My party has a druid, barbarian, bard, a fruit obsessed monk and a heavily themed wizard/necromancer (who has an 18 in con for some reason) they're level 1 currently, and Im planning to give them magic items around level 4 or 5, is that a good level for a sheild guardian, if not, when?
Why are you giving them a shield guardian? Are you expecting them to earn it somehow?
Also, level 4 or 5 is way too early. A single shield guardian is CR 7. Unless you want them to punch way above their weight and start taking down things 3 or 4 CRs above what the rules intend, this thing will OP them that early on.
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Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I'm basically asking what level they should be before I give them 1000 gold
That is not the same question to create an amulet themselves they would need a shield guardian to link it to, I would also say it would require a very high arcane skill.
To summon a CR7 Fey or elemental requires a 7th level spell, so the castervwould need to be at least level 13. The amulet is more powerful as it does not require concentration and is not disappear after 1 hour. Therefore I would go with something like level 15.
By the way 1000 gold at level 4 to 5 is about right.
If this is your plan rather than something the PCs know about and choose to do, maybe your guardian is just an NPC that you can drop into the story when it's appropriate. I'm getting vibes here that this is something you really want to have in the campaign story, and it may make sense to unbound yourself from the rules of the amulet so you can better tell the story you want to tell.
If there is something in the story that makes you want one of the characters to have a shield guardian I would find a way of doing it that makes it temporary.
At level 4-5 the shield guardian wont be under threat of being destroyed (unless the enemies are powerful enough to make it very likely everyone in the party apart from the amulet wearer will be killed.
An example, if you want one of the characters to have an bounty on their head so every assassin in the realm will try to kill them (but not the rest of the party) you could have an friendly NPC lend them the amulate to protect them until the danger is passed. During that time in coombat nearly every attack is made against the amulet wearer (with damaged halved and a +2 to AC that should be manageable) but when the threat is over they would need to hand the amulet back or face the wrath of a high powered character to whom it belongs.
Despite the power and leverage the shield guardian can give, you can always implement plot reasons to mitigate it's potential abuse while also giving room for growth. For example, how is the shield guardian controlled? Maybe it needs to learn a new language? Or has trouble interpreting the owner? It might be gaining it's own sentience and gets paralyzed with some orders. There's many reasons to lean into rather than just give a player free reign to abuse a magical creature, because the loss of challenge isn't really fun, but building up and seeing an ally grow IS fun
+1 for building the Shield Guardian into the story. Buying/Finding a Master's Amulet is a great adventure hook for tracking down the guardian itself.
+1 for baking in a contingency, in case it unbalances the party. (e.g. give it a damaged core, so that it is slowly falling apart. Or let there be a second Master's Amulet that controls it, so that there can be a contest of wills.)
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I have a 5 person party, and I'm planning on giving one a sheild guardian, what level should they be before I give it? I'm a DM btw
My party has a druid, barbarian, bard, a fruit obsessed monk and a heavily themed wizard/necromancer (who has an 18 in con for some reason) they're level 1 currently, and Im planning to give them magic items around level 4 or 5, is that a good level for a sheild guardian, if not, when?
I'm basically asking what level they should be before I give them 1000 gold
Why are you giving them a shield guardian? Are you expecting them to earn it somehow?
Also, level 4 or 5 is way too early. A single shield guardian is CR 7. Unless you want them to punch way above their weight and start taking down things 3 or 4 CRs above what the rules intend, this thing will OP them that early on.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
That is not the same question to create an amulet themselves they would need a shield guardian to link it to, I would also say it would require a very high arcane skill.
To summon a CR7 Fey or elemental requires a 7th level spell, so the castervwould need to be at least level 13. The amulet is more powerful as it does not require concentration and is not disappear after 1 hour. Therefore I would go with something like level 15.
By the way 1000 gold at level 4 to 5 is about right.
If this is your plan rather than something the PCs know about and choose to do, maybe your guardian is just an NPC that you can drop into the story when it's appropriate. I'm getting vibes here that this is something you really want to have in the campaign story, and it may make sense to unbound yourself from the rules of the amulet so you can better tell the story you want to tell.
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
If there is something in the story that makes you want one of the characters to have a shield guardian I would find a way of doing it that makes it temporary.
At level 4-5 the shield guardian wont be under threat of being destroyed (unless the enemies are powerful enough to make it very likely everyone in the party apart from the amulet wearer will be killed.
An example, if you want one of the characters to have an bounty on their head so every assassin in the realm will try to kill them (but not the rest of the party) you could have an friendly NPC lend them the amulate to protect them until the danger is passed. During that time in coombat nearly every attack is made against the amulet wearer (with damaged halved and a +2 to AC that should be manageable) but when the threat is over they would need to hand the amulet back or face the wrath of a high powered character to whom it belongs.
Despite the power and leverage the shield guardian can give, you can always implement plot reasons to mitigate it's potential abuse while also giving room for growth. For example, how is the shield guardian controlled? Maybe it needs to learn a new language? Or has trouble interpreting the owner? It might be gaining it's own sentience and gets paralyzed with some orders. There's many reasons to lean into rather than just give a player free reign to abuse a magical creature, because the loss of challenge isn't really fun, but building up and seeing an ally grow IS fun
+1 for Level 15 being appropriate.
+1 for building the Shield Guardian into the story. Buying/Finding a Master's Amulet is a great adventure hook for tracking down the guardian itself.
+1 for baking in a contingency, in case it unbalances the party. (e.g. give it a damaged core, so that it is slowly falling apart. Or let there be a second Master's Amulet that controls it, so that there can be a contest of wills.)