Items that only work for one person

[Michael Hopcroft]

Is there anythign special you need to do to design a magic item so that it can only be used by ONE person?

Examples include a wizard's staff that only the wizard who made it can use (for everyone else it's just a stick) or a sword that grants its bonuses only to the regining King of All the Lands (to everyone else it's just an ordinary sword, perhaps even duller than usualy, but for the King it can cut through anything).

This is the opposite of Independent, and almost certainly makes the item more expensive. It also makes the items useless if found as treasure. (But if the Sword of the Kings is found in a dungeon where a King died a hundred years ago, and the finder takes it back to the capital and somehow becomes King of All the Lands, will the sword work for him?)

[eepjr24]

This sounds like a personal focus (FREd, pg 150). The points are really a wash, since the player cannot loan the item to another it balances with his opponent not being able to use it if they take it away.

On the king issue, I would say it would depend on how the focus was created. Was it a personal focus of Harland, who happened to be the High King? Or was it the personal focus of the living persona of the High King? As GM, you will have to decide that one.

- Ernie