I know, L5R isn't a loot game like D&D, possessions aren't really important etc. But when my Asahina Artificier starts the game with Honor 60, there is only so far to go there, and it is nice to have something to reward players for besting tough challenges. A Kakita-pattern katana didn't really blow my player's minds with its power. So what are some appropriate magic items for L5R, cool on the one hand, but not too powerful on the other? To clarify, this is not stuff to throw into a normal battle's loot, they are rather quest rewards etc.
Here are a few of my ideas:

1) The Staff of Invocation . A khakkhara that aids in spellcasting, this artefact is highly sought after and might even tempt other shugenja into provoking a duel with the wielder or hiring shinobi to aquire it.
Effect: When the wielder performs an invocation, the staff adds a Kept Black Die set to Opportunity and Strife to the pool. This die must be included when checking for spiritual backlash, however.

2) The Blessed Omamori of Daikoku . A simple omamori with red kanji characters, this item was blessed by the Fortune of Waelth.
Effect: The wearer can spent a Void Point to save it within the Omamori, where it can be spent at a later date like the wearer's own Void Points

3) The Sword of No Blade . What looks like a beautiful katana in a Respendent sheath turns out, upon drawing, as just being a katana handle with no blade. Unless, of course, the wearer spends a Void Point upon drawing. In that case, he holds the handle of a Katana of Fire (as the invocation). The blade exists for a number or rounds equal to the wielder's Fire Ring.

4) The Viper's Fang . This knife looks like an ordinary knife, even upon close inspection.
Effect: All attacks made with this knife count as if it was poisened with Night Milk poison. Attacking with it counts as using poison with regards to Honor.

5) The Blade of Wind . This fine kanata has images of clouds and dragons etched into its blade. It is said to be able to strike from afar
Effect: If the wielder spends a Void Point, the katana's reach equals his Air Ring, for a number of rounds equal to his Air Ring.

6) The Living Staff . Looking like a simple bo staff, this wooden staff is the home of a tree kami, transferred there willingly with the Spiritual Shackles Maho spell when its tree was dying.
Effect: When selecting his stance, the wielder of this staff can change its size from that of a toothpick (silhouette 0) to up to 10 meters long. This also allows him to make bo staff attacks up to range 3. The kami gives the wielder the ability to once per game session importune one Earth invocation of Rank 1 to 3, per the normal rules for importuning invocations, even if the wielder cannot normally perform invocations.

7) The Eye of Perceiving . This is a glass eyeball with a red iris. A person with the Lost Eye disadvantage can put it into the empty eye socket.
Effect: While the Eye does not restore sight, it gives the wearer the enhancement effect of the Earth Needs No Eyes kiho while worn in an eye socket, based on the wearer's Earth Ring.

8.) The Ivory Finger . This is a bonewhite finger prothesis with a removable fingertip.
Effect: Wearing this magic Ivory Finger nullifies the Lost Fingers disadvantage while worn. If the fingertip is removed, an impossibly thin wire unspools that connects it with the rest of the Finger. This razor-sharp wire can be wielded as a weapon (Range 0-1, Damage 3, Deadliness 8, Razor-Edged, Concealable).

9) Silver Hairpin . This beautiful silver hairpins has the Resplendent quality.
Effect: The hairpin has two effects. Wearing it will hold even elaborate hairdos in perfect form, even in thunderstorms and hurricanes. It can also be used in melee as a knife with a Deadliness increased by one, and even thrown up to range 3 with Martial Arts (Ranged).

What do you think?

7 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:

The Living Staff .

The effect of this item sound very alike to the magical staff in Journey to the West. But that gives me an idea, you could translate magic item from real world legends into L5R magic item. The idea that I had was the invisibility ring of Gyges. So becoming completely invisible doesn't feel real L5r'ish, so how about this:

Soundless Waraji: When targeting a person to surprise them off guard and you're wearing the waraji (sandals), the vigilance of that target is lowered by 2, with a minimum vigilance of 1.

1 hour ago, Kiso said:

The effect of this item sound very alike to the magical staff in Journey to the West.

Yes, I based it on the nice combat scene from Netflix's Journey to the West version.

But its generation was part of my A Town called Kami's Rest adventure.

The Ivory Finger obviously is based on the cyberpunk item, like in Johnny Mnemonic.

5 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:

3) The Sword of No Blade . What looks like a beautiful katana in a Respendent sheath turns out, upon drawing, as just being a katana handle with no blade. Unless, of course, the wearer spends a Void Point upon drawing. In that case, he holds the handle of a Katana of Fire (as the invocation). The blade exists for a number or rounds equal to the wielder's Fire Ring.

That sort of thing is equivalent to nemurani - the Gm's section includes default rules for them (because characters in 'fate of the realm' campaigns start with one), essentially adding a 'built-in' invocation to a weapon, albeit one using Martial Arts skills, not theology.

A Biting Steel katana is a cool and simple option for a bushi wanting to do Thoros of Myr impressions. .

The other items are sensible and cool. Quite a few options (like omens) compel you to add an opportunity/strife result, and it's close enough to even pro/con (especially for invocations!) That it doesn't seem especially overpowered.

Also....

5 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:

A Kakita-pattern katana didn't really blow my player's minds with its power.

Note that whilst that's a 'Kakita blade' it's not a Kakita Blade .

Check page 234 of the core rulebook and compare with Omeka, Doji Kuwanan's sword. It's deadliness 10/12 (2-handed), gains resplendent without reducing damage, is durable, and Destroys, rather than Damages, swords used to parry it.

This, rather than the generic 'item pettern', is setting-major-character's-named-sword level....

Yes, but Omeka is the equivalent of the most powerful sword in Crane lands, not what you'd gift a regular emerald magistrate for difficult job well done. That would be the Kakita-pattern katana, which is talked of as a one-in-a-generation masterpiece, but which will not even feel different to PCs that are not focused duelists.

That's why I was looking for items in between these two extremes.

5 hours ago, Kiso said:

Soundless Waraji: When targeting a person to surprise them off guard and you're wearing the waraji (sandals), the vigilance of that target is lowered by 2, with a minimum vigilance of 0.

That sounds nice, thank you. But I'd advise against lowering the TN below 1. That is never done, as it means it is impossible to fail at a stealth check.

I like most of your magic items and it is a good idea to hand those rewards for higher rank players. With some digging the following (relevant in this edition) magic items were found in the 2e gm book:

• An amulet that always seems to be the family mon of the viewer
• A teapot that never empties
• Magic travel papers that are valid anywhere in the empire
• A bonsai tree with berries that are each as nourishing as a full meal
• A katana that can’t rust, break or go dull
• A carved stick that, when broken, casts a invocation of the GM’s choice

Most of them may be classify as trinkets in this edition.

16 hours ago, Kiso said:

Magic travel papers that are valid anywhere in the empire

My Soshi Illusionist likes to do this with Token of Memory.

3 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:

My Soshi Illusionist likes to do this with Token of Memory.

Makes me think of the psychic paper from Dr Who.

"I think you'll find I'm universally recognised as a respected and honourable samurai." [flips open papers]

"That's just a lot of wavy lines."

"....Shorted out. What'd you know - finally, a lie too big..."

So I decided to go away from the "nemuranai is a spell but an item" idea. These were some I came up with for my players in my Year 39 game. Please note: my players understood that these would be subject to revision, so these haven't exactly been "playtested for balance."

Tamori's father came of age right around the time of the Fall of the Kami. (The PC really wanted rings for his Q15 and "Rarity 4" traveling pack items). So the minor ring came from his father. The major ring he took from a Crane rival after beating him in a duel (the Crane bullied him into and put his own father's ring up as ante - also tied with his Sworn Enemy disadvantage).

Quote

Tamori's Family ring (Minor Nemuranai):

· Touching the ring to a weapon fills it with the skill of Tamori's father.

· Once per session, either:

o For rounds equal to Tamori's Fire Ring, each attack with any kept successes deals 1 fatigue to the target, or

o If Tamori spends a Void point to activate the ring, double the bonus successes from Fire Stance on your next Strike action.[/quote]

Doji Hirokaji’s ring (Major Nemuranai):

· Doji Hirokaji's ring gained his strength of character in doing everything he could to assist his wife Doji Kaoru's ascendancy to her position in the Imperial Capitol.

· You may use the Guard action in an Intrigue (as per the action in a Skirmish), with a TN1 Performance check, and increase the TN of Scheme checks rather than Attacks.

· The following ability may be used once per Intrigue scene:

o If you are in Void stance, you may Center (as per the action in a Duel) if you name a Social skill.

· Each of the following abilities may be used once per session:

o When you or an ally are targeted by a Social check, the target may use their Focus instead of Vigilance;

o When you provide assistance to an ally on a Scheme action, spend a Void Point to add bonus successes equal to your Air Ring.

Date Wakako came from a tribe of storytellers who lived near-ish to Lion lands, but were technically unaligned. Wakako's goal was to make a name for herself to get Ikoma's attention, so her tribe could join his Family.

Obi cord and Netsuke:

· With the Set of the Dragon, the wearer carries a sliver of the Divine.

· Once per session, when you gain a Void Point from a disadvantage, either:

o Apply one of your Advantages to the next check you make, or

o Spend that Void point immediately to remove strife equal to your ranks in Perform.

Grandfather’s Journal:

· A collection of stories and wisdom from the elder Date man, handed down through the male family line until Wakako was her father’s only child(?).

· When making Scheme actions or Social skill checks in Fire Stance, if you add any bonus successes, add an additional bonus success.

· The following ability may be used once per Narrative scene:

o When you make a Performance check, after choosing kept dice and before resolving explosions, add one black die set to opportunity for each kept die with a strife symbol.

· The following abilities may be used once per session:

o When using Matsu’s Battlecry, the maximum range is increased to your Focus value and you may spend any number of opportunities to add additional targets with lower vigilance than the highest among your original targets.

After spending a Downtime scene studying the journal, a bit of pre-Kami history resonates with you. Before making a check in the next scene, you may Forfeit 1 Honor and Stake your Honor Rank on success to add one white die set to explosion/strife to the results pool before choosing kept dice.

Matsu's Battlecry came from her Q18 Heritage Roll.

Then this was the one I was most iffy about. Zan Ma was the shugenja of the group, but really didn't have much in the Heritage roll, so I tried to figure a familiar/spirit ally type of thing. This is the one I was least sure on for balance.

Tiger-Fox Familiar:

· An intelligent spirit creature trapped in the mortal world.

· You may seal invocations into the familiar in the same manner as a shikigami, using Survival instead of Design. As a Downtime scene, you may change the sealed spells in the same manner as sealing them originally.

· When invoking through your familiar, you may ignore 1 Strife symbol on a kept die.

· The following ability may be used once per Narrative scene:

o Choose a Ring. The next check you make using that Ring, ignore the Strife symbols on all rolled dice.

· The following abilities may be used once per session:

o When using channeled dice, roll your full number of Ring dice. You still only keep the normal number of dice.

o When making an offering for an invocation, you may re-roll any dice not showing a success.

So yeah. For minor nemuranai, I generally did a once per session ability that they could activate for free, or a better ability if they spent Void (my players frequently never spent their Void, so I wanted to give them new reasons to do so). For majors, I made a general benefit, a limited Scene-type ability, and a more powerful once-per-session ability. I had the items awakening (or re-awakening) slowly, so that the abilities didn't just drop in like "BAM!"

Oh, here's another. This is entirely a work in progress, but heading towards being a Major Nemuranai:

Claw of P’an Ku:

- When making any resistance checks, if you succeed, add a bonus success.

- The following ability may be used once per Skirmish scene:

• When casting an invocation, you may spend opportunities from the opposing element.

I'm trying to craft a magic item, a fan, that when used will disconnect the body and soul from each other. But I could use some advice how to make it some what balanced. The fan is used as a murder weapon that one NPC is going to use to kill another NPC, but in the event that the PC might find this item, what would be the appropriate effects? So far I have written:

Soul Splitter: A fan with sharp edges on the top. When the user inflicts a blood wound using this fan, they disconnect the soul and body of the victim. In most causes the soul tries to find back its connection, but after a week it will wonder the earth as its body is becoming limp. The user of the fan suffers 8 fatigue and 6 strife when using the items effect and [..insert more bad stuff and limitations...]. The wood of the fan has been made from a holy tree, but its edges have been sharpened on the stones of a Kansen.

On 4/22/2020 at 5:38 PM, Kiso said:

I'm trying to craft a magic item, a fan, that when used will disconnect the body and soul from each other. But I could use some advice how to make it some what balanced. The fan is used as a murder weapon that one NPC is going to use to kill another NPC, but in the event that the PC might find this item, what would be the appropriate effects? So far I have written:

Soul Splitter: A fan with sharp edges on the top. When the user inflicts a blood wound using this fan, they disconnect the soul and body of the victim. In most causes the soul tries to find back its connection, but after a week it will wonder the earth as its body is becoming limp. The user of the fan suffers 8 fatigue and 6 strife when using the items effect and [..insert more bad stuff and limitations...]. The wood of the fan has been made from a holy tree, but its edges have been sharpened on the stones of a Kansen.

Not entirely sure I understand what you are going for. The usual way to separate the soul from the body is killing someone, so NPC 1 could just have used a tessen (a weapon fan) on NPC 2. If he did so e.g. while the other was sleeping, the rules allow a Severity 13 Crit, enough to be mortal. So if it is just a murder mystery, "he was killed with a fan" is a solution that requires no extra magic item. If you want to make it harder to figure out, the rules for shikomizue (Path of Waves p. 116) easily allow for a tessen to be disguised as a regular fan.

If "soul separated from the body" means something else than death, you may need a magic item. Perhaps the soul can be reunited with the body if acted upon within a given time. In D&D, soul-affecting items are used in murders to prevent Speak with Dead, but that is not a normal option in Rokugan, unless you interpret Commune with the Spirits to help in murder mysteries and want to prevent that. If so, I would still rather go with a regular Tessen that binds the soul on killing someone, an additional effect that prevents calling the soul with Commune. If you want to allow the soul to be reunited with the body and thus the person to be revived, it is a bit trickier: Your item should not do this when killing, because then it would be a worse murder weapon that literally any other item. Why would the killer use it? On the other hand, you do not want to give out an item that kills on touch, but whose kill can be reversed with a ritual, because then the PC have a perfect weapon, and the many oni they slay will not have a ritualist to revive them.

Generally, I would advise to separate the MacGuffin from the hand-out, meaning thinking separately about what you think your NPC and story needs, and what you want to give to your PCs. Most of the time, you can create the story item in such a way that it fulfills its story purpose without creating a problem in the hands of the PCs. The Unholy condition was made for this (although it is far from airtight and you may well have a group possessing and using an Unholy item).
If you want to have a cool item to give to the PCs, create it with them in mind and then fit it into your story. Items with only story purposes can be easily designed to be uninteresting for the players. Magic items should not fall into the players hand against your will, they should be conscious story decisions.

I'm planning to use this item in the Forums Deer Clan Adventure and I though as we are here bouncing magic item ideas of each other, I might as well ask for advice here. I have improved the item a bit and will think some more on the advice you have given.

Soul Splitter: A fan with sharp edges on the top. When the user inflicts a blood wound using this fan, they disconnect the soul from the body of the victim. In most causes the soul tries to find back its connection, however is body is unresponsive to its souls actions. Eventually any soul will become a Wandering Soul due to the futility of their actions, turning into yokai overtime. Commune with the Spirits maybe they only way a disconnected soul can communicate. The wood of the fan has been made from branches of the Pine Tree at the villages center, but its edges have been sharpened on the tiles of the Kansen.

Range 0, Damage 2, Deadliness 4, Concealable, Razor-edged. If the victims (Endurance - Fatigue) < or = 5 after damage calculations, the victims soul is disconnected from their body, leaving the body in a permanent unconscious condition. The user of the fan suffers 5 fatigue and 6 strife when this happens.

Random question of the day, if an item could disconnect the soul from the body, in a way removing the driver from the vehicle, if that same item has unholy quality, how would taint work? Is the body tainted, or the soul?

8 hours ago, Kiso said:

I'm planning to use this item in the Forums Deer Clan Adventure and I though as we are here bouncing magic item ideas of each other, I might as well ask for advice here. I have improved the item a bit and will think some more on the advice you have given.

Soul Splitter: A fan with sharp edges on the top. When the user inflicts a blood wound using this fan, they disconnect the soul from the body of the victim. In most causes the soul tries to find back its connection, however is body is unresponsive to its souls actions. Eventually any soul will become a Wandering Soul due to the futility of their actions, turning into yokai overtime. Commune with the Spirits maybe they only way a disconnected soul can communicate. The wood of the fan has been made from branches of the Pine Tree at the villages center, but its edges have been sharpened on the tiles of the Kansen.

Range 0, Damage 2, Deadliness 4, Concealable, Razor-edged. If the victims (Endurance - Fatigue) < or = 5 after damage calculations, the victims soul is disconnected from their body, leaving the body in a permanent unconscious condition. The user of the fan suffers 5 fatigue and 6 strife when this happens.

Random question of the day, if an item could disconnect the soul from the body, in a way removing the driver from the vehicle, if that same item has unholy quality, how would taint work? Is the body tainted, or the soul?

That is a very powerful item, turning a minor hit into what is effectively a kill. That should not end up in player's hands.

Also, the L5R concept is that only a critical hit actually connects to cause a wound. so the item would better have its effect on a crit of severity 3+ or 5+.

Taint seems to be able to corrupt both. But as that would only become relevant if the soul is reunited, the question is moot.