I’m looking for ideas for magic items. I’m thinking quite rare, not game breaking, but interesting and or useful enough that players would be really excited to find them. So far I’ve gone very simple. One of my players has a ring that he can use for +1d once per session, and the crew has a sword that is potent against ghosts (if they ever figure out what it does).
I’d love to see a list of other ideas.
I tend to lean towards the Mighty & Terrible - an ancient bell that will explode when rung and summons a leviathan, or an Iruvian scimitar that (with a successful longterm project) binds the user to a great bronze Sualim hull hidden in a huge crate in a warehouse somewhere. Of course, using either item would draw the attention of every Spirit Warden and Bluecoat in the district…
I tend to throw them in as fuel for an explosive climax at the end of a season.
A “phylactery” constructed by Kotar before the Cataclysm, resembling a stone chest carved with arcane designs.
Like a spirit bottle, the phylactery can trap and hold a ghost indefinitely. Unlike a spirit jar, the phylactery is designed to gradually absorb ambient electroplasmic energies and focus them in a manner that sustains and stabilizes the contained ghost, making it (or keeping it) reconciled.
The process of transforming a feral ghost into a reconciled spirit is long and slow, taking at least a century. Given the time scale Blades games operate on, this makes the phylactery obviously valuable to interested factions without threatening any game-breaking effects.
I’ve been listening to the Big Gay Nerds episodes where they play Blades in the Dark. They just obtained a cursed rock with like a demon bound in it, with the ability to give a factual answer to any question put to it (in exchange for a favor, of course).
It sounds OPed, but the amount of time they spent deliberating what to ask it just as a first question (which the stone offered to answer for free) makes me expect that it won’t be game-breaking.
I’ve used treasures from the Duskwall Heist Deck occasionally, and would recommend them if you’re looking for ideas. One high-level lesson I learned from the Deck is to give magic items a past, ideally involving NPCs or factions who are still interested in them.