"Lesser Silver Sword" - Custom magic item for a Githyanki Eldritch Knight

[Vorenus]

Greetings. I am DMing a campaign in which one of the players runs a Githyanki Eldritch Knight. He is currently level 5, as are the other three members of the party (a Dragonborn Horizon Walker Ranger, a Dwarven Forge Domain Cleric, and a Half-Orc Totem Path Barbarian). I have come up with a custom magic item that I want to get some feedback on. Does anyone think this is too powerful? Or not powerful enough?


Lesser Silver Sword

Weapon (any sword), Rare (requires attunement by an Eldritch Knight)

You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. Additionally, starting at 2nd Level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon Attack with the Lesser Silver Sword, you can expend one spell slot to deal psychic damage to the target, in addition to the weapon's damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each Spell Level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an Aberration.


The point of the weapon is to simulate the lore of the silver swords wielded by Githyanki, and to simulate the extra psychic damage that NPC Githyanki inflict on their melee attacks. See MONSTER MANUAL pp. 158-59 ("Silver Swords. In ancient times, gith knights created special weapons to combat their mind flayer masters. These silver swords channel the force of the wielder's will, dealing psychic as well as physical damage. A githyanki can't become a knight until it masters the singular discipline needed to will such a blade into existence."); see also pp. 160-61 (Githyanki and Githzerai inflict additional psychic damage on top of the base weapon damage on a successful melee attack).

It should be obvious that I used the Divine Smite rules from the Paladin class as the basis, but changed radiant damage to psychic damage, and changed the bonus damage vs. Undead and fiends to bonus damage vs. aberrations (to reflect the Gith ancestral hatred towards Illithids).

I welcome everyone's thoughts. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to receiving your feedback.


--Vorenus

[J-H]

Sounds good, well-balanced.
EKs are short on spell slots. I might consider taking a page from Dak'Kon's Zerth Blade and having it grant one or two extra spell slots when attuned.

[Foolwise]

I don't think you need to put in place a max on the upcasting damage since the EK attunement req would automatically limit the damage to 5d8 max on upcast... unless you are worried your player is going to MC into a caster?

[TyGuy]

Lesser Silver Sword

Weapon (any sword), Rare (requires attunement by an Eldritch Knight)

You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. Additionally, starting at 2nd Level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon Attack with the Lesser Silver Sword, you can expend one spell slot to deal psychic damage to the target, in addition to the weapon's damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each Spell Level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an Aberration.

In MToF a greater silver sword is simply a +3 greatsword with adv on mental saving throws, immunity to being charmed, resistance to psychic damage, and a crit against an astral body allows the wielder to cut the silvery cord (instant death)

[Zhorn]

Would there be an intent to limit smite stacking at all, or is the expectation of burning through resources faster control enough?
Just imagining a Sorc-Hexadin getting their hands on one of these for a triple smiting.
That'll be some scary crits.

[Chaos Jackal]

Would there be an intent to limit smite stacking at all, or is the expectation of burning through resources faster control enough?
Just imagining a Sorc-Hexadin getting their hands on one of these for a triple smiting.
That'll be some scary crits.

Given that the OP's item says it requires attunement by an EK, I wouldn't be too worried. If you wanna do Warlock 5/Paladin 2/Fighter 5 then you might as well be able to stack three smites for the two 3rd-level slots per short rest you'll be able to have (because Eldritch Smite requires warlock slots) or two smites for the few low-level slots you'll get as paladin and EK. If you wanna add sorcerer on top of all that for a four-class multiclass, well... Suffice to say, dipping so much has a pretty big cost. Assuming that player's character even has the 13 Cha required and hasn't dumped it to an 8 or something.

On the item itself, it's definitely a strong item and it scales, however slowly, thanks to the smite effect. It's probably not bonkers OP or anything with EK slot progression, but it could become a bit of an issue with a simpler multiclass that gives up less than the aforementioned smite stacking, like wizard (which is a common EK multiclass option). That being said, outside of maybe waiting a few levels to give it, I don't think you'll have much trouble. And it's a pretty cool item; speaking for myself, I'd definitely enjoy being given one of those in tier 2 as a gith.

[Unoriginal]

In MToF a greater silver sword is simply a +3 greatsword with adv on mental saving throws, immunity to being charmed, resistance to psychic damage, and a crit against an astral body allows the wielder to cut the silvery cord (instant death)

Indeed. The implication is that the extra psychic damage is part of the NPC's abilities, not the sword's.

[Chad.e.clark]

Another thought would be once per long rest, allow a Bonus Action to activate the sword for 1 minute. While activated, add either add Proficiency Bonus damage or Int Bonus psychic damage to each attack.

Eldritch Knights already have such few slots, adding in a Psychic Smite cuts deep into really the only thing that makes them different from other Fighters. Don't steal their already limited slots.

If the "activate for bonus damage" thing isn't tickling your fancy, maybe add in Proficiency Bonus free uses of the Psychic Smite per Long Rest. Or give another way to recharge spent uses of the Psychic Smites. Maybe allowing Proficiency Bonus number of charges per Hit Dice exchanged during a short rest.

[da newt]

W/ 1/3rd caster slots, the smite route should work out just fine but will create NOVA capability. As a player, I'd be very happy with that new button to mash. (You might want to limit the boon to require using EK spell slots only if your Player decides to MC into full caster for near sorcadin levels of smite juice.)

If you are looking for something less NOVA, then changing it to use a spell slot to grant 1 minute of +INT psychic damage on a hit might be smoother or give the wielder access to the DIVINE FAVOR spell but psychic damage. I'd think +Proff damage might be OP at higher tiers especially w/ 3 or 4 attacks / turn plus action surge.

Or just go with the book gith sword but a lesser version = +1, adv on INT saving throws and being charmed, resistance to psychic damage, and a crit against an astral body allows the wielder to cut the silvery cord (instant death).

I think the smite version would be the most interesting/fun.

[Unoriginal]

I would make the extra psychic damage a Boon the PC can learn/earn, rather than tying ig to a magic item.

Something like "Knight of Gith Training".

[Vorenus]

Thank you, everyone, for your responses. It seems the main concern that several of you have raised is that asking an Eldritch Knight to spend limited spell slots to generate the Psychic Smite effect is too limiting. At level 20, an Eldritch Knight has 11 spell slots (absent a Pearl of Power or Ring of Spell Storing or an Epic Boon). In comparison, a level 20 Paladin has 15 spell slots. Paladins also have access to level 5 spells and spell slots, whereas Eldritch Knights cap out at level 4.

I like the proposal to tie the number of Psychic Smites to the character's Proficiency Bonus, so that it will scale as the game progresses. I'm thinking of modifying the original description to add the following: "The Lesser Silver Sword has a number of charges equal to the wielder's proficiency bonus + 3. Each charge may be expended as if it is a spell slot for a first level spell, and the wielder may expend additional charges to increase the spell slot level (e.g., two charges generates a second-level spell slot, three charges generates a third-level spell slot, etc.). These charges may only be used for the Lesser Silver Sword's Psychic Smite ability."

What does everyone think about that?

This modification still gives the Eldritch Knight's player the option of using his character's own spell slots, of course. I recognize that a couple of people raised the concern of an EK multiclassing into Sorcerer or Wizard to get additional spell slots that could be used for the Psychic Smite, but I'm not that worried about that. Paladins can already multiclass into Sorcerers (there's a whole thread on "Sorcadins" on this forum somewhere), and nobody seems to think that's an insuperable problem.

Regarding Unoriginal's suggestion to give the ability as a Boon to the Githyanki Eldritch Knight character rather than a magical weapon, I considered that route but decided not to go with it because I thought it stepped too much onto the Paladin's toes. To be clear, there's not currently a Paladin in this group, but I think that the Divine Smite feature of the Paladin is one of the biggest draws of that class, and I didn't want to take that away from the Paladin--which is why I thought the Lesser Silver Sword was a good middle ground. It is a magic item that hearkens to the Githyanki tradition of forging and wielding Silver Swords, and it bridges the gap between Githyanki PCs who lack the extra psychic damage that Githyanki NPCs have as an innate ability, without stepping too much on the Paladin's toes.

I'm aware of the text for the Greater Silver Swords in MToF (page 89), and I have a thought that over time as the campaign progresses I could allow the Lesser Silver Sword to "scale up" to add the properties of the Greater Silver Sword (i.e., slowly increase the attack/damage bonus from +1 to +3 (+2 at level 11? +3 at level 17?), advantage on INT saving throws, cutting astral cords, etc.), but the Greater Silver Sword is a Legendary item so that's not going to come up for a long time yet. (And if I do allow the PC to "scale up" the Lesser Silver Sword to become a Greater Silver Sword, I would likely keep the Psychic Smite intact because without it the Githyanki PC lacks the psychic damage that Githyanki NPCs have as an innate ability, as discussed above.)

Thanks again to everyone for reading and providing your inputs, it is much appreciated. I look forward to receiving your feedback regarding this latest modification.

--Vorenus

[nickl_2000]

My only worry would be if there is a Paladin in the campaign, since you are stealing there ability and putting it into a weapon it may take away from their fun.

[Unoriginal]

Regarding Unoriginal's suggestion to give the ability as a Boon to the Githyanki Eldritch Knight character rather than a magical weapon, I considered that route but decided not to go with it because I thought it stepped too much onto the Paladin's toes. To be clear, there's not currently a Paladin in this group, but I think that the Divine Smite feature of the Paladin is one of the biggest draws of that class, and I didn't want to take that away from the Paladin--which is why I thought the Lesser Silver Sword was a good middle ground. It is a magic item that hearkens to the Githyanki tradition of forging and wielding Silver Swords, and it bridges the gap between Githyanki PCs who lack the extra psychic damage that Githyanki NPCs have as an innate ability, without stepping too much on the Paladin's toes.

Thing is, what will happen if the Eldritch Knight PC finds a different weapon they prefer using, or if they find a weapon they like but end up not using it because they don't want to lose the ability?

Divorcing the ability from any magic item would allow the PC to use it without equipment restriction. You could re-work it so that it don't step on anyone's toes, if that's the issue.

I mean, I've never seen anyone say that a Warlock with Eldritch Smite stepped on the Paladin's toes, for example. But if it's an issue, you could instead base it on the "deal extra X damage with a melee attack" feature several Cleric subclasses get, so that it's less of a Smite.

[J-H]

Whatever you do, I'm sure your player will be happy with it.

[Vorenus]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. I appreciate it!

[Vorenus]

The recent publication of Fizban's Treasury of Dragons may have been serendipitous for my efforts to come up with the Lesser Silver Sword. In Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, there is a magic item called a Crystal Blade. The Crystal Blade is Rare (Requires Attunement) and can be any type of sword. When the wielder successfully hits an enemy with a melee attack, the attack does an extra 1d8 of Radiant damage. There are also some healing properties and the ability to generate light but I'm not going to worry about those for now. I'm thinking that with just a little re-skinning, the Crystal Sword can be a good chassis for the Lesser Silver Sword I concocted. Does anyone think it would be too powerful to change the bonus damage type from Radiant to Psychic to reflect the Githyanki's psychic abilities?

Side note: There's also a shield in the book that gives bonuses against Aberrations that would be perfect for my player's Githyanki Eldritch Knight. He wants to hunt Illithids, it's a thing. But the shield is Very Rare, so that will wait for a higher level.

Anyway, what does everyone think about reskinning the Crystal Sword to be the Lesser Silver Sword but with Psychic damage?

Thanks again for reading this.

--Vorenus

[Unoriginal]

The recent publication of Fizban's Treasury of Dragons may have been serendipitous for my efforts to come up with the Lesser Silver Sword. In Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, there is a magic item called a Crystal Blade. The Crystal Blade is Rare (Requires Attunement) and can be any type of sword. When the wielder successfully hits an enemy with a melee attack, the attack does an extra 1d8 of Radiant damage. There are also some healing properties and the ability to generate light but I'm not going to worry about those for now. I'm thinking that with just a little re-skinning, the Crystal Sword can be a good chassis for the Lesser Silver Sword I concocted. Does anyone think it would be too powerful to change the bonus damage type from Radiant to Psychic to reflect the Githyanki's psychic abilities?

[...,]

Anyway, what does everyone think about reskinning the Crystal Sword to be the Lesser Silver Sword but with Psychic damage?

Thanks again for reading this.

--Vorenus

It certainly wouldn't be too powerful.

It is incredibly more likely for PCs to face creatures hindered by radiant damages (either vulnerable to it, or with radiant damage making them unable to use their regeneration, or the like) or resistant to/immune to/with special protection against psychic damages than creatures who are hindered by psychic damages or resistant to/immune to/with special protection against radiant damage. Unless your PCs make an habbit of targetting the Upper Planes and their allies.

I still say that everyone would be better off if that was a Boon rather than a magic item-dependant bonus.

One of the new feats in the Fizban's gives the PC additional elemental damage when striking, no? Maybe basing the ability on that, but adapted for psychic damage would work out?