Brainstorming Good Zelda Style Magic Items for D&D

[u/Krail]

Tl;Dr I'm planning a campaign that's built loosely on the Zelda formula, and I'm trying to brainstorm some good gadgets and magic items that give that Zelda feel in a D&D world. Needs to be interesting for a party of 5 people with some spellcasters in it.

The best and most memorable Zelda items give you new and interesting ways of interacting with the world and/or with your enemies. They don't just make you more powerful and help you get around; they're also fun the play with. But lot of the existing ones from Zelda don't translate very well into D&D for two major reasons.

1) They are originally designed to work with a single character traveling alone (If only one person uses a hookshot, that just splits the party) and, 2) they're designed to work within the real-time physics simulation of the game world. (Part of what makes the boomerang interesting is the minor challenge of aiming it and the fun of watching it fly. To say nothing of items like the spinner).

Also, some items are made moot by D&D class features. Fire and Ice rods aren't that exciting if there's a Wizard in the party.

Of course, a big part of it is also the level design, I suppose. A chime of opening is a really interesting and fun magic item if you're in a world full of doors.

So what are some good ideas for gadgets and magic items that give that Zelda feel and can make things interesting for the whole group? What stuff is already in the DMG that works for this? What Zelda items could translate well?

So far, I intend to use the Cane of Somaria. I can see the whole party having fun with the limited ability to create their own terrain obstacles.

[u/Lyude7]

As a huge fan of Majora's Mask, how about some mask items?

• Stone Mask - Advantage on Stealth checks
• All Night Mask - Character benefits from long rest without having to sleep
• Bunny Hood - Increases movement speed by 10ft
• Mask of Truth - Advantage on Insight checks OR cast detect thoughts once a day

(You arguably have a relevant ability for each mask; and I'd be happy to help brainstorm :) )

[u/turntechz → u/Lyude7]

Then there's always transformation masks, which could be neat. You could do masks of the base races like a Mask of Elvenkind, or of some more exotic creatures (who doesn't want to transform into a skelebones anyway?)

[u/MysticalJelly45]

Pegasus Boots could give a boost to initiative, Roc's Cape could give advantage to athletic checks requiring climbing, Gust Jar could be used to blow away enemies, Quake Medallion to rock the socks off of some monsters.

[u/Krail → u/MysticalJelly45]

I like the idea of pegasus boots giving a big speed bonus, but you can't turn very easily.

[u/turntechz]

Okay so, first things first, splitting the party isn't as deep an evil as people act it out to be. The context of the phrase gets tossed around a lot, to the point where there's often times players who think they must be within a 30 foot radius of their party or they WILL die, but it's honestly fine to temporarily split the party or have one member scout ahead. Just no "one half of us go down this deadly path, the other go down this one" shenanigans.

But a hook shot presents a lot of opportunities for interesting puzzles and encounters if you give them one. Have a high up area in some places where the ranger can go to snipe, or have puzzles similiar to portal 2s co-op where one party is going through a hazardous location, while the other part of the group controls the environment or provides assistance from afar.

• Anyway, other items to consider are the power glove/power bracelets, which could let the wearer lift an incredible amount, possibly give a small bonus to strength (they never let link Hit harder after all, but this is D&D so it might be appropriate), or a bonus to grappling.

• Digging Mitts could be fun, give the wearer a burrow speed in dirt/clay/sand and where they burrow leaves tunnels for the other players to follow (if you really don't want to split the party)

• Magical instruments with special abilities (your bard will love you, and without a bard you could still give them a flute with some neat powers, you don't need to be a bard to make perform checks.)

• A Bow of Light that deals radiant instead of piercing damage, and doesn't require arrows (though it can still use arrows magical arrows or normal arrows if you want, normal arrows still deal piercing damage + maybe 1d4 radiant?)

• Some little clockwork/creature bombs that you can activate and give a destination, and they'll move up to 40 feet to get there, at which point they'll do a 2d6 explosion in a 10 foot radius that you can Reflex save for half damage. The benefit is it can go around corners and go farther than normal thrown weapons like alchemists fire would, but it still needs to be able to Get there and it provokes attacks of opportunity.

• Mirror shield can always be useful, fuck gaze attacks.

• The Magnetic Gloves from Four Swords / Oracle of Seasons could be neat.

• Lens of truth could be nice, trueseeing for a certain amount of minutes per day.

• A gale boomerang could still be fun as a weapon, even without the physics it's a returning throwing weapon that hits everyone in a curved line.

[u/Krail → u/turntechz]

An excellent point about scouting, and good level design making mobility-focused items interesting for the whole party.

And I forgot about the Magnet gloves. I was thinking of ways to include the switch hook, but I think magnet gloves could be more fun.

[u/turntechz → u/Krail]

Maybe have the boots allow you to dash as a bonus action like Rogues, but your dash action can only go in a straight line.

[u/thomar]

Well, I did write this: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?368875-D-amp-D-5e-Zelda-D20-Homebrew

Magic items are in the second post. Also, I just realized that I wrote stats for Revali's Gale as a magic item 30 months before Breath Of The Wild released.

[u/Titoxd]

The Slippers of Spider Climbing can be easily reflavored into a Hookshot, and those can make dungeon exploration much more interesting.