I have an idea for a curse, which I suggested somewhere in another thread but I've been pondering the ramifications of it and would like some help from the more seasoned players & DMs to see if there's anything which will cause bad interactions.
This item is a ring called the Ring of False Life.
This ring allows you to stack temporary hit-points - meaning that instead of choosing the highest of temporary hit-points, you stack them.
The curse is that the bearer can never be healed. All healing instead heals temporary hit-points. I am considering putting a hard cap on the temporary hit-points, if needs be.
This means that after a long rest, the bearer will lose all temporary hit-points, and if they roll their HP dice they gain that many temporary hit-points.
I can see that this could end up with someone ludicrously buffed, but also that if their temporary hit-points deplete and they are dropped to 3hp, then they will never heal up from that 3hp until they manage to de-curse themselves. I'm thinking of using it for lower level parties, so remove curse is rarer and there's less temporary hit-point sources for them, and so the risk of death by not healing is higher.
Please, pick this apart and tell me what can go horribly wrong with it!
This feels both very powerful and very detrimental. Good job.
Stacking Temp HP could end up giving the PC a lot of buffer, especially if regular healing gives them temp HP. Enough healing spells on them could leave them practically invincible if there isn't a cap, and since the temp HP only disappears on a long rest (or from damage, obviously) then they lose their temp HP at the same time the healers get back their spell slots. Of course, using their healing spells to buff this one person is certainly a heavy investment.
I think it works fine as is even without a cap on the temp HP, but only time will tell
This feels both very powerful and very detrimental. Good job.
Stacking Temp HP could end up giving the PC a lot of buffer, especially if regular healing gives them temp HP. Enough healing spells on them could leave them practically invincible if there isn't a cap, and since the temp HP only disappears on a long rest (or from damage, obviously) then they lose their temp HP at the same time the healers get back their spell slots. Of course, using their healing spells to buff this one person is certainly a heavy investment.
I think it works fine as is even without a cap on the temp HP, but only time will tell
That's good, you're reflecting my own feelings on this. The ways it could go:
1: the bearer gets all the buffs, and becomes almost invincible, and the enemies notice and attack the healers instead, who have used spell slots already.
2: the bearer panics when they realise the curse and try to get rid of it ASAP.
I'm hoping it will seem really powerful, then there will come an encounter with big damage, and they will lose actual HP, and suddenly feel vulnerable, no matter how many temporary HP they have on top. If you have 3HP and 50 temporary HP, you're going to feel nervous with every hit!
That is a truly evil item. Heck, some of our players would re-attune to this item after the curse was removed. It's one of those "Phenomenal Cosmic Powers!!!... Itty bitty living space" type of items. I mean, who doesn't want tons of HP? Suddenly you have front line fighting Warlocks who think it's the best thing since Hexblade.
The reset at Long Rest is definitely a must on this. If you do put a cap on it, make it based off of character level, not just a hard cap. Cause let's face it, this ring is a temptation with a capitol T. And it is all fun and games until things start getting desperate.
Not only that... this makes picking up the Inspiring Leader feat useful! Well done! I never thought I would actually say that... lol
Let us know when you craft it... I want to try this monster out and see if I might dump it in some abandoned mine somewhere on top of a skeleton.
Instantly broken by a level 2 warlock with the Fiendish Vigor invocation that lets them cast false life at will ... infinite hit points. However, if you put a cap on the hit points then it becomes very clear when it is a useful item and when to get rid of it.
If the limit is too low - it is useless and no one will use it because they will run out of temp hit points and have no way to be healed and thus die.
If the number of hit points is large enough to be attractive then it may be worth using for a while. Parties might even decide to keep it - fill the hit point buffer if you have a good way like the invocation or lots of downtime - use up the buffer and cast remove curse to allow regular healing. Rinse and repeat.
So, it is an interesting concept for a magic item but I think it will be either useless or too useful and this will change as the characters advance in levels. In addition, since filling the temp hit point buffer will usually cost spells ... it may not be worth using at all and characters will just want to be rid of it and since a low level party tends to have few sources of temp hit points, not very many hit points to start with, and limited spell slots - there is a decent chance that whoever ends up with the item will wind up dead if they are in the front lines for any fighting.
However, it is supposed to be a cursed item - so perhaps killing off a character is a goal - but depending on the characters in the party and their resources it could be a powerful and useful item even though it is supposed to be cursed.
Instantly broken by a level 2 warlock with the Fiendish Vigor invocation that lets them cast false life at will ... infinite hit points.
Good catch! I definitely think it's going to need some sort of solution to any kind of "spam" - like drinking loads of health potions, or spamming healing or temp HP spells.
since a low level party tends to have few sources of temp hit points, not very many hit points to start with, and limited spell slots - there is a decent chance that whoever ends up with the item will wind up dead if they are in the front lines for any fighting.
It also converts any healing to temporary hitpoints, which would make sources of the boost a bit more common. maybe too common.
I feel like it's going to lure people into over-investing in using their healing to boost one individual, which can then leave the rest of the party vulnerable.
Perhaps stating the ring can only store each instance of a spell or potion once, so using 2 healing potions won't work, nor will spamming one type of HP boost. It makes it into the party working out the various combos for them to get maximum HP into it. It would take some DM bookkeeping though. Or, perhaps it can only benefit from each type of healing once, ever. So you have to work out new ways to boost your HP as the things which you did before stop working?
An alternative version, which I think is distinct enough to be made separately, albeit similar:
Ring of the Fading Hero
When you attune to this ring, you heal to full hp and gain 5d20 temporary hit-points. These hit-points do not reset on a long rest, and can only be removed through damage or removing the ring.
Curse: You cannot gain hit-points in any way whilst you are attuned to this ring, except to regain 1HP if you are stabilized from 0HP (I don't want it to cause "technically instant death").
So whoever finds it thinks "wow, I'll be damn near invincible!", but then the HP start to dwindle, and as soon as they lose some normal HP and ask for healing, they realise that they are going to have to go from the all-star tank of the party to the fragile "please don't kill me" character. Time to find a curse-breaker!
This could well be a purely beneficial ring to a party with ready access to remove curse, or a really tricky one for lower level parties or ones without such things!
I would definitely set a cap on the temp hitpoints allowed by this item, (if the ring were to grant 5d20 temp when attuned, I'd set the cap at 100 and make it a fairly high rarity ring).
I'd also introduce creatures who lower your hitpoint maximum into your campaign as well...just to hammer the point home a little further with the curse (since even if they only took off the temp HP, the attack would still lower the max HP "behind" the temp stuff.
If you want a lower rarity, I'd lower the temp gained on attunement and the max cap respectively.
One item that will be important...you will have to be prepared to make the curse known fairly quickly...as in as soon as the player tries to heal in any way. Mechanically this concept sounds cool, but unless you want to take over tracking the players Hitpoints, they will have to know that the healing is going into temp rather than full (even if they don't know why that is happening)
Also a twilight cleric could have some fun loading them up with 10d6 any time they haven’t used their channel divinity. Not as bad as the warlock mentioned above, but still pretty strong.
In either case, maybe make a provision that once it’s been removed it can’t be attuned by the same character again. Remove curse is available at level 5, and doesn’t have any expensive material components. It could turn into pop the ring on and attune in the morning, wear it until the temp hp runs out, then get remove curse, take it off, and repeat the next day.
Which I realize now is pretty much what acme was getting at with saying it destroys the ring.
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I have an idea for a curse, which I suggested somewhere in another thread but I've been pondering the ramifications of it and would like some help from the more seasoned players & DMs to see if there's anything which will cause bad interactions.
This item is a ring called the Ring of False Life.
This ring allows you to stack temporary hit-points - meaning that instead of choosing the highest of temporary hit-points, you stack them.
The curse is that the bearer can never be healed. All healing instead heals temporary hit-points. I am considering putting a hard cap on the temporary hit-points, if needs be.
This means that after a long rest, the bearer will lose all temporary hit-points, and if they roll their HP dice they gain that many temporary hit-points.
I can see that this could end up with someone ludicrously buffed, but also that if their temporary hit-points deplete and they are dropped to 3hp, then they will never heal up from that 3hp until they manage to de-curse themselves. I'm thinking of using it for lower level parties, so remove curse is rarer and there's less temporary hit-point sources for them, and so the risk of death by not healing is higher.
Please, pick this apart and tell me what can go horribly wrong with it!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
This feels both very powerful and very detrimental. Good job.
Stacking Temp HP could end up giving the PC a lot of buffer, especially if regular healing gives them temp HP. Enough healing spells on them could leave them practically invincible if there isn't a cap, and since the temp HP only disappears on a long rest (or from damage, obviously) then they lose their temp HP at the same time the healers get back their spell slots. Of course, using their healing spells to buff this one person is certainly a heavy investment.
I think it works fine as is even without a cap on the temp HP, but only time will tell
That's good, you're reflecting my own feelings on this. The ways it could go:
1: the bearer gets all the buffs, and becomes almost invincible, and the enemies notice and attack the healers instead, who have used spell slots already.
2: the bearer panics when they realise the curse and try to get rid of it ASAP.
I'm hoping it will seem really powerful, then there will come an encounter with big damage, and they will lose actual HP, and suddenly feel vulnerable, no matter how many temporary HP they have on top. If you have 3HP and 50 temporary HP, you're going to feel nervous with every hit!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
That is a truly evil item. Heck, some of our players would re-attune to this item after the curse was removed. It's one of those "Phenomenal Cosmic Powers!!!... Itty bitty living space" type of items. I mean, who doesn't want tons of HP? Suddenly you have front line fighting Warlocks who think it's the best thing since Hexblade.
The reset at Long Rest is definitely a must on this. If you do put a cap on it, make it based off of character level, not just a hard cap. Cause let's face it, this ring is a temptation with a capitol T. And it is all fun and games until things start getting desperate.
Not only that... this makes picking up the Inspiring Leader feat useful! Well done! I never thought I would actually say that... lol
Let us know when you craft it... I want to try this monster out and see if I might dump it in some abandoned mine somewhere on top of a skeleton.
Instantly broken by a level 2 warlock with the Fiendish Vigor invocation that lets them cast false life at will ... infinite hit points. However, if you put a cap on the hit points then it becomes very clear when it is a useful item and when to get rid of it.
If the limit is too low - it is useless and no one will use it because they will run out of temp hit points and have no way to be healed and thus die.
If the number of hit points is large enough to be attractive then it may be worth using for a while. Parties might even decide to keep it - fill the hit point buffer if you have a good way like the invocation or lots of downtime - use up the buffer and cast remove curse to allow regular healing. Rinse and repeat.
So, it is an interesting concept for a magic item but I think it will be either useless or too useful and this will change as the characters advance in levels. In addition, since filling the temp hit point buffer will usually cost spells ... it may not be worth using at all and characters will just want to be rid of it and since a low level party tends to have few sources of temp hit points, not very many hit points to start with, and limited spell slots - there is a decent chance that whoever ends up with the item will wind up dead if they are in the front lines for any fighting.
However, it is supposed to be a cursed item - so perhaps killing off a character is a goal - but depending on the characters in the party and their resources it could be a powerful and useful item even though it is supposed to be cursed.
Good catch! I definitely think it's going to need some sort of solution to any kind of "spam" - like drinking loads of health potions, or spamming healing or temp HP spells.
It also converts any healing to temporary hitpoints, which would make sources of the boost a bit more common. maybe too common.
I feel like it's going to lure people into over-investing in using their healing to boost one individual, which can then leave the rest of the party vulnerable.
Perhaps stating the ring can only store each instance of a spell or potion once, so using 2 healing potions won't work, nor will spamming one type of HP boost. It makes it into the party working out the various combos for them to get maximum HP into it. It would take some DM bookkeeping though. Or, perhaps it can only benefit from each type of healing once, ever. So you have to work out new ways to boost your HP as the things which you did before stop working?
An alternative version, which I think is distinct enough to be made separately, albeit similar:
Ring of the Fading Hero
When you attune to this ring, you heal to full hp and gain 5d20 temporary hit-points. These hit-points do not reset on a long rest, and can only be removed through damage or removing the ring.
Curse: You cannot gain hit-points in any way whilst you are attuned to this ring, except to regain 1HP if you are stabilized from 0HP (I don't want it to cause "technically instant death").
So whoever finds it thinks "wow, I'll be damn near invincible!", but then the HP start to dwindle, and as soon as they lose some normal HP and ask for healing, they realise that they are going to have to go from the all-star tank of the party to the fragile "please don't kill me" character. Time to find a curse-breaker!
This could well be a purely beneficial ring to a party with ready access to remove curse, or a really tricky one for lower level parties or ones without such things!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
That was it... I couldn't find where that particular thing was. I couldn't remember if it was a cantrip but it had that cantrip feeling...
I would definitely set a cap on the temp hitpoints allowed by this item, (if the ring were to grant 5d20 temp when attuned, I'd set the cap at 100 and make it a fairly high rarity ring).
I'd also introduce creatures who lower your hitpoint maximum into your campaign as well...just to hammer the point home a little further with the curse (since even if they only took off the temp HP, the attack would still lower the max HP "behind" the temp stuff.
If you want a lower rarity, I'd lower the temp gained on attunement and the max cap respectively.
One item that will be important...you will have to be prepared to make the curse known fairly quickly...as in as soon as the player tries to heal in any way. Mechanically this concept sounds cool, but unless you want to take over tracking the players Hitpoints, they will have to know that the healing is going into temp rather than full (even if they don't know why that is happening)
Love the idea, as always there are holes to be poked. However these are just some abstract thoughts:
Not only does the curse prevent healing, but also raising your hit point maximum (or even reduces it)
As opposed to a "flat’ 5d20, twice (or a function of) your hit dice. (Fading Hero)
A caveat that remove curse destroys the ring.
Regardless 👏to your devious mind!
Also a twilight cleric could have some fun loading them up with 10d6 any time they haven’t used their channel divinity. Not as bad as the warlock mentioned above, but still pretty strong.
In either case, maybe make a provision that once it’s been removed it can’t be attuned by the same character again. Remove curse is available at level 5, and doesn’t have any expensive material components. It could turn into pop the ring on and attune in the morning, wear it until the temp hp runs out, then get remove curse, take it off, and repeat the next day.
Which I realize now is pretty much what acme was getting at with saying it destroys the ring.