HA! I totally just did this in my campaign, from THAT LIST on my blog I posted. hahaha.



Would you mind if I posted these in a "specific special items" category on my blog post?

https://d20.pub/resources/weap...-magical-properties/

Certainly you may!

I've only found one way that works to make magic items memorable: collaborate with the players on what their characters receive. We remember what we think of ourselves better than what someone tells us.

Perhaps a 'swish-sword'

Changes from a two-handed sword to a longsword or a dagger.

Agreed. I actually just did this with two new weapons we introduced to the party. Both of them will be based on the Weapons of Legacy concept.

One of them would require a character to give up a weapon that benefited his class (bard with echo blade) plus potentially lose a shield in favor of a two handed weapon. We collaborated to write this new sword into his character and make it a lot more special!

Plus, this weapon follows the history and symbol rules from the article in my first post. And a little bit rips off the broken sword reforged idea from Lord of the Rings. =_=

It's a sword some recognize as belonging to a long ago hero which was broken defeating a great evil (The Dread One in Ptolus Banewarrens).

In addition, the bard is going to be part of the reforging process to make the weapon more his own.

Another way would be to have it made by a famous smith/deity, who at that point of time was still starting out.

Cool. And when collaborating with players even "rip-off" and "cliche" ideas can work, and are often exactly what the player really wants. When GMs try to create items on their own, they often feel a need to be more original than the players really need or want.

It’s made of a very exotic material.

It belonged to a powerful family, which divided into two rival houses, both of which see the sword as a valuable and important part of their heritage.

It keeps showing up in dreams.

Its presence is necessary to an important ritual.

It belonged to a historical figure.

It is believed that the weapon was used to do something utterly vile, and someone was punished/cursed/exiled for it.  But now that the weapon has been recovered, something can be clearly seen which will either prove the story, or disprove it.

It belongs to a current important figure, who doesn't know where it is now, but will likely want it back.

Small animals- rodents, insects, etc, seem to be afraid of it.

Being able to wield it at all indicates something special about the wielder.

It clearly fits into a prophecy concerning what will happen now that it has been rediscovered.   This may be good or bad.

Generally, it’s just a +1 sword.  It has another power which manifests only under rare circumstances, which is hidden from all kinds of divination spells, including Identify.

It’s a +1 sword with intelligence, and knows a lot of important things.

There is a curse that can only be lifted by its wielder.

Once it had much greater powers, no one knows why the sword seems so much less powerful these days.  But there are theories...

It has a quirky and mysterious side effect, such as the bearer being able to consume large amounts of alcohol without getting drunk.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:47, Wed 12 Feb 2020.

-Its only a sword at night.

-It can't be seen with normal vision.

-Perhaps it has Glamour. Makes you look like whatever you want.

-You can add 'parts' to it to make it more powerful.

-Perhaps when you kill a enemy, you get a bonus against those types (aka undead, werewolves, ect ect). Maybe its good vs them but bad vs another type.

I love all of these!!! Amazing contributions! I'm going to add these to the blog post I did.


Ooh! There is a special material in my blog post (from Monte Cook's city Ptolus) called Ithildin a decorative silver that glows at night but is dull and almost invisible during the day.

How hysterical would it be to see someone gripping something that you cannot see, then swinging it at you and seeing only your blood come away, dripping off an invisible shape? :D


Oh snap! This is an awesome idea. There is a precedent with "magic sets" like the Hammer of Thunderbolts, Belt of Giant Strength and gauntlets of ogre power.

I've never seen a magic item with "bolt on enhancements" though. Very cool idea.

A sword which requires a specific magical gem to function, of which there are 5, one for each magical effect: fire, electricity, sonic, cold and force. Swapping the gem is a full round action that promotes an attack of opportunity, but you can change the extra damage the weapon deals.

p.s. Rez, I added several of these to my blog post and put [Credit to Rez] beside those items :D Thank you for such epic suggesions!
This message was last edited by the user at 19:40, Wed 12 Feb 2020.

Building on the add-on idea, with something that could become a quest for the characters...

It's actually an ancient artifact, incredibly powerful...so powerful that someone, at some point in the past, dismantled it and scattered its components around the world.  It can guide the wielder to the closest relic/component, which, when won and added, increases the sword's power and abilities (so it becomes +2, and gains some other power...then, with the next bit, +3 and another power...)

It is, of course, up to the GM to decide whether the sword was a power for good or evil, and how the character can keep it in check and make it do the character's will once it reaches a certain level of power...

In reply to facemaker329 (msg # 24):

Oooh... and another twist: It's an intelligent item with it's own agenda, and with each piece that's reconnected to the item, it becomes more powerful at exerting its will over that of it's host... :D

Nothing like presenting your players with a little moral dilemma...do you risk yourself to re-create this ultra-powerful weapon?  Do you risk the next upgrade, never knowing at what point the sword may take control?  Do you rush to get the most powerful pieces, or do you research and find out which ones are safest to add on?

Does anyone even think to question why the pieces weren't destroyed?  Does anyone think to question why you might not want to rebuild the whole sword?

Actually, there was a sword like that in Dilvish the Damned. Dilvish's ancestor had slain a minor god with it, using the blade's invisibility to sneak it into his throne room undetected.

Its only a +1 sword towards the race that holds it.

Example: Tielfling holds it, it becomes +1 Sword vs Tielflings
         Golem holds it, it becomes +1 Sword vs Constructs
         ect.

Blunt Sword uses for magical purposes like a scroll.

No.  Never. Fantasy World Building Regulations clearly state that when mighty artifacts are  broken into pieces, all of those pieces must be preserved.  They may be scattered, so as to be able to use the Go To The Place And Get The Thing plot device repeatedly, but they are still all there.


"Behold the fragments of the Gem of Frude-Luop.  Once they are re-united, nothing will... wait... where's... umm..."

"I was trying to tell you, sire, the Third Splinter was crushed, mixed into a smoothie, and devoured by Nom the Omnivorous at the end of the Second Age.  It was in all the scrolls, I'm surprised you didn't catch that."

"Oh, crap."

Different answers than I had in mind for that, but when it's your game, you get to write those answers...*grin*

-A blade made from a treant, carved beautifully. If it is pointed at anything, a piece of wood flies off of it upon command. When damaged and destroyed, leaving it outside with sunlight and upon the ground allows it to 'heal'.

-+2 Bastard sword that can be broken into +1 short swords.

-It takes in a portion of the blood when it strikes (say 5 damage). After getting up to 30 damage, it does normal damage and the addition 30.

-Doesn't hurt anyone. When it strikes anyone it heals them.

I've been in games with similar weapons implemented. It was a blade that healed and was used by vampire hunters that would damage disguised vampires but wouldn't harm innocents in case they were wrong.

Got the idea from several Final Fantasy games haha.

But it would work vs a undead.

Don't forget to water it.  Maybe stick it in the ground, like it's being planted.

Maybe it's really a much more powerful sword, even an artifact, but only when it is wielded by the right person - right bloodline? someone who personifies a legend (who probably has no idea)?  a specific command word activates it, but no one remembers it, or even that there is such a thing.

Can't remember the movie, but there was a sword that had 3 blades to it. The 2 extra blades could be fired as a missile weapon. Thinking of how this could be used - would be heavier if used as a standard weapon so +1 or +2 damage for each additional blade, but -1 / -2 to hit. Of course blades could either be collected and reloaded at end of combat, or magically regenerate over time depending on style of the game and desire of GM.

Love the living tree sword idea and using alternate materials to create the sword. On a similar thought, how about creating a weapon with mercury instead of steel. Since at room temperature the mercury would melt, it would require powering by ice magic and would burn when touched (freeze burns). As a non-magical weapon, it would need to be wielded by ice demons / creatures for this to work.

If the weapon strikes and causes damage, a portion of the blade would enter the wound each time and cause poison damage over time. This could either by an additional, stacking effect (1pt of poison damage per turn per wound or a flat rate of d4/d6/d8 per turn, for example, modified by saving throws) or a long-term effect (saving throws dependent, takes a few days then poison begins to take effect, feel slightly ill at first then suffer a rapid decline as organs begin to shut down, etc).

Curing this poisoning could be interesting in the long-term since symptoms could appear to be a disease rather than poison, or the mercury itself remains in the system despite the curing spell and could poison the character again.

Its a gnome blade. It has 1 blade that splits off and can be uses as a thrown weapon but its not magical. It can be though. I saw something similar in a book I have.

+1 Poison Blade

The one that holds it is inflicted with the Poison spell. Everytime it is picked up a save must be made to prevent it from happening to the owner.

Bonus side of it? When the weapon hits, the creature takes the damage and is infected with poison (like the Poison spell)

In reply to wolfecubb (msg # 36):

Regis (Spider Parrafin) from R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books has a blade with two side pieces which can be thrown. They turn into snakes and climb up the person to start choking them.

Linksies: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Regis