Rod of the Seven Parts

[dobby87]

I am running a campaign in a custom world and while the campaign ended up being completely story-driven, despite my original intent on running a sandbox game, I have decided to include some optional quests for the party to be able to undertake over the course of the campaign. While making character sheets for monsters I came across the Rod of Seven Parts, an artifact that is only mentioned briefly in the MM. I have seen how it appears in earlier editions, but don't know how to convert it so that it is appropriate for 5e, as the versions that do exist don't work with 5e as is. I am an experienced DM, however have never converted material before so any help would be appreciated.

[Nemenia]

If you're an experienced DM, you should already know what to do honestly. Write it down, compare it to magical artifacts of equal rarity/strength in the DMG, and change them with 5e abilities and spells. If you can't find a parallel, make up something on your own. You're the DM, if you want it to function differently, the players won't likely notice or care.

[dobby87]

If you're an experienced DM, you should already know what to do honestly. Write it down, compare it to magical artifacts of equal rarity/strength in the DMG, and change them with 5e abilities and spells. If you can't find a parallel, make up something on your own. You're the DM, if you want it to function differently, the players won't likely notice or care.

Like I said I have never converted material before, which is why asking for suggestions. You're not really telling me how to to convert this artifact specifically, but rather just stating the general process of converting items in D&D in general. I have no experience with this artifact and want to make sure that it represented as it typically has been in the past. If it was easy enough for me to just do it I would have already done that and not felt the need to ask on a forum. There is also a lot to this artifact, due to there being so many pieces, so I want to make sure that it is still appropriate for 5e. By the way, the condescension is not helpful either.

[Steampunkette]

The original powers were:

Cure light wounds 1/day
Slow 1/day
Haste 1/day
Gust of wind 5/day
True Seeing 1/day
Hold monster 1/day
Heal 1/day

With the quantity of joined bits granting:

Two parts: Fly at will
Three parts: 20% magic resistance
Four parts: Control winds 2/day
Five parts: Shape change 2/day
Six parts: Wind walk 1/day
Fully assembled: Restoration 1/day, and an aura of Law that causes enemies to have to make a saving throw or flee in panic.

So let's start with the basic core abilities of each individual piece.

Cure Light Wounds no longer exists. Cure wounds, of course, does. Once per day makes this piece about as useful as a free coupon for a potion of healing. So let's play with that one: How about making it once per short rest? Suddenly, it's fairly large amount of healing in a day. It might even be too much, depending on the level of the spell slot given and the ability modifier granted. Maybe we should split the difference and go once per day per target. There we go. For this I'd probably make it a 2nd level casting.

Slow: Slow is a pretty powerful spell, and once per day works just fine. It's essentially as powerful as granting someone a strong spell slot.

Haste: A particularly powerful spell thanks to how it applies to allies and synergizes with characters who have big, hard hitting, attacks. Once per day is pretty great.

Gust of Wind 5/Day: Generally speaking items don't have an express daily limit. Let's slap a set of charges on it and make it recover 1d6+1 per day. Problem Solved!

True Seeing: A very potent ability, a solid limitation. Works just fine.

Hold Monster: Yeah, this is about right as is.

Heal: Definitely an incredibly valuable spell to have, even once per day.

Now let's look at the joining options.

Fly at Will: Cool. Works just fine.

20% Magic Resistance: 5e doesn't naturally support it, but you could roll 1d10 and treat a 1 or a 10 as if the spell ignored the target. Or just grant them Magic Resistance and advantage on all saves vs magic. I feel like it would be fine.

Control Winds: This spell no longer exists. How about making it Control Weather 1/day instead of winds twice?

Shapechange: Yup. Working normally.

Wind Walk: I really like the 5e version of this spell, so I'm probably biased but I feel like it's a great option to just retain this one as is.

Restoration: Slap a "Greater" in front of it and you're golden.

Law Aura: This ... honestly kind of sucks. It's great and all, for what it is, but it has a tendency to completely end all fights forever if the rod gets assembled. Instead, have it gain the ability to create a fear effect in Chaotic individuals on command once per short rest. That way it can be a double edged sword.

Now, using the rod makes you hyper lawful and instant-NPC. That's lame. It was always lame. This thing is a series of magic items the players aren't supposed to use? No. Skip that. Have their alignment shift one step toward Lawful for every month they remain attuned to the rod and push for roleplaying toward that.

There are some other caveats, like never getting two pieces too close to each other or the bigger one teleports to a random location. That's fine, just make sure to have an easily located ritual on how to put the things together that doesn't require the Ritual Caster feat. It's not a -spell-, after all, but a regular ritual.

So that's what I'd do with the rod itself. Hope it's useful to some degree.

[dobby87]

Cure Light Wounds no longer exists. Cure wounds, of course, does. Once per day makes this piece about as useful as a free coupon for a potion of healing. So let's play with that one: How about making it once per short rest? Suddenly, it's fairly large amount of healing in a day. It might even be too much, depending on the level of the spell slot given and the ability modifier granted. Maybe we should split the difference and go once per day per target. There we go. For this I'd probably make it a 2nd level casting.

Slow: Slow is a pretty powerful spell, and once per day works just fine. It's essentially as powerful as granting someone a strong spell slot.

Haste: A particularly powerful spell thanks to how it applies to allies and synergizes with characters who have big, hard hitting, attacks. Once per day is pretty great.

Gust of Wind 5/Day: Generally speaking items don't have an express daily limit. Let's slap a set of charges on it and make it recover 1d6+1 per day. Problem Solved!

True Seeing: A very potent ability, a solid limitation. Works just fine.

Hold Monster: Yeah, this is about right as is.

Heal: Definitely an incredibly valuable spell to have, even once per day.

Now let's look at the joining options.

Fly at Will: Cool. Works just fine.

20% Magic Resistance: 5e doesn't naturally support it, but you could roll 1d10 and treat a 1 or a 10 as if the spell ignored the target. Or just grant them Magic Resistance and advantage on all saves vs magic. I feel like it would be fine.

Control Winds: This spell no longer exists. How about making it Control Weather 1/day instead of winds twice?

Shapechange: Yup. Working normally.

Wind Walk: I really like the 5e version of this spell, so I'm probably biased but I feel like it's a great option to just retain this one as is.

Restoration: Slap a "Greater" in front of it and you're golden.

Law Aura: This ... honestly kind of sucks. It's great and all, for what it is, but it has a tendency to completely end all fights forever if the rod gets assembled. Instead, have it gain the ability to create a fear effect in Chaotic individuals on command once per short rest. That way it can be a double edged sword.

Now, using the rod makes you hyper lawful and instant-NPC. That's lame. It was always lame. This thing is a series of magic items the players aren't supposed to use? No. Skip that. Have their alignment shift one step toward Lawful for every month they remain attuned to the rod and push for roleplaying toward that.

There are some other caveats, like never getting two pieces too close to each other or the bigger one teleports to a random location. That's fine, just make sure to have an easily located ritual on how to put the things together that doesn't require the Ritual Caster feat. It's not a -spell-, after all, but a regular ritual.

So that's what I'd do with the rod itself. Hope it's useful to some degree.

This looks pretty good, but I'm going to modify in the following ways:

Cure Wounds will use charges instead (5), as a short rest makes it a bit powerful since short rests are rather easy to take as long as you aren't in a dungeon that you can't just as easily escape.

I might have the Gust of Wind charges stack with Cure Wounds to allow for more versatility.

For magic resistance I'll just give them advantage on saving throws to resist spells and magical effects.

Everything else seems fine, though I do kind of like having the rod have more of an effect than moving a step closer to lawful every month. Also, there'd be no mechanical effect so a player doesn't exactly know how to roleplay a simple step towards lawfulness, as what constitutes a step isn't defined. I think I'll keep some of the lawful stuff since it was the Rod of Law so it makes sense for characters to be affected in a major way the more the rod is completed and if things get "lame" or it inhibits the progression of the game the rod can simply be forcefully taken from the character and even broken, if need be. Maybe I could impose a wisdom saving throw once per day that allows the character to resist the rod's effects to their alignment and actions for 24 hours. I'll just make it a DC 15 for the first 3 segments, DC 20 for the following 3 and DC 25 for the final one. They shouldn't have the final one for long, though so it shouldn't be an issue. I should also reiterate that this an optional quest so if things don't work out or the players just decide to either throw away or give away the pieces it will be just fine. I appreciate the answer, as I think I have a good idea of what I'm going to do now.