What two magic items to pick?

[jaappleton]

Level 7.
My DM is letting us all start with two magic items each, one Uncommon and one Rare.

I’m a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, and my job will be buffing allies and controlling enemies. Mostly the latter. Denying enemy actions, that sort of thing.

I’m leaning toward the Bloodwell Vial +1 as my Uncommon, and the Shadowfell Shard as my Rare.

I was just curious if anyone had a better combo to go with.

[Kessel]

what race are you playing? for a rare option Mantle of Spell Resistance is pretty sweet.

[jaappleton]

what race are you playing? for a rare option Mantle of Spell Resistance is pretty sweet.

Half Elf. I rolled stellar stats, with 18, 17, 17, 17, 13, 11

So 20, 18, 18, 17, 13 11 afterward. Taking Metamagic Adept at lv4, and it’s entirely possible due to timing that I’d be level 8 by the end of the first session to take Warcaster at 8.

EDIT FOR CLARITY:
This would be replacing my current character. The party is in a megadungeon, and we gain a level every floor we clear. We discovered two doors at the end of our current floor: One leading back down to the ground floor, so we can go back to the nearby town, and one leading up to the next floor. We decided to go down and to the town. So like halfway into the session, after shopping, we’ll go to the next floor and achieve 8th level in the process.

[stoutstien]

If you have more casters to bounce off of the spell storing ring is pretty good even before the cheese.

[kaervaak]

Definitely take bloodwell vial +1, it's too good to pass up on.

If you go for a thorns build using armor of agathys and the clockwork soul's ward, you might consider taking an Earth Elemental Shard. Resistance to a damage type of your choice whenever you use metamagic is pretty sweet.

Wand of Paralysis is a nice option, especially if you can hand it off to a minion.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If you can get adventure specific items, the Wand of Viscid Globs from Out of the Abyss is pretty amazing for controlling enemies.

[jaappleton]

Definitely take bloodwell vial +1, it's too good to pass up on.

If you go for a thorns build using armor of agathys and the clockwork soul's ward, you might consider taking an Earth Elemental Shard. Resistance to a damage type of your choice whenever you use metamagic is pretty sweet.

Wand of Paralysis is a nice option, especially if you can hand it off to a minion.

Wand of Paralysis combined with the Shadowfell Shard could be broken. Quicken anything, just to target the enemy with a bonus action and impose Disadvantage on Con saves before using the Wand as an action?

The Paladin and Rogue would fall in love with me.

[Keravath]

The two items you mention strike me as extremely effective and I am not sure that any of the standard options I could come up with would be better.

1) The bloodwell vial +1 - increase spell to hit and DC by 1, restore 5 sorcery points when you use a hit die
2) The shadowfell shard - inflict disadvantage on ability checks and saves related to a specified stat until the end of your next turn when you target the creature as part of casting a spell with some metamagic option used in its casting.

Cast quickened Banishment with an enhanced DC and disadvantage on the saving throw, follow up with a twinned saving throw cantrip and force disadvantage on one of the saves.

There are a large number of spells and these abilities would always be useful. I hadn't actually noticed either of these items in Tasha's until you mentioned them. The more metamagic options you have the better. If you transmute a fireball to acid you could force one creature to save with disadvantage.

Good luck! :) Sounds like an interesting character ... though I wonder if you'll surprise the DM if they haven't read through Tasha's in detail yet :)

[MaxWilson]

Wand of Paralysis combined with the Shadowfell Shard could be broken. Quicken anything, just to target the enemy with a bonus action and impose Disadvantage on Con saves before using the Wand as an action?

The Paladin and Rogue would fall in love with me.

I don't think you can cast a spell with your action, even using a wand, if you've already cast a bonus action spell that turn. Ask your DM though.

[SharkForce]

I don't think you can cast a spell with your action, even using a wand, if you've already cast a bonus action spell that turn. Ask your DM though.

wand of paralysis doesn't cast a spell, it just does a thing.

[MaxWilson]

wand of paralysis doesn't cast a spell, it just does a thing.

Oh, you're right of course. My bad.

[Rfkannen]

Honestly yeah those two are your best pick. Bloodwell jar is an ALWAYS GET if you can get it as a sorcerer, and shadowfell shard is a perfect controll item. If you were able to pick very rare you would DEFFINITLY want a staff of striking, but at rare shadowfell shard is your best bet!

[Unoriginal]

Level 7.
My DM is letting us all start with two magic items each, one Uncommon and one Rare.

I’m a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, and my job will be buffing allies and controlling enemies. Mostly the latter. Denying enemy actions, that sort of thing.

I’m leaning toward the Bloodwell Vial +1 as my Uncommon, and the Shadowfell Shard as my Rare.

I was just curious if anyone had a better combo to go with.

Would a Wand of Fear be good?

[Nefariis]

Two items that haven't been mentioned yet that are usually among my gotos

- Stone of Good Luck - +1 to all saves, skills, initiative, death throws, counter spell, dispel magic, and concentration saves. It's the best all around item for literally every situation.

- Wand of Magic Missile - A very very over looked item in regards for what it brings to the table. If you hit a caster with 10 darts (7 charges), they have to make 10 concentration saves to keep up their spell. Even better, the wand requires no verbal components so you can use it in a zone of silence (double checked (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/176907/in-dd-5e-do-most-wands-no-longer-require-command-words)) to break that concentration. And finally, there is no save, the damage is automatic, and on average it will deal 35 automatic damage (10d4+10), which is great for a killing blow. And as a bonus, (obviously depending on if your DM rules it one dart or 10 darts), you should be able to combine it with Hex and Hexblade's curse which means at level 7 you could potentially do 10d4 + 10d6 + 31 or 91 automatic damage.

(About the Magic Missile damage and whether it works with Hex or not, please don't derail this thread - at the end of the day, whether it's 1 dart or 10, it's still a great item breaking concentration, being able to cast in zones of silence, and for automatic killing blows - no need to go too far off topic.)

An honorable mention item for a caster is "Pearl of Power" which restores a third level spell slot per day - and you can never have too many spells slots.

[Droppeddead]

I'd also throw in my wizzard's hat for the Stone of Good Luck. That or mantlet of spell resistance.

[Mastikator]

I had a similar choice, I got 1 rare and 1 uncommon and I was making a divine soul sorcerer with buff/healing/control spells. I went with a +2 bloodwell (rare) and winged boots (uncommon). I figure stronger DC will make the control better, and flight may help make my sorcerer a slightly less targetable target. Since if my PC goes down he will be converted from a boon to a burden, it's better that the tank tanks.

[borg286]

Staff of the python for your uncommon slot. This huge snake has 60 HP, and any damage it takes gets healed up when you revert it to staff form. No concentration. Hits grapple w/o opponent making an athletics check. 10' reach which combined well with your Command(flee) spell.
Check my aberrant mind build in my sig for other items I recommend.

A tangent topic: on creative ways to use Command
Betray
Burp (on a dragon)
Fall/Trip
Flee
monologue/sing
Dance/Tango
Confess(bypass zone of truth, DM may confess squat)
Cower
cartwheel
Spin
Dismiss/Juggle (lose concentration, spells specify 'Dismiss' as an option)
Undress/Strip/Doff (includes dropping weapon)

Cooperate
Leave
Scream
Pardon
Approach
Drop(See Undress instead)
Grovel
Halt