What to do with this Magic Item

[Sabeta]

So my DM likes to homebrew Magic Items. Lady luck has delivered to me the first two in the campaign, so I've decided that's certainly enough and that the other players should get a turn at cool toys. That being said, the two that I have are kind of unreasonably powerful, but they also seem to have drawbacks that keeps that power in check. I'm looking for ways to make these items more balanced while keeping their flavor in tact.

Robe of Rulership
You can use an action to command obedience from each creature of your choice that you can see within 120 feet of you. Each target must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or be Charmed by you for 8 hours. While charmed in this way, the creature regards you as its trusted leader. If harmed by you or your companions, or commanded to do something contrary to its nature, a target ceases to be charmed in this way. The Robe can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Right away, I'm demanding that "When the spell ends, the creature knows it was charmed by you." be added. It's plainly overpowered without it. I'm also thinking that I should I reduce its range to a maximum of 60 feet, and I also think that creatures deserve advantage on the save if we're fighting it. That all being said...the cloak has been giving my character visions during sleep, something about unleashing something upon the world, and a giant talking crystal that I've named Hydalean (although it might be best to call it Zodiark). It's possible that this is a cursed item, and the boons it grants me will destroy me in some way. I'm hesitant to suggest changes or nerfs to it on that assumption, but at the very least creatures should know they were charmed. Oh, and did I mention that the DM said this item isn't at full power? (I believe he means that the DC can go up, specifically)

Nightfall (Sniper Rifle)
Range: 300/1200: Properties: Heavy, Two-Handed, Loading
Damage: 2d10 Pierce + 1d6 Thunder Damage
Drawback: On a die roll of 4 or lower, the weapon misfires and cannot be used again until it is repaired. (Tinkerer's Tools, must beat some kind of DC). On a roll of 1, the weapon explodes dealing 4d6 Thunder Damage to all creatures within a 15-ft radius of the blast.

The idea of a critical fail honestly terrifies me since I have 16 health as a Sorcerer, but beyond that the weapon is clearly too strong. I deliberately asked my DM if that really was Loading, and told him that most guns have the Reload property instead so that I can't synergize it with Crossbow Expert. He said he was totally fine with Loading, even though I'm a Favored Soul, which means melee casting and shooting would actually be pretty good for me.

He also said that I can use the Tinkerer's Tools to study the weapon, although I'm unlikely to be able to mod it since I don't understand it. My current plan is to spend time each day studying the gun until I understand it enough to try and solve the exploding problem. If I can solve the issue of it blowing up in my face, it becomes the perfect weapon. I think I'll talk it over with my DM, and perhaps I can remove the self-destruct feature at the cost of damage. 1d10+1d6 is still plenty damage, especially factoring in Extra Attack from level 6.

TLDR: My DM has given my magic items that are plainly OP, but they have drawbacks that kind of blur the line on how powerful they really are. I like their concepts, and I think I want to nerf the items in exchange for removing their drawbacks.

Either way, I'll wait to see what the rest of the party ends up with, and how difficult encounters stay as a result of these items. If I feel like myself, or the group is too powerful too early, then I'll pitch nerfs to my DM. Until then, I'd just like some ideas.

[King539]

Robe of Rulership is basically the same as the Rod of Rulership.

[JackPhoenix]

The robe is the Rod of Rulership with lower DC with (apparently) extra plot significance. Rod is a rare item, by the way.

Crossbow expert won't help you, because it allows you to ignore the loading property of crossbows with which you are proficient only. You can't use the rifle with Extra Attack. (funny thing that it's faster to reload musket than modern firearms). Favored Soul doesn't give proficiency with martial weapons, so you likely aren't proficient with it. It is powerful, but that is precisely what the drawback is for... I'd call it pretty balanced. I also presume that the fact that the character doesn't understand the weapon means that your supply of ammunition is limited, because it's above D&D's general tech level. I would propably give the rifle to a character better suited for its use. Only think I would be vary is the range... that's way better than any other available option.

[Strill]

I would propably give the rifle to a character better suited for its use.

The thing is, a Rogue is the one who wants a powerful single-shot weapon, but they don't have martial proficiency.


Only think I would be vary is the range... that's way better than any other available option. There's plenty of options that can give you crazy range. I've never heard anyone say that they're overpowered.

[JackPhoenix]

There's plenty of options that can give you crazy range. I've never heard anyone say that they're overpowered.

Propably because the "plenty" of options consist of warlock/sorcerer multiclass who uses invocation, feat and metamagic to get 900 range on Eldritch Blast... and that's it. This thing's range is still 300' longer.

Oh, and Meteor Swarm, but that's level 9 spell

There has been, however, a lot of people saying that ranged characters in general are overpowered... at half the range. Now, I don't necessarily agree that's true unless most of the battles happen on a featureless plain, but I would still be careful with giving the double (at least) range of almost any other option.

[Sabeta]

Robe of Rulership: Note noted. It still seems powerful for a level 1 character to have access to (now level 3), but if it's just a slightly dampened Rod of Rulership then by all rights I suppose that's not OP. I talked about "Enemies know that they were charmed by you" to my DM, and he admits that it's supposed to be there, he just forgot to type it out. So that's settled. As for it's plot significance, yeah most likely. I stole it from the personal wardrobe of the BBEG as we escaped his mining operation. An slave-fed operation where we were trying to unearth a special type of crystal for him. This same crystal is used by one of the five kingdoms as a power source for advanced technology, which is also where the gun comes from. Oh, and it's also the same type of crystal that talks to me in my dreams and wants me to unearth or unleash something upon the world...so yeah, it was probably controlling the BBEG in some way.

Nightfall: I want to take it to the kingdom that invented these. Apparently the one I have is a powerful relic, but I don't know of relic means it's special in some way, or if it just means it's an older model. Either way, the latest models of these Sniper Rifles don't explode, so I'm keenly interested on getting to that kingdom and seeing about upgrades (if I can't figure it out myself). As for who should hang onto it, myself or our Ranger are equally proficient. Our DM said it's impossible to have proficiency with the weapon, at least until we've spent a lot of time actually using it. If Crossbow Expert can't work with it then eventually Eldritch Blast outclasses it completely. The range is tolerable. Close quarters fighting happens often enough in D&D that range isn't always great. Most maps I see stay under 100 feet in general. They're great when you can actually snipe, but even open environments bandits will just jump out from behind rocks, or approach on horseback disguised as merchants. In other words, the DM usually doesn't allow extreme range shenanigans.

As for Guns...

A modern gun is typically clip fed, so as long as you have clips to spare you can reload in just one second. Bolt-Action rifles (which I think are still used, if only by hobbyists) are fairly quick since you just need to slide the bullet into the chamber. Muskets, were easier to load than their Rifled counterparts (since they were smooth bored), but in order to make sure the bullet traveled far and fast enough to be lethal it needed a snug fit. This required you to use a cloth the and a jamming rod to load the gun, which took a very long time. Rifles, where even slower because the rifling made squeezing bullets in there excessively hard (because at the time, bullets were fitted for the rifles). They were more accurage and powerful, but slower. Rifle-Muskets which were made possible by the french used a special bullet that had a soft lead "skirt". This let is slide down a rifled chamber as if it were a musket ball, and the heat from the explosion would cause the skirt to expand and fill the rifling, giving it the precision of a rifle. Rifles became the norm, and Rifle Muskets were just muskets with the barrel converted over to the rifled version.

Just as point of comparison. A well-trained archer could volley off 10 arrows in the time it took to reload your typical musket. (This particular example compares Japanese Yumi with Tanageshima Matchlocks, but the comparison should hold up globally since the British had even better archers and similar guns). So, unless you're talking about the time it takes to completely load a clip, it takes far longer to load a musket than a modern gun. Then again, there usually aren't morons trying to rebuild clips in the middle of a firefight. You're either getting out of there, getting a new clip, or soon to be dead.

Anyway, thanks for clearing up my misgivings about the weapons. I'll play them out and see how it goes. Perhaps I'm just feeling too powerful because I'm the only one with magic items.

[Temperjoke]

Anyway, thanks for clearing up my misgivings about the weapons. I'll play them out and see how it goes. Perhaps I'm just feeling too powerful because I'm the only one with magic items.

That's probably it, combined with the idea that at lower levels magic items can have a bigger impact on things than they do at higher levels.

[Typhon]

Hearing some about the setting, it sounds like your DM has you playing in Torchlight. With Ember crystal being used in magic and technology. Which means there is much plot to be had with your robe and things will probably get hairy with the BBEG.

As for rifles, as I strongly discourage mixed wording, bolt action rifles are still very common and are preferred by some in the area of ranged hunting due to accuracy, reliability and maintenance reasons.

Believe it or not, muskets/muzzle loader rifles did and do have rifling to extend the range and improve accuracy, not so much the power which is more inline with the powder used. The rifling did not slow down the loading greatly as bullets have always been in fairly specific range and prefering common sizes, mostly .50-.54 caliber but up to .90 caliber. It did increase the chance of fouling which is its own issue and a cause of injury to the user due to the possibility of explosive malfunction. Being said, the invention of the Minie ball (a new design, which became the norm for the military) minimized the issues with fouling in the rifled barrel. It did function as Sabeta stated, which also minimally increased loading speed. Missing is that soldiers would carry "cartridges" which were cloth packages of pre-measured powder on one end and a greased ball/round/bullet on the other, this was done to expidite the reloading process. It should be noted that due to the black powder being poorly refined and mixed, it did tend to create a fair amount of smoke which was a useful/negligible smokescreen when fired. Muzzle loading is mostly a hobbyist pursuit nowadays, but there are still hunters that prefer the skill of the shot and many states have specific hunting seasons to accomodate them. So ten arrows to reload if a well-trained soldier had to measure on field, OK. Maybe more like 4-5 if they were well-trained and had "cartridges", not much better but better. Last thing is the ingition system, caps, flint, magic, that matters.

Pistols are another matter entirely. So please don't use the generic "guns". Be specific to the type, rifles or pistols.

Sorry to run on, but I like weapons of all types. They need love too.

[JackPhoenix]

As for Guns...

A modern gun is typically clip fed, so as long as you have clips to spare you can reload in just one second. Bolt-Action rifles (which I think are still used, if only by hobbyists) are fairly quick since you just need to slide the bullet into the chamber. Muskets, were easier to load than their Rifled counterparts (since they were smooth bored), but in order to make sure the bullet traveled far and fast enough to be lethal it needed a snug fit. This required you to use a cloth the and a jamming rod to load the gun, which took a very long time. Rifles, where even slower because the rifling made squeezing bullets in there excessively hard (because at the time, bullets were fitted for the rifles). They were more accurage and powerful, but slower. Rifle-Muskets which were made possible by the french used a special bullet that had a soft lead "skirt". This let is slide down a rifled chamber as if it were a musket ball, and the heat from the explosion would cause the skirt to expand and fill the rifling, giving it the precision of a rifle. Rifles became the norm, and Rifle Muskets were just muskets with the barrel converted over to the rifled version.

Just as point of comparison. A well-trained archer could volley off 10 arrows in the time it took to reload your typical musket. (This particular example compares Japanese Yumi with Tanageshima Matchlocks, but the comparison should hold up globally since the British had even better archers and similar guns). So, unless you're talking about the time it takes to completely load a clip, it takes far longer to load a musket than a modern gun. Then again, there usually aren't morons trying to rebuild clips in the middle of a firefight. You're either getting out of there, getting a new clip, or soon to be dead.

I know, I was talking about DMG firearms. While musket and flintlock pistol gets Loading, which means you can only fire it once a turn, but don't have to care about reloading, Reload quality of modern firearms means they require Action or BA to change magazine, though the magazines have more than one shot.

[Sabeta]

snip

The comparison was specifically noted with professional Samurai "Yumi" (Bow) compared to Tanegashima Matchlocks, which were usually handed to farmers. I'm fairly certain that even if Cartridges had been invented by then, Japan specifically wouldn't have, as the whole landmass was technologically backwards up until WWII. Whatever they had they got from the dutch. Despite being highly inferior Oda Nobunaga made good use of them by adopting/reinventing staggered volley formations. If his best friend hadn't decided that Oda was literally satan and assassinated him, he probably would have succeeded in his unification of Japan; despite the alleged superiority of a Yumi. (In particular, because Oda could afford to use soldiers only barely trained in firearms)

Muskets and Rifles are distinguished in colonial history specifically because they meant different things back then. muskets were smooth bore, rifles had riflilng; the key differences were that muskets took longer and were harder to load, but fired much more accurately and over greater differences. Muskets were quick and dirty. Once the minie ball was invented, muskets got converted over to rifles, and were dubbed Rifle-Muskets.

[Typhon]

You are forgetting that the frontline military did use shorter rifles/muskets specifically to make reloading easier. The longer barreled models were mostly retained for the sharpshooters.

I am pretty sure they probably had something similar. Being as it isn't hard to steal a good idea.

[Sabeta]

Okay, well I used the Robe of Rulership on a Bazaar to walk away with 100 gold. The bazaar itself had a "don't get caught and it's okay" rule, (our Barbarian was scammed out of 400 gold for a dead bird, because she believed in the 'it can't die' lie.) Not a huge sum, given how much the Barbarian lost, but the DM ruled that they were so greedy that that was the maximum I could sell them nonmagical rocks for before guards started showing up.

So that was fun. Thanks for the advice

[Strill]

Propably because the "plenty" of options consist of warlock/sorcerer multiclass who uses invocation, feat and metamagic to get 900 range on Eldritch Blast... and that's it. This thing's range is still 300' longer.

Longbow + Sharpshooter gives you a short range of 600.

[JackPhoenix]

Longbow + Sharpshooter gives you a short range of 600.

Which is half the range on the sniper rifle... I wouldn't call that exactly "crazy" range.

[Strill]

Which is half the range on the sniper rifle... I wouldn't call that exactly "crazy" range.
Of course. It's a magic weapon, so it gets exceptional stats. If that's not crazy, then where do you draw the line? Is 800 crazy? Is 1,000 crazy? As far as I'm concerned they're all crazy because no combat in my games has ever exceeded 200m.