Downtime Magical Items for 5th Edition D&D

In 5th Edition D&D activities that PCs do during non-adventure time is known as "Downtime Activities". Downtime Activities are described on the following pages:

• PHB pages 186 - 187
• DMG pages 127 - 131

Depending on the Dungeon Master, downtime activities can play an important, interesting, and integral part of their campaign. Downtime Activities include things like:

• Building a Stronghold
• Carousing
• Crafting Magical Items
• Crafting Non-Magical Items
• Gaining Renown
• Maintaining / Renovating Property (including maintenance costs)
• Operating a Garrison of Soldiers
• Performing Sacred Rites
• Practicing a Profession
• Recuperating (from Major Injuries / Disease / Poison)
• Researching Topics
• Running a Business
• Selling Magic Items
• Sowing Rumours
• Training to Gain Languages / Tool Skill
• Training to Gain Levels

But what if there were magical items that could aid in these Downtime Activities? Well, here are some ideas for such items that would have benefits in the game.

Architect's Drafting Tools
This set of tools reduce the time required to build a stronghold or other structure by 10%.

The tools allow the Architect to optimize the design of the building to make it more time efficient to build. The overall cost of the structure is not effected, but the time savings can be useful. An architect or engineer using these tools while practicing their profession can effectively earn 10% more income.

Lucky Carousing Hat
Gives a +10% bonus downtime carousing checks. +2 saves vs alcohol.

Notes - Useless in combat. Great during a drinking contest. Encourages players to spend downtime carousing, which makes for interesting plot developments and can lead to quests. Thus the hat is a tool the DM can use to deliver quest hooks.

Desk of the Enchanter
Reduces time required to craft magical items by 10%. If there is a roll to determine success of the enchantment process there is a 10% bonus to the chance of success.

This solid oak desk is topped with obsidian and radiates strong enchantment magic, a number of magical devices are in the drawers of the desk useful for speeding up the process of enchantment. It speeds up the process of making magical items, but does not effect the cost. Normally it costs 25 gp per day to craft magical items. Using this desk the cost is 27.5 gp per day. This does not include lifestyle expenses, so in theory the user saves both time and lifestyle expenses.

Hammer of the Holy Weaponsmith
When used to craft or repair metal weapons of any kind that are normally metal, this hammer has the added effect of imbuing the weapon with the effect of being "holy" to a good god.

This does not confer any bonus to hit or damage, but simply the ability that the weapon is considered holy when used to attack undead, demons and similar critters. This may, at the DM's discretion, allow it to bypass certain kinds of weapon resistances and immunities. When used to repair an unholy or evil weapon, the hammer will purify the weapon and remove any evil enchantments or curses on the weapon. Evil artifacts are immune to this effect. The hammer has no effect on attempts to craft or repair armour or other items.

The Merchant's Silver Tongue
This silver necklace boosts interactions with NPCs by +2 when attempting to sell items, and any sale price is boosted by 10% due to the seller's "likeability".

This item can be used for selling magical items or any number of non-magical items, new or used. It is only useful for selling items however. It has no effect on purchasing or bartering items.

Ancient Dungeon Machinery

I didn't write this. I found this on the blog: http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.

I might use this in the ruins north of Dangarn. Also check out these awesome Steampunk Dice on the right.


d12 Machine Operation
1 Crystal Grid of stone depressions which crystals are inserted and concentrated on to operate
2 Mechanical with cogs and levers and pulleys in secret combinations
3 Alchemical apparatus with glass tubes and vials of fluid with a furnace and pressurized liquids
4 Pneumatic brass tubes with vacuum cylinder transport system for small packages
5 Crystal Panels which if waved over light up in colours and links system to users mind
6 Living fleshy biological systems with tentacles, suckers, fleshy curtains manipulated by hand
7 Necrotic highly complex biological structures of bone covered in chitin, skin contact panels
8 Focal object like pool of liquid or mirror or crystal orb if concentrated on controls machine
9 Clay tablets in ancient text are inserted into slots in complex magical formulas
10 Steam Boiler powers mechanisms by elaborate gauges, pipes and furnace
11 Golem like beings incorporated into machines operated with magic signs
12 Bound entities like elementals or demons power the machinery and obey commands

d12 Condition
1 Rotting heaps of scrap barley disconcernable to experts
2 Shattered mess or rubble and broken equitment
3 Broken machine with essential and valuable parts missing
4 Badly burned and melted
5 Shattered from explosion
6 Smashed by vandalism spree from some past upheaval
7 Flooded and coroded with mounds of silt and slime
8 Shambling heap with missing parts but possibly repairable
9 Broken but repairable
10 Battered but functional
11 Good condition some wear
12 Shining new


d100 Ancient Dungeon Machine Rooms
01 Automated toilet
02 Water pump control room
03 Bakery with oven and huge mixer
04 Washing machines
05 Water heater and pump
06 Steam room boiler
07 Brewing or wine vat
08 Blacksmith forge and machine hammer
09 Weaving machine easily fowled
10 Lighting control room
11 Alarm control room
12 Servant bell control hub
13 Electrical generator
14 Message cylinder pressure plant
15 Message cylinder mail room
16 Telegraph room
17 Automated bell machine
18 Steam engine
19 Metal press for cutting patterns in sheet metal
20 Furnace for heating or burning
21 Kitchen with ovens
22 Steam press
23 Refrigerator
24 Smoke house
25 Spinning machine
26 Mulching machine for organic waste
27 Slaughter room with hooks and guilliotine
28 Butchers room with saws and fridge
29 Steam bath and massage machine
30 Torture chamber
31 Rending plant for extracting fat and oil from organic matter
32 Music machine like a steam calliope or organ
33 Automated prison cells with possibly functional food and water and toilet
34 Ice machine makes foot cubes of ice
35 Milling machine for grains to make flour
36 Dying vat for making batches of coloured cloth, uses lots of water
37 Hair cutting machine
38 Dentistry machine
39 Portrait painting machine
40 Printing press
41 Saw mill and machine to mix glue and sawdust into particle board
42 Kinetiscope or crude recreational image making machine
43 Music machine plays from collection of discs like huge jukebox
44 Canning or food preservation machine
45 Smelting furnace
46 Huge clock
47 Manufacturing assembly line with convener belt
48 Spray booth
49 Water filtration plant
50 Glass furnace
51 Huge alchemical apparatus for growing monsters
52 Dream recording chamber
53 Machine to turn corpses into zombies
54 Machine turns corpses into iron rations
55 Huge electronic drum kit
56 Security monitoring room
57 Automed med bay surgery machine
58 Beautification spa machine
59 Plastic surgerey machine
60 Face transplant machine
61 Brain transplant machine
62 Polymorphing machine
63 Controls for dungeon burrowing machine
64 Controls of subtereanean hydro dam (stops flood)
65 Machine that pumps blood from deep underground sleeping kaiju
66 Machine that controls undead sleeping army
67 Machine that pacifies or enrages orcs
68 Orc making machine converts corpses to monsters
69 Machine drains life force to generate power
70 Orgone energy acumulator drains sexual energyfor miles around
71 Soul storage device
72 Dimensional prison containing evil wizards of yore
73 Growth Accelerator turns children into ogres
74 Blood draining machines with storage vats
75 Long range comunicator
76 Time machine sends subjects to when monsters ruled one way
77 Machine fuses humans and animals to create beast men
78 Machine regulates dungeon lighting
79 Machine regulates dungeon temperature
80 Machine contains trapped tortured elementals
81 Gremlin containment machine
82 Machine allows operator to comunicate with other planes
83 Control room for one shot weapon to harm a god
84 Control room for slumbering cyborg kaiju
85 Time scoop can summon prehistoric monsters
86 Weather machine
87 Microscopic and bacterial lab
88 Reactor controls
89 Video confrence room
90 Holographic film library
91 Long range god or artifact scanner
92 Image data library screen
93 Potion lab aparatus or distilery
94 Golem animation aparatus
95 Suspended animation pods
96 Cloning vats
97 Clairvoyant aparatus or scrying device
98 Astronomical observation device
99 Teleporter pad and array
100 Machine that opens dimensional gate

What to do In Between Pokemon Go Events

By now many of us Pokemon Go players have figured out there are really two ways of playing Pokemon Go.

1. The vanilla experience, the time period between events.
2. The events experience, the times when there is a Pokemon Go event happening.

The recent Adventure Week rock event and the Grass Event before that got me thinking that about what players should be doing during the time periods that are in-between the events. Here is what I do:

#1. Fill in your Pokedex

I hunt specific Pokemon to fill out my Pokedex, usually by going to locations where specific kinds of Pokemon are more likely to appear. So for example if I am hunting water Pokemon, I am hanging around the lakeshore, ponds, rivers, etc. See Pokemon Go Spawn Locations in Toronto for more details.

So for example right now I am hunting Houndours, so I can evolve one and get the evolved version Houndoom. My Pokedex is currently at 222 and I would like to reach 235 before July 1st. To accomplish that I need to be finding spawn nests for certain types of Gen 2 Pokemon (I already have all of the Gen 1 Pokemon that are available in Toronto), and to find those 13 missing Pokemon I need to be spending the time during June to fine them.

#2. Hunt the Ten Biggest Pokemon

Or their lesser evolved counterparts. Your primary goal here is to get big Pokemon that make for good gym defenders. These includes hunting for:

1. Larvitars (Tyranitar Rock/Dark, max CP 3670)
2. Dratinis (Dragonite, Dragon/Flying, max CP 3581)
3. Snorlax (Normal, max CP 3355)
4. Rhydon (Ground/Rock, max CP 3300)
5. Magikarp (Gyarados, Water/Flying, max CP 3281)
6. Chansey (Blissey, Normal, max CP 3219)
7. Eevees (Five different evolutions, Water, Dark, Electric, Fire or Psychic, max CP 3157)
8. Phanpy (Donphan, Ground, max CP 3022)
9. Heracross (Bug/Fighting, max CP 2938)
10. Geodude (Golem, Rock/Ground, max CP 2916)

 Hunting the biggest pokemon are just straight up useful for protecting gyms, which brings me to my next topic.

#3. Hunt Pokemon that are Good Gym Attackers

Being big isn't necessarily good for taking down enemy gyms / bumping up your own gym. In those situations it is better to have several good pokemon of each the 18 types. Certain types are very good at taking down other types. Water beats fire, ice beats dragon, grass beats ground, steel beats rock, fairy beats dark, etc.

Thus since the biggest Pokemon out there are things like Tyranitar (rock/dark) it is useful to have some big fairies or big steel Pokemon to take down the Tyranitars. Fairy attacks are also good versus dragons, so they are also good versus Dragonites. Ice attacks are also great against Dragons, so the fairy/ice Pokemon Jynx is actually surprisingly good at defeating Dragonites. If you get a really good Jynx, you should definitely keep it for the purposes of defeating Dragonites.

Since Dragonites fly, electric Pokemon are also good against them and other types of flying Pokemon like Gyarados.

Fighting Pokemon are good for taking down Snorlaxes, so finding a big Heracross with fighting attacks should also be on your To Do List. While a Heracross does make a good defender, it is arguably best kept as an attacker instead.

#4. Attack Gyms and Defend Them - Get Coins!

Now that you hopefully have some good defenders and a variety of good attackers, you should spend your time taking down gyms and replacing them with your team. Or alternatively, boosting up your team's gyms to level 10 and then defending them.

Your end goal in attacking gyms is to gain coins, so I usually try to time when I go on a series of Gym Attacks so I can attack multiple gyms, place my defenders, and then collect my coins immediately. If I wait too long someone might come along and try to take down any gyms I captured and then I would need to repeat the process to get the amount of coins I was hoping for.

Once you have the coins they are best used to increase your inventory space / Pokemon storage. Otherwise I stockpile my coins until sales that are worthwhile. (The recent sale on Pokeballs was useless to me, as I don't believe on wasting coins or money on Pokeballs that can be gained for free just by walking.)

#5. Stock Up on Pokeballs

I frequently dump healing lesser healing potions, revives and nanab berries to make more room for Pokeballs. I will generally keep the hyper/max potions and the max revives, but even then I usually end up with lots of them.

Nanab berries are annoying to me. I rarely use them because I usually just time my throwing of the Pokeball in the first place. I only keep a few on me in case I run into a particularly annoying Pokemon who keeps dodging or headbutting the ball, but otherwise I routinely dump Nanabs whenever I have more than 10 of them. If I really want more space for Pokeballs I will sometimes reduce my Nanabs to 5 because I so rarely need them.

Pokeballs, Razz/Pinap berries are the truly valuable things to have as you NEED them to catch Pokemon, increase your chances of catching them, or double the candy you get when trying to catch a particularly rare Pokemon. eg. If I see a Larvitar, that is a good time to use an Ultra Ball and a Pinap so I get double the candy and improve my chances of catching it. Combined with a curve ball and excellent aim/timing, that Larvitar is usually as good as caught.

Evolution items are nice to have when it comes time to use them (preferably during a double XP event) but otherwise I don't worry about them. If they start taking up too much space eventually I might dump a few, but at present they have not become an inventory nuisance.

#6. Inventory Maintenance / Waiting for Next Event

Whether you are getting rid of Pokemon you don't need or making sure you keep a full inventory with lots of Pokeballs, you should try to do this regularly.

When doing this I also stockpile candy, stockpile Pokemon ready to be evolved, and get ready for the next double XP event - like the Easter Eggstravaganza event that was in April. I evolved almost 400 Pokemon during the Easter Eggstravaganza that I had been stockpiling, just so when I did evolve them I could use Lucky Eggs in combo with the Double XP to get 4 times the XP.

I also record how much candy I have stockpiled of the various types, and calculate how many Pokemon I will be able to evolve whenever the next event comes around - this way I know to keep big / good stats Pokemon around instead of dumping them, thus keeping the correct number I will need for whenever a double XP event finally happens.

I have a hunch there will be another double XP event sometime in June or July.

Events seem to be happening at a rate of 1 or 2 per month, with Big Events usually accompanied by bigger incentives to get out there and play, but that doesn't mean you should not be out there playing and accomplishing your goals within the game during the downtimes between events. The events add interest to the game and allow you to focus on catching specific types of Pokemon, to hatch more eggs, to get double XP, etc - but there are certain goals like gaining coins, filling in your Pokedex, etc that can be accomplished without any need for an event to currently be happening.

Happy Hunting!