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Shalizar
2009-05-17, 06:47 PM
At the moment I am planning on creating a new campaign where the party will be given items in order to help with an assassination of a spell caster and I wanted to give each of the players a magic item to help with killing them. At the moment I need to think of something for the healer, Druid and Monk. Other then that I have the other idea's and I am wondering how they are overpowered for a fifth level campaign.

Mage Slayer- This is a +1 Weapon that turns into a +2 flaming weapon against Arcane users. It also gives a +2 to will saves against arcane spells. While being unable to speak, it can sense all arcane casters within 30 feet. I am not choosing a weapon just yet so then I can just let it be what the character I choose it to be for can use it.

Cloak of Shadows- This cloak constantly looks as if shadows are blowing off of it. The character gains a 20% miss chance in dim and dark areas.

Staff of Arcane Silence- This staff allows a +1 to caster level, and three times per day it can cast lesser invisibility and once per day it allows a prepared spell to be cast with the Silent Metamagic feat applied but it won't increase the spell level.

Bracers of Striking- Gives full strength bonus to attacks with off hand weapons when two weapon fighting, or adds a times two strength to attacks with a two handed weapon.

Armor of Spell Reflection- This armor of full plate, when activated, allows the first 0-3rd level spell cast after activation is reflected back at the caster once per day.

Amulet of Melodies- This allows Bardaic music to continue in magical silence up to a spell save of 16.

Bow of Tracking- Once per day allows a +20 insight bonus to a single attack, functions as a True Strike spell.

Tell me what you think.

Rainbownaga
2009-05-27, 02:20 AM
'Cloak of shadows' pretty much already exists.

Some of the other items look interesting; unfortunately i don't really have much experience in game balance.

Xefas
2009-05-27, 02:59 AM
Knowing what level you're playing at would be helpful. The level of the players, and the level of the target of the assassination attempt. Also, what tactics the target is going to be using would help, too.

However, few of those actually feel 'anti-caster' to me.

The Mage Slayer, for instance, just deals extra damage, which is not usually the problem with fighting a caster. They're usually lightly armored with low hit points.

Think about effects like these:

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On a successful hit, this weapon detects any and all temporary beneficial magical effects currently on the target. In addition, the target must make a DC X Fortitude save. On a failure, the wielder chooses one temporary beneficial magical effect on the target and dispels it, wrenching the magic forcefully from the target's body.
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This solves pesky things like Spell Immunity: (Your Favorite Spell Here), Stoneskin, Contingency (When my hit points drop below 10% cast Plane Shift to my private demiplane), etc.

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When a spell of the Teleportation subschool is cast within 60 feet, the wearer of this item may make a DC X Fortitude save. On a successful save, the wearer piggybacks on the caster's spell, appearing adjacent to the caster wherever they reappear after the teleportation. On a failed save, the wearer's body has not withstood the unstable energy used by this magic item. They are knocked prone and dealt Xd6 nonlethal damage.
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Because nothing is quite as annoying as Abrupt Jaunt, Dimension Door, or (god forbid) a Devil's at-will Greater Teleport.

Shalizar
2009-05-27, 05:13 PM
Sorry about not putting the level, I was thinking around level 5. Nothing is in stone yet, but that is the current plan. I am leaving it up to the party to decide how they wish to do it, these items were going to be early payment for the job, and I was just thinking about items to just cover every class and role of the party that would be helpful.

Gerwulf
2009-05-28, 04:11 AM
A dm in a game I played once created a nasty weapon to use against my mage. It may be over powered for 5th level, but since it only works against mages it might not be.

Basically it is a spell thief weapon. when you strike a arcane caster there is a 25%(lesser) 50%(basic) or 75%(greater) chance of stealing an available spell from the caster (level determined randomly by rolling dice closest to # of spell levels still available to the caster) so if I have a caster with 1 spell from each level 1-6 then if the d100 comes up in the percent range of my weapon i roll a d6 and that is the spell level the caster looses. This helps stop the caster from using his spells to full effect (and may prevent him from using his last high level spell to escape - a tactic used by any good mage) but it would be basically a glorified masterwork weapon against any non arcane caster.

Only 1 spell is lost, it should be determined randomly not chosen. For bards or sorcerers they lose a spell slot but not specific spells since they can spontaneously cast.

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Protective items used against only mages would also be good without making the PC's too powerful against their foes. A broach of shielding would be great against a low level arcane caster who would likely rely on magic missile to do a good portion of his damage. Also a lesser amulet of spell resistance would be a good way to make some of the spells fail without making the party immune to arcane casters they may meet later.

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A third way of dealing with the problem would be to give the party an item that is too powerful for them to help kill the mage, but put a curse on it so they will get rid of it as soon as possible. My personal favorite curse is the curse of summoning. Each night at midnight the item summons something. Each night the number and/or strength of the creatures grows. so on night one they have to fight off a single rat, but by night 200 they are fighting off a swarm of dire rats. This way the item becomes too dangerous for them to keep for long and they will chose to get rid of it.

Shalizar
2009-05-28, 03:08 PM
A dm in a game I played once created a nasty weapon to use against my mage. It may be over powered for 5th level, but since it only works against mages it might not be.

Basically it is a spell thief weapon. when you strike a arcane caster there is a 25%(lesser) 50%(basic) or 75%(greater) chance of stealing an available spell from the caster (level determined randomly by rolling dice closest to # of spell levels still available to the caster) so if I have a caster with 1 spell from each level 1-6 then if the d100 comes up in the percent range of my weapon i roll a d6 and that is the spell level the caster looses. This helps stop the caster from using his spells to full effect (and may prevent him from using his last high level spell to escape - a tactic used by any good mage) but it would be basically a glorified masterwork weapon against any non arcane caster.

Only 1 spell is lost, it should be determined randomly not chosen. For bards or sorcerers they lose a spell slot but not specific spells since they can spontaneously cast.

------------

Protective items used against only mages would also be good without making the PC's too powerful against their foes. A broach of shielding would be great against a low level arcane caster who would likely rely on magic missile to do a good portion of his damage. Also a lesser amulet of spell resistance would be a good way to make some of the spells fail without making the party immune to arcane casters they may meet later.

------------

A third way of dealing with the problem would be to give the party an item that is too powerful for them to help kill the mage, but put a curse on it so they will get rid of it as soon as possible. My personal favorite curse is the curse of summoning. Each night at midnight the item summons something. Each night the number and/or strength of the creatures grows. so on night one they have to fight off a single rat, but by night 200 they are fighting off a swarm of dire rats. This way the item becomes too dangerous for them to keep for long and they will chose to get rid of it.

Hmmm, I will keep these in mind when I am making it, thanks.