Custom Magic Items - Balanced With Each Other?

[SethoMarkus]

My group will soon be starting a campaign in a wuxia/Eastern Myth inspired setting. Specifically, they plan on mostly playing in a region that is essentially fantasy Japan, although fantasy versions of China, India, Mongolia, Indonesia, and Siberia will also be present in the setting.

The PCs will be starting at level 3, and I wanted to give then each a magic item to start with, as magic items will be fairly rare to come by (all products of a mysterious culture that has since vanished).

My question is whether the following custom items seem balanced among themselves or not? I don't mind so much whether they are balanced for a level 3 character to have, or for the game at large, I just want to make sure each player gets a boon that is fair compared to the others.

The items:

Edit: Altered items as per suggestions. Original items at bottom of post.

Bokken of the Exorcist:

A mundane looking bokken (attuned) that grants special bonuses when fighting supernatural creatures.

This Bokken works especially well against Yokai and Oni enemy types. Against a Yokai or an Oni, it is treated as though it were one damage die higher, as though it has the magic weapon property, and as a slashing weapon. Against all other foes it works as a normal bokken (1d8 bludgeoning).

Once per Short Rest the Bokken may cast Detect Magic as a ritual.


Wineskin of the Great Mare: (name not set)

This magic wineskin acts as an everlasting wineskin. It may only pour one cup at a time, and will not fill more than one cup at a time, but never runs out of the sweet, pungeant fermented horse milk within.

The skin itself may act as a holy symbol for a Cleric dedicated to any [Mongol] deity.

Once per Long Rest the wineskin may be used to form a Magic Circle effect by pouring the contents of the wineskin around the caster in a circle. The wineskin when used as such remains empty until completing a Short Rest.

As a Ritual, the caster may take 10 minutes to produce several cup fulls of the alcoholic milk that grants advantage on the next Constitution Saving Throw made by those that consume it. Fills 1d4 cups. This may be used once per Long Rest



Dao Sash of Perfect Forms

A magic belt (attuned) that grants two pseudo-fighting styles the wearer can switch between.

Wreckless Freedom - Grants a +1 to hit while in this stance, and a +1 to weapon damage.
Armored Shell - Grants +2 to AC while in this stance, and movement speed is reduced to 30ft.

To activate or change your stance is a Bonus Action.




Bokken of the Exorcist:

A mundane looking bokken (attuned) that grants special bonuses when fighting supernatural creatures.

This Bokken works as a Yokai Bane and Oni Bane weapon. Against Yokai or Oni it is treated as though it were one damage die higher, as though it has the magic weapon property, and is a slashing weapon. Against all other foes it works as a normal bokken (1d8 bludgeoning).

Once per Short Rest the Bokken may cast Detect Magic as a ritual.


Wineskin of the Great Mare: (name not set)

This magic wineskin acts as an everlasting wineskin. It may only pour one cup at a time, and will not fill more than one cup at a time, but never runs out of the sweet, pungeant fermented horse milk within.

The skin itself may act as a holy symbol for a Cleric dedicated to any [Mongol] deity.

Once per Short Rest the wineskin may be used to form a Magic Circle effect by pouring the contents of the wineskin around the caster in a circle. The wineskin when used as such remains empty until completing a Short Rest.

As a Ritual, the caster may take 10 minutes to produce several cup fulls of the alcoholic milk which mimic the effects of a Goodeberry Spell of a Druid equal to the caster level of the user. This may be used once per Long Rest



Dao Sash of Perfect Forms

A magic belt (attuned) that grants two pseudo-fighting styles the wearer can switch between.

Wreckless Freedom - Grants a +1 to hit and -2 to AC while in this stance. If fighting with two weapons, the off hand weapon may add half your ability modifier (Str or Dex) to damage.

Armored Shell - Grants +2 to AC and -1 to hit. While in this stance you do not gain the benefits of Unarmored Movement or Martial Arts.

To activate or change your stance is a Bonus Action.

[Flashy]

The wineskin strikes me a substantially better than the other two. It's Goodberry + 1/short rest Magic Circle without the consumed material component compared to a belt that's like, okay, but has some pretty serious drawbacks and a weapon that does 1d10 damage against specific enemy types and lets you cast detect magic ritually 1/short rest.

Just to clarify, bane weapons aren't an explicitly defined magic item in 5e. Does the weapon have any additional properties beyond the ones explicitly described or was that line just fluff?

[SethoMarkus]

The wineskin strikes me a substantially better than the other two. It's Goodberry + 1/short rest Magic Circle without the consumed material component compared to a belt that's like, okay, but has some pretty serious drawbacks and a weapon that does 1d10 damage against specific enemy types and lets you cast detect magic ritually 1/short rest.

Just to clarify, bane weapons aren't an explicitly defined magic item in 5e. Does the weapon have any additional properties beyond the ones explicitly described or was that line just fluff?

Good to know, that's why I wanted the playground's opinion on it, thank you!

The belt is roughly what I want to balance the others around, but it seems maybe I should buff that up instead?

The line about "Bane" was meant more as fluff, the properties it has are the ones explicitly listed. I should probably word it better, I guess.

Perhaps I will remove the goodberry effect from the wineskin and instead allow it to give advantage on Constitution saves?

As for the Bokken, I would like to keep the Detect Magic function, it is for a "spirit hunter" character. What would you suggest to bring it down otherwise?

And thank you for the input!

[Flashy]

Good to know, that's why I wanted the playground's opinion on it, thank you!

The belt is roughly what I want to balance the others around, but it seems maybe I should buff that up instead?

The line about "Bane" was meant more as fluff, the properties it has are the ones explicitly listed. I should probably word it better, I guess.

Perhaps I will remove the goodberry effect from the wineskin and instead allow it to give advantage on Constitution saves?

As for the Bokken, I would like to keep the Detect Magic function, it is for a "spirit hunter" character. What would you suggest to bring it down otherwise?

And thank you for the input!

Yeah, losing the martial arts scaling and fast movement for one of the configurations on the monk belt is nasty.

I guess the question is what do you want these magic items to be? Do you want them to be potentially useful, but come with as many downsides as benefits? That's where the belt is. Do you want them to be situationally useful items that don't seriously alter the capabilities of the characters? The weapon is there. Do you want them to have notable magic properties that add strong options? The wineskin is there.

They're all solid magic items (and the wineskin in particular is charmingly flavorful), but I'm not totally sure how you want these items to impact the capabilities of the characters.

EDIT: It occurred to me that it might be worth writing out the specific mechanical abilities divorced entirely from character.

Weapon: Overcomes resistance to weapon damage, deals +1 average damage against specific enemy types, allows player to cast a 1st level spell ritually once per short rest.

Wineskin: Allows player to cast a 3rd level spell without material components once per short rest and potentially another 1st level spell ritually once per short rest.

Belt: Configuration 1 - +1 to attack -2 AC, grants ~+2 damage on attacks if character is two weapon fighting
Configuration 2 - -1 to attack +2 AC, -10 ft movement, lose ability to sub dex on non-finesse weapons, make monk unarmed strikes, bonus action unarmed strike.

[SethoMarkus]

~snip~

Excellent points, and laying the abilities out in that format is really helping me look at this from another angle.

I think the original functionality of the weapon is about where I would like the power to lie, noe that I look over them. I originally planned these items out after reading the Monk UA and ensuing debates about Kensai Monk (which the player plans on using), so I think I was being overly harsh on that item because of the "Kensai + GWM" debates.

In any case, I think situational utility is where I'd like them to rest and have made a few edits in the original post to reflect that.

*Changing the wineskin abilities to both be 1/long rest
*Change the wineskin's Goodberry effect to a instead grant advantage on the drinker's next Con save
*Remove the penalties on the belt's forms. It is now either imrpoved accuracy and damage or improved defense.
*Changed the weapon ability to 1/long rest