Extra reactions

[J-H]

I'm looking at making an additional magic item to give to an enemy high priest. Has anyone used or seen a magic item that gives extra reactions in your game? How powerful was it?

I have two ideas right now, both rings requiring attunement.
A) The user may take an extra reaction 3 times per day after using his normal reaction.
B) The user may use a bonus action on his turn to activate the ring; while active, the user may take two reactions before his next turn, instead of one. Using the second reaction consumes a charge. The ring has 3 charges, which replenish at sunset.
C) The user may take an extra reaction 3 times per day. Using the extra reaction consumes his bonus action for the following turn.

Option B and C are more fiddly, but imposes a cost for the extra action. The cost is higher for classes that use bonus actions, and pretty low for non-BA using classes. I'm leaning towards just Option A because I'm not sure the drawback and tracking is worthwhile.

[Lupine]

[QUOTE=J-H;24955071]I'm looking at making an additional magic item to give to an enemy high priest. Has anyone used or seen a magic item that gives extra reactions in your game? How powerful was it?]
Extra reactions already exist: they’re called legendary actions, and are supposed to be sufficient to counter the action economy.
Maybe he’s a vampire?

In any case, give legendary saves and actions. That should beef him up more than enough.

[J-H]

This is going to be an item for the players to loot.

[Segev]

I'd keep it simple. The ring has three charges. Once per round, the attuned wearer may spend a charge to take a reaction even when he's already taken one that round. The ring regains all charges at dusk, midnight, or dawn, depending on flavor you want to establish.

[Kurt Kurageous]

I'd keep it simple. The ring has three charges. Once per round, the attuned wearer may spend a charge to take a reaction even when he's already taken one that round. The ring regains all charges at dusk, midnight, or dawn, depending on flavor you want to establish.

instead of "once per round" I suggest "when you take a reaction....to take a second reaction" It also should NOT allow a second reaction spell to be cast, but it would allow a second racial/class feature to repeat, e.g. hellish rebuke for a tiefling.

[JNAProductions]

I'd keep it simple. The ring has three charges. Once per round, the attuned wearer may spend a charge to take a reaction even when he's already taken one that round. The ring regains all charges at dusk, midnight, or dawn, depending on flavor you want to establish.

I'll echo this. Keep it simple.

I'd also make clear that you only get one reaction per trigger-unless you WANT someone to be able to AoO twice from one movement, for isntance.

[x3n0n]

instead of "once per round" I suggest "when you take a reaction....to take a second reaction" It also should NOT allow a second reaction spell to be cast, but it would allow a second racial/class feature to repeat, e.g. hellish rebuke for a tiefling.

The former commits a full charge for something that may never happen. That doesn't live up to my idea of what this would be.
I was thinking something kind of like the Critical Role homebrew Monk (updated Way of the Cobalt Soul), free at D&D Beyond:

Mind of Mercury
Starting at 11th level, you’ve honed your awareness and reflexes through mental aptitude and pattern recognition. Once per turn, if you’ve already taken your reaction, you may spend 1 ki point to take an additional reaction.


Is the "no repeat spells" a hedge against Counterspell in particular?

[Segev]

instead of "once per round" I suggest "when you take a reaction....to take a second reaction" It also should NOT allow a second reaction spell to be cast, but it would allow a second racial/class feature to repeat, e.g. hellish rebuke for a tiefling.


I'll echo this. Keep it simple.

I'd also make clear that you only get one reaction per trigger-unless you WANT someone to be able to AoO twice from one movement, for isntance.

Yeah, the way I'm picturing this is, "Okay, I already took an OA, but now another Reaction has been triggered that I would like to take, so I spend a charge and take it." The "once per round" is meant to make sure you can't take a readied action, take an OA, and then counterspell two times by burning all three charges.

[x3n0n]

Yeah, the way I'm picturing this is, "Okay, I already took an OA, but now another Reaction has been triggered that I would like to take, so I spend a charge and take it." The "once per round" is meant to make sure you can't take a readied action, take an OA, and then counterspell two times by burning all three charges.

Are we fine with one reaction per *turn*, a la Cavalier's Vigilant Defender?

"In combat, you get a special reaction that you can take once on every creature’s turn, except your turn. You can use this special reaction only to make an opportunity attack, and you can’t use it on the same turn that you take your normal reaction."

To preserve the concept of once "per round", maybe something like

"If you have used your current reaction in an earlier turn, you may spend a charge to take another reaction. You may not use this ability again until your next turn."

?

[Segev]

Are we fine with one reaction per *turn*, a la Cavalier's Vigilant Defender?

"In combat, you get a special reaction that you can take once on every creature’s turn, except your turn. You can use this special reaction only to make an opportunity attack, and you can’t use it on the same turn that you take your normal reaction."

To preserve the concept of once "per round", maybe something like

"If you have used your current reaction in an earlier turn, you may spend a charge to take another reaction. You may not use this ability again until your next turn."

?

Too complicated. If you're okay with more than 2 (total) reactions/round, just let them use a charge any time a reaction is triggered and they don't have a native reaction left to use. If you want this to only be a maximum of 2 reactions per round, limit it to 1 charge/round.

[x3n0n]

Too complicated. If you're okay with more than 2 (total) reactions/round, just let them use a charge any time a reaction is triggered and they don't have a native reaction left to use. If you want this to only be a maximum of 2 reactions per round, limit it to 1 charge/round.

I'm fine with one reaction per turn. (Don't know if OP is.)

However, I can see concerns with two reactions in one turn. I think someone up-thread was concerned about making the best Counterspeller ever: native reaction plus extra reaction in the same turn wins a head-to-head counter war without other party members involved. (Opponent Fireball, PC Counter, Opp Counter, PC 2nd reaction Counter.)

[Kurt Kurageous]

Is the "no repeat spells" a hedge against Counterspell in particular?

Not explicitly. I specifically wanted to save the max spell/round rules from abuse. Letting that go would invite unbalancing of entire builds.

And Segev has it right, the ring should not be usable twice in a round.

Cool item though. Prospects of misuse are high. Tread carefully. Perhaps the ring has more charges but never recharges, or is limited to AOOs and other reaction spells like counterspell and shield. Why not make them the GOAT for counterspell? They can only keep that up until they run out of spell slots, so there's no risk to balance.

[Hael]

An upper bound on what could be given in terms of power would be something like the cavaliers lvl17 feature, which provides a reaction on every enemy turn to do an oa.

[Angelalex242]

I'm not sure 3 extra reactions a day is all that unbalanced.

Just stick a 'legendary' tag on the item, and understand that it's not all that special in the Tier 4 of play.

[whateew]

I personally suggest a change in perspective - is the reaction itself really what you need, or is it a function in particular?

If it's counterspelling, perhaps having fodder mages who only counterspell, or some sort of magical golem who exists purely as an emergency spell blocker would work nicely - it would be a magical item that the priest "had," and would emulate the effects of an extra reaction, but without complicating a mechanic that attempts to be simple.

Additionally, your players can target such a magical servant, which might be a nice way to balance the ability - rather than an arbitrary count that they can't really do anything about (I dislike such mechanics personally), a robot that can dispel magic once per round in combat would make for an interesting choice - do we target the robot and not focus the mage? Or are our spells too important. Such a robot having middling but reliable abilities (compared to the priest who is probably a master mage) makes it a consistent and predictable threat, which is imo more fun to fight against than an unpredictable but unavoidable threat.

The same thought process works for other reaction based actions - shield could be replaced by a minion whose sole job is to jump in front of one dangerous attack, absorbing damage with a shield. I think it'd give a lot of personality to a boss fight type monster to have something "active" like a dispelling robot or suicide protector, that actively does something to hinder the party, rather than a passive but always on magic item similar to legendary resistance.