Help with homebrew magic items 5e

[moonfly7]

So, my party recently found: a rotting eye and hand, a ratty old hat, and what looked like an eye of ersatz(magic prostetic) now, my party flipped and thought I'd given them the hand and eye of vecna(who, in my setting, is actually one of the few non-evil liches whose hand and eye were stolen by unknown evil forces. And because my players suggested it, he's married to the raven queen)
When the wizard finally got identify, they realize that they're just random hands and eyes that grant cantrips.
But the hat(which identify said was a hat of vermin) and the ersatz eye(said to be an ersatz eye) are actually powerful very rare magic items.
The wizard had casually cast detect magic and found the auras to be way to powerful for common items. Now, I don't actually know what they do, but next session they'll probably attuned to them, so I need ideas.
The items were put in for balance, because currently the sorcerer has a staff of thunder and lightning, and no one else has an item above uncommon rarity.
So, here are the party members who wpuld attuned to it:
Shifter monk: 26 AC(don't ask, I'm tired of explaining. Just know that he got it that high on accident)
Hill dwarf life cleric of a water goddess(he now has gills and fins from magic stuff. He's officially the first of the "aquadwarf" subrace. The only one)
And a halfling wizard who has been magically shrunk to the size 1 foot 3 permanently. He loves it.
So, need some help with the two items mentioned above. I'd like to get them around the same power level as the staff of thunder and lightning. And I do have a name for the hat: "hat of the vermin king" so if anyone has an idea to work off of that, that'd be awesome.
Ersatz eye item is entirely up to you though.

[sandmote]

Off the top of my head, the hat of the vermin king should probably summon swarms of bats/rats/frogs instead of singular beasts, and allow you to control them. If that's too weak, limit it to 3 swarms at a time and then increase the number of charges.

Alternatively, the hat could summon a rat king, either being mechanically stronger than the swarms, or with a high intelligence allowing it to share secrets with the party. Sort of like cranium rats but without the connection to illithids.

The eye could permanently grant the effects of the Darkvision and See Invisibility spells to anyone who implants it. If it needs to be significantly stronger, maybe allow it to cast a small number of divination spells per long rest.

[Zman]

My first thought for the eye was giving access to the Beholder's(or Beholder Zombie's) eye rays, each once per day. Might need to scale the damage down a bit, but it struck me as fun.

I second the notion that the hat should summon swarms and just scale them up as needed, Maybe the hat can transform the wearer into a WereRat a number of times per day as well.

[moonfly7]

Love the beholder eye beam idea for not ersatz eye. That's definitly worth at least very rare.
But I don't think just summoning swarms of rats is really enough. I agree that it should be one of it's powers though. Maybe you can summon rats with class levels?(stupid, but fun) or maybe ratfolk?
Help me please!

[sandmote]

Going over similar items, the Staff of the Serpent is destroyed if it dies, and no version of the Bag of Tricks is consistent.

I think you can bump it up to rare if the player can choose what they summon, and can summon multiple creatures. :


Hat of The Vermin King
Wondrous Item, rare (requires attunement)

This hat has 5 charges. While wearing the hat, you can use an action to expend 1 of its charges and speak a command word that summons your choice of a giant bat, giant rat, giant spider, giant toad, swarm of bats, swarm of rats, or swarm of spiders (see the Player's Handbook or the Monster Manual for statistics). You can have up to three such creatures summoned at a time, and if you use a bonus action to speak the command word again, you can end the summoning for all of the summoned creatures. The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which has its own turns. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The hat regains 1d4+1 charges at dawn.

The giant rat and swarms are for tight spaces and theming, the giant bats can fly the party a short while, and the CR 1 giant toad and giant spider also have other movement options. Only three are really useful in combat (highest CR and strongest less than large option) but the item will always grant utility. I think letting the player choose what to summon makes it far better than a Bag of Tricks, to at least being rare.

[moonfly7]

Going over similar items, the Staff of the Serpent is destroyed if it dies, and no version of the Bag of Tricks is consistent.

I think you can bump it up to rare if the player can choose what they summon, and can summon multiple creatures. :


Hat of The Vermin King
Wondrous Item, rare (requires attunement)

This hat has 5 charges. While wearing the hat, you can use an action to expend 1 of its charges and speak a command word that summons your choice of a giant bat, giant rat, giant spider, giant toad, swarm of bats, swarm of rats, or swarm of spiders (see the Player's Handbook or the Monster Manual for statistics). You can have up to three such creatures summoned at a time, and if you use a bonus action to speak the command word again, you can end the summoning for all of the summoned creatures. The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which has its own turns. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The hat regains 1d4+1 charges at dawn.

The giant rat and swarms are for tight spaces and theming, the giant bats can fly the party a short while, and the CR 1 giant toad and giant spider also have other movement options. Only three are really useful in combat (highest CR and strongest less than large option) but the item will always grant utility. I think letting the player choose what to summon makes it far better than a Bag of Tricks, to at least being rare.

I like this a lot, now, I'm thinking maybe give the wearer some kind of passive bonus, and we're there. Something like: at the end of every short/long rest you choose one of the following affects, that lasts until your next short or long rest:
You grow sharp pointed, earlier claws, all unarmed attacks now do slashing damage and deal a D4 of poison damage on top of regular unarmed damage
You sprout meetings, gaining a flying speed equal to your walking speed
You gain the affects of the spider climb spell that lasts till your next short or long rest.
Add tgat all vermin can understand you, you understand them, and all vermin see it as there duty to aid you, and I think we're there.

[sandmote]

I like this a lot, now, I'm thinking maybe give the wearer some kind of passive bonus, and we're there. Something like: at the end of every short/long rest you choose one of the following affects, that lasts until your next short or long rest:
You grow sharp pointed, earlier claws, all unarmed attacks now do slashing damage and deal a D4 of poison damage on top of regular unarmed damage
You sprout meetings, gaining a flying speed equal to your walking speed
You gain the affects of the spider climb spell that lasts till your next short or long rest.
Add tgat all vermin can understand you, you understand them, and all vermin see it as there duty to aid you, and I think we're there.

Most of this sounds good. I would replace the flight speed with immunity to fall damage and an increased jump height (as a result of growing a partial wing). A permanent flight speed is distinctly stronger than the other options. I also don't think the effects of "vermin see it as there their duty to aid you," are clear. I suggest replacing that with "you have advantage on charisma checks to interact with vermin." That way there's only a question of what counts as vermin (given the creature type has been rolled into beasts) instead of how vermin actually react to you.

[moonfly7]

Most of this sounds good. I would replace the flight speed with immunity to fall damage and an increased jump height (as a result of growing a partial wing). A permanent flight speed is distinctly stronger than the other options. I also don't think the effects of "vermin see it as there their duty to aid you," are clear. I suggest replacing that with "you have advantage on charisma checks to interact with vermin." That way there's only a question of what counts as vermin (given the creature type has been rolled into beasts) instead of how vermin actually react to you.

Ok, so maybe change it too, like, 5-8 x jump?
I meant the vermin thing to sound like the folk hero background:
All vermin are well disposed to you, and will aid you in anyway they can that is not dangerous for them. Such as fetching a key or distracting a guard.
While wherein this hat you may speak to any pest or vermin as if under the affect of the speak to animals spell.
That okay?

[sandmote]

Ok, so maybe change it too, like, 5-8 x jump?
I meant the vermin thing to sound like the folk hero background:
All vermin are well disposed to you, and will aid you in anyway they can that is not dangerous for them. Such as fetching a key or distracting a guard.
While wherein this hat you may speak to any pest or vermin as if under the affect of the speak to animals spell.
That okay?

Okay, sorry, that actually sounds really flavorful. I'd maybe put it as "you fit in among vermin with ease. You can find a place to hide, rest, or recuperate among such creatures, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them." As it's taken directly from the background feature, I think it'll be clearer to players. In contrast, my previous confusion was because I interpreted "vermin see it as there duty to aid you," included doing so in combat.

5-8 times jump height is really high: your base jumping height is half of 3+your strength modifier (and doubled if you make a running jump). I'm just going to suggest "you're constantly under the effects of the feather fall and jump spells. Which would make the full item:


Hat of The Vermin King
Wondrous Item, very rare (requires attunement)

This hat has 5 charges. While wearing the hat, you can use an action to expend 1 of its charges and speak a command word that summons your choice of a giant bat, giant rat, giant spider, giant toad, swarm of bats, swarm of rats, or swarm of spiders (see the Player's Handbook or the Monster Manual for statistics). You can have up to three such creatures summoned at a time, and if you use a bonus action to speak the command word again, you can end the summoning for all of the summoned creatures. The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which has its own turns. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The hat regains 1d4+1 charges at dawn.

At the end of a short or long rest, you can choose to gain one of the following features, which last until you select a different one:

You grow sharp pointed, earlier claws, all unarmed attacks now do slashing damage and deal 1d4 of poison damage on top of your regular unarmed damage
You gain the effects of the feather fall and jump spells, as your upper arms convert partially into bat wings.
You gain the affects of the spider climb spell, as additional spider-like claws grow from your hands and feet.


Finally, while attuned to the hat, you fit in among vermin with ease. You can find a place to hide, rest, or recuperate among such creatures, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them.

[moonfly7]

Okay, sorry, that actually sounds really flavorful. I'd maybe put it as "you fit in among vermin with ease. You can find a place to hide, rest, or recuperate among such creatures, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them." As it's taken directly from the background feature, I think it'll be clearer to players. In contrast, my previous confusion was because I interpreted "vermin see it as there duty to aid you," included doing so in combat.

5-8 times jump height is really high: your base jumping height is half of 3+your strength modifier (and doubled if you make a running jump). I'm just going to suggest "you're constantly under the effects of the feather fall and jump spells. Which would make the full item:


Hat of The Vermin King
Wondrous Item, very rare (requires attunement)

This hat has 5 charges. While wearing the hat, you can use an action to expend 1 of its charges and speak a command word that summons your choice of a giant bat, giant rat, giant spider, giant toad, swarm of bats, swarm of rats, or swarm of spiders (see the Player's Handbook or the Monster Manual for statistics). You can have up to three such creatures summoned at a time, and if you use a bonus action to speak the command word again, you can end the summoning for all of the summoned creatures. The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which has its own turns. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The hat regains 1d4+1 charges at dawn.

At the end of a short or long rest, you can choose to gain one of the following features, which last until you select a different one:

You grow sharp pointed, earlier claws, all unarmed attacks now do slashing damage and deal 1d4 of poison damage on top of your regular unarmed damage
You gain the effects of the feather fall and jump spells, as your upper arms convert partially into bat wings.
You gain the affects of the spider climb spell, as additional spider-like claws grow from your hands and feet.


Finally, while attuned to the hat, you fit in among vermin with ease. You can find a place to hide, rest, or recuperate among such creatures, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them.

I love everything but the jump height thing. Never once has it come up in our game, that features going to be basically useless to my players. Unless it allows Superman style jumps or something. I don't see where flight is over powered in this scenario, I see a high chance that it's overlooked entirely in favor of spider climb or so that the monk can have poison laced attacks. Could you perhaps explain the reasoning behind flight being too much?
I know other groups abuse it and such, but for the most part my party never uses it to its full potential, only for travel and recon.