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Aleck_Morween
2019-05-16, 05:47 PM
Warning for my players: Ayla, Lothar, Okazaki and Agmar - Leave now... Spoilers ahead!

I created some magic items and I want to know if I made them roughly equally balanced against one another. I'm aware these are probably broken in general, but what I want to know is are the about the same in terms of power, practicality, thematic and fun over all. All of them require attunement.

For the Totem Warrior Barbarian, a basic brute who loves smashing, I made the Maul of the Conqueror:

He absorbs enemy strength. If he gets killing blow he can use the slain enemy's strength score instead of his own until he finishes long rest. If he kills a giant kin the strength becomes permanent. that's the simplest one

Next is the Monk of the Open Hand, who loves to pick losing fights, he gets Grit of the Underdog (fist weapon). This one evolves in stages:

+1 to attack rolls and damage, you score critical hit on rolls 19-20. Additionally when you score a crit or your opponent score crit on you, you regain 1 ki point. If the number of ki points exceed your Monk level you lose all extra points after short or long rest

+2 you can spend 1 ki point to heal yourself. Spend 1 hit die and add your constitution modifier. you can use this even when unconscious.

+3 spent 5 ki points, for next minute you can add your opponent's Strength bonus to your damage rolls

Since he often saves ki points, he rarely uses them and ends up not spending them.

The Swashbuckler Rogue likes fancy stuff, and plans to multiclass into Fighter to get a fighting style and Riposte as a Battle Master maneuver. His item is basically Cabal's Ruin from Critical Role (I couldn't think of cool armor that boosts Riposte, so I copied Matt Mercer), but he gets +1/+2/+3 to AC to improve chances to Riposte:

+1 Cabal's Ruin has 4 charges, and regains 1d4 expended charges daily at dawn. When the wearer is targeted by an enemy’s spell, they can use their reaction to have the cloak swallow part of the spell. The cloak gains a number of charges equal to the spell level of the triggering spell. The wearer is still subject to whatever effects the spell would normally inflict on them. The ability cannot be used again until they finish a short or long rest. When the wearer hits with an attack, they can choose to expend any number of charges from the cloak, dealing an additional 1d6 lightning damage per charge expended, which is inflicted on the target of that attack. If the attack strikes multiple targets, the wearer must choose one target from the group to be subject to this damage.

+2 Cabal's Ruin grants the wearer advantage on all saving throws against spells and other magical effects. The cloak’s maximum charges becomes 6, and it regains 1d4+2 charges daily at dawn. When using the cloak’s ability to swallow a spell, the wearer gains resistance to the damage of that spell.

+3 The cloak’s maximum charges becomes 10, and it regains 1d6+4 charges daily at dawn.

​ And lastly, the Beast Master Ranger has a wolf as an animal companion, and she kinda feels underpowered. Her item is the most complicated and not 100% done. The Link of the Devourer is a 2-piece item; the collar and bracelet must be equipped by both the Animal Companion and the Ranger:

Base Form: When you cast a spell with a range of touch, your companion can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. Your companion must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it. If the spell requires an attack roll, you use your attack modifier for the roll.

Evolved Form: The bond with your companion evolves beyond the natural. When either you or your companion take damage, you can chose which one of you takes the damage. Damage must be transferred in its entirety, and cannot be split between the two.

Ascended Form: Your link is complete; you are always aware how far your companion is away from you and in which general direction. While your companion is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your companion's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special that the companion has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.

Now for the complicated part: Based on what the companion devours, it gains traits of its prey; the traits also apply to you. You can switch unlocked forms during short rest.

Feral Form: Devour a beast to unlock. Use the dire wolf stat block for companion, Ranger gets +10 feet to speed and temporary hit points equal to character level.

Fey Form: Devour a fey to unlock. Use blink dog stat block for companion, Ranger gets +2 to Charisma, can cast invisibility without spending a spell slot once per short rest.

Dragon Form: Apply the dragon template from the Monster Manual to companion. The Ranger gets +1 to AC, resistance to elemental damage based on the dragon's color, and can add 1d6 of same elemental damage to damage rolls.

Fiend Form: not finished

Aberration Form: not finished

Celestial Form: not finished

That is basically it. Are some of these items are more powerful than the others? Did they follow the theme? Any ideas for the 3 remaining forms

thoroughlyS
2019-05-16, 08:31 PM
To answer the question you ask, the maul of the conqueror seems like it will be the least impactful by a wide margin. The player cannot control when the requirement will be met for the item to do anything, and its effect will only matter against certain enemies. How often does the party fight creatures with a higher Strength than the barbarian? The best comparison to make is against the gauntlets of ogre power which give a guaranteed 19 STR for your attunement slot.

If you would like further aid in designing these items, I have a few questions that will give me a clearer picture of what your intentions are.

What level are the players receiving these items?
How long are you hoping that these items remain relevant to the characters?
How powerful do you want these items to be? Are you trying for uncommon items, or are you making items that will shape the characters' careers?
What are the character's motivations?
What are their general playstyles? Are you trying to influence those playstyles? If so, how?

Aleck_Morween
2019-05-17, 05:12 AM
-What level are the players receiving these items?
They will get them at level 5
-How long are you hoping that these items remain relevant to the characters?
Through the entire campain. As they do great things the items will grow stronger.
-How powerful do you want these items to be? Are you trying for uncommon items, or are you making items that will shape the characters' careers?
I want to give them each a unique item that will grow stronger with more use.
What are the character's motivations?
No long term motivations jet, the rouge kinda wants to find certain magic item he and his friend failed to steal.
-What are their general playstyles? Are you trying to influence those playstyles? If so, how?
Well barbarian is pretty simple so I dont want something complicated for him and since his str is only 15 because he raised con first.
For rouge he is dualwielding short swords, but he is really excited about riposte so I figured give him something to boost AC and something to boost damage on riposte. And since they dont have a full caster I wanted to give them something to counter strong magic.
Monk is super afraid to spend his ki points so I want to encourage him to spend them more.
Ranger is wery attached to her wolf so I want to make the beast more usefull, on higher levels the wolf just falls behind by vanilla rules. But I also want to give her some boost too and not just focus on wolf but since she already has a +1 bow and she can buy +1 amunition I dont want to give her another +1 item.

DeTess
2019-05-17, 06:00 AM
A way to make the maul of the conqueror more impactful, but at the same time remove the potentially problematic interaction if the PC's ever encounter one of the higher CR giants is to give it +1(or mayb even +2) strength per kill until the next short or long rest. The barbarian is still incentive to invest in their own strength, and it creates an interesting trade-off were short resting to restore HP would mean losing the accumulated strength bonus, leading to an interesting situation of risk and reward.

Aleck_Morween
2019-05-17, 09:48 AM
Rewised Maul of the Conqueror
Base Form
Ability: Devour the weak- whenever you deal damage with this weapon to a creature it must make str/con saving throw, dc 14, or lose 1 point of strength. You then add that point to your own str score up to max of 21. This effect lasts until you finish short or long rest.
If you bring creatures str score down to 0, it dies instantly and can use its strength score instead of your own. (Example he brings ogre down to 0 str his str score becomes 19 if he wants)
Evolved Form
Increase DC to 16 and your maximum Str score becomes 25
Ascended Form
Increase DC to 18 and your maximum Str score becomes 27

Clarification: the limitation to str score applyes only when absorbing str point by point. Example Frost Giant has a str score of 23. Barbarian has a str score of 15. He can only absorb 6 points of strength while fighting the giant, since 15+23 points of strength would be ridiculus. But once the giant is brought down to 0 str he can change his str score into 23 permanently. That would also unlock items evolved form.


My remaining dilema would be if I make saving throw based on Con he might never bring the enemy down to 0 str, but if I make it based on Str he might bring it to 0 too easily. But then again he will only get to attack twice per turn so a creature with str higher than 20 would need to fail more than 10 times to die of str loss.

Breccia
2019-05-17, 11:30 AM
First of all let me say I love the idea of evolving magic items and I hope you find results you and your party are happy with.

That said, I feel the ranger is getting a bad deal. They will likely eat a lot of damage coming their companion's way, I'm guessing, to keep it alive and active. And while sense link is fun, blinding/deafening yourself doesn't seem necessary -- we are talking about a +3 level item here, that doesn't seem like enough of a bonus. And I can't think of a lot of spells other than cure wounds a ranger would cast with range touch. There might be some, I just can't think of any off the top of my pelt. Head! I meant head.

Everyone else is getting significant combat bonuses. The Ranger, at least to me, doesn't feel the same. Have you considered the bonus also including +1/+2/+3 to the animal's attack and damage rolls? Or, failing that, AC and saving throws? The monk, barbarian, and rogue all seem to get that.

moonfly7
2019-05-17, 02:41 PM
I think the rangers stuff is the best personally, although I do agree that you shouldn't use the familiar limiters for it

thoroughlyS
2019-05-23, 05:28 PM
-What level are the players receiving these items?
They will get them at level 5
-How long are you hoping that these items remain relevant to the characters?
Through the entire campain. As they do great things the items will grow stronger.
-How powerful do you want these items to be? Are you trying for uncommon items, or are you making items that will shape the characters' careers?
I want to give them each a unique item that will grow stronger with more use.
I've participated in a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?560610-Would-you-kindly-mind-rating-my-Homebrew-magic-Items/page2) like this before.

The base concept I'm working off of is to increase the power of the item at each tier. At tier 1, the item should be as powerful as an uncommon item. At tier 2, it gets buffed to be about as good as two uncommon items. At tier 3, it should gain about a rare item's worth of abilities. In total these should be as good as two uncommon and one rare item, but only cost one attunement slot.

Does this match the kind of idea you were going for? If so, I could try to whip up some items. I'd greatly appreciate it if you could answer some of the below questions for each character:
What are the character's backstories?
What are the character's motivations?
What are the character's attitudes like?
What are the origins of these items/What kind of origin do you want for them?