Chapter Three
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Magic Items Magic items fuel excitement in the game. They provide players with interesting options they might not otherwise possess and serve as rewards for accomplishing great tasks.
agic items also give a setting a very specific feel. The kinds of items that exist in a world, the kinds of artifacts that have woven themselves into its history, help define the world. This chapter provides new items and artifacts for the Diamond Throne setting, as well as suggestions for items you can adapt from other sources. If a magic item described in this chapter allows use of a spell, it does not allow use of the heightened or diminished version of that spell, unless otherwise noted.
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Magic Items From the DMG Most items from Chapter Eight in the DMG are available in the lands of the Diamond Throne, with only a few exceptions based on some simple guidelines. The following items are not appropriate: 1. Any item based on alignment (items that detect alignment or have effects based on the alignment of the wielder or a foe). 2. Any item based on creatures that do not exist in the Diamond Throne setting (orcs, gnolls, eye tyrants, and so on). 3. Any item whose main feature revolves around a class that does not appear in Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed. 4. Any item that is made out of mithral, a material that does not exist in the Diamond Throne setting. 5. Any item whose main feature is an effect that does not appear in Arcana Unearthed in any way, or that appears in a different version (haste, resurrection, charm person). The easiest thing to do is to convert these effects to Arcana Unearthed effects: use speed burst rather than haste, raise the dead rather than resurrection, and charm rather than charm person. Some effects, like barbarian rage or wish, do not appear in Arcana Unearthed, but you could incorporate them into the game as special magic-item-only properties. Some specific examples of excluded items include: • Boc’s blessed book • boots of speed • druid’s vestment • dwarven thrower • elven chain • holy avenger • horn of good/evil • phylactery of faithfulness
Other items are fine, including but not limited to the following: • +1 keen short sword • bag of holding • bracers of armor • cloak of displacement • gauntlets of ogre power • gem of brightness • lyre of building • ring of evasion • rod of security
DMG Item Prerequisites Some perfectly allowable DMG items have as their prerequisites spells not found in Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed. Simply replace them with similar spells of the same level. Some items may have prerequisites for which Arcana Unearthed actually has a better spell prerequisite, such as energy blade for the brilliant energy weapon special ability.
Determining Treasure Use all the rules and guidelines in the DMG for determining the treasure possessed by a creature or associated with an encounter. Likewise, if you wish, use the tables for generating magic items in Chapter Eight of the DMG; when you generate an inappropriate item, use one from this chapter instead. However, you may wish to consider, when using Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed, forgoing random treasure assignment altogether. It is easier for a DM to maintain control of a campaign when she assigns specific treasures of her choosing. Doing so allows her to decide whether a treasure should be a great boon to the characters or just a simple reward. She can also occasionally tailor the treasure found to the PCs involved. Perhaps most importantly, she can tailor the treasure to the NPCs involved, creating more logical treasure hoards.
Purchasing Magic Items It is slightly more difficult to buy non-single-use magic items in the lands of the Diamond Throne than implied in the core rules. Most such items spellcasters of the realm create for their own use and do not intend to sell (at least not originally); people of this setting have slightly less wealth than implied in the core rules—although not so much that the DM should change the PC wealth by level charts or the
