1 Uncommon Magic Item

[RedMage125]

So...about to start a game where the DM will be running PotA.

DM had us advance our characters to 3, and (against my advice, I've been DMing 5e for about 5 months now) is giving everyone one Uncommon magic item.

My character is a Diviner Wizard (High Elf), and I'm having some difficulty choosing.

Stuck between:
Headband of Intellect (give me another +1 to spell hit, spell DCs, and some skills)
Cloak of Protection +1(make my AC of 13 one better as well as +1 to saves)
Wand of Web (get a lot of CC)
Wand of Magic Missile (have a fall back magical attack)
Wand +1 (which is only spell hit, but also allows me to ignore half cover)

Any advice? Other suggestions also appreciated.

[hawklost]

My recommendation would be

Boots of Flying Winged Boots(I think that is what is it, gives you flying for up to 4 hours a day in 1 minute increments, great for getting places easily)

Or

Bag of Holding (in your adventures, you never have enough room to take those larger objects, with this you can now carry everything around!)

[SharkForce]

winged boots or broom of flying imo.

[ad_hoc]

I would make your Intelligence 8 and take the Headband.

[RulesJD]

Don't take the headband. Wizards are one of the few classes were having 20 in a stat is critical due to the increased spell save DC.

Anything that grants flying will be the best choice.

[Shining Wrath]

Of the items you list, cloak of protection. living is good. Dead is a very powerful negative condition to suffer.

[ad_hoc]

Don't take the headband. Wizards are one of the few classes were having 20 in a stat is critical due to the increased spell save DC.

Anything that grants flying will be the best choice.

You could be a Mountain Dwarf, get Medium Armour, and start with these stats:

10 STR 14 DEX 17 CON 19 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA

And take Resiliant CON next level

So at level 4 you would have:

10 STR 14 DEX 18 CON 19 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA, Medium Armour, Con Save Proficiency

That is pretty good and also why you shouldn't give out magic items like this on starting characters.

[Safety Sword]

I would make your Intelligence 8 and take the Headband.

Dispel Magic is really going to suck...

[Slipperychicken]

How about a Pearl of Power? Extra spell slots are always handy.

Broom of Flying seems alright; you can do the the scouting more safely with a familiar, and people can still hit your party members in the air. I'd be hesitant because it can be hard to quickly move people places.

Really, though, I'd check out what the other players pick. That way you don't end up with two brooms of flying or whatever.


I would make your Intelligence 8 and take the Headband.

That sounds like a great idea until you lose the headband.

[RulesJD]

You could be a Mountain Dwarf, get Medium Armour, and start with these stats:

10 STR 14 DEX 17 CON 19 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA

And take Resiliant CON next level

So at level 4 you would have:

10 STR 14 DEX 18 CON 19 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA, Medium Armour, Con Save Proficiency

That is pretty good and also why you shouldn't give out magic items like this on starting characters.

He'll never have 20 Int, which is huge for spell save DCs when monsters start getting +4/5s. Plus none of those stats outweigh permanent, no penalty, no concentration flying for a caster.

[rollingForInit]

I would make your Intelligence 8 and take the Headband.

Fun until the party is captured and temporarily lose their magical items.

[ad_hoc]

He'll never have 20 Int, which is huge for spell save DCs when monsters start getting +4/5s. Plus none of those stats outweigh permanent, no penalty, no concentration flying for a caster.

I disagree. It's just a +1, which you are paying a lot for. You won't get it until at least 8th level.

Your Con will still only be 14 and you will be failing concentration checks and getting hit a lot more.

AC 17 and 34 HP at level 4 with +6 to your CON saves is pretty great for a wizard.

You will have a much better chance surviving long enough to benefit from those higher spells if you have armour and HP.

I suppose you think that the Aarakockra is a must take race for any caster then?


That sounds like a great idea until you lose the headband.


Fun until the party is captured and temporarily lose their magical items.

If they are being given magic items just to have them taken away, then there is more to worry about than an 8 INT.


Anyway, that is what I would do. Being given any magic item you want at the start of the game is not a regular occurrence. I would make the most of it and make a character designed around it.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Don't take the headband. Wizards are one of the few classes were having 20 in a stat is critical due to the increased spell save DC.
While I agree that an item that does something else like provide flying would probably be handier, this is a bit of a parodoxical argument. It also doesn't take into account campaign length\.

If your character is starting at level 3, do you see the game lasting until level 8? If yes, then it's worth taking RulesJD's advice and just boosting int to 20 (you're probably not getting it sooner with point buy) and grabbing an item of flying..

If you think it won't last that long, you're never going to have a 20 anyway, so you might as well take the Mountain Dwarf build proposed by ad hoc. Plus, how how often do you play a Dwarf Wizard?

[DireSickFish]

Periapt of wound closure. Makes short rest way more efficient, and never worry bout peky death saves again.

[RedMage125]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Taking a look at them all I now am stuck between Periapt of Wound Closure, Broom of Flying and Pearl of Power.

We will have an aarakocra ranger, so flight is something the party has access to...

[SharkForce]

pearl of power is pretty good short-term, but not very impressive long term (for obvious reasons, the value goes down as level 3 spell slots simultaneously become more available and less relatively powerful). periapt of wound closure is a good item, but you're kind hoping to not need that much healing for a wizard :P

edit: and imo, the broom still offers you quite a bit. the ranger can fly, but he's not gonna carry you around in combat, and in fact may not be able to carry some of the heavier party members at all. your broom, on the other hand, gives you 50 foot movement in combat, flight, and the ability to move the rest of your party so long as you don't need to go more than a mile and none of them are more than 400 lbs.

[ruy343]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Taking a look at them all I now am stuck between Periapt of Wound Closure, Broom of Flying and Pearl of Power.

We will have an aarakocra ranger, so flight is something the party has access to...

Pearl of Power.

I've been DMing and I allowed my characters to pick one magic item (we started at level 6, ok?), and two picked pearls of power. And good lord, they have been useful. While it may appear to drop off in power, bear in mind that you can get a solid 8d6 fireball out of it every day.

However, since it's so powerful, a wand of web is also a great choice.

[SharkForce]

Pearl of Power.

I've been DMing and I allowed my characters to pick one magic item (we started at level 6, ok?), and two picked pearls of power. And good lord, they have been useful. While it may appear to drop off in power, bear in mind that you can get a solid 8d6 fireball out of it every day.

However, since it's so powerful, a wand of web is also a great choice.

it isn't that an extra level 3 slot is not valuable (it remains of some value at all levels). rather, it is going to start off quite good, and then gradually, you'll have 2 or 3 of those slots anyways (potentially enough to cover your needs whether you have a pearl or not), and meanwhile the spells you really want to be casting are higher level than 3.

and the wand of web does start off really good, but again, falls off. an average of 4.5 webs per day is *amazing* early on, especially if you get it before your own DC is 15. gradually though, when you want a web, you want that web to really tie up your opponents, and higher DC is just so valuable for that. a DC 15 web will, much like the fireball, frequently be able to make an impact, but doesn't really do nearly as much later on.

meanwhile, a broom of flying always stays useful, and the fact that it requires neither attunement nor concentration both provide great value. your "concentration slot" becomes more and more precious as you gain levels, because you can fill it with better and better spells, and the protection it offers from ground-based melee creatures increases because the damage (and negative status effects) of said ground-based melee creatures increases. likewise, your "attunement slots" become of greater value to you as better magic items become available to fill it. simply put, if you have access to a staff of the magi, and already have attuned as many items as you can, your wizard is almost certainly going to give one of the other items the boot (obviously not a concern so much at level 3, but it eventually becomes a concern).

so i suppose to some extent it does depend on how long you expect the campaign to last. if you're only going to level 8 or so, the wand of web will likely remain valuable the whole way through, as will the pearl of power, and neither will fall off majorly. if you're going clear through to level 20, the wand and the pearl are both going to be sorta decent, but not great, choices, while the broom will always remain a great choice.