Magical items that aren't always benign

[HopeDIV]

Though I'am sure BareMettle intends to incorporate cursed and other types of 'evil' items, this post means refers to items more neutral or 'grey'.

From what I've gathered, Sui Generis is about a world where everything has a purpose, and I certainly think only having beneficial magical items would be dull, but perhaps appropriate. However, having items 'beneficial' to only a certain type of character or setting would be fantastic. Or items that require some sort of payment/sacrifice.

i.e. A powerful thaumaturge, albit a very selfish one creates an amulet that would siphon life away from an ally if you are hurt and they block/take damage near you. This may even kill the ally, it would perfect for a lone wolf character but horrible for someone who has a loved companion.

Whether or not these items would say anything about it I don't know. Currently of the two magical items in Exanima one tells you what it does, the other does not. Might be mildly rage inducing to put such an amulet on and lose a follower you liked, though that just might be cost of putting on random old amulets.

Thoughts, feelings, hate's?

 

[MindSliver]

"There are many magic rings in this world Bilbo Baggins, and NONE of them should be used lightly"

I personally love the idea of finding a magical item, that you can tell is magical... but not being entirely sure what it does or if it's even a good thing. But at the same time I think there should be a way to find out... certainly not so simple as "please identify this for 10 coins mr cain sir." perhaps a library where you may need to do some reading to find out about a magical item of some kind or perhaps just needing to pay attention to the lore as you find it. but with no stats and no red/green numbers to tell us what's up... we definitely need a more organic method to figure out if something is helping or hurting us.

 

[zhuliks]

"There are many magic rings in this world Bilbo Baggins, and NONE of them should be used lightly"

I personally love the idea of finding a magical item, that you can tell is magical... but not being entirely sure what it does or if it's even a good thing. But at the same time I think there should be a way to find out... certainly not so simple as "please identify this for 10 coins mr cain sir." perhaps a library where you may need to do some reading to find out about a magical item of some kind or perhaps just needing to pay attention to the lore as you find it. but with no stats and no red/green numbers to tell us what's up... we definitely need a more organic method to figure out if something is helping or hurting us.

I think BM is good at hinting to things without telling it, like they did with glowing helm in current story. For example there could be a book telling a story of General Whatever who had mystical magical powers of being almost immortal in battle but all his soldiers were always feeling odd and weak, another scroll is a love letter to Mr Name Whatever who appears to be a famous military commander popular among ladies. Then later in the game you find a ring with strange aura that has N.W. engraving on it and thats it. So you have to put it 2 and 2 together to realize ring is siphoning life from allies.

 

[HopeDIV]

I think BM is good at hinting to things without telling it, like they did with glowing helm in current story. For example there could be a book telling a story of General Whatever who had mystical magical powers of being almost immortal in battle but all his soldiers were always feeling odd and weak, another scroll is a love letter to Mr Name Whatever who appears to be a famous military commander popular among ladies. Then later in the game you find a ring with strange aura that has N.W. engraving on it and thats it. So you have to put it 2 and 2 together to realize ring is siphoning life from allies.

Perhaps a bit more direct than that, but that's most definitely a welcomed feature in my eyes, at least with items that you wouldn't know their power from using it / tinkering around with it for more than a minute. After all even with our perspective, there would be things the Player character could deduce that the player himself/herself maybe couldn't.

 

[konggary]

I really like the idea of having appraisals- thaumaturges for magical items, master blacksmiths for legendary blades & armor.

Reserving the unknown aspect for certain pieces of equipment could make them that much more unique!
Owning an ancient & powerful piece of equipment of unknown origin (or obscure origin in books/scrolls) would make for quite the reward in a dungeon.

 

[MindSliver]

I could even see maybe going to a master black smith or religious archivist or something seeking information about an item and having him send you on a journey to find someone that might know or find a scroll that he's heard of that might shed light on the thing.

 

[NachoDawg]

The community aspect of having obscure item functions is also great, like in dark souls were the forums buzzed with people sharing the information they pieced together

 

[Knave]

I'd love to see malicious but fun items. A small ring that summons an outrageously mighty devil to kill you when you're alone and can't be taken off unless you trade it with some other player. Very skilled players may be able to beat the demon and get his cool weapon, but for 90% of people it would be a terrible curse.

But that's not what my rant will be about. Diablo 1 did that right. Items you wear may be good or bad but you won't really know unless you find out how they work or "identify them". There are some ways in which I see this working, and those can be overlapped:

1: Lore books scattered around the world with knowledge about all sorts of ancient items. Lore books would be used as a key (double click to use) then use them on the mystery item and see if it works. The right piece of lore will make the item reveal its true qualities. A reason to visit libraries, have bookworm friends or raid some wizard's house in search of forbidden knowledge. For example: a book on dark magic would reveal unholy artifacts, some sorcery book would reveal elementa magic items and finally a blacksmithing manual would tell you how awesome that armor you have found is, when used properly.
For the sake of not making everything a big mess perhaps there could be craftable big compilations of said tomes, but those woud be rare and expensive, especially the most advanced ones.

2: Hidden details: details that are revealed only under certain effects or circumstances. (like fire, holy/dark magic, player/ally/enemy low HP, certain player skills...) That encourages experimentation and makes scams much easier but also fun. I would also include some rare items that can reveal some of those hidden attributes like binoculars/gems of true sight or something along the lines.

3: "A wizard did it". Skilled magic users may be able to identify some items (yes, that requires an extra skill) with more or less details depending on their level and the object itself. But be careful. If you ask to the wrong person you may get your item confiscated for being heresy material... or you may get targeted by some greedy thieves!

4: You should know. Where did you find that item? Who was wielding it exactly? Lore and environment should tell you plenty of things about it most of the time if you keep your eyes open.

The best part of this is that you don't really need to know any of those details, because the items still do their job. The problem is that you will never know what an item does exactly unless you take your time and do your research.

Final note: since this is about suggestions I go a bit over the top, as usual. This is just brainstorming, never take it too seriously!

 

[THEBALLCRUSHA]

even though it would be sorta dumb i think a cursed ring would be cool that when you try to wear it you get thrown all over the place by an invisible force
maybe just as an easter egg