Wild Magic Sorcerer magic item balance

[Hudsonian]

I was wanting to give a character in my game a magic item tuned to his character but I wanted to make the mechanical side be balanced.

Aasimar Wild Sorc 3/ Death Cleric 2

I wanted to give him a page from one of the books in his <insert place where his order trains> that would allow him to increase any roll on the wild magic table by one. But if he does so, then there is a chance that the roll will immediately be a 5 (aka fireball). the chance is equal to a DC of the number of times the page is used since the last LR. (requires attunement)


I haven't played too much with the wild sorcerer so I don't know if this would actually be usable more than once per session (the other characters have fun items) or if it would be overpowered.

Should I go with change +/- 1 instead of just increase?

have you seen a different magical item that I should give this character?

[ScoutTrooper]

What about going +/- 2 on the wild magic? most of the effects if I recall cover a range of two numbers. Unless you're using a different Wile Magic Surge than what's in the PHB.

[Hudsonian]

Yeah, But I wasn't sure if that would completely negate the qwirkiness of the table. I wanted to give him some power but not too much. He is only lvl5 after all.

If the playground says +/-2 isn't too much then I'm game.

[Terebin]

How often per long rest does he usually roll on the Wild Magic table?

I like the idea of increasing amounts of risk, but I actually think the benefit is too low or won't get enough use for the risk to be meaningful. I would be aiming for 3-5 uses per LR (15-25% of Fireball).

I'd maybe make it a flat move up or down one result - one of the Wild Mage features (level 6?) allows you to roll twice and pick.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Honestly, I'd drop the fireball downside, unless you mean this to be an explicity cursed item. Even a 2% chance of blowing yourself up is enough to scare most people off of ever playing a wild mage, and increasing the odds seems unnecessarily cruel.

Either +/- 1 or 2 could work. I actually wrote a spell a while back that worked like this:

Chaos Shield
1st-level abjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 8 hours

You ward yourself against chaotic energies. For the duration, whenever you roll a d100 to generate a random magical effect, you can add or subtract 1 from the roll. Furthermore, you have advantage on any saving throw you are forced to make against any magical effects generated by such a roll (whether they were created by yourself or others).
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can add or subtract any number from your d100 roll, up to the level of the spell slot used.
...so I'm thinking maybe you could give the item charges, and the player can modify the roll by the number of charges spent?

[Samayu]

When I was playing a sorcerer, I rolled the fireball once. We were on an airship. It crashed and everybody died except the half orc, and me because the DM allowed me to activate my magic item that reduced the next damage to zero.

You really don't want that fireball coming up very often.

If you want to make sure an occasional bad result comes up, just give a chance that the DM gets to choose the result of going up or down the table.

[micahaphone]

What about something where after they roll on the surge table, they can activate an item that steps the result up or down a level, but the DM (or coinflip) determines if it goes up or down?

For further fiddly bits to control, give it charges, and # charges spent = how far away you'll move on the table. So spending 2 charges after getting the 35th entry on the table will give you the 33rd or 37th surge.