Creating A Spell Absorbing/Storing Item

[nakedonmyfoldin]

Good afternoon!

I had an idea for an item very similar to the rod of absorption. I wanted it to slurp up a spell that's slung at the player, but to store the actual spell use for later use. My idea was this:

Rod of Spell Returning
If you're wielding the rod (which doubles as a mace magical for the sake of resistance) and you are targeted or suffer the effects of an enemies spell. If you successfully save/defend against the spell, you may use your reaction to absorb the effects of the spell into the rod. The effects of this stored spell may be duplicated by anyone using the rod using the appropriate action and save as if they're casting the spell themself (minus components). The rod may only store one spell effect at a time.

Does this seem balanced? The only downside I see is if a hag throws something high level at them and they save they can store some pretty nasty spells, but c'est la vie in my opinion, i'm not offended by my players doing well.

[Leathalsandwich]

1st, since it is a rod you could have it act like a club instead of a mace, for less damage.


2nd it is a magical item so it does magical damage.

Other than this I LOVE IT

[Anymage]

Is the spell emptied out after use?

If using the stored spell clears out the rod, I'd say it's about on par with the rod of absorption. You'd want to cap the highest level of spell it could eat, but you basically lose the RoA's ability to freely use the stored spell energy for any purpose and in exchange get an item that doesn't wear out and that anyone can use. (Although if you want nonspellcasters to be able to cast from it, you'll want to decide what casting stat they'll use.)

If you can use the stored spell any time you want, I'm very wary. Even if you cap how high level a spell it can store, casters have limited spell slots for a good reason. Giving a mace of infinite fireballs is very questionable territory. Disintegrate or meteor swarm get insane.