Magic Items converted from old Dragon Magazines

[Bupp]

The schtick of my blog is converting crunch from old Dragon Magazines to 5e rules. Here's an item from Dragon Magazine #91.


Oil of Phosphorescence
Potion, uncommon


A slight application of this oil will cause the user to believe that it is some other form of magical oil, generally oil of etherealness. A dose is enough oil to cover a Medium creature and the equipment it wears and carries, which takes 10 minutes.


However, when it is fully applied, your skin will suddenly start to glow as if it were aflame. This bioluminescence is permanent, and can only be negated by remove curse. The glow emitted from your body is usually a yellow-green color, and you are highly visible at night or against dark surroundings. All attempts to hide, short of covering yourself completely in blankets, hiding in another room, or going invisible, are doomed to fail. Opponents gain Advantage on all attacks against you.


http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/11/oil-of-phosphorescence.html

 

[Bupp]

Grabbing another magic item out of Dragon Magazine #91, this one by Ed Greenwood.

I always find it interesting how many old AD&D items, spells and monsters have such individual unique rules to them, that are similar but different from rules that another item, spell, monster, or class ability. One of the things I like about 5e and a modern rule set is the idea that you use a standardized rule.

Speaking to that, as design note, the girdle of lions has two abilities copied straight from class abilities. The monk's Slow Fall and the Rogue Thief archetype Supreme Sneak.

Girdle of Lions
Very rare wondrous item
This belt appears to be like any other magical girdle when first
encountered. When it is put on, you gain several special abilities. You can speak with felines (as per the spell speak with animals). The felines, from house cat to sabertooth tiger, will view you as if you had a Charisma of 18 (for purposes of reaction checks). Often the cats will give advice or assistance to you and may obey your command, if such are reasonable.

You also gain the ability to land on your feet from a fall. You can reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your level.

The girdle also gives you the ability to move silently. You gain advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks if you move no more than half your speed on the same turn.

Finally, the girdle confers low light vision.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/12/grabbing-another-magic-item-out-of.html

 

[Bupp]

There are a bunch of magic items in Dragon Magazine #91, some are hit and miss, not sure if all of them are worth converting. The Gauntlets of Heat were originally by David Baldwin. Each of the spell abilities were originally usable a certain number of times per day, but I based it on the Staff of Fire. Produce flame and heat metal are druid spells, and heat metal is on the bard's list as well, so I restricted attunement to those classes. I also use elementalist wizards and sorcerers, so I opened attunement up to them as well.

One of the abilities, flame arrow, is not a 5e spell, so I updated the 3.5e version. I'm adding it to my ranger, sorcerer, and wizard spell lists. I'm on the fence about the "at higher levels" portion. That's an additional 10d6 worth of damage for each spell slot, which is a lot. Of course, I'm picturing using this to ignite 1 arrow each of a unit of archers in a mass battle as the initial shot in an attack, with each requiring a hit roll and not targeting the same thing. With the short duration, it's not reasonable for a single archer to go through all of them before duration expires.

Gauntlets of Heat
Very rare wondrous item, requires attunement
You must be a druid, bard or elementalist to become attuned to the gauntlets.

These gauntlets are capable of generating heat and fire upon mental command. You can use an action to expend some of the gauntlet’s 10 charges to cast one of the following spells without using any components, using your spell save DC.

Produce Flame (1 charge)
Burning hands (1 charge)
Heat metal (2 charges)
Flame arrow (3 charges)

For each additional charge you expend, you can cast the spells at a higher level slot.

The gauntlets regain 1d6 + 4 expended charges each day at dawn. However, if you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the gauntlets blacken, crumbles into cinders, and is destroyed.

Flame Arrow
3rd level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (drop of oil and a small piece of flint)
Duration: 1 minute
You turn up to 50 pieces of ammunition (such as arrows, bolts, shuriken, and stones) into fiery projectiles. Each piece of ammunition deals an extra 1d6 points of fire damage to any target it hits. A flaming projectile can easily ignite a flammable object or structure, but it won’t ignite a creature it strikes.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you can effect an additional 10 arrows for every spell slot above 3rd.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/12/gauntlets-of-heat-flame-arrow.html

 

[Bupp]

Harrowhelm
Artifact, requires attunement
You must be a non-psionic character that can wear metallic armor to attune the Harrowhelm.

When first found, this helm appears to be any other sort of normal steel helmet; it radiates magic, however, and faint runes may be seen on the inside rim of the helm.

You gain the ability to generate a mind blast up to three times per day, but only once in any single round. The Harrowhelm emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or take 22 (4d8+4) psychic damage and be stunned for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

You are also immune to psychic damage except for mind blast, but the helm grants Advantage on saving throws against the mind blast.

You also gain Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). The Harrowhelm’s spell save DC is 15, +5 to hit with spell attacks. You can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components.

At will: mage hand (the hand is invisible)
3/day each: jump, misty step, nondetection (self only), tongues
1/day each: plane shift, telekinesis

The Harrowhelm has two disadvantages. First, it attracts the attention of all psionic creatures within a half-mile radius as soon as it is put on (whether or not any of its powers are immediately used). Though it does not necessarily anger such creatures, it will be easy for these beings to locate and track the helm wearer as long as they stay within this range; they need only concentrate mentally to do this.

The second disadvantage manifests itself when a psionic character puts on the helm. The unfortunate wearer will immediately be attacked by the mind blast effect, and has Disadvantage on saves against the mind blast.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/12/harrowhelm.html

 

[Bupp]

I'll continue with my weekend barrage of posts, this is one by Ed Greenwood and was a pretty straightforward conversion.


Trumpet of Doom
Very rare wondrous item
When the trumpet of doom is winded, all human, demi-human, and humanoid skeletons and corpses within a 60 foot radius about the horn will be brought into unlife, as per the spell animate dead. All of the undead will obey you without question, to the utmost of their ability.

The greater the number of undead animated, however, the shorter the time that they will remain active. If only one skeleton or zombie is animated, it will remain active for 60 hours under your control. If two are animated, they will be active for 30 hours, three will be active for 20 hours, and if 4 or more skeletons and/or zombies are activated, they will be animated for only 10 hours before they collapse again.

The undead created by the trumpet of doom may be commanded to “go down!” (at which they will disintegrate into dust) if the user of the horn wishes it; otherwise, the undead will serve until destroyed, dispelled, or their time runs out. Use of a trumpet of doom is not considered to be a good act, though sounding it to test its properties is not evil.

The trumpet of doom may only be sounded once per month. Using it more often will produce no results.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/12/trumpet-of-doom.html

 

[Bupp]

Next item up was originally a psionic item by Roger E. Moore. Most of my reworking was just editing.

Vision Globe
Rare wondrous item
This is a crystal sphere 6 inches in diameter. When you hold the globe in both hands you can project images that you receive from spells such as clairvoyance, ESP, telepathy, ect., so that the images will be visible to those who look into the globe. Any mental pictures that are received from the mind of a contacted being, or images that show what a location looks like, are depicted in the vision globe. The globe will remain inert if it is held by a character who cannot use it.

The vision globe will not transmit sound or speech, but can depict words if they come through as mental images (for example, if someone pictures in his mind what the word “dog” looks like, instead of thinking the word “dog” as the label that identifies a mental image of the animal).

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/12/vision-globe.html

 

[Bupp]

Let's mix things up with a cursed item, the everstriking sword, originally by Stephen Martin and appearing in Dragon Magazine #91. Pretty straightforward conversion, except I added the bit about trading for exhaustion. The original also drained additional points if a creature could only be hit by a certain plus weapon, but since that has been replaced by damage resistance, I left it out.

Everstriking
Cursed magic weapon

An everstriking sword always hits an intended target unless an impossible blow is attempted, such as striking at a target that is out of range of all attacks. This weapon has no bonuses to hit or damage. However, a peculiar effect comes into play when such a sword is used in combat.

If the sword is swung at an opponent and a miss is rolled, then you lose a number of hit points equal to the difference between the failed to hit roll and the target’s AC, making the strike hit, in effect using the your own energy to guide the attack home. Ten hit points worth of damage drained can be “traded” for a level of exhaustion. This energy drain will be felt as a sudden, sharp pain coupled with a feeling of exhaustion.

Any character who uses this sword once in combat will be cursed to always draw the sword in any further combat, and will ignore all other weapons that he carries in favor of this one.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/12/everstriking-sw.html

 

[Bupp]

The Sword of Assassination was originally written by Bruce E. Wright, but here merely provides inspiration for my write up here, since his version relies heavily on the AD&D assassination rules. Hopefully I roll well on my 2d20.


Sword of Assassination
Unique magic sword
The sword of assassination, also known as the ruby sword, is a potent weapon in the hands of an assassin. If handled by any other type of character, the sword appears to be (and can be used as) a regular blade.

When used by an assassin character, the true nature of the sword of assassination is revealed. It appears as a short sword made of ruby, with a dull red glow to it, enough to shed dim light.

The sword of assassination has the following special abilities in the hands of an assassin:

When in disguise, the true appearance of the ruby sword can be concealed as any other normal weapon, as small as a dagger or as large as a pike or lance. No matter what weapon it appears as, you have proficiency in it.

You can use your Assassinate ability against any creature in the first round of combat, even if the target has already acted in that round.

When you use your Death Strike ability, the strike does triple damage on a failed save.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/12/sword-of-assassination.html

 

[Bupp]

Since the Everstriking Sword was one of my more popular posts recently, I'm happy to bring you another "cursed" weapon. This creation by David Baldwin is not so much cursed, you can rid yourself of it, but it does come with a drawback.


Sword of Cowardice
Cursed magic sword

Developed by gods of mischief, such as Loki, this weapon is a magical sword +3 with a pommel formed in the shape of an animal,
monster, or human head. This wonderful weapon, however, has also been infused with a cowardly personality. The first time it is swung at an opponent in combat, the sword’s head-shaped pommel will shriek in terror and cry for help. The noise will alert all creatures within a 120 foot radius. The sword will continue to yell and cry for 2-12 rounds unless a silence spell is cast upon it.

The sword will also attempt to avoid combat, twisting in the user’s hands. The holder must make a successful Strength saving throw at the start of every combat round, or else the sword twists out of the user’s grasp and falls to the floor, still shrieking. If the user can hold onto the weapon, he may wield it normally during that round, with all appropriate bonuses to hit and damage.

Some of these swords are so timid that even being brought within sighting distance of a non-human monster will cause them to start shrieking. Though these swords are not cursed to remain with a particular owner, they are often regarded as too valuable to dispose of (how many +3 swords does one find?) and are kept despite their disadvantages.


http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/12/sword-of-cowardice.html

 

[Bupp]

Continuing on with Dragon Magazine #91, we get the Sword of Night, originally by Stephen Martin. The only changes I made were updating the darkness to match the blinded condition (which I included in the description). I was going to match the fear effect to the frightened condition, but it has a lot of overlap with blinded, so I left it as is.

Sword of Night
Rare magic weapon
Though many magical swords shed light, a sword of night, also known as a black sword, sheds darkness. You determine the radius of the sphere of darkness given off by the sword; it can be from 5 feet to 25 feet, in 5-foot increments. Within this radius, all creatures but you have the blinded condition.
• A blinded creature can’t see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature’s attack rolls have disadvantage.
You see normally in all respects, however, and can use the sword as a +1 weapon.

This sword can also cause fear in all creatures within the darkness who fail a Wisdom saving throw. This fear power is generated at your unspoken command, and may be produced up to three times per day. Creatures affected by the fear will move away from the darkness at full speed for 2-7 rounds.

A daylight spell negates both the darkness and fear powers.

http://5egrognard.blogspot.com/2014/12/sword-of-night.html