Magic Item Critique

[Catullus64]

Got a few homemade magic items I'm going to use in some upcoming games. Any of the following pieces of input welcome: Balance issues, unforeseen rules interactions, ways the writeups could be made more interesting, ways the magic items themselves could be made more fun, fun story hooks related to these items, possible curses that could be associated with them.

Warping Blade

Weapon, Requires Attunement.

Each of these magical weapons has three forms which it can adopt; each of these forms is of a different simple or martial melee weapon which is at least partly made of metal. The DM determines which forms it can adopt: each of its three forms must use a different base damage die. For the purposes of this weapon, 1d12 and 2d6 count as the same damage die. For example, the weapon might have the forms of a dagger, a longsword, and a glaive.

While holding the weapon, you can use your action to cause it to change between the three forms. The weapon gains different benefits in each form:


While in the form with the smallest damage die, you can make a melee attack with this weapon as a bonus action on each of your turns after taking the attack action with this weapon.
While in the form with the middle damage die, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls with this weapon.
While in the form with the largest damage die, your melee attacks with this weapon score critical hits on a die roll of 19 or 20.


Iron Flower Ring

Wondrous Item, Requires Attunement by a spellcaster

While wearing this ring, you may maintain concentration on two spells or effects at once. Should you be required to make a Constitution saving throw to maintain your concentration because of damage, you roll one saving throw for both effects, which you roll with disadvantage. Should you fail a saving throw to maintain your concentration on two effects, you also suffer 2d6 psychic damage, plus 1d6 psychic damage for each level of the spells beyond 1st.

Evergreen Cloak

Wondrous Item, Requires Attunement

This cloak changes its green color along with the seasons. When found, it is always in tune with the current season. While wearing the cloak, you gain certain benefits from depending on its color:


Emerald (Spring): Your walking speed increases by 10 feet, and opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage.
Pea (Summer): You have advantage on attack rolls during your first turn after rolling initiative, and these attacks deal an additional 1d8 fire damage on a hit.
Olive (Autumn): You gain 1d4 temporary hit points each minute, provided you have at least one hit point. While you have any of these temporary hit points, you have resistance to all damage.
Pine Needle (Winter): You gain a +1 bonus to AC. Whenever you take the Dodge action, you gain advantage on Constitution and Wisdom saving throws, as well as Dexterity.


While attuned to the cloak, you can use an action to cause it to adopt the color of a different season for 1 hour, after which it reverts to the color matching the current season. Once you have used this property, you cannot use it again until the next day at dawn.

[JNAProductions]

First off, we have a Homebrew Forum (https://forums.giantitp.com/forumdisplay.php?15-Homebrew-Design) for this kind of stuff. Just letting you know.

Warping Blade looks cool-I'd provide an example of one, though, to make clear what kind of die sizes you're looking at.

Iron Flower Ring is absolutely bonkers. Concentration is a huge limiter on what spells you can do-allowing you to bypass that is ridiculous. I'm not saying don't make this item, but I am saying be very, VERY careful with it. Especially since, once you get +9 to Constitution saves, you need to do 22 damage in one go to even chance a failed save.

Evergreen Cloak looks cool. Olive is a little too strong, in my opinion, compared to the other effects. I might just make it 3d4 THP with no resistance clause.

[RogueJK]

Evergreen Cloak looks cool. Olive is a little too strong, in my opinion, compared to the other effects. I might just make it 3d4 THP with no resistance clause.

Agreed. Or include some way of limiting the Resistance, like requiring they use their Reaction to gain resistance against the damage from one attack/spell or perhaps for one turn, usable 1x/Short Rest.

And Dual Concentration is definitely overpowered. Sorcerers with Twin Spell can kinda do it, but only in a limited way since it only works on a relatively small number and specific type of spells, and even then it's quite powerful. Being able to do it with any Concentration spells, especially the powerful mass control/debuff spells or long duration repeatable damage spells, is a huge leap.

I don't recall exactly where I saw it, but in an interview with some of the designers about tips for DMs and homebrew, one of their recommendations was to avoid messing with the Concentration limit because it was a vital limiting factor.

[OzDragon]

First off, we have a Homebrew Forum (https://forums.giantitp.com/forumdisplay.php?15-Homebrew-Design) for this kind of stuff. Just letting you know.

Warping Blade looks cool-I'd provide an example of one, though, to make clear what kind of die sizes you're looking at.

Iron Flower Ring is absolutely bonkers. Concentration is a huge limiter on what spells you can do-allowing you to bypass that is ridiculous. I'm not saying don't make this item, but I am saying be very, VERY careful with it. Especially since, once you get +9 to Constitution saves, you need to do 22 damage in one go to even chance a failed save.

Evergreen Cloak looks cool. Olive is a little too strong, in my opinion, compared to the other effects. I might just make it 3d4 THP with no resistance clause.


Agreed. Or include some way of limiting the Resistance, like requiring they use their Reaction to gain resistance against the damage from one attack/spell, usable 1x/Short Rest.

And Dual Concentration is definitely extremely powerful. Sorcerers with Twin Spell can kinda do it, but only in a limited way since it only works on a relatively small number and type of spells, and even then it's quite powerful. Being able to do it with any Concentration spells, especially the powerful mass control/debuff spells or long duration repeatable damage spells, is a huge leap.

I don't recall exactly where I saw it, but in an interview with some of the designers about tips for DMs and homebrew, one of their recommendations was to avoid messing with the Concentration limit because it was a vital limiting factor.

I would say this the drawbacks on the ring are pretty good. You are rolling concentration saves at disadvantage always, and you take damage on failing. I would be ok with it.

Also the cloak is not as bad as you think. Temporary HP can not stack so at any time you would have 4 temps so it would give you resistance to one attack every minute.(which is once a combat)

[RogueJK]

You are rolling concentration saves at disadvantage always,

Unless you have the Warcaster feat, in which case it would be a straight roll.

And even at Disadvantage, it's fairly easy to get such a high Concentration bonus as to make the roll nearly impossible to fail for most attacks/spells.




Also the cloak is not as bad as you think. Temporary HP can not stack so at any time you would have 4 temps so it would give you resistance to one attack every hour.

As written, it would be one attack per minute.

[OzDragon]

As written, it would be one attack per minute.
Edited my post to reflect.

[OzDragon]

Got a few homemade magic items I'm going to use in some upcoming games. Any of the following pieces of input welcome: Balance issues, unforeseen rules interactions, ways the writeups could be made more interesting, ways the magic items themselves could be made more fun, fun story hooks related to these items, possible curses that could be associated with them.

I would add a rarity to these items as it would help to designate whether they are inline with other magic items.

[OzDragon]

Unless you have the Warcaster feat, in which case it would be a straight roll.

And even at Disadvantage, it's fairly easy to get such a high Concentration bonus as to make the roll nearly impossible to fail for most attacks/spells.




As written, it would be one attack per minute.

That is fine. you would have to spend a feat to make it a regular role.(ill admit it is a good feat but still its an investment) That's the wonderful things about rolling dice bad rolls happen just as often as good ones.

[RogueJK]

As pointed out earlier, merely a +9 means you can never fail a mundane Concentration check, even if you roll a 1.

That's doable with a moderate CON, proficiency with CON saves, and a little something else like one or more of:
-Bless
-Bardic Inspiration
-Paladin aura
-Bladesong
-Divine Soul's Favored of the Gods
-Fiendlock's Dark One's Luck
-Hobgoblin's Saving Face

Then there's stuff like Focused Conjuration, which means a Level 10+ Conjurer Wizard could never lose Concentration from damage as long as one of their 2 Concentration spells was a Conjuration spell. Web + Cloudkill. Everard's Black Tentacles + Sickening Radiance. Conjure Fire Elemental + Wall of Fire. Watery Sphere + Cloud of Daggers. Maximilian's Earthen Grasp + Flaming Sphere. The list of crazy overpowered combos with at least one Conjuration spell goes on and on, and their Concentration could never be disrupted short of being knocked unconscious or otherwise totally removed from the battle.


Besides, there are any number of ways for casters to avoid having to make Concentration checks in the first place, with all their Defensive options.

[OzDragon]

As pointed out earlier, merely a +9 means you can never fail a mundane Concentration check, even if you roll a 1.

That's doable with a moderate CON, proficiency with CON saves, and a little something else like Bless or Paladin aura or Bladesong.

If it's a very rare/legendary item(which is where I would put it) it would be fine.

[Catullus64]

As pointed out earlier, merely a +9 means you can never fail a mundane Concentration check, even if you roll a 1.

That's doable with a moderate CON, proficiency with CON saves, and a little something else like one or more of:
-Bless
-Bardic Inspiration
-Paladin aura
-Bladesong
-Divine Soul's Favored of the Gods
-Fiendlock's Dark One's Luck
-Hobgoblin's Saving Face

Then there's stuff like Focused Conjuration, which means a Level 10+ Conjurer Wizard could never lose Concentration from damage as long as one of their 2 Concentration spells was a Conjuration spell. Web + Cloudkill. Everard's Black Tentacles + Sickening Radiance. Conjure Fire Elemental + Wall of Fire. Maximilian's Earthen Grasp + Flaming Sphere. The list of crazy overpowered combos with at least one Conjuration spell goes on and on, and their Concentration could never be disrupted short of being knocked unconscious or otherwise totally removed from the battle.


Besides, there are any number of ways for casters to avoid having to make Concentration checks in the first place, with all their Defensive options.

All good points. Mostly not a problem with the particular characters in the game, but would definitely amp up the restrictions if I intended to publish this item. I definitely didn't consider Focused Conjuration as a factor. Other possible balancing factor would be Exhaustion levels from using it, but that's a bit more extreme.

As it happens, the Iron Flower ring is the one of these three items I'm least wedded to.

Also editing my original post to fit with JNAProductions' suggestion for an example of the Warping Blade.

[Yakk]

Got a few homemade magic items I'm going to use in some upcoming games. Any of the following pieces of input welcome: Balance issues, unforeseen rules interactions, ways the writeups could be made more interesting, ways the magic items themselves could be made more fun, fun story hooks related to these items, possible curses that could be associated with them.

Warping Blade

Weapon, Requires Attunement.

Each of these magical weapons has three forms which it can adopt; each of these forms is of a different simple or martial melee weapon which is at least partly made of metal. The DM determines which forms it can adopt: each of its three forms must use a different base damage die. For the purposes of this weapon, 1d12 and 2d6 count as the same damage die. For example, the weapon might have the forms of a dagger, a longsword, and a glaive.

While holding the weapon, you can use your action to cause it to change between the three forms. The weapon gains different benefits in each form:


While in the form with the smallest damage die, you can make a melee attack with this weapon as a bonus action on each of your turns after taking the attack action with this weapon.
While in the form with the middle damage die, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls with this weapon.
While in the form with the largest damage die, your melee attacks with this weapon score critical hits on a die roll of 19 or 20.


1 is worse than a scimitar of speed. You can get it with a 1d8 weapon, but the scimitar of speed is also +2.
2 is no better than a +1 weapon
3 is as good as the champion 3 feature.

You can build a character around a scimitar of speed, but it already exists, so no issue here.

For 3, you can build a character around that. It is a pretty strong ability with elven accuracy on a crit-fisher build, like a paladin.



Iron Flower Ring

Wondrous Item, Requires Attunement by a spellcaster

While wearing this ring, you may maintain concentration on two spells or effects at once. Should you be required to make a Constitution saving throw to maintain your concentration because of damage, you roll one saving throw for both effects, which you roll with disadvantage. Should you fail a saving throw to maintain your concentration on two effects, you also suffer 2d6 psychic damage, plus 1d6 psychic damage for each level of the spells beyond 1st.

Broken.

Concentration is easily 1/3 of a spellcasters power budget. This almost doubles that. And you can focus on concentration spells to boost that 1/3; doubling the yield encourages this even more.

Item is more powerful than legendary. On a scale better than the cloak of invisibility.

The restrictions can be built around for modest cost.

Evergreen Cloak

Wondrous Item, Requires Attunement

This cloak changes its green color along with the seasons. When found, it is always in tune with the current season. While wearing the cloak, you gain certain benefits from depending on its color:


Emerald (Spring): Your walking speed increases by 10 feet, and opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage.
Pea (Summer): You have advantage on attack rolls during your first turn after rolling initiative, and these attacks deal an additional 1d8 fire damage on a hit.
Olive (Autumn): You gain 1d4 temporary hit points each minute, provided you have at least one hit point. While you have any of these temporary hit points, you have resistance to all damage.
Pine Needle (Winter): You gain a +1 bonus to AC. Whenever you take the Dodge action, you gain advantage on Constitution and Wisdom saving throws, as well as Dexterity.


While attuned to the cloak, you can use an action to cause it to adopt the color of a different season for 1 hour, after which it reverts to the color matching the current season. Once you have used this property, you cannot use it again until the next day at dawn.

1 is weak.
2 is pretty good. Fighter 2/Gloom 3 with extra attack will love it (6d8 on-hit damage and advantage on 6 attacks). I don't like it because it encourages alpha-strike even more than it is already encouraged.
3 is resistance against 1 tap per minute. Ok. The 1d4 looks like busywork. If it was "you have resistance against damage. This happens again after a minute".
4 is not very good; dodge action is expensive for everyone (it is cheapest for monks).

[RogueJK]

dodge action is expensive for everyone (it is cheapest for monks).

It's cheapest for frontline Clerics who are already running Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians, and therefore can spare their Action for Dodge without much of a hit to their damage output.

And Advantage on Constitution saving throws from this ring would also mean that if they happen to get hit while Dodging, they then have Advantage on that Concentration check to keep SG running. And it would also boost the Cleric's normally low DEX saves, and send their already high WIS saves even higher.

So fairly good in the hands of certain Level 5+ Clerics.