Magic Item Reward

[Helldin87]

Opinions please =D

My PC's are currently progressing through the tier 2 content of SKT but diverging to explore the Lost Laboratory of Kwalish. They have cleared WDH Autumn campaign and escaped after a confrontation with Jarlaxle. They are being hounded by the Bregan Daerthe as they make their way north to the Spine of the World (Where I plopped the plot of LLK). Initially they just wanted to get out of the city since they are in possession of the 500,000 GP and felt the need to be scarce, but are beginning to suspect the drow are scrying for the items they took from Jarlaxle (his eyepatch and portable hole namely).

The coffeelock of the group is playing an avaraicious arcane-item seeker. He currently retains possession of the Stone of gollorr and is doing a great job of RPing a gollum-esque relationship with it, much to the chagrin of the other party members (not toxic, just good RP).

Here's my plan: Kwalish will offer to artifice up some amulets of non-divination for the group but demand the stone as payment. Alternatively he will be able to craft a unique and powerful staff out of the stone, but only after a pocket dimension confrontation with the Aboleth inside.

I reflavored and modified a staff of power to this:

Staff of Gollor

This staff can be wielded as a magic quarterstaff that grants a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it. While holding it, you gain a +2 bonus to Armor Class, saving throws, and spell attack rolls.

Sentience. This staff is the prison to an Aboleth and is powered by draining the aberration of it's magic. As such the staff is Lawful Evil with an Intelligence of 18, a Wisdom of 15, and a Charisma of 18. It has hearing and darkvision out to 120ft. The weapon can speak, read, and understand common, and can communicate with its wielder telpathically. Its voice is quiet and almost slimy. The Aboleth understands every language you know.

Personality. The Aboleth's goal is to be free. To this end the entity will encourage the user to expend as much of the staff's stored power as possible daily. The Aboleth will also be quick to suggest breaking the staff to free itself, quietly omitting the vengeance it will inevitably seek.

The staff has 20 charges for the following properties. The staff regains 2d8 + 4 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the staff shatters and the Aboleth within is freed. On a 20, the staff regains 1d8 + 2 charges.

Evil Within. While attuned to this artifact all animals within 30 feet sense the presence of the Aboleth and are hostile toward you.

Power Strike. When you hit with a melee attack using the staff, you can expend 1 charge to deal an extra 1d6 force damage to the target.

Spells. While holding this staff, you can use an action to expend 1 or more of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using your spell save DC and spell attack bonus: cone of cold (5 charges), shield (2 charges), mage armor (1 charge), hunger of hadar (5th-level version, 5 charges), levitate (2 charges),or lightning bolt (5th-level version, 5 charges)

Retributive Summon. You can use an action to break the staff over your knee or against a solid surface, setting free the evil within. The staff is destroyed and releases the Aboleth to the nearest unoccupied space. The Aboleth is hostile to all other characters but takes particular glee in vengeance against the attuned wielder of the staff.
Notes: Damage: Force, Bonus: Saving Throws, Bonus: Armor Class, Bonus: Spell Attacks, Bonus: Magic, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard, Damage, Control, Combat, Warding

My hope is that the party will have to make a serious choice about losing their drow adversaries more or less permanently OR letting the coffeelock get a shiny cool magic item.

Opinions?

[MThurston]

At a 5% chance of it breaking apart, I'd say nope, don't want the staff.

It wouldnt last more than 25 days with out the staff shattering.

[Teaguethebean]

At a 5% chance of it breaking apart, I'd say nope, don't want the staff.

It wouldnt last more than 25 days with out the staff shattering.

I mean lots of items work like this like the wand of magic missiles

[JackPhoenix]

At a 5% chance of it breaking apart, I'd say nope, don't want the staff.

It wouldnt last more than 25 days with out the staff shattering.

Then simply don't expend the last charge. 0% chance of staff breaking at the small cost of effectively only having 19 charges instead of 20.

[Wildarm]

At a 5% chance of it breaking apart, I'd say nope, don't want the staff.

It wouldnt last more than 25 days with out the staff shattering.

Only if you expend the last charge. Warlock has a pretty good charisma save. He should be able to ward off being forced to used the staff that often(DC16). He should have a +9 to CHA saves at least including the bonus from the staff. If he's a Fiendlock then he's got Dark One's Own Luck which brings that failure chance WAY down.

For the item balance, I would not let the aboleth suggest breaking the staff. It would have done that immediately the first time it influenced it's user(and therefore not exist). Forcing them to use all the staff's charges sounds just fine this. I expect it to take a few months or even years if they have some save boosting gear/feats before the staff eventually breaks and the group has to deal with the Aboleth. I'd jump all over that as a player to get +2 to saves/AC/spell attacks!

[Helldin87]

Yup this is the kind of tension I want to create.... it is super powerful but has to be tightly controlled. It also get rid of the Stone of Golorr as an item. Alternatively they could just go for the nondetection stuff. I will probably RP Kwalish to be somewhat dissapointed if they choose that as he would relish the arcane challenge of fastening the staff from such a unique magical artifact.

The other thing I did not mention is that the group has been chaffing at the random encounters table's frequency. Without going into too much detail I have a separate Bregan Daerthe table I roll on each day in addition to the actual random encounter table. Traveling has become super risky for them and this choice to get the staff vs the non-detection amulets will hopefully drive home some consequences based game play. On one hand they get a super cool toy (which has its own set of hang ups), on the other they have to deal with the drow in a more....direct manner.

If they choose the staff I will set up a custom arc that allows them to do just that or they could just eat the constant raiding parties. Their choice!

[solidork]

The spells you picked don't really seem to match the flavor of the Aboleth very well. There are plenty of good psychic/water themed spells that you could include.

[OverLordOcelot]

Hunger of Hadar doesn't scale, so making it cast at 5th level is just burning extra charges for no benefit to the staff user. Also, I've found it to be somewhat disappointing in practice, I really doubt that spell will get used more than once as a 'look at this' effect. IMO Evard's Black Tentacles would fit the theme better but be more useful (although it also doesn't scale so has no reason to be cast above 4th level).


At a 5% chance of it breaking apart, I'd say nope, don't want the staff.

It wouldnt last more than 25 days with out the staff shattering.

That's standard for the charged magical staffs, like the staff of power this is based off of. You just avoid spending the last charge to avoid ever having to roll the 1 in 20 chance. For this particular one the aboleth will try to make you do it more often, but that's what the struggle with the staff is for. I do agree with the other poster that the aboleth should not be able to force the wielder to break the staff, there won't be any sense of ongoing struggle in that case.

[MThurston]

I didn't see on the last charge. I read it as every time you use it roll to see if it shatters.

[DrowPiratRobrts]

I didn't see on the last charge. I read it as every time you use it roll to see if it shatters.

Thought that might've been the case when I saw your response. It'd be stupid to take it if that were the case, haha. At least at their current level.

Also along the lines of taking the staff, is the party still Level 5 and how many are there? Jarlaxle pursuing to get his magic items back with the force of Bregan D'aerthe behind him is a terrifying thought. Being able to escape at least the scrying magic of the Drow would be a huge burden off their backs. Alternatively, depending on how the OP plays them, getting the staff wouldn't be sufficient power to fight the mercenaries in full force if they ever catch up to them (which they should). But it's your world, so maybe they don't have quite that much power and influence.

I for one would go for the anti-scrying stones, but I'd definitely taste the bitterness of giving up a shot at that staff for my Warlock friend.