Thursday, December 27, 2018

Magic Items on the Borderlands

Keep on the Borderlands remains a popular adventure module for starting campaigns and introducing new players to D&D. As such it contains a good variety of magic items to allow players to experience the fun these toys bring to play. Here then is a rough list of how many items of various types populate the module.

TL/DR list =

7 Scrolls, 20 Potions, 2 Wands, 3 Staves, 1 Helm, 34 Amulets, 7 Swords, 3 Spears, 2 Hand Axes, 1 Rope, 8 Armor, 6 Shields, 2 Maces, 7 Daggers, 5 Rings, 19 Arrows, 1 Elven Cloak, 2 pair Elven Boots.

A portion of the items are located within the friendly/safe Keep and are unlikely to become available to the player characters without them risking a vigorous reprisal from higher level combatants and expulsion from the only safe place to rest and recover. This includes most of the armor which seems to be all Plate Mail +1, most of the swords +1 and +2, most of the +1 daggers, and most of the +1 shields.

The amulets are mostly worn by skeletons and zombies and increase the difficulty of turning by clerics. Other amulets are Protection From Good worn by evil priests.

Two cursed items and a couple of Potions of Poison are hidden about the Caves of Chaos.

Nine Healing Potions as well as some Cure Light Wounds scrolls are available.

Four of the Rings are Protection +1.

The magic rope is an odd item to be included since it doesn't call to mind any immediate uses in the adventure, but later adventures may have plenty of opportunities to employ the rope.

If the inhabitants of the Caves put their stashed magic items to use the adventurers would face a much tougher task of clearing the caves and it would reduce the amount of available magic items a fair bit. Can you imagine an invisible Ogre surprise attack?!


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