help me design cool magic items that help martials keep up with full casters

[da newt]

I'm looking to start my first campaign that is untethered from AL rules in what seems like forever. One of my objectives is to help martials keep up with full casters as the game progresses through the various tiers of play, and I'd like to do this by providing them with magic items that help them impact combat in ways that are more interesting than just increasing damage and bonus to hit.

What sorts of fun magic items could I add to the game that would be powerful but not OP?


I'm thinking something like:

Squid Whip = rare magic weapon, 30' reach, finesse, 1d4 magical piercing damage that scales with level like a cantrip, and on each hit moves the target 15' towards the attacker unless the target is bigger than the attacker - then the attacker moves 15' towards the target.

Ensnaring Short Bow = rare magic weapon, 1d4 magical piercing damage that scales with level like a cantrip, and on each hit the target must make a DC 12 ST save or be grappled and restrained (DC 12 to break free).

Mantel of the Nightcrawler = rare magic item, attunement, in place of one attack the wearer can teleport 30' feet to a location they can see leaving a puff of brimstone smoke behind. Everyone within 5' of the origin of the teleport must make a DEX SAVE (DC = 8+Dex+proff) or take 1d8 (scales like cantrip) thunder damage (from the BAMF), 1/2 with successful save. Limit 1 per turn.

Giant Flail = rare magic weapon, heavy, 2hd, reach 15', 2d6 bludgeoning damage + 1d4 thunder damage per size greater than tiny (med = +2d4, huge = +4d4)

Gauntlets of Retaliation = rare magic item, attunement, 1/turn when hit with an attack the wearer can make one attack with a weapon they are holding.

Crossbow Shotgun = rare magic weapon, heavy crossbow, each attack targets one creature and every creature of your choice within 5' of the target. 1d10 magic piercing damage.


Suggestions / thoughts ?

[noob]

I'm looking to start my first campaign that is untethered from AL rules in what seems like forever. One of my objectives is to help martials keep up with full casters as the game progresses through the various tiers of play, and I'd like to do this by providing them with magic items that help them impact combat in ways that are more interesting than just increasing damage and bonus to hit.

What sorts of fun magic items could I add to the game that would be powerful but not OP?


I'm thinking something like:

Squid Whip = rare magic weapon, 30' reach, finesse, 1d4 magical piercing damage that scales with level like a cantrip, and on each hit moves the target 15' towards the attacker unless the target is bigger than the attacker - then the attacker moves 15' towards the target.

Ensnaring Short Bow = rare magic weapon, 1d4 magical piercing damage that scales with level like a cantrip, and on each hit the target must make a DC 12 ST save or be grappled and restrained (DC 12 to break free).

Mantel of the Nightcrawler = rare magic item, attunement, in place of one attack the wearer can teleport 30' feet to a location they can see leaving a puff of brimstone smoke behind. Everyone within 5' of the origin of the teleport must make a DEX SAVE (DC = 8+Dex+proff) or take 1d8 (scales like cantrip) thunder damage (from the BAMF), 1/2 with successful save. Limit 1 per turn.

Giant Flail = rare magic weapon, heavy, 2hd, reach 15', 2d6 bludgeoning damage + 1d4 thunder damage per size greater than tiny (med = +2d4, huge = +4d4)

Gauntlets of Retaliation = rare magic item, attunement, 1/turn when hit with an attack the wearer can make one attack with a weapon they are holding.

Crossbow Shotgun = rare magic weapon, heavy crossbow, each attack targets one creature and every creature of your choice within 5' of the target. 1d10 magic piercing damage.


Suggestions / thoughts ?
Can you shoot the planet with the crossbow shotgun and therefore harm all underground creatures and creature that touches the surface of the planet?
PS: put all of those in the homebrew section of the forum, you will get people who knows better about homebrew to comment about it.

[Anymage]

The weapons in general do focus on damage, and the "scale like a cantrip" ones can double dip on the way fighters get extra attacks. At 20, a 4d4 weapon swung four times does around twice as much as a greatsword, depending on the greatsword's bonus.

At low to mid levels, martials can use skills while casters have limited spell power as well as limited slots keeping them from becoming godly. Provided that you can have a longer day than one big encounter, but learning how to do that will help you out more than any number of martial buffs would. As you get to higher levels, you'll know what capabilities people want both on and off the battlefield. Trying to prep all this out at the beginning is just making unnecessary work for yourself.

[SyntheticHuman]

Squid Whip = rare magic weapon, 30' reach, finesse, 1d4 magical piercing damage that scales with level like a cantrip, and on each hit moves the target 15' towards the attacker unless the target is bigger than the attacker - then the attacker moves 15' towards the target.

This one seems a tad underpowered, as a 30' reach would mean you'd probably be better off with a magical ranged weapon. Also, 15' of forced movement is a tad much. I'd probably put the reach at 10', and maybe have 5' of movement and a grapple effect. Also, watch out about having the damage increase; most martial classes already have extra attack, action surge and such to cover for that.


Ensnaring Short Bow = rare magic weapon, 1d4 magical piercing damage that scales with level like a cantrip, and on each hit the target must make a DC 12 ST save or be grappled and restrained (DC 12 to break free).

Again, watch the cantrip scaling, and 1d4 is a little low. Also, DC 12 is a bit low, most things will probably be able to get that. Grappled also doesn't make sense in this context as it requires a creature to be holding them; just having them be restrained is fine.


Mantel of the Nightcrawler = rare magic item, attunement, in place of one attack the wearer can teleport 30' feet to a location they can see leaving a puff of brimstone smoke behind. Everyone within 5' of the origin of the teleport must make a DEX SAVE (DC = 8+Dex+proff) or take 1d8 (scales like cantrip) thunder damage (from the BAMF), 1/2 with successful save. Limit 1 per turn.

Having it replaced an attack is a really cool idea for a martial class thing. I'd maybe have the DC stay constant, as well as keeping the damage constant at a higher level. Magic items usually remain at a constant strength, and that's okay.


Giant Flail = rare magic weapon, heavy, 2hd, reach 15', 2d6 bludgeoning damage + 1d4 thunder damage per size greater than tiny (med = +2d4, huge = +4d4)

I'd be careful giving out 15' reach, it's a tad strong, especially with that kind of damage. This item should probably be very rare as well, even with that changed; it's pretty strong, but that's great. I love the idea of an item that deals more damage against bigger creatures. You do appear to have skipped over the Small size in the rules, so maybe factor that in.


Gauntlets of Retaliation = rare magic item, attunement, 1/turn when hit with an attack the wearer can make one attack with a weapon they are holding.

This is phrased a little weirdly. I think what your meaning is that while wearing these gloves, when you get attacked, you can make an attack against the attached as a reaction. In which case, sounds great, though this is probably more of an uncommon magical item power level.


Crossbow Shotgun = rare magic weapon, heavy crossbow, each attack targets one creature and every creature of your choice within 5' of the target. 1d10 magic piercing damage.

Instead of targeting multiple people, I'd recommend having everyone within a certain distance of the target have to make a Dex save or take some (slightly less) damage.

All in all, great creative concepts, just a bit unbalanced in places. You're looking pretty good. One thing I'd say is that you shouldn't be too worried about having your martials keep up with full casters; mages are strong, it's a feature, not a bug. If you're worried about mages getting overshadowed, toss in some anti magic enemies! Beholders with their eye cone, mage bad guys with anti magic field prepared, even just monsters with Magic Resistance like Slaadi. Martial classes shine in a different way from mages. Maybe their damage numbers aren't as high, but an axe will still work on a beholder.

[JNAProductions]

For your stated purpose of this thread, I think you're looking at the wrong thing, since a competently-built martial is just fine in combat.
Rather, I would look at what can be done out of combat-that is where casters have the big discrepancy.

The items themselves I feel have been covered reasonably well.

[PhoenixPhyre]

For your stated purpose of this thread, I think you're looking at the wrong thing, since a competently-built martial is just fine in combat.
Rather, I would look at what can be done out of combat-that is where casters have the big discrepancy.

The items themselves I feel have been covered reasonably well.

Agreed. And what you do depends on the rest of the party.

On the utility front, I'd recommend doing something with spell scrolls anyone can use. Especially of ritual spells. I've got a homebrew system for giving anyone access to a lot of the utility effects via pseudo rituals. Kinda like 4e's rituals, but not as cautious.

[da newt]

"For your stated purpose of this thread, I think you're looking at the wrong thing, since a competently-built martial is just fine in combat.
Rather, I would look at what can be done out of combat-that is where casters have the big discrepancy."

My premise is that martial PCs start falling behind full casters in combat as things get to ~level 7 (unless the DM forces many combats into one adventuring day with limited short rest opportunities so that resource depletion for casters is a very real concern). Martials can be quite good at single target damage (assuming they can get into weapon range) but have trouble applying control status or hitting many creatures so my items are designed to help with this. Out of combat effectiveness is a separate issue.

As for my intent:
I like the idea of scaling like a cantrip because it should promote balance as you level up - right?
The Squid Whip would be a melee attack w/ 30' range and 15' movement (pretty powerful) balanced by the lower 1d4 damage (scaling).
The Ensnaring Bow similarly is fairly low damage but scales w/ level, and a low DC makes it very effective against certain targets and much less so against brutes. I added grappled just to make it easy to understand rules for breaking grapple, but yeah - it isn't really the right term.
The Giant Flail vs small creatures would be +1d4 as it is one size greater than tiny.
The Gauntlets of Retaliation - intent is super simple, if you get hit by an attack (spell/weapon/ranged/melee) you get to make one attack as a result (no limit to who you target, only that you can only use a weapon you are already holding - bow, thrown dagger, glaive, whatever).

I appreciate the feedback - keep it coming and let me know if think I'm way off base.

Any other great / interesting items y'all would recommend?

[Anymage]

My premise is that martial PCs start falling behind full casters in combat as things get to ~level 7 (unless the DM forces many combats into one adventuring day with limited short rest opportunities so that resource depletion for casters is a very real concern). Martials can be quite good at single target damage (assuming they can get into weapon range) but have trouble applying control status or hitting many creatures so my items are designed to help with this. Out of combat effectiveness is a separate issue.

If you only have one big fight a day where casters can comfortably dump their entire daily allotment of spells, trying to keep martials up is a lost cause. Your options are to have more encounters within an adventuring day (where you can redefine "day" if multiple encounters within one 24 hour period feels too packed for you), or to just embrace the chaos and expect everybody play a caster.


I like the idea of scaling like a cantrip because it should promote balance as you level up - right?

Cantrips get more dice because casters only get one shot with them. (Except EB, which illustrates my point by splitting the dice across multiple attacks.) Martials already get bonus attacks. That's quadratic damage, which will be a pain to balance when pretty much everything else is linear.


The Gauntlets of Retaliation - intent is super simple, if you get hit by an attack (spell/weapon/ranged/melee) you get to make one attack as a result (no limit to who you target, only that you can only use a weapon you are already holding - bow, thrown dagger, glaive, whatever).

Didn't the bag of rats idea come from someone using dumping out a bag of rats, using some trick to attack all of them that fell out, and then causing each of those attacks to proc an attack against the enemy? Gauntlets of Retaliation with its uncapped retaliations looks just like that, only you have to train the rats to attack you instead. Reactions being limited happened for a very good reason.

At the end of the day, though, most of these do just boil down to more damage coming out of the fighter. Which will have to compete with both the combat and noncombat options of just having a belt of giant strength and being stupendously strong. (Maxed out cantrip scaling weapon with a 20 strength does roughly the same damage per hit as a greatsword with a belt of storm giant strength, with the greatsword having room for its own enchantment and having a much better chance to hit.) That doesn't address the countless other issues muggles have, so won't meaningfully change the outcome.

[rel]

Using magic items to bolster mundane characters in 5e is something I looked at a little before settling on a plan of divorcing utility power from class choice.

Here are a few I've come up with, even a whip!
I have more I can find and post if anyone is interested:

Whiplash
A fine leather whip, can be attuned by anyone with Dex save proficiency. Has 5 charges returning at dawn.
While attuned, the wielder has resistance to fall damage and advantage on saves and checks made to avoid falling or losing balance.
By expending one charge and a bonus action, a creature in reach can be forced to make a dex saving throw. on a failure, the creature either drops whatever it's holding or falls prone. Either way it then takes 2D4 slashing damage. The dropped item can end in the wielders square or in their hands at their discretion.
By expending a charge and a bonus action, the wielder can move (as though teleporting) to any location within 20 feet provided a clear path to the location (though not necessarily a straight one) exists.
By expending 2 charges and an action, the wielder can force a target in range to make a strength save on a failure the whip entangles and restrains them. the wielder can't use the whip while it is restraining something.
The condition persists until the wielder chooses to end, they move or are moved away, they drop the whip or the target succeeds on a str save attempted by taking an action.
By expending 1 charge and a reaction a creature attempting to move adjacent to the wielder can be forced to make a con save. On a failure they instead lose all remaining movement for the turn.

Breaker
A greatsword of rustless steel, fine in make with many artistic embellishments.
Breaker can only be attuned by characters with extra attack. When attuned it counts as magic and sheds light like a torch when wielded.
Breaker has 4 charges that return at dawn.
By expending 1 charge as a reaction to an enemy missing a melee attack, the wielder can knock the enemy prone and cause them to drop the weapon used in the attack.
By expending 2 charges and taking an action the wielder can break or dismantle a physical object, structure or a part of something larger. The exact nature of the destruction is up to the wielder with anything from a single cut to diced to fragments as possibilities, but the damage must be contained within a 5 foot cube.
The effect manifests as a series of cuts propogating through the material from the impact point of a strike to achieve the desired damage.
Legendarily sturdy targets may resist or ignore the effect.

Dragon Helm
A polished steel helmet embellished with a pair of stylised dragon wings. A subtle magic prevents the wings from snagging or otherwise inconveniencing the wearer.
Can only be attuned by a character with the extra attack class feature.
Has 3 charges returning at dawn, by expending a charge, the wearer can teleport to a location within 50 feet, either somewhere they can see, or somewhere well defined like behind a door.
If the user teleports into air they remain hovering until the end of their turn.
While the helm still has charges, the user glides gracefully instead of falling, they take no fall damage, always land standing and can travel horizontally as they descend.

Hotpot
This isn’t a helm but a literal cooking vessel complete with a handle, blackened and dented from a long lifetime of use and abuse. The helms magic ensures it is fully functional despite its odd appearance. The Hotpot has no attunement requirements, but is considered worn armour for the purposes of spellcasting.
If the wearer suffers a Critical hit they can negate it, suffering a normal hit instead. The hit is considered a normal non critical hit for all purposes. Using this effect knocks the helm from the wearer's head.
If hotpot is placed on stone or sand the areas of contact begin to heat up. The amount of stone in contact with the pot control how hot it gets. The range of temperatures are suitable for cooking.

The greatward
A greatsword forged from alchemicaly toughened silver, the guard decorated with 3 blue sapphires.
Can only be attuned by people with extra attack.
When attuned it sheds a cool blue light (torch equivalent) and is treated as magic for the purposes of ignoring hardness and immunities.
The greatward has 3 charges returning at dawn. The wielder can take a reaction and expend a charge to gain advantage on saves or resistance to damage until the start of their next turn.

[BerzerkerUnit]

Katas, Stunts, and Exploits.

Write up specific actions with specific effects ala 4ed Exploits and give those out at odd levels. They can replace an attack with one or use a bonus action. They can use each once, regain all uses when they roll initiative.

Katas
These require you to move and replace your attack(s) with a save effect like forced movement, knock down, damage, etc. You basically become a kind of variable "line effect"

Stunts
These employ terrain or improvised weapons for various effects, hurling boulders for a rolling line of damage, kicking a chair across a room to knock down a foe.
You can prep stunt cards for every terrain/environment and let players draw from a deck or just hand them out and let them hotswap nouns, thowing couches instead of boulders or kicking a bucket of fish across the dock.

Exploits
These are like tiny narrative events. Push all the enemies around you 15 feet away, growl or roar at a target to make them flee, smash your weapon on the ground to create a tremor to knock foes off their feet.

Magic weapons are great, they're absolutely part of the archetype, but so are staves and wands and hats and bags for the casters. Martials need schtick built in for numbers and feel.

[Ionathus]

Because you're not changing any core rules, creating magic items tailored to your party's martials is probably the best way to implement this band-aid-style fix.

Example: the only full-martial in my current party is a Barbarian, so I gave her extra ways to use her rage, made it easier for her to grapple and push around enemies, and gave her bonuses for Big Chonky Damage because that's what she likes and what she has fun doing.

She also gets a couple of "control" abilities from her magic items that help her pin down enemies, reposition enemies, or create obstacles on the playing field. I designed them to play directly into the Barbarian ethos: Hitting, and Getting Hit. So one ability procs whenever she kills a humanoid...and the other ability procs whenever she takes damage.

Barring that level of tailor-made items, you can always just hand out things like the Flame Tongue or the Vorpal Sword. No character with Extra Attack is going to complain about a sword that Hits Real Good.

Of course none of this gets at out-of-combat utility, and unfortunately the way 5e is designed, it's almost impossible to get martials to the level of roleplay/exploration utility that casters get. My advice is to pick a few effects that are very thematic and fun for your martial characters, and give them a magic item that does that -- especially if none of the casters in the party have access to that ability. If your casters are a Wizard, a Druid, and a Paladin, pick a utility spell or two off the Bard- or Warlock-exclusive lists that feels "right" for that martial character. It will help to distinguish them and help them feel uniquely useful out of combat, because it's an effect that nobody can replicate, not even those squishy spellcasters :smallcool:

[rel]

unfortunately the way 5e is designed, it's almost impossible to get martials to the level of roleplay/exploration utility that casters get.

It's actually surprisingly easy to match caster utility with custom items. The difficulty is doing it in a more interesting way than simply giving the martials access to utility spells.
Which is a fine fix, but one I find boring.

Getting the balance right for custom utility effects is also tricky.