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kellyda4
2018-02-18, 07:29 PM
Hey everyone,

I put together a group of items for players in a campaign that have encountered a powerful necromancer named Davos Neramante. They convinced him to allow each of them to take one item from his vault in his tower . One of the characters already found and took the Wand of Orcus which I slightly modified because it felt WAY to powerful as it's written. That's half the reason I'm throwing this bone to the rest of the players, so this characer who got the Orcus wand doesn't overpower everyone else.

The characters are each level 11 right now.

What do you think? The main question is whether or not everything is balanced fairly well. Of course the wand is extremely powerful though the character that has it is not evil (yet as the wand will corrupt him most likely) so he doesn't have access to the spells as it's written. Are the other demon lord items at least close to it and one another in balance? Are the lesser demon items slightly less powerful than than the lord items but also balanced with one another?

Feedback would be appreciated, thanks! Here's a link to the items on imgur; does any know of a better way to share this?

https://imgur.com/a/n3esf

Fire Tarrasque
2018-02-19, 10:43 AM
You should probably add some mechanical downsides. I've only read a few at this points, but my comments are:
The downsides are extremely minor, and you forgot to add corrupting effects to Zug's. The mechanics seem good, if overpowered due to the previously stated lack of downsides. Secondly, many of the corrupting effects could be avoided with a Cofeelock or a short rest specializing Cleric.
Edit: The Wand of Orcus already has a statblock in the DMG.

jqavins
2018-02-19, 03:56 PM
Here's a link to the items on imgur; does any know of a better way to share this?
Sure, post the text here. The page images are pretty, but not necessary to get feedback.

Lunch hour is just about over, so I don't have time to read the descriptions at the moment, but I don't want to wait to get this one thing in. There's an obvious possibility for a downside to the Wand of Orcus:
Orcus Wants It Back!

kellyda4
2018-02-19, 09:57 PM
Thanks for the posts and help. I probably should have clarified that the information is a little vague for most of the items on purpose as the item text is supposed to paraphrased from the notes of the necromancer that the group discovered. The party doesn't know the full properties of each item in terms of it's curse. I tried to note that in the text cryptically; for example in the "Caution Abound!" section at the beginning. The curses behind the scenes are pretty rough actually!

Also, the Wand of Orcus stats have been intentionally changed for game balance. I 100% agree with the comment about Orcus wanting it back! Love that, defintely intend for story arc in that regard for that player!

What's a Cofelock?

Any thoughts on balance of the items (keeping in mind the lord artifacts are intentionally supposed to a little more powerful than the greater demon ones.)? For example, I've wondered if the Codex is too powerful compared to the other greater demon items? THanks for your help!

Fire Tarrasque
2018-02-20, 05:02 PM
Coffeelocks are min/maxed Sorlocks who never take a long rest. They take Pact Magic, and then use flexible magic to convert all of that to Sorcerer spells. Those last until... A LONG REST.
So they just never take a long rest. They take healing spells so they don't need hit dice, they take Aspect of the Moon to eliminate sleep deprivation, and given a week of rest, they can get 50 something spell levels, which can also be converted too sorcery points.
TL;DR: It's a Warlock/Sorcerer who never takes long rests.
Basically, a really small issue, but eh.
One last thing: If you want, you can PM people on this thing the curses. That way the players can't cheat.