# Sphere of Blood
Recharge 16+: This orb is a pulsing ball of fur and muscle. When you are magically healed, you heal 3d6 additional hit points (or 1d6 hp if the orb hasn’t recharged).
Quirk: Their comebacks and put-downs are savage.
# Epic
# Abyss
1/Level
Recharge Special: This sphere is made of a polished, petrified heart. When you use its power, you open a portal to the abyss. You can use the orb to do something like banish a nearby normal strength creature of your level or lower (or a group of weaker creatures), or non-artifact magic item, to the abyss. You also could let something through the portal, like a balor (or a group of weaker creatures), which is/are just as likely to be hostile toward you as your enemies. To recharge the orb, you must sacrifice an ally or non-enemy creature that is friendly to you.
Quirk: Desires to open portals to hell.
# Rings
# Default Bonus
None.
# Adventurer
# Ashen
1/Day
Until the end of the battle, each nearby enemy can’t heal or gain temporary hit points until that enemy succeeds with a hard save (16+) and then uses a standard action to do nothing but shake off the effect.
Quirk: Likes to cleanse/cremate enemies.
# Bishop’s
Recharge 11+: Any documents sealed with this signet ring are mystically imprinted. Anyone handling them will know exactly who sealed the document and whether or not it has been tampered with in any way. When you use the power, gain a +2 bonus to AC and PD until the start of your next turn as you create a protective rune in the air that looks like the seal on this ring. This bonus stacks with other magic items.
Quirk: Meddlesome.
# Blind Seer
1/Day
Cast the bard spell befuddle at your level using your best ability score against an enemy you have already attacked this battle.
Quirk: Blurts out secrets.
# Bloody Swathe
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: The huge ruby in this ring glows hungrily when you call on its power. Activate the ring when you defeat three or more foes with a single attack. After the battle, you may apply the number of foes dropped with that single attack as a bonus to any recharge rolls made after this combat.
Quirk: Battle-hungry.
# Bone
If you are humanoid you are instead considered undead when it would benefit you, and vice versa. You also always know the direction and distance to the nearest properly kept (not abandoned) graveyard or tomb.
Quirk: Cadaverous appearance (or at least outlook).
# Cheap Shot
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: One enemy you’re engaged with takes damage equal to your normal melee miss damage.
Quirk: Often stops speaking mid-sentence.
# Confidence
Recharge 11+: This ring is carved from the bone of a slain honey devil. When you roll an attack, save, skill check, or other roll that you can fail, add +1 to that roll.
Quirk: Smarmy.
# Contrary Actions
Recharge 16+ after use: Turn a failed skill check on its head—a roll of 1 becomes 20, a roll of 2 becomes 19, etc. However, the new result must be used for something in opposition to the desired outcome of the original skill check, but still beneficial. For example, instead of sneaking past some guards, you distract them so the rest of your allies can sneak past; or instead of flattering a group of goblins into freeing you, you disgust them so much that they exile you.
Quirk: Unable to agree with anything.
# Darkness
Move Action
Recharge 6+: Use the rogue’s Shadow Walk talent as if you had automatically hit with the Mental Defense attack roll. While attuned to this ring, you are vulnerable to necrotic.
Quirk: Tries to act mysterious.
# Defense
Recharge 6+: When you take damage from an attack, prevent 10 of that damage, prevent 20 at champion tier, and prevent 40 at epic tier.
Quirk: Stubborn.
# Enmity
In addition to a +2 bonus to saves against confusion, this ring lets you specify which of your nearby allies you attack when confused. Choose your special friend when the confusion starts, and you may even specify yourself.
Quirk: Keeps an enemies list. Checks it twice.
# Faithful Hound
This ring is carved with the face of a watchdog. When you are ambushed, roll a save. If you succeed, the ring growls in warming and you can take a turn during the ambush round.
Quirk: Somnambulist (sleep-walker).
# Fire
Quick Action
1/Day
Made of dragonbone, this ring is always warm to the touch. Cast the wizard cantrips light and spark at-will. When you use the full recovery power, a nearby enemy is dazed until the end of its next turn as you create a flaring burst of fire next to it.
Quirk: Believes fire is a tool to be used.
# Glory
This brilliant, gem-encrusted ring gives you an aura of status (and whatever that entails). Everyone can see it, even if they don’t know why.
Quirk: Becomes more and more obsessed with the idea that all their accomplishments are undeserved and that they themselves are frauds. This obsession often drives them to heroic acts.
# Honeyed Words
This signet ring bears the symbol of an archdevil, and is just large enough to be noticed from across a room. While wearing it, you get a +6 bonus to skill tests to convince someone to aid you in some fashion. Your target is magically compelled to look favorably on your case and think of you as eloquent and interesting. However, it has the opposite effect on every other witness to the conversation, including the other PCs - they believe that you’re deceitful, manipulative and crass, no matter what you say or do. Oh well, it’s not like they can cause any problems later on. You could try getting around the ring’s restriction by insisting on a private conference. That won’t make anyone suspicious or paranoid in the slightest.
Quirk: Incapable of speaking without prevaricating.
# Instant Vengeance
Recharge 16+: When you take damage from an enemy’s attack, choose one ally you can see. That ally can make a basic attack (melee or ranged) against the attacker as a free action.
Quirk: Sticks close to their friends, real close.
# Iron
Move Action
Recharge 6+ after use: Draw a nearby small unattended metal item to you, or pull yourself to a large one. The effect of this power isn’t exceptionally fast: pulling an item to you doesn’t count as any sort of attack, and when you pull yourself to an item, even though you are effectively flying during that movement, it still provokes opportunity attacks. If the item is in a grave or a crypt, the power recharges automatically.
Quirk: Hates grave robbers.
# Iron Grip
When you make a skill check involving climbing, holding something, or otherwise using your hands to grip things, you can use +10 as your bonus in place of your normal bonus (level + ability mod + skill; other magic item bonuses still count), +15 at champion tier, and +20 at epic tier.
Quirk: Loves to arm wrestle, thumb wrestle, drum fingers on tables, etc.
# Jack of All Trades
When you make a skill check, if your bonus for that check is +1 or +0, you gain a +2 bonus for your skill bonus instead (if your bonus is +2 or higher, this ring has no effect).
Quirk: Talks as though they know everything.
# Lorekeeper
Gain a +4 bonus to skill checks involving ancient knowledge.
Quirk: Memorizes long lists.
# Minor Illusions
Standard Action
Recharge 11+: This ring changes appearance depending on which finger it is worn on. You turn invisible until you take any action or until the end of the battle. While invisible, enemies have a 50% chance to miss you completely. As an at-will quick action, you can also create and maintain small illusions hovering above the palm of your hand.
Quirk: Over-complicate your plans.
# Minor Transmutation
A number of times per full recovery equal to the highest modifier of your Int, Wis, or Cha
This ring is made of many twisted bands of different materials. Pass your hand over a small object to transform it in a minor way (e.g., a rag into a silk handkerchief, a copper coin into a gold coin, a blank parchment into a map, an iron nail into a key). Transformations last up to an hour.
Quirk: Sarcastic.
# Parting Gesture
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: When one side in a battle flees, specify a target on the opposing side to yours. When you next encounter that foe, you automatically inflict 1d8, 2d8 at champion tier, and 4d10 at epic tier psychic damage on that enemy at the start of combat.
Quirk: Sore loser.
# Petty Concerns
Quick Action
1/Day
This tarnished silver ring lets you clean yourself, mend your clothes, style your hair, apply cosmetics, etc. freely at will. When you use its power, hamper an enemy you are engaged with until the end of its next turn.
Quirk: Distracted by mere baubles.
# Poison Transmutation
Recharge 6+: Let’s start with the quirk: you have a taste for exotic and even dangerous food. Which you indulge often, because the power is that until the end of the battle, when you make a successful save against ongoing poison damage, you may immediately take one of the following benefits:
- Make a recharge roll for one spell or magic item
- Make a free basic attack
- Save against one other condition or instance of ongoing damage
# Poor Choices
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: This ring allows you to subtly influence the choices made by your enemies. When you use it, make a Charisma + Level attack vs. MD against one nearby enemy. If you hit, you may suggest a poor choice for the target’s next action. The course of action you suggest must be relatively reasonable – stabbing an ally for no reason is a terrible decision, not a poor one. You could, however, suggest that the enemy engage the raging barbarian instead of the unarmored and wounded wizard, or that the city guard chasing you try climbing the outside of the building instead of following you up the stairs. The GM has final say over the victim’s actions – this ring lets you influence people, not mind-control them.
Quirk: Self-deluded and blind to own faults.
# Protection
Recharge 11+: Gain a +2 bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn, PD too at champion tier, and also MD at epic tier.
Quirk: Touchy and defensive.
# Purity
1/Battle
When you make an attack, that attack deals radiant damage, and one target of the attack takes 1d8 extra damage, hit or miss, 2d10 damage at champion tier, and 3d10 damage). You can also always use the ring to remove dirt and filth from yourself, from food, and from other objects (but it doesn’t protect against any attack or condition at epic tier).
Quirk: Fastidious.
# Regal Wrong-headedness
Recharge 6+: When you miss with an attack that has a miss effect harmful to the target, you can take a –1 penalty to all defenses until the start of your next turn to reroll that attack.
Quirk: Contrary and often surreal.
# Relentless Strike
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: Make a basic attack ignoring any effects that give you an attack penalty, prevent you from attacking, keep you from taking actions, or force you to reroll the attack. You can also use this ring’s power while you’re stunned, even though you couldn’t normally take an action.
Quirk: Has near-constant insomnia.
# Resilience
Recharge 6+: When you use this ring, heal using a recovery.
Quirk: Eats an odd vegetarian diet and advocates it loudly.
# Riches
Recharge 11+: You can sense nearby gold, jewels, and similar wealth until the end of the battle or for the next five minutes.
Quirk: Envious.
# Rotten
You are immune to all mundane diseases and have resist poison and necrotic 16+.
Quirk: Loves rotted meat.
# Runes
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: At the start of battle, you instinctively trace a magic rune in the air that flashes and brands itself on one item carried by a nearby ally. This magic rune has the same effects as a normal rune. You may choose what item you target with the rune, but may not target the same item twice. There are three versions of this ring, one for each tier of play, and each one produces rune effects of the appropriate tier.
The dwarven runesmiths believe that this ring enables the bearer to see the spark of glory within each item, and that the rune is the soul of the weapon being made temporarily manifest. They claim to be able to foretell the future in the shape of the rune, and in the random rune effects it generates. If a rune causes a weapon to gain a bonus to opportunity attacks, then clearly great opportunity awaits the weapon’s wielder. If an implement gives a bonus to spells targeting a single enemy, then obviously the spellcaster’s attention is divided, and their implement is warning them to focus on what is important.
(By the standards of dwarven prophets and soothsayers, the runesmiths are considered reliable compared to the crackseers, who seek meaning in the patterns of cracks and flaws in stone, or the holy ale-questers, who seek divine guidance at the bottom of ale tankards.)
Quirk: Believes that rune effects foretell the future, and acts on the wisdom revealed by the Random Rune Effect tables.
# Seal Ring of the Citadel
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: By slamming this ring onto a door or other portal, or onto the lid of a container, you create a magical seal of golden light that undead and demons cannot pass – at least, not for some time. The seal works like the hold portal ritual, but instead of you making Intelligence skill checks to keep the portal closed, you make Charisma skill checks instead.
Two things to note – first, unlike the spell, it’s not restricted to doors and door-like things. You can seal a vampire in a coffin, or a ghost in a bottle, or a demon in a magic circle. As long as there’s a clear barrier that you can reinforce with the magic of the ring, it’ll work.
Second, the magic only works on demons and undead. Other creatures can open the barrier just fine – and can, if they wish, let the undead or demons through behind them.
Quirk: Tests others for weakness, both physical and mental.
# Sheriff’s Ring of Knocking
Recharge 6+: This ring was owned by a famously unpopular tax collector. As a move action, make a skill check to break, knock down, or damage a non-magical object you are next to. Use a +10 bonus to your roll instead of your ability modifier + level + skill bonus, +15 at champion tier, and +20 at epic tier.
Quirk: Executes duties without compassion.
# Sincerity
1/Day
When you attempt to influence a creature (through a skill check, using a charm person spell, etc.), roll twice and take the better result.
Quirk: Affectionate.
# Skin of Your Teeth
Recharge 6+: When an enemy attacks you, subtract 1 from the natural attack roll after seeing it.
Quirk: Regularly finds copper pieces and other minor valuables on the ground.
# Spell Vampire
Recharge 11+: This ring siphons magical energy from defeated enemies. When you slay a foe, name one of your magic items or recharge powers and justify how you’re recharging that item or power with that particular foe’s essence. There has to be a symbolic or narrative connection between the two – you could obviously use a defeated fire elemental to recharge your draconic breath weapon, but how does the elemental essence charge up your stalwart cloak? You get the level of the defeated foe as a bonus to the power or item’s recharge roll.
Quirk: Terrible table manners.
# Spellbreaking
Recharge 11+: For a magic ring, this is a hefty chunk of metal, more of a knuckleduster than anything else. If an enemy you’re engaged with draws an opportunity attack by casting a spell, and you hit with that opportunity attack, you may activate the ring to automatically counter the enemy’s spell. If you roll a natural even hit, and the spell has a limited number of uses, then one use is consumed fruitlessly.
Quirk: Doesn’t respect personal space.
# Stone
Recharge 6+ after use: Reshape a handful of rock like it was wet clay (you can scoop a handful out of any nonmagical source).
Quirk: Frustrated artist.
# The Cycle
When a nearby ally fails a death or last gasp save, you may cancel this failure, keeping them alive. However, each time you do this, you must pick another nearby ally to ‘lose’ a death save. If that second ally gets knocked to negative hit points and has to make death saves, then they die after one fewer death save than normal. (Usually, you die after four failed death saves; if someone’s used the ring of the cycle on you once, you die after three.)
The ring of the cycle cannot be used to preserve someone who has lost a death save to the ring.
Death saves ‘reset’ when a character levels. You can’t use the ring of the cycle on yourself, either to save yourself or to sacrifice your own life force to save others. Druids have to stand outside the cycle of life.
Quirk: Unaccountably merry in the presence of death.
# Thief’s-Eye
While the ring is on your finger, if you shut both eyes and concentrate, you can see through the ring, allowing you to peer around corners and such.
Quirk: You’re always prying into things that should maybe be left shut; doors, topics of conversation, taboos….
# Thorns
While grabbed you deal 1d3 times your level in damage to the creature grabbing you at the start of each of your turns. While you are being grabbed by a creature, that creature takes damage equal to 1d3 times your level at the start of each of its turns.
Quirk: Plots intricate revenge schemes.
# Treasured Indulgence
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: Increase the escalation die by 1d3. Until the end of the battle, your true magic items come perilously close to taking you over. In fact, you need to roll a normal save (11+) at the start of each of your turns. If you fail the save, the GM and your fellow players indulge themselves in arranging a somewhat suboptimal turn for you that indulges as many of your magic item quirks as comically or dramatically appropriate. Your items aren’t (usually) trying to get you killed, but they’re somewhat monomaniacal.
Quirk: Very devoted to the wellbeing of true magic items, and addresses them as if they were all fully sentient conversationalists.
# Underking
Recharge 16+: You create a door in a rock wall or a short passageway through rock. Magical barriers or materials require a skill check for the ring to work.
Quirk: Needs to sleep on good honest dirt.
# Vines
Motile vines extend from this ring and grow across your body. You can’t accidentally drop things, and it’s much harder for others to steal items from you; roll twice and take the best result on skill checks in such cases. You also gain a +2 bonus to skill checks to climb, to drag heavy objects, and to take actions in circumstances where having vine ‘ropes’ would be handy.
Quirk: Wine lover (and a snob about it too).
# Wild Heart
Animals accept you and may even show you affection. The animals, however, still react normally if you threaten them, and well-trained guard animals are especially wary of you.
Quirk: Seems out of place in civilization.
# Wooden
Recharge 11+ after use: Cause dead non-magical wood to sprout leaves and roots. What good is that? Well, you could cause a wooden door to stick in its frame or a wooden chest to warp and burst open, for example.
Quirk: Eager gardener.
# Champion
# Dwarflaw Ring
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: Bearing this black iron ring means you hold the office of lawspeaker. The laws of the dwarves as strict and unyielding as they are complex and hidebound, and even the stones remember them. While you are in dwarven lands – even if those lands are no longer occupied by the dwarves – you may magically enforce the law. The authority of this ring awakens ancient wards and geases of law graven into the bones of the earth.
When you activate the ring, you must declare yourself as a lawspeaker, and inform your foes what dwarven laws they’ve broken. Dwarven law changes from stronghold to stronghold, so you can invent new laws each time you use the ring, and old ones don’t necessary apply.
For the rest of the battle, whenever you hit a foe for the first time, you may apply one of the following punishments for their crimes:
- +2d8 psychic damage (epic: +5d8)
- -1 to any one defense for the rest of the fight
- The stones of the mountains reject them (treat as a terrain stunt)
- Alcohol becomes poisonous to them
- Curse of beardlessness
The irony of this magic item requiring a lengthy series of subclauses and sections is not lost on us.
Oh yeah – if you’ve got one of these rings, you’ll be called upon to act as arbiter in all sorts of disputes whenever you visit a dwarven community. And if you’re not a dwarf or otherwise in good standing with the Dwarf King, don’t even think about carrying a dwarflaw ring.
Quirk: Litigious.
Note: The Dwarf King claims all treasures pulled from the earth are his. He claims that his law holds sway wherever the dwarves ever ruled. He claims his armies can hold the line against the Orc Lord. Let him make his wild claims. Each one saps his strength, and soon there will be precious little of that left. The old dwarf shall be the first to fall. I have foreseen this. - Arthak, Orc Blood Sorcerer
# Iron Tides
Recharge 6+: An iron ring, decorated with black pebbles from the shores of the Iron Sea. When a nearby enemy pops free or disengages, you can move as a free action.
Quirk: Your hair grows (and un-grows) along with the tides.
# Epic
# Major Transmutation
Recharge 16+: The many bands of this ring coil and twist when you cast a spell. When you hit an enemy with an arcane spell, deal 3d20 extra ongoing acid to the target; or send a squirt of powerful acid that can dissolve metal and wood.
Quirk: Acerbic humor.
# Scepter, Rod, Cane (Implement)
# Default Bonus
Attack and damage with an arcane or divine spell or attack: +1 (adventurer); +2 (champion); +3 (epic). The first time each battle you cast a spell using the scepter that does less than average damage, increase the damage to the average value—thereafter, until the end of the battle, you may take the unrolled average damage for spells through the item.
# Adventurer
# Cane of Night-kissed Cobbles
1/Day
Over the course of a battle or scene, magically rearrange the layout of streets, tunnels, or dungeon corridors to suit your needs. When you use this power, spend a recovery and roll a skill check. The greater the success, the more the new layout will favor whatever you have planned (GM, there should be some changes even with a poor roll; favor the player here). The layout returns to its previous form at the end of the battle or scene (probably).
Quirk: Has wanderlust.
# Darkheart Scepter
Recharge 6+: This scepter summons a harmless magical humanoid who faithfully serves you until the end of the battle or for about 5 minutes. The servant makes all skill checks using 10 plus your level (so at 1st level, skill checks made by your servant are d20 + 11, and at 10th level they are d20 + 20). The servant is imprisoned by the magic of the scepter, so perhaps ‘servant’ isn’t exactly the correct word.
Quirk: Lazy, almost as if you had a servant on call 24/7.
# Golden Scepter of Dragon Command
1/Level
Cast one of the following wizard spells against a target that is a dragon or draconic creature: charm person, hold monster, or sleep. You cast the chosen spell at your level using your best ability for the attack roll, except you double the hp threshold, triple the hp threshold at champion tier, and quadruple the hp threshold at epic tier. On a miss, regain this power after your next full heal-up in addition to any normal miss effects that are part of the spell. Quirk: Enjoys the company of dragons.
# Jester’s Stick
Recharge 11+: When you use this power, each time you miss with your first attack roll during a round, your crit range expands by 1 (cumulative) until you score a critical hit or until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Mocks others.
# Mace of Dominion
1/Battle
This magical implement also counts as a heavy melee weapon. You can count one ally as an enemy to target them with a damaging attack made through this item. If you do, you can then target two additional enemies engaged with that ally with the attack.
Quirk: Strength is a great virtue of leadership.
# Majestic Deeds
1/Day
One of these scepters is said to have belonged to an elven monarch who had a vexing jester in their court. You are immune to accidentally looking foolish, even if others try to make you look so (for example, when others would fall into mud from a drop, you land gracefully with your hair un-mussed). The power of the item doesn’t protect you from any sort of attack, however. When you use the full recovery power, until your next initiative roll or until your next full heal-up, roll twice and take the best result for skill checks where you have an opportunity to ‘look impressive.’
Quirk: Conceited, like a cat.
# Mountain King
Recharge 6+: You animate nearby tools to do the work they were designed for (axes chop, picks dig, mops mop, etc.) until the end of the battle or for five minutes.
Quirk: Likes to prove worth.
# Phantom Prince
Recharge 11+: When you score a critical hit with a spell cast through this implement, teleport to a nearby location you can see.
Quirk: Can’t abide being in the presence of salt.
# Rod of Dwarven Might
Recharge 16+: This scepter produces a glowing axe-head on your command. You can use the implement as a two-handed axe you are proficient with. Its default bonus is the same as the implement, and you use your highest ability modifier for attack and damage while attacking with it.
Quirk: Imperious demeanor.
# Ruby Rod of Rulership
1/Day
Cast charm person spell as a 1st level bard/wizard spell using your best ability for the attack roll. Cast the spell at 5th level at champion tier and 9th level at epic tier. In addition, with this version of the charm person spell, you can target multiple creatures with less than 40 total hp (champion: 96 hp at champion tier, and 266 hp at epic tier, targeting creatures with the lowest hit points first.
Quirk: Bossy.
# Shadows
1/Battle
When you hit an enemy with a spell cast through this implement, a nearby ally gains a +1 bonus to attacks against that enemy until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Absent-minded.
# Shaft of Darkness
Quick Action
This implement creates a beam of darkness and shadow. Cast the wizard cantrip ghost sound, except using shadows instead of noise.
Quirk: Prankster.
# Sovereign’s Scepter
Quick Action
1/Level
Spells cast through this implement work as normal, but their effects look more impressive to others. Cast one of your full recovery spells or recharge spells. If you miss any target with the spell, this power recharges during your next full heal-up.
Quirk: Uses magic needlessly.
# Totem of Fecundity
1/Day
When you cast a summoning spell, you also summon some goblin mooks (or other lowly creatures that fit your character’s flavor) as if you had cast the necromancer spell summon undead as a 1st level spell. Cast the spell at 5th level at champion tier and 9th level at epic tier. You summon 1 fewer mook (so 1d3) and the mooks are humanoid goblins (or whatever at epic tier instead of undead.
Quirk: Maternal monster.
# Totem of Rage
Recharge 16+: When the escalation die is 3+ and an ally makes a melee attack on their turn, make a melee basic attack.
Quirk: Goes along with the group.
# Champion
# Zombie Queen
When you are at 0 hp or below, you don’t fall unconscious and can continue fighting until you die (usually from reaching half your maximum negative hit points). If you take any actions during your turn while at negative hit points aside from rallying, you can’t be healed or gain hit points until the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Emotionally dead half the time.
# Epic
# Vampire Vizier
When you score a critical hit with an attack made using this implement, you can deal normal damage instead of double damage to gain temporary hit points equal to the extra damage that you would have dealt.
Quirk: Silver gives you a rash.
# Shield
# Default Bonus
Increase your maximum hit points: by +4 (adventurer); by +10 (champion); by +25 (epic).
# Adventurer
# Absorption
Recharge 16+: When you roll initiative, pick a damage type associated with dragon breath (acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, etc.). Until the end of the battle, you gain resist 16+ to that damage type.
Quirk: Glib overconfidence.
# Adaptation
Whenever an enemy’s attack hits your Physical Defense or Mental Defense, you gain a +4 bonus to that defense until an attack against that defense (including the bonus) misses you, or until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Takes on mannerisms of those around them.
# Avenger
When an enemy scores a critical hit against you or one of your nearby allies, until the end of your next turn, you gain a +2 bonus to attacks OR to all defenses.
Quirk: Team-builder.
# Bashing
When you move to engage an enemy while using this shield, you can use the shield to push that enemy away from one of your allies engaged with it. That ally can make a disengage check as a free action.
Quirk: Can’t pass up an opportunity to sing.
# Bloodthirsty
The first time each battle you hit a beast, dragon, giant, or humanoid (once for each type) with a melee attack, heal hit points equal to twice that enemy’s level.
Quirk: Thirsts for blood, obviously.
# Bones
Quick Action
1/Battle
A beast, dragon, giant, humanoid, or undead engaged with you pops free from you as you briefly take control of its bones to force it to move away. If you use the shield’s power as a standard action instead of a quick action, that creature is also stuck until the end of its next turn.
Quirk: Keen puppeteer.
# Buckler of Winds
Recharge 16+: Each enemy engaged with you pops free from you. In addition, each other unwilling nearby enemy must roll a save. If that enemy fails, it pops free from any creature it’s engaged with.
Quirk: Blowhard.
# Burnished Gold
1/Day
When you are hit by an attack with a last gasp save effect, the attacker becomes the target of that attack instead.
Quirk: Self-important.
# Claws
Recharge 11+: When you deal miss damage with a melee attack, add the shield’s hp bonus to that miss damage.
Quirk: Acts feral.
# Dark Guardian
Recharge 11+: This shield has demons imprisoned within it. Pick an area of the battlefield (or tavern, or wherever the fight is taking place)—the first time an enemy moves toward the area, pop free from each enemy engaged with you and move to intercept that enemy.
Quirk: Only you are vigilant enough to stand watch.
# Discus Shield
This shield also acts as a +1 throwing weapon that returns to you after the attack, +2 at champion tier, and +3 at epic tier.
Quirk: Eager to discuss your opinions.
# Displayed Convictions
1/Battle
When an attack targets an ally, the attack instead targets you if you were not already a target of the attack but could be (for example, if a wight attacks an ally with its sword melee attack and you aren’t engaged with the wight, you can’t use this power to become the target).
Quirk: Preachy.
# Dragonbreath
Recharge 6+: This dragon’shead shield allows you make a breath weapon attack as though you were a dragonborn. If you are a dragonborn, you an make a breath weapon attack without expending a use, though you don’t gain the benefit of any feats you spent to improve your breath weapon.
Quirk: Likes to blow smoke rings.
# Dragonscale
When you are targeted by an attack that also targets one or more of your allies, you take only half damage from the attack, hit or miss.
Quirk: Avoids responsibility.
# Drakefanged
Recharge 11+: This spiked shield sports a massive dragon fang that wounds enemies. When an enemy engaged with you misses you with a melee attack, make a basic melee attack against the enemy as a free action, with a +2 attack bonus per tier of the shield (adventurer: +2, champion: +4, epic: +6). On a hit, the attack deals 2d6 damage; on a miss, it deals 2 damage, 4d8 damage, or 5 on a miss at champion tier, and 8d10 damage, or 12 on miss at epic tier.
Quirk: Compares everything to dragons or to draconic things, and judges actions by how they stack up to draconic expectations.
# Fate Aversion
This burnished shield bears the symbol of Bahamut, his wings stretched protectively over the whole world. Once per level, when you take a campaign loss, you may invoke the shield’s power to avert the worst effects of the loss. Bad stuff still happens, but events conspire to give you a fighting chance to put things right. To take the example from the book, if you’re on your way to rescue a captive from an unholy sacrifice, and you take a campaign loss through fleeing, then without the shield, the captive gets sacrificed. With the shield, maybe the captive’s bleeding out when you arrive in the ritual chamber, and if you can get close to her quickly, you can save her life. Or maybe she’s dead, but there are spirits of light fending off the summoned demon, so you’ve a chance to save her soul from being consumed.
The powers of light look a lot more favorably on campaign losses suffered because of really unfortunate dice rolls than they do on losses incurred through hesitation, bad decisions or cowardice.
Quirk: Dwells on worst case scenarios that will probably never happen.
# Flowing Silver
Free Action
Recharge 11+: The surface of this mirrored round shield flows like quicksilver. When someone attacking you rolls a natural 1, you may teleport that attacker to anywhere nearby that you can see. You can’t put the attacker into immediate danger (no teleporting foes into lava), but can put them in combat with your allies, or stick them up a tree. If the attacker’s wielding a weapon, then you can choose to just teleport the weapon; the attacker can either let go of its weapon and stay engaged with you, or keep hold of the weapon and get teleported too.
Quirk: Vain
# Forge-Hot
Recharge 6+: When an attacker misses you with an odd roll, you inflict 5 ongoing fire damage on that enemy, 10 ongoing at champion tier, and 15 ongoing at epic tier.
Quirk: Always uncomfortably chilly, even in the hottest conditions.
# Fortification of the Absent
This shield features intertwined white and green dragons on the front. Gain a +2 bonus to all defenses against attacks from undead and fey, and a +2 bonus to saves against effects caused by these creatures (+4 against undead elves). These bonuses stack with other magic items.
Quirk: Hates imprisonment.
# Green Man
Gain a +3 bonus to AC against attacks from plants and beasts. this bonus stacks with the bonuses from other magic items.
Quirk: Takes the path less traveled.
# Half-Cape of Evasion
Recharge 6+: This half-cape of heavy cloth works like a shield, both in terms of defensive fighting (you can use it to block light weapons or engulf and parry heavier attacks) and magic (its default bonus increases your maximum hit points). You can activate it when an enemy moves to attack you, or when you’re intercepted while moving.
If a foe moves to attack you, then if the attack misses, you pop free automatically and don’t suffer the miss damage, if any.
If you got intercepted while moving, then if you make an attack on the foe and hit, then you pop free and can finish your move action as if your enemy never got in your way.
Quirk: Taunts and mocks foes, especially minotaurs.
# Heraldic Shield
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: Your shield bears the heraldic symbol of your family (or that of some other noble knight, if you looted this shield in a dungeon). Either way, you may invoke the aid of that symbol, causing a spirit animal to manifest on the battlefield. This spirit remains until the end of the battle (or until you disgrace your family, causing it to leave in disgust). The benefit provided by the spirit depends on what it is, but here are some ideas.
- Boar: +1d4 damage if you hit someone in the same round you move to engage them, +2d4 at champion tier, and +4d6 at epic tier
- Eagle: +1 damage to ranged attacks, hit or miss, +3 at champion tier, and +6 at epic tier
- Dog: Enemies engaged with you have an additional -1 penalty to disengage check., -2 at champion tier, and -3 at epic tier
- Unicorn: You may rally a second time in a battle without rolling, once per battle, you can rally on behalf of a nearby ally; you spend the standard action and the recovery, they get the healing at champion tier, and twice per battle at epic tier
- Griffon: Once per battle, when you inflict a critical hit on a foe, you may immediately make a basic attack on a different enemy as a free action. (Champion: twice per battle; epic: three times per battle).
- Lion: Once per battle, you can roar. You cause fear as though you were a monster with a fear aura until the start of your next turn, you count as being one level higher for the purposes of determining your fear threshold at champion tier, and two levels higher at epic tier.
- Wolf: +1d6 damage on opportunity attacks, +2d6 at champion tier, and +4d8 at epic tier
- Dragon: Once per battle, when you inflict a critical hit on an enemy, you immediately deal 1d6 fire damage to all other engaged enemies, 2d6 at champion tier, and 4d8 at epic tier
- Snake: Once per battle, when you hit an enemy engaged with you, you may add 5 ongoing poison damage to the damage roll, 10 ongoing at champion tier, and 15 ongoing at epic tier
Quirk: Family honor is everything.
Note: I once knew this barbarian. Eight feet tall he was, and nearly as broad across the shoulders, eyes like smoldering coals. He comes out of the north, as barbarians do, and does all the things you’d expect a barbarian of that sort to do. He loots dungeons, slays monsters, sacks cities, seduces princes. The Emperor gives him a castle to keep him quiet, and a noble title to go with it. So, now that he’s a respectable noble, our barbarian goes and gets himself a suit of magic plate armor, and a magic shield to go with it. The shield-maker asks him what the heraldic symbol of his house is, and the barbarian doesn’t know. He thinks about it, and picks the most impressive beast he’s ever seen. KORU! he says, in this deep booming voice like an earthquake. So the shield-maker paints a behemoth on the magic shield. Next time a demon shows up, the barbarian girds his loins, and the rest of him too, and rides out to meet it in battle. He invokes the power of his shield and calls on his heraldic spirit… You can still see the crater. It’s in the shape of a behemoth footprint. Squished him and the demon flat as two pancakes. That’s why, if they ever make me a baron, I’m going to rule under the sigil of something small and very safe. I’m thinking goldfish. You? - Stormcrow Jacen, “Merchant”
# Ironhide Shield
Recharge 6+: It may be nothing more than animal-hide stretched over a crude wooden frame, but the primitive druidic markings daubed onto the face of this shield make it indestructible. When an enemy attack you in melee combat, use the shield to inflict damage equal to the natural attack roll on the attacker as their blow smashes into the surprisingly immovable surface of the unyielding shield.
Quirk: Loves to provoke a fight.
# Mirrored Shield
1/Day
Looking in the polished surface of this shield shows your heart’s desire. When you hit an enemy with an attack targeting MD, force the target to move as a free action to a location of your choice. If the forced movement is dangerous (making an enemy walk into a fire or off a cliff ) or provokes opportunity attacks, the enemy can roll a save. If it succeeds, the enemy ignores the effect and the shield’s power recharges at the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Overly passionate.
# Obscuration
1/Day
While you are hiding with allies close by, this shield produces a magical glamor to help. When you and one or more allies next to you roll skill checks to sneak or hide, each ally uses the highest result.
Quirk: Tries to make friends with everybody they meet.
# Peace
In combat, regain hit points equal to the value of the escalation die at the start of every round, twice the escalation die’s value at champion tier, and three times the value at epic tier. This stops as soon as you make an attack or otherwise inflict any damage on an enemy.
Quirk: Always thinks the worst of people.
# Protection
Enemies engaged with you take a –1 attack penalty against your allies.
Quirk: Tends to others with too much familiarity.
# Puissance
Recharge 6+: When you make a basic melee attack, make a recharge roll for one expended power.
Quirk: Tremendous appetite for meat.
# Resilience
Recharge 11+: When you make a basic melee attack, heal using a recovery.
Quirk: Eats an odd vegetarian diet and advocates it loudly.
# Shattered Shield of Dreadful Deeds
Recharge 11+: Most magic items demand to be kept in pristine condition – they’re prima donnas and scabbard queens, refusing to show themselves without being polished, oiled, sharpened and otherwise pampered. The Shattered Shield is the opposite – it looks like a dull, half-broken slab of metal, scarred and scored in a hundred places from a hundred battles. No trace of heraldry or other decoration remains, other than a little dried blood in the crevices.
When an attack reduces you to 0 or less hit points, you may activate the shield and immediately roll your Constitution + Level against the enemy’s corresponding Defense to the one of yours targeted by the killing attack (for example, if you were brought down by an attack targeting MD, your retributive strike also targets the enemy’s MD). If you hit, you deal exactly half as much damage (rounding up) to the enemy as the enemy did just did to you.
Quirk: Live each full recovery as if it’s your last. After a few weeks, the bearer of the shield rapidly comes to resemble the shield’s haggard, run-down appearance.
# Silver Rose
Interrupt Action
1/Battle
When an enemy engaged with you targets you with an attack, a willing ally that’s also engaged with that enemy and not targeted by its attack can become the target of the attack before the attack roll instead of you.
Quirk: Vain.
# Spiked
When you roll a natural 2 with a melee attack while using the shield, you can make a basic melee attack with the shield as a free action as if it were an off-hand weapon (use d6 damage dice).
Quirk: Has shifty eyes.
# Stone
When you are staggered, gain a +2 bonus to AC against weapon attacks. This bonus stacks with the bonuses from other magic items.
Quirk: Lives to argue.
# Termination
Recharge 6+: When you make a basic melee attack, roll a save against one ongoing damage effect.
Quirk: Continually fails to finish sentences, stopping in mid-thoug….
# Toothsome
When you successfully intercept an enemy, your shield inflicts your normal miss damage on them. Some warriors who carry shields of this type also bring along leather or wooden covers to conceal their shield’s unusual appearance outside of battle. Veteran bearers also carry toothpicks.
Quirk: Takes bites or pieces out of things that you were supposed to just pass on.
# War
Recharge 6+: Until the end of your next turn, you and anyone engaged with you when you trigger the power cannot regain hit points by any means – no healing spells, no regeneration, no rallying.
Quirk: Single-minded.
# Warleader’s Shield
Nominate two allies at the start of battle. Their maximum (and current) hit points are raised by 2, 5 at champion tier, and 13 at epic tier until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Considers possessions to be held in common among members of the party.
# Watchful Eye
The living eyeball mounted in the boss of this round shield watches vigilantly for hidden foes and dangers. You gain a +4 bonus to skill checks to avoid being ambushed or surprised. In combat, the eye seems to look pleadingly at any foe who’s strong enough to shatter your shield, as if hoping to be released from its unnatural state.
Quirk: Always watching people. You sleep with your eyes open.
Note: Hey, I know that… eye. -Grunbolt, dwarven adventurer
# Woven-root Shield
When you would be popped free, grabbed, or otherwise moved against your will (except when an effect would teleport you), you can roll an easy (6+) save to negate the effect against you.
Quirk: Stubborn.
# Champion
# Crashing Thunder
Recharge 16+: When an enemy makes a melee attack on you, you may inflict thunder damage on all engaged creatures (both enemies and allies) equal to the natural attack roll.
Quirk: Hard of hearing.
# Dragonhide
1/Day
When you first attune to this item, chose a damage type: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. When you or an ally next to you are critted by an attack that deals damage of the chosen type or by an attack from a dragon, the crit is a hit instead.
Quirk: Intimidated by enemies bigger than you (like dragons).
# Staff (Implement)
A staff counts as both a wand (arcane spells) and a symbol (divine spells). Staffs are champion or epic items only. Epic staffs don’t like to be around lesser staffs, and do not abide wands.
# Default Bonus
Attack and damage with an arcane or divine spell or attack: +2 (champion); +3 (epic).
# Champion
# All-terrain
1/Day
When you first attune this staff, choose a type of terrain (see the druid terrain caster from 13 True Ways for terrain types). While in that terrain, when you heal using a recovery, heal 2d12 additional hit points (epic: +3d12). When you use the full recovery power, until the end of the battle, all land-based locations in the battle become a terrain type of your choice. In addition, once per level you can make the terrain change permanent.
Quirk: Tastes the ground—or a similar act—when entering new terrain.
# Astral
Recharge 16+: This staff is inscribed with star maps. When you teleport somewhere nearby as a move action, each negative effect on you ends.
Quirk: Obsessive astrologer.
# Blackened Bones
When you cast a spell using this staff that deals necrotic damage or that targets an undead creature, and your attack roll equals the escalation die, you score a critical hit against that target, even if the attack roll would normally miss.
Quirk: Hears the whispers of the restless dead. Probably best that they can’t (often) understand them.
# Crook of the Shepherd
Recharge 11+: Spend a recovery to allow a nearby ally to heal using a free recovery.
Quirk: Takes care of others, even if they don’t want help.
# Crystalline
A staff made of a single crystal. When you make your second attack each battle using this staff, deal +4d6 damage of a random type (determined on the table below) to one of the targets of that spell (epic: +4d10 damage).
| d10 | Damage Type |
|---|---|
| 1 | Acid |
| 2 | Cold |
| 3 | Fire |
| 4 | Force |
| 5 | Radiant |
| 6 | Lightning |
| 7 | Necrotic |
| 8 | Poison |
| 9 | Psychic |
| 10 | Thunder |
Quirk: Fascination with rainbows.
# Destruction
Recharge 16+: This white-metal staff is topped with the skull of a wizard of prodigious power, probably a lieutenant of a former Archmage. It laughs maniacally and blazes with unholy light when you activate the staff. Any creatures damaged by your attack this round that have 20 or fewer hit points remaining afterwards are instantly torn apart by the power of the staff (epic: 40 hit points or fewer).
Quirk: Prone to acts of pointless malice.
# Diabolical
Recharge 16+: You can evoke the power of the staff to gain additional attention and power from the spirits of darkness. When you roll for relationship advantages with a villainous relationship, treat a 16+ as a 20. If you don’t roll a 16+, the staff recharges automatically during your next quick rest.
Quirk: Exaggerates a chaotic or destructive trait that is already there.
# Diffident Magician
Recharge 6+: The first time an enemy engages you, make an opportunity attack against that enemy. On a hit, you deal +2d8 damage with that attack (epic: +4d10) and daze the foe until the end of its turn, if the creature is large or smaller (epic: any size).
Quirk: Doesn’t like to be touched.
# Distaff of the Weaver
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: Create a web across a doorway or small opening as if you cast the ritual hold portal without expending ritual components.
Quirk: Enjoys quality fabrics.
# Dragonfire
Standard Action
Recharge 11+:_ You may expend one of your spell slots (one containing either an at-will spell, or a spell that you could cast this battle, but haven’t yet used) to channel the fiery breath of Bahamut through your staff. This close-quarters attack uses your Wisdom or Charisma + Level, affects 1d3+1 nearby enemies, targets Physical Defense, and inflicts 1d8 damage per level of the spell expended (epic: d12s), plus your Wisdom or Charisma modifier. Oh, each dice of damage is both fire and radiant damage.
Quirk: Warns people about the error of their ways, and how they had better repent or… boom…
# Elven Fire
When you teleport, one nearby enemy who you are not engaged with before or after your teleport takes damage equal to your level.
Quirk: Thinks elves are the coolest.
# Finality
1/Day
When you drop an enemy to 0 hp with an attack using this staff, and that creature is neither stronger than double-strength nor more than two levels higher than you, that creature can’t heal, dies, turns to dust, and can’t return or be brought back to life. Once-per-level you can use this item’s power on any creature.
Quirk: Trouble comprehending cycles of nature.
# Four Seasons
You can make flexible melee attacks using this staff, with the following possible effects depending on the natural attack roll:
Natural 1–10: Deal 1d10 extra cold damage (epic: 2d8), and there is a short snow flurry.
Natural 11+: Deal 1d12 extra fire damage (epic: 2d10), and plants nearby bloom.
Natural Odd Roll: Gain temporary hit points equal to your level, and spring flowers grow from your hair.
Natural Even Roll: Pop free from each enemy engaged with you as you ride an autumn breeze. For the additional natural effects, the GM decides what happens.
Quirk: Sky-watcher.
# Gathering Storm
1/Day
When you hit with a lightning or thunder attack, you and one nearby willing ally teleport next to a different nearby ally you can see.
Quirk: Loves watching lightning.
# Gifts
Recharge 11+: Once per battle, you and any other spellcasters present may draw on the power of the staff before attacking with a spell. Drawing on the power of the staff adds the staff’s bonus to the attack and damage of the spell – so, if you’ve got a champion-tier staff, someone else could draw on it to add +2 to their attack and damage. Everyone capable of drawing on the staff knows what it can do – and what the consequences are, because anyone who does draw on the staff owes an archdevil a favor.
Multiple spellcasters can draw on the staff in a battle, but each spellcaster can only benefit from the staff once.
If you draw on your own staff, the bonus stacks with the basic bonus from the staff – so you’d get +2 from holding the staff, and another +2 on top of that when you draw on it.
If anyone draws on the staff in a battle, the staff is depleted after the battle and must recharge, but it can be drawn on by any number of people in one battle.
Quirk: A little too generous.
# Health
When you cast spells that heal or provide temporary hit points, add 4 to the total (epic: 8).
Quirk: The diseased of nearly every population center somehow know to seek you out for healing.
# Hod of the Builder
1/Day
Create a small brick wall around a nearby non-flying enemy; that enemy becomes stuck (save ends). The wall eventually crumbles to dust, but it’s up to the GM when that happens.
Quirk: Overestimates.
# Hungry Darkness
Recharge 16+: When you deal damage to an enemy with an attack made with this implement, that damage becomes ongoing acid damage (hard save ends, 16+).
Quirk: Cruel.
# Manipulation
When you cast an attack spell using this staff, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage with that spell if it has any additional negative effect on the target(s) besides damage (including ongoing damage).
Quirk: Expects to be treated with respect.
# Massacres
When you cast an attack spell using this staff, you gain a +1 attack bonus with that spell if it has more than one target.
Quirk: Obsessed with numbers and calculations.
# Oakenheart Stave
Recharge 11+: Leaning on this heavy staff for a moment connects you with the living earth and the boundless regenerative energy of the trees. If you do nothing in your turn – no move actions, no attacks or standard action, no quick or free actions, not even rolling any saves – you automatically heal using a recovery.
Quirk: You start putting down roots. Emotional ones, to begin with.
# Prime Mover
When you roll initiative, if you have the highest initiative (not including ties), the staff’s default bonus increases by +1 that battle.
Quirk: Keeps meticulous records.
# Prophecy
Recharge 16+: This ornate ivory staff is decorated with thousands of tiny letters, whose endless combinations and recombinations encapsulate every possible prophecy. You may only glimpse a fraction of the full divine insight contained in the staff, but it’s enough to give you an edge. When you activate the staff, pick three combatants – allies or enemies – and roll 1d20 for each of them. That d20 is the natural roll they’re going to make for their next attack. So, when a target of your prophecy makes an attack, they don’t need to roll the die – they just take the d20 you rolled for them and use the value shown on it.
The vision only looks into the immediate future – if any of the targeted creatures don’t make an attack by the end of your next turn, discard the value you rolled for them.
The staff doesn’t give you any special power to affect the future, it just gives you a brief insight into likely outcomes.
Quirk: Speaks in riddles.
# Pruning Hook of the Vintner
1/Day
Cause grape-bearing vines to sprout, creating a temporary structure. The structure isn’t sturdy enough to withstand deliberate attacks, but can serve as a temporary bridge or shelter.
Quirk: Indulges in bacchanalian pleasures.
# Sacred-Grove
Quick Action OR Interrupt Action against an Enemy
1/Day
You can cause trees to grow in the area or on the battlefield. Until the end of the battle (or for five minutes), nearby terrain gains the forest type in addition to its normal type, and one nearby enemy becomes stuck until the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Tastes wooden objects.
# Scythe of Reaping
Quick Action
1/Day
When you drop a nonmook enemy to 0 hp, or drop the last mook in a mob, cast one of your unexpended full recovery or recharge spells at a level two levels lower than you (so a 5th or 6th level druid would cast a 3rd level spell; a 7th or 8th level wizard would cast a 5th level spell; and so on). Casting the lower-level spell doesn’t expend the full recovery or recharge spell.
Quirk: Celebrates harvests (of all kinds).
# Spear of the Huntress
Recharge 16+: Until the end of the battle, the crit range of one of your nearby allies expands by 2 (usually to 18+) against one nearby enemy.
Quirk: Eat what you kill, kill what you eat.
# Spellforce
Recharge 16+: Activate this staff as a free action to ignore any dazed, hampered or weakened conditions afflicting you when making an arcane spell attack. The staff doesn’t get rid of the conditions – it just amps up your spell so it blasts through them.
Quirk: SHOUTS A LOT.
# Storms
Recharge 11+: This staff is a long, thin shaft of blue metal, topped with a stylized image of a Blue Dragon. When you take lightning damage, you gain a bonus to your next attack of +1 per 10 damage suffered. So, if you’re hit for 100 damage, that’s a +10 bonus to your next attack. Yes, you can target yourself with a lightning attack to charge the staff.
Quirk: Wild emotional swings, especially during thunderstorms.
# Trident of the Fisher
1 Battle/Day
When you make an attack using this implement and you or the target are in or on water, the default bonus of this implement increases by 2 and your crit range expands by 2 for that attack.
Quirk: Prefers to eat fish.
# Uncrowned King
Recharge 6+: When you use this power, you automatically succeed on a save against an effect created or caused by an undead enemy.
Quirk: You see dead people…sometimes.
# Epic
# Axial
The Axial Staff draws its power from the Imperial City it was created in, and grows in strength the closer you are to that great metropolis. The staff gives a +3 bonus to attacks and damage with spells while within 100 miles of the city, +2 within 200 miles, +1 within 400 miles, and has no effect beyond that, or when in the Overworld or Underworld. Oh, it’s a mighty +4 within Axis. You may also add the staff’s bonus to any Charisma skill checks involving invoking law or imperial authority. (For reference: It’s +3 at First Triumph, +2 in Horizon, Glitterhaegen, up in the mountains, and for about half the Kneedeep, and +1 in about another third of the Empire). The downside, beyond your staff diminishing in power the further you go from the capital, is that the Axial Staff connects your spirit to the city. Your maximum recoveries drop by 1 when you’re outside the city, by 2 within 200 miles, by 3 within 400 miles, and by 4 beyond that. If the city’s damaged, you take damage. If it’s beset by plague, you’re sickened. If there’s a famine, you starve no matter how much you eat. And if Axis falls, you die.
Quirk: Your moods and health become entwined with those of the city of Axis. When there’s a festival in the city, you’re tipsy. On the days of the gladiatorial games, you get rowdy.
# Column of Flame
This staff is made from magically bound elemental fire. You gain resist fire 16+ and a +4 bonus to all defenses against attacks that deal fire damage (this defense bonus stacks with other magic items). You are also vulnerable to cold.
Quirk: Likes to make things burn.
# Elven Shadows
Recharge 11+: When you use your racial ability, one willing nearby ally can heal using a recovery, but you gain the hit points instead.
Quirk: Insults ‘friends’ with barbed ‘compliments.’
# Gods
Recharge 16+: This staff allows you to call on the gods directly when casting a spell. Either the god you name channels their power through you, or they manifest in person through the magic of the staff to deliver the spell on your behalf.
You’ve got to describe the god or divine entity you’re channeling, and the GM will add on a suitable bonus effect to the spell based on the god. Say you’re casting javelin of faith at a foe, and you use this staff to invoke Thor. Maybe the clouds part and everyone sees a giant thunder god flinging a hammer at your target (adding in a juicy thunder damage hit on all enemies adjacent to the target), or everyone sees that you’re suddenly dressed in holy armor and carrying a giant warhammer (giving you the effects of hammer of faith for one round).
GMs: there are probably very good reasons why the gods don’t actively intercede in the world all the time. This staff is a ghastly violation of whatever divine laws exist – feel free to play merry hell with the fabric of reality every time it’s used.
Quirk: None. You’re so awesome the gods themselves come running when you call – therefore, it’s absolutely unthinkable that so paltry an item as this one could ever affect your incredible mind. Let lesser beings have their quirks and foibles; such things are utterly beneath you!
# Heartwood
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: The flickering viridian glow from this staff leaps to an emerald blaze when its power is invoked, as it opens a direct connection to some primal source of druidic power. Pick a number of allies equal to the value of the escalation die and roll a d20 for each of them; on a 16+, that ally gets to take an extra standard action in their next turn. The threshold for extra actions drops to 13+ if the ally has a positive relationship with an Archdruid. You might also be able to use this staff’s wellspring of life energy to cause rapid growth of plants or animals, to change the seasons, heal a wounded forest, or otherwise meddle with the fundamental forces. You’ve got nigh-infinite life force on tap through the staff – use it wisely.
Quirk: As you can’t target yourself with the staff, you feel old and jealous when you lend youth and vitality to others.
# Imperium
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: The power of this golden staff can only be invoked by a spellcaster who has a positive or conflicted relationship with any ruling relationship. When you use this power, you can use the power of any other magic item you have touched since your last full heal-up, but you can only use each such individual item power once ever.
Quirk: Becomes certain that they are destined to rule.
# Jack of Staves
Varies
Recharge 16+: It’s a powerful magic item, but this gaudy shaft of painted wood looks like a jester’s stick. Using this staff is a two-stage process. First, you’ve got to touch an enemy spellcaster with the staff (hitting them in melee works just fine). You may then use the staff to cast one of their spells. (Work with your GM to hastily hammer monster abilities into something that looks like a player character ability). The enemy can’t use the same spell in their next turn (and if the spell had a limited number of uses, you just expended one of them).
Quirk: Loves disguises.
# Spellbane
Standard Action
Recharge 11+: This staff was originally a simple tree-branch used as a walking-stick, but now it groans beneath the weight of hundreds of magical talismans, wands, holy symbols and other arcane tokens taken from defeated spellcasters. When you activate the staff, you gain the counter-magic spell and may use it any number of times per battle, until you miss with it or cast a spell that isn’t counter-magic. You also deal 3d6 psychic damage when you hit with counter-magic. Quirk: Collects trophies from the defeated.
# Time
1/full recovery
The staff is a long, thin, and very durable hourglass. When you use this power, you gain your own escalation die to use during battle. Roll a d6: on a 1–3, your escalation die increases by 1 above the existing escalation die; on a 4–6, it increases by 2. Your escalation die advances normally, and it only affects your attacks and effects. Alternately, you can give one enemy that uses the escalation die (like a dragon) its own escalation die with a similar penalty instead.
Quirk: Always seems to know what is about to happen.
# Wrath
Recharge 6+: This simple staff of iron-shod wood oozes blood when activated. When you kill a foe with a spell, you may activate that staff and have any excess damage spill over to a nearby mob of mooks. The mook’s relevant Defense must be equal to or lower than that of your original target.
# Symbol, Holy Relic, Blessed Siclet, Sacred Branch (Implement)
Sometimes a symbolic magic item is a gem or rune that can be attached to any of various holy symbols. Typically a divine spellcaster pries the gem or other adornment off a foreign holy symbol and affixes it to their own mundane holy symbol. Symbols are only appropriate for adventurer- and champion-level characters. For epic-level spellcasting items, get a staff.
# Default Bonus
Attack and damage with a divine spell or attack: +1 (adventurer); +2 (champion).
# Battle Flags
When you roll initiative and use a battle flag’s full recovery power, choose whether you are wearing the flag, or if you plant it in the ground. Your choice determines which power you can use that battle.
Note: If you plant the flag, you get the benefit of its default bonus only while it is nearby.
# Adventurer
# Ancestral Symbol
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: After you hit with a divine spell, or use a healing spell, you may reroll the damage dealt or healing generated. You may take the higher of the two results.
However, you must give thanks to the ancestors when you do so. Specifically, you must always thank one of your close deceased ancestors (usually, a parent or grandparent), and then a number of extra ancestors equal to the escalation die. So, at escalation die 0, you only need to thank the bare minimum. Escalation die 3 means you’ve got to thank your father, and, say, your grandfather, your great grandfather and your great great grandfather.
You don’t have to thank the same ancestors each time – you could start off by thanking your maternal grandmother, then her great-grandmother and her great-great-grandfather and so on. However, any hesitation, deviation or repetition (if two ancestors have the same name, then obviously you must also mention their distinctive bynames) means you have disrespected your ancestors, and you must take the lower of the two rolls for damage or healing. The displeased ancestors will also make their anger known in some other way until you have atoned.
Quirk: Keeps detailed genealogical records.
# Badge of Pride
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: When you miss all targets with a full recovery attack spell, immediately make a basic attack or at-will attack.
Quirk: Acts like they know things they don’t.
# Blasphemous Symbol
Recharge 11+: When you cast a spell that allows an ally to heal using a recovery, you may choose to invoke this relic’s power before the recovery is rolled. The ally may reroll any recovery dice that roll a 1 or a 2. That ally is then bound to perform a service for an evil deific figure.
If the ally refuses to perform the service (or if the service is deemed too petty or meaningless), then both you and that ally are cursed in some fashion. The nature of the curse depends on the service, but it’s more likely to be something unpleasant or loathsome that does not interfere with your ability to serve the deific figure. Expect boils.
Quirk: Unctuous.
# Brass Dragon-sign
1/Day
Each creature that can see or hear you can’t speak except to babble (save ends). While under this effect in battle, creatures with arcane abilities are hampered, and no creature can grant another an action (hard save ends both, 16+). While under this effect out of battle, all skill checks to influence or inform others, or to resist being influenced, are rolled twice and the least beneficial roll must be used.
Quirk: Talkative and flighty.
# Bronze Dragon-sign
When an enemy uses an action on its turn before attacking you, add the symbol’s default bonus to all your defenses against the attack.
Quirk: Gregarious.
# Chosen One, Sign of the
When you cast your last divine full recovery spell, roll a save. If you succeed, you don’t expend the spell.
Quirk: Obsessed with fortune telling, oracles, signs, etc.
# Copper Dragon-sign
1/Day
This symbol produces a thick, concealing fog. Until the end of the battle, each creature in the battle takes a –2 penalty to ranged attacks against nearby targets. The penalty increases to –4 against far away targets.
Quirk: Quick-witted banterer.
# Dead King, Symbol of the
If one of your spells would daze an undead creature, that creature becomes confused instead for the same duration.
Quirk: Imperious and curt when dealing with ‘underlings’
# Divine Harmony, Knot of
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: When you use this knot, you can serve in a priestly function for nearly any god or ritual. You can use this power to meet a free-form challenge, at the GM’s discretion.
Quirk: Believes in everything.
# Dodging Doom, Symbol of
Recharge 6+: When you cast a divine spell on an ally, that ally can roll a save against one ongoing save ends effect as a free action.
Quirk: Wildly optimistic.
# Dominating Truth, Symbol of
Recharge 11+: When you cast a divine spell that affects one target with a limited amount of hit points (for example, turn undead), you can instead have that spell affect two targets with half the hit point requirement or less.
Quirk: Never admits they’re wrong.
# Dragon Idol
Add this symbol’s default bonus to breath attacks that you make (sorcerer breath attacks, draconic breath attacks, or any other breath attack). This bonus stacks with other magic items.
Quirk: Eats unusual foods.
# Ensign of Loyalty
Recharge 16+: Until the start of your next turn, you and each nearby ally gain an attack bonus against enemies engaged with an ally equal to the number of effects on the engaged ally (for example, if an ally is both stuck and hampered, you and your allies would gain a +2 bonus to attack an enemy engaged with that ally).
Quirk: Set in their ways.
# Exorcism, Symbol of
Recharge 11+: This symbol is especially effective against enemies that assail the minds and souls of their victims. If you or any of your nearby allies are attacked by a enemy using an attack against Mental Defense, you may activate this symbol to get an additional +2 bonus to attacks and damage with divine spells targeting that enemy for the rest of the battle. (Champion: You also deal an extra 1d10 radiant damage whenever you hit that foe with a divine spell; epic: 2d10 radiant damage).
Quirk: Seeks out creatures of darkness.
# Fallen Heroes, Symbol of
Recharge 11+: The gods are often distant and uncaring; it is the deeds of heroes and champions that make all the difference in the mortal realm. This holy symbol honors those fallen heroes. When you invoke it, you gain an additional +1 bonus to hit and damage with a divine spell. You must call on a specific fallen hero and explain how their example inspires you in this case. A good tale might convince the GM to let you swap that +1 bonus for a change to the spell, like adding on an extra condition or some other special effect.
The symbol’s especially attuned to fallen player characters. If a PC died earlier in the campaign, you can call on their spirit to get a bonus based on their tier when they died. Adventurer PCs give a +1, champions give +2, epic-tier PCs give a +3. The PC has to be dead (or at least dying) for you to call on their spirit – you can’t invoke the spirit of a character who later got resurrected.
Quirk: Encourages others to take risks.
# Fanatic’s Symbol
The sight of this symbol spurs those who see it to greater acts of devotion to their cause. Anyone nearby feels more devoted to their chosen faith or creed, becoming more willing to commit perilous or bloody deeds, and less willing to compromise or tolerate the ways of others.
Quirk: Sees the hand of the gods everywhere.
# Fire-blackened Tooth
All radiant damage you deal is fire damage instead, and all radiant damage you would take becomes fire damage.
Quirk: Points out others’ shortcomings, while ignoring their own.
# Fivefold Burning Eye
When you take a full heal-up, swap out one divine spell (cleric, druid, etc.) for an arcane spell (bard, sorcerer, wizard, etc.) of the same level. You can use Wisdom in place of Intelligence or Charisma when you cast this arcane spell, and you can cast it through this implement.
Quirk: Unsure of the difference between arcane and divine magic.
# Flint of Dolorous Transformations
Standard Action
1/Day
Cast the change self ritual, OR transform one nearby enemy with fewer hit points than you into a helpless, stuck, untargetable creature until the end of its next turn. You narrate what the target is turned into and why it cannot fight or be targeted.
Quirk: Loves disguises.
# Fork of Feasting
Recharge 11+: This broach has a fork-like pin. When you or a nearby ally roll recovery dice, distribute half the dice among the allies of your choice; those allies roll and gain the healing instead.
Quirk: Gluttonous.
# Gathered Power, Symbol of
Full Recovery
When you use this symbol during a quick rest, you regain an expended full recovery adventurer-level spell (1st or 3rd level, in practice) (champion: champion-level spell, 5th or 7th).
Quirk: Has one-track mind.
# Gem of Riches
Recharge 6+ after use: Gain a bonus to miss damage equal to twice your level against the richest enemy in a battle (based on the loot they are carrying). You can’t use this power against a single enemy remaining in a battle, or if the richest enemy in the battle drops (but you will know which corpse has the best loot), or if no enemies have anything worth looting (GM’s call in all cases).
Quirk: Materialistic.
# Godlike Glory, Holy Symbol of
When you cast a full recovery spell, you gain 2d4 temporary hit points (champion: 4d6 temp hp, epic: 7d10 temp hp).
Quirk: Dispenses pithy observations.
# Golden Flag of Honor
Battle Flag
1/Day
Choose to wear or plant the flag.
Wear: Until the end of a battle, when an enemy scores a critical hit against you, it’s a normal hit instead.
Plant: Until the end of the battle, when you or an ally nearby the flag score a critical hit, that character can heal using a recovery.
Quirk: Stays the course, in life as in battle.
# Golden Holly
1/Day
Cause a plant to grow 1d4 berries that function as heroic-tier healing potions, champion tier at champion tier, and epic tier at epic tier. The berries last until your next full healup, then rot.
Quirk: Enjoys fermented drinks.
# Goldenberry
1/Day
You can magically create juicy, edible berries. The amount of food you can produce each full recovery is enough to feed you well, or to barely keep a small group from starving or dying of thirst. After a rest, you can set aside a special goldenberry for yourself or an ally. As a quick action, a creature can eat the goldenberry to heal using a recovery.
Quirk: Prefers veganism.
# Greater Power, Relic of
Recharge 11+: When you cast a quick action divine spell that targets allies, the spell affects one additional ally.
Quirk: Keeps the relic meticulously clean, rests it on velvet, etc.
# Heretic’s Fingerbone
1/Day
When you cast a spell using this implement, count a natural 1 attack roll as a natural 20.
Quirk: Entertains profane beliefs.
# Iconoclast’s Relic
Your crit range for attacks made using this implement expands by 2 if at least two of the following conditions are true about the target: it’s stronger than a standard monster; it’s higher level than you, at least 2 levels higher at champion tier, and at least 3 levels higher at epic tier; and/or it’s either a dragon or a humanoid.
Quirk: Has subversive thoughts.
# Light, Symbol of
Recharge 6+: When you cast a divine spell, your symbol flares with bright light for a moment, starkly illuminating your surroundings. When you cast a full recovery divine spell, that light is bright enough to daze one enemy engaged with you who has 50 hit points or less, 100 hit points or less at champion tier, and 250 hit points or less at epic tier. This daze lasts until the end of the enemy’s next turn.
Quirk: Scared of the dark.
# Moon, Symbol of the
1/Day
Cast the bard spell charm person at your level on a beast, using Wisdom for the attack roll if you wish.
Quirk: Acts strangely when the moon is out.
# Munificence, Symbol of
Recharge 11+: When you or an ally miss every target with a full recovery attack power, you and each nearby ally gain temporary hit points equal to your level.
Quirk: Very generous.
# Nominus of Cruelty
When you heal, one enemy engaged with you takes your level in necrotic damage.
Quirk: Enjoys cruel tricks.
# Noose, Symbol of the
Recharge 16+: When you roll a death save or last gasp save, you regain an expended recovery.
Quirk: Panics and gets short of breath when in a tight spot.
# Onyx Symbol
1/Day
When you miss every target with a full recovery spell cast through this symbol, you instead hit every target, and a random ally that casts spells (including you) loses their next standard action and expends (without effect) a random full recovery spell of at least the same level as the triggering spell.
Quirk: Values privacy.
# Peerless Piety
You have a fraudulent aura of religious piety and devotion to the Gods of Light. Everyone you know instinctively assumes that you are an unusually devout and moral individual – perhaps even a little too devout. This illusion is not foolproof – if confronted with undeniable evidence of any failings or misdeeds on your part, those who believed in you will lose faith – but it does mean that you’ll get the benefit of the doubt in most situations.
Quirk: Wracked with guilt whenever you do anything of questionable morality.
# Sacred Oakleaf
1/Day
When you or a nearby ally heals using a recovery, you regain an expended recovery.
Quirk: Makes sacrifices at the foot of oaks.
# Sacred Sickle of the Circle
1/Day
You can calm storms or cause winds to blow. Cast the control weather ritual without expending ritual components, although you still need to fulfill other requirements. You gain a +4 bonus to any skill checks for that ritual.
Quirk: Prefers isolation, or at least to be among their own kind.
# Sash of Veneration
Recharge 16+ after use: Until the start of your next turn, you and each nearby ally gains a +1 bonus to attacks against enemies that aren’t engaged with more than one character.
Quirk: Overly loquacious.
# Scrupulousness, Symbol of
1/Day
When you or a nearby ally you can see are affected by a fear aura, activate this power. Then as a quick action during your next turn, you can rally using a free recovery.
Quirk: Takes things literally.
# Second Chances, Symbol of
Recharge 6+ after use: Once per turn when you or an ally fails a last gasp save, you or that ally rerolls the save and take the better result.
Quirk: Blithely follows whims.
# Sickle of Culling
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: For the rest of the battle, all your attacks deal 5 extra damage (champion: 10 extra damage) when targeting mooks.
Quirk: Callous.
# Sigil of the Magpie
1/Day
When an ally misses every target with a full recovery attack that targets more than one enemy, after this battle and until your next full heal-up, you can repeat the attack against a single target as if your ally was the one attacking.
Quirk: Likes shiny things.
# Spider Symbol
Recharge 11+: You transform into a harmless swarm of spiders. While in swarm-form, you gain a +4 bonus to all defenses but can take no actions other than swarming about the area: you can climb walls, observe, spin webs, and eat flies, and that’s about it. Most enemies will ignore you in that form. You can change back to your normal form as a quick action.
Quirk: Voyeur.
# Star Symbol
Recharge 16+: You teleport somewhere nearby or far away that you can see, or teleport a creature next to you to a random, non-hazardous, far away location that you can’t see. An unwilling creature can roll a save to avoid the effect. If the save succeeds, your recharge roll automatically succeeds.
Quirk: Contemplates in solitude.
# Stars, Symbol of the
1/Day
Increase your total recoveries by 1. When you cast a spell that allows an ally to heal using a recovery, they also heal using one of your recoveries.
Quirk: Obsesses over star charts.
# Stone of Sloth
1/Day
When you don’t roll to recharge any powers during a quick rest (because you choose not to, none need recharging, or you have none), each recovery you spend to heal during that rest heals you the maximum amount for your recovery dice.
Quirk: Slothful.
# Sun, Symbol of the
Standard Action
1/Day
This symbol glows with an inner light like sunshine. Cast the cleric spell cause fear as a close-quarters spell against 1d4 undead creatures, using Charisma for the attack roll(s) if you wish.
Quirk: Paranoid about vampires.
# Talons of Envy
1/Day
When an ally successfully recharges a spell, you gain a full recovery use of that spell until your next full heal-up, using your normal casting ability score for that spell.
Quirk: Envious of friends and enemies.
# The Gods and Goddesses, Gem of
Recharge 6+: When you cast a full recovery divine spell on an ally, that ally also heals 10 hit points.
Quirk: Insists on courtesy even in situations where none should be required.
# Tolling Bell, Symbol of the
When you fail a death save, each of your allies gains a +1 bonus to all d20 rolls until the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Fear of bells.
# Wrath, Symbol of
You use your own escalation die, a d8. Your allies still use a d6. Both escalation dice advance normally, and escalation die effects affect both dice.
Quirk: Rage.
# Wreath of the Ancient Woods
Recharge 11+: A living strand of ivy twines around the holy symbol, linking it to the deep magic of the woodlands. When you cast a divine spell, you may have the spell emanate from any plant you can see. So, if you’re far away from a fighter, but she’s got her back to a tree, you can channel your heal spell through the tree and ‘touch’ her from afar.
Quirk: Keeps an elaborate and well-maintained garden.
# Champion
# Figure of Courage
Your allies gain a +1 bonus to attacks against enemies that are engaged only with you.
Quirk: Shame at others’ failings.
# Token of Kindness
1/Battle
When you roll recovery dice to heal, set aside any number of those dice before rolling, and give the healing from those dice to an ally next to you.
Quirk: Generosity.
# Epic
# Rabbit’s Foot
Recharge 16+: Reroll a d20 roll and take the result you prefer.
Quirk: Relies on luck too often.
# Red Flag of Rectitude
Battle Flag
1/Day
Choose to wear or plant the flag.
Wear: Until the end of the battle, when you miss all targets with an attack, you and each nearby ally heal hit points equal to your level.
Plant: When you or an ally nearby the flag miss all targets with an attack, two allies (including you) can heal using a recovery.
Quirk: Group unity is paramount.
# Sigil of Dragon Wings
1/Day
When you cast a full recovery spell, gain flight until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Annoyed by taller people.
# Wand (Implement)
Wands are only appropriate for adventurer- and champion-level characters. For epic-level spellcasting items, get a staff.
# Default Bonus
Attack and damage with arcane spells or attacks: +1 (adventurer); +2 (champion).
# Adventurer
# Arcane Ventriloquism
Recharge 11+: This wand is small enough to be easily concealed. When you cast a spell, pick another spellcaster (either an ally or an enemy). Your spell emanates from their location as if they’d cast it, and anyone not familiar with arcane techniques will assume they were responsible for whatever spell you just threw. You can only pick a spellcaster who’s far away if your spell can reach that range normally.
Quirk: Blames magic items for any strange behavior or moral failings.
# Bandleader’s Baton
1/Day
Until the end of the battle when you roll to maintain a bardic song, roll twice and take the better roll.
Quirk: Sings songs appropriate to the current situation.
# Body Breaking, Dagger of
This rune-covered bronze dagger also works as a wand. When you cast an arcane attack spell using this dagger/wand, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage with that spell if it targets PD.
Quirk: Scratches self unnervingly.
# Corrected Devastation
Recharge 16+: Activate this wand immediately after rolling damage for a full recovery spell that hit. That spell never happened and is not expended. Gain a free action to cast an at-will spell instead. Everyone on the battlefield is somewhat alarmed by the fact that the blazing ball of fire suddenly vanished, but that’s wizards for you.
Quirk: Prone to sudden bursts of rage over trivial problems.
# Darkroot
Recharge 16+: When you inflict a condition on an enemy (ongoing damage, confused, dazed, etc.), the target is also stuck until the first condition ends.
Quirk: Takes advantage of friends’ misfortunes.
# Deadwood
When you make an attack against a plant using this wand, gain a +2 bonus to the attack and your crit range expands by 2 for that attack.
Quirk: Collects driftwood.
# Deathmark
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: This ghastly wand resembles a bony finger. When you activate the wand, you must nominate an enemy on the battlefield. Your next attack on that enemy inflicts 1d4 extra necrotic damage for each round since you nominated the foe, make those d6s at champion tier, and d8s at epic tier. So, if you mark a foe for death in the first round of combat, but then don’t attack that foe for five rounds, your attack on that enemy will benefit from 5 extra dice of necrotic damage, hit or miss.
Quirk: Enjoys watching others struggle or run.
# Dowsing
In addition to providing the usual bonus to arcane spells and damage, this wand of rowan-wood can also point on command towards the nearest concentration of elemental power (bodies of water, volcanoes, druidic circles – the raw, wild magic of the natural world). The wand does not reveal what sort of elemental power it’s pointing towards, only the rough strength and distance.
Quirk: Wild and lurid dreams.
# Dream-sending
2/Level
You can use this item’s powers only while helpless (including asleep) or stunned. Against an enemy, cast the wizard spell sleep at 3rd level, 7th level at champion tier, and 9th level at epic tier, using Charisma or Wisdom to cast the spell. With a friendly creature anywhere in the world that you know, for a battle or scene you can communicate in a dream: a sleeping creature experiences this as their own dream, while to a waking one you show up as a vision only they can see.
Quirk: Daydreamer.
# Elderwood
You can reshape trees, bushes and other plants to your will, parting vegetation at-will or growing a ladder over the course of a scene, with a skill check. Truly substantial effects—such as building bridges or defensible walls—can require several hours if not days, including time spent and the requirement of expending a full recovery spell (any spell is fine, as the magic of the staff converts the power to the reshaping of trees and bushes).
Quirk: Doesn’t like stone architecture.
# Flaring
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: When the escalation die is 5+, cast one of your arcane spells. That spell will miss on any natural odd roll.
Quirk: Often looks frazzled.
# Ghost Flute
Recharge 11+: When you cast a spell using this implement that has a hit point threshold for targets (charm person, hold monster, sleep, etc.), double the hit point threshold for undead targets, and you regain the spell at the end of the battle if you targeted only undead with that spell.
Quirk: Plays music at midnight.
# Golden Fiddle Bow
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: A nearby demon or devil becomes stuck (save ends) as it begins to dance in place.
Quirk: Makes unwise wagers.
# Infighting
When you cast an arcane attack spell using this wand, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage with that spell if it’s a close-quarters spell.
Quirk: Physically pushy.
# Inner Fire
Recharge 6+: The magic of this wand is intended for use by sorcerers, as it stirs up the user’s innate magic. Use it after you miss with a spell; you take 1d4 x your level in damage (1d6 x your level if you’re not a sorcerer), but you get an additional +1 bonus to your next attack with a spell.
Quirk: If you’re a sorcerer, your arcane heritage goes into overdrive, and you start acting more like your patron. If you’re not a sorcerer (or you’re a sorcerer without a clear ancestry), then you just feel queasy after using the wand, as if your blood’s started to fizz like a carbonated drink.
# Ironic Twists
Recharge 11+: When you attack an enemy and fail to overcome its damage resistance, the target loses that resistance and gains a vulnerability to that damage type until the end of your next turn (and typeless resistance means it’s vulnerable to all attacks).
Quirk: Laughs at others’ misfortunes.
# Last Resort
Recharge 16+: When an enemy engages you in an unexpected way (attacking from ambush, teleporting, a special ability that allows flight or bypasses defenders), you may roll an easy save. If the save succeeds, you can cast a closequarters spell that targets you or the attacker as an interrupt action. If the save fails, the wand’s power is expended with no effect.
Quirk: Jumpy. Very, very jumpy. And itchy.
# Lightning Tine
Recharge 6+: When you take damage from an enemy attack that has a damage type, one nearby enemy takes damage of that type equal to 1d4 times your level. If the original attack did lightning damage, increase the damage from this power to 2d6 times your level and this power automatically recharges at the end of the battle.
Quirk: Confrontational.
# Mage’s Invisible Aegis
Recharge 16+: When you use this wand, you can cast the wizard’s shield spell, with a level no higher than your level. (Champion: recharge 11+).
Quirk: Hums tunelessly.
# Many Hurts
1/Day
The wand is hard to describe; it hurts to look at it. When you roll damage dice for an arcane spell, reroll the damage against one of the targets you hit and take the second result. If the second result is lower than the first, the damage becomes ongoing damage instead.
Quirk: Excessive brutality toward fallen foes.
# Mindbending
When you cast an arcane attack spell using this wand, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage with that spell if it targets Mental Defense.
Quirk: Uses pedantically circumlocutious phraseology.
# Pious Thaumaturgy
Recharge 6+: Wands of this sort are marked with holy symbols and inscriptions that warn of the dangers of sinful magic. Your immortal soul is safe from corruption, though, thanks to this blessed and sanctified wand. You may use the wand to have a spell’s damage radiant in addition to its usual damage types. That spell also counts as divine magic as well as arcane magic.
Quirk: Ostentatiously pious and devout.
# Reckless Abandon
Recharge 16+: This wand turns any attack spell that targets a randomly determined number of targets into a reckless one. You may increase the number of targets by 1d3, but any allies engaged with any of the targets also take the damage from the spell. So, if you use this wand to cast breath of the white recklessly, the spell affects 1d2+1d3 targets, but any allies engaged with any of those targets also gets attacked.
Quirk: Becomes extremely callous, especially where the lives of allies are concerned.
# Rod of Banishment
Recharge 6+: When a demon is killed by you or one of your allies, you may immediately make a free attack (Intelligence + Level vs. MD) against up to 1d3 creatures summoned by that demon. If you hit, the summoned creature is instantly banished. This only works on creatures summoned using the demon’s random demon powers, like gate – it won’t work on demons called in other ways.
Quirk: Dismissive.
# Rushlight
Recharge 6+: When you hit a target with a ranged spell, you may cause that creature to glow from within for the rest of the battle with a bright light, as if their blood had caught fire. This glow makes it very difficult for the target to hide (-4 penalty to attempts to hide), and even invisible creatures shed some light (miss chances are halved).
Quirk: Likes to make things burn.
# Seizures
Recharge 16+: When you hit an enemy with a spell that targets a single foe, that enemy is also stuck until the end of their next turn. (Champion: You can affect up to three targets)
Quirk: Prone to evil mastermind monologues.
# Sturdy
This ‘wand’ is also a melee weapon like a shortsword or mace. The same magic bonus applies to both spell and melee attacks made with the wand (so if it’s a +1 wand, it’s also a +1 weapon). It only takes up one slot (pick which one you want to use), and gets full benefit from any oils or runes applied to it (so, if you boost the item up to a +2 wand with magic oil, it also becomes a +2 weapon).
Quirk: Mistrustful of complexity, innovation or sophistry.
Note: Steel and stone and rune and fire. Gold and dark and blood and fire. Heart and soul and beer and fire. These things make a dwarf. - ancient dwarven song, used to keep time when pumping bellows
# Under-river
Recharge 6+: Tap the wand against a rock to produce a freshwater spring. While next to the spring, creatures gain a +2 bonus to all defenses against attacks that do fire damage, and a +2 bonus to saves against effects caused by attacks that do fire damage. The spring usually dries up within five minutes, though some become permanent.
Quirk: Thirsty.
# Unfettered Minion
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: When you use this wand, a creature who is at least somewhat subservient to you gains a +1 bonus to melee attacks and damage until the end of the battle (champion: +2 bonus).
Quirk: Switches unexpectedly into “evil mastermind” tone of voice.
# Unicorn Horn
Standard Action
1/Day
Call a steed, whether a horse, sand wyrm, dolphin, etc., to take you on a halfday journey to the closest safe destination. Alternatively, you can travel to the closest location for advancing the campaign, if that location is known to you. If this power is used during combat, the steed takes 1d3 + 1 rounds to arrive, otherwise it takes that many minutes. At champion-tier, you can summon enough steeds for you and your allies.
Quirk: Pomposity in the face of hardship.
# Champion
# Burning Moon
This pearlescent wand sheds bright light when moonlight falls upon it. While you are helpless, your spirit leaves your body and can take normal actions. You can make only basic or at-will attacks. Enemies have a 50% miss chance against your spirit-form, but damage you take in spirit-form is applied to your body (your HP) as normal. Your spirit returns to your body when you are no longer helpless.
Quirk: Overly optimistic.
# Paladin
1/Battle
Cast the wizard spell magic missile at your level as a close-quarters spell. In addition, if you are a paladin, you can use Smite Evil with magic missile against an enemy engaged with you.
Quirk: Indecisive.
# Unerring Pain
Recharge 16+: When you miss with a spell that targets a single enemy, as a quick action immediately afterward, fire a magical missile that automatically hits that creature for 4d10 force damage.
Quirk: Stares intently, often at nothing.
# Weapons
# Default Bonus
Attacks and damage when using the weapon: +1 (adventurer); +2 (champion); +3 (epic).
# Adventurer
# Abandon
Melee Weapon
You deal +2d6 damage with your first attack each battle using this weapon, +4d6 at champion tier, and +4d12 at epic tier.
Quirk: Blurts out obscenities. (For decorum’s sake, use euphemisms when speaking in character.)
# Animated
Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+: For the rest of the battle, or until it misses with an attack, this weapon may make basic attacks on its own in any turn in which you don’t use it to make an attack. It uses a +5 as its attack bonus, +10 at champion tier, and +15 at epic tier. This basic attack may not trigger flexible attacks; treat it as if an ally was attacking an enemy. The sword doesn’t benefit from the escalation die. Remember, you can only attune to one magic weapon at a time – if you have an animated sword, you may not use another magic melee weapon.
Quirk: Loves to delegate.
# Ankle-Hewing
Melee Weapon
Giants are vulnerable to the attacks of this weapon.
Quirk: Gets touchy about short jokes.
# Arcane Blade
Melee Weapon
The twisted body of this weapon is inscribed with sigils. You can apply this weapon’s default bonuses to arcane spells as though the weapon were an implement. When you score a critical hit with a melee attack using this weapon, you can immediately cast an at-will spell that you know as a quick action.
Quirk: Obsession with trivia.
# Armament of Tactical Unpredictability
Melee Weapon
Recharge 6+: While engaged with two or more enemies, before you make a melee weapon attack, randomly determine which enemy to target to gain a +4 bonus to the attack roll.
Quirk: Changes topic midconversation.
# Astringent Chain
Melee Weapon
When you hit a target with an attack made using this weapon, the target takes a –1 penalty to disengage checks (cumulative) until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Admiresss sssssnakesss.
# Beribboned
Ranged Weapon
Recharge 6+: Count an odd attack roll as an even roll, or vise-versa; however, the value of the roll doesn’t change.
Quirk: Decorates your weapons and equipment.
# Bloodthirsty
Any Weapon
When you crit with a natural 20 using this weapon, you deal crit damage instead of normal damage if you hit with this weapon again during your next turn.
Quirk: Has taste for red meat.
# Blood-Rage
Melee Weapon
1/Battle
When you miss with a basic melee attack or at-will melee attack using this weapon, reroll the attack, then, hit or miss, make the same attack against the closest nearby ally, moving as a free action that provokes opportunity attacks if no ally is next to you.
Quirk: Rage, rage and hatred.
# Boiling Blood
Recharge 11+: When you miss a melee attack with this weapon, your next melee attack with this weapon deals +2d4 fire damage, +3d6 at champion tier, and +4d8 at epic tier, hit or miss.
Quirk: Where there’s a whip there’s a way.
# Bonecrushing Hammer
Any Bludgeoning Weapon
This weapon’s die type improves by one step when dealing damage to skeletons and any other creatures that are composed entirely or mostly of bare bones (liches, particularly worm-eaten wights, animated skulls, bone golems and the like). So, if a warhammer normally does d8 damage per level in your hands, it does d10 damage per level against bony foes.
Quirk: Grimmer than a depressed dwarven gravedigger in the rain.
# Bright-Lance
Melee Weapon
Standard Action
1/Battle
Light flashes from this weapon when you use it. Make a melee attack against a nearby enemy. This attack deals radiant damage.
Quirk: Strives to set a good example.
# Brightsteel
Melee Weapon
Recharge 16+: When you score a critical hit when the escalation die is 5+, the target also becomes stunned until the end of its next turn.
Quirk: Valorous, but somewhat overly dramatic.
# Burnished Gold
Bow
1/Battle
Attacks made using this weapon deal fire damage on a natural odd roll and radiant on a natural even roll. When you use the power, the target of an attack made using this bow takes 1d8 extra damage, 2d10 extra damage at champion tier, and 3d10 extra damage at epic tier, hit or miss.
Quirk: Proud.
# Certain Pain
Two-handed Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+:
Before making an attack with this weapon, designate it as a “pain” attack. On a hit with that attack, one target takes 10 extra damage. On a miss, you take 10 damage, 25 damage at champion tier, and 60 damage at epic tier.
Quirk: Fond of gambling.
# Chain of Conceit
Melee Weapon
1/Battle
Perform a reach trick.
Quirk: Deny that you have any quirks.
# Climactic Shot
Ranged weapon
Recharge 6+: When the escalation die is 3+ and you hit with an attack using this weapon, the target takes 10 extra damage, 25 damage at champion tier, and 60 damage at epic tier.
Quirk: Can’t stop checking the weapon and its ammunition.
# Cruel
Any weapon
Recharge 11+: When damage from this weapon leaves an enemy with 20 hit points or fewer, you deal 5 ongoing damage to it, 40 hp/10 ongoing damage at champion tier, and 80 hp/20 ongoing damage at epic tier.
Quirk: Tortures flies.
# Dark Elf Bloodblade
Edged Melee Weapon
Creatures taking ongoing damage are vulnerable to attacks from this weapon.
Quirk: Maniacal laughter at inopportune mwhahahahaahhhah moments. If already oriented towards insane laughter, laughter uses some other voice that’s disturbing to wielder.
# Darktouched
Ranged Weapon
Recharge 16+: When you hit with this weapon, the target is surrounded by a clinging magical darkness and takes a –4 penalty to ranged attacks (save ends).
Quirk: Prefers the concealment of night.
# Deathcaller
Melee Weapon
When you make an attack with this weapon and the target has fewer than 5 hp, fewer than 15 hp at champion tier, and fewer than 25 hp at epic tier after the attack, the target drops to 0 hp.
Quirk: Laughs at own jokes, the crueler the joke the bigger the laugh.
# Deceitful Dagger
Dagger
1/Day
Flip a d20 result around (a 1 becomes a 20, a 2 becomes a 19, etc., a 20 becomes a 1).
Quirk: Unable to tell the truth.
# Demon-Flensing
Melee Weapon
1/Day
When you drop a demon to 0 hp with an attack using this weapon, you can quickly skin it and turn its flesh into a convincing disguise. Once before your next full heal-up, you can either automatically successfully ambush a demon or group of demons, or automatically succeed on a skill check to sneak past a demon or group of demons.
Quirk: The ends justifies the means.
# Demon-Thrashing
Melee Weapon
Demons struck by this weapon writhe in unexpected agony. If you roll a natural 16+ when you hit a demon, you may choose to force the demon to reroll on the Demonic Random Abilities table. (Champion: Reroll with a -1 penalty, and if the demon rolls a 0 or less, it becomes vulnerable to all attacks until the end of the battle; epic: reroll with a -2 penalty).
Quirk: Your mood changes every time you take damage.
# Destiny-seeking
Thrown Weapon
When you throw this weapon at the most dangerous enemy in the battle, increase its damage dice by one size (d4s to d6s, d6s to d8s).
Quirk: Vainglorious.
# Dexterous Parry
One-handed Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+: When an enemy you are engaged with hits you while you’re wielding this weapon, make a Dexterity check against the attacker’s MD. If you succeed, the attack misses instead.
Quirk: Jumpy and suspicious.
# Discretion
Any Weapon
Your attack does not trigger any counterattacks from your foe. For example, when an iron golem become staggered, it leaks poison gas. If struck by a weapon of discretion, though, the golem’s poison gas would obligingly wait for the next person to deal damage to it. This doesn’t prevent opportunity attacks, however.
Quirk: Polite in the most unlikely situations.
# Distraction
Two-handed Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+: When you hit with this weapon, allow one of your allies engaged with that foe to make a basic melee attack against it as a free action.
Quirk: Intrudes on personal space.
# Dreaming Stone
Melee Weapon
1/Battle
When you roll a natural 2 or 3 on an attack with this weapon, reroll the attack, taking the higher result.
Quirk: Collects beautiful natural things—shells, polished rocks, etc.
# Duplicitous
Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+: When you hit an enemy with this weapon, you may choose to instead deal the damage to another enemy also you’re engaged with.
Quirk: Lies about trivial matters.
# Dwarven Rage
Melee Weapon
Standard Action
Recharge 6+: The metal of this weapon is engraved with dwarven proverbs. Make a basic melee attack against 1d3 enemies; ignore critical hits, they’re just normal hits.
Quirk: Uses dwarven sayings (“By the King’s Beard!” “Hammer and stones!”).
# Feinting
Melee Weapon
When you miss with an attack with this weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Blurts out lies when put under pressure.
# Fiery
Any Weapon
Your weapon deals fire damage instead of normal damage. This fire damage replaces the normal damage from the weapon – it’s not extra damage. (Champion: All right, have an extra d6 fire damage; epic: 2d6).
Quirk: Explosive temper.
# Flurry
Two-handed Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+:
When you make a basic attack, make a second basic attack against a different enemy as a free action.
Quirk: Fidgety.
# Giant-slayer
Melee Weapon
This oversize weapon keens when swung in battle. This weapon gains a +2 bonus to attacks against large and huge creatures.
Quirk: Self-conscious about size.
# Gold-Winged
Ranged Weapon
1/Day
When you roll a natural 1 on an attack with this weapon, your next attack roll with this weapon counts as a 20 and that attack deals fire damage.
Quirk: Burns enemies’ remains whenever possible.
# Guardian
One-handed Melee Weapon
When you hit with an opportunity attack using this weapon, the target is weakened until the end of that turn (–4 attacks and defenses).
Quirk: Looks serious all the time.
# Greater Striking
Melee Weapon
While the escalation die is 3+, you deal +1d8 damage whenever you hit with this weapon, +2d8 at champion tier, and +4d8 at epic tier.
Quirk: Favors iron and steel, seeing little beauty in gold or gems.
# Harmonious
Any Weapon
The secret of forging harmonious weapons was lost in the fall of the towers. Harmonious weapons are also always found in a set of two, and have a crystalline sheen to the metal of the blade. When struck, they chime a perfect note.
In combat, whenever you attack with a harmonious weapon, note the natural roll. If, later this battle, an ally wielding the other harmonious weapon hits with the same natural result, they deal +1d8 damage with their attack (Champion: +2d8; epic: +4d8).
Quirk: Sings rather than speaks. Preferably in harmony with the other person using the weapon’s twin.
# Haughty
Any Weapon
When you hit with an attack using this weapon, if that enemy is the most dangerous foe in the battle (or tied for most dangerous, GM’s assessment), you deal +1d4 per tier damage to it, +1d8 per tier at champion tier, and +1d10 per tier at epic tier.
Quirk: Challenges others to improvised contests.
# Haunted
Any Weapon
Recharge 16+: An unquiet spirit haunts your weapon. At the end of your turn, if you did not make an attack, the ghost may make a basic attack using the weapon as a free action, using a +5 as its attack bonus, +10 at champion tier, and +15 at epic tier. This basic attack may not trigger flexible attacks; treat it as if an ally was attacking an enemy, and it doesn’t benefit from the escalation die.
Quirk: It’s a talkative ghost. Or maybe it just screams in your ear all the time. Either way, you’re the only one who can see or hear it.
# Hawkshot
Ranged Weapon
Recharge 11+: Ammunition fired from this weapon transforms into bird-like forms, changing course when it misses the target. When you miss with this ammunition, reroll the attack against a different enemy.
Quirk: Wants to fly.
# Heartbreaker
Melee Weapon
You always know when any nearby creature you can see (including your allies) is vulnerable. Once-per-full recovery when you or an ally scores a critical hit against a vulnerable enemy, that attack deals triple damage instead of double.
Quirk: Exploits emotional vulnerabilities.
# Hidden Claw
Melee Weapon
Quick Action
Recharge 11+: This weapon can mystically hide, allowing you to sneak it anywhere and pull it out from behind your back or under your cloak when it is needed. During your first turn in a battle, make a melee basic attack.
Quirk: Smirks at inopportune times.
# Horn-handled
Your crit range with this weapon expands by 2 (usually to 18+) against beasts and plants.
Quirk: Only eats food that they have ‘earned.’
# Hungry
Any Weapon
You deal +1d6 damage with this weapon on all hits after the first time you hit with it in a round (champion: +2d6; epic +4d6). So, opportunity attacks, cleaves or extra attacks from powers like haste or hack & slash can trigger this weapon’s bonus damage.
Quirk: Short attention span.
# Ice-crack
Melee Weapon
When an enemy deals cold damage to you or scores a critical hit against you, your crit range with this weapon expands by 1 until the end of the battle (cumulative, up to a maximum crit range of +3).
Quirk: Obsessed with ice, the more ice the bigger the draw.
# Imperial Might
Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+: When you hit with a melee attack and it could trigger an additional effect (like a flexible attack, using the Fight From the Front feature, or using the Double Melee Attack talent), you can ignore the additional effect to instead deal double damage with that attack.
Quirk: Obsessed with imperial history.
# Indomitable
Any Weapon
If you’re attacking an enemy 3 or more levels higher than you, you deal +1d8 damage to that enemy on a hit (Champion: +2d8; epic: +4d8).
Quirk: Tilts at windmills.
# Inimical
Any Weapon
When you hit with this weapon, you can deal +1d10 damage to that enemy, +2d10 at champion tier, and +4d10 at epic tier. If you do, you also take that extra damage.
Quirk: Bites nails, or a similar darker habit.
# Knightwheel
Melee Weapon
Recharge 16+: You gain a +1 attack bonus and deal +1d4 damage with this attack for each different fighter maneuver you have used in this battle, +1d8 instead of +1d4 at champion tier, and +2d6 instead of +1d8 at epic tier.
Quirk: Flips randomly between ruthless efficiency and dreamy optimism.
# Last Hope
Melee Weapon
The metal of this weapon was quenched in tears; its look depends on who those tears came from. You can apply this weapon’s default bonuses to arcane spells as though the weapon were an implement. While you are engaged with one or more enemies with fewer hit points than you, your full recovery spell attacks against that enemy or those enemies deal 1d4 extra damage, hit or miss, 2d4 at champion tier, and 2d8 at epic tier.
Quirk: Fear of storms, earthquakes, and other destructive natural phenomena.
# Liberation
Melee Weapon
Quick Action
Recharge 6+:
If you have attacked with this weapon this turn, allow an ally to roll a save against an ongoing save ends effect as a free action.
Quirk: Drones on about how healing grace will save all the worlds.
# Life-Drinker
Ranged Weapon
When you drop a non-mook enemy to 0 hp with an attack using this weapon, you gain a +3 bonus to your next attack roll with this weapon.
Quirk: You believe that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
# Light-Drinker
Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+: When you hit an enemy with an attack using this weapon, that enemy is vulnerable to your attacks until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Has a sinister laugh.
# Lightning
Bow
1/Day
This bow fires bolts of lightning and needs no ammunition unless you choose to use it. Attacks made with this weapon deal lightning damage on a hit and thunder damage on a miss. When you make an attack with this bow and roll a natural even hit, turn it into a critical hit.
Quirk: Brags about own prowess, often using bombastic catchphrases mid-battle.
# Lightning-Struck Pine
Ranged Weapon
1/Battle
Attacks with this weapon always deal lightning damage in addition to any other type of damage the attack deals. When you hit with an attack with this weapon, the target takes half damage and you make a ranged basic attack as a free action.
Quirk: Unmaterialistic.
# Lucky
Any Weapon
Recharge 16+: If you miss, you can choose to make another attack on a different target instead of dealing miss damage.
Quirk: Oblivious.
# Mauling
Two-handed Melee Weapon
Move Action
You gain a +1 attack bonus to your next attack you make this turn.
Quirk: Yells battle cries during battle.
# Mighty Swing
Two-handed Melee Weapon
Move Action
You deal +1d8 damage with your next melee attack with this weapon that hits this turn, +2d8 at champion tier, and +4d8 at epic tier. If you miss, you take that damage instead.
Quirk: Tends to break things.
# Moss-Covered Stone
Melee Weapon
Your crit range with this weapon expands by 2 (usually to 18+) against constructs, and you gain a +2 bonus to skill checks to damage inanimate objects.
Quirk: Tactless about others’ mortality.
# Nightfall
Hammer
Recharge 16+: When you hit with an attack using this weapon, teleport the target to someplace nearby. This movement can’t harm the target.
Quirk: Makes midbattle puns.
# No Mercy
Ranged Weapon
If your target is attempting to flee from the battle, a natural even hit against it is a critical hit instead.
Quirk: Develops a surprising lip-curl sneer that shows up a bit too often.
# Ogre Noble’s Blade
When a devil, dragon, giant, humanoid, or spirit hits you with an attack, you learn one of its names. The default bonus of this weapon increases by +2 against that creature until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Holds grudges.
# Protection
Melee Weapon
Recharge 6+: When you make a basic attack with this weapon, gain a +4 bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn, +5 at champion tier, and +6 at epic tier.
Quirk: Has urges to watch over the helpless or innocent.
# Providence
Any Weapon
Recharge 16+: The gods guide your hand. Don’t bother rolling the dice – you hit, if it’s at all possible that your blow could somehow land. This is a basic attack, and doesn’t trigger any flexible attacks or special abilities.
Quirk: Much too trusting.
# Puissance
Melee Weapon
Recharge 16+: When you make a basic attack with this weapon, make a recharge roll for one power.
Quirk: Tremendous appetite for meat.
# Quarrelsome
Hammer
Recharge 6+: When you are intercepted, the intercepting enemy takes damage equal to three times your level.
Quirk: Starts fights.
# Reaping
Melee Weapon
When you drop a mook with this weapon, heal 3 hp, 7 hp at champion tier, and 12 hp at epic tier.
Quirk: Cares for their ‘harvest’ after their death.
# Reason
Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+: When you target an enemy with an attack made through this weapon, target MD instead of AC and deal psychic damage with that attack.
Quirk: Prone to overuse of bon-mots.
# Resounding
Melee Weapon
When you roll a critical hit on one enemy, you may also inflict thunder damage equal to your level to a different nearby foe.
Quirk: Half-deaf
# Rhetorical
Hammer
1/Day
Until the end of the battle, the first time each round a nearby enemy makes a natural odd d20 roll, that enemy takes 1d6 psychic damage, 2d8 psychic damage at champion tier, and 2d12 psychic damage at epic tier.
Quirk: Argues about inconsequential matters.
# Rictus Grin
Ranged Weapon
Recharge 11+: When you hit with an attack using this weapon, deal half the damage as ongoing psychic damage. While taking this ongoing damage, the target laughs horribly at the pain, if possible, and if the ongoing damage kills it, it dies with a huge grin.
Quirk: Loves puns.
# Rockbow
Crossbow
When you attack constructs and elementals with this weapon, target PD instead of AC and ignore the damage resistances and immunities of those creature types.
Quirk: Over-eager demolitionist.
# Ruby-studded
Melee Weapon
When an enemy scores a critical hit against you, immediately roll to regain one expended recharge power, including magic items, against you or a nearby ally at champion tier, and as champion, and roll twice for the recharge power and take the best result at epic tier.
Quirk: Fascination with personal glory.
# Sacred Oak
Melee Weapon
1/Battle
End an effect that is causing you to be dazed or hampered.
Quirk: Unmaterialistic.
# Sand-bow
Any Bow
Recharge 6+: When you score a critical hit with this weapon, 1d3 nearby enemies in a group (which must include the enemy you hit) get sand in their faces and take a –2 penalty to their next attack roll, or –4 if only the original target is affected.
Quirk: Enjoys the feel of the sun.
# Shadow
Blade
1/Day
Cut a shadowy doorway into a nonmagical wall or other barrier of similar size (so no tunneling through mountains). The doorway lasts until the end of the battle or scene.
Quirk: Dislikes light.
# Shadow-lash
One Handed Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+ after use: When you deal ongoing damage with this weapon, heal using a recovery.
Quirk: The suffering of others amuses you.
# Shinebolt
Ranged Weapon
1/Battle
When you hit with an attack using this weapon, the target takes no damage and you and your allies gain a +4 bonus to attacks against the target until the end of your next turn.
Quirk: Hoarder.
# Smoke
Bow
The wielder of this bow is surrounded by a nimbus of smoke. Once per round when you miss with this weapon, gain a cumulative +1 bonus to all defenses until you hit with an attack or until the end of the battle. This bonus stacks with other magic items.
Quirk: Burns incense.
# Soot
Bow
Once per round when you attack with this bow, gain a cumulative +1 bonus to AC and PD that stacks with other magic items until the end of the battle. When you are hit by an attack, reduce the AC and PD bonus by 1 (but it can’t go below 0). When you move, the cumulative bonus is reduced to 0.
Quirk: Starts to believe own lies.
# Soul-Rending
Ranged Weapon
Recharge 11+ after use: When you make a basic attack or at-will attack using this weapon, target MD instead of AC and deal psychic damage instead of any other type.
Quirk: Collects trophies from the dead.
# Spear of Unfolding Clouds
Ranged Weapon
1/Day
When you score a critical hit with an attack using this weapon, the crit deals triple damage instead of double damage and that damage is lightning damage.
Quirk: Loves storms.
# Steady
Ranged weapon
Recharge 11+: Before rolling a ranged attack with this weapon, choose 10 as the natural roll for that attack.
Quirk: Talks too much about the weather.
# Sunsteel
Melee Weapon
When your attack roll is equal to or less than the escalation die, you deal half damage on a miss (full damage against devils and demons).
Quirk: Must be seen to be the bravest.
# Thorny
One-Handed Melee Weapon
When you deal ongoing damage with this weapon, add the weapon’s default bonus to the difficulty of the ongoing damage save. For example, a +2 champion tier weapon would mean the roll for a normal save of 11+ becomes a 13+.
Quirk: Prefers sneaky solutions.
# Thunderbolts
Any Weapon
Recharge 11+: At the start of a battle, roll a d6 (champion: 2d6; epic 3d6). When the escalation die equals the value rolled on the d6, a bolt of lightning shoots from the sky and charges your weapon with crackling energy; for that round, any hits you inflict with your weapon deal an extra 2d10 lightning damage.
If you’re using a champion- or epic-tier weapon of thunderbolts, then there’s a chance that two or more bolts will land in the same round; in that case, the damage stacks.
As the lightning bolt needs a clear path from the sky to your upraised weapon, this item doesn’t function indoors or underground.
Quirk: Bombastic speech.
Note: I don’t believe it myself, but this lizard I know swears that the Blue Lady up in Drakkenhall bewitched a druid, and he made her one of those thunderbolt weapons. You know what charges a weapon a lot better than a bolt of lighting from the sky? The unfettered breath of the Blue, that’s what. When that hammer’s charged up, they say it could knock the head off a manticore with one swing. Of course, for some of the things that crawl out of the Iron Sea, we’re going to need a bigger hammer. - Stormcrow Jacen, “Merchant”
# Thurible of Smiting
Melee Weapon
1/Battle
This heavy spiked sphere on a chain doubles as an incense burner. When you miss an enemy with an attack, that enemy takes ongoing damage equal to your level.
Quirk: Follows obscure strictures of their faith.
# Tides
Any Bow
Recharge 6+: When you miss all targets with an attack made with this weapon, your crit range expands by 1 until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Pessimist.
# Tomb-Spike
Melee Weapon
Attacks with this weapon deal 2d8 extra radiant damage(champion: 3d10; epic: 4d12) on a hit against undead andenemies that deal necrotic damage.
Quirk: Veneratesancestors, maybe a little too much.
# Unsleeping Sword
Blade
1/Day
When you are unable to attack, this weapon fights on. Until the end of the battle, you can still make melee basic attacks during your turn while you are helpless or unconscious.
Quirk: Eager to start fights.
# Unstinting Virtue
Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+: When you make a basic attack with this weapon, roll a save against a save ends effect.
Quirk: Insists that all weakness is an illusion.
# Vainglorious
You always know who the ‘biggest baddest’ enemy is (the GM will let you know based on HP left, monster level, etc.). When you attack that enemy, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage that stacks with other magic items.
Quirk: Insists on going first into danger.
# Vanity
Melee Weapon
When you hit with this weapon, deal +1d6 damage to that enemy if you are the only one engaged with it, +2d6 at champion tier, and +4d6 at epic tier.
Quirk: Tells their name (their real one) to everyone.
# Vengeance
Melee Weapon
When you hit with this weapon while you are staggered, deal +1d6 damage to that enemy.
Quirk: Quick to take offense.
# Venomous
Trident
2/Day
Your attacks with this weapon deal poison damage. When you score a critical hit with this weapon, the target takes 5 ongoing poison damage, 10 ongoing at champion tier, and 20 ongoing at epic tier.
Quirk: Wary of poisoned drinks.
# Web-Slicing
Edged Weapon
If stuck or hampered by a web or similar physical entanglement, gain a +5 bonus to saves.
Quirk: Prefers direct solutions to complex problems.
# Wintersmith
Bow
1/Day
Attacks made using this bow deal cold damage. When the escalation die is 3+ and you hit an enemy with an attack with this bow, that enemy takes a –4 penalty to all defenses (hard save ends, 16+).
Quirk: Loves winter nights.
# Woad-warrior
Ranged Weapon
1/Battle
The natural attack roll of a ranged attack made with this weapon triggers a flexible attack that you know as if it were a melee attack.
Quirk: Wears woad.
# Champion
# Binding
Recharge 16+: When you slay a demon with this weapon, you steal that demon’s random ability and get to use it yourself for the rest of the battle.
Quirk: The “quirk” is that there’s a demon spirit temporarily residing in your weapon. Lose control, and the demon’s back in the saddle of your brain.
# Dancing
Blade
Recharge 11+: This blade jumps out of your grip to strike your enemies at odd moments. When you roll initiative, note your natural roll (or rolls). Until the end of the battle, when a nearby enemy makes a natural attack roll that matches your natural initiative roll, make a melee basic attack against that enemy as a free action.
Quirk: Sings.
# Dark Smiting
Recharge 11+: Declare that you are using this power before you make a basic attack. You deal 2d12 extra damage with that attack on a hit (epic: 3d12), or deal half damage (no extra damage) on a miss. If you are a paladin, you can’t use this power on the same turn you use your Smite Evil class feature.
Quirk: Refuses to help the weak.
# Divine Desires
Ranged Weapon
1/Day
When you make an attack with this weapon against an enemy that is invisible or otherwise hidden or obscured, you take no penalties and don’t have a 50% chance to miss.
Quirk: Longs to see the face of the divine.
# Dragon Lance
Heavy Two-Handed Weapon
Quick Action
Recharge 6+: Until the end of your turn, your melee attacks can target nearby enemies.
Quirk: Fears being attacked from above and prefers high places.
# Glorious Gladiator’s Blade
Standard Action
Recharge 16+: This weapon is a trophy of the arenas of Axis, handed down from champion to champion. To activate it, the escalation die must be 3+ and you must spend a round showboating for the crowd (even if you don’t have an audience.) While showboating, you may not attack and take a -2 penalty to all Defenses. Furthermore, the other players (and anyone else in the room) must chant your character’s name. The first attack you make in the round after showboating is enhanced by the sword – you may double the to-hit bonus from the escalation die, and add the value of the escalation die to your crit range. So, if the escalation die is 4, you get a +8 bonus to hit and have your crit range increased by +4.
Quirk: Craves the adulation of the crowd.
# Iron-chain Bow
Bow
This bow has a thin iron chain instead of a string. When you hit with an attack with this bow against an enemy your size or smaller and roll a natural 18+, you can pull that enemy into engagement with you.
Quirk: Eager to oppress.
# Longbow of Fallen Grace
+3 longbow
Recharge 16+: If your elven grace species ability roll failed this turn, use the natural result of this bow’s attack roll as another elven grace roll, after you see the roll.
Quirk: Complains too often that the glorious centuries of old are gone forever.
# Mana Drinker
Recharge 11+: The grip of this weapon is wrapped in a strip of dragon hide. When a spell or breath weapon attack hits you, that attack has no effect as the weapon absorbs it, and you deal +2d6 damage of the type absorbed with your next attack using this weapon that hits this battle.
Quirk: Bravery that verges on foolishness.
# Mighty Stunning
One-handed Blunt 1d6 Melee Weapon
Recharge 16+: When you roll a natural even hit with this weapon and have more hit points than the target, that creature is also stunned until the end of its next turn.
Quirk: Warns of impending doom.
# Moonlight Steps
Bow
Recharge 11+: When you attack with this weapon and miss, one nearby ally can teleport next to, and become engaged with, the target.
Quirk: Has odd bathing habits.
# North Wind
Longbow
Recharge 11+: When you hit with this bow, you start to fly, carried aloft by a howling gale of icy winds. You keep flying as long as you keep making successful ranged attacks with the bow. If you ever miss or don’t make an attack, you land at the start of your next turn.
Quirk: Haunted by frost-spirits.
# Pyroclastic
Bow
Attacks made using this bow deal fire damage on a hit and thunder damage on a miss. You can use this bow to gain a +4 bonus to checks to break or damage objects.
Quirk: Loves breaking things.
# Quaking Hammer
This warhammer +2 makes the ground shudder when you get in a good hit with it. If you hit, all nearby enemies take 1 thunder damage for every weapon damage die that rolls its highest possible result. So, if you roll 6d8 for damage, and you roll three 8s, then that’s 3 damage to every nearby foe.
Quirk: Terrified of the ocean. You need solid rock under your feet.
# Reckless
Melee Weapon
Recharge 6+: Reroll one of your attack rolls with a +4 bonus. In addition, until the end of the battle, enemies attacking you add the escalation die to their attack roll (no effect if the enemy already adds it for some reason).
Quirk: Low impulse control, particularly when it comes to impulsive movements through doors, onto railings, or over tables.
# Threshold, Of the
Recharge 16+: When you slay a foe with this weapon, that enemy does not die immediately. Instead, they become hampered (basic attacks only) and take one last turn immediately after this one. In this terminal turn, you get to choose what the dying creature does, as it’s animated by the necromantic power of your weapon. Once the creature’s last turn finishes, it dies.
Quirk: Obsessed by your own tomb, and driven to build a bigger and better one so you are never forgotten when you die.
# Throwing and Catching Dagger
Throwing Dagger
Recharge 16+: When you throw the dagger, you teleport and catch it before it hits the ground. You may throw the dagger anywhere within throwing range, allowing you to teleport to any point you can hit with the dagger. Precarious locations (like, say, throwing the dagger up a cliff, or between narrow bars) may require an attack roll or a skill check, or even both. You can combine throwing the dagger with a melee attack – you throw the dagger at a foe, teleport over, snatch the dagger out of the air and use it to stab your enemy. Treat this as the High Elf racial power, only you can also shave with it.
Quirk: Jumpy and quick to change the topic of conversation.
# World-Rending Axe
Greataxe
Quick Action
Recharge 16+: This massive two-handed axe never needs sharpening, as its edge is already keen enough to cut through the fabric of reality. When you inflict a critical hit, you may teleport to any nearby location you can see by slicing a hole in the world and stepping through it. This ability lasts for the rest of the battle.
Quirk: Feels alive only in battle.
# Epic
# Demonic Deathknell
Melee Weapon
Quick Action
1/Round
The hilt of the weapon features a tiny bell whose ringing is painful to demons. Drop a nearby demon or devil that has 20 hit points or fewer (the GM should let you know what enemies qualify).
Quirk: Worships death.
# Dragon Strike
Melee Weapon
Recharge 11+: Take your standard action at the start of the round, before your turn. During your turn, you can use your move and quick actions.
Quirk: Sheds, usually hair, maybe something else.
# Dragon Wishbone
Bow
1/Campaign
When you score a critical hit twice during the same full recovery (between full heal-ups) using this bow, it shatters and disappears, and you can make a wish. The wish takes the following form: during the start of your next session.
Quirk: Cautions others to be careful what they say, but speaks rashly themselves.
# Greatsword of Utter Night
Greatsword
Recharge 6+: When you hit with this weapon, you spirit away that enemy and yourself to an empty void beyond time where only the two of you face each other for a short time. Neither you nor your foe can move, but you can sure fight. Your enemy acts first, then you, and then you are both spirited back to the real world exactly where you were when the power triggered. Bystanders only see a flash of black.
Quirk: Has disturbing dreams that can’t be remembered, or at the very least must not be.
# Incomparable Axe of Wyrm Chopping
Axe
Whenever you attack a dragon with the axe, you deal +40 damage, hit or miss. The GM determines just how broadly the term “dragon” applies.
Quirk: Speaks in Draconic, first just curses, but then more and more elements of speech.
# Peerless
When you are in battle with a weapon-wielding enemy who is at least 3 levels higher than you or is stronger than a standard monster, this weapon’s default bonus increases to +4, or to +5 if the enemy is both.
Quirk: Envious of others’ powers.
# Sword of Ruin
Greatsword
The sword of ruin is the bane of kings and the unraveller of empires. If it’s used to kill someone with authority over or ownership of a domain of any kind, it curses that domain. Armies lose their courage; castle walls lose their strength; places of magic lose their power; people lose their faith and even the land loses its vitality and becomes desolate and barren.
For example, if the sword of ruin killed the Imperial Governor of a seaport, then that town’s walls might crumble. Its defenders might lose heart, its ships might sink or its fishing fleets might find the seas unaccountably empty. The precise manifestation of the sword’s curse varies, but it always brings ruin and destruction. Any domain, no matter how large or small, is vulnerable to ruin. If it killed a peasant, it blight only that peasant’s field and leave the rest of the farmland nearby untouched. If it killed the Emperor… well, that would be one way to end a campaign.
The sword of ruin only works if it kills with a critical hit or a coup de grace.
Quirk: Hates to be given orders.
# Wondrous Items
You can attune multiple wondrous items.
# Default Bonus
None.
# Tattoo
Getting a magical tattoo involves choosing a body part that doesn’t already contain a tattoo and applying both the ink and enchantment. Tattoos of higher tiers take up more space on the body, and some tattoos specify where they must be located to gain the benefits of the enchantment. Magical Tattoos cannot be disenchanted normally, but instead must be removed by a tattoo removal spell or similar magic.
Some magical tattoos have lesser and greater variations, which means lesser magical tattoos can be expanded upon to make them greater and therefore more powerful.
# Divine Investment
Divine investments are marks that appear on those blessed by the gods. When a character gains a divine investment, the good news is that it can’t be stolen of lost (or sold); it becomes part of the character. The bad news is if the character acts against the wishes of their divine patron, the mark and its power may fade.
# Adventurer
# Ahurak, Mark of the
Divine Investment
1/Day
As a free action, manifest a holy weapon or implement that deals radiant damage. When you score a critical hit with the weapon or implement and use the full recovery power, deal triple damage instead of double damage.
# Alchemy jug
This ceramic jug appears to be able to hold a gallon of liquid and weighs 12 pounds whether full or empty. Sloshing sounds can be heard from within the jug when it is shaken, even if the jug is empty.
You can use an action and name one liquid from the table below to cause the jug to produce the chosen liquid. Afterward, you can uncork the jug as an action and pour that liquid out, up to 2 gallons per minute. The maximum amount of liquid the jug can produce depends on the liquid you named.
Once the jug starts producing a liquid, it can’t produce a different one, or more of one that has reached its maximum, until the next dawn.
| Liquid | Maximum Capacity |
|---|---|
| Acid | 8 ounces |
| Basic Poison | 1/2 ounce |
| Beer | 4 gallons |
| Honey | 1 gallon |
| Mayonnaise | 2 gallons |
| Oil | 1 quart |
| Vinegar | 2 gallons |
| Fresh Water | 8 gallons |
| Salt Water | 12 gallons |
| Wine | 1 gallon |
# Angel, Mark of the
Divine Investment
Recharge 6+: When you fall (or jump from a high place), you sprout ephemeral wings and can float to the ground.
# Bag of Holding
Standard Action
This bag has an interior space considerably larger than its outside dimensions, roughly 2 feet in diameter at the mouth and 4 feet deep. The bag can hold up to 500 pounds, not exceeding a volume of 64 cubic feet. The bag weighs 15 pounds, regardless of its contents. Retrieving an item from the bag requires an action.
If the bag is overloaded, pierced, or torn, it ruptures and is destroyed, and its contents are scattered in the Astral Plane. If the bag is turned inside out, its contents spill forth, unharmed, but the bag must be put right before it can be used again. Breathing creatures inside the bag can survive up to a number of minutes equal to 10 divided by the number of creatures (minimum 1 minute), after which time they begin to suffocate.
Placing a bag of holding inside an extradimensional space created by a Heward’s Handy Haversack, Portable Hole, or similar item instantly destroys both items and opens a gate to the Astral Plane. The gate originates where the one item was placed inside the other. Any creature within 10 feet of the gate is sucked through it to a random location on the Astral Plane. The gate then closes. The gate is one-way only and can’t be reopened.
# Bad-Moon Arm Tattoo
Gain a +1 bonus to AC as though you had a shield, but your off-hand is left free to wield an off-hand weapon or a two-handed weapon.
Quirk: Howls in battle.
# Bad-Moon Waist Tattoo
Gain a new 2-point background called humanoid hunter.
Quirk: Howls in battle.
# Bag of Storms
Standard Action
Recharge 11+: The walls of this leather bag creak and stretch as it struggles the storm trapped inside. You may loosen the drawstring of the bag to let out a bolt of lighting. This counts as casting a ranged spell. The bolt attacks using your Dexterity + Level vs. PD, targets up to three nearby enemies in a roughly straight line, and inflicts 2d6 lightning damage, 4d6 at champion tier, and 10d6 at epic tier. If you roll a natural 1, roll a d20. On another natural 1, you let the storm out, as detailed below.
Alternatively, you may open the bag entirely and let the storm free. This destroys the bag of storms, but unleashes a titanic, once-acentury storm on the region, centered on you. The effects of the storm are more story-based than anything else, but the ghastly weather conditions make any sort of fighting almost impossible. All anyone can do is seek shelter from the howling winds, crashing thunder and torrential rain. Any sort of ranged attacks, flight, spellcasting or travel is ill-advised for the next several hours.
Quirk: Moody
# Batwing Back Tattoo
1/Battle or Scene
When you fall you glide slowly until you land on your feet without taking fall damage.
Quirk: Recklessly takes dares.
# Bell of Gathering Friends
Characters may attune to this brass bell during a full heal-up. When the bell is rung, only individuals attuned to it can hear the sound. Echoes of the bell can be heard for some distance underground, giving scattered companions a +4 bonus to any tests that involve finding their way back to the rest of the party.
Quirk: Delights in entertaining and taking care of companions.
# Blue-Eye Arm Tattoo
1/Battle
Add this tattoo’s default bonus to attacks and damage you make with non-magical ranged weapons. When you make a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, increase the damage dice by one size (2d4 + 1 becomes 2d6 + 1, 5d6 + 3 becomes 5d8 + 3, etc.). Once per full recovery, you can cast the wizard cantrip mage hand on a faraway object.
Quirk: Fears the evil eye.
# Blue-Eye Palm Tattoo
You can see through the eye on this palm tattoo. Gain a +4 bonus to MD against last-gasp attacks that target MD (such as a basilisk’s gaze attacks, the petrification attack of a medusa, etc.) and this bonus stacks with other magic items. You can also cast the wizard cantrip mage hand at will.
Quirk: Fears the evil eye.
# Captain’s Horn
When you sound this horn (a move action in battle), others know what information you are trying to relay, no matter how noisy the area is. You don’t even have to prearrange a code—those you designate who hear your notes will know your meaning. You can convey meaning equivalent to about a single normal sentence. For example, “help, orcs attacked our cleric and the wizard needs healing,” or “open the city gates for the hay cart with the brown horse.”
Quirk: Stutters.
# Charging-boar
Back Tattoo
When an attack misses your PD, your attacks deal at least half damage on a miss until the end of your next turn.
Quirk: Argumentative.
# Charging-Boar Leg Tattoo
When you move to engage an enemy and miss it with an attack during the same turn, deal extra miss damage equal to the escalation die to that enemy, twice the escalation die at champion tier, and three times the escalation die at epic tier.
Quirk: Argumentative.
# Commander’s Dust
This multicolored powder glows and sparkles at your command, dancing in a magical wind. You can use the powder to create glowing, three-dimensional images (to display maps of battlefields for example), or to illuminate an area. When you are done with the powder, it returns to its pouch or container at your command.
Quirk: Over-explains simple concepts.
# Crossed-Axes Waist Tattoo
The first time you become staggered each battle, the next enemy you hit before the end of the battle takes +1d8 thunder damage, +2d8 thunder damage at champion tier, and +3d10 thunder damage at epic tier.
Quirk: Sees kindness as weakness.
# Decanter of Endless Water
This stoppered flask sloshes when shaken, as if it contains water. The decanter weighs 2 pounds. You can use a standard action to call forth anything from stream of fresh water or salt water to a geyser of gushing water that knocks an enemy prone if they don’t succeed on an 11+ skill check.
# Devani, Mark of the
Divine Investment
1/Day
You cover yourself in an illusion. Until the end of the battle or scene, gain a +4 bonus to skill checks to disguise yourself or hide.
# Dice of Fate
Recharge 16+: Before a battle, you may cast the dice to affect your fortunes. Roll all three dice. Pick one of them and keep it – during the battle, you have a number of +1 bonuses equal to the value on the die that you can apply to your d20 rolls or the d20s rolls of your allies. So, if you take a 5, you’ve got 5 +1 fate bonuses that you can use on any roll. You have to apply the fate bonus before you roll, and you can only use one of these fate bonuses on a roll.
The GM picks the second die. This second die works the same way, but the GM gets to give those fate bonuses to your enemies in the battle.
The value of the third die, the one neither side picked, warps the skein of destiny in the battle. Consult the table below for inspiration.
| d6 | Result | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unchanged Fate | Nothing weird happens. |
| 2 | Two paths diverge | You’ll be faced with a terrible choice during or soon after the battle. |
| 3 | A third side | There’s another faction at work here, beyond the enemies you know about, and they’ll show their hand soon. |
| 4 | Death | This battle will have lasting and terrible consequences. Don’t count on being able to flee. |
| 5 | The elements in turmoil | The weather or some other elemental force is going to play a major role in this battle. |
| 6 | Wild Chaos unleashed | GM’s whim. |
Quirk: Can’t resist a wager.
# Driftglobe
This small sphere of thick glass weighs 1 pound. While you are nearby it you can speak its command word and cause it to emanate daylight. You can speak another command word as a standard action to make the globe rise into the air and float above the ground. The globe follows you and stays nearby and if it can’t stay nearby it sinks gently to the ground, becomes inactive, and its light winks out.
# Dwarven Mug
One in four mugs of ale you drink from this mug will be magically transformed into the very finest non-magical dwarven ale. If your relationship with the mug is positive, the variety might even suit your current mood and the odds of getting a good brew might improve in your favor. But really, who’s going to complain about putting down a second, or even third, mug for the chance to get a taste of the best stuff? When that excellent ale does show up, you can share a sip or two with a friend, but other attempts to capitalize on this mug’s magic will just shut it down until it can find a more suitable owner.
# Eldritch Claw Palm Tattoo
Your unarmed attacks are considered magical and you gain a +1 to attack and damage rolls with unarmed attacks. Once per full recovery, as a quick action you can empower the tattoo and for the rest of the battle you can attack enemies nearby that you are not engaged with as inky tendrils launch towards your foes. Your melee unarmed attacks deal an extra 1d6 force damage on a hit.
# Elemental Gem
Standard Action
This gem contains a mote of elemental energy. When you use a standard action to break the gem, an elemental is summoned as if you had cast the Conjure Elemental spell, and the gem’s magic is lost. The type of gem determines the elemental summoned by the spell.
| Gem | Summoned Elemental |
|---|---|
| Blue sapphire | Air elemental |
| Yellow diamond | Earth elemental |
| Red corundum | Fire elemental |
| Emerald | Water elemental |
# Eskandari, Mark of the
Divine Investment
Quick Action
1/Battle
Until the end of the battle, gain a +2 AC bonus and take a –1 penalty to attack rolls.
# Eversmoking Bottle
moke leaks from the lead-stoppered mouth of this brass bottle, which weighs 1 pound. When you use a standard action to remove the stopper a cloud of thick smoke pours out into the nearby area. The cloud’s area is heavily obscured. The cloud persists and after 3 rounds expands to far away so long as it remains open. After closing the bottle is disperses after 10 minutes, but moderate and strong winds can disperse it quicker.
# Eyes of Charming
These crystal lenses fit over the eyes. Once per full recovery you can use a standard action to cast the Charm Person spell on a humanoid nearby, provided that you and the target can see each other.
# Eyes of Minute Seeing
These crystal lenses fit over the eyes. While wearing them, you can see much better than normal out to a range of 1 foot. You have advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks that rely on sight while searching an area or studying an object within that range.
# Eyes of the Eagle
These crystal lenses fit over the eyes. While attuned and wearing them, you have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight. In conditions of clear visibility, you can make out details of even extremely distant creatures and objects as small as 2 feet across.
# Floating Disk
Move Action
At-Will
This 3-foot-wide concave brass disk levitates when you mentally command it. As a move action, you can remain still (perhaps sitting on it) and move it, or you can move it as part of your own move action. It can travel as fast as you normally can, can float up to 3 feet above the ground, can flip over if you direct it to, and can carry twice as much as you normally can. The disk hovers (allowing it to cross water, quick sand, or trapdoors, for example), but doesn’t fly (so it will fall into a pit).
Quirk: You tense up in dangerous situations, especially in prolonged battles.
# Fravarsh, Mark of the
Divine Investment
One Use
When you die, you are reincarnated, returning to life in a different form to join your allies during the next rest. You retain your memories but can change your relationships, skills, class, race, gender, age, height, aura, and any other details as you wish. You are reincarnated with the same magic items, except for those that would no longer be appropriate for your character, which are also reincarnated into something more suitable. Despite any changes, your former friends (and enemies) will still recognize you. After you use this mark, it fades.
# Glamerweave
1/Day (Adventurer), Quick Action (Minor and Adventurer)
Glamerweave is clothing imbued with harmless illusory magic. While wearing the minor version of these clothes, you can use a quick action to create a moving illusory pattern within the cloth.
Adventurer grade glamerweave can have the pattern rise from the cloth. For example, a glamerweave gown might be wreathed in harmless, illusory flames, while a glamerweave hat might have illusory butterflies fluttering around it.
When you make a Charisma (Performance) or Charisma (Persuasion) check while wearing the adventurer version of glamerweave, you can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the check. Once you use this property, it can’t be used again until the next dawn.
# Harp of Fate
1/Day
You sing about something and it comes true, to your benefit. The effect should be similar to a onceper- full recovery magic item power. The GM should work with you to determine how you reshape fate, so pick your songs carefully.
Quirk: Pretends they know the future.
# Hero’s Harp
Recharge 6+: This wooden harp is of use only to bards. When you roll to sustain a song, you may keep the result of the d20 roll and use it for an attack this round.
Quirk: Composes heroic ditties about the exploits of the rest of the party.
# Knot-of-Blades Chest Tattoo
Gain resist damage 12+ to melee attacks against AC.
Quirk: Likes showing fangs.
# Knot-of-Fists Chest Tattoo
Recharge 16+: When a non-weapon melee attack hits you, your next unarmed attack this battle that hits deals double damage.
Quirk: Lets fists do the talking.
# Knuckle tattoos
Your fists count as magic heavy two-handed weapons of the tattoos’ tier, with one doing cold damage and one doing fire damage, OR with one doing lightning damage and one doing thunder damage, OR both doing normal damage. Choose which damage type is for your main hand and which is for your off-hand when you first attune to this item.
Quirk: Sometimes takes things without asking.
Note: You can fight with one fist while holding a shield, and even though these tattoos turn your fists into the equivalent of a heavy two-handed weapon, if you roll a natural 2 on an attack, you can still make an off-hand attack.
# Lantern of Revealing
While lit, this hooded lantern burns for 6 hours on 1 pint of oil, shedding bright light nearby and dim light far away. Invisible creatures and objects are visible as long as they are in the lantern’s bright light. You can use an action to lower the hood, reducing the light to dim light to next to you.
# Lesser Spellwrought Arm Tattoo
This magic tattoo contains a single wizard spell of 3rd level or lower. Once the tattoo is there, you can cast its spell, requiring no material components. The tattoo glows faintly while you cast the spell and for the spell’s duration. Once the spell ends, the tattoo vanishes from your skin.
# Lore Bottle
A bottle of translucent glass, sealed with lead, with a ghastly face that peers out at you. When you ask it questions, it answers in the form of vague hunches. For tough questions, the face might fade out for a while, apparently searching somewhere for an answer. Owning the bottle gives you +2 bonus to Intelligence-based skill checks, if you have the time (and privacy) to consult the lore bottle. Chances are, your particular lore bottle has some sort of specialty or bias, which you will discover only through use. Unlike most magic items, lore bottles can often be found for sale, but you probably don’t want those.
Quirk: The connection formed with the face in the bottle can be compelling and unsettling, as the spirit literally “gets in your head.” Each bottle has a different effect on its owner.
# Luckstone
While this polished agate is on your person, you gain a + 1 bonus to ability checks and saving throws.
# Moon-Wolf Neck Tattoo
Gain a +2 bonus to skill checks to understand and interact with beasts, and when you drop a beast to 0 hp, you can immediately roll a save against each condition affecting you—even if that condition would not normally allow a save (like being stuck until the end of your turn).
Quirk: Very carnivorous.
# Nightcandle
A nightcandle is an ugly black tallow candle, about a foot tall. You may attune others to the nightcandle by having them pass their hands through its flame. Only those attuned to the nightcandle can see the light shed by its flame. You can use it as a signaling device that’s imperceptible to others, or as a source of illumination that won’t give away your location. After a few hours of use, you must renew the nightcandle by putting it in a dark place with some lard and a little red wine.
Quirk: Secretive.
# Owlbear Chest Tattoo
When you score a critical hit, the AC bonus of this armor increases by 1 until the next time you score a critical hit or until your next full heal-up.
Quirk: Weak is meat.
# Pearl of Power
While this pearl is on your person, you can use an action to speak its command word and regain one expended power. Once you have used the pearl, it can’t be used until you complete a full recovery.
# Perfect Disguise
There are many perfect disguises, but each perfect disguise is a different item of clothing or jewelry. When you wear the item, you physically change to look like whatever the disguise is designed to be—a priest’s smock might transform you into a priest, a courtier’s elaborate wig will change you into a noble of the court— and you gain a +10 bonus to all skill checks to pass as that person. The disguise alters the rest of your clothing and equipment, overlaying illusions over those things it can’t transform. You even gain some familiarity with the customs and mannerisms to aid in the masquerade: transformed into a priest, you’ll speak like a priest and can instinctively perform simple religious ceremonies or quote scriptures; the disguise of a courtier would give you the manners and feeling for politics needed to get through a full recovery at court.
One downside is that each disguise is fixed—whoever dons the courtier disguise will be the same courtier, so if a disguise is associated with a crime or is a known persona, then by donning the disguise you might end up being blamed for the crimes of previous owners. The second downside is that the disguise grants enough borrowed knowledge to get through cursory interactions but not true knowledge (a disguise that turns you into a blacksmith gives you enough ‘smith-ness’ to bluff your way as a smith among smiths at the local tavern, but you won’t be able to forge a nail).
Quirk: Prefers the disguise’s fake persona to their own.
# Roaring-Bear Back Tattoo
When you take thunder damage from an enemy attack, the next enemy you target with an attack this battle takes extra thunder damage equal to half of the thunder damage you suffered, hit or miss.
Quirk: Roars with rage.
# Roaring-Bear Chest Tattoo
You don’t take miss damage while engaged with two or more enemies.
Quirk: Roars with rage, a lot.
# Rope of Climbing
This 60-foot length of silk rope weighs 3 pounds and can hold up to 3,000 pounds. If you hold one end of the rope and use a standard action to speak the command word, the rope animates. As a quick action, you can command the other end to move toward a destination you choose. That end moves 10 feet on your turn when you first command it and 10 feet on each of your turns until reaching its destination, up to its maximum length away, or until you tell it to stop. You can also tell the rope to fasten itself securely to an object or to unfasten itself, to knot or unknot itself, or to coil itself for carrying.
If you tell the rope to knot, large knots appear at 1-foot intervals along the rope. While knotted, the rope shortens to a 50-foot length and grants advantage on checks made to climb it.
The rope has AC 20 and 20 hit points. It regains 1 hit point every 5 minutes as long as it has at least 1 hit point. If the rope drops to 0 hit points, it is destroyed.
# Sack of Looting
This bag is bigger on the inside (sleeping-bag size) than on the outside (a small drawstring pouch). Anything put in the bag that can fit into a sleeping-bag-size opening, up to about 80 pounds of material, isn’t apparent and weighs nothing while inside. Each bag is different: one might be made of black silk, another of pink beads, and another of soft tan leather.
Quirk: Can’t leave anything behind.
# Saintly Reliquary
Somewhere inside this casket of gold and gemstones is the skull or other body part of a long-dead saint. Once per full recovery, the saint intercedes on your behalf by casting a divine spell. As you’re the bearer of the relic, and hence the saint’s link to the land of the living, the saint’s spell gets treated as though you’d cast it. So, if you’re 7th level, the saint gets one 7th level spell per full recovery, and uses one of your actions to cast it when in battle. You can pick the spell on the fly – it doesn’t need to be prepared ahead of time.
The saint’s spirit may also manifest to give you advice, counsel or just harangue you with sermons and religious curses, depending on the saint. At best, that’s a +4 bonus to relevant skill checks. At worse, it’s a headache.
Quirk: You must continue the holy works of the saint, which usually involves lots of visits to temples, lengthy religious ceremonies, and curing the sick. If you’re unlucky, martyrdom may also be on the agenda.
# Sending Stones
Sending stones come in pairs, with each smooth stone carved to match the other so the pairing is easily recognized. While you touch one stone to telepathically communicate with the bearer of the other stone. If no creature bears the other stone, you know that fact as soon as you use the stone and don’t cast the spell.
# Seraphim, Mark of the
Divine Investment
1/Battle
When you engage an enemy or an enemy engages you, that enemy takes fire damage equal to your level times the escalation die.
# Soul Coin
Soul coins are about 5 inches across and about an inch thick, minted from infernal iron. Each coin weighs one-third of a pound, and is inscribed with Infernal writing and a spell that magically binds a single soul to the coin. Because each soul coin has a unique soul trapped within it, each has a story. A creature might have been imprisoned as a result of defaulting on a deal, while another might be the victim of a night hag’s curse.
Carrying Soul Coins. To hold a soul coin is to feel the soul bound within it — overcome with rage or fraught with despair.
An evil creature can carry as many soul coins as it wishes (up to its maximum weight allowance). A nonevil creature can carry a number of soul coins equal to or less than its Constitution modifier without penalty. A non-evil creature carrying a number of soul coins greater than its Constitution modifier has disadvantage on its attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.
Using a Soul Coin. A soul coin has 3 charges. A creature carrying the coin can use its action to expend 1 charge from a soul coin and use it to do one of the following:
Drain Life: You siphon away some of the soul’s essence and gain 1d10 temporary hit points.
Query: You telepathically ask the soul a question and receive a brief telepathic response. which you can understand. The soul knows only what it knew in life, but it must answer you truthfully and to the best of its ability. The answer is no more than a sentence or two and might be cryptic.
Freeing a Soul. Casting a spell that removes a curse on a soul coin frees the soul trapped within it, as does expending all of the coin’s charges. The coin itself rusts from within and is destroyed once the soul is released. A freed soul travels to the realm of the god it served or the outer plane most closely tied to its alignment (DM’s choice). The souls of lawful evil creatures released from soul coins typically emerge from the River Styx as lemure devils.
A soul can also be freed by destroying the coin that contains it. A soul coin has AC 19, 1 hit point for each charge it has remaining, and immunity to all damage except that which is dealt by a hellfire weapon (BG:DA, page 223) or an infernal war machine’s furnace (BG:DA, page 217).
Freeing a soul from a soul coin is considered a good act, even if the soul belongs to an evil creature.
Hellish Currency. Soul coins are a currency of the Nine Hells and are highly valued by devils. The coins are used among the infernal hierarchy to barter for favors, bribe the unwilling. and reward the faithful for services rendered.
Soul coins are created by Mammon and his greater devils on Minauros, the third layer of the Nine Hells, in a vast chamber where the captured souls of evil mortals are bound into the coins. These coins are then distributed throughout the Nine Hells to be used for goods and services, infernal deals, dark bargains, and bribes.
# Snuffling-Hog Back Tattoo
When an attack misses your PD, gain temporary hit points equal to the number of mooks you have killed since your last full heal-up, twice the number of mooks at champion tier, and three times the number of mooks at epic tier.
Quirk: Willing to eat anything.
# Snuffling-Hog Leg Tattoo
When an enemy fails to disengage from you, gain temporary hit points equal to its disengage check roll, twice the roll at champion tier, and three times the roll at epic tier.
Quirk: Willing to eat anything.
# Spirit-Catching Jar
Spirits of all sorts move through the Empire. This glass jar is marked with runes of capture and containment, so roll a d6 at every full heal-up. On a 5 or 6, you’ve caught a spirit of the sort you’d expect to find in your current environment (ghosts in a graveyard, arcane sprites in a wizard’s tower, storm elementals at sea). Some spirits are intelligent enough to bargain for their freedom; all are magically potent and can be used either as ritual components, or just left loose at the right moment. You might catch an air sylph spirit and let it go to produce a sudden gust of wind, or capture a forest sprite and force it to show you a path through the woods.
Quirk: Avid collector –coins, pinned insects, kobold ears, obscure spells or something weirder.
# Starsilk Gown
This courtly dress is made from a rare magical material—you can wear heavy armor under it and it won’t show. While wearing the gown, you gain a +2 bonus to skill checks involving fashion and beauty.
Quirk: Over-concerned with matters of courtesy.
# Stomping-Behemoth Chest Tattoo
Gain resist damage 16+ against environmental damage and traps.
Quirk: Completely ignores ‘minor irritations.’
# Stomping-Behemoth Leg Tattoo
When you disengage or pop free from an enemy, that enemy takes thunder damage equal to the escalation die, twice the escalation die at champion tier, and three times the escalation die at epic tier.
Quirk: Unheeding of ‘minor irritations’.
# Yolonk, Mark of the
Divine Investment
1/Day
When you fail a skill check, a nonmagical item ‘luckily’ comes to your aid in some way and you can reroll the check. If the reroll is a natural even failure, this power is not expended.
# Champion
# Badge of the Watchers
A Badge of the Waters is given only to those who have earned a place among the Watchers. While wearing the badge, you gain a +2 bonus to AC if you aren’t using a shield.
# Chime of Opening
This hollow metal tube measures about 1 foot long and weighs 1 pound. You can strike it as a standard action, pointing it at an object nearby of you that can be opened, such as a door, lid, or lock. The chime issues a clear tone, and one lock or latch on the object opens unless the sound can’t reach the object. If no locks or latches remain, the object itself opens.
The chime can be used ten times. After the tenth time, it cracks and becomes useless.
# Cube of Force
This cube is about an inch across. Each face has a distinct marking on it that can be pressed. The cube starts with 36 charges, and it regains 1d20 expended charges daily at dawn.
You can use a standard action to press one of the cube’s faces, expending a number of charges based on the chosen face, as shown in the Cube of Force Faces table. Each face has a different effect. If the cube has insufficient charges remaining, nothing happens. Otherwise, a barrier of invisible force springs into existence, forming a cube 15 feet on a side. The barrier is centered on you, moves with you, and lasts for 1 minute, until you use a standard action to press the cube’s sixth face, or the cube runs out of charges. You can change the barrier’s effect by pressing a different face of the cube and expending the requisite number of charges, resetting the duration.
If your movement causes the barrier to come into contact with a solid object that can’t pass through the cube, you can’t move any closer to that object as long as the barrier remains.
| Face | Charges | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Gases, wind, and fog can’t pass through the barrier. |
| 2 | 2 | Nonliving matter can’t pass through the barrier. Walls, floors, and ceilings can pass through at your discretion. |
| 3 | 3 | Living matter can’t pass through the barrier. |
| 4 | 4 | Spell effects can’t pass through the barrier. |
| 5 | 5 | Nothing can pass through the barrier. Walls, floors, and ceilings can pass through at your discretion. |
| 6 | 0 | The barrier deactivates. |
The cube loses charges when the barrier is targeted by certain spells or comes into contact with certain spell or magic item effects, as shown in the table below.
| Spell or Item | Charges Lost |
|---|---|
| Disintegrate | 1d12 |
| Horn of Blasting | 1d10 |
| Passwall | 1d6 |
| Prismatic Spray | 1d20 |
| Wall of Fire | 1d4 |
# Dimensional Shackles
Standard Action
You can use a standard action to place these shackles on an incapacitated creature. The shackles adjust to fit a creature of Small to Large size. In addition to serving as mundane manacles, the shackles prevent a creature bound by them from using any method of extradimensional movement, including teleportation or travel to a different plane of existence. They don’t prevent the creature from passing-through an interdimensional portal.
You and any creature you designate when you use the shackles can use an action to remove them. Once every 30 days, the bound creature can make a DC 30 Strength (Athletics) check. On a success, the creature breaks free and destroys the shackles.
# Gem of Seeing
Once per full recovery, as a standard action, you can speak the gem’s command word. For the next 10 minutes, you have truesight as far as you can see when you peer through the gem.
# Heward’s Handy Haversack
Standard Action
This backpack has a central pouch and two side pouches, each of which is an extradimensional space. Each side pouch can hold up to 20 pounds of material, not exceeding a volume of 2 cubic feet. The large central pouch can hold up to 8 cubic feet or 80 pounds of material. The backpack always weighs 5 pounds, regardless of its contents.
Placing an object in the haversack follows the normal rules for interacting with objects. Retrieving an item from the haversack requires you to use an action. When you reach into the haversack for a specific item, the item is always magically on top.
The haversack has a few limitations. If it is overloaded, or if a sharp object pierces it or tears it, the haversack ruptures and is destroyed. If the haversack is destroyed, its contents are lost forever, although an artifact always turns up again somewhere. If the haversack is turned inside out, its contents spill forth, unharmed, and the haversack must be put right before it can be used again. If a breathing creature is placed within the haversack, the creature can survive for up to 10 minutes, after which time it begins to suffocate.
Placing the haversack inside an extradimensional space created by a Bag of Holding, Portable Hole, or similar item instantly destroys both items and opens a gate to the Astral Plane. The gate originates where the one item was placed inside the other. Any creature within 10-feet of the gate is sucked through it and deposited in a random location on the Astral Plane. The gate then closes. The gate is one-way only and can’t be reopened.
# Horn of Blasting
You can use a standard action to speak the horn’s command word and then blow the horn, which emits a thunderous blast against nearby creatures that is audible from very far away. Creatures within the effect take 5d6 thunder damage and are dazed (save ends). Creatures can roll a resist 8+ check to take half damage and not be dazed. Creatures made of glass or crystal take 10d6 thunder damage instead of 5d6.
When using the horn roll a 1d10, on a 1 the horn explodes dealing 10d6 fire damage to the user and destroying the horn.
# Horn of Valhalla
You can use a standard action to blow this horn. In response, 2d4+2 berserker warrior spirits from the plane of Ysgard appear nearby. They return to Ysgard after 1 hour or when they drop to 0 hit points. Once you use this horn, it can’t be used again until 7 days have passed.
# Ioun Stone
An Ioun stone is named after Ioun, a god of knowledge and prophecy revered on some worlds. Many types of Ioun stone exist, each type a distant combination of shape and color.
When you use an action to toss one of these stones into the air, the stone orbits your head at a distance of 1d3 feet and confers a benefit to you. Thereafter, another creature must use a standard action to grasp or net the stone to separate it from you, either by making a successful attack roll against it or a successful DC 24 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. You can use a standard action to seize and stow the stone, ending its effect.
A stone has AC/PD/MD 24, 10 hit points, and resistance 16+ to all damage. It is considered to be an object that is being worn while it orbits your head.
# Awareness
You can’t be surprised while this dark blue rhomboid orbits your head.
# Historical Knowledge
You gain a 5-point skill in the History skill while this polished, steely sphere orbits you head.
# Language Knowledge
You are fluent in all languages while this pulsating bit of red jeweled crystal orbits your head.
# Natural Knowledge
You gain a 5-point skill in the Nature skill while this burnished, brassy stone orbits your head.
# Protection
You gain a +1 bonus to AC while this dusty rose prism orbits your head.
# Forgotten Knowledge
You gain a 5-point skill in the Arcana skill while this tiny golden gem orbits your head
# Reserve
This vibrant purple prism stores spells cast into it, holding them until you use them. The stone can store up to a 3rd level spell at a time. When found, it contains a stored spell chosen by the GM.
# Self-Preservation
You gain a +1 bonus to MD while this silvery gem orbits your head
# Supreme Intellect
You gain a +1 bonus to all Intelligence-based skill checks while this faceted sphere orbits your head.
# Sustenance
You gain a +1 bonus to PD and don’t need to eat or drink while this clear spindle orbits your head.
# Iron Bands of Bilarro
This rusty iron sphere measures 3 inches in diameter and weighs 1 pound. You can use a standard action to speak the command word and throw a sphere at a huge or smaller creature nearby. As the sphere moves through the air, it opens into a tangle of metal bands.
Make a ranged attack roll. On a hit the target is stuck until you take a quick action to speak the command word again to release it. Doing so, or missing with the attack, causes the bands to contract and become a sphere once more.
A creature, include the one stuck, can use a standard action to make a DC 20 Endurance check to break the iron bands. On a success, the item is destroyed, and the stuck creature is freed. If the check fails, any further attempts made by that creature automatically fail until 24 hours have elapsed.
Once the bands are used, they can’t be used again until you gain a full recovery.
# Knave’s Eye Patch
While wearing this eye patch, you gain these benefits:
You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
If you have the Sunlight Sensitivity trait, you are unaffected by the trait.
You are immune to magic that allows other creatures to read your thoughts or determine whether you are lying. Creatures can communicate telepathically with you only if you allow it.
# Mirror of the Past
1/Day, Standard Action
The holder of this platinum hand mirror can learn something about the history of a specific object or creature by taking a standard action to gaze into the mirror and think of the target. Instead of the holder’s reflection, the mirror presents scenes from the target’s past. Information conveyed is accurate, but it is random and cryptic, and presented in no particular order. Once it is activated, the mirror gives its information for 1 minute or less, then returns to normal. It can’t be used again until the next dawn.
# Portable Hole
Standard Action
This fine black cloth, soft as silk, is folded up to the dimensions of a handkerchief. It unfolds into a circular sheet 6 feet in diameter.
You can use a standard action to unfold a portable hole and place it on or against a solid surface, whereupon the portable hole creates an extradimensional hole 10 feet deep. The cylindrical space within the hole exists on a different plane, so it can’t be used to create open passages. Any creature inside an open portable hole can exit the hole by climbing out of it.
You can use an action to close a portable hole by taking hold of the edges of the cloth and folding it up. Folding the cloth closes the hole, and any creatures or objects within remain in the extradimensional space. No matter what’s in it, the hole weighs next to nothing.
If the hole is folded up, a creature within the hole’s extradimensional space can use an action to make a DC 10 Strength check. On a successful check, the creature forces its way out and appears within 5 feet of the portable hole or the creature carrying it. A breathing creature within a closed portable hole can survive for up to 10 minutes, after which time it begins to suffocate.
Placing a portable hole inside an extradimensional space created by a Bag of Holding, Heward’s Handy Haversack, or similar item instantly destroys both items and opens a gate to the Astral Plane. The gate originates where the one item was placed inside the other. Any creature within 10 feet of the gate is sucked through it and deposited in a random location on the Astral Plane. The gate then closes. The gate is one-way only and can’t be reopened.
# Rope of Entangling
Fifty feet of fine, spidersilk rope, woven so closely that it seems like a solid, flexible cable. Once you attune the rope during a full heal-up, you can make it entangle things with standard action commands. In combat, it’s not that useful, because it’s slow compared to a living thing. If the target is stationary, however, the rope excels at reaching, climbing, snaking, coiling, and entangling. You might be able to get the rope to bind a ferocious monster, but the rope is likely to get destroyed in the process.
Quirk: Speaks in sentences for which “convoluted” is the only proper term.
# Winged Backpack
Recharge 16+ after use: This ordinary-looking backpack unfolds itself to reveal a pair of wings. When you fall, the backpack’s wings slow your fall so you take no damage. With a strong wind or a high starting point, gliding is possible.
Quirk: Longs for the freedom of the open skies.
# Epic
# Absorbing Arms Tattoo
While the tattoo is on your skin, you have resistance 16+ to a type of damage associated with the tattoo’s color, as shown in the table below. The color is determined randomly.
| d10 | Damage Type | Color |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acid | Green |
| 2 | Cold | Blue |
| 3 | Fire | Red |
| 4 | Force | White |
| 5 | Lightning | Yellow |
| 6 | Necrotic | Black |
| 7 | Poison | Violet |
| 8 | Psychic | Silver |
| 9 | Positive Energy | Gold |
| 10 | Thunder | Orange |
When you take damage of the chosen type, you can use an interrupt action to gain immunity to that instance of the damage, and you regain a number of hit points equal to half the damage you would have taken. Once this reaction is used, it can’t be used again until you gain a full recovery.
# Battle Standard of Infernal Power
This hell-forged battle standard is made of infernal iron and fitted with a small, unopenable cage containing a quasit. The trapped quasit is incapacitated, and its cage has AC 19, 10 bit points, and immunity to all types of damage except force damage. If killed or somehow released, the quasit disappears in a cloud of smoke, and a new one appears in the cage, provided the cage is intact.
While you hold the banner, your melee and ranged attacks and those of all allied creatures in the same battle as you count as magical for the purposes of overcoming damage immunities and resistances.
# Blood Fury Arms Tattoo
Once per battle when you hit a creature with a weapon attack you can deal an extra 4d6 necrotic damage and regain half as much necrotic damage dealt.
Once per battle when a creature you can see damages you, you can use an interrupt action to make a melee attack against that creature with advantage on your attack roll.
# Crystal Ball
A Crystal Ball is about 6 inches in diameter and while touching it you can cast the Scrying Ritual without requiring components and a +10 on skill checks made for the ritual. While scrying with the crystal ball you have truesight within the scry.
# Deck of Many Things
Usually found in a box or pouch, this deck contains a number of cards made of ivory or vellum. Most (75 percent) of these decks have only thirteen cards, but the rest have twenty-two.
Before you draw a card, you must declare how many cards you intend to draw and then draw them randomly (you can use an altered deck of playing cards to simulate the deck). Any cards drawn in excess of this number have no effect. Otherwise, as soon as you draw a card from the deck, its magic takes effect. You must draw each card no more than 1 hour after the previous draw. If you fail to draw the chosen number, the remaining number of cards fly from the deck on their own and take effect all at once.
Once a card is drawn, it fades from existence. Unless the card is the Fool or the jester, the card reappears in the deck, making it possible to draw the same card twice.
Balance Your mind suffers a wrenching alteration, causing your alignment to change. Lawful become chaotic, good becomes evil, and vice versa. If you are true neutral or unaligned, this card has no effect on you.
Comet Your party gains a miraculous campaign success.
Donjon You disappear and become entombed in a state of suspended animation in an extradimensional sphere. Everything you were wearing and carrying stays behind in the space you occupied when you disappeared. You remain imprisoned until you are found and removed from the sphere. You can’t be located by any divination magic, but a Wish spell can reveal the location of your prison. You draw no more cards.
Euryale The card’s medusa-like visage curses you. You take a -2 penalty on saving throws while cursed in this way. Only a god or the magic of The Fates card can end this curse.
The Fates Reality’s fabric unravels and spins anew, allowing you to avoid or erase one event as if it never happened. You can use the card’s magic as soon as you draw the card or at any other time before you die.
Flames A powerful devil becomes your enemy. The devil seeks your ruin and plagues your life, savoring your suffering before attempting to slay you. This enmity lasts until either you or the devil dies.
Fool Your party suffers a campaign loss, discard this card, and draw from the deck again.
Gem Twenty-five pieces of jewelry worth 2,000 gp each or fifty gems worth 1,000 gp each appear at your feet.
Idiot Permanently reduce your Intelligence by 1d4 + 1 (to a minimum score of 1). You can draw one additional card beyond your declared draws.
Jester You gain a major campaign success, or you can draw two additional cards beyond your declared draws.
Key A Champion or Epic magic weapon with which you are proficient appears in your hands. The GM chooses the weapon.
Knight You gain the service of a 2nd-level fighter who appears nearby you. The fighter is of the same species as you and serves you loyally until death, believing the fates have drawn him or her to you. You control this character.
Moon You are granted the ability to cast the Wish spell 1d3 times.
Rogue A nonplayer character of the GM’s choice becomes hostile toward you. The identity of your new enemy isn’t known until the NPC or someone else reveals it. Nothing less than a Wish spell can end the NPC’s hostility toward you.
Ruin All forms of wealth that you carry or own, other than magic items, are lost to you. Portable property vanishes. Businesses, buildings, and land you own are lost in a way that alters reality the least. Any documentation that proves you should own something lost to this card also disappears.
Skull You summon an avatar of death-a ghostly humanoid skeleton clad in a tattered black robe and carrying a spectral scythe. It appears nearby you and attacks you, warning all others that you must win the battle alone. The avatar fights until you die or it drops to 0 hit points, whereupon it disappears. If anyone tries to help you, the helper summons its own avatar of death. A creature slain by an avatar of death can’t be restored to life.
Star Increase one of your ability scores by 2.
Sun You gain a miracle and complete your current adventure, and a wondrous item (which the GM determines randomly) appears in your hands.
Talons Every magic item you wear or carry disintegrates. Artifacts in your possession aren’t destroyed but do vanish.
Throne You gain a 5-point skill in the Persuasion skill. In addition, you gain rightful ownership of a small keep somewhere in the world. However, the keep is currently in the hands of monsters, which you must clear out before you can claim the keep as yours.
Vizier At any time you choose within one year of drawing this card, you can ask a question in meditation and mentally receive a truthful answer to that question. Besides information, the answer helps you solve a puzzling problem or other dilemma. In other words, the knowledge comes with wisdom on how to apply it.
The Void This black card spells disaster. Your soul is drawn from your body and contained in an object in a place of the GM’s choice. One or more powerful beings guard the place. While your soul is trapped in this way, your body is incapacitated. A Wish spell can’t restore your soul, but the spell reveals the location of the object that holds it. You draw no more cards.
# Dispelling Stone
This smooth, rainbow-colored, egg-shaped stone can be thrown and explode with magical energy in a nearby area on impact, destroying the stone. Any active spell of 7th level or lower in the explosion ends.
# Ghost Step Legs Tattoo
As a quick action once per battle you become incorporeal until the end of your next turn and gain the following benefits:
- You have resist 11+ to damage from physical attacks.
- You can’t be grappled or stuck.
- You can move through creatures and solid objects. If you end your turn in a solid object you take 1d10 force damage.
# Greater Spellwrought Chest and Neck Tattoo
This magic tattoo contains a single wizard spell of 7th level or lower. Once the tattoo is there, you can cast its spell, requiring no material components. The tattoo glows faintly while you cast the spell and for the spell’s duration. Once the spell ends, the tattoo vanishes from your skin.
# Lifewell Face and Neck Tattoo
You have resist necrotic damage 16+ and once per full recovery if you would be reduced to 0 hit points you drop to 1 hit point instead.
# Ioun Stone
An Ioun stone is named after Ioun, a god of knowledge and prophecy revered on some worlds. Many types of Ioun stone exist, each type a distant combination of shape and color.
When you use an action to toss one of these stones into the air, the stone orbits your head at a distance of 1d3 feet and confers a benefit to you. Thereafter, another creature must use a standard action to grasp or net the stone to separate it from you, either by making a successful attack roll against it or a successful DC 24 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. You can use a standard action to seize and stow the stone, ending its effect.
A stone has AC/PD/MD 24, 10 hit points, and resistance 16+ to all damage. It is considered to be an object that is being worn while it orbits your head.
# Absorption
While this pale lavender ellipsoid orbits your head, you can use an interrupt action to cancel a spell of 5th level or lower cast by a creature you can see and targeting only you
Once the stone has canceled 20 levels worth of spells, it burns out and turns dull gray, losing its magic. If you are targeted by a spell whose level is higher than the number of spell levels the stone has left, the stone can’t cancel it.
# Agility
Your Dexterity score increases by 2 while this deep red sphere orbits your head.
# Fortitude
Your Constitution score increases by 2 while this pink rhomboid orbits your head.
# Insight
Your Wisdom score increases by 2 while this incandescent blue sphere orbits your head.
# Intellect
Your Intelligence score increases by 2 while this marbled scarlet and blue sphere orbits your head.
# Leadership
Your charisma score increases by 2 while this marbled pink and green sphere orbits your head.
# Mastery
You gain a +1 bonus to all checks while this pale green prism orbits your head.
# Regeneration
You regain 15 hit points at the end of each hour this pearly white spindle orbits your head, provided that you have at least 1 hit point.
# Strength
Your Strength score increases by 2 while this pale blue rhomboid orbits your head.
# Nightfall Pearl
1/Day
Used to summon night, this 6-inch-diameter, jet-black orb is cold to the touch. You can spend 10 minutes to activate it, causing the area within 10 miles of it at the moment of activation to become night even if it is daytime. This night lasts for 24 hours, until you cancel it as an action, or until your attunement to the pearl ends. Once used, the pearl can’t be used again for 24 hours.
# Platinum Scarf
3/Day, Standard Action
This scarf is made of sturdy cloth and covered in platinum-colored scales. As an action, you can pull a scale from the scarf and speak a command word. When you do so, choose one of the following effects:
Breath of Life. The scale disappears, and you or a creature you touch regains 10d4 hit points.
Platinum Shield. For 1 hour or until you dismiss it (no action required), the scale becomes a +1 shield, which you or another creature can use. A creature wielding the shield has immunity to radiant damage.
Radiant Hammer. For 1 hour or until you dismiss it (no action required), the scale becomes a magic light hammer, which you or another creature can use. The weapon deals 2d4 radiant damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for a light hammer. It deals an extra 2d4 radiant damage to chromatic dragons.
Once three scales have been pulled from the scarf, no more scales can be removed until the next dawn, when all the missing scales grow back. If you pull off a scale but don’t speak a command word, it disappears after 1 minute.
# Sphere of Annihilation
This 2-foot-diameter black sphere is a hole in the multiverse, hovering in space and stabilized by a magical field surrounding it. The sphere obliterates all matter it passes through and all matter that passes through it.
The sphere is stationary until someone controls it. If you are nearby an uncontrolled sphere you can use a standard action to make a DC 25 Arcana skill check. On a success the sphere levitates in one direction of your choice, and moves closer to you on a failure.
If you attempt to control a sphere that is under another creature’s control you make an Arcana skill check contested with the other creatures’ Arcana.
If the sphere comes into contact with a planar portal the GM rolls a d100 on the table below.
| d100 | Result |
|---|---|
| 01-50 | The sphere is destroyed. |
| 51-85 | The sphere moves through the portal or into the extradimensional space. |
| 86-100 | A spatial rift sends each creature within a 1 mile area into a random plane of existence. |
# Chuul Symbiote Magic Items
Quirks: Chuul-derived items are symbiotic, weaving their flesh with the flesh of their wielder. Instead of affecting the personality of the wielder, their quirk is that they warp the wielder’s body in minor yet often disturbing ways. Over-attuning causes obviously monstrous mutations that are hard to hide.
Chuulish Recharge: Chuulish items draw life energy and vital essences directly from their hosts. Any chuul-derived item that has a recharge has the following chuulish recharge rule.
The item has a recharge roll like normal magic items, but it’s easier to recharge it if the user is willing to use their own life force to help. These items recharge normally on 16+, or on 11+ for a cumulative –1 penalty to all saves until the next full heal-up, or on 6+ for a cumulative –2 penalty to all saves until the next full heal-up, or recharge without a roll for a cumulative –3 penalty to all saves until the next full heal-up.
# Chitin Claw
Ring
This fleshy multi-eyed loop sheaths a finger in sharp carapace.
Always: When you pick a lock, disarm a trap, or otherwise perform a task that having a tiny shape-changing blade and tiny eyes attached to your finger would be aided by, you gain a +2 bonus to the roll.
Quirk: Gnarled over-long fingers on that hand.
# Chuul Helm
Helm
This insectile segmented helm is lined with ganglia that link with your brain.
Always: +1 MD (adventurer); +2 MD (champion); +MD (epic). Chuulish recharge: You gain resist psychic 12+ until the end of the battle, resist psychic 16+ at champion tier, and resist psychic 18+ at epic tier.
Quirk: Bone-ridged holes in skull.
# Chuulish Cuirass
Heavy Armor
The many eyes and symbiotic nervous system in this torso armor give you warning of danger.
Always: +1 AC (adventurer); +2 AC (champion); +3 AC (epic). Chuulish recharge: You gain a +4 bonus to all defenses against ranged attacks until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Over-large protruding ribs.
# Clawed Tentacles
Gloves
These claw-covered tentacles normally reside under the skin of the forearm, completely concealed. Chuulish recharge: Choose an enemy engaged with you. Until the end of the battle, whenever that enemy tries to disengage from you or pop free from you, it must first succeed at an easy save, normal save at champion tier, and hard save at epic tier.
Quirk: Tentacles writhe in and out of the skin unexpectedly.
# Death Claw
Gloves
A lobster-clawed gauntlet that fits over your forearm. The eyes at the fleshy joints blink unnervingly. Chuulish recharge: Reroll a missed melee attack with a +1 attack bonus, +2 at champion tier, and +3 at epic tier.
Quirk: The claw flexes and snaps reflexively when wearer is excited.
# Evil Eyes
Gloves
This gauntlet has eyes on the knuckles, aiding archers and spellcasters.
Always: Bonus to attacks and damage with ranged attacks: +1 (adventurer); +2 (champion); +3 (epic). The bonus doesn’t stack with bonuses from magic weapons or implements. Chuulish recharge: Until the end of the battle or for five minutes, you can see the unseen. Invisible creatures are visible to you, and you spot illusions for what they are.
Quirk: Bone ridges and oddly patterned callouses on the arms.
# Glandular Parasite
Cloak/Mantle
The parasite sits along your spine, feeding off your life force but also dampening your reactions to extreme stimuli and pain.
Always: +1 PD (adventurer); +2 PD (champion); +3 PD (epic). Chuulish recharge: You are immune to fear effects until the end of the battle or for five minutes.
Quirk: Strangely pronounced spine.
# Implanted Aventail
Light Armor
The symbiote is normally hidden. When commanded, a wave of small crab-like creatures pours out of concealed gill-like openings in your skin, providing you with scale-like armor.
Always: +1 AC (adventurer); +2 AC (champion); +3 AC (epic). Unleashing the armor is a quick action, and you retain the AC bonuses as long as it is in place. When the insects are retracted as a move action, you don’t appear to be (or count as) wearing armor.
Quirk: Gill-like slits cover body even when the armor is not up.
# Neural Blade
Any Bladed Weapon
A boney blade with a spine and brain.
Always: Bonus to attacks and damage: +1 (adventurer); +2 (champion); +3 (epic); and the weapon deals psychic damage. Chuulish recharge: Choose a nearby enemy. That enemy is now vulnerable to psychic damage until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Large sphincters on arm where the ganglia-tentacles from the blade’s hilt insert themselves.
# Neural Whip
Light One-handed Melee Weapon
A tentacle snakes one end around your arm, inserting filaments beneath the skin. The whip stretches and flexes at your mental command, the tip studded with hardened pulsing nerves.
Always: Bonus to attacks and damage: +1 (adventurer); +2 (champion); +3 (epic). 2/battle: You can use a reach trick with the whip, and the attack deals psychic damage.
Quirk: Grows eyes in unusual places.
# Rachis Girdle
Belt
The pulsating band of chuul-flesh inside a bony cage sits on your lower back, exchanging blood and injecting substances into your organs.
Always: Increase your maximum hp by +4, +10 hp at champion tier, and +25 hp at epic tier. Whenever you take ongoing damage, reduce that damage by your level.
Quirk: Odd gait from reconfigured pelvis.
# Rasping Greaves
Boots
A carapace covers each of your legs and has an unblinking armored eye on the knee. Unfolding blade-like appendages whip out at those engaged with you.
Always: When you make an opportunity attack, the target takes +1d6 extra damage on a hit, +2d8 at champion tier, and +4d10 at epic tier.
Quirk: A billow-like lung inside each greave makes a breathing sound.
# Strider Symbiote
Cloak/Mantle
Champion Tier Item
This living “backpack” clings to you with tentacles and inserts mouthparts into the top of your spine. The segmented limbs of the strider usually lie flat against your body but may be commanded to spring out and carry you like a long-legged spider.
Always: +2 PD (champion); +3 PD (epic). Chuulish recharge: Until the end of the battle or for five minutes, you can move on walls or ceilings as easily as you do across the ground. (epic: chuulish recharge starts at 11+)
Quirk: Twitching antenna.
# Xenoteros
Cloak/Mantle
Insectile wings hide in slits under the always itching skin of your back.
Always: +1 PD (adventurer); +2 PD (champion); +3 PD (epic). Chuulish recharge: As a standard action, you can fly clumsily for one round, 1d3 + 1 rounds at champion tier, and 2d4 rounds at epic tier.
Quirk: Insectile mouthparts grow at the back of the throat and squiggle out when wearer talks excitedly.
# Cursed Magic Items
Cursed items can be useful, though all of them have significant drawbacks.
# Shadow Dragons
Players will often find cursed items such as these when approaching a Shadow Dragon lair. However, detecting the curse on any of these cursed items requires a DC 35 Intelligence check:
30 or less: Nothing seems to be wrong.
31–34: Something isn’t right about the item. It could be cursed, or just has a bad quirk.
35+ or natural 20: The item is cursed!
Natural roll is 1–5: The creature attempting to discern the item’s magic accidentally attunes to the cursed item!
# Adventurer
# Arrow, Crossbow Bolt, Slingstone
# Backbiter Bolt
When you hit with a natural even attack roll with this ammunition, it’s a critical hit instead.
Curse: When you miss with a natural even attack roll using this ammunition, the attack hits you instead (in the back!).
# Armor, Robe, Shirt, Tunic
# Default Bonus
Armor Class: +2 (adventurer); +3 (champion); +5 (epic)
# Anger
Heavy Armor Only
Platemail or similar with leering faces on the pauldrons.
Always: +2 AC (adventurer). In addition, when you miss with an attack and the escalation die is odd, roll a save; on a failure, you are enraged until the start of your next turn and take a –4 penalty to all defenses.
# Demonhide
2/Battle, or every five minutes
Reduce an enemy’s d20 roll (attack, save, skill check, etc.) by 1 if it would turn a success into a failure.
Curse: When an enemy scores a critical hit against you, the next attack against you is also a crit.
Quirk: Dreads dying . . . or rather what happens after death.
# Hexed Carapace
Heavy Armor Only
When an enemy with the demon, devil, or undead type hits you with an attack, you gain a ‘pain point.’ As a free action, you can give any number of pain points to allies next to you (and they feel pain) but an ally can’t have more pain points than the value of the escalation die. As a free action after rolling save, you or an ally can spend any number of pain points to gain a +1 bonus to that save for each point spent.
Curse: You are vulnerable to attacks by demons, devils, and the undead . . . and they know it.
Quirk: Dresses flamboyantly.
# Tephritic Armor
Heavy Armor Only
You gain a cumulative +1 bonus to AC and PD each time you are hit with a fire attack. The bonus ends at the end of your turn if you have not been hit with a fire attack since the end of your previous turn.
Curse: When you take cold damage, you take a cumulative –1 penalty to all defenses, saves, and skill checks until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Never warm enough.
# Belt, Swordbelt, Kilt, Skirt, Girdle, Sash
# Default Bonus
Increase your maximum recoveries: by 2 (adventurer); by 3 (champion); by 5 (epic).
# Girdle of Gender Switching
Wide leather belt with acorn designs.
Always: Increase your total recoveries by one, but your gender is switched. Removing the belt reverses the effect but it teleports back onto you if removed for more than 10 minutes. In addition, minor shifts in weight distribution throw your balance off, and you take a –1 penalty with melee attacks during your first battle each full recovery.
# Book, Scroll, Tome, Grimoire
# Killer’s Almanac
Recharge 6+: When you hit a staggered enemy, you score a critical hit instead.
Curse: The next time one of your allies is hit, that ally must roll a save. If they fail, the hit becomes a crit.
Quirk: Eager to add new entries to the book.
# Tome of Misfortune
Book with an embossed face inside its cover. 1/full recovery: Regain one expended full recovery spell that you have cast. When you cast the recovered spell, roll a d6. 1–3: The book chooses the targets for the spell and can consider you and your allies as enemies, or your enemies as allies. 4–6: You choose targets normally.
# Boots, Shoes, Sandals, Slippers
# Default Bonus
Disengage checks and other checks involving fancy footwork: +2 (adventurer); +3 (champion); +5 (epic).
# Dancing Shoes
Shiny red shoes with golden wings.
Always: The shoes force you to dance whenever you hear music (even off-key whistling will work). The shoes magically re-appear on your feet if taken off for more than 10 minutes. Recharge 6+: You gain a +3 bonus to disengage checks until the end of the battle (or five minutes).
# Cloak, Mantle, Cape
# Default Bonus
Physical defense: +2 PD (adventurer); +3 PD (champion); +5 PD (epic).
# Cloak of Shadow
Quick Action
1/Day
Become a living shadow until the end of your next turn. While a living shadow, you can move through solid objects but not end your turn there, and you can pop free from all enemies as a move action.
Curse: You are vulnerable to fire and radiant damage, and when you are hit by necrotic damage, you also take ongoing damage equal to half the damage of the original attack as the cloak comes to life and strangles you.
Quirk: Sneaky.
# Helmet, Crown, Diadem, Circlet
# Default Bonus
Mental Defense: +2 (adventurer); +3 (champion); +5 (epic).
# Gladiator’s Headband
1/Day
You rally as a quick action, and the recovery you spend is free.
Curse: While in battle against enemies that are at least double-strength/large or are higher level than you, at least two levels higher than you at champion tier, and at least three levels higher at epic tier, you can’t use limiteduse powers until the escalation die is 2+. Note, limited-use powers include powers, spells, talents, features, magic item powers including this item’s full recovery power, etc.
Quirk: Speaks in simplistic, crowd-pleasing banter and refers to self in the third person (“Can you taste what The Boulder is brewing?” or “Thuug smash little man!”).
# Disappointment Hat
Green conical hat.
Always: Each time you cast a spell outside of combat or a spell is cast near you, it has some side effect (GM’s choice) that inconveniences you. Recharge 6+: As a move action you pull out an item from the hat. Roll a d6 to see what you get: 1–2: You get a useless or disgusting item. 3–6: You pull a useful non-magical item that grants a +d6 bonus to your next skill check until the end of your next turn.
# Ring
# Dark-Iron
Recharge 11+: Extend your reach through solid objects until the end of your next turn. You can use this power to attack a target’s PD instead of AC, or remove an object from inside a trapped chest or from behind a locked door, for example.
Curse: When you attack and roll a natural 1, you phase into the floor, ground, or a nearby object and are stuck and dazed until the end of your next turn.
Quirk: Paranoid about losing things: memories, friends, items, their way, etc.
# Weapon
# Default Bonus
+2 to attack and damage (adventurer); +3 (champion); +5 (epic)
# Backbiter Bow
Bow
Gold bow with no string. It creates a glowing string and “energy arrows.”
Always: Bonus to attacks and damage: +2 (adventurer). In addition, when you miss with an attack and the escalation die is odd, roll a save; on a failure, you instead hit yourself with the attack.
# Blade of Unerring Panache
When you attack with this weapon and miss, you lose 4 hp, 10 hp at champion tier, and 25 hp at epic tier.
Quirk: Tells the same stories over and over.
# Flint Blade
One-Handed
When you roll a critical hit with this weapon, deal 2d4 extra fire damage after the crit damage has been rolled, extra 6d4 damage at champion tier, and extra 10d4 damage at epic tier.
Curse: When you roll a natural 1 or a critical hit against an enemy that resists fire with this weapon, you take double the extra fire damage instead of applying it to the target.
Quirk: Pyrophobia.
# Hammer of Cursing
When your attack roll is equal to the escalation die value, make a basic attack with a +2 attack bonus as a free action.
Curse: When you roll a natural 1 on an attack with this weapon, the attack hits you or an ally next to you instead (your choice).
Quirk: Clumsy.
# Hellforged
Each battle while staggered, when you first take damage that has a type (acid, cold, fire, etc.), you deal +1d6 damage of that type with weapon attacks for the rest of the battle, +2d6 at champion tier, and +3d6 at epic tier.
Curse: When you roll a natural 1 (on any d20 roll), you take double the weapon’s extra damage.
Quirk: The grass is always greener.
# Phase
Bow
Recharge 11+: You can target an enemy you can’t see but that you know is in the battle, without taking any penalties.
Curse: If you roll a natural 1 or 2 when attacking with this bow, the attack automatically hits one of your allies (including you) closest to the target.
Quirk: Covets worthless trinkets.
# Soul-drinking
Recharge 11+: The first time each battle you hit with an attack using this weapon, you gain 1d10 + 2 temporary hit points, 2d10 + 2 at champion tier, and 4d10 + 2 at epic tier.
Curse: The first time each battle each of your allies heals using a recovery, that ally heals 8 fewer hit points, 13 hp at champion tier, and 24 hp at epic tier.
Quirk: Very pale complexion.
# Sword of Relentless Glory
If you don’t make a melee attack with this weapon during your turn, it shuts down and its default bonus becomes +0 until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Spouts furious curses in battle.
# War-Dirge of Chaos
1/Day
When you drop an enemy to 0 hp, until the end of the battle your movements and attacks create music. While you are creating this cursed dirge, an enemy that starts its turn engaged with you takes thunder damage equal to your level, and your attacks that target AC target PD and deal thunder damage instead.
Curse: When you miss with an attack while the dirge effect is active, you and each ally engaged with the target take thunder damage equal to your level.
Quirk: Has trouble staying quiet.
# Wand (Implement)
# Default Bonus
Attack and damage with arcane spells or attacks: +2 (adventurer); +3 (champion).
# Bloodless Mage
When you attack using this wand, you lose 1 hp, 3 hp at champion tier, and 6 hp at epic tier.
Quirk: Laughs turn hollow or spectral.
# Wondrous Items
# Orcnest
Wondrous Item
1/Day
Your body swells in places and a bunch of tiny orc-things pop forth from you at the start of your next turn as if you had cast the necromancer spell summon undead (13TW, page 86) at your level, except the orcs are humanoids instead of undead. You also gain a +4 bonus to any social skill checks involving orcs and related creatures (like half-orcs, goblins, ogres, etc.).
Curse: When an enemy scores a critical hit against you, the curse’s power activates even if it’s expended and it doesn’t count as the full recovery use of the power, but the orc-things you spawn are hostile and attack your allies—and you if you try to stop them.
Quirk: When you would run into derro, kobolds, troglodytes, or other humanoid monsters, you tend to run into orcs.
Note: Technically the orcnest is a ‘cursed disease’ that you can attune by accident when you loot or examine a dead orc.
# Treasured Chest
It follows you on little feet, obeys you, and is much larger on the inside (able to hold the same amount of stuff as a large closet).
Always: You can’t move faster than the chest, and the chest is slow. You travel at half speed everywhere and can’t use actions to move twice during a turn in battle.
# Wizard’s Skull
1/Day
This talking skull gives advice, most of it good. Use the power during a short rest; you gain one of your expended full recovery spells of your level or lower.
Curse: The skull knows a lot of obscure facts and longforgotten lore, and gives very good advice—until it sees its chance to betray you to further its own goals.
Quirk: Ancient wisdom is better than common sense.
# Champion
Any adventurer cursed item bumped up, or…
# Armor, Robe, Shirt, Tunic
# Bait Breastplate
Thick metal plate cuirass that attracts ranged attacks and spells even as it deflects melee attacks.
Always: +3 AC (champion) against melee attacks, but –1 AC against ranged attacks.
# Brazen
When an attack against your AC crits you, the armor “goes quiet” and its default bonus becomes +0 until the end of the battle.
Quirk: Becomes unreliable with forgettable tasks.
# Ring
# Delusion
Ring made out of complex interlocking wooden pieces.
Always: Whenever there are two possible explanations and one is obviously ridiculous, that is what you believe provided there is no obvious and direct proof that contradicts your delusion. In addition, you gain +3 bonus to checks to find traps and see through illusions.
# Staff
# Default Bonus
Attack and damage with arcane spells or attacks: +3 (champion); +5 (epic).
# Acrobat’s Stick
A glowing rod that expands into a longer pole.
Always: Bonus to attacks and damage: +2 (adventurer). In addition, if you are a rogue with the swashbuckle ability, you gain an extra use of that ability, but whenever you roll a natural 1 or 2 with any d20 roll, the staff flings you into danger (you take 2d6 damage and possibly provoke opportunity attacks in battle).
# Weapon
# Axe of Bloody Vengeance
You cannot rally during a battle.
Quirk: Carves patterns into own skin with fingernails.
# Cudgel of Heedlessness
Heavy Two-handed Melee Weapon
A strangely glowing crude wooden club.
Always: Bonus to attacks and damage: +3 (champion). In addition, when you roll a natural 1 with a melee attack using this weapon, you hit a random nearby ally with that attack and deal maximum damage. If you try to use a different weapon, the cudgel will teleport into your hand.
# Epic
Any lower item bumped up, or…
# Armor, Robe, Shirt, Tunic
# Danger Bracers
Light Armor
Chains welded into forearm armor.
Always: +4 AC (epic). In addition, you can’t disengage from enemies.
# Book, Scroll, Tome, Grimoire
# Procrastination Tome
This book contains instructions for being a better spellcaster.
Always: Bonus to spell attacks and damage: +5 (epic). In addition, during the first round of each battle you must spend all your actions either moving or “limbering up.” This means not using any abilities, you’re just jogging and stretching.
# Shield
# Default Bonus
Increase your maximum hit points: by +15 (adventurer); by +20 (champion); by +35 (epic).
# Chicken Shield
A fancy cavalier’s shield.
Always: Wwhen you miss with an attack and the escalation die is odd, roll a save; on a failure, you run away from that enemy as far as you can go (no disengage check, take opportunity attacks).
# Staff
# Dark Karma
3/Day
When you hit with a spell attack, deal extra damage to one target. If the spell targets one enemy, deal +4d10 damage. Otherwise, deal +2d10 damage. In addition, the first time you take damage each battle, you lose 20 hp.
# Weapon
# Great Low Sickle
You deal +5 damage with missed attacks, but all of your defenses take a –3 penalty.
# Wondrous Items
# Eye of Vecna
1/full recovery
When placed in your empty eye socket, this undead eye allows you to see what others can’t. Until the end of the battle or scene, you have x-ray-style vision in addition to normal vision, allowing you to see through up to two inches of metal if you are next to it, and through other things like the flesh of creatures (to see bones), contents of pouches, wooden doors, etc.; you can see invisible objects and creatures; and you can see through illusions as the true form of things are revealed to you. You also gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage with all attacks that stacks with other magic items.
Curse: While using the Eye’s full recovery power, Vecna knows your exact location and can see all that you can see, even if you close your eye or wear an eyepatch. Once you put the eye in, it can’t be removed until you are dead.
Quirk: Desires to seek out and attune to the hand.
# Hand of Vecna
1/Day
When placed upon an arm-stump, the withered hand grafts itself on. Make a basic attack or at-will attack against a target with fewer hit points than you (you’re aware of which enemies are), targeting PD if your attack would normally target AC. If you hit with the attack, it’s a critical hit. You also gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage with all attacks that stacks with other magic items.
Curse: After you use the Hand’s full recovery power, Vecna takes control of your body and you are confused (hard save ends 16+). You are aware during his domination of you.
Quirk: Desires to seek out and attune to the eye.