Custom Magic items for a Paladin

[Grear Bylls]

Hey all!

It's getting to a point in my OotA game that I think the players need some items of magic power. They're coming up on level 5, and I want to give one them at least a +1 weapon. I devised two custom items, one based off an item from my other thread. I came up with a sheathe and a lonsword, given that the Paladin uses that. I WONT describe what the items do (they'll have to learn), and the Paladin can only choose one of the items. Here's what I've devised:

Mercy: Scabbard: Attunment

This scabbard has runes in celestial on it that read "Forget me Not". While wearing this scabbard, any sword you draw from it becomes a +1 weapon for 1 minute, or until you kill a non-evil or non-unaligned creature, a creature that hasn't damaged you, or Humanoid. If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with this weapon and keep it alive, you gain temporary hit points equal to 6 + your strength modifier. The DM may disallow this bonus if it doesn't make sense to show your foes mercy (i.e. Fighting a fiend or irredeemable creature). Additionally, while a sword is in the scabbard and you have no weapon drawn, your AC increases by 3. This effect ends when you draw your weapon or make an attack against a creature.

Slay: Longsword: Attunement

This sword has runes in abyssal on it that read "Forget me Not". This is a +1 longsword. When you kill creature with this weapon, you gain temporary hit points equal to 6 + your strength modifier. However, while attuned to this weapon, you must make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw every night at midnight, or gain a level of madness. When you reach your 3rd madness level, your alignment shifts from lawful to neutral, neutral to chaotic, good to neutral, and neutral to evil, depending on your current alignment. This happens again on your 5th madness level.

I'm going to have the Paladin fight himself. If he kills himself, only the sword remains. If he doesn't fight, his copy fades away and he obtains the scabbard. Is this a good idea? I'll give a clue, like a hand on the wall in the room before with the words "Stay me" written on it, so he will stay his hand.

Please provide feedback!

[Ivor_The_Mad]

I like those items I assume your using them to test the paladins morals? I am interested to hear the result. I take it that they are supposed to get the scabbard and not the sword? Also one last question If they gains 3 levels of madness and their alignment changes then at 5 levels does their alignment change back?

[SirGraystone]

To my paladin I gave a magical sword +1 with the symbol of his Goddess on it which was sentient, and he gains level and listened to his sword request, the sword became more powerful as he did. By the level 15 or 16 the sword was an holy avenger sword.

[Randomthom]

I tend to avoid items that grow with the player because it takes away some of the excitement for that player of finding something better. That's not to say I'd never do it, there is a good time for such things of course!

I love the scabbard design, I'd be wary of giving the player a choice where 1 simply seems like the wrong choice unless there is some sort of foreshawoing of the fact. This would be perfect for the Pacifist Paladin Oath from XGTE (forget the name and AFB atm).

[coyote_sly]

The only thing I'd be wary of is if you have non-magical weapons with other mechanical benefits in your game. Say there's a 'masterwork' sword that has its own +1 to hit and crits on 19-20? That scabbard looks a lot more powerful.

There's not a ton of that in 5e I don't think but if it's something YOU do, you're going to have to be aware that (as written) he can have that *and* have it be magical almost all of the time.

[Unoriginal]

Out of the Abyss is about struggling with ressources in a definitively hostile environment. Doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose to give the PCs very powerful magic items at level 5?

Especially when PCs don't *need* magic items.

[KorvinStarmast]

Please provide feedback! A trite cliché is resurrected from the dead: a DM finds a way to screw with a Paladin. What oath is this player's paladin bound to?

[Grear Bylls]

A trite cliché is resurrected from the dead: a DM finds a way to screw with a Paladin. What oath is this player's paladin bound to?

Devotion. That's one of the perks of being a Paladin, right? Or am I screwing with him wrongly?

[Unoriginal]

Being screwed over is not a perk, and being a Paladin does not mean you should get screwed over.

[KorvinStarmast]

Devotion. That's one of the perks of being a Paladin, right? Or am I screwing with him wrongly?
Screwing with a paladin over alignment issues is one of the tired, trite, and lazy clichés of previous editions that 5e is trying to get away from.
I appeal to you to get your head into THIS edition.
Devotion is a fine oath. You don't need contrived gimmicks to offer your paladin challenges.
I realize that OoTA has the madness thing ... but does it really need amplification with that item?
Short answer: no, it doesn't. The madness tool in OoTA is already enough challenge for the players.
(And I think your party will have a blast with it)

I'm going to have the Paladin fight himself. If he kills himself, only the sword remains. If he doesn't fight, his copy fades away and he obtains the scabbard. Is this a good idea? What do you mean by "fight himself" in this railroad you have the Paladin on?

Let me give you some context on cursed items.

I have a tier 3 champion who has a cursed sword. A longsword of vengeance. The rest of the party seems unaware of the fact that the sword is cursed. (We have a cleric who could help with remove curse if anyone else figures it out). This sword is +1 to hit, and if I get damaged by a monster I have to beat a 15 DC Wisdom save or attack until one of us has 0 HP. This has already happened twice in combat, in terms of me dropping to 0 HP, but nobody seemed to notice anything wrong; "fighter likes to fight" seems to be accepted.

I have worked with the DM on how to get these Wisdom rolls to happen without being obvious, but at some point maybe someone will figure out that my sword is cursed. (We found a +2 battle axe a few sessions ago that would be awesome for me to use, but I am playing the role as best I can, being in love with this sword. ) I even decline to throw my javelins unless I have to. (And those attacks are at disadvantage, per the rules on this DMG standard cursed sword). The DM and I have worked out a deal together to take this cursed item and embrace it.

Unless you do likewise with your proposed railroad sword, get complete buy in from the player, what you are doing looks like a bad idea.

[Grear Bylls]

It was meant to be sarcastic, but I'm new and haven't yet figured out how to change text color

[Unoriginal]

It's not like going insane is going to affect your Oath, anyway.

[KorvinStarmast]

It was meant to be sarcastic, but I'm new and haven't yet figured out how to change text color If only one other person reads my response, and gets any value from it, then some good came from this.

[DarkKnightJin]

The scabbard seems like a nice idea. It's not a standard kind of magical item one would find.

I would personally go for a more Arthurian feel, though.
+2 to AC while the blade is in it, to give them some mechanical benefit to keeping it sheathed, outside of helping them try and be diplomatic first.
Second, an X+Con mod regen per turn. I'd think about linking this to their Proficiency Bonus-1, so they'd get back 10 hp per turn at the most.

Perhaps swap the AC bonus to any enemy trying to strike them doing so at Disadvantage while the blade is sheathed. Or a persistent Sanctuary effect on thr player. It resets while the blad isn't drawn, but they can't invoke it's protection while they're in active combat.

[thoroughlyS]

After reading through this thread, I concur that "screwing your paladin over" isn't the way to go. I do not personally feel like this challenge is an example of railroading. Or, at least, it doesn't have to be. I'm assuming your paladin is going to enter into a Mirror Match (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MirrorMatch) with a Dark Link-esque version of themselves. It also seems like this is going to be a Secret Test of Character (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SecretTestOfCharacter), with the "correct" answer being to not fight. The way you have it set up, if the paladin "passes" the test, they get a really powerful and thematic magical item, but if they "fail" they effectively get a cursed item. The last part is what some people take issue with, especially because it is quite common to try to pull this kind of stunt with a paladin specifically. I personally feel that both of these items are much more powerful than is tier appropriate. If you're aiming for Uncommon (the power of a +1 weapon), I think you overshot.

I recommend the following three outcomes:

Paladin decides to fight to the end, but loses—They are reduced to 0 hit points, but are stable. The "shadow" disappears, leaving only their weapon behind: a Sword of Vengeance with the Illusion minor property.
Paladin decides to fight to the end, and wins—The "shadow" disappears, leaving only their weapon behind: see below.
Paladin either refuses to fight or stops fighting—The "shadow" sheathes their weapon, and offers both the sword and scabbard to the paladin: see below.
Note: If the paladin tries to bluff stopping the fight (e.g. sheathes their sword but intends to attack the "shadow" when their guard is down), use the second outcome.

Cruelty
Weapon (any sword), uncommon (requires attunement)

This sword has 3 charges. While holding it, you can use an action and expend 1 to 3 charges to cast the false life spell from it with a level equal to the number of charges expended. The sword regains 1d3 charges at dusk if you reduced at least one creature to 0 hit points since the last dusk.

Mercy
Wondrous item, uncommon

This scabbard has 3 charges. While you are attuned to Cruelty, and it is sheathed in this scabbard, you know the spare the dying cantrip and you can expend 1 charge to cast one of the following spells from it: calm emotions (save DC 13), healing word, warding bond. Your concentration for these spells ends if you draw Cruelty. The scabbard regains 1d3 charges at dawn.

Cruelty has the Illusion and Wicked minor properties. Mercy has the Conscientious and Language (celestial) minor property and the Blissful quirk.