Most Iconic & Unique Items in RPG History

[luj1]

Holy Avenger in righteous hands.

Also the Black Blade of Disaster even though its a summon.

 

[Jason Liang]

Wizardry 1 definitely already had a ton of iconic items. I agree with mondblut that
- Blade Cusinart is on top of that list, but there's also
- Dagger of Thieves, famously
- Ring of Suffocation
- Werdna's Amulet itself is obviously iconic

Shining in the Darkness had some extremely memorable items
- The Forbidden Box comes to my head, partly because it's effect is completely random and powerful everytime you use it, and partly because it's entirely missable- you have to go back to and re-explore, one of the earliest dungeons to get it, once you get
- The Mystic Rope, which really makes exploring this game's later game dungeons stand out
- Dark Blocks are also very cool, since they can be crafted into all sorts of weird and forbidden equipment

The Diablo games had a lot of memorable uniques. My favorites are
- Thinking Cap from Diablo 1
- Buriza-Do Kyanon for being such an infamous weapon in Diablo 2's history, spawning its own character archetype
- Ravenclaw for being absolutely busted in the Diablo 2 beta builds
- Ribcracker for coolness

Path of Exile then kicked it up a notch, with literally hundreds of build-around unique items. The ones I loved most off the top of my head from my time with the game were-
- Shavronne's Wrappings, of course
- The mighty Prism Guardian
- Facebreaker, Path of Exile's version of Ribcracker
- Doryani's Fist for being a perfect complement to
- The Dancing Dervish
- Sire of Shards for being hilarious

For Baldur's Gate 2 my favorites are
- Staff of the Ram +6 for being the perfect backstabbing weapon for Stalker/ Cleric builds

- Cloak of Non-Detection for being strangely the best cloak in the game
- Celestial Fury for being dumb and cool at the same time

For Neverwinter Nights, Baldercan's modules Cave of Songs and The Prophet had some of my favorite magical items ever designed
- The Cave of Songs had a Demon's Eye ring that has to be one of the most useful items I've ever had in a rpg. It is also one of the trickiest items to get in rpg gaming, you literally have to cheat a demon to get it. I love carrying this into other modules
- Also in Cave of Songs is an incredibly powerful and useful Robe of Time or something, one of the best mage armor designs ever
- For The Prophet, you get some amazing items along the way as well. The Scepter of Lor itself is an insane ultimate weapon that any character can use

The Rance games are really not known for their items. That being said-
- Rance's Love from Sengoku Rance is pretty hilarious
- Chaos the Darksword itself is cool, but Rick's Byroad is definitely a cooler sword

- In Rance Quest Magnum, Shizuka's Crystal Rod makes her so over the top OP that it has to be mentioned
- Kanami's ultimate armor Emperor's Armor is hilarious as well
- It's not an item you get ingame but the M Bomb with Anise is also pure comedy in Rance 6

Not computer rpgs, but some of my favorite magical items come from the Lone Wolf gamebooks
- The Firesphere that you get in Kalte
- The Silver Bow of Duadon that you get for winning the archery tournament in Kingdoms of Terror
- The Dagger of Vashna, which you carry throughout the series to help you win some of the toughest battles in the series
- Helshezag for being the personal weapon of the coolest darklord and for being a perfect weapon to dual wield with the Sommerswerd

 

[Sigourn]

 

[Poseidon00]

El's Drinker from Dark Sun. Good damage and leeches HP from enemies.

They gave a pretty decent dungeon dedicated to that sword in Dark Sun 2 iirc

 

[Funposter]

Just thought about it but probably the Drake Sword from Dark Souls. The easiest method of obtaining it is simultaneously obscure/obtuse but also extremely well-known thanks to the proliferation of online guides and it operates as both an early game crutch in a game that is harder than most players are used to while also being a noob trap, since the lack of scaling with stats makes its damage drop off quite harshly before even mid-game. There are better, cooler and more interesting weapons in Dark Souls, but I bet that 99% of people that have played the game ended up using the Drake Sword at some point.

 

[xasanom]

I've had so much fun with the cursed berserk two-hander in BG2.. I didn't know how to remove it.

 

[curds]

GEP gun. sometimes you need to make a silent takedown.

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[Lurker47]

All the items in that one museum in Planescape.

 

[Desiderius]

You don't need all those things, comrade. Share it with the rest of your community.

Excuse me, I couldn't hear you as I was putting my Bag of Holding... into a Bag of Holding.

 

[Tihskael]

Not an RPG but iconic enough to be mentioned.

 

[fantadomat]

The belt of gendarism from Blandur's gate!

 

[Old Hans]

the moonlight greatsword. that thing has been in every kingsfield game and all the souls games and bloodborne

 

[luj1]

Caliburnus

 

[Dorateen]

Caliburnus

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Here's one I am surprised to not see mention, the magic carpet in Ultima 7. So good it can break the game if you fly it over the endgame location!

 

[Atlantico]

Diamond Edge

So many iconic items in Dungeon Master.

 

[Nano]

I've heard Xan was supposed to be a Fighter before they changed him into a mage at the last minute. Hence his "dagger" that looks suspiciously like a longsword.

Why rate me "No", Atlantico? If you don't believe me, here's an article talking about it. https://www.ign.com/articles/1999/12/24/developer-journal-baldurs-gate-ii-pt-3

One character who was changed in a big way was Ben's character Xan. Originally he was a katana dual-wielding kensai. He was a githzerai, and had magic resistance; in other words he was a power gamer's dream character. He was originally slated to be an elven warrior in BG, but late in the game we found that there were not enough mages. Voice had already been recorded, and only Xan seemed to have dialogue neutral enough to have him switch classes. Ben, to this day, has not let me forget how I transformed his character from a super powerful warrior into a weakling enchanter mage (many consider the enchanter to be the weakest of the specialist mages).

 

[thesecret1]

The Rance games are really not known for their items. That being said-
- Rance's Love from Sengoku Rance is pretty hilarious
- Chaos the Darksword itself is cool, but Rick's Byroad is definitely a cooler sword
- In Rance Quest Magnum, Shizuka's Crystal Rod makes her so over the top OP that it has to be mentioned
- Kanami's ultimate armor Emperor's Armor is hilarious as well
- It's not an item you get ingame but the M Bomb with Anise is also pure comedy in Rance 6

You forgot the most iconic of all – the Hyper Weapon.

 

[Atlantico]

Why rate me "No", Atlantico? If you don't believe me, here's an article talking about it. https://www.ign.com/articles/1999/12/24/developer-journal-baldurs-gate-ii-pt-3

I believe you, I don't believe the article or James Ohlen. It doesn't make any sense. He's misremembering or simply confused.

Look at how he describes the "original Xan": Originally a "super powerful warrior elf", and the voice had already been recorded.

They needed a mage, so they used Xan's voice lines and created a mage. Except Xan's voice lines aren't neutral at all. They're very, very specific to a character type who is not an uber-warrior elf.

Xan's Moonblade is also a very specific lore weapon in the Forgotten Realms, and one which would attach to any elf destined to have it, mage or warrior. It's entirely possible Ohlen is misremembering.

Nano surely you're not trying to claim "I read it on the internet so it must be true"?

 

[Nano]

He's misremembering or simply confused.

The article's from a year after BG1's release so I very much doubt that.

Look at how he describes the "original Xan": Originally a "super powerful warrior elf", and the voice had already been recorded. They needed a mage, so they used Xan's voice lines and created a mage. Except Xan's voice lines aren't neutral at all. They're very, very specific to a character type who is not an uber-warrior elf.

Who's to say a warrior can't be suicidal? Khalid's a Fighter and he's a total wimp too.

 

[Atlantico]

Who's to say a warrior can't be suicidal? Khalid's a Fighter and he's a total wimp too.

Sure, but that was not the description, from which you base the entire account.

So if the description of OG-Xan is wrong, then the whole thing unravels. And the description is:

- Originally he was a katana dual-wielding kensai. He was a githzerai, and had magic resistance; in other words he was a power gamer's dream character.
- Ben, to this day, has not let me forget how I transformed his character from a super powerful warrior into a weakling enchanter mage

This isn't the description of a "total wimp". If Ben's character had already recorded voicelines that match this description they'd sound like this.

Also, he says:

- only Xan seemed to have dialogue neutral enough to have him switch classes

That flies in the face of reality, since Xan's dialogue is anything but neutral. Kivan, otoh has the dialogue that matches Ohlen's description of the OG Xan.

It seems he's mistaking one elf character with another, Xan and Kivan.

 

[Nano]

Nano surely you're not trying to claim "I read it on the internet so it must be true"?

No, I'm saying I believe claims from the *lead designer of the game* about events that happened just a year prior.

This is a silly argument. Here's another, non-James source: http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58549

Quoted off of BG Chronicles...

Question:I read somewhere that a few BG/BG2 characters were old PnP creations from the designers' vaults. Can you tell us which ones were, and who created them?

David answered: A fair number of the original design staff actually grew up in Grande Prairie (a town north of Edmonton) and played for ages in the various D&D campaigns run by James Ohlen (the lead designer for BG and co-lead designer for BG2). A great number of the characters came from these campaigns, either NPC's that had been run by James or actual player characters run by some of the other guys. In a lot of cases, however, they don't have much more in common with their in-game counterpart aside from the name.

Xan, for instance, was a morbid and depressing elven magic-user in BG1. The character was originally a human kensai run by Ben Smedstad (the producer), with the personality exaggerated as a joke (although I hear Xan was always the first to complain and demand that the group run away from danger). Bodhi was a female assassin character run by Dean Anderson (artist), who kept stabbing the party in the back. Minsc was a brain-damaged ranger run by Cam Tofer (producer of MDK2) who used hamsters to set off traps in dungeons...until he became attached to one. Anomen and Edwin are characters that were run by friends of James's...and apparently their personalities are pretty much intact to the way they were played (both got the group constantly into trouble).

 

[Atlantico]

No, I'm saying I believe claims from the *lead designer of the game* about events that happened just a year prior.

People misremember all the time, especially if it's a good story. You probably don't even remember what happened in your life last year in such detail, do you remember what you had for dinner a week ago?

Take a look at David's description:
Xan, for instance, was a morbid and depressing elven magic-user in BG1. The character was originally a human kensai run by Ben Smedstad (the producer), with the personality exaggerated as a joke (although I hear Xan was always the first to complain and demand that the group run away from danger).

This narrative flies in the face of Ohlen's narrative, which was:

- He was a githzerai, and had magic resistance; in other words he was a power gamer's dream character

So whom do you believe? David or James? Was Xan human or was he githzerai? David and James contradict each other, so one of them is evidently misremembering.

Then he continues to tell the story as he had heard it himself, "I hear Xan was always the first to complain".

Not that he knows, but that he heard. This allegedly kvetching Xan character also contradicts of Ohlen's description of this character's voicelines: "only Xan seemed to have dialogue neutral enough".

David is not describing a character with neutral dialogue and James is not describing Xan's dialogue.

This character David vicariously describes is described by Ohlen as: "a power gamer's dream character" and "super powerful warrior". Yeah that's not Xan, as voiced in the game.

Ohlen is mixing up characters, misremembering. His words as an authoritative source: worthless.

 

[Nano]

Christ. Ben Smedstad was still a producer during BG2's development, he could just as easily have heard the story from him. Not to mention that Ben would've likely corrected people if they were wrong about Xan's original class.