Friday, May 23, 2014

The Madcap Sorcerer's Paste [Magic Item]

MADCAP SORCERER’S PASTE
This magical treasure is an unpredictable and dangerous paste, typically found in exquisitely wrought phials studded with tiny glittering crystals. Sages tell its creator was the insane dweomercrafter Dyst Terrab, who was known in his lifetime as the Madcap Sorcerer.

Fitting with Dyst's quixotic and imaginative persona, the thick paste must be worked into the user's hair (or beard!) to be effective. Bald users may smear the paste on their heads (thereby using it up) but are not affected by it. Once applied, the user gains the use of one of the following spells once per day (roll d6):

1) Amnesia (when cast there is a 2-in-6 chance the spell affects the user and his allies)
2) ESP
3) Suggestion
4) Confusion (when cast there is a 2-in-6 chance the spell affects the user and his allies)
5) Feeblemind (when cast there is a 2-in-6 chance the spell affects the user)
6) Mnemonic Enhancer

Regardless of the user's actual level, the daily spell gained from the paste is cast as if by a 9th level magic-user.

The enchantment of the paste lasts for 1d6 days and cannot be negated except by a limited wish or wish spell. A dispel magic spell will nullify the effects of spells cast by the user normally, but has no effect on the paste itself. If the user chooses not to cast the spell gained from the paste on any given day, he loses 1d6 points of Intelligence and Wisdom as the paste eats away at his sanity.

If the user's Intelligence or Wisdom reach sufficiently low scores (or if the user is victim of his own feeblemind), the only spell available each day to the user is the lone daily spell from the paste. This spell still functions regardless of the mental acuity remaining in the user's wrecked mind.

Lost Intelligence and Wisdom recover at 1 point per day. If the user is reduced to 0 in either ability (or both), he goes insane, raves and drools, becomes a vegetable man, and so forth. Alternately, if the referee chooses, the user instead develops a permanent mental illness but is otherwise capable of regaining some or all of his former Intelligence and Wisdom scores with sufficient rest.

Usable by: Magic-users (and elves, if race as class is used in game).

This item could lead to an interesting, or completely nuts, cycle of feeblemindedness on the part of the spellcaster. Have at it!

Update: I've also added the racial secondary skills tables previously posted on the blog to the downloads page (or click here to get the PDF). The tables now include gnome and half-orc, in addition to dwarf, elf, halfling and human.

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