Nord.pubPlayers when you give them an obviously cursed item be like:
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PugJesushttps://media.piefed.social/posts/0j/NO/0jNOUWPOID9b2rN.webp
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Meanwhile I don’t accept any downside lol
“Makes player literally a god, removes one potion from inventory.”
Welp, not using that one then….
Couldn’t they have just attracted the ringwraiths to an ambush? I know the witch king is supposed to be unkillable, but there’s 8 others…
Maybe they could have worked with the wraiths to form some sort of wraith financial sectors and eventually join the Middle Earth Union through corporalization.
Neoliberalism to bind them.
The witch king was absolutely not unkillable, just hard to kill. Eowyn slew him after Merry stabbed him in the leg with a barrow blade. There is no indication that, had Frodo and Sam failed, the witch king would have risen again.
If I recall correctly, it had been prophesied that he could not be killed by a man, which the people in-setting took to mean he couldn’t be killed by a person. It’s only after he died that people realized it meant he’d be killed by a woman.
Everybody gangsta till they get stabbed in the face.
You are correct regarding the implication, but I think it’s a bit different than that. The blade Merry uses to stab the witch king was from the barrow downs, and was enchanted to be able to harm the witch king. So it was less “oh duh she’s not a man, problem solved” and more “his magic shield is busted, stab him quick!”
I know all that, I’m saying they would have planned under the assumption they couldn’t kill him.
Which answers my initial question, I guess. They never tried to use the ring to lure the ringwraiths into an ambush, because if the witch king takes the ring and gets away, they’re done.
I loved giving my players items with obvious drawbacks. I presented the wizard this item (heavily inspired by Crawl: Stone Soup) :
Hat of Pondering
His reactions as he read each line item were pretty great. “Oh? Oh! WOW. Oh. Hm. Hmm.”
Of course he used it for several sessions, and of course it almost got him killed.
Put it on when you need to figure something out, take it off when it’s fightin’ time.
Ah, but implicit from my understanding of D&D standard magic items (and I should have been explicit) is the effects persist so long as it’s attuned to you. Good thinking, though.
Ah, I wasn’t actually familiar with that mechanic. Good way to balance magical items!
Nah, you need to be wearing the item. Most often require attunement as well (so you can’t just stack a ton of magical items on someone, generally you can only attune to three items). So if you take it off, generally the effects go away.
That said, you could easily make the item give you a permanent debuff while attuned and a buff only while wearing it.
Good feedback. The intent is to prevent hot swapping it in combat, so if I used it again I’d probably write something explicit like the benefits require attunement and wearing the hat, and the penalties persist while attuned.
Could just toss on it that it takes an action to put it on or take it off.
I dunno why, but I have the hunch that this Sean is a real wangrod. I mean he even stole the characters Background from Viggos character!
I didn’t even make the connection until now that the Fellowship had two Seans in it.
yeah. And in any case I can recommend this video wholeheartedly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkXMxiAGUWg
Thanks for sharing. That was great!
The ring turns Hobbits invisible. Men become something stronger.