The Berserker Armor [RIP Kentaro Miura]

The Berserker Armor [PLATE +1]
"May we run rampant with hatred and wild joy just to crush with these fangs the true light that burns us." – The Beast of Darkness

Those who don the Berserker armor experience the following:

• The armor circumvents their bodies natural limiters, allowing them to exude terrible strength and speed [STR & DEX become 18 in combat].
• Damage Reduction 1 as the armor allows the wearer to ignore the pain from injuries. 
• If an attack would reduce the wearer's HP to 0 or less, roll 1d8+1 and you gain that much temporary HP as the armor inserts metal rods to bind and mend the body to keep the wearer fighting. Each round afterwards you lose 1hp from blood loss and the armor's insertions, if the wearer's HP would become 0 due to the armor, the wearer dies.
• Once the wearer's HP has been reduced to 0 or less the armor's Berserker Rage activates; only melee attacks can be made and are rolled with advantage, all melee damage is doubled, and finally the armor begins to take the shape of a beast of the player's choice and the wearer can no longer differentiate between friend or foe, all within melee range are attacked. 
• The wearer may attempt to end the Berserker's Rage at anytime by making a CHA check, however doing so before combat ends costs 1 permanent point of Charisma. A pass means the Berserker Rage effect ends. A failure means you lose 1 permanent point of Charisma and become temporally consumed by The Beast of Darkness; i.e losing control off the character for a number of turns equal to your CHA score. Only a sleep spell or death will end the Beast's rampage.
• If the wearer's CHA becomes 0 the The Beast of Darkness consumes the wearer's mind and exerts control over the body permanently (becoming a NPC that seeks to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible).
• Once combat is over the wearer loses all temporary HP gained and their HP becomes 1 + CON MOD (min 1) and must rest for at least a turn before continuing with the adventure. After the current adventure ends the wearer must rest for a minimum number of days equal to their CON score.

[Referee Notes: To me the CHA score has always represented force of personality or "spirit/soul and seems a good sub for Berserk's Ode].

The passing of Berserk's creator Kentaro Miura was the first time that I felt a personal sense of loss for someone that wasn't family or friend. I started reading Berserk when I was 16, I'm turning 32 this year, literally half my life. I can say with no exaggeration that Berserk gave me my love of manga and dark fantasy. The above magic item is my small homage to Miura, thank you for everything, and rest in peace.

God's Dice; Gambler's Fallacy

Source

This post is about a magic item I pretty much stole whole cloth from Hunter x Hunter. An item called the Risky Dice. 

So here's my gamified version for your elf games that I call...

God's Dice; Gambler's Fallacy

A small black d20 made from the remains of meteorite that destroyed a lucky village. The village was recently blessed with a very bountiful (and profitable) harvest. 19 sides of the dice have the rune for good luck with the remaining having a skull, which represents bad luck.

Before you would take an in-game action that requires a dice roll you may instead roll God's Dice [The Referee's favorite die]. If the Good Luck rune is rolled [2-20] the action auto succeeds! If the skull is rolled [1] the action auto fails and the worst possible situation occurs with a high chance of death.

This sounds busted to me but that also means it should be damn fun. 

The Seven Resplendent Orbs of Zulan

I would religiously watch DBZ everyday on Toonami as a kid and was fascinated by the lore of the Dragon Balls. If you collected all 7 together you would summon a dragon god that would grant you any one wish. That still sounds cool to me, and gameable. Today's post is a homage to DBZ and a bit of my childhood. 

THE SEVEN RESPLENDENT ORBS OF ZULAN

"Whosoever gathers together the Seven Resplendent Orbs shall be granted any one wish thine desire. A parting gift to the world that labored under my eminence"

-Zulan the First Mage

1. The Ruby Orb of Insanity
   All spells require a save vs spells to be successfully cast within a one mile radius of this sphere. A failed save and the caster casts a random spell instead and a hint of madness slithers into their mind.
   
   
2. The Emerald Orb of Might
   All damage dice are doubled when within a one mile radius of this sphere. 
   
   
3. The Sapphire Orb of Magic
   This sphere holds any M-U spell from any OSR retro clone you own. A M-U may meditate for 3 days and nights to exchange one spell from the sphere with a spell of equal level from their spellbook.
   
   
4. The Opal Orb of Pacifism
   No harm may be purposely inflicted or meditated within a one mile radius of this sphere.
   
   
5. The Onyx Orb of Malice
   The wielder may inflict agonizing pain to one person or creature of their choice (must know their name and face) by performing harm to themselves or a sentient sacrifice. Each sacrifice inflicts 1d6+1 damage per HD of the sacrifice. 
   
   
6. The Violet Orb of Passion
   The wielder is able to hyper focus on a task or problem and reduce the time taken to complete it by half. This counts for spell research and training.
   
   
7. The Amber Orb of Babel
   All spoken words are understood by all within a one mile radius of this sphere.
   
   

NOTES:

• When all Orbs are gathered in one location the Avatar of Creation will appear before the gatherers and grant any one wish. After the wish the Orbs are scattered across the campaign world to random locations.
• The orbs are fist sized.
• The orbs have a 1d4+1 year cool down before the Avatar is able to be summoned again.
  
• There may or may not be a password or phrase to summon the Avatar. 
• All orb effects are written for a b/x-esque system.

+1 Magic Sword Replacements, A Trio

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(This post was inspired by these +1 Magic Sword replacement collections here & here.)

"Magic swords are born not forged. The anvil is but a womb and the first kill births the blade, the hundredth awakens it."
-Dwarven Proverb 

Next time you would roll a +1 magic sword on your treasure roll table, maybe pick one of these instead.

1. NITPICKER

A shard of multichromatic stained glass with a makeshift "hilt" of a worn rag. It smells faintly of turpentine (shorts sword sized). According to legend a renowned glass-smith slew his local Bishop, along with the present congregation, after a particularly nasty bout of ridicule from the holy man. The smithy would eventually be found by the authorities with his wrists slit, Nitpicker at his side and a fresh stained glass hanging behind him. The pane depicted a hellscape with the glass-smith hurled into an widening maw-shaped abyss by his victims. 

EFFECTS:

• Those who wield Nitpicker occasionally see their victim's reflections starting back with a nightmare hellspcape in the vista.
• Save vs Spells upon death with a -1 for each victim or have your soul dragged inside the blade and cast into the void. You cannot be brought back to life. A successful save means your soul claws from the void to whatever afterlife you are due.
• Save vs Spells when you receive criticism regarding your work, on a fail you enter a rage and will attempt to kill your critic. 
• +1 for preternatural sharpness, +3 versus Critics.

2. CHIME

A enormous rusted steel tuning fork with strange inlays that seem to sway when the fork is struck (Two-handed sword size) . Forged by dwarven prisoners to assist their captor, a black dragon, tune it's voice correctly for spell craft. However the dwarves tricked the dragon and secretly changed the frequency to a forbidden otherworldly tone. Using the fork's dead tone they managed to to keep the dragon subdued and slay it. Emboldened the dwarves would go on to use the fork to hunt down dragons and named it Chime. Unfortunately the dwarves found out too late that while Chime was effective against dragons it also attracted the undead. They were ambushed one night and promptly devoured. 

EFFECTS:

• Causes immense discomfort to dragons when struck in the form of -4 to all attacks and saving throws. Chime must be rung each round by the wielder to continue the effect.
• Dragons are automatically hostile to those who wield Chime. 
• Causes all undead in a 6 mile radius to begin marching towards Chime.
• Increased chance of random encounters with undead in dungeons.
  
  

3. FORGET-ME-NOT

A well cared for longsword owned by a retired soldier who tragically lost his mind to age before passing. The sword however, never forgot it's master or his skill. Years later on a cool windy night the soldier's town was attacked by a wandering pack of goblins. The sword awoke suddenly when pulled from the mantle and drawn by the soldier's granddaughter. The girl who had never once held a blade struck down the goblins with the skill of a master swordsman, of her grandfather. With the threat extinguished the sword once again drifted off to oblivion, until needed again.

EFFECTS:

• When wielded by a Lawful 1st level or lower level Fighter Forget-Me-Not performs as a +2 sword and the Fighter's Maximum HP becomes 12. 
• If the wielder commits an evil act (referee's discretion) while in possession of Forget-Me-Not they lose all their memories and suffer from advanced dementia (cured with remove curse). The memories however do not return.

Excalibur!