Hey, new DM here and I had a few questions. I want to run a campaign in which the 6 pc's have to journey to find six magical masks (one for each of them). Now comes the issue balancing. how do I make the masks powerful but not cause a few PC's to get powerful items early while the others get left behind till they find their masks? I was thinking about making the masks do nothing unless all PC's had them but then I fear that they'll lose interest in finding them if they offer no boost right of the bat.
I would think that your idea of them only gaining powers after they were all collected would be good and would only motivate your players more to finish the job. You probably know your players better than I do though so I will trust your judgement. You could take the middle path between those options though and have the masks become more powerful the more of them are collected. This will mean more work on your side because you will have to make 21 magic items instead of 6. Another option is to have them only be really powerful against a certain type of enemy, maybe a boss that they need to beat after collecting each one(each mask could only work well on its respective boss) or the enemies in the next dungeon.
Also, just curious, what ideas do you have for these mask's abilities?
I think you've got a basically good idea; having the masks only gain their full power once all six are collected is a good plan. If you're worried your players will lose interest, you may want to have the masks grow stronger once they hit certain thresholds; 1 mask by itself has no power, 2 masks together each gain power equal to a Common magic item; 3 or 4 together each gain power equal an Uncommon magic item, and all 6 together unlock their full power, equivalent to Rare magic items.
If you go this route, I would have the PCs find one mask right away, and then a second mask soon afterwards; no more than a couple sessions apart, if possible. That way the players clearly see, "Oh, these masks gain power when they're together. It would be cool to find them all."
You can adapt the effects of existing items to ease the workload of deciding what each mask can do at each level; for example, if you had a Mask of Light, maybe at the common level it sheds light like a Moon-Touched Sword when worn on the face, then at the Uncommon level gains a limited Blinding effect like a Gem of Brightness (though I wouldn't use permanent charges, obviously), then at the Rare level it also allows the wearer to manifest a Sun Blade.
Keeping the masks at about an Uncommon magic item level until they're all together encourages the players to find more, but also makes it easy to head off potential intra-party power imbalance by distributing other uncommon-level magic items. You can make it even easier on yourself by giving the other players strong but limited-use items, like a Necklace of Fireballs (maybe half-used when they find it).
I'm not really sure about base powers I think once all of them are together the party gets bonus's to stats as well as a bonus to some trait, and a BA that corresponds to their chosen class
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Hey, new DM here and I had a few questions. I want to run a campaign in which the 6 pc's have to journey to find six magical masks (one for each of them). Now comes the issue balancing. how do I make the masks powerful but not cause a few PC's to get powerful items early while the others get left behind till they find their masks? I was thinking about making the masks do nothing unless all PC's had them but then I fear that they'll lose interest in finding them if they offer no boost right of the bat.
I would think that your idea of them only gaining powers after they were all collected would be good and would only motivate your players more to finish the job. You probably know your players better than I do though so I will trust your judgement. You could take the middle path between those options though and have the masks become more powerful the more of them are collected. This will mean more work on your side because you will have to make 21 magic items instead of 6. Another option is to have them only be really powerful against a certain type of enemy, maybe a boss that they need to beat after collecting each one(each mask could only work well on its respective boss) or the enemies in the next dungeon.
Also, just curious, what ideas do you have for these mask's abilities?
I think you've got a basically good idea; having the masks only gain their full power once all six are collected is a good plan. If you're worried your players will lose interest, you may want to have the masks grow stronger once they hit certain thresholds; 1 mask by itself has no power, 2 masks together each gain power equal to a Common magic item; 3 or 4 together each gain power equal an Uncommon magic item, and all 6 together unlock their full power, equivalent to Rare magic items.
If you go this route, I would have the PCs find one mask right away, and then a second mask soon afterwards; no more than a couple sessions apart, if possible. That way the players clearly see, "Oh, these masks gain power when they're together. It would be cool to find them all."
You can adapt the effects of existing items to ease the workload of deciding what each mask can do at each level; for example, if you had a Mask of Light, maybe at the common level it sheds light like a Moon-Touched Sword when worn on the face, then at the Uncommon level gains a limited Blinding effect like a Gem of Brightness (though I wouldn't use permanent charges, obviously), then at the Rare level it also allows the wearer to manifest a Sun Blade.
Keeping the masks at about an Uncommon magic item level until they're all together encourages the players to find more, but also makes it easy to head off potential intra-party power imbalance by distributing other uncommon-level magic items. You can make it even easier on yourself by giving the other players strong but limited-use items, like a Necklace of Fireballs (maybe half-used when they find it).
I'm not really sure about base powers I think once all of them are together the party gets bonus's to stats as well as a bonus to some trait, and a BA that corresponds to their chosen class