As such, the ones that deal damage are roughly balanced against that system's existing ranged weapons, often taking an extra item slot to account for non-combat utility, having worse quality, or having restrictions on their use.
My goals were:
- call out a specific noncombat usage, without ruling out other creative possibilities. e.g. the Electromagnetic Gauntlet attracts ferrous objects, but could potentially also be short-circuited to start a fire (probably at the cost of immediate loss of quality)
- try to write items that say something about the setting and the wielder’s relationship to it. A Carabid Ring is granted to every graduate of the arcane college of Entomon — are you a graduate or did you just shank one in an alley?
- provide easily extractable mechanics information, but also write item descriptions using natural language, and as system-neutral as possible.
- text I can release (once it’s fully-baked) under Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0), i.e. not based on the text of any 5e cantrips or anything else OGL.
Let me know if you find these useful, either in your Knave games or adapted to the game of your choice.
1. TABLET OF LAW
2 slots, 1 hand, quality ❑❑❑❑Commune with Deity: 1 turn to cast, learn local deity’s commandment (tablet holds up to 5).
Speak Commandment: Int vs Cha, force creature to obey commandment for L turns.
This clay tablet still burns cold with the pale flame of its divine firing. Cuneiform marks corresponding to no mortal tongue swim across its surface, reflecting the laws of powerful local gods. If a city worships Jupiter above all others, the tablet will reflect this, but as one nears the city gates, the tablet may show Janus’s will instead.
The tablet’s bearer can spend 10 minutes to commune with the tablet and “fix” one of the local deity’s laws in an intelligible form. A deity might have multiple teachings, but the tablet can hold at most five. Fixing an additional law requires the tablet to “forget” a previous one.
The bearer can utter any of the tablet’s fixed laws to attempt to compel a creature to obey it for a short time.
2. SIX COWRIE SHELLS
1 slot, 1 hand, quality ❑❑❑❑❑❑ (each loss indicates a destroyed shell)Illusory Monster: conjures random illusion, which disappears if struck. Caster can use action to direct illusion to move 40 ft and/or make a melee attack (caster’s Int vs Cha, d6 damage).
Six cowrie shells plundered from an enormous board game in some forgotten king’s tomb. When thrown, will conjure an illusory monster — the more shells that land aperture-up, the more dangerous-appearing the illusion will be. The illusion fools sight and hearing, but is intangible and cannot interact with objects.
Regardless of form, the illusion moves as fast as a human. The wielder can direct the monster to move and/or attack a creature. Being an illusion, it assaults the victim’s mind. The monster vanishes when struck with an attack, including harmless “attacks” like tossing a pebble through it.
Thrown shells must be retrieved before they can be thrown again. Throwing fewer shells is possible should the owner so desire, or in the event some shells are lost or destroyed.
The following monster suggestions are from BX: Essentials: Monsters, number of shells landing aperture-up corresponds to monster Hit Dice (rounded down).
0 — normal rat, normal bat
1 — giant ferret, skeleton
2 — rock baboon, pit viper
3 — mountain lion, grey ooze
4 — dire wolf, wraith
5 — cockatrice, owl bear
6 — manticore, white dragon
3. CARABID RING
1 slot, 1 hand, quality ❑❑❑Caustic Spray: Int vs Dex, 1d4 damage to up to 2 adjacent creatures/objects within 20 ft.
Animate Beetle: beetle-construct animates, can be given 3-word commands.
This fine silver ring is set with a life-size bombardier beetle carved from jet. It is given to all graduates of the College of Entomon, a magic school feared for their uncanny control over insects. As an action, the wearer can command the beetle to unleash a spray of boiling caustic fluid, or cause the beetle to animate and leave the ring. An animated beetle can carry 1 pound, and be given 3-word commands.
4. LEADEN SKULL OF THE DAMNED ALCHEMIST
2 slots, 2 hands, quality ❑❑❑Transmute Object: Turn object to lead for 1 turn or until used again.
Transmute Creature: Int vs Con, 1d8 damage and slowed to 1/3 movement for 1 round. 40 ft range.
The skull of some wretched alchemist who erred in his attempt to create the Philosopher's Stone, the resulting Elixir of Life transmuting his bones to lead. A flicker of golden flame in its empty eye sockets indicates some remnant of the false Stone's power remains.
The wielder can hold the skull aloft and use its pale golden gaze to transmute an object to lead for 10 minutes or until the gaze is is directed elsewhere. Living creatures are more resistant, and will only partially transmute for a few seconds, if at all. A creature thus affected has its movement reduced to 1/3 of normal, and is effectively poisoned by the disruption to its physiology.
5. EMBROIDERY HOOP OF THE TOURMALINE COURT
1 slot, 2 hands, quality ❑❑❑It takes 1 turn to prepare a usage of either of the following, but only 1 action to cast.
Glyph of Pain: Int vs Armour, d6 damage, 40 ft range.
Plush Conjuration: create plush version of an object, appears adjacent to you, lasts 1 turn.
A well-used pair of concentric whalebone hoops, holding taut a magic cloth woven from the fleece of the mythical Vegetable Lamb. Created as covert magical tools for the ladies in waiting of the Tourmaline Court, the secret of the hoop’s enchantment was lost when that kingdom fell.
The hoop is found with 3d6 feet of alchemically treated thread, enough to stitch that many motifs. Additional thread must be created in a safe haven, and costs 100 cp per foot.
Stitching a motif into the cloth takes 10 minutes. A completed motif immediately disappears, creating a magical effect. A motif can be left almost finished, only requiring a few seconds to complete and activate.
Knowledge of only two types of motif has survived. The Glyph of Pain is a crude sympathetic magic that can injure a nearby creature, while the Plush Conjuration causes a full-sized knitted facsimile of an object to leap forth from the cloth. This object is whatever is represented by the motif’s stitching, and can be no longer than 10 ft in any dimension. It is short-lived, soon decaying into motes of dust.
6. ELECTROMAGNET GAUNTLET
2 slots, 1 hand, quality ❑Magnetic Pull: 1 action to cast, magnetically attracts wearer and an iron/steel object within 20 ft. Creatures holding such objects may resist (Int vs Str)
Discharge: 1 action to cast, Int vs Armour, d8 damage to a target within melee range
This heavy glove laden with voltaic piles and copper coils taps into the wielder's magical power to augment its crude application of natural philosophical principles. It regularly breaks down.
The wielder can attract an iron or steel object from up to 20 ft away. If the object is held by a creature, the creature can attempt to resist being disarmed. The wielder pulls lighter objects toward them, but is themself pulled toward heavier objects.
The wielder can also discharge a stroke of lightning against a target in melee range.
7. MOON STONE
2 slots, 2 hands, quality ❑❑❑❑Tidal Control: Manipulate water level of lake, sea or ocean by up to 5 ft
Moonbeam: Int vs Dex, d8 damage, must be line of sight between moon and creature
This pearlescent sphere holds mysterious power over the moon. Stolen from a colonised people. They want it back.
The stone has power over the tides, and can call down a baleful moonbeam onto a creature, searing their flesh with a cool radiance.
8. QUICKSILVER SHARD
4 slots, no hands, quality ❑❑❑Shard Kinesis: move/reshape shard within melee range, can support or exert 5 lb (1 slot) of force.
Forceful Blow: Int vs Armour, d10 damage, melee range.
This alien metal has great inertial mass, but transfers its gravitational mass to its wielder. It thus hovers next to them, but can be telekinetically moved with subtlety, or swung as a powerful bludgeon.
Being a liquid, it can only support 5 pounds of material before surface tension breaks and the material falls through. It is similarly limited in the sustained pressure it can exert when telekinetically pushed against a surface.
Unlike mundane quicksilver, it does not alloy with metals.
9. BOTTLED SPIRITS
1 slot, 2 hands, quality ❑ (depleted quality can be restored with a living sacrifice)Psychic Miasma: Int vs Cha, 1d4 damage
Ghastly Ageing: Int vs Con, target ages 2d20 years for 6 turns or until used again
This odd bottle’s glass surface is etched with geometric binding patterns almost invisible to the eye. A dense purple fog swirls within.
Uncorking the bottle releases a spirit of despair, afflicting a nearby creature. It can either psychically assail its victim, or cause it to age magically. A magically aged creature will age 2d20 years for 1 hour or until the bottle is used again. This can't kill a creature, but it may affect its physical stats negatively, positively (e.g. a child, a dragon) or not at all (e.g. an elven young adult).
Occasionally the spirits grow restless, and will cease obeying the bottle’s owner until an intelligent creature is sacrificed in their name.
10. IRON ROSE
2 slots, 1 hand, quality ❑❑❑Draw Blood: Int vs Con, d8 damage, 40 ft range, creature must already be physically wounded.
Collect Blood: Attracts spilt blood within a 40 ft radius
This rose-shaped haematite crystal exerts an uncanny pull on nearby spilt blood. Any who wield it can even draw blood forth from an open wound with a mere thought. The crystal digests any blood it touches, adding iron to its mass — eventually it will divide in two and spirit one daughter away to find a new master. It knows to do this while unseen.
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