So I am running this game and magic items are sparse and they are more the miscellaneous magic item style things, bags of tricks etc. Which are all cool and fun. There have been multiple spell books for the wizard so far.
But pretty much nothing for the martials for their role. While scanning through it other than the laser guns I only spotted 2 magic weapons one is cursed the other a +2 trident which actually would fit one of the characters, the cleric who is a aquan elf. Martials get the short end of the stick under normal circumstances, here it seems to double down on it. What have other DMs done, at what levels. The wizard is already sitting pretty, but the 2 fighters will start lagging soon.
I get its going for a sort of survival story but this method impacts classes differently. The full casters are barely impacted at all by this. But the fighters get hit pretty hard.
You're right in identifying the problem, but there only is one real fix. Thankfully it's pretty straightforward - Just swap out anything you don't think will be used by anyone with an item you know that someone will. Keep it of the same rarity, and it ought to be balanced enough.
Okay, as someone who played a fighter in RotFM - the grey Bag of Tricks was the single most useful item we found and I possessed. Especially at low levels, it basically doubles or triples your action economy every single turn, since the creatures you summon get at least one attack. It also provides you an extra, free tank and can have huge influence on combat tactics if you command the summons to use the Help action and make them flank baddies.
The grey bag of tricks is indeed very useful at low levels, but if you read the description of it more carefully you'll see that commanding an animal is a bonus action. Thus, while you could summon three animals at once, you can only give orders to one, and at the expense if your bonus action. Of course.. you can also just ignore that too if you'd like to make the bag a lot more useful.
Personally, any spells or abilities that place additional creatures into the turn order I always find to be completely annoying, so I follow any RAW that excuses me to say 'no' to that.
And it can just as easily end up on the bard or the wizard etc. Though why they even thought adding one of the most annoying items in the game into it I wont fathom, they changed how summon spells work for a reason. The piles of actions summons just bog the game down.
You're right in identifying the problem, but there only is one real fix. Thankfully it's pretty straightforward - Just swap out anything you don't think will be used by anyone with an item you know that someone will. Keep it of the same rarity, and it ought to be balanced enough.
Thanks, that's a good idea keep the same rarity level swap the item.
Lol, my fighter owned and used the Bag of Tricks from levels 2-10. I'm well aware of how it works. More so, I would argue, than you are, as you do not need to do anything outside of the rules to make it more useful.
The item description says that you can give "general orders" to the creature, and that the summons stick around until the next dawn or they're reduced to 0 hit points. Thus, if you summon a creature when you're entering a dungeon or are traveling across the tundra, you can give it general orders to attack anything that attacks the party, and it will carry out those orders if combat initiates. You will only need to use bonus actions during the fight to give it new commands, such as "flank the ogre with me!" or "protect the bard!" or "retreat!"
Also, a fighter is the only class that can afford to burn a whole turn to summon/give orders if by some chance they didn't prepare for an encounter - they've got an Action Surge. And unless a fighter is dual-wielding or has rogue levels, bonus actions are basically useless in combat anyway, since the bonus action features they have are limited to once or twice per short rest. The Bag of Tricks actually gives more utility and options to martial classes in combat. Again, I speak from long experience as a martial character with this item in this particular campaign.
I get it if you don't like dealing with summons or animal companions (I'm a DM too, so I know how annoying it is). But to suggest this item is bad for fighters is just plain lack of understanding of the possibilities within RAW.
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So I am running this game and magic items are sparse and they are more the miscellaneous magic item style things, bags of tricks etc. Which are all cool and fun. There have been multiple spell books for the wizard so far.
But pretty much nothing for the martials for their role. While scanning through it other than the laser guns I only spotted 2 magic weapons one is cursed the other a +2 trident which actually would fit one of the characters, the cleric who is a aquan elf. Martials get the short end of the stick under normal circumstances, here it seems to double down on it. What have other DMs done, at what levels. The wizard is already sitting pretty, but the 2 fighters will start lagging soon.
I get its going for a sort of survival story but this method impacts classes differently. The full casters are barely impacted at all by this. But the fighters get hit pretty hard.
You're right in identifying the problem, but there only is one real fix. Thankfully it's pretty straightforward - Just swap out anything you don't think will be used by anyone with an item you know that someone will. Keep it of the same rarity, and it ought to be balanced enough.
Okay, as someone who played a fighter in RotFM - the grey Bag of Tricks was the single most useful item we found and I possessed. Especially at low levels, it basically doubles or triples your action economy every single turn, since the creatures you summon get at least one attack. It also provides you an extra, free tank and can have huge influence on combat tactics if you command the summons to use the Help action and make them flank baddies.
The grey bag of tricks is indeed very useful at low levels, but if you read the description of it more carefully you'll see that commanding an animal is a bonus action. Thus, while you could summon three animals at once, you can only give orders to one, and at the expense if your bonus action. Of course.. you can also just ignore that too if you'd like to make the bag a lot more useful.
Personally, any spells or abilities that place additional creatures into the turn order I always find to be completely annoying, so I follow any RAW that excuses me to say 'no' to that.
And it can just as easily end up on the bard or the wizard etc. Though why they even thought adding one of the most annoying items in the game into it I wont fathom, they changed how summon spells work for a reason. The piles of actions summons just bog the game down.
Thanks, that's a good idea keep the same rarity level swap the item.
Lol, my fighter owned and used the Bag of Tricks from levels 2-10. I'm well aware of how it works. More so, I would argue, than you are, as you do not need to do anything outside of the rules to make it more useful.
The item description says that you can give "general orders" to the creature, and that the summons stick around until the next dawn or they're reduced to 0 hit points. Thus, if you summon a creature when you're entering a dungeon or are traveling across the tundra, you can give it general orders to attack anything that attacks the party, and it will carry out those orders if combat initiates. You will only need to use bonus actions during the fight to give it new commands, such as "flank the ogre with me!" or "protect the bard!" or "retreat!"
Also, a fighter is the only class that can afford to burn a whole turn to summon/give orders if by some chance they didn't prepare for an encounter - they've got an Action Surge. And unless a fighter is dual-wielding or has rogue levels, bonus actions are basically useless in combat anyway, since the bonus action features they have are limited to once or twice per short rest. The Bag of Tricks actually gives more utility and options to martial classes in combat. Again, I speak from long experience as a martial character with this item in this particular campaign.
I get it if you don't like dealing with summons or animal companions (I'm a DM too, so I know how annoying it is). But to suggest this item is bad for fighters is just plain lack of understanding of the possibilities within RAW.