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Chronos
2021-04-23, 03:13 PM
Warning: Do not read further if you know who Orianna and Rhogan are.

So it's going to be my turn in the barrel again, and this time around I think I might want to reward my players (who by then will be around level 10) with some nice shinies. Most of my players, standard items out of the DMG will suit fine, but I have a couple of custom magic items in mind.



Rod of the Seraph
Rod, rare (requires attunement by a celestial or by a cleric or paladin of a good god)

This rod has seven charges. When you hold it, you can cast one of the following spells from it: Detect Evil and Good (expends 1 charge), Branding Smite (expends 2 charges), or Dispel Evil and Good (expends 5 charges). The rod regains 1d6+1 expended charges daily at dawn. If the rod is reduced to 0 charges, roll a d20. On a 1, it loses all magical properties.

The rod can also be wielded as a magical light mace, though it offers no particular bonus for doing so.
My main purpose for this is that I (and the party's mysterious benefactor) want them to be paranoid and able to spam Detect Evil and Good to find the fiends and cultists plotting against them, and then maybe to be able to fight them more effectively. In fact, the fact that I wanted to give this item to the party was why I decided to give things to other party members as well.



Cincture of Swift Breath
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement by a creature with a breath weapon)

While wearing this piece of jewelry around your neck, you can use your breath weapon as a bonus action, instead of as an action. All other normal restrictions on your breath weapon still apply.
Obviously, this would be used by a dragonborn. The character who would be using it has almost never actually used her one and only racial ability, because it's almost always better to just swing her greatsword (she's a barbarian). I figure that this would let her use it more often, and thus feel more dragon-ish.

Thoughts on these? Overpowered? Underpowered? Wrong-powered? Just right?

Rukelnikov
2021-04-23, 03:28 PM
Warning: Do not read further if you know who Orianna and Rhogan are.

So it's going to be my turn in the barrel again, and this time around I think I might want to reward my players (who by then will be around level 10) with some nice shinies. Most of my players, standard items out of the DMG will suit fine, but I have a couple of custom magic items in mind.


My main purpose for this is that I (and the party's mysterious benefactor) want them to be paranoid and able to spam Detect Evil and Good to find the fiends and cultists plotting against them, and then maybe to be able to fight them more effectively. In fact, the fact that I wanted to give this item to the party was why I decided to give things to other party members as well.

Sounds fine, I'd probably limit Dispel Evil and Good to just Dispel Evil, given the attunement restrictions.


Obviously, this would be used by a dragonborn. The character who would be using it has almost never actually used her one and only racial ability, because it's almost always better to just swing her greatsword (she's a barbarian). I figure that this would let her use it more often, and thus feel more dragon-ish.

Thoughts on these? Overpowered? Underpowered? Wrong-powered? Just right?

Dunno if you are aware, but the latest UA is about dragon related stuff, and they kinda reworked Dragonborn's Breath Weapon, I think new version can replace an attack with it when they take the Attack action, they also added a secondaty breath weapon to metallic dragonborn usable once/lr IIRC. You may wanna give it a read and see if it suits you.

Angelalex242
2021-04-25, 09:59 AM
That cincture was probably created by full blooded dragons for their own use. Because boy howdy is that gonna make a full blooded dragon OP.

Chronos
2021-04-26, 05:39 AM
That had occurred to me. It's going to be significantly more powerful on the half-dragon they're going to find it on, and any full dragon they meet is going to really, really want it. But I'm not entirely sure if that matters, given that it'll be considerably less OP on a dragonborn...

I suppose I could find some way to make it work as-is for a PC dragonborn but less effective on a full dragon, but I'm not sure how to do that without feeling artificial.

Angelalex242
2021-04-26, 03:30 PM
Or don't. Let the party trade it in for that Vorpal Sword the Dragon's got lying around in his hoard. Or whatever else you think will make that dragonborn forget that item ever existed.

(To a full blooded dragon, that thing is totally worth a vorpal sword!)

Hell, you could even have dragons bidding on the thing.

And then the party has to choose carefully which dragon to bestow the item to...

The Red Dragon offering a Vorpal Sword...

Or the Gold Dragon with a Hammer of Thunderbolts...

Chronos
2021-04-26, 05:40 PM
Well, if I wanted to give the party any of those other items, I could just do it directly. The idea behind this one is that it would let a character make more use of her underutilized race, and thus feel more like a dragonborn, rather than just a generic humanoid barbarian. The goal is not just to go full-on Monty Haul Santa Claus.

BloodSnake'sCha
2021-04-26, 06:53 PM
I have no idea how you handle magic items but I can see most barbarians (actually, most characters) prefer an atonement slot over Cincture of Swift Breath.

It is nice if you only have two items that requires atonement IMO. But again, it depends on the amount and power of the magical items that exist in your table.

Angelalex242
2021-04-26, 07:26 PM
Maybe, but a smarter player is gonna trade that thing to a (hopefully) metallic dragon to get something infinitely more useful than that. Particularly since it requires attunement.

It's FANTASTIC for trade, not anything a wise player keeps.

It's...kinda like a Rat Tail in Final Fantasy games. You don't keep it. You trade it.

Chronos
2021-04-26, 08:54 PM
Hm... What if I make it only fit medium-sized creatures? The dragonsmiths are trying to make one larger, but they just haven't managed yet...

quindraco
2021-04-26, 09:27 PM
Hm... What if I make it only fit medium-sized creatures? The dragonsmiths are trying to make one larger, but they just haven't managed yet...

Just "curse" it so it only works when worn by a humanoid. Call it "Tiamat's Titillating Tease" or something.