The only problem is that the caster had to make a Saving Throw or die, too. Then there was Narnfriend, a dagger that could be used to cast a power word: Kill spell. Once I gave a player a sword that could cast a 100 d6 fireball that was a mile in diameter the catch…ground zero was the sword. They would panic and start shouting at the Player whose character was carrying the stone, “Throw it! Throw it!” Magic Swords, I loved magic swords with unreasonable powers. If my Players went several days in game time without discharging the lightning stone, I would start counting down from some random number under 20. It could be discharged early, by throwing it against a hard surface, resetting the build up time. It was an electric blue crystal that would build up and discharge a blast of lightning ever 500 turns (a turn was time unit equal to 10 minutes in those days). One of my favorite magic items was the lightning stone.
My players might find a ring of fireballs, instead of a wand of fireballs. Instead of dropping a ring of invisibility into a game, I’d drop a cap of invisibility or a sword of invisibility. You probably didn’t find much more than potions before you reached 4 th level, but after that, watch out! I loved weird magic things that the Players wouldn’t expect. Way back in the days of 1E, I often played fast and loose with magic items. Magic items should have an air of mystery about them, a mystique that make even hardened adventurers and their players just a tad wary of them. When all magical items can be codified and cataloged and any relatively aware person can look at a magic item and know its workings, then such things become no different than the often glossed over pitons and rope at the bottom of an adventurers backpack. Magic items become less magic al because there is nothing “magical” about them. Magic items in these games become tools, like those that one may purchase at a hardware store or thrift shop. This is one of my many complaints about 3E and 4E D&D ( see paragraphs 4 and 5).
Once again, Creighton Broadhurst has made a post that has touched on one of my complaints with some Role Playing Games.