Help me homebrew a snake shield!

[Magicspook]

Greetings,

For a celtic-themed campaign I am running,one of the magic items I am planning is a shield which is decorated with imagery of snakes. The snakes, of course, can come alive to aid their wielder in battle. Some of you may recognise my inspiration as being the shield worn by an evil knight during the second episode of the 'Merlin' series:

https://scifibulletin.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/merlin-1-2.jpg

I am, however, facing some difficulty with coming up for good mechanics for the shield without making it too OP. Some properties that would be really nice:
-the snakes must be able to attack (or perhaps lash out in retaliation after the player takes damage). But this shouldn't break the action economy. The intended player for this is a champion fighter (lvl 3-5), if that's important
-it would be nice if the snakes can convey some kind of status effect (such as poisoned or paralysed) but I fear this would be way OP. What do you think?
-I would like for the snakes to be destroyed by enemies, but I fail to make a good mechanic for this. Maybe each snake has a buffer of health which the player can deploy to avoid damage, but which will kill a snake? Or make the snakes attackabke entities? Of course,they regenerate after a certain amount of time.

Any suggestions are very welcome! Thank you!

[Teaguethebean]

Perhaps use the staff of the adder/python mimic. Or mabye once per long or short rest casting conjure animals but they can only summon giant snakes.

[JackPhoenix]

Do you want the snakes to only attack in retaliation, or on their own? For the first, I suggest looking at Hellish Rebuke and Armor of Agathys for inspiration. The first is just damage (you can tackle poisoned condition on top, if you want, in exchange for being used at range), the later give THP, which works with your idea of the snakes offering protection and being destroyable.

For the later, Staff of the Adder was already mentioned. The thing about the staff is that it still require the user to attack, so it doesn't break action economy, only provide damage buff.

[Trandir]

You could reskin a robe of serpents, make it a shield instead of a robe and you are done.

Also there is an homebrew sectio in this forum, you should have posted this there.

[Magicspook]

Perhaps use the staff of the adder/python mimic. Or mabye once per long or short rest casting conjure animals but they can only summon giant snakes.
Staff of adders is definately closer to what I want. I somehow totally missed this item (I probably assumed it was a different version of the staff of the python)



Also there is an homebrew sectio in this forum, you should have posted this there.
Whoops, the more you learn. I will remember this for the future.


Do you want the snakes to only attack in retaliation, or on their own? For the first, I suggest looking at Hellish Rebuke and Armor of Agathys for inspiration. The first is just damage (you can tackle poisoned condition on top, if you want, in exchange for being used at range), the later give THP, which works with your idea of the snakes offering protection and being destroyable.

For the later, Staff of the Adder was already mentioned. The thing about the staff is that it still require the user to attack, so it doesn't break action economy, only provide damage buff.
I definately like your thinking! I am torn between allowing a hellish rebuke-type retaliation attack with the head being attackable and a poison damage health buffer like AoA where the snakes die before the player starts taking damage. A third option would be allowing the player to choose to sacrifice snakes to avoid damage.

[J-H]

Other options:

Shield of Spitting Snakes
3 charges per day
As a reaction to an enemy's attack, you can activate the shield of spitting snakes to spray venom at an enemy. If the enemy's attack hit the wearer, the enemy's save is made at disadvantage.
Effect: 10' cone, con DC 11 or 1d12 poison damage (ie, the Poison Spray cantrip

Average damage on hit is about 7. If you want, you can up the damage to 2d12, which would be an average damage of 14.

[Safety Sword]

Other options:

Shield of Spitting Snakes
3 charges per day
As a reaction to an enemy's attack, you can activate the shield of spitting snakes to spray venom at an enemy. If the enemy's attack hit the wearer, the enemy's save is made at disadvantage.
Effect: 10' cone, con DC 11 or 1d12 poison damage (ie, the Poison Spray cantrip

Average damage on hit is about 7. If you want, you can up the damage to 2d12, which would be an average damage of 14.

I was going to write my idea in this post.

You did it first :smalltongue: