The Staff of Random Magic
The staff is beautiful to look at, made of pure ebony wood with a large diamond set at the top and rusted iron buttons along it's side. It gives off an aura of very powerful magic.The ebony is scarred by a hit from a sword of some kind.
The Staff of Random Magic was not allways like this. It was one of the many items made by the powerful sorceror, Reingold of Colomansland. The sorceror ordered a staff to be made of the finest ebony wood in the entire kingdom. A large diamond was set at the top of it to channel the magic and twenty iron buttons were set along the length of the staff.
Reingold worked on the staff for ten long years, and put no less then twenty magical spells into it, taking six months at a time to make sure that each spell was as good as it could be. He placed spells of fighting, healing and disguise into it,along with others that might be useful. No sooner was it made ready for use then he had to use it in the Battle of Silverrock Pass when those who hated or envied Colomansland gathered their forces to destroy the little kingdom.
During the battle somebody managed to get close enough to chop once at the staff with his sword before himself being cut down.After the battle was over and King Coloman's forces had won, Reingold was ordered to heal the wounded. He pressed the button to trigger the healing spell and a bolt of lightning killed the man he was trying to heal. Subsequent investigation showed that no button did what it was supposed to do because the sword cut had disrupted the magical flow.
The King ordered him to destroy the now untrustworthy Staff but Reingold could not bear to cut up the staff that he had put a decade of his life into making. So he threw the staff into the fast-flowing waters of the River Nine to go where it would.The buttons rusted, but they still worked when somebody found the staff, only now nobody knows what spell would come out of the staff whenever it was used...
Magical Properties:
Whenever the staff is used, roll a d20 and the number that is rolled is the spell that is cast.
1-A lightning bolt comes out, made of blue lightning that does two d6 worth of damage on whoever it is aimed at, including PC's.
2-A healing spell heals two d6 worth of damage-if this hits an attacker by mistake it heals him/her/it
3-A cloud of the nearest biting/stinging insects, be they Bitemees,Love Bees, wasps, or anything else,appears.If in a fight they attack whoever is attacking the PC's, otherwise they attack the PC's
4-This spell drains the magic of either an attacker who knows magic, or failing that a PC..
5-The person that the spell hits is unable to scratch any itches or wipe any kisses away.This can be dangerous if the person is attacked by leeches, otherwise it is just annoying.It lasts for a day of gaming time.
6-The person that the spell hits, which might be a PC, finds that every third word that he/she says is a swear word.Mages cannot cast any complex spells.It lasts for two hours of gaming time.
7-This spell makes the PC's able to see Fae creatures for an hour of gaming time
8-This spell destroys one Lesser Undead, which is fine in combat, but not so good if the said lesser undead is working at a peaceful job.
9-This spell creates a spring of water-fine in a desert, not so good if you're in a boat
10-This spell gives a PC super strength to preform 1 action, if cast on an attacker by mistake, it doubles the strength of the attacker's next blow
11-This spell picks a lock-if there is no lock it opens a PC' belt buckle instead
12-This spell creates an illiousion that lasts for a minite only
13-This spell alerts the PC's to evil-a waste of time in combat, but good when trying to find out who's side an NPC is on.
14-This spell creates a fireball that causes 1 d10 of damage-if there are no attackers the fireball hits a PC instead.
15-This spell changes the sex, although not the race or the stats, of the person holding the staff for one day in gaming time.
16-This spell causes a magical ball of light to appear, to light up dark places
17-This spell resserects the freshly dead-however, the newly raised person is very weak indeed.
18-This spell turns a weapon to rust, if there are no attackers then it rusts the weapon of a PC. Magical weapons are uneffected.
19-This spell makes a person tell the truth for one hour of gaming time.
20-This spell repels attacking animals and insects but not humans,orcs ect or undead.
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? Responses (9)
Uh-huh.
It's allright. Not an incredibly original concept, but I'll give you a point for the well-fleshed backstory.
One thing, though. You said the buttons were made of copper? Copper doesn't rust.
4/5.
Iron. It reads iron. Well - I am not at all intrigued by this item. Just another Wand of Wonder. One plus point because it was not INTENDED to be random, but still. If you KNEW which spell you got when you pushed a button, just could not decide before caating, then it would be a nice and useful item - you could target the lightning bolt, but would HAVE to cast it. If you got a healing spell, you might choose the one to heal - of little use when nobody is wounded...
Why cannot cast a mage a spell when he is swearing? Example 'Bloody Ignishphaero Frikkin' Fireball you dorks!' It actually could burn HOTTER.
As it is written, nobody will ever use it. 3/5
When I read the item, they were copper buttons. It has been edited. Which is a good thing, of course!
This is another take on the Wand of Wonder, as mentioned but with the nice backstory, I would use this rather than the regular wand. Sometimes a new take yeilds new ideas, like The Deck of Fate, but this one is the same as any other.
3/5 - good work, could be better.
My two cents is that I am not that impressed by it. Honestly.
I like the idea about the damage to the staff disrupting the magic in it, but the 'push-button sorcery' bugs me a fair bit. I think, with the arbitrary and varied nature of the spells, it might be a 'closest possible target' situation. Zot, and suddenly a zombie miner who was hauling an ore cart some five leagues away falls apart.