I tend to avoid things that are just alternative ways to make more damage... the items of different normal and weird utility that may help tactically alter a combat (immovable rod) is cooler and less "OP" for me than an item that's just "ten fireballs in a thing".
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Anything that grants wishes, like the Efreeti Bottle or Iron Flask, The Candle of Invocation cause we've grown up from 3.5e Anything that is super random, like the Deck of Many things, Bag of Beans Anything that breaks bounded accuracy, like the Belt of Giant Strength Anything that creates permanent creatures that you can crash an economy with, like the bag of tricks Staff of the Magi.
Just items that trivialize or break tools in the DM toolbox. Like that cursed weapon of Warning. "Can't be surprised" means for the rest of the campaign (at least the parts of it that character is in) I can't use the surprise mechanic in any meaningful way.
Hmm cursed weapon of Warning. I like where this is going...
The way I understand it, magic items in 5e in generally are supposed to be stupidly rare. Allowing players to build a character with magic items beyond the DM's control is just a bad idea. Either make them random, or make them discovered through play. Don't let the players choose their magic items... too much risk of min/maxing for my tastes.
That being said, every DM is different and every campaign is different. What works for me probably only works for me :)
I like the fact that individual magic items have the potential to be very significant; this part of the game was lost in 3/3.5e. I find that attunement in 5e helps to keep their power in check quite well.
Something I've used to great success is the Bag of Tricks. Uncommon, no attunement, 3 free animal helpers every day that last until dawn or they hit 0 HP. Getting more than 1 means you can have a zoo of CR1 beasts rampaging through places. The rarity plus the time the animal stays makes it pretty powerful. Tan is the best!
The bag of holding vs. handy haversack is an aggravating one. The description on the bag of holding was botched, and it seems like it should be easy to find whatever you need from it. Bag of holding carries more than the haversack, but is uncommon (to the haversack's rare). The key is: handy haversack specifies that you can pull something out as an action, and you automatically find it. Bag of holding has always been intended as a mess to try and find anything in, to the point where it is useless to try to utilize in combat (for example). But that doesn't make it into the bag of holding description, so it's up to the DM to determine why the bag of holding isn't the mechanically superior item.
I think the important thing to remember here is, as the DM, you are able to determine what your players get in terms of loot (or what they can create or have created). Additionally, you can tweak the rarity or the effects of any given item. However, I understand that these things don't come naturally and new DMs, especially, tend to make the mistake of giving out items too frequently or too soon to players and it upsets the balance of the game (I remember a few notable mistakes in my early days, to be sure). So you have to be open with your players and explain why you think a mistake has been made, get input from those involved. Gamers who are true to the spirit of the game will understand and while many are reluctant to nerf their new favorite toy, it is likely they'll do so in favor of making the game more balanced and enjoyable for all involved.
The way I understand it, magic items in 5e in generally are supposed to be stupidly rare. Allowing players to build a character with magic items beyond the DM's control is just a bad idea. Either make them random, or make them discovered through play. Don't let the players choose their magic items... too much risk of min/maxing for my tastes.
That being said, every DM is different and every campaign is different. What works for me probably only works for me :)
I feel like as long as the item is adding damage or giving a small bonus to Ac all is good. (if the wizard always shoots a fireball, either give the NPCs extra hit points or craft an encounter that prevents the NPCs from resting.
Until players start going over a AC 20 you shouldn't run into any problems.
My Gm handed out one uncommon item of choice but refused to give me winged boots because he said having nearly unlimited flying was annoying to GM around. I thought that was unfair but had to go with it.
I like using the "sane magical item prices pdf" which can easily be found online for prices on magical items it gives a more realistic price for magic items.
The Staff of the Python is one of very few items I've banned from the Coliseum of Conquest. It's uncommon and basically allows you to summon a CR 2 monster whenever you like so long as it doesn't get one shot.
Anything that grants wishes, like the Efreeti Bottle or Iron Flask, The Candle of Invocation cause we've grown up from 3.5e Anything that is super random, like the Deck of Many things, Bag of Beans Anything that breaks bounded accuracy, like the Belt of Giant Strength Anything that creates permanent creatures that you can crash an economy with, like the bag of tricks Staff of the Magi.
I know this is an old post but the thread was necro'd so hey.
Wishes are fine. Either you limit to spell replication ("basic use") or find ways to mitigate the drawbacks. Efreeti are likely to trick wishes against the caster, and anything that lets you cast wish still has stipulation that you risk significant detriment to you and 1/3 chance of never ever being able to cast it ever again by any means. Wishes can be wonderful opportunities. They could get super rich! AND now they have hords of enemies trying to steal it. They could get Power! AND now they have super-bad-ass rivals lining up to challenge them or even gods of unsightly power wanting to test them. They could instant win the battle against a big bad boss! AND now they have a hundred more just like them - since as a DM you can conjure and infinite supply of bosses: there is no "end", really, to D&D. Wish can be wonderful at creating whole new stories and problems to throw their way even if you grant their wish perfectly: you should welcome their wishes! They get rewarded and feeling super magicky powerful for a moment with the few seconds of reality-warping buzz while you get a free insta-story you didn't have to spend a whole week trying to set-up.
Deck of Many Things as OP? Nah. Again the most powerful card is the one that gives wishes and as I said those are gifts to the DMs. Other cards in the deck also have insta-quest DM-luvin' goodies or straight up TPK which can also be fun (because death is not the end and can be a whole campaign in of itself). Half the deck are interesting random fluff stuff that doesn't do much beyond a bit of mild fun. It's wonderful.
Belt of Giant Strength I can sort of agree with but only in that I can "see your point" but not enough to disagree with the item or do anything about it. Strength is a limited stat - useful, of course, but limited compared to others. By the time they get to have items of this rarity they can already find ways to get past doors one way or another and such. Basically this gives the sword-swingers a few extra points on attacks and dmg. Nothing a DM can't handle.
Bag of Tricks... Is meh. Half the creatures summoned by the bag are incredibly weak and limited and the other half can be one-shot by enemies you face by like level 5. A few creatures is useful but not enough to be of any actual concern. Also, they have no effect on the game finances ("economy") or the local wildlife ("ecology") since they're often very common creatures to most environments and they're not permanent. They disappear at dawn or when dropped to 0 HP.
The Staff of Magi is fine for its level. It's Legendary. Literally only a few or less exist of it. It's one of the most powerful staves ever made. It's just a slightly suped up version of a staff of power. It has more spell options and more charges and such but not enough to be game breaking for the level you will be when you get Legendary items.
Just items that trivialize or break tools in the DM toolbox. Like that cursed weapon of Warning. "Can't be surprised" means for the rest of the campaign (at least the parts of it that character is in) I can't use the surprise mechanic in any meaningful way.
Hmm cursed weapon of Warning. I like where this is going...
Surprise mechanic isn't that much. Sure, decent for "assassins" but beyond that only mildly useful. Besides it can still be countered. They could be going through some tunnels and go into a lair but the enemy was aware and could fly so it flew up above the entrance looking down. The group enter, the enemy decides to make its move, you call for initiative - and without advantages - and... The whole party gets surprised! Why? Because that enemy is a Beholder and the character with the weapon of warning is right in its Antimagic gaze - which supresses the effects of magic items... As does any Antimagic Field so some Antimagic traps placed decently can go a long way...
You can also go down the route of "how" does the Weapon discern danger? The only school of magic that could predict and warn of danger is Divination and there are magics that can prevent any form of divination magic affecting you - in other words you give the enemy immunity to divination magic and just like that the weapon of warning cannot warn you about that enemy. This one is DM fiat compared to Antimagic Fields/Beholders/Etc which are pure RAW but even so.
The Staff of the Python is one of very few items I've banned from the Coliseum of Conquest. It's uncommon and basically allows you to summon a CR 2 monster whenever you like so long as it doesn't get one shot.
I think banning the item is a bit much. By the time you should be getting Rare items a CR 2 creature is feeble. It can make a nice distraction or distract a low-level minion perhaps but that's all. It can only obey commands when wthin 60 ft so the range has limit and the text implies you need to be handling the staff when you use the action to turn it into a snake. It's very useful, yes, but is on par with other rare items. Keeping it safe from destruction is going to require you to constantly change it back and forth to refresh health - you can't do this when it's next to the enemy because they get a whole turn with it being a staff near them and they can steal it but if you have the snake move away that's an AoO that might be enough to bring it to 0 HP and destroyed forever. Largely you'll need to change it into snake and on its turn go to enemy, attack, come back taking AoO damage, and then on your next turn use bonus action to turn into staff, action to go back to snake and repeat... Using up your bonus actions and main actions all for less damage than what you could have achieved doing other things. Even if you still think too powerful, why ban instead of just increasing rarity to Very Rare? I mean, it'll be an incredibly weak Very Rare item but still better than full outright banning.
Daern's Instant Fortress is nifty in theory but it should be noted the 5th edition version is different than prevous versions. In 5th there is no detail that when you dismiss it that goes back to a reusable cube - it is just dimissed, id est, gone forever. It can be damaged and it requies multiple Wishes to repair. You can still siege it, bring it down with a dragon or spells, - it's a nice safe place to hole up (well, safer than normal) while they're in the area but doesn't help them in that long dungeon or crawling through sewers or making camp on the other side of the country. And anybody can speak the command word to get inside so if the big bad villain with more than two braincells will watch them, secretly, and learn about this fortress and its secret, will scry/use clairvoyance to listen in for the command word from a safe place. When they learn the word - wait until nightfall and use the word to sneak in : yay free attacks by the enemy (<whisper>"the axe is coming from inside the fortess"</whisper>).
Useful. Not OP. Should really be a welcomed DM opportunity. A villain that can think like this is going to be interesting. And the local lord of the land may not be happy at you suddenly making a fortress - did the players give permission, do they pay land tax, etc. Placement is key: it's instant, but as of 5th edition (having learned of the "spamming" of it from previous editions) it's "instant not portable". But even if portable, that would just make a lot of people a lot more interested in the party and doing what they can to learn about it and take it for themselves.
--
I cannot see items as too OP. By the time you get to Rare you can really open up and blur the limits because your party can handle a lot more wacky things. Every item that's "powerful" is just an opportunity for you as the DM to grow and adapt and many items like Instant Fortress, Deck of Many Things and anything giving Wishes come with instant-stories and encounters all neatly wrapped up for you served on a silver platter. All the hard work of coming up with some interesting thing to happen to the players and finding a reasonable way for it to occur can be a head-scratcher especially at higher levels but these super-items/spell has just done all that work for you. They should be embraced and welcomed, not feared as OP. Throwing a Wish to a relatively lower level group is going to amaze them, have them geek out over it, and all the while you can just sit there and be happy that half your work for the next few sessions can be skipped becuase of the insta-story-button that Wish is. No matter what they wish for, it gives you a story you can provide them. It's a Muse-Bomb. Drop it, and all the potential of new interesting adventures will just explode from it.
I mean an extra anmal or snake can help a little in a battle, and having a safe fortress for the night is great, sure, but does sweet FA for those harsh-wild deadly Skill Challenges you'll put them through or solve those timed death-trap puzzle rooms they have to explore or help them navigate the social elite in some political intrigue...
The Staff of the Python isn't rare though, it's uncommon. And a guaranteed CR2 mob is very strong for this rarity.
Banned items in a normal game is fairly meaningless you'd simply not give it to your players. However the Coliseum isn't a normal game, it's all PvP, and the players have the option to choose their magic items. But if any one ever tries to get a Staff of the Python again, it's one of the few items that arent in the administrators vault.
The threat of losing your item after using it there isn't a problem, because your gear is returned after the match. (I cant have thieves becoming over powered by stealing everyone else's equipment.)
I'm more concerned with game balance than another DM might be. But I also don't want to prevent players from benefiting from their features or from choosing features that synnergize well.
Are there any magic items you think are way to OP for their rarity? I find that the wand of fireballs seems pretty damn powerful on terms of damage.
Hell yeah I am going to Polymorph the boss into a Rabbit. I have always wanted a being a pure evil stuffed into a ball of fluff.
I tend to avoid things that are just alternative ways to make more damage... the items of different normal and weird utility that may help tactically alter a combat (immovable rod) is cooler and less "OP" for me than an item that's just "ten fireballs in a thing".
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Anything that grants wishes, like the Efreeti Bottle or Iron Flask, The Candle of Invocation cause we've grown up from 3.5e
Anything that is super random, like the Deck of Many things, Bag of Beans
Anything that breaks bounded accuracy, like the Belt of Giant Strength
Anything that creates permanent creatures that you can crash an economy with, like the bag of tricks
Staff of the Magi.
I 100% disagree about the deck of many things. Not overpowered at all.
Just items that trivialize or break tools in the DM toolbox. Like that cursed weapon of Warning. "Can't be surprised" means for the rest of the campaign (at least the parts of it that character is in) I can't use the surprise mechanic in any meaningful way.
Hmm cursed weapon of Warning. I like where this is going...
The way I understand it, magic items in 5e in generally are supposed to be stupidly rare. Allowing players to build a character with magic items beyond the DM's control is just a bad idea. Either make them random, or make them discovered through play. Don't let the players choose their magic items... too much risk of min/maxing for my tastes.
That being said, every DM is different and every campaign is different. What works for me probably only works for me :)
depends on the class, but generally any rare or very rare item tends to overpower your character.
It maybe balanced, a fate worse than death versus 1d3 wishes. But it's a silly dangerous item...
I like the fact that individual magic items have the potential to be very significant; this part of the game was lost in 3/3.5e. I find that attunement in 5e helps to keep their power in check quite well.
Weapon of Wounding I personal think is a little OP for its rarity.
Something I've used to great success is the Bag of Tricks. Uncommon, no attunement, 3 free animal helpers every day that last until dawn or they hit 0 HP. Getting more than 1 means you can have a zoo of CR1 beasts rampaging through places. The rarity plus the time the animal stays makes it pretty powerful. Tan is the best!
The bag of holding vs. handy haversack is an aggravating one. The description on the bag of holding was botched, and it seems like it should be easy to find whatever you need from it. Bag of holding carries more than the haversack, but is uncommon (to the haversack's rare). The key is: handy haversack specifies that you can pull something out as an action, and you automatically find it. Bag of holding has always been intended as a mess to try and find anything in, to the point where it is useless to try to utilize in combat (for example). But that doesn't make it into the bag of holding description, so it's up to the DM to determine why the bag of holding isn't the mechanically superior item.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
I think the important thing to remember here is, as the DM, you are able to determine what your players get in terms of loot (or what they can create or have created). Additionally, you can tweak the rarity or the effects of any given item. However, I understand that these things don't come naturally and new DMs, especially, tend to make the mistake of giving out items too frequently or too soon to players and it upsets the balance of the game (I remember a few notable mistakes in my early days, to be sure). So you have to be open with your players and explain why you think a mistake has been made, get input from those involved. Gamers who are true to the spirit of the game will understand and while many are reluctant to nerf their new favorite toy, it is likely they'll do so in favor of making the game more balanced and enjoyable for all involved.
My Gm handed out one uncommon item of choice but refused to give me winged boots because he said having nearly unlimited flying was annoying to GM around. I thought that was unfair but had to go with it.
Amulet of health (rare) lets you dump con and not worry by setting it to 19
Way too good for its rarity
cloak of protection (uncommon) many people forget it adds 1+ to all saves as well as AC
Flame Tongue (rare) adds a great sword hit of fire damage to every swing
I like using the "sane magical item prices pdf" which can easily be found online for prices on magical items it gives a more realistic price for magic items.
The Staff of the Python is one of very few items I've banned from the Coliseum of Conquest. It's uncommon and basically allows you to summon a CR 2 monster whenever you like so long as it doesn't get one shot.
Also the Instant Fortress
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I know this is an old post but the thread was necro'd so hey.
Wishes are fine. Either you limit to spell replication ("basic use") or find ways to mitigate the drawbacks. Efreeti are likely to trick wishes against the caster, and anything that lets you cast wish still has stipulation that you risk significant detriment to you and 1/3 chance of never ever being able to cast it ever again by any means. Wishes can be wonderful opportunities. They could get super rich! AND now they have hords of enemies trying to steal it. They could get Power! AND now they have super-bad-ass rivals lining up to challenge them or even gods of unsightly power wanting to test them. They could instant win the battle against a big bad boss! AND now they have a hundred more just like them - since as a DM you can conjure and infinite supply of bosses: there is no "end", really, to D&D. Wish can be wonderful at creating whole new stories and problems to throw their way even if you grant their wish perfectly: you should welcome their wishes! They get rewarded and feeling super magicky powerful for a moment with the few seconds of reality-warping buzz while you get a free insta-story you didn't have to spend a whole week trying to set-up.
Deck of Many Things as OP? Nah. Again the most powerful card is the one that gives wishes and as I said those are gifts to the DMs. Other cards in the deck also have insta-quest DM-luvin' goodies or straight up TPK which can also be fun (because death is not the end and can be a whole campaign in of itself). Half the deck are interesting random fluff stuff that doesn't do much beyond a bit of mild fun. It's wonderful.
Belt of Giant Strength I can sort of agree with but only in that I can "see your point" but not enough to disagree with the item or do anything about it. Strength is a limited stat - useful, of course, but limited compared to others. By the time they get to have items of this rarity they can already find ways to get past doors one way or another and such. Basically this gives the sword-swingers a few extra points on attacks and dmg. Nothing a DM can't handle.
Bag of Tricks... Is meh. Half the creatures summoned by the bag are incredibly weak and limited and the other half can be one-shot by enemies you face by like level 5. A few creatures is useful but not enough to be of any actual concern. Also, they have no effect on the game finances ("economy") or the local wildlife ("ecology") since they're often very common creatures to most environments and they're not permanent. They disappear at dawn or when dropped to 0 HP.
The Staff of Magi is fine for its level. It's Legendary. Literally only a few or less exist of it. It's one of the most powerful staves ever made. It's just a slightly suped up version of a staff of power. It has more spell options and more charges and such but not enough to be game breaking for the level you will be when you get Legendary items.
Surprise mechanic isn't that much. Sure, decent for "assassins" but beyond that only mildly useful. Besides it can still be countered. They could be going through some tunnels and go into a lair but the enemy was aware and could fly so it flew up above the entrance looking down. The group enter, the enemy decides to make its move, you call for initiative - and without advantages - and... The whole party gets surprised! Why? Because that enemy is a Beholder and the character with the weapon of warning is right in its Antimagic gaze - which supresses the effects of magic items... As does any Antimagic Field so some Antimagic traps placed decently can go a long way...
You can also go down the route of "how" does the Weapon discern danger? The only school of magic that could predict and warn of danger is Divination and there are magics that can prevent any form of divination magic affecting you - in other words you give the enemy immunity to divination magic and just like that the weapon of warning cannot warn you about that enemy. This one is DM fiat compared to Antimagic Fields/Beholders/Etc which are pure RAW but even so.
I think banning the item is a bit much. By the time you should be getting Rare items a CR 2 creature is feeble. It can make a nice distraction or distract a low-level minion perhaps but that's all. It can only obey commands when wthin 60 ft so the range has limit and the text implies you need to be handling the staff when you use the action to turn it into a snake. It's very useful, yes, but is on par with other rare items. Keeping it safe from destruction is going to require you to constantly change it back and forth to refresh health - you can't do this when it's next to the enemy because they get a whole turn with it being a staff near them and they can steal it but if you have the snake move away that's an AoO that might be enough to bring it to 0 HP and destroyed forever. Largely you'll need to change it into snake and on its turn go to enemy, attack, come back taking AoO damage, and then on your next turn use bonus action to turn into staff, action to go back to snake and repeat... Using up your bonus actions and main actions all for less damage than what you could have achieved doing other things. Even if you still think too powerful, why ban instead of just increasing rarity to Very Rare? I mean, it'll be an incredibly weak Very Rare item but still better than full outright banning.
Daern's Instant Fortress is nifty in theory but it should be noted the 5th edition version is different than prevous versions. In 5th there is no detail that when you dismiss it that goes back to a reusable cube - it is just dimissed, id est, gone forever. It can be damaged and it requies multiple Wishes to repair. You can still siege it, bring it down with a dragon or spells, - it's a nice safe place to hole up (well, safer than normal) while they're in the area but doesn't help them in that long dungeon or crawling through sewers or making camp on the other side of the country. And anybody can speak the command word to get inside so if the big bad villain with more than two braincells will watch them, secretly, and learn about this fortress and its secret, will scry/use clairvoyance to listen in for the command word from a safe place. When they learn the word - wait until nightfall and use the word to sneak in : yay free attacks by the enemy (<whisper>"the axe is coming from inside the fortess"</whisper>).
Useful. Not OP. Should really be a welcomed DM opportunity. A villain that can think like this is going to be interesting. And the local lord of the land may not be happy at you suddenly making a fortress - did the players give permission, do they pay land tax, etc. Placement is key: it's instant, but as of 5th edition (having learned of the "spamming" of it from previous editions) it's "instant not portable". But even if portable, that would just make a lot of people a lot more interested in the party and doing what they can to learn about it and take it for themselves.
--
I cannot see items as too OP. By the time you get to Rare you can really open up and blur the limits because your party can handle a lot more wacky things. Every item that's "powerful" is just an opportunity for you as the DM to grow and adapt and many items like Instant Fortress, Deck of Many Things and anything giving Wishes come with instant-stories and encounters all neatly wrapped up for you served on a silver platter. All the hard work of coming up with some interesting thing to happen to the players and finding a reasonable way for it to occur can be a head-scratcher especially at higher levels but these super-items/spell has just done all that work for you. They should be embraced and welcomed, not feared as OP. Throwing a Wish to a relatively lower level group is going to amaze them, have them geek out over it, and all the while you can just sit there and be happy that half your work for the next few sessions can be skipped becuase of the insta-story-button that Wish is. No matter what they wish for, it gives you a story you can provide them. It's a Muse-Bomb. Drop it, and all the potential of new interesting adventures will just explode from it.
I mean an extra anmal or snake can help a little in a battle, and having a safe fortress for the night is great, sure, but does sweet FA for those harsh-wild deadly Skill Challenges you'll put them through or solve those timed death-trap puzzle rooms they have to explore or help them navigate the social elite in some political intrigue...
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The Staff of the Python isn't rare though, it's uncommon. And a guaranteed CR2 mob is very strong for this rarity.
Banned items in a normal game is fairly meaningless you'd simply not give it to your players. However the Coliseum isn't a normal game, it's all PvP, and the players have the option to choose their magic items. But if any one ever tries to get a Staff of the Python again, it's one of the few items that arent in the administrators vault.
The threat of losing your item after using it there isn't a problem, because your gear is returned after the match. (I cant have thieves becoming over powered by stealing everyone else's equipment.)
I'm more concerned with game balance than another DM might be. But I also don't want to prevent players from benefiting from their features or from choosing features that synnergize well.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/play-by-post/9701-coliseum-of-conquest-always-recruiting
Extended Signature