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Liked some of the ideas but they weren't well explained for me to fully grasp them. So I did my own post instead.
Hm. Neat ideas, but they don't have good enough drawbacks for the most part. Well, the Elder Necklace does, but it also doesn't have any apparent benefit. Of these, the Flute of the Soul is probably the most balanced.
I wanted to leave most of the drawbacks open so that the other person could kind of decide on them later down the line when they should start to become apparent. Mostly just wanted to explain the idea itself and leave more of the finer details for later.
Fair enough!
How about a 'Ring of Jealousy':
The ring starts to borrow/steal/copy anything the wearer is jealous of, be it physical, mental or metaphysical (concepts) to the wearer. The drawback being that the wearer may not be aware of the things they are truly jealous of and could end up with unexpected or unforseen side effects. It may also make the wearer more easily jealous, but Id leave that up to the individual author to decide.
That should technically be a Ring of Envy. And I've been writing a screenplay for the past few years on this very idea. A guy gets cursed to receive everything he envies in others, by taking it from them. But the catch is that he's the only one who realizes anything's changed. And it applies even when he's not consciously envying someone. He sees his friend happily married to a pretty girl and sighs? Suddenly he's the one married to the girl and his friend is the lonely one. That type of thing.
I might have written a story with this ring starring dear friend Akane, but there's pretty much already a story like that: "Bad Bracelet." But perhaps I still will, because I think it could be taken in other directions. Thanks for bringing that up!
There was an old Spells R Us story called "The Envy Charm" that had an item like that. Unfortunately, the site I read it on was Geocities, but the wizard described the plot device something like this:
"When you wear this charm and get jealous of something, the charm arranges things so that you no longer need to be jealous."
The man who bought it is initially pleased because the charm makes him strong, wealthy, popular, and gives him the prettiest girl on campus for his girlfriend. But by the end of the story, he's been turned into a pregnant girl, and then the charm vanishes. Classic SRU, really.
Really? Crap. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But I sure hope I didn't read that way back when and then forgot about it. Though it sounds like the plot is totally different, and my guy doesn't have an amulet or anything. He's just cursed. So I'll assume I'm clear.
I didn't really mention that story to accuse you of ripping it off or anything. The plot device you described was just a little similar and it made me nostalgic.