Hi All! We've just wrapped up an 18 month campaign that climaxed with the PC saving the city of Waterdeep and earning the favour of Laeral Silverhand, the Open Lord.
One PC has asked, as a reward, if he could be bestowed a magical item. He's a great, immersive player and very competent too. Outside the game, he's hinted at some items he'd love his character to have - and I'm tempted to oblige him. He's a great player after all! However, I don't want to give him anything too OP or game breaking.
So in your experience, which of the below items would cause less of a headache for a poor ol'DM? Character is a lv8 Dragonborn Hexblade Warlock + Sorcerer.
At level 8, I don't think that any of those would be too game breaking.
I'm guessing as a hexblade, they're up in melee a lot. So the cloak could make them considerably harder to hit. The shield, I'm guessing they'd want to use a heavy weapon as their pact weapon and still get a shield's ac bonus.
The tome's biggest impact is letting them get to a 22 cha (if not now, eventually), which kind of screws with bounded accuracy, but also, it's only 1 above the range, so its not too bad.
The ring would let them cast some more spells, obviously. But it doesn't give them more actions or anything, just a couple more choices about how to spend their actions.
Those are really just guesses, though. They're all pretty strong, but for different reasons.
The cloak and the shield make the character tankier (and, because they use attunement slots, may wind up replaced at higher level). The tome is mostly an offensive bonus, and because it doesn't consume attunement, is a permanent benefit that will be relevant for the entire campaign. The ring is the most complicated to use in play, because its optimal use case has its slots being filled by people other than its wearer (a common filler for those slots is first level spells like shield or absorb elements).
Even still, it's only as out of balance as everyone else's gear in the party. You can scale enemies beyond what the source materials offer to allow enemies the utility to do what they need to keep up. It's when one party has a magical item that makes them vastly more powerful than the rest of the group that it becomes a problem, because you have to look at ways to build an encounter that is difficult for them but not too difficult for other party members to deal with.
Some really good advice here - I really appreciate it!
Good to hear that no one thinks these items are particularly OP for lv8. I'm leaning towards the Animated Shield or the Ring of Spell Storing, as the PC has wanted to two-hand their pact weapon for a while. The ring may be fun as their about to start Descent into Avernus and the PC is definitely gonna make some devilish deals to fill up that ring with spells.
Hi All! We've just wrapped up an 18 month campaign that climaxed with the PC saving the city of Waterdeep and earning the favour of Laeral Silverhand, the Open Lord.
One PC has asked, as a reward, if he could be bestowed a magical item. He's a great, immersive player and very competent too. Outside the game, he's hinted at some items he'd love his character to have - and I'm tempted to oblige him. He's a great player after all! However, I don't want to give him anything too OP or game breaking.
So in your experience, which of the below items would cause less of a headache for a poor ol'DM? Character is a lv8 Dragonborn Hexblade Warlock + Sorcerer.
- Cloak of Displacement
- Animated Shield
- Tome of Leadership & Influence
- Ring of Spell Storing
Thanks in advance for your help and advice!
At level 8, I don't think that any of those would be too game breaking.
I'm guessing as a hexblade, they're up in melee a lot. So the cloak could make them considerably harder to hit. The shield, I'm guessing they'd want to use a heavy weapon as their pact weapon and still get a shield's ac bonus.
The tome's biggest impact is letting them get to a 22 cha (if not now, eventually), which kind of screws with bounded accuracy, but also, it's only 1 above the range, so its not too bad.
The ring would let them cast some more spells, obviously. But it doesn't give them more actions or anything, just a couple more choices about how to spend their actions.
Those are really just guesses, though. They're all pretty strong, but for different reasons.
The cloak and the shield make the character tankier (and, because they use attunement slots, may wind up replaced at higher level). The tome is mostly an offensive bonus, and because it doesn't consume attunement, is a permanent benefit that will be relevant for the entire campaign. The ring is the most complicated to use in play, because its optimal use case has its slots being filled by people other than its wearer (a common filler for those slots is first level spells like shield or absorb elements).
None of the items is too out of balance for a lvl 8 character.
Unless you give them more than one of them.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Even still, it's only as out of balance as everyone else's gear in the party. You can scale enemies beyond what the source materials offer to allow enemies the utility to do what they need to keep up. It's when one party has a magical item that makes them vastly more powerful than the rest of the group that it becomes a problem, because you have to look at ways to build an encounter that is difficult for them but not too difficult for other party members to deal with.
Some really good advice here - I really appreciate it!
Good to hear that no one thinks these items are particularly OP for lv8. I'm leaning towards the Animated Shield or the Ring of Spell Storing, as the PC has wanted to two-hand their pact weapon for a while. The ring may be fun as their about to start Descent into Avernus and the PC is definitely gonna make some devilish deals to fill up that ring with spells.
Thanks again for all the advice!
Bestow? to hell with that! that's what adventures are for! Make him/them go and find it