I've decided to use Incantations from Unearthed Arcana in an upcoming Iron Heroes game.

Instead of having these incantations written down on a scroll or within an ancient tome, I want to built them into "magic items" of a sort.

For example...

A deck of tarot cards, which would contain increasingly powerful divination-based incantations used to "predict" the future.

Or...

A crystal ball, with divinations of a different sort for scrying, clairvoyance and other means of remote viewing.

Or...

A magic carpet that has incantations for levitation, flight and overland flight.

Or...

A cloak with incantations for disguise self, blur and invisibility.

Or...

A black iron cauldron with undead-creating incantatons.

What do you guys think of the idea?  Do you have any ideas for other
incantation-based magic items?

I'm not sure I'd do that.  Part of the "flavor" of incantations is that they are very, very precise and not just stored energy.  Rolling them into a magic item runs counter to that notion.
 
I can, however, see a way to do it.  You could have items like a ritual dagger that summons a Nasty Beastie when it's used to slay your brother (or in vengence, or in defense of a child, etc).  
 
Or a gem that, when exposed to the light of a full moon, while afloat in the ocean out of sight of land will restore the holder to their physical state at age 20.
 
Or a cloak that, when splattered with some of the "caster's" blood and a bit (hair, nail, etc.) of the target, will make the "caster" invisible to the target until the cloak is removed (one use per preparation).
 
Those are incantation items, IMO.  Your examples just sound like regular magic items.

Sobek's examples sound how I'd always wanted magic items to be, limited but very cool and powerful to do one specific thing.

Cyclotron, I guess I'm not clear by what you mean by built in to an item.  How is it different than and how is the same as an incantation in a book?

Do you have to roll to figure out what the item does, as if discovering the incantation.

Do you have to roll several times to get success or does the item essentially know how to cast the incantation?

Does the item count as all components or are other components ever required?

Are the casting times still going to be very long or are they going to be more like standard magic items?

It sounds like you are creating a chargless item that has multiple functions that anyone can use.  That's very powerful unless it has some of the downsides of incantations, like the skill checks or casting time.

I like it because it sounds like magic items of fable, where it's a normal item unless you know the magic word(s).  But, if not done right, they are going to be just like normal magic items, only better.

Quote from: NicephorusCyclotron, I guess I'm not clear by what you mean by built in to an item. How is it different than and how is the same as an incantation in a book?

No different.  It'd work exactly the same mechanically as any other incantation, except that the in-game packaging and implementation looks a little different.

Quote from: NicephorusDo you have to roll to figure out what the item does, as if discovering the incantation.

Yes.

Quote from: NicephorusDo you have to roll several times to get success

Yes.

Quote from: Nicephorusor does the item essentially know how to cast the incantation?

No.

Quote from: NicephorusDoes the item count as all components or are other components ever required?

Depends on the item...  for example, if you wanted to use a voodoo doll as an incantation to Curse someone, I likely require you to have some personal object belonging to the target. Whereas, the flying carpet wouldn't require anything extra.

Quote from: NicephorusAre the casting times still going to be very long

Yes.

Quote from: Nicephorusor are they going to be more like standard magic items?

No.

Quote from: NicephorusIt sounds like you are creating a chargless item that has multiple functions that anyone can use. That's very powerful unless it has some of the downsides of incantations, like the skill checks or casting time.

Sounds like I wasn't clear as to what I wanted to do.  I want these objects to work exactly as a book of incantations would, the object and its implementation just look different.

Here's an example, for Sobek...

The Deck of Tarot cards appears as a normal deck of cards.  If you know the proper way to shuffle the cards, and arrange them on the table, you may ask yourself a question and then attempt to interpret the final array of cards to supernaturally divine an answer to the question.

The Incantation would emulate the augury, commune or divination, would require the normal complex skill checks for Knowledge (arcana) and maybe one for Sleight of Hand (for the shuffling), and take tens of minutes to hours to complete.  Backlash might include being shaken for several hours.

Plus, anyone who doesn't know the proper technique (Made the Knowledge (arcana) check to "discover" the incantation...) for shuffling, dealing and interpreting the cards can't make the magic work.

Does that make more sense?

Quote from: NicephorusI like it because it sounds like magic items of fable, where it's a normal item unless you know the magic word(s).

And that's exactly what I'm aiming for.