The Role and Proper Usage of Magic Thingamajigs

Dare you touch...?

There is often a general complaint that, all too frequently, Fantasy protagonists rely overmuch on Magical Thingamajigs to save their highly sought after skins from the Dark; and in poorly written Fantasy literature this may easily be the case. However, any Fantasy author worth half a wizard's robe knows that such Magic Thingamajigs must supplement the user, not the other way around. 

 In short – and like magic itself – there must always be a price for using such arcane items; a price that the protagonist must be willing to pay, having already weighed it against the dangers of not using the Magic Thingamajig. In even shorter terms, all arcane items should be subject to the idiom "a double edged sword."