[OSSR]Encyclopedia Magica, Vol.4

[Ancient History]

Encyclopedia Magica, Volume Four - Theories on Converging Transitions (Spellbook) to Zweiback of Zymurgy

By the end of volume four, the Encyclopedia Magica will cover 1,664 pages and 6,376 individual items.

The Sphere of Annihilation is one of those classic insta-kill magic items with a surprising history - certainly no one that ever ran the Tomb of Horrors will ever forget it. What really singles this out is, of course, the weird interactions with various spells and magic items:

Should a gate spell be cast upon a sphere, there is a 50% chance that the spell destroys it, 35% that the spell does nothing, and 15% that a gap is torn in the spatial fabric, and everything in a 180-foot radius is catapulted into another plane or universe. If a rod of cancellation touches a sphere, a tremendous explosion will occur as they negate each other. Everything within a 60-foot radius sustains 3d4x10 points of damage.

Staves (30 pages, 124 staves) are a venerable part of any wizard, druid, or priest's arsenal, coming from fiction and myth. That said, as a charged item I rarely saw the appeal for most staves - too easy to exhaust all their power and then what? They are not like a magic sword for a fighter, improving some innate ability, but more often just a temporary storehouse of power to be exhausted.

Of course, that isn't always the case, that's more of what D&D3 made of them. Your old-school staff was as diverse as any other magic item, and as like to not use charges as it was to use them, though staff-as-charged-item came to dominate in AD&D.

There are many powerful staves, but of course the granddaddy of them all is the Staff of the Magi (which doesn't exist in Dragonlance, because fuck you; on Ansalon you get the much crappier Staff of Magius). The staff of the magi has potent defensive, offensive, and utilitarian abilities, holds a goodly number of charges (50), and even has a "all go boom now" final measure known as a retributive strike. What's not to love?

Although I will admit I loved it most for being the kind of item that was associated with badass wizardry. How were you going to call yourself an archmage if you didn't have a staff of the magi and a robe of the magi and a ring of wizardry and maybe a helm of ultimate wizardry? Pretty easily, actually, but you have to admit it helps.

There were also several lesser or variant versions of the staff of the magi with more focus. For example, the Staff of the Necromancer also absorbs magic, but lacks a retributive strike, only has 25 charges, and its spells are more necromantic in flavor; the Staff of Power is more offensive in nature and lacks magic absorption, but has the retributive strike.

Staff of the Ninja

This staff appears to be an ordinary bo stick until checked for magic. It is +2 to attack and damage rolls, and has other special abilities as well. If the appropriate command words are known, the following things may occur at the user's command:
* A spear head slides out of one end, turning the weapon into a shakugo yari +2. The head retracts when the command word is repeated.
* A sword blade juts out of the other end, turning the staff into a shikomi-zue +2. As before, the blade retracts if the command word is repeated.
* The staff has a saving throw vs. crushing blows of 1, making it virtually unbreakable.
* It has balancing ability.
* Once a day, each concealed weapon blade may be envenomed The venom is wiped off and expended on the first successful blow, acting as if it had come from a dagger of venom.
* The staff dances for five rounds, attacking the enemy as if wielded by an 8th-level ninja. The staff can dance as a bo stick, shakugo yari, or shikomi-zue--the form in which the owner wishes it to fight, however, must be determined before the weapon is made to dance. When time runs out or it is recalled, the staff returns to the owner.
* It acts as a ring of water walking.
* Four times week, the bearer of the staff can pass through stone or metal walls up to 3 feet thick.

This is a ridiculously clever little item for ninjas, but I have no idea what it means when it says "It has balancing ability."

Standing Stones are one of the expansions of Celtic pantheon trappings:

The creation of standing stones is a lengthy process that requires many priest. There must be at least 50 levels of priests or druids who worship at least dour different Celtic gods. One of the priests must be at least a 10th-level worshiper of Belenus in order to have the al important enchant stones spell. The site must have stones available and be at least five miles from any other existing standing stones. All of the priests must spend an entire month assembling the stones and attending ceremonies--the enchant stones spell must be cast at the end of each week and again at the end of construction. If the priests are interrupted in any way during that time, the enchantment fails and they must start again. During creation, the standing stones' site must be dedicated to one sphere of spells forever (for instance, standing stones-divination). Once created, the magic of the standing stones is permanent.

Stocking of Elf Summoning

This plain, long stocking is typical of the type of socks worn by peasants. When hung by a chimney and the command word is spoken, a fat, 10th-level elf will appear by descending through the chimney, wearing a bright red and white fur outfit. The elf will assist the user for up to one hour, and then vanish. The stocking functions once a year.

Stones, like gems, crystals, orbs...very generic items of power. But then again, sometimes that works, sometimes it's suitable. To have something powerful that doesn't look like much, it's a good disguise. Anyway, there are quite a good number of stones (12 pages) and the definition is a bit loose, so there's overlap with gems and whatnot.

The Glowstone is rare and obscure, but one of my favorites from Dwarves Deep. It holds 1,000 charges when created, and recharges items with charges among other functions. For that alone, it is somewhat undervalued at 7,000 gp since it can recharge many times that worth of staves, wands, rings, etc.

Nanorion - Vaguely amazed this is here, as it's from the Melnibonean mythos, but either someone missed it or they got a license agreement.

Philosopher's Stone (stated value 10,000 gp)

From 50 to 500 pounds of iron can be made into silver, or from 10 to 100 pounds of lead can be turns into gold from a single philosopher's stone.

...which means the philosopher's stone is a losing proposition, because a 100 pounds of gold (with gold coins at 1/10 a pound) is only 1,000 gp. Yeesh. But, if you're lucky:

Better still, there are two additional substances possible within such a stone. The first is a greeenish, crystalline salt that allows the manufacture of 1d4 potions of longevity; this substance has a 75% chance of occurring inside a given stone. The second is a pure white powder that, when mixed with a potion of longevity, can actually restore life to a dead human or demihuman if administer internally within one week of his or her demise (see the raise dead spell). There is a 25% chance that the white powder occurs.

Travel Stones - Actually psionic items, and a bit of backstory I swear was refurbished for 3e Dragon Magazine at some point, these are basically gates or portals which can temporarily give additional psionic powers. The highlight of the entry is a quarter-page illustration of young boy petting what looks like to be an alpaca.

Broken Harp (under Stringed Instruments)

This harp appears to be a harp of charming but instead it makes the user feel very sad. Morale drops to 3, if applicable; otherwise, a -4 penalty applies to all attack and damage rolls. There is no limit on the number of times this effect may be produced; each effect lasts for one hour.

p.1325 - Full page painting, I think from Dragonlance. That halfling bard is showing a lot of leg.

Cool Hand Lute

This common musical instrument causes the bearer to become resistant to fire (in a manner identical to a ring of fire resistance). However, it has the side effect of causing the user's hands to become cold, for a -1 penalty to all attack rolls. When the cool hand lute is played for the first time, the user's eyes turn a beautiful blue color, and the user must make a saving throw vs. spell or develop an affinity for bovines.

Well, I guess that would go along with the cow bell.

Bards, amazingly enough, had a series of magical instruments (mainly lyres) just for them, that they're practically the equivalent of staves for wizards. For example, the Cli lyre:

A Cli lyre is 80% likely to cause 6d4 points of damage to any nonbard or bard of less than the 14th level of experience who plays it. A 14th-or higher level bard adds 30 to charming ability and can cast the following spells be singing and playing on the lyre, once each per day. If the bard's charming ability exceeds 100% wit the instrument bonus, the creature's save vs. spell is at -1 for every 5% above 100%, rounding the charm bonus to the nearest multiplier of 5.

* Control winds once a day.
* Transmute rock to mud once a day.
* Create a wall of fire once a day.

Any character able to play this instrument can sing so as to do one of the following for as many turns as the character has levels, divided by two (round fractions up), once each day Each ability of the instrument takes an initiative modifier of 5 to activate.

* Protection from evil 10' radius.
* Become invisible, although the strumming and singing can still be heard distantly, the exact location is impossible to discover unless detect invisible is possible.
* Levitation
* Fly

"'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky..."

Extreme Violins

These items appear identical to unnecessary violins, but when an attack roll of 20 occurs, the user flies into a battle rage, dropping any shield carried and gaining a +4 bonus on attack and damage rolls while suffering a +4 penalty to Armor Class. The victim will fight until slain, or until all enemies are slain, without thought of personal safety. There is no limit to the duration or frequency of the effect.

Swords! take up the bulk of this chapter - 80 pages, 364 blades.

Barnus's Gnomebane Sword

Barnus's short sword is a typical weapon +1 in most respects. Against gnomes, however, the sword adds a +3 bonus to attack rolls and inflicts double normal damage. Barnus was given this sword by a friend of a friend who knew of his hatred for gnomes.

A "friend of a friend"? When was the last time anyone outside the Deep South received a customized weapon from a friend-of-a-friend?

Chainsword - Despite what the name might suggest, this is less a Warhammer 40K reference than a weapon which has the "special purpose of slaying treants."

Draxalon, Defender of Feminine Virtue

Draxalon is a sword +3 that allows its female wielder to cast haste upon herself once per day. The sword does not allow itself to be used by a male; those who try discover that they cannot lift the blade. Draxalon was created 200 years ago by the wizard Eriel for her sister, the fighter DIana. Diana wielded it for many years before she disappeared while adventuring in the ruins of Myth Drannor.

Excalibur has three versions. The first is a +5 lawful good sword of sharpness, the second a +5 holy avenger (that's +10 bonus total) with some minor additional attributes, the third is again a +5 lawful good sword of sharpness.

Holy Revenger

This sword was made for a halfling assassin who disguised himself as a paladin for so long, he came to believe it. The blade laternates between being a holy avenger and a dagger of venom. ... The nature of the blade varies in unpredictable fashion, but it never spends more than three weeks in one form. It has an Intelligence of 17 and an Ego of 19. It attempts to slay all who are not assassins or paladins.

This should technically be impossible, but I like the idea of a halfling paladin/assassin.

Sword of Mammal Slaying

This sword works as a standard nonmagical weapon when used against nonmammalian life forms. Against mammals, however, the sword gains a +1 bonus. Against mammals of good alignment, the sword gains an additional +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls.

When the mammals are intelligent enough to have an alignment, the bonus rises to +4 if the creature is of any good alignment. When the sword is around mammals, it vibrates, causing a slight humming noise. When a good-aligned mammal is within 60 feet, the sword hums at a higher pitch, and actually begins pulling out of the scabbard partially. TH sword does not mind being used by a mammal, as long as another mammal is being killed by it. If a week goes by with no mammal blood on the blade, the sword will actually incite a berserker rage until the sword is coated with it.

The slightly intelligent sword does not appear to be evil when detect evil is cast upon it. The sword is only antigood and antimammal.

Also, the sword is similar to a sword of sharpness in the fact that it causes the wound to bleed profusely for 1d4 rounds after that. This excessive bleeding causes an additional point of damage for every round. Therefore, the total amount og damage this sword does in combat is 1d8+4+1d4.

This magical sword is very rare. It is a common sight among lizardmen, who use the blades when fighting off the human infestations within their lands. Against lizardmen, however, the sword acts like a cursed sword -3. This cursed effect occurs even if a nonmammalian creature is wielding it.

Ideal for lizard men, even with the wonky stats. I want this in my DomIII game.

T
Tabards, tables, tablecloths, tablets...and talismans. These include the Sacred Bundle of the Native American mythos, and the talisman of the sphere (used to help control a sphere of annihilation).

Tea of the Zhakar

The Zhakar are unique among dwarves in that they disdain potent drink. They prefer instead a watery tea made from a refined fungus powder, a drink that is poisonous to any nondwarf who samples a sip. Those who partake must successfully save vs. poison at +2, or collapse with 1d6 hours of gagging sickness.

Tea-drinking dwarves. Huh.

Tomes! Not to be confused with books, manuals, librams or spellbooks. Many of these are those that provide permanent improvements to attributes, while others are just...strange. Case in point, the book of the fool:

This book is a 9"x12" leather bound book of approximately 100 pages. The Tome of the Fool radiates a hot-pink glow that is visible for up to 100 yards around. By careful study of this tome over one month, a jester may gain enough experience points to achieve the midpoint of the next level of experience. The tome works only once before disappearing, and that jester may never again use any tome of this sort. Any person other than a jester who reads this book immediately becomes a jester of 1st level (no saving throw allowed).

Jesters, you may or may not recall, were like bards but moreso - able to learn (or fake) the abilities of other classes, so that they varied between overpowered or useless. Jesters got a couple such tomes to themselves, including the Tome of Humorous Perspective.

Dragon Teeth are another venerable item, dating back to the legends of Jason, and given detailed (2.5 pages) instructions on how to make them based on the color of the dragon. For example:

...it is immersed in a crystal basin containing a broth composed of a mixture of the parent dragon's blood and at least one of the following ingredients, according to the type of tooth being enchanted:

Brass
The sleep eye of a beholder, teeth from a homuculus, sprite sleep ointment, glands from the leopard head of a kamadan, sandman sand, two handfuls of black lotus pollen, or bark from a black willow.

Green
Powdered ghast bone, scent glands from several giant skunks, a large amount of wolverine musk, a large amount of uropygi (giant pedipalp) scent, vapor rat blood, retch plant juice, large amounts of fatty excretion of taer, or one cup of flumph spittle or of witherstench musk.

Trap-Springer
An animated spring used to test for traps down a corridor. Fun!

Tree of Malice

This is a mulberry tree. Anyone who eats the fruit of this tree becomes filled with evil thoughts. Those who eat the fruit must successfully save vs. spell or become chaotic evil for four days. A save vs. spell should be made immediately, and then again for each truly evil act the character commits while under the influence of the new alignment. A character who fails a saving throw becomes chaotic evil permanently. The fruit is considered delightful by chaotic evils, but does not otherwise affect them.

I have never heard the term "chaotic evils" used in this manner before. Or since.

U
Universal Solvent, one of the major goals of alchemy; in it's diluted form it merely destroys any form of adhesive, including sovereign glue and cement. In it's concentrated form, it'll disintegrate 1 cubic foot per ounce. No, I don't know how you contain it.

Spoon of Eating (under Utensil)

Perhaps to avoid tasting the food, Orlow also created the spoon of eating that enabled him to eat an entire day's rations in one bite without indigestion.

...maybe it lets him unhinge his jaw? Or just do a cartoon-character stuff it down his gullet?

Spoon of Mixing

This spoon increases the chance of successfully combining magical potions to create a new effect. When combining potions as per the Potion rules in the DMG, the percentile dice roll on Table 111 is modified by +10 when using the spoon of mixing. Treat all results greater than 00 as 00. Note that by using the spoon of ixing, there is no chance that the combined potions create an explosion, a lethal poison, or a mild poison.

There are two versions of the spoon of stirring, the first version uses itself to stir on command; the second version turns magical liquids into random other magical liquids.

V
Vampire Sheath

This device can only be created by Ultimate-level Immortals; Thanatos is the only Immortal known to have used it.

The sheath can imprison an Immortal victim. It draws on the victim's own power to trap the prisoner in a pocket dimension, accessible only through the Time Stream. Whenever the victim tries to exert power, the sheath feeds on the power and shifts the victim back a few seconds in time to the point before he or she decided to use the power. Thus victim remains perpetually on the verge of action, without acting.

To an onlooker in the Time Stream, the shift backward in time makes the sheath appear to recede. All objects that move forward in time appear to approach the observer.

Thanatos trapped the Immortal Asterius in this sheath shortly after the other Immortals were lured back to the headwaters of the Emerald River, Asterius, though, cleverly foiled some of the sheath's restrictions. By reciting certain spells backwards, Asterius provoked the sheath's movement back in time--and that, in turn, repeated the recitation of the spell forward, triggering the effect.

If that seems batshit insane even for a 12-year-old, welcome to the Immortals ruleset.

W
Wands! Much like staves in that these were much more varied and idiosyncratic prior to 3e. My favorite remains the wand of wonder in its various incarnations - I, II, III, IV, V, wand of anything, wand of a wonder, and wand of wondrousness - I do miss those random tables.

Wand of Orcus

The wand of Orcus, also known as the wand of death, is a rod of obsidian topped by a skull. When used by any other than Orcus himself, the wand has a 50% chance of annihilating any creature (except fiends, godlings, and the like) merely by touch, but subjects the user to one of the cruses stated bestow each time his is tried. In addition, it bestows the following abilities/penalties:

* Move at double speed.
* Cure light wounds once a day.
* Speak with animals.
* Cause serious wound; user receives 2d12 points of damage.

This was, through a few literary generations, the item that somehow killed Mystra and so made a debacle of the Forgotten Realms setting in D&D4. It is also the subject of a quite amusing anecdote where a group of high-level adventurers wrapped the thing up in Orcus' hide and poked the exposed tip at enemies.

Three forms of Water: Blessed, Golden, and Holy (what, no unholy water?).

Golden water is a special type of liquid that can actually create a tiny rift into the Elemental Plane of Water, placing even a single drop of golden water somewhere creates a small, permanent fountain.

Golden water is normally found only in springs that are connected to the Elemental Plane of Water, and those places are carefully monitored by marid. If it is placed in a bowl made of precious metal, it maintains its properties. For example, if a maid put golden water into a silver bowl and carried it to her home, the bowl would create a perpetual fountain, and the water inside the bowl would still be golden water. If, however, golden water is placed somewhere else, such as a rock, it would shoot a fountain into the air, but the water in it will no longer be golden water.

If a very small drop is placed within a waterskin, it will continually fill the waterskin (even to overflowing). In Huzuz, there are several drinking fountains created using golden water.

22 pages of Weapon Enhancements - these are the forebears to standardized magical weapon properties. It's interesting to ask when as a concept these came up, since certainly the benefits of reusing certain existing properties was known and utilized rather early on, but I think the full implementation waited until 3e simply because the magical item creation system was so unstandardized and idiosyncratic in prior editions. 3e may seem rather sterile next to the quirky magic items of the Encyclopedia Magica, but the systematic and combinatorial approach does have its benefits in standardization and familiarization.

The Well of Dreams is another randomizer artifact, effectively a wishing well activated by dropping coins in. Random effects include "Character turns into a drow" and growing a 2-foot beard "If the character is female, Charisma is lowered by 2 until she shaves." - Though I imagine dwarf females might make an argument for the opposite, at least according to dwarves.

Unusually, bagpipes (under Wind Instruments) are generally seen as instruments of evil, examples include the bagpipes of confusion, the Pipes of Doom, bagpipes of droning, bagpipes of fear, bagpipes of feline attraction, bagpipes of headaches, and bagpipes of shattering.

Flute of Puppies

When played by any character, this flute immediately polymorphs 1d4 attacking creatures, of 4th level or less, into neutral puppies. When a bard performs with this flute, 1d10 attacking creatures (4th level and below) are polymorphed into neutral puppies.

Which includes this footnote:

This item was created by William Moots, who has since passed from the Prime Material Plane. We were asked to include it as a tribute to him--and so we have. Ed.

Heward's Mystical Organ is like the Machine of Lum the Mad, except with a table of effects.

XYZ
Combined due to the brief number of them; X only has the Xylograph, Y only some yolks and the Yo-Yo of Fate, Z only the Zwieback of Zymurgy - all in all, two pages.

p.1565 is a full-page illustration of a pile of treasure; front and center are four books that outwardly resemble the Enyclopedia Magica.

p.1565 is The Lastword, and an abbreviated bibliography. Some choice selections from this section:

And here we are, four volumes, sisxteen hundred and sixty-four pages, and 4,032,306,375* magic items later. We hope you have enjoyed reading and using the Encyclopedia Magica (TM) volumes as much as we have enjoyed bringing them to you. A few words need to be said in conclusion, so if you'll bear with us, mysteries will be unveiled.

* This figure, give or take a few hundred thousand, is slade's estimate of the total number of items that exist or can be created using the tables and alternatives.

Unpublished Works
TSR, Inc. works on a two-year lead-time. Occasionally adventures and accessories are written only to be cancelled when the needs of a specific product line change. THose who were very alert may have spotted items from a 1994 SPELLJAMMER accessory called Infinity Sphere. Don't look for it at your local store, Infinity Sphere was dropped from the schedule--but its magical items are within these pages.

Special Thanks
To Lorraine Williams for the format concept, which is a vast improvement on the one slade and I had envisioned; to Tim brown, Roger Moore, Steve Winter, and Bruce Heard for aid under fire; to Arnie Swekel for his wonderful illustrations of the items and scenes in all four volumes; to the AD&D Product Group for proofreading on short notice with even shorter deadlines; to Peggy Cooper for ferreting out obscure and ancient color art; to Bob Gibson, whose critique of slade's DRAGON Magazine article helped make the following tables better than they were; and to all of you who have written and called to express our appreciation for this project, we thank you. Your kindness made an impossible project merely difficult.

Following this are the appendices - Magic Item Random Determination Tables for the entire Encyclopedia Magica, and an alphabetical index. The last page is, again, a note page.

The mention of Lorraine Williams and the two-year lead time is curious, and makes you wonder. It means that the Encyclopedia Magica might have been begun shortly after The Magic Encyclopedia was published, possibly right after sales started coming in. Certainly if
you take a gander at the production schedule of TSR under Williams, you get the impression of rapid increases in publishing product:

Two-year lead times and four-year boom-and-bust cycles on production sounds about right, if you're shoveling it into the fire...the Encyclopedia Magica is a tremendous accomplishment for only two years' production, and must have looked on paper like a sheer winner since you wouldn't have to pay for much new material, though of course I don't know what the contracts look like. But the production values! Like I said, no one else at the time would do that, not one since has ever tried, or really could. You need the history and depth that D&D did then - twenty years of archives to comb through, people that had literally grown up on the stuff. I do enjoy it, even if I don't play anymore, even if I have to pack them away again for five or ten years. Thanks for reading.[/td][/tr][/table]

[PoliteNewb]

This is a ridiculously clever little item for ninjas, but I have no idea what it means when it says "It has balancing ability."

In the original Kara-Tur book, there were some magical weapon abilities that were unique to the setting. One of them was the Balancing ability, that let you walk tightropes like a boss or something.

Jesters, you may or may not recall, were like bards but moreso - able to learn (or fake) the abilities of other classes, so that they varied between overpowered or useless.

Where are you getting this from? The only jesters I knew of were a.) the 2E bard kit, which was notable mainly in that they got a +1 luck bonus to pretty much every roll they made, and b.) a joke class from Dragon magazine (which is what I believe the magic items refer to).

p.1325 - Full page painting, I think from Dragonlance. That halfling bard is showing a lot of leg.

Not sure what the piece was originally intended for, but it was used on the cover of "The Wyvern's Spur", a Forgotten Realms novel...presumably it's supposed to represent Olive Ruskettle, the halfling 'bard'.
Fairly sexy, for an old-school halfling. I'd hit it.

[Ancient History]

Jester was an NPC class for 1st edition D&D, as I recall, and that's what I'm referring to - if my memory is right, these things do tend to blend together.

[fbmf]

Thank you, Ancient. Thank you 50 times. I've not played 2E since 2001 and the Encyclopedias Magica have sat unused on my shelf since then, even through six moves. This stirred up a lot of memories of old campaigns and characters in my misspent youth. Thank you again.

Game On,
fbmf

[Username17]

The Jester was a Thief Variant in AD&D that was supposedly for NPCs but basically no reason you couldn't play one. They were Thieves with points moved around and some incredibly shitty spellcasting. So basically they were 2nd Edition Bards before that was a thing. You can read it: Page One, Page Two, and Page Three.

In 2nd edition they are a Bard Kit, which has them lose a little bit of Bardic skill (they gain 10 points of Pickpocket and lose 5 points of Detect Noise and 10 points of Read Language), and they lose most of their good weapon proficiencies, and they are forced to wear shit armor until they find Elven Chain. In exchange for this, they get +1 to all their saves, +1 to all their proficiencies, +5% to all their Bardic skills, and +1/+5% to absolutely any other roll they ever make as long as it isn't an attack or damage roll. Also they get some weird jesting abilities, which allow them to diplomacize creatures whose languages they don't know with pantomime (yes, really), the ability to grab hate with magical taunts, and the ability to tell jokes to diplomance people an additional reaction level shift. Seeing as how they are already Bards, they are Diplomancers supreme.

Basically, 2nd Edition Jesters were awesome, being as how this was 2nd edition where Bards advanced in level faster than Magic Users and thus had the biggest caster levels and they could cast fireball and that really fucking mattered. So giving up weapons better than a short sword might hurt at 1st level, but at higher level you were a primary caster in your offense and getting defensive boosts and even more diplomancing was all kinds of sweetness. Not of course that you cared, because that level of cheese was barely worth talking about if you were using obscure books in the Complete series. This is the series that brought us The Master Race's Handbook.

-Username17

[Dr_Noface]

An affinity for cows?

[hogarth]

An affinity for cows?

I'm not sure what Paul Newman has to do with cows either. He's famous for his blue eyes, though.

[Username17]

Paul Newman plays a bunch of cowboys. The pun is really exactly that bad.

-Username17

[Koumei]

Unusually, bagpipes (under Wind Instruments) are generally seen as instruments of evil

I would be inclined to agree they are evil.

Also, <3 magical tea

[OgreBattle]

Fairly sexy, for an old-school halfling. I'd hit it.

[Prak]

Stocking of Elf Summoning
This plain, long stocking is typical of the type of socks worn by peasants. When hung by a chimney and the command word is spoken, a fat, 10th-level elf will appear by descending through the chimney, wearing a bright red and white fur outfit. The elf will assist the user for up to one hour, and then vanish. The stocking functions once a year.

There's an item for summoning Santa, and he doesn't even come with gifts? What the hell? I mean, I suppose there's some use if you have a chimney on your cart, so you can just summon him to help you in combat if you really need to, but... he should come with gifts, damnit.

affinity for bovines.

I'm disturbed by the ambiguity of this term...

Universal Solvent, one of the major goals of alchemy; in it's diluted form it merely destroys any form of adhesive, including sovereign glue and cement. In it's concentrated form, it'll disintegrate 1 cubic foot per ounce. No, I don't know how you contain it.

If it came up, I'd just say it's just a really strong acid, and is contained in (and cannot dissolve) glass.

To reiterate FBMF's sentiment, thank you very much AH. I never played AD&D, but this has certainly given me some ideas. I like the Golden Water fountain thing.

[Ancient History]

Welcome. It was great for me too. I barely touched the crazy and awesome in those books.

[JigokuBosatsu]

As far as the Universal Solvent goes, I had forgotten that I actually used it in my weird Doors-Pinocchio mashup that got published recently, though I did change the name.

“Okay, I have this flask of void serum. It’s your average
everyday perfect acid. As soon it leaves this container, that
is. Preferably by you throwing it at someone, and not by
leaking into your back pocket.” The killer cocked an eyebrow. “Naturally if that were to happen it would completely be your fault, as this vial is
quality local craftsmanship. A really nice vial.”

And at the end of the story:

With a flick of the wrist, he flung the acid at the wall of the chamber. A cloud of white vapor hovered for only an
instant before it ate through the side of the Japheth-thing,
and the deadly, crushing pressure of the deep forced a wall
of water inside. The gout knocked the killer down, and pushed him up
against the black rubbery wall. Water flooded the chamber.
The vitriol was steadily— if more slowly— eating away
at the substance of the abomination. The water level rose
quickly, and the creature’s death throes set up internal
waves.

So long story short, how does it stay in the container? A wizard did it.

I never played AD&D, but this has certainly given me some ideas. I like the Golden Water fountain thing.

I'm not sure which of these sentences disturbs me more.

[Prak]

You have to remember, Jess, I'm 25.

[JigokuBosatsu]

Get off my lawn.

[Koumei]

The only game in which I encountered Universal Solvent was a 3.0 one and the DM was clearly oldskool as it worked as a single-use Disintegrate. Which came in fucking handy when our team of "Melee Rogue (as an aside: fucking useless, played by an idiot)", "1/2 Dragon Cleric/Wizard, do I need to tell you how useless he is?" and "THE URAK GUY, BITCHES (melee weapons)" encountered a tag team of rust monsters. Sure we used all our Solvent, but on the other hand, dead rust monsters and it only cost us two magic weapons, one magic set of armour and the few metal parts of a tower shield.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

affinity for bovines.

I'm disturbed by the ambiguity of this term...

[Ancient History]

You would have to go for a Brothers Grinn example, too.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

What can I say, I find their (his?) style one of the more fappable furry art styles out there.

[Prak]

Look, I'm pretty sure Count has an affinity for large hoofed quadrupeds for his own personal reason.

[Ancient History]

And now he has a magical item or two to make sure his D&D character shares his predilections.

[shadzar]

Thank you, Ancient. Thank you 50 times. I've not played 2E since 2001 and the Encyclopedias Magica have sat unused on my shelf since then, even through six moves. This stirred up a lot of memories of old campaigns and characters in my misspent youth. Thank you again.

Game On,
fbmf

yeah. why are these threads labelled as OSSR rather than AD&D as they should be. OSSR is more related to OSRIC and clones to let people know it is NEW old-school material, NOT TSR material.

[ishy]

yeah. why are these threads labelled as OSSR rather than AD&D as they should be. OSSR is more related to OSRIC and clones to let people know it is NEW old-school material, NOT TSR material.

OSSR here stands for Old School Sexy Sourcebook Review. if I'm not mistaken. and AD&D is considered old school by many (everyone?)

[shadzar]

yeah. why are these threads labelled as OSSR rather than AD&D as they should be. OSSR is more related to OSRIC and clones to let people know it is NEW old-school material, NOT TSR material.

OSSR here stands for Old School Sexy Sourcebook Review. if I'm not mistaken. and AD&D is considered old school by many (everyone?)

so he mentioned in the other thread, where my confussion came from as MANY othes i have seen use OSSR refer to Old School Source Reference. never sen the R as "review" before.

i didnt really care for the magic item books. they are jsut like the spell conpendiums rom the various Dragon, Polyhedron, etc mags, but the spells all had a level tailored for most common games. the magic item books, while better than the rip-off the index things were.. just often had too much crap that didnt always fit.

how many magic items in total were in the 4 book set? did book 1 or 4 had some sort of extended table to roll on to select these as treasure under AD&D treasure and monster system?

i often stuck with the Deck of Magic Items as it gave everything in the DMG, or made an index card with a special magic item so people would have a full copy of the item they had found in treasure WHEN they found out what it did. often the DMG items were duplicated on index cards with new names relative to the setting used as opposed to the spells themselves like Tensor's X, if Tensor never existed on the world such as Forgotten Realms. so kept people not fully knowing what something was, but they didnt need to until they tried to use or identify it. magic items carry risks (see Deck of Many Things).

[PoliteNewb]

how many magic items in total were in the 4 book set?

Try reading the top post:

By the end of volume four, the Encyclopedia Magica will cover 1,664 pages and 6,376 individual items.

did book 1 or 4 had some sort of extended table to roll on to select these as treasure under AD&D treasure and monster system?

Yeah...it required you to roll four d10s, to generate a number from 1 to 1000. It also included deity's magic items and artifacts. It was insane, and no reasonable person would ever roll on it.