Odd DM help request - Plane Shift: Amonkhet

[Falcos]

Hi all.

So I apologize in advance for how weird this request will be for people who play D&D but don't play MTG. That having been said, I think that even people who aren't familiar with MTG will be able to help me, if any are so inclined to do so.

As people may or may not know, there's a series of D&D 5e books called "Plane Shift", which detail planes from the MTG setting as D&D Planes.

One of them is Plane Shift: Amonkhet, detailing the dystopian, dragon-run zombie-centric society.

I'm making a campaign around it.

However, I've run into a problem.

The core of society on Amonkhet is based around five "Trials", tests of strength, wit, and other assorted values that are deemed "useful" to the ruling Gods of the Plane.

Completing a Trial awards you with a Cartouche, and there are five in total. They are worn around the neck, and they link together into a single item no matter how many of them you have.

In the MTG card game, they have defined effects.

I want to give them effects in my D&D campaign, in case my players manage to conquer any Trials before they decide to burn the place down.

The effects that they provide in the card game are, in order of acquisition:

Cartouche of Solidarity, which grants +1 to attack and toughness, and "First Strike", which in MTG terms, means "able to strike your opponent first in a fight, before they strike you"
Cartouche of Knowledge, +1 to attack and toughness and Flying, which is exactly what you'd think it is.
Cartouche of Strength, +1 to attack and toughness and Trample, which causes damage you do exceeding a blocker's toughness to still spill over to the thing that they are defending
Cartouche of Ambition, which gives +1 to attack and toughness and Lifelink, which causes your damage to heal you by an equal amount
And Cartouche of Zeal, which gives +1 to attack and toughness and Haste, which in MTG terms, causes you to be able to attack as soon as you are placed on the battlefield, without the usual turn of forced inaction.

I don't know how to translate a lot of these effects to D&D, or even if some of them _should_ be translated. I know that I'm probably going to cut the stat boosts, but I'm really interested in hearing any insights on how to implement these objects, or if they should be implemented. Any thoughts at all, really.

It's also very important to note, from a story perspective, that the ceremony in which a character is given the fifth Cartouche also involves a god attempting to kill the character in question. So I feel that the fifth one (Zeal) may be worth giving some kind of extra goodie for that, if they ever get to _use_ the thing.

TL;DR:

I have five magic items that I need statting up, listed above. They have defined effects in MTG. I want to give them effects as close as possible in D&D. Help, please?

[MxKit]

Hmmm...


Cartouche of Solidarity - either +5 to initiative or advantage on initiative
Cartouche of Knowledge - the ability to use it to cast levitate; maybe it has four charges, and it recharges 1d4 expended charges every morning?
Cartouche of Strength - if you kill an enemy, whatever damage is "left over" can be applied to a target within range of the initial attack
Cartouche of Ambition - if you kill an enemy, you get back health equal to the damage you did on your last attack against them
Cartouche of Zeal - either +5 to initiative or advantage on initiative, whichever Solidarity doesn't give you; if you want it to have an extra goodie, maybe this one does grant +1 Con as well

I'm not sure how powerful these things are supposed to be, and the benefits I listed might need tweaking to make them all equal to each other, but that's what I could come up with off the top of my head.

[Falcos]

I'm kind of lost on how strong to make them myself. In the card game, they're low-to-mid powered cards, but in the narrative, they're marks of progressing through one-fifth of the divinely-ordained purpose of life on Amonkhet.

On a note of your ideas - I like them, particularly your one for Knowledge. I was really agonizing over that one, I didn't want to just give it flight outright. I'm open to any other ideas, either from you or from anybody else. :)

[Madfellow]

Hmmm...


Cartouche of Solidarity - either +5 to initiative or advantage on initiative
Cartouche of Knowledge - the ability to use it to cast levitate; maybe it has four charges, and it recharges 1d4 expended charges every morning?
Cartouche of Strength - if you kill an enemy, whatever damage is "left over" can be applied to a target within range of the initial attack
Cartouche of Ambition - if you kill an enemy, you get back health equal to the damage you did on your last attack against them
Cartouche of Zeal - either +5 to initiative or advantage on initiative, whichever Solidarity doesn't give you; if you want it to have an extra goodie, maybe this one does grant +1 Con as well

I'm not sure how powerful these things are supposed to be, and the benefits I listed might need tweaking to make them all equal to each other, but that's what I could come up with off the top of my head.


I'm kind of lost on how strong to make them myself. In the card game, they're low-to-mid powered cards, but in the narrative, they're marks of progressing through one-fifth of the divinely-ordained purpose of life on Amonkhet.

Yeah I think those look pretty good. The value of the cartouches is more symbolic than functional I think.

[Greywander]

Let's see what I can come up with.


Cartouche of Solidarity - I second either +5 to initiative or advantage on initiative.
Cartouche of Knowledge - You gain a fly speed of 30 feet. Still weaker than the Broom of Flying (an Uncommon magic item). OR you can cast Fly on yourself once per long rest.
Cartouche of Strength - Whenever you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to make an additional attack on your turn. This can be a weapon attack, or a generic spell attack that deals 2d6 force damage. The generic spell attack can have a range of touch, 60 feet, or the same as the spell you cast that reduced an enemy to 0 hit points.
Cartouche of Ambition - When you inflict damage on a creature, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to half the damage dealt.
Cartouche of Zeal - On the first round of combat, you take two turns, with your second turn happening at Initiative - 10.


Flying in general is kind of weird in its valuation in 5e. A few (non-PHB) races get it as a racial ability. Boots of Levitation are Rare and require attunement, Broom of Flying is Uncommon and does not require attunement. The Fly spell is available as early as 5th level, but isn't castable on the whole party until 11th or 13th level or so.

Temp HP is generally a better idea than healing real HP, otherwise you risk upsetting the game balance. You still want players to need to take short rests and use potions and spells to heal, but temp HP can take the edge off by reducing damage to real HP.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

[the_brazenburn]

Let's see what I can come up with.


Cartouche of Solidarity - I second either +5 to initiative or advantage on initiative.
Cartouche of Knowledge - You gain a fly speed of 30 feet. Still weaker than the Broom of Flying (an Uncommon magic item). OR you can cast Fly on yourself once per long rest.
Cartouche of Strength - Whenever you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to make an additional attack on your turn. This can be a weapon attack, or a generic spell attack that deals 2d6 force damage. The generic spell attack can have a range of touch, 60 feet, or the same as the spell you cast that reduced an enemy to 0 hit points.
Cartouche of Ambition - When you inflict damage on a creature, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to half the damage dealt.
Cartouche of Zeal - On the first round of combat, you take two turns, with your second turn happening at Initiative - 10.


Flying in general is kind of weird in its valuation in 5e. A few (non-PHB) races get it as a racial ability. Boots of Levitation are Rare and require attunement, Broom of Flying is Uncommon and does not require attunement. The Fly spell is available as early as 5th level, but isn't castable on the whole party until 11th or 13th level or so.

Temp HP is generally a better idea than healing real HP, otherwise you risk upsetting the game balance. You still want players to need to take short rests and use potions and spells to heal, but temp HP can take the edge off by reducing damage to real HP.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

I second everything except the Cartouche of Strength effect.

I'd say that, if you deal damage equal to half an enemy's current hit points, roll extra damage dice as you would for a crit.

[Greywander]

Cartouche of Zeal... causes you to be able to attack as soon as you are placed on the battlefield
Actually, rethinking this, if the Cartouche of Zeal lets you take an extra turn on the first round of combat, it should probably be at Initiative + 10, not Initiative - 10. Or maybe split the difference. On the first round of combat only, you take two turns, one at Initiative + 10 and the other at Initiative - 10. After the first round, you take your turn at your normal Initiative rank.


I second everything except the Cartouche of Strength effect.
Eh, once I reread what I'd wrote, I wasn't fully satisfied with it either, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. It's probably much simpler just to allow excess damage to spill over onto another target within range (within range of what, though? maybe within 30 or so feet of the target? need to consider melee vs. ranged vs. spells).

[Falcos]

So, what I'm hearing so far is...



Cartouche of Solidarity - I'm leaning advantage on initiative, of the options presented so far.
Cartouche of Knowledge - Fly speed of 30' seems to fit well, and the argument about the Broom of Flying is a compelling one. And really, it left a weird taste in my mouth to say "Levitate" for flight. Flight is flight, right? (/poet)
Cartouche of Strength - This one seems to be the tricky one. The most compelling idea I've gleaned from the thread so far is "Re-target leftover damage of your fatal blow with the targeting rules of the original blow". I think that covers the melee/ranged/magic thing, the only problem I can foresee is with AoE magic.
Cartouche of Ambition - When you inflict damage on a creature, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to half the damage dealt. This one seems to work with no real issues.
Cartouche of Zeal - I like the idea of this one giving you an extra turn, it seems, at least to me, to be more powerful than the others to befit the one from the fatal Trial. I have to ask, are there some issues that would arise from just having an extra turn at your initiative?


I'm also not sure if I should make the Cartouches require attunement or not. In the MTG story, they can all be worn as one linked neckpiece, should I carry that over too? Are there any facts or facets that I've missed in all of this?

[Rogerdodger557]

I'm also not sure if I should make the Cartouches require attunement or not. In the MTG story, they can all be worn as one linked neckpiece, should I carry that over too? Are there any facts or facets that I've missed in all of this?

I would have them count as 1 magic item, each cartouche granting a new ability.

[Vogie]

Another style to think about:

Cartouche Amulet
Wondrous Item (requires attunement)
This ornate amulet contains the awards of the bearer has gained through their Trials. Once per short rest, You can cast False Life on yourself, without expending material components. The level of false life is determined by the number of cartouches you have acquired.

•Cartouche of Solidarity - +5 to initiative. You can’t be surprised while you are conscious. You gain advantage on Athletics Checks
•Cartouche of Knowledge - You can use a bonus action on your turn to cause whirling gusts of elemental air to briefly surround you. Doing so allows you to fly up to 10'. You gain advantage on Arcana and History Checks
•Cartouche of Strength - When you make a weapon or Cantrip spell attack, you can make another attack with the same weapon against a different creature that is within 5 feet of the original target and within range of your weapon or cantrip. You can use this twice per short rest.
•Cartouche of Ambition - When you score a critical hit with an attack or spell, pick yourself or an ally you can see within 30 feet of you. The chosen creature can immediately expend a Hit Die to regain hit points equal to the roll + the creature’s Constitution modifier (minimum of 1 hit point).
•Cartouche of Zeal - On your first turn during combat, you gain a +25' bonus to your movement speed, and if you use the Attack action, it is made at advantage.