Ardantis
2015-07-20, 09:22 AM
My group just started 5e and we're level 4. We had some magic items held over from 3.5, but most of them don't transfer over right and some players would get screwed. The DM wanted us to have an appropriate tool for our level, so he decided to give each character a magic item appropriate to that level to compensate for the items we had in a previous edition.
We were thinking that an item roughly equivalent to a +1 weapon would be appropriate for 4th level, or a rarity of "uncommon" at best.
My character is a single-classed Outlander Bladelock who sees visions of a terrible future (as per the Outlander background bond). He's a little crazy, and his patron is a refluffed Fiend Patron who is a dragon. Basically, he's rather mad and beholden to dragons.
The DM thought that it would be really flavorful and appropriate for my character (who is a little self-destructive) to have an item with a strength AND a drawback, and since I'm a Bladelock, I requested a weapon.
Here's our spitballed idea- a weapon with a 20% chance on attack to cast Hex on the target, but ALSO with a 20% chance to cast an Evard's Black Tentacles effect on both the wielder's square AND the target's square. The two conditions cannot be activated on the same hit.
As you can see, the "detriment" is actually sort of crowd control, although I'd have to save against the effect as well.
TL;DR Is the bolded weapon description appropriate for a 4th level character? What other, better custom weapons would be level appropriate for 4th level and still have both a benefit and a drawback? I appeal to your imagination and sense of power balance.
We were thinking that an item roughly equivalent to a +1 weapon would be appropriate for 4th level, or a rarity of "uncommon" at best.
My character is a single-classed Outlander Bladelock who sees visions of a terrible future (as per the Outlander background bond). He's a little crazy, and his patron is a refluffed Fiend Patron who is a dragon. Basically, he's rather mad and beholden to dragons.
The DM thought that it would be really flavorful and appropriate for my character (who is a little self-destructive) to have an item with a strength AND a drawback, and since I'm a Bladelock, I requested a weapon.
Here's our spitballed idea- a weapon with a 20% chance on attack to cast Hex on the target, but ALSO with a 20% chance to cast an Evard's Black Tentacles effect on both the wielder's square AND the target's square. The two conditions cannot be activated on the same hit.
As you can see, the "detriment" is actually sort of crowd control, although I'd have to save against the effect as well.
TL;DR Is the bolded weapon description appropriate for a 4th level character? What other, better custom weapons would be level appropriate for 4th level and still have both a benefit and a drawback? I appeal to your imagination and sense of power balance.