Did I get the rarity right on this magic item?

[KorvinStarmast]

Note: Hetzer's Heroes, please do not open the spoiler.

Cursed items seem to have a lower rarity than some similar items in the DMG, but rarity is an imprecise criterion for most magic items. Should this item have a higher, or a lower, rarity than *rare*? This idea is a modification of a post from back in March of February, where one of the Playgrounders posted a bunch of different magic items they'd dreamed up and I modified one of those for our campaign.

Spoiler: Mask of Vengeance

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Mask of Vengeance
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
When found, this mask appears to be a jade ceremonial mask that would fit a medium sized creature.
When a living creature attunes to this mask, the mask transforms into a headband that fits onto their head. When the attuned wearer is damaged by another creature the *Marking* feature begins to function.

a. The headband slips down over the eyes of that creature whenever the *marking* feature is active.
b. Normal vision is not impaired by the wearer's eyes being covered by the headband (or mask, see point (g) below).
c. When the wearer is damaged by a creature, the wearer may choose to *mark* that creature for vengeance.
- If the wearer does not wish to *mark* the target, and no other target is already *marked*, the wearer must make a DC 15 Charisma save or *mark* the creature anyway.
- A new target cannot be *marked* if the previous *marked* target still lives.
d. While a target is marked, it cannot benefit from concealment against the wearer.
- Wearer always succeeds Perception checks to notice them.
- If they are too far away to be seen, if an obstruction to vision is between the *marked* creature and the wearer, or if the wearer is blinded or their vision is otherwise obscured, the wearer stills knows the distance and direction to the marked creature.
e. The wearer’s successful attacks deal an extra 1d6 damage to the *marked* target only.
f. Reducing the *marked* target to 0 hit points provides the wearer with Temporary Hit Points equal to three times the wearer’s proficiency bonus.
g. When an undead creature attunes to this mask, it returns to its original shape: a jade ceremonial mask.
h. **Curse**. While the *marked* target lives, the wearer finds it difficult to rest. Each time the wearer takes a long rest while a target is still *marked* they must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or gain no benefit from the rest. (No HD recovered, no rage restored, no HP restored, no sleep, no spell slots recovered, et cetera). Visions of the *marked* target continually emerge in their subconscious. The wearer, if trying to sleep or trance, awakens midway through the attempted rest, thinking that the marked target is nearby. While the marked target lives, the wearer will not remove the mask nor break attunement with it willingly unless a successful remove curse spell is cast upon the wearer.

[Dork_Forge]

Rarity doens't really imply power cohesively, for various reasons imo, but I think rare is fair for this item. It doesn't really provide you any benefits unless you take damage, and then the benefits it does bestow are within acceptable terms for a rare. The curse is pretty mild as far as cursed items go, especially since it wouldn't be particularly common to let a marked enemy get away, just makes non fatal encounter endings potentially a little difficult.

[KorvinStarmast]

Rarity doens't really imply power cohesively, for various reasons imo, but I think rare is fair for this item. It doesn't really provide you any benefits unless you take damage, and then the benefits it does bestow are within acceptable terms for a rare. The curse is pretty mild as far as cursed items go, especially since it wouldn't be particularly common to let a marked enemy get away, just makes non fatal encounter endings potentially a little difficult.

If a marked enemy does get away, this can become an issue. Long rest recovery for someone like a barbarian is where rage is replenished

Thanks for the feedback.

[Catullus64]

Hmm. I think Rare is right, but for different reasons than previously stated. That is, I would probably value the item at rare without the curse, but I don't think the curse is really enough of a hinderance to downgrade it in rarity. It essentially only comes into play when a creature who damages you survives combat (not a super-rare event, but still a narrow case), and even then there's a save to negate it every time. Once a player is aware of the curse (more on that later) it's pretty easy to work around it.

I would consider adding a clause to the curse which says that an Identify spell fails to detect the curse. Many items already have such a clause, and it seems to be there to preserve mystery in the face of one of what I call the class of "Dispel Interesting Drama" spells, like Identify.

If you care about making the item fit with established design paradigms, I think it's unusual (I'd say unheard of, but I can't be absolutely certain) for an item to scale or have reference to the game statistics of the creature that uses it; they tend to have fixed DCs, fixed modifiers, and their own unspoken proficiency bonus. Not that the example here, where the wearer's PB affects Temporary Hit Point gain, is of enormous consequence; it may just be the sort of thing that only bugs me.

[KorvinStarmast]

If you care about making the item fit with established design paradigms, I think it's unusual (I'd say unheard of, but I can't be absolutely certain) for an item to scale or have reference to the game statistics of the creature that uses it; they tend to have fixed DCs, fixed modifiers, and their own unspoken proficiency bonus. Not that the example here, where the wearer's PB affects Temporary Hit Point gain, is of enormous consequence; it may just be the sort of thing that only bugs me.

We have a few other magic items in the campaign that scale with the player going up in level, but I agree that it's not a great fit for the general design framework.

What I am thinking of doing, as I discuss this with my brother (his game world, I am the back up DM) is make the Remove Curse be like counter spell. Cast remove curse, and make an ability check versus a DC. This item was tied to a monster whose other curses were DC 17 to avoid, so I'd probably go with that.

Good idea on the "identify" bit, I'll toss that into version 5 and forward it to my brother. Thanks.

[Dravda]

Glad to see this getting some use! Your input was a big help back in that thread, Korvin. ^^

[KorvinStarmast]

Glad to see this getting some use! Your input was a big help back in that thread, Korvin. ^^

The thanks goes to you. Without your original idea, the barbarian in the group I DM for would not have this item.
Pat yourself on the back, you earned it!