I'm ded, here, have a magic item.
So I was actually looking for reading material about designing a character who doesn't rely on magic items, often ending up reading questions about campaigns with low/no magic items, and I got to wondering:
What if you had a setting where, instead of magic items being crafted by powerful spellcasters, they arose naturally upon the death of powerful heroes, villains, or monsters?
The idea being, the soul of said deceased creature would inhabit an item and be the source of its replenishing magical power.
So yeah. When someone dies, if they're powerful enough, their soul could enchant a magic item. Thoughts?
(P.S. Scrolls, potions, and other one-use items would probably still remain the same; this is just positing the idea that permanent magic items are permanent because they have a soul powering them.)
(P.P.S. I figure if you did have souls make magic items, there'd probably be a good way, a neutral way, and an evil way to make magic items.
Good way is to contact another plane and find an appropriate soul, using your Knowledge (Arcana/Religion/History/etc) or Diplomacy or whatnot to convince them to come down and inhabit an item for you. Neutral way is to slay some powerful monster and perform a little ritual to attract the soul to your weapon/armor/etc. Evil way is like the good or neutral way, except for bargaining using slaves/sacrifices, chopping up heroes instead of monsters, or just using a soul-trapping spell and shoving it in an item by force.)
(P.P.P.S. Imagine a 17th level or so fighter dying, turning into a magic greatsword, and giving advice to a 3rd level fighter. Sounds to me that collecting magic items would be a great way to increase your character's knowledge and breadth of skill (read: experience points).)
What if you had a setting where, instead of magic items being crafted by powerful spellcasters, they arose naturally upon the death of powerful heroes, villains, or monsters?
The idea being, the soul of said deceased creature would inhabit an item and be the source of its replenishing magical power.
So yeah. When someone dies, if they're powerful enough, their soul could enchant a magic item. Thoughts?
(P.S. Scrolls, potions, and other one-use items would probably still remain the same; this is just positing the idea that permanent magic items are permanent because they have a soul powering them.)
(P.P.S. I figure if you did have souls make magic items, there'd probably be a good way, a neutral way, and an evil way to make magic items.
Good way is to contact another plane and find an appropriate soul, using your Knowledge (Arcana/Religion/History/etc) or Diplomacy or whatnot to convince them to come down and inhabit an item for you. Neutral way is to slay some powerful monster and perform a little ritual to attract the soul to your weapon/armor/etc. Evil way is like the good or neutral way, except for bargaining using slaves/sacrifices, chopping up heroes instead of monsters, or just using a soul-trapping spell and shoving it in an item by force.)
(P.P.P.S. Imagine a 17th level or so fighter dying, turning into a magic greatsword, and giving advice to a 3rd level fighter. Sounds to me that collecting magic items would be a great way to increase your character's knowledge and breadth of skill (read: experience points).)