All is fair

One thing I have always disliked about games is that they treat player characters and monsters as separate entities, often with different set of rules. This makes it harder for players to play as monsters and it makes it harder for game masters to keep track of all the rules, unique abilities, traits, feats, skills and whatnot. What it does do successfully is streamline the introduction of disposable enemies.

Roll for unnecessary heroism

Combat in 3.5 was never spectacular. I assume that this must be the reason behind the 4th edition flamboyance.  My idea was to allow the characters a roll for for unnecessary heroism instead of their usual roll for improbable events. This had the advantage of not risking to kill or inconvenience the rest of the group, while providing a more spectacular way of fighting back with enhanced prowess. In essence it was giving up power but gaining control.

Bolthor's Axe

Bolthor's Axe started out as an average dwarven battleaxe wielded by Bolthor, the dwarven fighter. That changed during a fight against some generic evil monsters or other, when one ( or more) improbable events were called on a critical miss with said axe. The axe flew out of Bolthor's hands and landed several feet away breaking an unidentified half buried item. This in turn caused the apparition of an upset spirit which promptly dissappeard in a flash of blinding light. The perfect obvious recipe for a cursed item if I ever saw one. That didn't stop Bolthor from picking it right up though.

The curse, and related magical effects were:

Magic items and dice rolls

To keep things interesting, I decided to allow any and all magic effects to happen regardless of the item being identified or not. However I didn't want to just give away the magical nature of items for free.