ZenBear
2018-10-06, 08:10 PM
Within the next two or three sessions, my players will be officially done with the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure and free to explore the world at their whim. Due to the excessive amount of gold they've accrued they've made it abundantly clear that their first priority once the mission is done is to go shopping for magic items. It would certainly help to have access to any preexisting Magic Item Shop inventories others have put together for their own games, and I would thank you for links, but I'm more interested in coming up with magic items tailor made for my players. A few ideas I'm playing with now are:
Our resident Illusionist/Arsonist the Fire Genasi Wizard has expressed intense interest in having his own giant robot since the last session where I introduced the party to the Warjacks (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-emeEFI7NYug/VSlkz4IQokI/AAAAAAAAACI/YdCf7H3jsW4/s1600/warjack5.png). Obviously, having access to a gigantic mech at level 4 is not going to go well for party balance and gameplay, so I'm thinking of starting him off with something a little more tame. Enter, the Squire (https://warmachineuniversity.com/mw/index.php/Squire)! I'm thinking that this little tag-along would be a useful force amplifier for his spellcasting, as it is in Warmachine. Translating its features into 5e shouldn't be too hard. My thoughts thus far are:
Arcane Realignment: This could stay pretty much the same, allowing a reroll on a failed spell attack once per turn. Perhaps it should have limited uses per short/long rest though?
Arcane Repeater: This could either work like Spell Sniper, granting a static range increase to spell attacks, but I would actually prefer to allow this little guy to essentially be an arc node/familiar; that is, to allow the caster attuned to it to cast spells with the Squire as its point of origin. Actually, this is most like the Invoke Duplicity feature of the Trickery Domain: "As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the [Squire] up to 30 feet to a space you can see, but it must remain within 120 feet of you. You can cast spells as though you were in the [Squire]'s space, but you must use your own senses."
Reserve Accumulator: This I think would work essentially like Arcane Recovery, allowing X number of spell slots to be recovered per short/long rest.
Perhaps Zaheed will first get a bare bones Squire chassis with only one of these features, and as he progresses he can upgrade it to suit his needs. Thoughts on balance and feature ideas are appreciated!
The loli tank has taken quite well to her role as party first aid kit, but she's also landed some spectacular killing blows lately and has caught a bit of bloodlust from the experiences. She has expressed a great desire for a "boom hammer" (https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/f2/c2/f0f2c2ca1144d6e850dc68f703a2862a.jpg) which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. On the one hand, she's okay with just refluffing her Smites as explosions and saying her current mundane warhammer is a boom hammer, but I would like to give her something nice. Perhaps a limited charges per day bonus damage feature, which would make her nova be even more beastly, or bonus force damage on crits. There is an existing homebrew (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Boom_Hammer_(5e_Equipment)) porting this weapon over from Bloodborne, so if nothing else I can always just give her that.
I will also be giving her Cookie's Stirring Rod when the party runs through Mr. International (https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/6c21cj/deadmines_a_world_of_warcraft_dungeon_for_dd_5e/)'s excellent 5e port of the World of Warcraft dungeon Deadmines (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HyD7vg_3x). She's already playing the housewife/maid of the party, and she'll love having a magic item to make cooking more dynamic and hilarious! (You'll find the stats for it in the last few pages of the PDF)
At this point my brother's character has two magic weapons, Talon (https://the-lost-mine-of-phandelver-9.obsidianportal.com/wikis/talon) the +1 longsword which is his mainstay, and Hew (https://lost-mine-of-phandelver-torrance.obsidianportal.com/items/hew) the +1 dwarven axe which makes him irrationally nervous around trees (http://oots.wikia.com/wiki/A_Comic_as_Lovely_as_a_Tree). He only needs one, and prefers the longsword for aesthetic reasons, so he'll probably sell Hew at the first opportunity, which is a shame. Beyond that, he hasn't expressed an interest in any particular kind of magic item. He's a very balanced fighter, with high STR and DEX, a pistol (hand crossbow) sidearm that could use an upgrade. Any interesting existing magic crossbows I could use, or ideas for a cool mechanic? I'm thinking something along the lines of a hand cannon that requires him to forgo making multiple attacks but does massive damage or has some interesting rider like a stun or knock down. I'm sure he'd also be a fan of adamantine armor (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Adamantine%20Armor#content) just to be safe.
The great Tiefling Luchador has thus far gotten by without any magic weapons, and in the next boss fight that will be a major issue for him as they go up against a Wight (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Wight#content), which is immune to physical attacks from non-magic weapons. This will give him incentive to grapple the foe, as he is built to be an Expert Athlete, and I would like to grant him some sort of magical boon to aid him in that. So far he's shown a great propensity for leaping tackles and other forms of aerial stunts, so the Boots of Striding and Springing (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Boots%20of%20Striding%20and%20Springing#content) that they'll find in Wave Echo Cave will undoubtedly go to him, but I would also like to give him a cool weapon. As of now, he loves to give them the chair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CxVvcVCUFU) and I'm sure there's something fun to be done there. I'm just somewhat at a loss for ideas. Alternatively, he could have some kind of Assassin's Creed style punch dagger that he uses once he's got a foe grappled, since the chair is a two-handed weapon he needs a backup for CQC.
This player is the most experienced in D&D and will be sending me a wish list of magic items, but I would like to give him something more personalized to his character than what the books offer. He's a Kenku Warlock of the Raven Queen and his raven sidekick is his literal sister. He specializes in illusions and deception, with Mask of Many Faces and Misty Visions granting him at-will Disguise Self and Silent Image, plus the Kenku's natural mimicry feature. There isn't really much to do to amplify that directly, so perhaps it would be better to give him more options in combat. He has spectacularly bad luck trying to kill things, consistently rolling 1's with Eldritch Blast. It's quite funny that the Illusionist Wizard is blasting far more proficiently than the Warlock, and the Warlock has much more effective and versatile illusions than the Illusionist. Once they kill or capture the Black Spider he will be getting his Spider Staff, so he'll have some combat utility with Web and Spider Climb.
Our resident Illusionist/Arsonist the Fire Genasi Wizard has expressed intense interest in having his own giant robot since the last session where I introduced the party to the Warjacks (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-emeEFI7NYug/VSlkz4IQokI/AAAAAAAAACI/YdCf7H3jsW4/s1600/warjack5.png). Obviously, having access to a gigantic mech at level 4 is not going to go well for party balance and gameplay, so I'm thinking of starting him off with something a little more tame. Enter, the Squire (https://warmachineuniversity.com/mw/index.php/Squire)! I'm thinking that this little tag-along would be a useful force amplifier for his spellcasting, as it is in Warmachine. Translating its features into 5e shouldn't be too hard. My thoughts thus far are:
Arcane Realignment: This could stay pretty much the same, allowing a reroll on a failed spell attack once per turn. Perhaps it should have limited uses per short/long rest though?
Arcane Repeater: This could either work like Spell Sniper, granting a static range increase to spell attacks, but I would actually prefer to allow this little guy to essentially be an arc node/familiar; that is, to allow the caster attuned to it to cast spells with the Squire as its point of origin. Actually, this is most like the Invoke Duplicity feature of the Trickery Domain: "As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the [Squire] up to 30 feet to a space you can see, but it must remain within 120 feet of you. You can cast spells as though you were in the [Squire]'s space, but you must use your own senses."
Reserve Accumulator: This I think would work essentially like Arcane Recovery, allowing X number of spell slots to be recovered per short/long rest.
Perhaps Zaheed will first get a bare bones Squire chassis with only one of these features, and as he progresses he can upgrade it to suit his needs. Thoughts on balance and feature ideas are appreciated!
The loli tank has taken quite well to her role as party first aid kit, but she's also landed some spectacular killing blows lately and has caught a bit of bloodlust from the experiences. She has expressed a great desire for a "boom hammer" (https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/f2/c2/f0f2c2ca1144d6e850dc68f703a2862a.jpg) which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. On the one hand, she's okay with just refluffing her Smites as explosions and saying her current mundane warhammer is a boom hammer, but I would like to give her something nice. Perhaps a limited charges per day bonus damage feature, which would make her nova be even more beastly, or bonus force damage on crits. There is an existing homebrew (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Boom_Hammer_(5e_Equipment)) porting this weapon over from Bloodborne, so if nothing else I can always just give her that.
I will also be giving her Cookie's Stirring Rod when the party runs through Mr. International (https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/6c21cj/deadmines_a_world_of_warcraft_dungeon_for_dd_5e/)'s excellent 5e port of the World of Warcraft dungeon Deadmines (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HyD7vg_3x). She's already playing the housewife/maid of the party, and she'll love having a magic item to make cooking more dynamic and hilarious! (You'll find the stats for it in the last few pages of the PDF)
At this point my brother's character has two magic weapons, Talon (https://the-lost-mine-of-phandelver-9.obsidianportal.com/wikis/talon) the +1 longsword which is his mainstay, and Hew (https://lost-mine-of-phandelver-torrance.obsidianportal.com/items/hew) the +1 dwarven axe which makes him irrationally nervous around trees (http://oots.wikia.com/wiki/A_Comic_as_Lovely_as_a_Tree). He only needs one, and prefers the longsword for aesthetic reasons, so he'll probably sell Hew at the first opportunity, which is a shame. Beyond that, he hasn't expressed an interest in any particular kind of magic item. He's a very balanced fighter, with high STR and DEX, a pistol (hand crossbow) sidearm that could use an upgrade. Any interesting existing magic crossbows I could use, or ideas for a cool mechanic? I'm thinking something along the lines of a hand cannon that requires him to forgo making multiple attacks but does massive damage or has some interesting rider like a stun or knock down. I'm sure he'd also be a fan of adamantine armor (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Adamantine%20Armor#content) just to be safe.
The great Tiefling Luchador has thus far gotten by without any magic weapons, and in the next boss fight that will be a major issue for him as they go up against a Wight (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Wight#content), which is immune to physical attacks from non-magic weapons. This will give him incentive to grapple the foe, as he is built to be an Expert Athlete, and I would like to grant him some sort of magical boon to aid him in that. So far he's shown a great propensity for leaping tackles and other forms of aerial stunts, so the Boots of Striding and Springing (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Boots%20of%20Striding%20and%20Springing#content) that they'll find in Wave Echo Cave will undoubtedly go to him, but I would also like to give him a cool weapon. As of now, he loves to give them the chair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CxVvcVCUFU) and I'm sure there's something fun to be done there. I'm just somewhat at a loss for ideas. Alternatively, he could have some kind of Assassin's Creed style punch dagger that he uses once he's got a foe grappled, since the chair is a two-handed weapon he needs a backup for CQC.
This player is the most experienced in D&D and will be sending me a wish list of magic items, but I would like to give him something more personalized to his character than what the books offer. He's a Kenku Warlock of the Raven Queen and his raven sidekick is his literal sister. He specializes in illusions and deception, with Mask of Many Faces and Misty Visions granting him at-will Disguise Self and Silent Image, plus the Kenku's natural mimicry feature. There isn't really much to do to amplify that directly, so perhaps it would be better to give him more options in combat. He has spectacularly bad luck trying to kill things, consistently rolling 1's with Eldritch Blast. It's quite funny that the Illusionist Wizard is blasting far more proficiently than the Warlock, and the Warlock has much more effective and versatile illusions than the Illusionist. Once they kill or capture the Black Spider he will be getting his Spider Staff, so he'll have some combat utility with Web and Spider Climb.