Ioun Stones suggestions

[KyleG]

In a blatant ripoff of another powerful combination of stones my BBEG is seeking ownership of 6 stones to allow him to permanently possess a body on the material plane.
Inspired by the Space, Soul, Mind, Power, Reality and Time stones of legend i want each Ioun Stone to have a magical effect that a PC COULD use without it being too over powering for a mortal (level 4-6), although i only intend for 2 to come into their possession at this stage.
What effects could each have do you think? Given the PCs are mortals i like the idea that their is a trade off, a potential disadvantage to using the stone.

Here are my starting ideas.

The idea for the "time" stone im playing with is that if the PC takes damage the attack could be rewound. Perhaps leading to a battle of wills aka "Dormamu i have come to bargain". Both PC and opposite would be held, unable to defend or attack. Damage taken while held is considered a crit? Possibly too much but the theme still has merit.

Space clearly has to be some sort of teleportation effect.

Mind, perhaps creates a fear effect? immunity to fear? but no fear means not defending as well and therefore vulnerable to slashing piercing and bludgeoning? or maybe charm? mental stat boost?

Reality, maybe a polymorph affect?

Power, stat boost? Eldritch Blast? Physical stat boost?

Soul, some sort of raise dead, or necromantic effect, like call forth a spirit?

[NatureKing]

Time: 1/short or long rest (as you choose) you can cast Shield. Or just whenever you take damage, use reaction to take no damage, which affects none attack spells.

Space: 1/short or long rest misty step

Mind: cast Fear 1/short or long rest

Reality: Alter Self 1/short or long rest

Power: after long rest, choose a +2 to a Stat of your choice. Or +1 to attack rolls, damage rolls and DCs

Soul: Speak with Dead: 1/sr or lr.

Nice and simple

[MrStabby]

For "power", as an action, take 6d12 points of necrotic damage that cannot be prevented in any way and chose an expended spell slot. Make a spellcasting ability check, adding proficiency of DC10 + the slot level. If you succeed you recover the slot.


This gives you an effect that scales with level, so high level characters/BBEGs would really want it. The HP cost is less crippling at higher levels but is potentially lethal at lower levels and will always require caution. The damage is likely to exceed the healing the highest level healing spell a party member could recover here (unless you permit healing spirit at your tables, but then scale damage as needed). Higher level bad guys can keep an impressive barrage of high level spells up with this.

[KyleG]

Im not even thinking the BBEG will use these, they are more like my mcguffin that PCs could choose to use but there will be a cost.
There more major intention is "keeping" them from the BBEG even though i fully intend for him NOT to get all 6 (but who knows) but then the players will likely bring the remaining to him for their final battle, queue evil genius laughter by BBEG.

Very predictable but hopefully no less fun for the players, especially if i keep the existance of the 4? that they dont get hidden from them. To them they are just magic stones ive introduced.

[Corsair14]

I think in the old rules you could only use one ioun stone at a time. Get kind of disorienting to have multiples constantly orbiting around the PC's head. Look up the old Ioun Stones and use their various effects. Some were quite good, some were very situational.

[the_david]

Slightly of topic, but is it really that hard to come up with a slightly more original version of the Plot Coupon trope? It can literally be any thing you like. The Rod of Seven Parts is a classic for D&D, but you could also go for all the Orbs of Dragonkind. Akira Toriyama had a big hit with Dragonball. Voldemort had 7 horcruxes. Or you could do something new and collect the 4 canopic jars or something.

[Wildarm]

In a blatant ripoff of another powerful combination of stones my BBEG is seeking ownership of 6 stones to allow him to permanently possess a body on the material plane.
Inspired by the Space, Soul, Mind, Power, Reality and Time stones of legend i want each Ioun Stone to have a magical effect that a PC COULD use without it being too over powering for a mortal (level 4-6), although i only intend for 2 to come into their possession at this stage.
What effects could each have do you think? Given the PCs are mortals i like the idea that their is a trade off, a potential disadvantage to using the stone.

Here are my starting ideas.

The idea for the "time" stone im playing with is that if the PC takes damage the attack could be rewound. Perhaps leading to a battle of wills aka "Dormamu i have come to bargain". Both PC and opposite would be held, unable to defend or attack. Damage taken while held is considered a crit? Possibly too much but the theme still has merit.

Space clearly has to be some sort of teleportation effect.

Mind, perhaps creates a fear effect? immunity to fear? but no fear means not defending as well and therefore vulnerable to slashing piercing and bludgeoning? or maybe charm? mental stat boost?

Reality, maybe a polymorph affect?

Power, stat boost? Eldritch Blast? Physical stat boost?

Soul, some sort of raise dead, or necromantic effect, like call forth a spirit?

The stones should be powerful:

Time: Lucky Feat
Space: Misty Step - At Will
Mind: 120' Telepathy and Detect Thoughts - At will
Reality: Creation - At Will
Power: +4 Str/+4 Con (Max 20)
Soul: Raise Dead at will but requires a willing person to die in their place. That person can only be raised by Resurrection spell or Wish.

[Vogie]

My homebrew campaign has something similar to this, but there are only 3.

A Reality-stone-esque mirrored orb that gives the wielder whatever they desire, limited by their wording and imagination.
A perpetual motion machine, which allowed a crazy inventor to create a stargate-esque artifact, a la the Space Stone.
A Vibranium-esque mineral that absorbs souls and allows the manipulation thereof, a la the Soul Stone.

[KyleG]

Slightly of topic, but is it really that hard to come up with a slightly more original version of the Plot Coupon trope? It can literally be any thing you like. The Rod of Seven Parts is a classic for D&D, but you could also go for all the Orbs of Dragonkind. Akira Toriyama had a big hit with Dragonball. Voldemort had 7 horcruxes. Or you could do something new and collect the 4 canopic jars or something.

Thats fair. I actually started with the below ideas before getting the time "dormamu i have come to bargin" idea which lead me to the infinity idea. which is when it dawned on me that what i was creating was essentially infinity stones. But there is no reason I couldn't go with more or less. I do like the idea of cornucopic jars aka the mummy.

First Ideas:

1. Restores Half HP Lost at the time of activation 1/LR eg. down to 10/50. Restores 20.

2. Immunity to all Damage types for 2 rounds. Any damage done can still interfere with conc. Damage is DOUBLED the following round.

3. Absorbs magic and can be redirected, holds for 1 hour.

[Max_Killjoy]

For artifacts like these, might I suggest some manner of scaling, so that higher-level characters get more out of them?

That way, the BBEG can use them to shake the pillars of creation, without giving the PCs the same power.

And, the PCs will gain more out of them as they level up, instead of "irrelevance by level" reducing artifacts to mere trinkets.

[KyleG]

The stones should be powerful:

Time: Lucky Feat
Space: Misty Step - At Will
Mind: 120' Telepathy and Detect Thoughts - At will
Reality: Creation - At Will
Power: +4 Str/+4 Con (Max 20)
Soul: Raise Dead at will but requires a willing person to die in their place. That person can only be raised by Resurrection spell or Wish.

I actual think they should not be powerful. For two reasons...a level 4 character could be wielding it. And they should have a, stronger effect if in the presence of another stone.

Im also debating whether to link to ability scores and perhaps have different effects depending on the user.