Sometimes, right in the thick of things, a DM has to
create a monster or an item that just doesn’t exist in any Players’ or Dungeon
Master’s Guide. Maybe the situation calls for a unique reward, maybe the
storyline demands it, or perhaps the DM just wants to lay the smackdown on
his/her PCs. Whatever the reason, a DM should never be intimidated to go off
the beaten trail and improvise a good original idea. You never know until you
try, right? In that vein, I thought I’d
share with you seven of the more interesting items and monsters I’ve home-brewed
when the situation required something completely different.
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The
Doppelganger Mirror
This is one I made up for a
dungeon many years ago and have brought it back at least two or three times
since. It usually presents itself as a six-foot high floor mirror with some
sort of canvas or sheet covering it. Once the PCs take the sheet off, the magic
in the mirror activates and it creates a perfect, yet evil and violent, copy of
the person/people that gaze into it, including their weapons, armor, items, and
skills. In reality, these doppelgangers are just an illusion but can be deadly
for those PCs that cannot disbelieve.
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The
Character in a Crystal
Here’s a convention I’ve used
dozens of times. Need an NPC to show up instantly? Perhaps a new PC has just
joined the group and you are wondering how to get them into the game? Use a
Character in a Crystal™! These are usually gumball sized crystals with a tiny
figure inside or sometimes they are regular gems that project a weird
telepathic voice when held. Either way, when you break these suckers open or
smash them on the floor, a perfectly preserved person is summoned. These make
great vehicles to introduce new characters because, a) the freed person is
usually very grateful to their emancipators and may even owe a life debt which
is a perfect excuse for them to tag along with the group; and b) perhaps the
freed person has some vital knowledge on the dungeon or quest in which the PCs
are currently engaged. Also, a new PC or NPC joining the party makes for more
dynamic treasure than a bunch of gold coins. It’s also a little fun to see a
player, who knows that they are trapped inside a gem, squirm and beg the other
players to let them out.
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The
Edible Spellbook
Alright, I have no shame in
admitting that the idea for this one came from the animated Gargoyles television show, but I still
think that it’s a cool idea. A Wizard’s spell book is the single most important
item they will ever own and is one of the easiest items in the game to
destroy/lose. Water damage, fire damage, acid damage, dispel magic, pick
pockets, and many more threats are constantly trying to ruin your Mage career
by making you bookless. Thus, my solution was to protect it in the safest place
I could think of, my character’s own body. By placing a simple enchantment on
the book, it would make it possible to ‘eat’ the book and regurgitate it back
up whenever required. Maybe not the most elegant method but it worked for me.
In recent years, I believe that this innovation has become somewhat replaced
with the idea of tattooing your spells on your skin. Still, I find the notion
clever and a lot less time consuming than putting on all that ink.
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The Lepreling
This was a creature/race of my
own creation and it was born out of a simple question: What would happen if a
Leprechaun and a Halfling had a child? My answer was a Lepreling! They are a
slightly smaller version of a Halfling with many natural illusion abilities and
an insatiable desire for collecting gold. They received bonuses to both
dexterity and intelligence and were damn proficient with a sheleighleigh.
Unfortunately, my prototype was very short lived due to his far too curious/greedy
nature.
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Hat of
Projected Thoughts
This was a cursed item that I
came up with on the fly one day. Basically, whenever a PC or NPC puts the hat
on, it immediately projects all of the wearer’s thoughts directly into the
brains of any other person standing within ten feet. This could be handy if
someone has information you desperately need and it can also be hilarious if
someone is thinking about someone else in a less than flattering way. The only
catch is, once the hat is worn only a powerful remove curse spell can get it
off and eventually hearing everything someone else is thinking can get very
annoying.
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The Wagon/Carriage
of Holding
To quote Dr. Who, “It’s bigger
on the inside.” I’ve used this creation many times usually when the PCs are
going to be ‘on the road’ for a long periods. Although it may look like a
normal covered wagon or enclosed carriage, the extra-dimensional space on the
inside can be as large as a tennis court and is sometimes divided into
inn-sized rooms so that each PC has their own personal space. The downside to
this practical transportation is the fact that they seem to have a knack for
falling off cliffs, bridges, and ravines or being stolen/borrowed by pesky NPCs
with most of the player’s gear inside (wink).
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Displacer
Dragon
I’ll admit that I created this
horror to deliberately humble a party whose egos had inflated to roughly the
size of New Jersey. As a lesson, I wanted to confront them with a nasty
original creature with some unexpected powers and abilities. Thus I gave birth
to the Displacer Dragon. This was an adult Black Dragon who had managed to
blend its powers with that of a Displacer Beast. The result was a massive,
spell wielding, multiple attack per round Dragon with the ability to blink in
and out of existence and appear almost anywhere on the battlefield at any time.
To make matter’s worse, this dragon was also capable of teleporting a random PC
away into the void for a round at a time. In the end, the party settled for
running away with only two of their five members unconscious. Mission
accomplished.
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