Bag of holding
I've been mulling the idea of making magic items for a dungeon game (ADG from here on out) and I'm still unsure what my approach should be. I've always preferred a lower magic campaign where that stuff is rare and weird and unpredictable, because that makes it feel a bit more special. Once you get to 3e onwards D&D is balanced around the assumption that players have specific magic items at specific levels and I've never really liked that. (5e claims it isn't but... it is).
Reading Supplement 3 again I'm struck by the fact that most of the items in it are named artefacts. There's only one of them, they're all incredibly rare, and they do very weird shit. It's where we get the Hand & Eye of Vecna, the Rod Of Seven Parts, Axe Of The Dwarvish Lords, etc. All these iconic items that have remained throughout all of the editions.
At the same time I really like utility items like Driftglobes, Bags of Holding, and Immovable Rods (although there's an argument that the first two exist simply to remove concerns about light and inventory management, which are parts of the game I think are very important). If I were to write items for ADG I'd want to include them, but in a way that doesn't remove that aspect of the game entirely.
The answer might be to simply turn these items into unique things, and make their continued existence precarious. Make them weird and scary and give them the potential to go away if they're relied on too much, and make other characters in the world seek them out. Maybe a Bag Of Holding looks something like this:
Bag Of Holding
Many have theorised about how the oldest dragons acquire their hoards. If they have grown to big to leave their lairs, how does the gold they feast on replenish itself?
A humble sack, empty at a glance. To reach into it is to reach into the dragon's lair. Items stored inside it remain nearby, and can be accessed easily enough when given time. But under pressure - in combat, for example - it is much more difficult. Roll 1d20. A roll of 1-13 is enough to locate the right item; 14-18 finds something other; 19-20 is to grasp the tail of the dragon itself, rousing its attention and pulling you through into its home.
Worth 5,000sp.