AD&D DMG cover to cover - part IX, pages 114-169 (MAGIC RESEARCH/ITEMS and TREASURE)

We´ve been reading the original DMG - the ultimate DM book! - but from a B/X and OSR point-of-view.

Check the other parts of this series here. 

Today we discuss MAGICAL RESEARCH, USE OF MAGIC ITEMS and TREASURE.

MAGICAL RESEARCH 114

— CREATION OF HOLY/UNHOLY WATER 114

— SPELL RESEARCH 115

— FABRICATION OF MAGIC ITEMS, INCLUDING POTIONS AND SCROLLS 116

— NON-STANDARD MAGIC ITEMS 118

USE OF MAGIC ITEMS 118

— COMMAND WORDS 118

— CRYSTAL BALLS & SCRYING 119

— DRINKING POTIONS 119

— APPLYING OILS 119

— POTION MISCIBILITY 119

— ENERGY DRAINING BY UNDEAD OR DEVICE 119

TREASURE 120

— RANDOM TREASURE DETERMINATION120

— EXPLANATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF MAGIC ITEMS 125

— Potions 125

— Scrolls 127

— Rings 129

— Rods, et al (Including Staves and Wands) 132

— Miscellaneous Magic 136

Artifacts and Relics 155

Armor and Shields 164

Swords 165

— Miscellaneous Weapons 168

MAGICAL RESEARCH

This section contains detailed rules explaining how the PCs can create potions, spells, scrolls and magic items in general.

It mixes "hard" rules (e.g., costs and durations for the various tasks) with common sense advice (e.g., do not allow spells that are too powerful, compare new spells to existing ones, and so on). 

Holy water is treated first, apart from other potions/items, for no apparent reason. Nothing particularly interesting here.

Spell research is next. The rules are simple enough: "The basic cost for spell research is only 200 gold pieces per spell level per week", research takes a couple of week per spell level (and total dedication from the researcher).

There is an easy formula to calculate chances of success. Since the process requires repeated rolls, the chances of success look very slim.

Fabrication of magic items, potions and scrolls begins by saying "A properly run campaign will be relatively stringent with respect to the number of available magic items, so your players will sooner or later express a desire to manufacture their own".

Keep this in mind.

Beginning at 14th level an illusionist may attempt to make items with a truly permanent dweomer, such as a +1 dagger or a ring of protection, for example.

I find this example interesting for two reasons: it would seem that a +1 dagger is very weak for a 14th level illusionist; and there is no +1 dagger on the rest of the chapter (see below). But this is just a curiosity, it doesn't affect the example.

Potion creation is also described with relatively simple rules. They may require special ingredients, such as powdered kobold horn or a mind flayer brain. Neat!

Scrolls follow the same pattern: some clear and somewhat arbitrary rules, some interesting details (about the fabrication of ink), etc.

Magic item creation is described in a vague manner; apparently, the rules must be completed with the PHB.  

One example mentions using a "wish" spell to create a ring of spell storing. I am almost tempted to check to see if the PHB explains why you can't just with for such a ring, but I'll focus on the DMG for now.

"In all cases, the manufacture of any magic item other than a potion or scroll will be so debilitating as to necessitate the maker to rest for one day for each 100 g.p. of the item’s experience point value, i.e. one with a 2,000 experience point value means 20 days of complete rest.". 

Okay.

USE OF MAGIC ITEMS

This section describes miscellaneous questions: command words, crystal balls, drinking potions (it takes 1d4+1 "segments" for them to work), oils, and energy draining by undead and devices - which apparently has almost NOTHING TO DO WITH MAGIC ITEMS, except for the fact that one or two magic items (out of hundreds) can drain levels (like undead).

Sigh.

Well, we do get a very cool table about what happens when you mix potions - they might cancel each other, improve, turn into poison or even EXPLODE - sometimes after you have imbibed two portions! 

Fun stuff!

TREASURE

This section does not talk much about all kinds treasure, but mostly about magic items (plus MAPS). There is no mention of other possible treasures, such as art, fine clothing or luxurious items.

"PLACEMENT OF MONETARY TREASURE" is back in page 91.

A hoard may contain a map to another treasure. Nice. Keeps PCs adventuring.

This map will lead to more magic treasure about 30% of the time.

Magic treasure contains 2-3 items on average.

Remember that "a properly run campaign will be relatively stringent with respect to the number of available magic items"? I'm not sure the author followed this advice, but this is an error already admitted back in the treasure section. I mean, the campaign section.

Here, the author also advises to "Keep potent magic items rare. (Increase scarcity by destroying or stealing what is found!)". 

To me, it would be easier just to give away fewer items.

Pages 121-169 is just a long list of tables and magic items.

And, I must say, this one is incredibly creative and comprehensive.

The author really knocked the ball out of the park with this one.

There are hundreds of items, with sub-tables to give them unique traits, resulting in literally millions of possibilities.

Lots of things have values in gold and XP. 

Some items are almost self-explanatory (sword +2), other require detailed explanations. 

There are a few ridiculously tautological descriptions such as:

"Leather armor +1 is usable by those characters permitted to wear this form of armor."

Several items have unique effects. Some also have unique stories. 

There is not much about their appearances, unfortunately, except to notice magic items often look ordinary (the word "normal" is also mentioned many times).

Sometimes, items look like other magic items, that look ordinary... which doesn't make much sense. For example, the Horn of Bubbles "appears as a normal horn, or possibly any one of the many magical  ones". 

In other words: some magic items look ordinary. But the PCs will know some of them are magic anyway - and end up using cursed items because of that.

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Allow me a brief detour. 

This is from Supplement I - Greyhawk:

Horn of Bubbles: This device exactly resembles a Horn of Valhalla, but when it is sounded it will bring forth a cloud of bubbles which surround its holder, completely obscuring his vision for 4-12 turns.

Greyhawk doesn't explain if there is anything special about the looks of the Horn of Valhalla (except the metal from which it is made).

In short, the author seemed to assume initially that the players would know a Horn of Valhalla, and then the Horn of Bubbles was created as a trap. But now both look ordinary, and the "trap" only works if you detect magic on it and hope for a positive effect. And the Horn of Valhalla is, by itself, a trap now (unlike the original version, you have to be a certain class or get attacked).

Anyway, I find these "trap items" curious, but for my players I'd give some items a distinct appearance and let them try it at their peril, without the need for confusing a magic item for another.

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Scrolls are described here too. The author obsessively assigns different reading times, in segment, for each scroll. I cannot see myself powering through to this level of detail.

Rods, staves and wands are implement to create various magical effects. Each has its own limited number of charges. The obsession with segments often appears here too.

"At your option 1% of all wands are trapped to backfire." 

Yes, please!

MISCELLANEOUS MAGIC is a catch-all category of magic items. It includes swords (separated from other weapons - and "scimitar" is under other weapons...), armors and shields, in addition to powerful artifacts and relics.

This organization feels completely arbitrary, like many other DMG sections.

But the contents are awesome- the book includes most D&D classic items you can think of: Bag of Holding, Book of Vile Darkness, Deck of Many Things, Figurines of Wondrous Power, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Ioun Stones, Portable Hole... in short, more items than you could ever use, and this is before we get to artifacts and relics!

So, let's get to them!

"Each artifact or relic is a singular thing of potent powers and possibly strange side effects as well. Regardless of how any of these items come into your campaign, only 1 of each may exist." 

These things are truly legendary - the book gives you a description, but you must assign powers and effects by yourself from other tables:

Because of the unique nature of each artifact and relic, their powers are only partially described. You, the Dungeon Master, must at least decide what the major powers of each item are to be. This prevents players from gaining any knowledge of these items, even if they happen to own or read a copy of this

volume, and it also makes each artifact and relic distinct from campaign to campaign.

As you can see, the fear that players might know the items beforehand was constant - but not a real problem in my games.

While this is a nice idea to provide great variety and mystery to magic items, it looks like a time-consuming process (the powers are not organized in a "random table" fashion; you choose them instead of rolling) and weakens the "mythic" significance of the items somehow (e.g., legends about the Axe of Dwarvish Lords should tell you about its properties - but since the Axe appears randomly, you're unlikely to assign effects before the PCs find it).

I can understand the reasoning - some effects would not mix well with certain items. But maybe you could list most effects and add some notes on replacing them as necessary.

These artifacts, as you can see, are very busy; the axe has lots of special powers even before you add your own.

There is not much more to say about swords, armor, etc., except that, again, all the classics are here: intelligent swords, Vorpal swords, Mace of Disruption, etc. Some are inspired by classic fantasy, of course, but overall this is a comprehensive list.

Most swords (and daggers) shed light when drawn, which is a good idea because it allows fighters to take advantage of them without detect magic. This doesn't seem to apply to maces, axes, etc.

A table of random weapons and another table of random weapon effects would be nice. But this is not hard to extrapolate from existing weapons and tables (e.g., the table in page 125, that lacks a simple "dagger +1", and the one for swords on page 124). 

Overall, these items are all very flavorful and varied. They resemble myth, fantasy, sci-fi, weird science, and even cartoons. The author suggested some restraint when allowing different races. Here, the reasoning seems to be that "everything goes". 

And I think this makes the game more fun. You could use this list to any weird setting.

Some final notes:

Armor of +3 bonus is of special meteorite iron steel, +4 is mithral alloyed steel, +5 is adamantite alloyed steel.

Makes me think a +1 weapon could simply be made of "Valyrian" or Damascus steel, for example, something I considered here.

Axes (hand, not battle) can be thrown up to 3” with the hit probability bonus, but no damage bonus.

Note to self: write a post about how old school D&D was right to limit the damage caused by ranged attacks.

And... that is it. We finished the main part of the DMG! 

The rest in appendices - which contain some great stuff too.

What have we learned today?

This is one of the best sections to use with your B/X games (or any OSR game). Having clear rules to create/buy potions and magic items is handy. Having more magic items to choose from is useful. Powerful weapons are a cool addition for fighters.

Despite any criticisms about the organization and verbosity (and I know I have been too harsh at some points), these items are classics, and will certainly add fun and variety to your table.

It is very interesting to look at the 5e DMG and see that, compared to the original, the "improvements" were really limited - and I don't remember many games with better magic items either (IIRC correctly, Numenera is largely based around discovering magic items, but I haven't played it).

BTW, check Dark Fantasy Magic Items if you want something leaner, with more random tables, or 100 Magic Weapons for finished examples.

Coming next... the APPENDICES begin! 

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