What cool uses or unusual tricks have you found with the new DMG magic items? [Archive]

Eslin

2014-12-14, 03:41 AM

I've skimmed through them, and noticed that a bag of tricks has no duration on the animals, it seems to just create a real animal under your control, and that while the hammer of thunderbolts requires you to wear gauntlets of ogre power and a belt of giant strength it doesn't actually require you to attune to them, though it does mean you need two legendary and an uncommon item to get 30 strength unless you've gotten your strength to 26 in other ways in which case it is 'merely' an uncommon, a rare and a legendary

So, what have you guys found?

Felvion

2014-12-14, 07:18 PM

I've been through the items list but didn't notice anything too good to be true. TBH i would be surprised to find those hidden gems myself, it has never been my thing.
The most broken part of the dmg for me are the crafting rules! I mean, really? Just 20 days of work and 500 gp to craft an uncommon item by yourself? Those items can work miracles on levels 3-8 maybe even further. Wand of web or just any wand of a second level spell with wand of web charge system is gamebreaker.
Especially in classes that can retrain spells known after each level this rules can work miracles!
Take the warlock. Before dmg release, perhaps he was the worst full spellcaster (not sure if the term is correct but you get me). Even at level 10, when a battle would occur he only had 2 (!) spells to cast except from his blast which was not much better than a "mundane" ranged attack. Additionally, some characters relied heavily on specific spells' abuse (armor of agathys and hex were the first to come in mind) which limted their spellcasting ability a lot. Now every warlock can craft a wand of a spell up to level 2 and he can cast it at least 3-4 times a day with no worries that charges would ever end. In fact he could even retrain that spell in place for another since he won't need to cast it by himself anymore! Especially those utility spells that dont need to scale by level are no brainers. Invisibility? Yes please! Mirror Image, Expeditious retreat, Spider Climb, Misty Step... No need to name more. You got the point! From the most limited full spellcaster he's become a very versatile one.
The same goes for Arcane trickster, EK, Bard and Sorcerer. Learn, craft, retrain. It's all by the rules, you can get as many wands as you can afford!
Well... No, you actually can't cause after some point your dm will get it and will make them require attunement. On the other hand, not many things that require attunement come in play in early levels so the wands can do the job fine. Even 3 such wands on level 5 can be absolutely broken! The other way a dm could prevent such an "abuse" is to make it hard for you to find the constraction formula. Another is to "force" you not to retrain the spell which isn't based on the book, just something i heard a group did.