The solution is to give the items to the baddies. Don't just let PCs decide what items they want... unless you are going for that kind of crazy game play. If the PCs have access to a staff of the python... or what ever the heck... then toss a few to the local Orc shamans and see what happens. I personally love high power magic items... i beat the tar out of my PCs for a good number of levels prior to them achieving high level equipment... so once they become god like... let them bask in the glory. Not to mention, not every problem in your world should be combat related.
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 problem with that list is that it prices some things - specifically Weapons of Warning - insanely high. As in 'the sixth most expensive combat item in the game' high when the rest of the game assumes they're only Uncommon, and the author provided no justification for pricing them so high.
They also didn't bother to put a price on a large number of other items, including almost anything with an AC bonus.
I honestly don't think that many items are terribly overpowered, provided the DM places them correctly. You think it's ridiculous how powerful your 5th level paladin becomes when he gets a Holy Avenger? Well, yeah, it is. Very rare and Legendary magic items should either be used by the villains, acquired for the final act by the heroes, or be part of a sidequest where they truly have to earn that power. Stuff that grants wishes shouldn't even be in the hands of the party during the campaign, it should be the focus of the campaign, or at least a sidequest, and if you're worried about it being broken, either limit the wishes to spell replication or monkey paw them.
As for items that I do think you should be wary of, here are a few:
Wand of Fireballs - in 5e, spellcasters have to be judicious with their spell slots. Letting them have access to 6 more explosions a day, all for the price of a rare magic item, is something you should think twice about.
Wand of Lightning Bolts - see above
Cloak of Displacement - A 15th level Gloom Stalker feature that is always on, no need for a reaction? This should be very rare at the least.
Ring of Warmth - it is objectively superior to a Ring of Resistance to cold, and it is uncommon instead of rare. A mistake?
Staff of Defense - I've not read the actual stats on this thing, but arcane casters are supposed to have low AC. That's the risk to playing one, in exchange for the reward of having more utility and damage output. As I understand it, this staff not only gives a buff to AC, but also has some charges to cast Shield with.
Cloak of Displacement - A 15th level Gloom Stalker feature that is always on, no need for a reaction? This should be very rare at the least.
Yeah, I think the devs underestimated just how powerful disadvantage can be. I have a player who constantly asks about getting this item again after having it on a previous character.
Staff of Defense - I've not read the actual stats on this thing, but arcane casters are supposed to have low AC. That's the risk to playing one, in exchange for the reward of having more utility and damage output. As I understand it, this staff not only gives a buff to AC, but also has some charges to cast Shield with.
Attuning to it gives you +1 to AC and it has 10 charges. Mage Armour costs 1 charge and Shield costs 2. If you spend the last charge, staff dies on a roll of 1 on a d20. So, essentially, it frees up all your 1st-level slots which are often spent on Mage Armour at the start of the day, and then four Shields without risking the staff's destruction.
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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
What are the requirements to attune it? I know you need to be a caster who can cast those spells. Do you need to actually have/know them, or just have them on your list of spells that you can get?
What are the requirements to attune it? I know you need to be a caster who can cast those spells. Do you need to actually have/know them, or just have them on your list of spells that you can get?
Well by its description you have to know the cantrip to cast the cantrip, so I would say you have to actually know them myself.
A few more additions, again, keeping with my theme of uncommon or rare magic items:
The Brazier of Commanding Fire Elementals, as well as its other three counterparts. I don't mind the gems, which are single use, but a permanent ally that makes for a strong tank, can presumably be resummoned if it dies, and, in the case of the air and earth elementals, has either tremorsense or can carry the party via flight? Definitely something to think twice about letting a single digit level party have.
Shield Guardians - I don't know their official rarity, but the same principle applies. They constantly heal themselves, can store a spell, and absorb damage from the one wearing their amulet.
Necklace of Prayer Beads - This one is only really here because it could possibly have Greater Restoration on it. Granted, if your campaign has lots of Night Hags or petrification effects, you might want or not want your players having access to that.
Wings of Flying - While not quite flight at will, it's pretty close.
And of course, being strong doesn't mean you should never let your players have these items. It just means you should ask yourself how powerful you want them to be for your campaign.
More often then not the Bag of Beans does something harmful, like spawning a hostile monster. Its not op. As for the deck of many things, it can either be super overpowered or have some horrible effect. I have to agree that it is op.
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.
While the creatures do not scale well to high level parties they are really efficient at low level parties. On average the CR of a beast pulled from a bag of tricks is apx 1/2, which when pulling 3 has an adjusted exp worth of 750. Which is somewhere between fighting one level 2 or 3 creature. For reference a Hard encounter for 4 level 5 players is worth 3k exp, that would mean it's 750 exp per player, so by that standard on average you are getting the same power of having a level 5 PC each day, for an item that is only uncommon and doesn't require any attunement!
It is also worth noting that this bag gives the player a pretty similar ability to what the Beast Master Ranger would get, so it's like a subclass in a neat (quite literal) bag for the player to pick. Granted the Beastmaster subclass gives neat little perks to it's beast, but it also has limitations which hinders it, and not to mention with a Bag of Tricks you can get 3!
Even at high level parties you can see some use, by asking your Rat to hold an action and wait for your arcane archer to take a shot and use the Help action when they do, giving them advantage (both of these things also don't require attack rolls and are guaranteed to happen, as long as the DM allows flanking of course). Meanwhile it can also stand flanking with the Paladin giving them advantage in the meantime. Around 1/3-1/2 of creatures also have a chance to knock the enemy prone which is just as useful regardless of levels.
And when all is said and done a-lot of these creatures can be one shot by most enemies, but each attack that is made against one your THREE animal companions, let them! That's less attacks going against your party. If the boss wants to spend one of it's attacks to deal with my animal that has 1 HP instead of attacking and dealing 20 damage to our Tank I am a-o-k with that! That's less healing the healer needs to do and/or less potions you need to use, saving your party money/spell slots! The only real downside I see to them is an AoE effect popping them all, but let's face it if an enemy has an AoE that deals on average 30+ damage, chances are you're a pretty high level party, and most of your other uncommon, non-attunement magic items will be that effective at those levels of play either.
Also using your small animals as recon is useful at any level for any party that doesn't have a wizard with Find Familiar or a Chain Warlock, and bigger animals can be sold as temporary beasts of labor, simply command your beast to follow the customer around for the day and listen to WHATEVER they say! And with a deceptive character you could swindle people by selling them perfectly trained animals which listen to every command you give them, but what you don't tell them is they poof at the end of the day as you skip town! And for the most part you can easily get away with it if you just make use of disguise self, as they will be looking for an imaginary, wondrous beast tamer!
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...
You have not known overpowered until your level 2 players persuade the villain who is forcing them to go into the cursed mine to come down and see that they've cleared, it, and the raging barbarian shoves said NPC villain into a cloud of acidic gas that instantly kills them (an obstacle the PCs were meant to find a way around), then vent the mine so that the gas clears, leaving them to pick up the cube of force that the villain was using to prevent them leaving the mine.
I love my inventive players. They should never have got hold of that (I absolutely didn't intend for them to even fight the villain). So they levelled up at the end of the dungeon, and have had the Cube of Force ever since.
If you rule the activated cube's forcefield cant move through walls, it brings up the very odd question of "what happens when I try walking on water."
Ring of Warmth - it is objectively superior to a Ring of Resistance to cold, and it is uncommon instead of rare. A mistake?
I've noticed boots of the Winterlands are the same, was rings of resistance put to high or was it that the magic items weren't compared to each other.
You guys need to realize that you could wear 3 rings, but only one pair of boots and the boots slot is heavily contested by better options, incl. Winged Boots.
Ring of Warmth - it is objectively superior to a Ring of Resistance to cold, and it is uncommon instead of rare. A mistake?
I've noticed boots of the Winterlands are the same, was rings of resistance put to high or was it that the magic items weren't compared to each other.
You guys need to realize that you could wear 3 rings, but only one pair of boots and the boots slot is heavily contested by better options, incl. Winged Boots.
Winged Boots that are also - hilariously - uncommon. I think we'll see rarity and loot table rebalancing in the 2024 rules rerelease.
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Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
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from the ravnica book the following item is powerful. Illusionist's Bracers just give it to a high level warlock with agonizing blast and watchout.
EDIT: fixed stuff
Was going to post this one. Totally broken.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
Was going to say the same thing it is basically action surge as an item for cantrips which is nutty
The solution is to give the items to the baddies. Don't just let PCs decide what items they want... unless you are going for that kind of crazy game play. If the PCs have access to a staff of the python... or what ever the heck... then toss a few to the local Orc shamans and see what happens. I personally love high power magic items... i beat the tar out of my PCs for a good number of levels prior to them achieving high level equipment... so once they become god like... let them bask in the glory. Not to mention, not every problem in your world should be combat related.
The problem with that list is that it prices some things - specifically Weapons of Warning - insanely high. As in 'the sixth most expensive combat item in the game' high when the rest of the game assumes they're only Uncommon, and the author provided no justification for pricing them so high.
They also didn't bother to put a price on a large number of other items, including almost anything with an AC bonus.
I honestly don't think that many items are terribly overpowered, provided the DM places them correctly. You think it's ridiculous how powerful your 5th level paladin becomes when he gets a Holy Avenger? Well, yeah, it is. Very rare and Legendary magic items should either be used by the villains, acquired for the final act by the heroes, or be part of a sidequest where they truly have to earn that power. Stuff that grants wishes shouldn't even be in the hands of the party during the campaign, it should be the focus of the campaign, or at least a sidequest, and if you're worried about it being broken, either limit the wishes to spell replication or monkey paw them.
As for items that I do think you should be wary of, here are a few:
Yeah, I think the devs underestimated just how powerful disadvantage can be. I have a player who constantly asks about getting this item again after having it on a previous character.
Attuning to it gives you +1 to AC and it has 10 charges. Mage Armour costs 1 charge and Shield costs 2. If you spend the last charge, staff dies on a roll of 1 on a d20. So, essentially, it frees up all your 1st-level slots which are often spent on Mage Armour at the start of the day, and then four Shields without risking the staff's destruction.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
I was unaware of this item. How THAT got through a play test is ...well madness?
I would let it work on cantrips that didn't do damage...or let it have charges or per day effect. But RAW it would be banned in my games.
What are the requirements to attune it? I know you need to be a caster who can cast those spells. Do you need to actually have/know them, or just have them on your list of spells that you can get?
Well by its description you have to know the cantrip to cast the cantrip, so I would say you have to actually know them myself.
A few more additions, again, keeping with my theme of uncommon or rare magic items:
And of course, being strong doesn't mean you should never let your players have these items. It just means you should ask yourself how powerful you want them to be for your campaign.
More often then not the Bag of Beans does something harmful, like spawning a hostile monster. Its not op. As for the deck of many things, it can either be super overpowered or have some horrible effect. I have to agree that it is op.
I've noticed boots of the Winterlands are the same, was rings of resistance put to high or was it that the magic items weren't compared to each other.
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.
While the creatures do not scale well to high level parties they are really efficient at low level parties. On average the CR of a beast pulled from a bag of tricks is apx 1/2, which when pulling 3 has an adjusted exp worth of 750. Which is somewhere between fighting one level 2 or 3 creature. For reference a Hard encounter for 4 level 5 players is worth 3k exp, that would mean it's 750 exp per player, so by that standard on average you are getting the same power of having a level 5 PC each day, for an item that is only uncommon and doesn't require any attunement!
It is also worth noting that this bag gives the player a pretty similar ability to what the Beast Master Ranger would get, so it's like a subclass in a neat (quite literal) bag for the player to pick. Granted the Beastmaster subclass gives neat little perks to it's beast, but it also has limitations which hinders it, and not to mention with a Bag of Tricks you can get 3!
Even at high level parties you can see some use, by asking your Rat to hold an action and wait for your arcane archer to take a shot and use the Help action when they do, giving them advantage (both of these things also don't require attack rolls and are guaranteed to happen, as long as the DM allows flanking of course). Meanwhile it can also stand flanking with the Paladin giving them advantage in the meantime. Around 1/3-1/2 of creatures also have a chance to knock the enemy prone which is just as useful regardless of levels.
And when all is said and done a-lot of these creatures can be one shot by most enemies, but each attack that is made against one your THREE animal companions, let them! That's less attacks going against your party. If the boss wants to spend one of it's attacks to deal with my animal that has 1 HP instead of attacking and dealing 20 damage to our Tank I am a-o-k with that! That's less healing the healer needs to do and/or less potions you need to use, saving your party money/spell slots! The only real downside I see to them is an AoE effect popping them all, but let's face it if an enemy has an AoE that deals on average 30+ damage, chances are you're a pretty high level party, and most of your other uncommon, non-attunement magic items will be that effective at those levels of play either.
Also using your small animals as recon is useful at any level for any party that doesn't have a wizard with Find Familiar or a Chain Warlock, and bigger animals can be sold as temporary beasts of labor, simply command your beast to follow the customer around for the day and listen to WHATEVER they say! And with a deceptive character you could swindle people by selling them perfectly trained animals which listen to every command you give them, but what you don't tell them is they poof at the end of the day as you skip town! And for the most part you can easily get away with it if you just make use of disguise self, as they will be looking for an imaginary, wondrous beast tamer!
Rod of security. Bring 19 friends and 10 days of leisure
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet
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Knight of random
Is the weapon of warning canon?
You have not known overpowered until your level 2 players persuade the villain who is forcing them to go into the cursed mine to come down and see that they've cleared, it, and the raging barbarian shoves said NPC villain into a cloud of acidic gas that instantly kills them (an obstacle the PCs were meant to find a way around), then vent the mine so that the gas clears, leaving them to pick up the cube of force that the villain was using to prevent them leaving the mine.
I love my inventive players. They should never have got hold of that (I absolutely didn't intend for them to even fight the villain). So they levelled up at the end of the dungeon, and have had the Cube of Force ever since.
If you rule the activated cube's forcefield cant move through walls, it brings up the very odd question of "what happens when I try walking on water."
You guys need to realize that you could wear 3 rings, but only one pair of boots and the boots slot is heavily contested by better options, incl. Winged Boots.
Winged Boots that are also - hilariously - uncommon. I think we'll see rarity and loot table rebalancing in the 2024 rules rerelease.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.