D&D 5E Unicorn horn

[tglassy]

I was DMing, and one of my players decided to go hunting for wolf pelts. On the way, I rolled a random wilderness encounter and she came across a unicorn. Well, they were near the wolf pack they had been tracking, so wolves attacked.

Long story short, the unicorn tried to help her and wound up dying in the process, saving her life at the same time. She cried, it was great. Then she touched the unicorn horn and it came off in her hand, and she wound up with a three foot long unicorn horn. Basically, I figure since it died while helping her, it was "giving" her his horn.

She he doesn't know what to do with it yet, but made the comment that she might want to make it into a rapier, which I would be fine with. However, she's going to be searching out someone who might know what she can do with a unicorn horn, and I'm kind of stumped.


So, what are things I could let her do with a unicorn horn? If I let her make a weapon, what would it's properties be? I'm kind of stumped at this point. What do y'all think?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Looking at the Monster Manual entry for unicorn as some inspiration, I found a few choice bits I'd embrace if I were the DM in this situation.

Namely, a bit that says "...unicorn horn weapons strike with divine force."

I'd go big, personally, and mage a unicorn horn rapier a magic weapon that requires attunement, deals an additional 1d8 radiant damage on a hit, and has the unicorn's healing touch power (3/day healing of 2d8+2 hp and curing all diseases/neutralizing all poisons) usable by the wielder.

Edit to add: and of course, there are more little bits mineable for inspiration in the unicorn monster entry, between the "sacred horns" paragraph, lair features, and stat block itself.

 

[Nagol]

As a weapon, it probably would be okish, wrongly weighted for human arms and offering only a thrusting attack.

Traditionally, the unicorn horn is a universal remedy for poison and disease either neutralizing it on contact or curing the afflicted by ingesting small quantities of ground horn.

 

[Imaculata]

The weapon would definitely be aligned to good, and would probably also radiate good. Maybe the weapon has a chance to instantly destroy any undead struck by it (they make a save).

 

[Lanliss]

You might even make a weapon crafted with the horn a sentient weapon, with the spirit of the unicorn residing within. That aside, I second Aaron on the rapier idea, but I think a bow would be cool too. Maybe require the bow to be crafted with a mix of unicorn horn and some divine wood, with both being heavily magicked by some ancient blacksmith that lives far away, and knows well the secrets of crafting Unicorn horn.

 

[Sunseeker]

I think [MENTION=6701872]AaronOfBarbaria[/MENTION] probably got this one spot on, and I wouldn't worry too much about it being inappropriately weighted or whatever, there are so many ridiculous things that can be magically made into weapons that this weapon probably wouldn't feel very magical if you slapping a bunch of restrictions on what kind of attacks you make make it. And an extra 1d8 radiant with some healing effect sounds reasonable.

 

[Jester David]

I have it work as a wand of cure wounds. But a dagger or rapier works as well.

 

[Leatherhead]

Basically any item that deals with healing or woodland stuff is appropriate. Even something like the Amulet of Health would be ok.

A custom Figurine of Wondrous Power that summons a unicorn would be cool.

 

[pukunui]

I endorse [MENTION=6701872]AaronOfBarbaria[/MENTION]'s suggestion upthread.

As an aside, I ran an adventure a while back in which one of the PCs was a fey warlock whose patron was Lurue, the unicorn queen. I gave her a rod of the pact keeper that was made from a unicorn's horn.

More recently, I ran an old 3e-era Dungeon mag adventure involving a unicorn whose horn had been turned into a spear. Meanwhile, the unicorn was trapped in a form that resembled a normal horse. The point of the adventure was for the PCs to recover the spear from a dead barbarian's barrow and restore the unicorn to his normal self. The spear was an artifact-level magic item, but it was still pretty cool. It was a +3 spear that also did 2d8 extra radiant dmg. It also granted the wielder immunity to poison and proficiency in Sylvan. It also extinguished all nonmagical flames within 30 feet of it. It had 3 charges that could be expended to use a unicorn's Healing Touch ability, and a 1/day use of a unicorn's Teleport ability. It was also sentient. Oh, and only a chaotic good person could attune to it.

 

[was]

...I'd agree with something that was good-aligned and involved with healing.