Mostly Lucky Goblin Charms: Semi-Wondrous Items for 5e

Mostly Lucky Goblin Charms

Wondrous Item, Common (requires attunement)

These fetishes are made from wood chips, shells, tufts of fur, and whatever else goblins have on hand that can be stained with green dye. Each mostly lucky charm is unique because each is fashioned in the likeness of a recently deceased goblin.

Each mostly lucky goblin charm has 1d4-1 charges. Once you are attuned to the charm you may spend a charge to reroll a save you have failed, and this reroll is made with advantage. If you do so, you must use the new roll. Once you have spent a mostly lucky charm’s last charge the next roll you make is made with disadvantage, after which the charm crumbles to dust. Ending attunement to the charm does not prevent this effect. However, a casting of remove curse does. A mostly lucky goblin charm found with no charges is a mundane work of folk art of interest only to anthropologists and certain collectors.

Mostly lucky goblin charms exist because of the goblin cultural belief in finite luck. In short, goblins believe that all goblins are born with a bountiful, though limited, supply of good luck. If a goblin dies before using up their entire store of good fortune, some of their unused luck lingers on. Goblins trap this excess luck in a hastily crafted effigy of the deceased, hoping to use this surplus before tapping into their own. Because goblins see bad luck as finite as well, inevitably some ill fortune clings to their charms.

Goblins can attune to mostly lucky goblin charms simply by touching them and spending an action poring over the charm’s specific details. Likewise, mostly lucky goblin charms do not count against the total number of wondrous items to which the goblin can be attuned.

Optional

Nothing is luckier than having a second chance at life, and a mostly lucky goblin charm’s mystic connection to the dead goblin it resembles can sometimes make this possible. When any roll affected by a mostly lucky goblin charm results in two 1s the creature attuned to the charm is possessed by the spirit of the dead goblin as per a ghost’s possession ability. Most goblins don’t mind being possessed by a fallen comrade and often come to an arrangement that allows both the living and the dead joint control of their mortal body, often resulting in strange mannerisms and personality quirks commonly observed in goblinkind. A few rare goblins are possessed by multiple spirits at once and are either venerated or driven from thier tribe in accordance with local superstitions. Should the spirit of a dead goblin leave its host for any reason, it passes on into the afterlife.