New (odd) character idea ?

[The_Ditto]

Hey playgrounders,

I had an ... "odd" ... idea and wanted to ping you for some opinions for balance and such to take to my DM.

Starting a level 1 campaign in 5e. We have a larger group - 6 players. So I thought this would gave me some flexibility on playing something a little less .. "normal" :)

I had the thought that it might be interesting to play a PC character which was, in fact, either an intelligent magical item/weapon or even an 'artifact'.

Now, I'm not talking about actually creating some uber-weapon/artifact, but just creating a basic character, and calling it's race "an item". O.o

So for example, if I took a cleric, I would level up as cleric, and all my abilities would be as if I was a cleric.

Additional abilities/powers should be minimal (if any), for balance sake.

I've been pondering it for a bit now, and figured the following pros/cons immediately jump out ..

Pros:
- hard to target. I would be unlikely to take any direct damage from an attack or such.
- "hidden" ally. I'm not suggesting advantage, or sneak or anything, but most enemies wouldn't understand the effect was coming from me, as opposed to my wielder.

Cons:
- no move of my own.
- can only communicate with my wielder/owner
- if my wielder/owner goes down, it's basically 2-for-1 out of the fight.

I'm not saying I'm going to go Cleric yet, I have no idea what I'll do yet :) So I'll take suggestions on that as well.
Not looking for anything gamebreaking or optimized, just something "interesting" or "weird" :)

Also wondering if one special rule might be reasonable and not game changing - such as sharing HP with item wielder or something ?

Also thinking of saying normal healing doesn't work, but perhaps Mending might function like Cure cantrip ?

I'd have to rely soley on Hit Dice to heal up, so that could be a limiting factor.

What would you suggest for balance reasons and such ?

Appreciate the feedback!
:)

[Yorrin]

Race: Magic Weapon

+2 Con
Speed 0
Resistance to Slashing Piercing and Bludgeoning from nonmagical weapons
Telepathy (Mindsight) 100ft: you can sense the presence of any creature with a mind withing 100ft and communicate with them telepathically

Subrace Casting Implement
+1 Cha
Can ignore somatic and verbal components when casting spells. Must still have line of sight and provide any costly material components.

Subrace Implement of War
+1 Wis
Gain all of the properties and damage of a single weapon from the chart in the PHB
You gain a fly speed of 5ft
At level 5 you become a +1 weapon, and at levels 10 and 15 this improves to +2 and +3, respectively

[The_Ditto]

Race: Magic Weapon

+2 Con
Speed 0
Resistance to Slashing Piercing and Bludgeoning from nonmagical weapons
Telepathy (Mindsight) 100ft: you can sense the presence of any creature with a mind withing 100ft and communicate with them telepathically

Subrace Casting Implement
+1 Cha
Can ignore somatic and verbal components when casting spells. Must still have line of sight and provide any costly material components.

Subrace Implement of War
+1 Wis
Gain all of the properties and damage of a single weapon from the chart in the PHB
You gain a fly speed of 5ft
At level 5 you become a +1 weapon, and at levels 10 and 15 this improves to +2 and +3, respectively

Oh yeah, neat idea. I hadn't even thought of speccing up a new "race" :) That makes it a bit simpler to see things and such.
Not sure I like the telepathy, I was thinking of limiting that to the wielder, and I can only "see/target/sense/whatever" things that my wielder can. Keep things from getting too goofy too quick :)

The acting as a +x weapon is probably a good idea to have in there somewhere, thanks, I'll bring that up :)

[Daishain]

Going to either need the rules for damaging items (for some reason held back for the DMG) or make up your own

Mending pretty specifically states that while it can physically repair magical items, it does jack all for restoring magical effects. I suppose it could be used as a cheap version of regeneration for the character, but actual healing would need another mechanic, since the character is in effect a magical effect.

If damaging items works like I suspect it will, you'll have pretty formidable defenses as things stand, and in fact are quite unlikely to ever take damage until/unless an enemy figures out the trick and actually seeks to damage you rather than your wielder.

EDIT: four "tactician" banners in the same thread. That's it, changing my sig.

[The_Ditto]

Going to either need the rules for damaging items (for some reason held back for the DMG) or make up your own

Mending pretty specifically states that while it can physically repair magical items, it does jack all for restoring magical effects. I suppose it could be used as a cheap version of regeneration for the character, but actual healing would need another mechanic, since the character is in effect a magical effect.

If damaging items works like I suspect it will, you'll have pretty formidable defenses as things stand, and in fact are quite unlikely to ever take damage until/unless an enemy figures out the trick and actually seeks to damage you rather than your wielder.

Yeah, that's what I have to be careful of, not making my character "too powerful" because of it :)

Probably not a huge issue, heck, if the party is TPK, and I survive (likely), I just end up falling into the hands of some "bad people" :( So might still make an interesting story line .. lol

[Easy_Lee]

How would verbal and somatic components work? Wizard may be the best here since they have the widest variety of spells and benefit greatly from being unlikely to be targeted.

[Daishain]

How would verbal and somatic components work? Wizard may be the best here since they have the widest variety of spells and benefit greatly from being unlikely to be targeted.
Casting spells without Vand S components is possible, just not common in this edition. He'd have to have a feature along the lines of a permanent version of the sorcerer's subtle spell metamagic, and would need to pay for it somehow.

[The_Ditto]

How would verbal and somatic components work? Wizard may be the best here since they have the widest variety of spells and benefit greatly from being unlikely to be targeted.

If anything, I think I'm going to tie my abilities closely to my wielder. Meaning if I need to use verbal component, I "use" my wielder. So if he can't talk due to silence, or something .. than I can't cast.
We'd have to work together :)
which should be interesting.


So what about the HP thing - would some form of sharing damage/hp or something be too strong ? should I just leave my HP well enough alone ? Or something like I can take damage directly to myself instead of the wielder, but perhaps at a higher cost? (ie 2:1, 3:2, etc ?)

[Likantropos]

Why not take the easy route?
Roll a character using standard rules. Tell your DM that you really an intelligent artifact, and the guy you just rolled is your mindless servant, whom you mind-control. You can make it as obvious or subtle as you wish.

[Tenmujiin]

Why not take the easy route?
Roll a character using standard rules. Tell your DM that you really an intelligent artifact, and the guy you just rolled is your mindless servant, whom you mind-control. You can make it as obvious or subtle as you wish.

That actually sounds like a really fun charcter concept.

[GorinichSerpant]

Now I want to play a singing sword with levels in Bard, that tells the tails of it's previous owners and great battles in great detail.

[Shining Wrath]

Yes, you are a new race, "PC item".
Yes, you are essentially giving yourself an always-on metamagic feat to cast spells.
Therefore, you need to have some sort of resource, above and beyond spell slots, which is expended as you cast spells; or, your race must have significant penalties to make up for getting a powerful feature.

Consider what sort of item you wish to be. I'd say that instead of enemies needing to sunder you to hurt you, that you are required to spend actual HP to do anything above and beyond what a mundane item of your sort would do; that is, to cast a L3 spell costs a L3 spell slot AND 3 HP.

And you only recover HP via short and long rests, or of course via high-level magic; perhaps "Fabricate" can recover 1D8 HP.

[The_Ditto]

that you are required to spend actual HP to do anything above and beyond what a mundane item of your sort would do; that is, to cast a L3 spell costs a L3 spell slot AND 3 HP.


now that's an idea .. hp as an expendable resource :) I like that ..
hmm
Thanks for the ideas ... :smallbiggrin: