I made a magic item and want your opinion on balance

[Daghoulish]

So, I made a magic book for a non-caster that let's them cast in a limited sense. This item is for a character who has expertise in arcana and ritual caster, the expertise is important. So the item goes like this.

Book of the Sleeping Beholder(Attunement)

This books cover and spine are made of a pebbled purple-blue leather with a large eye sitting in the center of the front cover. The eye is pink, with a square black iris.

-Unable to be destroyed by normal means
-You may try to cast spells inscribed in this book without the ability to cast spells, the spell's level can be no higher than half your level (rounded up). When you do you use the normal action for the spell (Action or Bonus Action) and you make an arcana check with a DC equal to 10+level of spell. You may use this feature again if you succeed and the DC increases to match the previous uses end DC. (If you cast a third level spell previously the next DC would be 13+level of spell and continue to grow with every cast) If you fail you may not try to use this feature again until the next dawn. At the next dawn the DC resets back to 10.

The idea is to be a limit use resource for the party. As is the character still needs to pay the cost to add the spells to the book, the same as a wizard, but can only reliably cast via ritual caster. I don't want it to be too powerful and I think I've gotten it to a decent place. I'm uncertain on the DC honestly, with expertise they have a decent chance of getting a spell off at level 6 but I think the rising DC will help quell that. So what are your thoughts, too good, too weak, unbalanced?

[BerzerkerUnit]

If you’re fine with an extra 2-3 top level slots/day and “any spell”, it’s fine as a legendary.

At level 5 (where any kind of human/half human can have Prodigy Arcana) you’re looking at a +9 Arcana. So it’s a 4, 7, and 10 needed on the Die to hit the DCs to cast an extra 3rd level spell.

[Daghoulish]

If you’re fine with an extra 2-3 top level slots/day and “any spell”, it’s fine as a legendary.

At level 5 (where any kind of human/half human can have Prodigy Arcana) you’re looking at a +9 Arcana. So it’s a 4, 7, and 10 needed on the Die to hit the DCs to cast an extra 3rd level spell.

This is only for a non-caster, I know the party and might be giving this in the future. They don't have the best int (They plan for 14 at max). ahh, and I meant any wizard spell, same as their ritual caster choice.

[Composer99]

So, I made a magic book for a non-caster that let's them cast in a limited sense. This item is for a character who has expertise in arcana and ritual caster, the expertise is important. So the item goes like this.

Book of the Sleeping Beholder(Attunement)

This books cover and spine are made of a pebbled purple-blue leather with a large eye sitting in the center of the front cover. The eye is pink, with a square black iris.

-Unable to be destroyed by normal means
-You may try to cast spells inscribed in this book without the ability to cast spells, the spell's level can be no higher than half your level (rounded up). When you do you use the normal action for the spell (Action or Bonus Action) and you make an arcana check with a DC equal to 10+level of spell. You may use this feature again if you succeed and the DC increases to match the previous uses end DC. (If you cast a third level spell previously the next DC would be 13+level of spell and continue to grow with every cast) If you fail you may not try to use this feature again until the next dawn. At the next dawn the DC resets back to 10.

The idea is to be a limit use resource for the party. As is the character still needs to pay the cost to add the spells to the book, the same as a wizard, but can only reliably cast via ritual caster. I don't want it to be too powerful and I think I've gotten it to a decent place. I'm uncertain on the DC honestly, with expertise they have a decent chance of getting a spell off at level 6 but I think the rising DC will help quell that. So what are your thoughts, too good, too weak, unbalanced?

I'm not particularly keen on the ability to cast spells of 6th level and up, but it's for your table, so well and good.

I think I get the gist of what this item does, but I'm afraid the wording kind of clutters things up. You can cast any spell transcribed in the book as long as you succeed at an Intelligence (Arcana) check, and as long as you keep succeeding on those checks, you can keep casting spells.

You don't need the clause "without the ability to cast spells" or the part about what action to take, or the rounding down part, since that's one of the general rules of the game.

Let's see if we can clear up the wording of what's there now:


You may attempt to cast any spell currently inscribed in the book. To do so, you must make an Intelligence (Arcana) check whose DC equals 10 + the spell's level, casting the spell on a successful check, and failing to do so on a failed check. You can only cast a spell if its spell level is less than or equal to half your character level.

Provided you succeed, you may continue to attempt to cast spells from the book. Each time you do so after the first, you make the Intelligence (Arcana) check anew, except the DC increases by an amount equal to the sum of the spell levels of each spell you have successfully cast from the book. For instance, if you cast three 2nd-level spells in a row from the book, the check DCs are 12, 14, and 16, respectively.

As soon as you fail an Intelligence (Arcana) check to cast a spell from the book, you can't use the book again until the next dawn. Each dawn, the effects of casting multiple spells on the ability check DC vanish.


(If the feature worked like the barbarian's Relentless Rage, I'd say the DC resetting to 10 works, but it's never actually 10.)

You do need to specify the following:
- what, if any, spells the book already has by the time the PCs find it
- the spell save DC and spell attack modifier - most items either have one set or tell you to use your spell save DC (if a spellcaster has to attune to the item); you could instead have the attuned character use their Intelligence as the spellcasting ability, the way it works for wizards
- whether components are required - the DMG specifies that the default for magic items that allow the casting of spells is that no components are required, but you may well want otherwise for this item

If you keep this book as written, with the ability to cast spells of 6th level and up, I would think it really is an artifact. (Recall that the ring of three wishes grants the wish spell but thrice, where this book could allow someone to cast it easily once or twice a day once they can cast 9th-level spells.) If it's kept to spells of 5th level and lower, probably legendary.


Edit to add: Cleaned up some half-finished thoughts.

[Daghoulish]

I'm not particularly keen on the ability to cast spells of 6th level and up, but it's for your table, so well and good.

I think I get the gist of what this item does, but I'm afraid the wording kind of clutters things up. You can cast any spell transcribed in the book as long as you succeed at an Intelligence (Arcana) check, and as long as you keep succeeding on those checks, you can keep casting spells.

You don't need the clause "without the ability to cast spells" or the part about what action to take, or the rounding down part, since that's one of the general rules of the game.

Let's see if we can clear up the wording of what's there now:


(If the feature worked like the barbarian's Relentless Rage, I'd say the DC resetting to 10 works, but it's never actually 10. Although now I come to think of it, )

You do need to specify the following:
- what, if any, spells the book already has by the time the PCs find it
- the spell save DC and spell attack modifier - most items either have one set or tell you to use your spell save DC (if a spellcaster has to attune to the item); you could instead have the attuned character use their Intelligence as the spellcasting ability, the way it works for wizards
- whether components are required - the DMG specifies that the default for magic items that allow the casting of spells is that no components are required, but you may well want otherwise for this item

If you keep this book as written, with the ability to cast spells of 6th level and up, I would think it really is an artifact. (Recall that the ring of three wishes grants the wish spell but thrice, where this book could allow someone to cast it easily once or twice a day once they can cast 9th-level spells.)

Ah, to see that cleaner version of what it does is so nice. Thank you very much. I took the level text, including rounding down, straight from the ritual caster feat. It seems more like a precautionary measure than anything. The Dc's would be intelligence based as this is a wizards book. I hadn't thought about components honestly, I might let it work like a focus, where it counts for spells without a component cost, otherwise they would need to go find the components.

As for the spells it has and they can get? Well as I'm the DM so that's up to me, and finding someone else who has wish inscribed into their own book who's willing to let someone else copy it is not going to be an easy thing. I can't imagen any DM making it easy to get wish, especially if the wizard takes something else on the off chance to find wish as a scroll or in someones book. Also, as much as this would be broken at high levels(provided you can find the spells) I doubt this campaign would get higher than about 10-12. Still, you gave me a bunch to think about so thank you.