I thought I would skip my “Weekly Roundup” for a player challenge. The challenge: suggest an interesting, creative or clever RM profession/magic item combination. The basic guidelines:
- One profession and one item.
- Artifacts are excluded.
- The combination should strive to make the “whole greater than the parts” or add an interesting dynamic or ability to the character.
- Extra kudos to the player who comes up with the best combo using the least powerful magic item.
Of course I’ll go first as an example. When I’m not GM’ing, I’m almost always a Warrior Monk. (Caylis, who gets occasional mentions in some RM books). I think I like the simplicity of a non-spell caster and the minimalist nature of the Monk after the intensive, detailed process of being a GM. Playing a Monk goes all the way back to my earliest days of playing AD&D and our Court of Ardor campaign in ’83. I didn’t worry about hoarding gold, armor, losing items etc. I liked the self-reliance of a Monk in AD&D (Feign Death, hitting as magical weapons, immunities) and always strived for some of those same abilities in RM without opting for the Mentalist spell casting version Monk.
With that in mind, my favorite go to item for my monk is the “Ring of Free Action” or some iteration of it. This was an actual AD&D item that had far more expansive powers than an RM spell. In RM the closest is probably “Underwater Movement”, only a 5th lvl spell on the Closed Mentalist list “Movement”. That’s a pretty modest item to get make into a Daily X item and frees the Monk to operate underwater and use martial arts without restrictions. It’s not an overtly powerful ability but can really add to game play, combat choices (if near water)and group abilities.
What’s your combination? I received a suggestion yesterday that made sense. What’s a contest without a prize? If we get at least 10 responses the winner of the best suggestion will get a brand new copy of the Iron Wind (the 80’s edition). This is “new, old stock” I bought from ICE when they were shutting down. Never been used but aren’t individually shrink wrapped. There may be the option to get the Cloudlords of Tanara instead but I’ll have to check to see what we have left.
Winner will be determined by the criteria above: originality in pairing, uniqueness, power of item (the lower the better) and of course the swimwear segment!
My answer to this will be the Lay Healer with a spear daily item of shockbolt. That is a 2nd level spell. I think when taken as a background option you can get a Daily III item with a 2nd level spell.
Rather like Brian’s Monk the Lay Healer is a fantastically self reliant character with a nice mix of magical lists. Heavy armour and self healing gives the character lots of stayng power. As a healer no one expects that much offence but the spear allows you to get stuck into melee from the second rank but the shock bolt gives you a nice bit of magical oomph.
I currently play a Lay Healer and magically he is into scrying magic (sense mastery) which is not what the party expected from their healer.
The Lay Healer is the swiss army knife pure caster and the Daily III item gives them yet another highly visible/big impact option with just a 2nd level spell.
That’s pretty good. I’m trying to come up with a 1st lvl spell but I have another one:
Thief with a Daily X item: Item Leaving I. It’s a 2nd level spell, Closed Mentalist.
My third and another one of my favorites: Thief with Daily X: Merging. It’s a 10th lvl Closed Mentalist. It’s a great way to avoid capture/detection or escape a hairy situation.
Mine would be kind of dumb, but…
A Nightblade with a Mason Dimensional Jar Lid.
He held it at arm’s length, turning clockwise opens the effect of a Bag of Holding, counterclockwise closed it. It operated much like Hermione’s little Pouch of Holding. Reach in, there is what you want, pull it out, there it is ready to use.
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Opening graphic looks like SpidWeb’s Exile graphics.
Kewl.
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