An adventure with few magic items

There are only few magic items in the adventure Curse of Strahd. That’s not necessarily a problem if our players know it. But usually, players expect to get magic items for their characters over the course of a campaign. When I ran Curse of Strahd, I wanted to hand out magic items to the players, but couldn’t find many in the book. That’s why, in this article, you will find a random generator to quickly create unique and creepy magic items for Curse of Strahd, for Barovia or for the Shadowfell in general.

Simple mechanics, evocative flavor

The generator creates magical weapons, spellcasting foci, and armor. The mechanics of these are simple. Each item grants a +1 to attack and damage or to armor class. Or to spell attack bonus and spell saving DC in the case of spellcasting foci. In addition, each item comes with a spell which can be cast using the item, once per long rest. The spell saving DC is 15 and the spell attack modifier is +7 for each of these spells.

What makes these items uniquely suitable for Curse of Strahd or any Barovia campaign, is the simple but evocative flavor. Each item has two descriptors to let you quickly describe its appearance. Each item also has an origin in the form of a Shadowfell entity, like the Shadovar or the Raven Queen, or an origin from Curse of Strahd, like St. Markovia or Morgantha’s Coven.

Shadowfell entities

For reference, here are the Shadowfell entities (from the “Shadowfell” entry in the Forgotten Realms Wiki) used to flavor the Shadowfell magic items in the generator:

• Ambergris, dwarf Shadovar cleric of Dumathoin and former member of Cavus Dun.
• Afafrenfere, human Shadovar monk, former member of Cavus Dun, former member of Brothers of the Gray Mists, and former member of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose.
• Dark Powers, vestiges of ancient dead evil gods that either dwell on the plane or were banished there, and feed on evil creatures that become trapped in the Shadowfell.
• Drasek Riven, a godling, had his fortress here, where he hid from Rivalen the Nightseer and the archdevil Mephistopheles, both of whom shared a piece of the divine essence Drasek himself had.
• Draygo Quick, a Netherese lord and powerful warlock.
• Effron the Twisted, tiefling Shadovar warlock, and former student of Draygo Quick.
• The Ghost King, a composite being formed from: Hephaestus a dracolich; Crenshinibon and its seven disembodied liches; and the sentience of Yharaskrik, an illithid; which had powers over the undead denizens of the Shadowfell.
• Glorfathel, elf Shadovar wizard and member of Cavus Dun.
• Herzgo Alegni, tiefling Shadovar warlord, who wielded Charon’s Claw.
• Jermander, a tiefling Shadovar warrior and member of Cavus Dun.
• Parbid, tiefling Shadovar monk, member of Cavus Dun, and the Brothers of the Gray Mists.
• Parise Ulfbinder, a Netherese lord.
• Ratsis the Spider Farmer, a human male shade and member of Cavus Dun.
• The Raven Queen had a divine realm known as the Fortress of Memories here.