Greetings! I am a relatively new DM and currently working on my first original campaign. At some point, my players shall encounter an evil-doer with this particular artifact.
First, some context: The premise behind this amulet is that a Lich was cursed and had his soul trapped within. Over the past thousand years or so he came up with a way of escape: corrupt anyone who wears the amulet with his power, and convince them to pursue becoming a lich themselves. Then, the lich will trick the wearer into switching their souls places during the ritual, and he will be back to wreak havoc in a brand new body!
I have added a custom system that allows the wearer to become more powerful the more corrupted they are by the Dark Lich's influence. Starting with a necromantic beam that turns those killed into zombie slaves, and eventually gaining a large number of useful spells if they don't get rid of it. However, if they let this keep going (and they will want to at first), they will be forced to pursue the ability to become a lich, multiclassing into a wizard if they do not currently know magic. Basically, by the time the wearer learns the amulet is affecting their playstyle it will be too late.
I understand that this is an ambitious magical item, and rather convoluted. I would value some feedback and advice on how to improve.
Also, the Lich is named Sa'aris in my campaign, so don't let that confuse you while reading.
Dark Amulet
The Dark Amulet consists of five charges. While wearing the Amulet, the wielder can use a bonus action to expend a single charge, firing a beam of necrotic energy up to 35 feet. Creatures caught in this line must make a DC 13 Dexterity Saving throw or take 3d8 points of necrotic damage, or half on a success. Multiple charges can be spent on a single attack, increasing total damage by 1d8 for every charge spent above the first. Dealing a killing blow with the necrotic beam grants a single charge back to the Amulet. Creatures killed by this attack rise as an undead during their next combat round. If a character is killed, they fall under control of the DM. All undead turned by the amulet will remain under the wearer's control until they are killed or take a short or long rest, at which point the necromantic magic will fade and the undead will return to motionless corpses, unable to be revived.
1d4 Charges are reovered during a short rest, and charges are refilled during a long rest.
Undead creatures turned by the amulet will be resurrected with half of their maximum hit points and half their walking speed. They are still able to utilize melee weapons with the skill they had while living, but cannot take other complex actions such as casting spells, or spending ki-points.
After every battle, if the wielder killed at least one creature with the necrotic beam, they must make a DC 10 (plus the number of creatures killed with the amulet) Wisdom saving throw. The base DC grows by one for every successful save. Each failure adds a point of corruption to the wielder. Base DC resets after a fail.
On corruption point 1: Wielder becomes extremely protective of the amulet, refusing to let anyone hold, touch, or examine the artifact unless persuaded (DC 13).
Corruption point 2: Wielder begins to hear whispers coming from the amulet and does not want to use any other magic items.
Corruption point 3: Sa'aris reveals himself as the spirit of the amulet and promises power beyond the wielder's imagination. Wielder can now cast spell 'Animate dead'. Note: Casting this spell requires two charges.
Corruption point 4: Wielder begins obsessing over necromancy and is forced to begin multiclassing as a wizard they do not posses natural magical skill. If the do not have the stats, they must do whatever it takes to increase those stats until they can multiclass as a wizard. They must take the 'school of necromancy' option, and their alignment becmes neutral.
Corruption point 5: Along with the cost of Animate Dead being reduced to one charge, the amulet gains the additional spells (note: casting spells at higher levels cost an additional charge per level increase): Hex (cost: 1 charge), False life (cost: 2 charge), Eyebite (cost: 4 charge).
Corruption point 6: Sa'aris shares the secrets of the Lich with the wielder, and gain the following spells: Chill touch (cost: 1 charge) Inflict wounds (cost: 2 charge), Harm (cost: 5 charge) Zombies formed by the amulet are permanently allied to the wielder.
Corruption point 7: Wielder is completely consumed by Sa'aris' corruption and will begin following his steps to become a lich. Their alignment becomes evil
That sounds pretty creative and awesome. If it were my item, I would probably do these two things:
* Also create some ways the item can punish the player for making decisions against the interests of the lich. For example if the players makes a decision that goes against their new alignment, goes too long without using the amulet or tries to take it off, they lose favor 'points' with the lich. Perhaps their physical appearance gets ugly (or lose charisma), healing magic becomes less effective on them, or the amulet could leave a permanent scar on their psyche/body if it is forcibly removed (lose stats). That way the lich uses a stick and a carrot to get the player to do what he wants. If it is clear the amulet is being worn by a goodie two shoes, the lich might look for another sucker to transfer the amulet to.
* (You may have already intended this) but I would keep most of the details to myself and just tell the player about the necromancy beam power. If it seems too complicated or foreboding they may not want to risk using it, and you want them to at least try it for a while before they have a chance to see that it is a double edged sword.
Hm... Not sure if I like the forced wizard multiclassing part. I don't think every player will appreciate it if you force them to drastically change their build. If you want to have this, make sure your players understand clearly what is happening to them. There are also some other parts of this that I want to ask about.
What if the player already is a wizard? Does he just take another level in wizardry? And what if he is in a different school of magic? He can't take another specialization just like that, so what are your plans in that case?
For the DC on the wisdom saving throw after every battle, I'd change it to (10 + charges used) instead of (10 + per creature killed), since it makes more sense to me that using more of the amulet's power would corrupt you faster. Your version could also prove rather disastrous if the player uses it to clear lots of low hp enemies.
When it comes to the duration of the zombies created, try having a set time for it. As it is now, their duration can range from a few minutes to several days if your party never rests, which doesn't go well with your "necromantic magic fades" explanation.
Put a limit on how strong the zombies created by the amulet can be. Doesn't make much sense that the lich's magic can create zombies stronger than itself. Especially not when it is someone else using the lich's powers.
Change the DC on the dex saving throw for the deathlaser to include the player's spellcasting modifier (or 8 + int + proficiency), if they have any. A wizard would probably be better at using the deathlazor than a barbarian, right?
Recharging on a short rest is like encouraging the players to use it very often. Not to mention that there aren't many magical items that recharges on short rest. Unless you want the players to go rapidfire with the death ray and get corrupted to the bone within one week ingame, I'd drop the short rest recharging.
Keep the persuasion DC to a contest between insight vs persuasion/deception. Some player characters are more distrusting than others, so it doesn't make much sense that they all have the same DC to get persuaded. Remember to tell the players that they never want to let go of their precious.
What do you do with the alignment change if the player already is evil? Do they change to neutral, and then back to evil?
Do you have any way of removing corruption points? Like if the amulet gets separated from the player over an extended period of time? Will the player still have the other abilities from the amulet if they have that?
Personally I'd make Sa'aris try to turn the wielder of the amulet into his minion instead of a new lich, who can turn to a threat to Sa'aris, but it's your item, so you decide.
Thanks for the great feedback! The forced wizard multi class part was probably the most problematicthing I had included. I mostly added this knowing that none of my players are currently (and as far as I know won't be) interested in the wizard class. Though I can certainly see the problems this would cause in both normal cases (if other DMs wanted to use this item), and in my campaign as well.
The rest of your points are exactly what I was hoping to find some good opinions on. I will definitely keep these in mind when I go back to editing!
The idea of the Lich controlling the wearer while they bear the amulet is a concept I hadn't really considered!
And I totally agree. Players with the amulet will only learn about the new powers and side effects as they are pulled deeper and deeper into the corruption of the Lich inside. Not all magic items have nice, detailed instruction manuals after all.
Thanks for the feedback!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Greetings! I am a relatively new DM and currently working on my first original campaign. At some point, my players shall encounter an evil-doer with this particular artifact.
First, some context: The premise behind this amulet is that a Lich was cursed and had his soul trapped within. Over the past thousand years or so he came up with a way of escape: corrupt anyone who wears the amulet with his power, and convince them to pursue becoming a lich themselves. Then, the lich will trick the wearer into switching their souls places during the ritual, and he will be back to wreak havoc in a brand new body!
I have added a custom system that allows the wearer to become more powerful the more corrupted they are by the Dark Lich's influence. Starting with a necromantic beam that turns those killed into zombie slaves, and eventually gaining a large number of useful spells if they don't get rid of it. However, if they let this keep going (and they will want to at first), they will be forced to pursue the ability to become a lich, multiclassing into a wizard if they do not currently know magic. Basically, by the time the wearer learns the amulet is affecting their playstyle it will be too late.
I understand that this is an ambitious magical item, and rather convoluted. I would value some feedback and advice on how to improve.
Also, the Lich is named Sa'aris in my campaign, so don't let that confuse you while reading.
Dark Amulet
The Dark Amulet consists of five charges. While wearing the Amulet, the wielder can use a bonus action to expend a single charge, firing a beam of necrotic energy up to 35 feet. Creatures caught in this line must make a DC 13 Dexterity Saving throw or take 3d8 points of necrotic damage, or half on a success. Multiple charges can be spent on a single attack, increasing total damage by 1d8 for every charge spent above the first. Dealing a killing blow with the necrotic beam grants a single charge back to the Amulet. Creatures killed by this attack rise as an undead during their next combat round. If a character is killed, they fall under control of the DM. All undead turned by the amulet will remain under the wearer's control until they are killed or take a short or long rest, at which point the necromantic magic will fade and the undead will return to motionless corpses, unable to be revived.
1d4 Charges are reovered during a short rest, and charges are refilled during a long rest.
Undead creatures turned by the amulet will be resurrected with half of their maximum hit points and half their walking speed. They are still able to utilize melee weapons with the skill they had while living, but cannot take other complex actions such as casting spells, or spending ki-points.
After every battle, if the wielder killed at least one creature with the necrotic beam, they must make a DC 10 (plus the number of creatures killed with the amulet) Wisdom saving throw. The base DC grows by one for every successful save. Each failure adds a point of corruption to the wielder. Base DC resets after a fail.
On corruption point 1: Wielder becomes extremely protective of the amulet, refusing to let anyone hold, touch, or examine the artifact unless persuaded (DC 13).
Corruption point 2: Wielder begins to hear whispers coming from the amulet and does not want to use any other magic items.
Corruption point 3: Sa'aris reveals himself as the spirit of the amulet and promises power beyond the wielder's imagination. Wielder can now cast spell 'Animate dead'. Note: Casting this spell requires two charges.
Corruption point 4: Wielder begins obsessing over necromancy and is forced to begin multiclassing as a wizard they do not posses natural magical skill. If the do not have the stats, they must do whatever it takes to increase those stats until they can multiclass as a wizard. They must take the 'school of necromancy' option, and their alignment becmes neutral.
Corruption point 5: Along with the cost of Animate Dead being reduced to one charge, the amulet gains the additional spells (note: casting spells at higher levels cost an additional charge per level increase): Hex (cost: 1 charge), False life (cost: 2 charge), Eyebite (cost: 4 charge).
Corruption point 6: Sa'aris shares the secrets of the Lich with the wielder, and gain the following spells: Chill touch (cost: 1 charge) Inflict wounds (cost: 2 charge), Harm (cost: 5 charge) Zombies formed by the amulet are permanently allied to the wielder.
Corruption point 7: Wielder is completely consumed by Sa'aris' corruption and will begin following his steps to become a lich. Their alignment becomes evil
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
That sounds pretty creative and awesome. If it were my item, I would probably do these two things:
* Also create some ways the item can punish the player for making decisions against the interests of the lich. For example if the players makes a decision that goes against their new alignment, goes too long without using the amulet or tries to take it off, they lose favor 'points' with the lich. Perhaps their physical appearance gets ugly (or lose charisma), healing magic becomes less effective on them, or the amulet could leave a permanent scar on their psyche/body if it is forcibly removed (lose stats). That way the lich uses a stick and a carrot to get the player to do what he wants. If it is clear the amulet is being worn by a goodie two shoes, the lich might look for another sucker to transfer the amulet to.
* (You may have already intended this) but I would keep most of the details to myself and just tell the player about the necromancy beam power. If it seems too complicated or foreboding they may not want to risk using it, and you want them to at least try it for a while before they have a chance to see that it is a double edged sword.
Very cool
Join the FriendlyGM Newsletter!
Hm... Not sure if I like the forced wizard multiclassing part. I don't think every player will appreciate it if you force them to drastically change their build. If you want to have this, make sure your players understand clearly what is happening to them. There are also some other parts of this that I want to ask about.
What if the player already is a wizard? Does he just take another level in wizardry? And what if he is in a different school of magic? He can't take another specialization just like that, so what are your plans in that case?
For the DC on the wisdom saving throw after every battle, I'd change it to (10 + charges used) instead of (10 + per creature killed), since it makes more sense to me that using more of the amulet's power would corrupt you faster. Your version could also prove rather disastrous if the player uses it to clear lots of low hp enemies.
When it comes to the duration of the zombies created, try having a set time for it. As it is now, their duration can range from a few minutes to several days if your party never rests, which doesn't go well with your "necromantic magic fades" explanation.
Put a limit on how strong the zombies created by the amulet can be. Doesn't make much sense that the lich's magic can create zombies stronger than itself. Especially not when it is someone else using the lich's powers.
Change the DC on the dex saving throw for the deathlaser to include the player's spellcasting modifier (or 8 + int + proficiency), if they have any. A wizard would probably be better at using the deathlazor than a barbarian, right?
Recharging on a short rest is like encouraging the players to use it very often. Not to mention that there aren't many magical items that recharges on short rest. Unless you want the players to go rapidfire with the death ray and get corrupted to the bone within one week ingame, I'd drop the short rest recharging.
Keep the persuasion DC to a contest between insight vs persuasion/deception. Some player characters are more distrusting than others, so it doesn't make much sense that they all have the same DC to get persuaded. Remember to tell the players that they never want to let go of their precious.
What do you do with the alignment change if the player already is evil? Do they change to neutral, and then back to evil?
Do you have any way of removing corruption points? Like if the amulet gets separated from the player over an extended period of time? Will the player still have the other abilities from the amulet if they have that?
Personally I'd make Sa'aris try to turn the wielder of the amulet into his minion instead of a new lich, who can turn to a threat to Sa'aris, but it's your item, so you decide.
Hope my thoughts about this will be helpful!
Thanks for the great feedback! The forced wizard multi class part was probably the most problematic thing I had included. I mostly added this knowing that none of my players are currently (and as far as I know won't be) interested in the wizard class. Though I can certainly see the problems this would cause in both normal cases (if other DMs wanted to use this item), and in my campaign as well.
The rest of your points are exactly what I was hoping to find some good opinions on. I will definitely keep these in mind when I go back to editing!
The idea of the Lich controlling the wearer while they bear the amulet is a concept I hadn't really considered!
And I totally agree. Players with the amulet will only learn about the new powers and side effects as they are pulled deeper and deeper into the corruption of the Lich inside. Not all magic items have nice, detailed instruction manuals after all.
Thanks for the feedback!