Monday, March 8, 2010

S&S Greyhawk - Amulet, Staff, Curvy Knife


I thought it would be cool if Magic Users and Priests in the Sword & Sorcery Greyhawk setting, perhaps known collectively as "Sorcerers" to better fit the genre, had some iconic "tools of the trade".

Staff: The staff is an important artifact in any Sorcerer's kit. A Sorcerer spends hours perfecting his staff, perhaps cutting it from a twisted ancient tree growing in a cursed graveyard, then carving into it arcane runes and symbols, imbuing it with dubious unguents and fluids, and performing weird rituals with it, such as placing it in the hands of a mummified virgin beneath a gibbous moon. Using such a staff replaces the need for material components in non-divinatory spellcasting, up to a value of 10gp. It also allows a sorcerer to re-roll any "1"s when determining damage. A broken staff robs the sorcerer of these benefits and it takes 1 week per level of the sorcerer to properly prepare a new one.

Curvy Knife: This wavy dagger, or athame in some parlance, is invested with a sorcerer's power similarly to the staff above, but conveys different benefits. If used in divination type spells it drastically reduces the chance of failure. Further, if waved at a target, it allows the sorcerer to "remotely" apply a spell that would normally require a touch, such as Shocking Grasp or a Reversed cure spell. A broken or damaged athame must be replaced as the staff above.

Amulet: This sorcerous tool may come in many different forms, such as a golden sun-shaped disk, a pewter serpent with ruby eyes, or even the shrunken head of a dispatched rival. Prepared and replaced as the items above, the Amulet conveys two important benefits. Firstly, if given to a trusted ally, it allows telepathic communication between sorcerer and agent at a range of up to one mile per level of the sorcerer. Secondly, when worn by the owner, it can hold a single protective spell cast into it, such as Shield or Protection from Evil, that may be activated immediately when the sorcerer is threatened with harm, before initiative is rolled, and does not count against any further actions the caster may take in the remainder of the round.

3 comments:

  1. I believe that the kris blade is the actual name of the curvy blade you are describing here. More info can be found here:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris

    An athame is indeed a blade used to direct magical energies, and a kris can be used as an athame. More info can be found here on athames:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athame

    Hope This Helps,
    Flynn

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are excellent. I'm going to borrow these ideas for some of the magic users in our current game! :)

    ReplyDelete

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