Low level gear advice

[Mattzewild]

Hi all,

I'm running a tweaked version of LMoP for a party of 6 (1 of whom is rarely in attendance). By the end of this adventure (lvl 5 ish) I was aiming to give each party member a magic weapon (+1), with an additional effect, similar to Lightbringer/Hew from the adventure as written. I had some ideas (as follows), but I was wondering if anyone would be able to cast an eye over them and let me know if the additional effects are balanced wth each other:

- Aasimar War Domain Cleric: Essentially Lightbringer from the adventure but the 1d6 extra to goblinoids instead of undead (the player has been roleplaying a character with EXTREME goblin prejudices)
- Human Battlemaster Fighter: Greatsword. Add proficiency bonus to damage on critical hits
- Goliath Bear Totem Barbarian - Maul. + half proficiency (round down) to damage when enraged
- Halfling Warlock (pact of the chain): The glass staff from the Redbrand hideout. Wasn't planning to change this one.
- Eladrin Assassin Rogue: Pair of +1 daggers. Return to hands once thrown after a 1 round concentration.
- Tiefling Valour Bard: Rapier. Bypass 1 AC when attacking with a full attack.

I would be very grateful if anyone could give me their thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance.

[The Shadowdove]

I really enjoy it when the DM slowly has us find masterwork weapons/gear that isn't magical.

It makes masterwork seem actually worthwhile.

This serves to further make even a +1 magical weapon seem especially rare and mystical when we finally have one.

Here are a list of creative weapon properties. Most of which aren't overpowered.

http://www.lordbyng.net/inspiration/tables.php

Also, thinking of a brief history for the weapon that may be revealed later makes it seem more unique and special to a player. Even if it's nothing world changing.

It could have belonged to a general, or a forgotten bard adventurer who was famous at the time. It could have engravings, inlays, images of something or words upon it. The metal can give a small glow, or be an interesting color. It could be warm, or cold to the touch.

Maybe images or lettering around it contain an activation word in a language the player doesn't understand that causes it to pulsate light. They can find someone who speaks X language, revealing a phrase that causes an unexpected spell or effect.

Maybe it changes an effect or physical appearance of something on or near the wielder when drawn. Eyes changing shape or color , skin changing tone or texture, hair changing length or color, a constant breeze surrounding the player, or perhaps they have a strange fondness or hate regardinf a particular food/race/object that they didn't before.

Another fun thing to add are ability to cast nondamaging cantrips when attuned. An armor that makes it seem as if the earth beneath you rumbles when you walk. A cloak that is never dirty and always blows as if in a breeze.Thaumaturgy or prestidigitation are good examples.

Minor damaging cantrips can be fun for a caster. A stone that allows magehand. A wand that lets you know firebolt. An eyepatch or harp that grants +1 to enchantment spells and can be used as an arcane focus, or allows you to cast vicious mockery.

[Idkwhatmyscreen]

- Aasimar War Domain Cleric: Essentially Lightbringer from the adventure but the 1d6 extra to goblinoids instead of undead (the player has been roleplaying a character with EXTREME goblin prejudices)

This is fine, anytime a weapon does extra damange to 1 type of enemy it feels stronger without being any stronger. Just make sure that goblinoids don't completely vanish from the world and that the party fight things other then goblins so the extra damage does not start tipping power

- Human Battlemaster Fighter: Greatsword. Add proficiency bonus to damage on critical hits

1/20 times the Fighter will feel great, that might be a little bit low, just depends on how often the fighter can crit, should be fine
- Goliath Bear Totem Barbarian - Maul. + half proficiency (round down) to damage when enraged

Straight damage increases are not good for balance. The Barbarian will be getting this extra damage 95% of the time because why attack when you are not raging? Why not borrow from the fell handed feat from U.A.? If he has advatange, and both dice would hit, he knocks the target prone, If he has disadvantages and only the higher one hits, he deal damage equal to his STR to the target.
Halfling Warlock (pact of the chain): The glass staff from the Redbrand hideout. Wasn't planning to change this one.

Sounds good, maybe you give that chain familiar the ability to use it too? just a thought
Eladrin Assassin Rogue: Pair of +1 daggers. Return to hands once thrown after a 1 round concentration.

Make it a bonus action to draw one dagger back, the rogue can start combat with two throws and then use one every turn after, This way is basically a +1 long bow, that does not need ammo in exchange for 1d4 damage and the bonus action.
- Tiefling Valour Bard: Rapier. Bypass 1 AC when attacking with a full attack.

That makes this a +2 Rapier 95% of the time, The "full attack" does not exist in 5e so I am assuming you mean whenever he uses the attack action to make 2 attacks with extra attack, the thing is you always make 2 attacks with the extra attack so that is not so good. Try this, Attacks made with this weapon ignore magical increases to Ac. So things like Shield, Mage Armor, +X armor, would not grant there bonus. To apply this in practice, ever couple of encounters have enemies with "Magic Armor show up" don't change the Ac in the MM, but give the Bard the extra +1 to hit them. With this you can scale the power of the Rapier better to suit the situation. Maybe the armor the enemy is using is +2 or +3. This allows you to let the bard feel like a bigger hero while keeping everything under control.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

I haven't read LMoP so I can't comment on the weapons from that adventure specifically.

I'm a bit unclear what the rapier is supposed to do. "Full attacking" isn't a separate action in fifth edition; if you have multiple attacks, you get them all every time you attack. Also, bypassing 1 AC sounds like a complicated way to have an extra +1 bonus on attack rolls if I'm understanding the feature correctly.

Be aware that you PCs may not divide the weapons up the way you're planning. It's likely that the barbarian will end up with the weapon that has a rage-specific power once all is said and done, but some of them I can easily imagine ending up with a different player if they're just found laying around with loot (like the greatsword, which I imagine ending up with the barbarian or the cleric if the party finds it before the more specific weapons).

I'm not a huge fan of weapons that are clearly very specific to specific party members being found with general loot unless they've been pointed toward them by an NPC or some such. Things like the cleric who hates goblins just happening to find a weapon that's extra strong against goblins just feels too coincidental if they weren't specifically questing for it or given it by an NPC with similar goals or something like that. The same goes to a lesser extent to a party with a barbarian just happening on a barbarian-specific weapon unless they find it on a defeated barbarian or in an area with a lot of barbarians or something like that. Having really obvious coincidences like that tends to break the suspension of disbelief for some players (me included).

I wouldn't plan to give the rogue two magic weapons just because he (presumably) dual-wields. It's a bigger bump than everyone else is getting and if you're being so careful to give everyone a special weapon, giving one player two feels wrong. I could see it working if they were both magical and somehow connected to justify them being a set (maybe you have to be holding one of them for the other to return) but I'd still probably only have one of them have a +1, even if both of them are magical for overcoming resistance etc.

For the greatsword, adding proficiency to damage on crits isn't super exciting compared to some of these since only dice and not modifiers multiply on crits. At level five, it's just a chance to rarely deal a pretty small amount of extra damage. I'd probably model a weapon like this off of the half-orc or barbarian features that add an extra die on critical hits since rolling more dice is more fun than just adding 2 or 3 to whatever result you got and it's a pretty minor power boost.

Edit: Random thought: You could give the greatsword the ability to crit on a 19 or 20 which is another exciting but not super-powerful bonus (since it just boils down to 2d6 extra damage on one roll out of 20.)

[Mattzewild]

Thanks guys for your help.

Idk - These are exactly what I was thinking of thank you. You mention that the greatsword is a bit low, any ideas how you would pick it up a bit? Increase the chance maybe (i.e. on an 19-20, as a bit of a boost and then a big one if he ties it in with a 20?)

Shadow - I had completely forgotten about masterwork items. The last campaign I ran/took part in were both high magic so I went straight to magic items lol.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

Shadow - I had completely forgotten about masterwork items. The last campaign I ran/took part in were both high magic so I went straight to magic items lol.Technically masterwork items aren't in the rules for 5e. I think the reason is that with bounded accuracy, +1 to hit is a fairly significant bonus even by itself. After all, most characters go several levels without getting any real bonuses to hit, rather than fighter-types getting a +1 every level as their bas attack bonuses climb. You're totally free to add them into your game, of course, just know that they're a much bigger improvement over ordinary weapons than they were in 3/3.5/PF.

[Idkwhatmyscreen]

Thanks guys for your help.

Idk - These are exactly what I was thinking of thank you. You mention that the greatsword is a bit low, any ideas how you would pick it up a bit? Increase the chance maybe (i.e. on an 19-20, as a bit of a boost and then a big one if he ties it in with a 20?)


You could describe the greatsword as having an unstable magical element, that triggers without warring

What I would recommend, is keep track of the number of misses and non-critical hits that the fighter is having. I would say a good way to do this would be to have every hit be worth 1 point and every miss be worth 2 points, and any critical hit resets the system. When the fighter accumulates enough points, or rolls a critical hit the sword deals its extra damage.

So let's say that the value the fighter needs 10 points to get the extra damage ( the exact number depends on how often you want the fighter to get this extra damage ( in some sessions it should be low and in others it should be high))(come to think of it you could roll the number of points he needs each time on a d12)

Once the fighter has gotten 5 points, tell him that the sword has is warm to the touch

Once the fighter has gotten 7ish points, tell him that the sword has been to glow faintly

Once the fighter has gotten 10 points, tell him that the sword is now humming with power, ( this tells him that the next hit will deal extra damage)

If the fighter is 2-4ish points over the limit, tell him that the sword is getting hotter ( 1.5 Proficiency)

If the fighter manages to not hit anything when he is 6 or so points over, an loud hum beings to flow from the sword (2 Proficiency)
The fighter has missed 2 attacks and hit with 3, This means that he has collected 7 points (4 off of missing and 3 off of hitting. With his next attack he score a critical hit, dealing the extra damage and resting his point count.

Fast forward a few round and the fighter has all 10 points. The next attack he makes hits and deals the extra damage,resting his point count

By doing a point system like this you ensure that the feature of his sword gets used more often then just random crits, and it starts to build a bit of a personality for the sword. The fighter is going to notice that the more he misses the the more likely the sword is to give him the extra damage, maybe the sword hates to loose. The key is to keep the exact system secret from your fighter, but make sure that he knows has a general idea of how the sword works. That way he knows that there is a system that creates these magical bursts and not just you giving him boosts when you see fit.

[Mattzewild]

I really like the point system and the getting to know your weapon idea. I just have to get used to the extra bookkeeping haha.

What about combining the plus prof on crits with something like an extra superiority die? It might give a little boost to even things out without breaking anything?