Hello my dear friends, D&D players, I am planning to start some Level 20 OneShot with my friends, but I am having trouble deciding how many and which magic items I can make available to players, can you help me?!
One of the nice things about level 20 one-shots is the power trip opportunity it gives everyone to play with all these epic level skills and abilities, so I'd recommend doing the same with magic items. I'd say that each player should get one magic item of each rarity level... Everyone gets one artifact, one legendary item, etc., etc. This also frees you up as the DM to just throw whatever huge, horrible monster you want at your party. Toss down Tiamat and let them deal with that.
Give them things of equal power or a few people with one powerful item and some with two items or a few people with powerful extras. Ask them what they'd prefer and watch out for things that seem ok but are actually pretty dang powerful. Like a Bag of Devouring -- doesn't seem so nice compared with other stuff, but shove someones arm in there and they could get stuck there for forever (you can get out if you're sucked in) or tear the bag and they are sent to the Astral Plane. Or someone knows you stole something from them, and they shove their hand in the bag, and then they're (potentially) stuck.
As much as I admire your bravery for wanting to run lvl 20 one shots, you will die. Assuming there is at least 1 full caster in the party, you better add some safeties to your final boss, because I can tell you from experience, there is a big chance they snap their fingers and find a way turn him to ash. Say I say 1 magic item per person, and it can’t be higher then very rare. Honestly,lvl 20 is broken as it is, you don’t need to add anything more.
My group is setting up a level 20 adventure and we settled on 1/1/2/3 of legendary/very rare/rare/uncommon. We also considered 1/2/3/4. I don't think you can really do an artifact justice in a backstory, so those are strictly post-start items to me.
More items than this won't do a lot. It's tough to add significant power beyond the attunement cap. Artificers are an exception, but they're likely using several infusions that require attunement as well.
One of the nice things about level 20 one-shots is the power trip opportunity it gives everyone to play with all these epic level skills and abilities, so I'd recommend doing the same with magic items. I'd say that each player should get one magic item of each rarity level... Everyone gets one artifact, one legendary item, etc., etc. This also frees you up as the DM to just throw whatever huge, horrible monster you want at your party. Toss down Tiamat and let them deal with that.
I really can't echo this enough. Level 20 characters aren't powerful. They are reality altering forces. Even a level 20 fighter is going to just shake off hordes upon hordes of smaller enemies one by one because of how many attacks they have, how many hit points, and at that point what SHOULD be some really good armor/weapons, a magical AC boost of some sort, and a few utilities items. This doesn't even count the concept of wishes, or ability score increases that they might find.
Do NOT be afraid to just throw wacky shit at them. I think the absolute wierdest non homebrew thing I threw at a group was a Kraken ridding a Tarrasque.
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Hello my dear friends, D&D players, I am planning to start some Level 20 OneShot with my friends, but I am having trouble deciding how many and which magic items I can make available to players, can you help me?!
Thank you very much!
One of the nice things about level 20 one-shots is the power trip opportunity it gives everyone to play with all these epic level skills and abilities, so I'd recommend doing the same with magic items. I'd say that each player should get one magic item of each rarity level... Everyone gets one artifact, one legendary item, etc., etc. This also frees you up as the DM to just throw whatever huge, horrible monster you want at your party. Toss down Tiamat and let them deal with that.
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Give them things of equal power or a few people with one powerful item and some with two items or a few people with powerful extras. Ask them what they'd prefer and watch out for things that seem ok but are actually pretty dang powerful. Like a Bag of Devouring -- doesn't seem so nice compared with other stuff, but shove someones arm in there and they could get stuck there for forever (you can get out if you're sucked in) or tear the bag and they are sent to the Astral Plane. Or someone knows you stole something from them, and they shove their hand in the bag, and then they're (potentially) stuck.
"Hero of the Heavens" (Title by Drummer)
As much as I admire your bravery for wanting to run lvl 20 one shots, you will die. Assuming there is at least 1 full caster in the party, you better add some safeties to your final boss, because I can tell you from experience, there is a big chance they snap their fingers and find a way turn him to ash. Say I say 1 magic item per person, and it can’t be higher then very rare. Honestly,lvl 20 is broken as it is, you don’t need to add anything more.
My group is setting up a level 20 adventure and we settled on 1/1/2/3 of legendary/very rare/rare/uncommon. We also considered 1/2/3/4. I don't think you can really do an artifact justice in a backstory, so those are strictly post-start items to me.
More items than this won't do a lot. It's tough to add significant power beyond the attunement cap. Artificers are an exception, but they're likely using several infusions that require attunement as well.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I really can't echo this enough. Level 20 characters aren't powerful. They are reality altering forces. Even a level 20 fighter is going to just shake off hordes upon hordes of smaller enemies one by one because of how many attacks they have, how many hit points, and at that point what SHOULD be some really good armor/weapons, a magical AC boost of some sort, and a few utilities items. This doesn't even count the concept of wishes, or ability score increases that they might find.
Do NOT be afraid to just throw wacky shit at them. I think the absolute wierdest non homebrew thing I threw at a group was a Kraken ridding a Tarrasque.