Critique these custom magic items (Thor theme)

[Aaedimus]

I usually DM this group, but a friend wants to take over this week so I rolled up a level 10 Tempest Cleric. I'm playing an NPC they've already met, and am giving him a few magical items that I'm planning on letting the party collect after my character dies a glorious, self sacrificing death. They usually play very map based gridlocked battles, and I'm hoping to use him as an example (and the weapons) help introduce some more cinematic and fun roll playing into their combat. Hoping for some constructive criticism and critique. I'm 100% comfortable building encounters once they own the weapons. The weapons will appear in the subsequent posts.

I don't think these are OP for level 10 characters? That's why I'm asking you though.

[Aaedimus]

1) Thor's Fist (totally custom)
- Light hammer with 1d6 damage (to make dice rolling easier)

This is a +2 magic weapon that adds 1d6 lightning damage on hit.

If you are not attuned to this weapon it effectively functions as an immovable rod with the exception that it obeys gravity.

No matter where it is on the material plane you may use a bonus action to cause this weapon to fly back to your hand with a flying speed of 120ft. It takes the shortest route possible. Any creature or object caught in the way must succeed on a dexterity saving throw equal to your spellcasting DC or take 2d6 bludgeoning damage. Nothing can stop this hammer from returning to your hand.

As an action, you can throw this hammer, dealing an additional 2d6 thunder damage to the target and anyone within 5 feet of the impact. Anyone caught within the path of the hammer must succeed on a dexterity saving throw equal to your spellcasting DC or take 2d6 bludgeoning damage. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum of one) per day.

Once per day as a bonus action you can summon a lightning bolt from the sky. You are ensrouded worn lightning, and gain advantage on all attacks and an extra 2d6 lightning damage on hit until the end of your next turn. Every creature within 10 feet of you upon activation and at the beginning of your next 2 turns must succeed on a dexterity saving throw equal to your spellcasting DC or take 2d6 lightning damage as bolts of lightning extend from your body.

[Aaedimus]

2) Warhammer of the Storm

Reskinned staff of thunder and lightning with a few changes:

Requires Attunement

This weapon requires a strength of 18 in order to be wielded without disadvantage. When weilded with two hands it grows to the size of a maul.

This warhammer is a +2 magic warhammer that grants an extra 1d8 lightning damage to damage rolls made with it. It emits a thunderous boom that can be heard from 300 ft away when it strikes an object or creature. It also has the following additional properties. When one of these properties is used, it can't be used again until the next dawn.

Lightning: When you hit with a melee attack using the warhammer, you can cause the target to take an extra 2d6 lightning damage.

Thunder: When you hit with a melee attack using the warhammer, you can cause the hammer to emit a crack of thunder, audible out to 300 feet. The target you hit must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution Saving Throw the end of your next turn.

Lightning Strike.
You can use an action to cause a bolt of lightning to leap from the staff's tip in a line that is 5 feet wide and 120 feet long. Each creature in that line must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 9d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Thunderclap: You can use an action to cause the staff to issue a deafening thunderclap, audible out to 600 feet. Each creature within 60 feet of you (not including you) must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d6 thunder damage and becomes deafened for 1 minute. On a successful save, a creature takes half damage and isn't deafened. Each creature within 5 feet of you that fails the saving throw is knocked back 10 ft.

Thunder and Lightning: You can use an action to use the Lightning Strike and Thunderclap properties at the same time. Doing so doesn't expend the daily use of those properties, only the use of this one.

[Aaedimus]

Shield Of Nature's Vengeance

Requires Attunement

This is a +1 shield. You can extend the bonus to an ally to your left or right and you gain an additional +2 bonus to AC against ranged attacks and vs dexterity saving throws if you wield this shield while using the dodge action. This bonus is in addition to the shield's normal bonus to AC.

In addition, whenever an attacker makes an attack against a target within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to become the target of the attack instead.

This shield collects energy from attacks which it deflects up to 25 damage. Once the shield is full or when the shield is activated as a bonus action, the next time it deflects an attack it bursts with thunderous energy. The source of the attack must succeed on a DC 15 strength saving throw or be knocked back 2ft per 5 damage stored if they are within 5 ft if the shield. They are knocked prone if pushed 10 ft. Additionally, if the attacker is within 60 ft, 1 bolt of lightning per 5 pts of damage stored arcs to the source of the attack, dealing 1d4+1 lightning damage per bolt.

I'm a little worried this one needs some work

[Aaedimus]

I'm a gonna bump it up. Bump.

[Aembrosia]

These are roughly appropriate for tier 3 characters. You seem to be in a position to fix them as you see fit - maybe that's not your style. As far as I can tell your style is descriptive. You can see what fighting with these should look like, what using them would do- to that end I recommend you limit yourself less... but that wont fix your problem. And again, I could be wrong, but as I see it your problem is that you need to present item stats that the party can read and understand. Before I rewrite anything for clarity I want to know its actually needed.

Toss a few thoughts out. As a player i dont want to dodge with the shield. Dodging tends to dissuade creatures from attacking me, which is something i want them to do. A passive "creatures of your choice within 5' have half cover" would be fine.

A strength requirement on a weapon is weird. Its like there is some context Im missing. Just give it the twohanded property and be done.

The mechanical description of what happens when you call the hammer is not necessary. As a dm im going to hear "unstoppable force moves in a straight line toward me" and deal with the consequences to the world and its inhabitants as necessary.

The shield has a lot of potential control and dpr on a bonus action. A 1/long-rest Destructive Wave spell could be a good alternative.

[Kadesh]

These are all very powerful for being level 10 items. These are things you'd expect to find at level 11-15, and last until some points between level 16-20 to upgrade.

Thor's Fist - this seems like a lot of words to just write "Dwarven Thrower", which at very rare should be the level at which this weapon should be on the cusp of being viable for a party (11+ Tier 3). Perhaps make a change so that the additional damage is Lightning or Thunder?

Warhammer of the Storm - Just call it a Maul of Thunder and Lightning; it's a magic Maul instead of a quarterstaff but otherwise the same as the item. You've made it more powerful - the Lightning being always on, rather than just on a single attack.

Shield of Nature's Vengeance - doesn't mesh with the Warhammer of the Storm. This is a pretty powerful item - it's providing a similar effect as an "always on" Protection Fighting Style, while being able to take an attack. There's not much I can really suggest about this other than it obviates that. Protection Fighting Style is already a pretty powerful effect. Have you considered giving an Animated Shield (very rare), or an Arrow Catching Shield (rare).

One of my players is playing a Protection Fighting Style Paladin picked up Shield Master, and I came up with the following leveling Shield, working like a Vestige from Matt Mercer's campaign guide.
Level 1; +1 Shield. Whenever you successfully Shove an opponent with this Shield equipped, you can choose to deal 1d4+Str damage to the loser.
Level 2; +2 Shield. You gain the Protection Fighting Style. After completing a Long Rest, gain a number charges equal to your proficiency modifier. You can expend a charge to use the Protection Fighting Style without expending your reaction. If you already have the Protection Fighting Style, you regain all spent charges when you roll for Initiative.
Level 3; +3 Shield. You regain a charge whenever a creature misses its attack after you have used your Protection Fighting Style. In addition, you can expend all remaining charges to spend an equal number or less Hit Dice as if you had completed a short rest - you and all friendly creatures of your choice within 5ft regain these hit points.

This was intended that anyone can use it, but it has a greater inference with someone's ability. I think that this is a better way of balancing things rather than simply giving them new things to do, which can get broken, and obviate things.

[Aaedimus]

Thanks for responding! Some useful context: this table is in a weekly public game store, so you get the difficulties that come with that (like rests vs combats per day). It started as adventures league but no one wants to deal with those rules, so it's just RPG day now

The reason I added the limits and was descriptive was to avoid confusion once the players had the weapons. I do worry I overcomplicate things sometimes though for clarity. If you can streamline them for ease of understanding that would be awesome.

I can remove the str requirement for the warhammer. It was really more fluff than anything else (everyone who is martial proficient in the group has 18 str). I did originally want to keep it versatile, the growing into a maul was fluff too... but I guess since Thor's Fist is a light hammer you're not losing anything by removing the Versatile component.

The purpose of the shield really is to move the players more towards team oriented tactics, and I wanted to reward them for attempting to dodge/protect eachother and for putting themselves in harm's way rather than just spamming high level spells. They have some tough enemies (They fought a
Dracolitch at level 7)

It's a reskinned stronger arrow catching shield from the phb. Dodging normally isn't "fun" but if you can protect your buddy and use it to punish the enemy I thought that might give the players more fun options. Maybe there's a simpler way to do so?

I do try not to meta-game the combat, so I don't "avoid someone because they're dodging" because the aggressor wouldn't know until after they attacked. But they're also sacrificing a fun action (possibility casting a level 5 spell), and at level 10 there has to be a payoff.

There is allot of DPR/control potential, but it has prerequisites that I thought balance it out:

1)charge the shield
2)activate
3)get hit

My one issue with the "once a day spell" is it's an on command ability instead of feeling like a reward for putting themselves in harm's way (Which is what I was hoping for).

I'm a little iffy about providing half cover the way you described, because it feels more like a passive big shield or aura and less like they're protecting eachother...

Yeah, I'm 100% interested in seeing how you'd rewrite them

[Aaedimus]

@Kadesh: yeah, I like what you've got going there. I don't see why I couldn't just make it a stair up maul.

Thor's Fist does fly out like a dwarven thrower, but you have a little more power and have to sacrifice your bonus action for the return, as well as a limited number of throws. The damage is on par with 2nd level spells, so not that bad. Giving it just one type of damage might simplify things though.

I do think i packed it on a bit with the shield, I was imagining promoting tree protection fighting style while giving them a black panther energy pulse that could also punish archers... if I just removed the protection fighting style (Which I knew) would you feel a bit better about It?

None of them have that or want it, so I figured because of their play style giving them the feat wouldn't be to much.

[Kadesh]

It's entirely up to you how you want to balance things. I've found it's better to give people rewards or benefits for how they want to play rather than giving them options around. Giving a Champion Fighter a weapon with the ability to make Critical Hits on an 18-20 (@15th upgrading to 17-20) is more balanced than giving that same weapon to the Paladin.

I say to my players that if they want to come up with a theme for a character, but feel that the mechanical benefit is a bit crap (such as a TWF Character) I'll try and encourage their reasons to use that style of play over another. Weapons and items are easy. For one, there was a character who wanted to be a melee Necromancer with a Scythe - they got a Halberd they were proficient with and could issue an order whenever they made the attack action with it. There was another who played a TWF Barbarian, who got tired of playing second fiddle to the GWF Fighter - so he got a pair of Scimitars who caused save-or-Blind if he hit with both attacks. There was a Blowgun using Rogue who could apply poison to his attacks as part of the attack action. There was an Great Old One Warlock/Knowledge Cleric who got a helm which effectively gave him the Lucky feat that only affected him on rolls against a creature he was reading the mind of, or vice versa.

It lets players play with archetypes they want, and allows exploration of game mechanics in greater depth IMHO rather than "here you go, here's the Inspiring Leader feat for free".

[Aaedimus]

Thanks! That's allot of good food for thought!