Low Level Magic
by Beau YarbroughWhile coming up with some nice rewards for the PCs in my 5 Shires games, I wanted to NOT be handing out lots of gold or magical weapons, but I did want the various puzzles in Wit's End to have rewards behind them/nearby. So I hit upon using low, low level magic items that a wizard with time and creativity might create for their day-to-day lives.
A possible list of loot (some of it stolen pretty shamelessly from "Diablo"): --
Belt of Health - -1 to damage taken.
Bronze Badger - This quarter-sized detailed figurine can once a day be commanded to turn into a real, full-sized badger that will obey the owner's commands (Intelligence 9), including fighting on its owner's behalf. It will remain as a live badger for one hour a day, maximum. If slain, it returns to bronze form, forever useless thereafter.
Cloak of Thorns - Those attacking the wearer with claws, bite, bare hands or the like will be pierced by the thorns that grow out of this light brown cloak, and take two points of damage (1 point, if they make a reflex save/save versus spells).
Cloth of Cleaning - Actually, I got this from Usenet: A rag that cleans up messes, including polishing metal and so on, but the messes stay IN the cloth, which gets progressively funkier and nastier. It's just ordinary cloth, though, and is subject to burning (thankfully!), green slime and so on.
Kettle of Boiling - This earthenware kettle features a knob shaped like what can only be a hin's idea of an efreet: Stout, short and grinning ear to ear. When the knob is tapped, and the command ("boil") is said, any liquid within comes to a boil quickly, as evinced by the whistling dragon spout. The kettle itself is always cool to the touch.
Lizard stick - A gnome/halfling/dwarf-sized walking stick with a silver head sculpted to appear like a lizard sunning itself on a rock. The other end has a magically sharp silver point on it as well. The bearer can cast an additional first level spell a day, whether arcane or divine. (But if they can cast both, only ONE extra spell can be cast.) An additional spell is not memorised: Rather, immediately after a spell is cast, the bearer can declare the spell has not been forgotten, but can be used again. The walking stick also can be used as a club, and its silver head and point (which can be used for stabbing purposes) allow it to damage lycanthropes.
Mug of Sobriety - Alcohol drank from this mug will not have any of the effects of that alcohol ... other than, you know, having to go to the bathroom a lot.
Oak dachshund - (Actually spelled "duckshound," after the extinct hin clan that originally bred the dogs in Mystara). Acts as an alarm spell once a day.
Philtre of Performance - A thick potion that's tasteless and colourless when mixed with alcohol and temporarily improves the singing, storytelling and musicianship of the drinker. (5 ranks of performance in 3E; one point each in the Singing, Musical Instrument and Performance NWP in 2E.)
Reading Glasses - These "half-moon" reading glasses have a permanent comprehend languages spell cast on them, for reading purposes only. The user can also identify the language used.
Smoke pipe - Once a day, the user can cause the lit pipe -- using tobacco grown in the Shires only -- to produce the clouds of smoke effect of pyrotechnics. The user is not immune to those effects, however.
Dust of Dreams - This pouch contains 1d6 pinches of magical dust, each capable (on a successful hit) of causing the victim to be affected as per a sleep spell (with the usual hit dice/level factors applying).