Magic items for a Drakewarden Stranger?

[Oramac]

I'm going to be playing a 7th level Drakewarden in a bit, and the DM has given us a limited magic item budget, using the "selling magic items" table in XGtE for prices. I don't know the exact amount we'll have to spend, but I do know that it limits us to Rare or lower, and probably only 1 rare at that. No homebrew is allowed.

Also, I would like to figure out some magic items for my pet drake (named Squirt). I confirmed with the DM that he'll allow it, so long as I can justify it. For example, a Ring of Protection might be flavored as a Collar of Protection. I do know he will likely be very strict with this, so it's gotta be something pretty solidly possible. Ideally I'd love to be able to increase Squirt's hit points and/or attack bonus. I'm playing as a melee Stranger with a greatsword (not optimized, I know).

So, what magic items might you choose?

[sambojin]

Ring of Spell Storing. Give it to your Drake. Laugh a lot, as you break concentration requirements for things.

Summon Beast, Fog Cloud, Absorb Elements and Hunters Mark seems fair. Or some combination of the above.


Or, you know. Just be a druid. Aside from getting Extra Attack on themselves (their Summons get that with higher spell slots anyway), they're literally better in every way at rangering. And they get wildshape essentially for free as well, so even if you're just using it for familiars, they have just as good to-hit, or close to it.

It doesn't really matter what druid->ranger you want to play. Melee? Moon or Spores or Shepherd. Ranged? Stars or Wildfire or Shepherd or Moon. Super summons? Shepherd or Wildfire or Land or Moon. Utility? Dreams or Stars or Land or Moon or Shepherd.

At virtually every level, a druid is a better ranger. Just take PAM and a quarterstaff for melee, or decent dex and cantrips and a Stars or dinolizzy-Moon or Shepherd or Wildfire for ranged.

The drake isn't that good. Even with a magic item. I mean, compare it to a druid with a wildfire spirit, two giant eagles, and a magic sling. You can have those 2 conjured giant eagles 4 times a day, or a summoned mini-eagles 3 times a day afterwards, and the wildfire spirit twice per short rest. So you can fly around, shoot, multi-attack, and do heaps. Plus you can cast a bit too if you want (Tidal Wave or Scorching Ray or Burning Hands? Depending on slots left after your quite light summoning extravaganza). And this is being nice about it...

[nickl_2000]

For your Drake:

Insignia of the Claws, instead of being jewelry I would tie it as a fancy belt.
Spellwrought Tattoo of Find Familiar so you pet Dragon can have a pet.
Amulet of Health as a belt, although you would need DMs okay on how HP works
Saddle of the Cavalier for when you can ride it finally.

[sambojin]

A few more, just to answer the question properly:

Decanter of Endless Water (uncommon)
Mini-proning line breath weapon, nice and early. It's not like the attacks are *that* good anyway.

Elemental Gem (Blue Sapphire) (uncommon)
Because why shouldn't your drake have a 1-time only air elemental buddy to help out?

Gem of Brightness (uncommon)
A blinding ranged attack. Can be single target for one charge, or a 30' cone for 5. 50 charges in the gem.

Hat of Disguise (uncommon)
In case your drake needs to look like another four legged beast.

Insignia of Claws (uncommon)
The poor man's +1 claws. No 15' ranged attack option, but magic attacks are nice anyway.

Night Caller (uncommon)
Let your lizzydog cast animate dead, so he can have a skeleton friend. You'll definitely kill something at some point that could be raised. And skeletons can use bows.

Psi Crystal (uncommon)
Telepathy is fun, and drakes can speak draconic. 30' for their Int8.

Pyroconverger (uncommon)
A DC13 Dex 4d6 10' cone breath weapon from Ravnica. That might explodify your drake. Nah, it won't. It just won't work again until the morning. Your drake might be immune to the explosion.

Slippers of Spider Climbing (uncommon)
Because it's a useful ability, and a drake in slippers sounds funny.



With these all being uncommon, you could probably nab 2 of them for your drake, or leave a bit of a budget for yourself (a +1 bow, or +1 moon sickle perhaps)? I'd go for a Decanter of Endless Water and a Pyroconverger. That gives the drake plenty of options on how it will use its action. Attack, ranged prone, fire breath, or eventually "whatever" breath. Seems like a nice little summon then :)


((Although, you could be a druid or cleric or warlock, of literally any variety, and take an uncommon Staff of the Python, and be about as good as a basic Drakewarden. Sure, your drake/snake is huge, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It restrains-on-hits stuff too, and is essentially unlimited in use. I am just pointing out that a drakewarden isn't a good class again...))

[Oramac]

Ring of Spell Storing. Give it to your Drake. Laugh a lot, as you break concentration requirements for things.

Summon Beast, Fog Cloud, Absorb Elements and Hunters Mark seems fair. Or some combination of the above.

Or, you know. Just be a druid. Aside from getting Extra Attack on themselves (their Summons get that with higher spell slots anyway), they're literally better in every way at rangering. And they get wildshape essentially for free as well, so even if you're just using it for familiars, they have just as good to-hit, or close to it.

snip

The Ring would be fun. Sadly, I doubt my DM would allow it. I know already he's going to be pretty strict on the magic items.

As for druid, honestly, I don't want to. I've played a Stars druid several times and love it, but want to play something else. I'm not terribly worried about min/maxing (despite the thread tag) and really just want to help my drake a bit. And, honestly, my ranger has been pretty damn effective. I've only played it at 5th level so far, but in a party with a Champion Fighter, Open Hand Monk, Spores Druid, and a Hunter Ranger, I was second only to the monk in damage dealt. Definitely owe this to having 3 attacks when everyone else (except the monk) only has two. And I could toss out a Cure Wounds here and there as well.


For your Drake:

Insignia of the Claws, instead of being jewelry I would tie it as a fancy belt.
Spellwrought Tattoo of Find Familiar so you pet Dragon can have a pet.
Amulet of Health as a belt, although you would need DMs okay on how HP works
Saddle of the Cavalier for when you can ride it finally.

I thought about the Amulet of Health, as I usually take it on my other characters so I can dump Con and not be squishy. I'm just not sure how my DM would handle it for the Drake. Definitely worth asking about though.

The Insignia of the Claw I can definitely sell, though, so I'll for sure use that. I really have no plan to ride the drake during combat, despite that being the obvious intent of the subclass.


A few more, just to answer the question properly:

snip

I love the ideas here. Sadly I doubt my DM would approve most of them. The insignia should be an easy sell, so I'll definitely use that. Probably the Hat of Disguise, just for hilarity. But things like the Decanter and Pyroconverger are going to be a tough sell. The Night Caller would be absolutely hilarious, but again probably a tough sell.

I'm thinking about how to reflavor Gauntlets of Ogre Power too, in order to get a better attack bonus. I could also use a Belt (Harness) of Hill Giant Strength, but being rare I might not have the budget for it.

Thanks y'all!! I appreciate the input.

[Keravath]

For you

Winged Boots (uncommon) so you can at least fly with your Drake even if you can't ride it yet.

For the Drake

Insignia of Claws adds +1 to attack/damage AND makes the attacks magical which would be good for your Drake. In addition, it was created by the Cult of Dragon in the Tyranny of Dragons book so it is thematically quite apropos for a Drake.

[Bobthewizard]

Other than the concentration-breaking ring of spell storing, I wouldn't put magic items on your drake. Definitely don't put a ring of protection on it. The drake is expendable and should be played as such. Throw it into dangerous situations to save the rest of the party.

The key to the drake is the ability to bring it back. "Once you summon the drake, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher to summon it." So at level 7, you can have up to 8 per day 40HP summons that don't require concentration. Assuming it survives a few fights per day, you likely only need 4, so in big fights you can still conjure 2 giant eagles to join it, and replace the drake once or twice if it falls.

For magic items, some great suggestions above. A couple more uncommon ideas are pipes of haunting for concentration-free fear, or a tan bag of tricks for 3 more summons per day.

At rare, I like wands of fireball and paralysis, and cube of force.

But honestly, a magic weapon is boring but almost essential at level 7.

[Quietus]

The Ring would be fun. Sadly, I doubt my DM would allow it. I know already he's going to be pretty strict on the magic items.

As for druid, honestly, I don't want to. I've played a Stars druid several times and love it, but want to play something else. I'm not terribly worried about min/maxing (despite the thread tag) and really just want to help my drake a bit. And, honestly, my ranger has been pretty damn effective. I've only played it at 5th level so far, but in a party with a Champion Fighter, Open Hand Monk, Spores Druid, and a Hunter Ranger, I was second only to the monk in damage dealt. Definitely owe this to having 3 attacks when everyone else (except the monk) only has two. And I could toss out a Cure Wounds here and there as well.



I thought about the Amulet of Health, as I usually take it on my other characters so I can dump Con and not be squishy. I'm just not sure how my DM would handle it for the Drake. Definitely worth asking about though.

The Insignia of the Claw I can definitely sell, though, so I'll for sure use that. I really have no plan to ride the drake during combat, despite that being the obvious intent of the subclass.



I love the ideas here. Sadly I doubt my DM would approve most of them. The insignia should be an easy sell, so I'll definitely use that. Probably the Hat of Disguise, just for hilarity. But things like the Decanter and Pyroconverger are going to be a tough sell. The Night Caller would be absolutely hilarious, but again probably a tough sell.

I'm thinking about how to reflavor Gauntlets of Ogre Power too, in order to get a better attack bonus. I could also use a Belt (Harness) of Hill Giant Strength, but being rare I might not have the budget for it.

Thanks y'all!! I appreciate the input.

Be aware that the Belts of Giant Strength don't do anything for the drake. The drake's attack bonus is explicitly "3+proficiency bonus". That happens to line up with its strength, and some DMs may let that swing, but strict RAW its attacks don't care what its str score is. The insignia of claws, etc, should work though, as they are giving you a +1 to attack and damage, not changing a stat that isn't explicitly referenced.

[Oramac]

For you

Winged Boots (uncommon) so you can at least fly with your Drake even if you can't ride it yet.

Definitely grabbing the Winged Boots for myself. Gotta be able to fly up to stuff to smack it! And the Insignia is also on the list as well. Good call.


Other than the concentration-breaking ring of spell storing, I wouldn't put magic items on your drake. Definitely don't put a ring of protection on it. The drake is expendable and should be played as such. Throw it into dangerous situations to save the rest of the party.

But honestly, a magic weapon is boring but almost essential at level 7.

Yea. I had to re-summon it once in the last session. With its crappy hit points I expect to have to do that more as we level up. Oddly, as strict as my DM is going to be on magic items, I think he'd be more ok with the items staying with it after the re-summon.


Be aware that the Belts of Giant Strength don't do anything for the drake. The drake's attack bonus is explicitly "3+proficiency bonus". That happens to line up with its strength, and some DMs may let that swing, but strict RAW its attacks don't care what its str score is. The insignia of claws, etc, should work though, as they are giving you a +1 to attack and damage, not changing a stat that isn't explicitly referenced.

Good point. It just lines up with Str, so I figure it'd be a shoe-in, but you're right that it's not strictly RAW. Definitely will have a backup plan.

[shipiaozi]

Fireball staff is your best choice

[Quietus]

Yea. I had to re-summon it once in the last session. With its crappy hit points I expect to have to do that more as we level up. Oddly, as strict as my DM is going to be on magic items, I think he'd be more ok with the items staying with it after the re-summon.

One thing I'm finding with my Beastmaster ranger (pet has the same HP calculation, 1 less AC I think, and takes a full minute to come back instead of one action) - the Aid spell and Inspiring Leader feat go a long way to adding survivability. Thankfully one of my party members has Inspiring Leader, even if we're slowly becoming a menagerie and growing beyond its six target limit.

[sambojin]

One of those weird parts about the drake. It uses +PB, which sounds great, but it takes things like a Moon Sickle off the table as a true advantage. All the Tasha's/ Fizzbin's summons (even the wildfire spirit) uses spell casting modifiers for to-hit bonus. Which can easily be +7-+8 by lvl7. And another +1 for the sickle.

The drake though? Nope, only level scaling, not stats plus items. Meh. It's just a weird thing. At least, no matter how you're stat'd or item'd, it'll definitely get better as you level. Which is fair enough. It lets you dump Wis for actual combat stats and still have an ok'ish class feature/ summon.


What race were you thinking of going for the character? And will it be Tasha'd?

(Just saying, after the dragon head story for Firbolgs, it'd be funny to see a Firbolg Drakewarden on the other side of the coin. And then you get see magic, and disguise self, which is pretty draconic stuff anyway. Sort-of a fighty draconic "sorcerer". And popping invis is simply dragon toughness time. Not the best, but it'd fit pretty well, and give you some other fun stuff to do while you're not just being a warden for a lizzydog. Plus, you can talk to all the other animals too!)

[strangebloke]

IMO at least, there's a whole class of relatively cheap items that give you options for your action that are generally not that optimal, but giving them to the drake works really well. Something like a circlet of blasting for example. 6d6 damage to a single target as a bonus action and only uncommon rarity.

[Oramac]

One thing I'm finding with my Beastmaster ranger (pet has the same HP calculation, 1 less AC I think, and takes a full minute to come back instead of one action) - the Aid spell and Inspiring Leader feat go a long way to adding survivability. Thankfully one of my party members has Inspiring Leader, even if we're slowly becoming a menagerie and growing beyond its six target limit.

Yea. Both would be great, but I can't reliably get them. I'm already planning to take the Chromatic Dragon feat at 8th level, and Aid isn't a ranger spell. I can't rely on my party to provide those things either, since nobody else has it on their spell list.


The drake though? Nope, only level scaling, not stats plus items. Meh. It's just a weird thing. At least, no matter how you're stat'd or item'd, it'll definitely get better as you level. Which is fair enough. It lets you dump Wis for actual combat stats and still have an ok'ish class feature/ summon.

What race were you thinking of going for the character? And will it be Tasha'd?

Yea, I'm actually finding the scaling to be pretty annoying. But it is what it is. Can't change it.

The character is a half-elf for backstory reasons.


IMO at least, there's a whole class of relatively cheap items that give you options for your action that are generally not that optimal, but giving them to the drake works really well. Something like a circlet of blasting for example. 6d6 damage to a single target as a bonus action and only uncommon rarity.

Sadly, items like that are likely to be disallowed by the DM.