Hello! I had posted recently about writing campaigns for the first time, and one of the topics that came up was that of magical artifacts. I had the idea for four rings that were very powerful, but I’m not exactly sure what they should do. My friend came up with the suggestion of a Ring of Life, Ring of Mind, Ring of Earth, and Ring of the Cosmos. They would respectively go to the druid, the bard, the ranger, and the paladin later on in the campaign to seal away one of the main antagonists. I was kind of thinking that each ring could have two or so attributes/abilities related to its theme that the players could use, but I’ve never played or DM’d a campaign before, so I’m not entirely sure what would be too powerful or too boring. Because I wanted them to be very powerful, and I love the theme of actions having consequences, I was brainstorming ways to cause problems with them. One idea is that they can’t be used too frequently while in close proximity to each other. Another idea was that they took damage if they failed a roll while trying to harness its power.
How do you judge? Is there a good rule for creating magical items to avoid breaking the game? Does anyone have an ideas for what these artifacts could do (or suggestions to replace the idea above)? Any advice at all would be appreciated!
Well the 2 things to weigh against the drawbacks of the effect is the power of the effect and the level of rhe characters. So what are the effects and character levels?
The effects of the artifacts are what I haven’t decided on yet. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with it because I don’t know how powerful spells or advantages tend to be during gameplay. As for the character levels, it’ll depend on how fast they can find them. The campaign hasn’t started yet, so a lot of it will be based on how the players handle the adventure. The characters will be starting out at level 3, but I don’t think they’ll actually get to use the rings until much later. Again, I don’t have much experience to make judgements based on, but maybe level....10 or so, is when they use one for the first time? That’s around when my vague outline for quest ideas starts to involve some bigger stakes.
One of the easiest way to make sure that the artifacts don't start off as too powerful, yet remain viable as they level up, is to gate their abilities by doing quests to unlock their power.
The players could obtain the rings immediately upon the game starting up with the knowledge that they are dormant artifacts. The rings were prophesied, handed down, or otherwise meant to fall into the hands of their respective owners. Their first goal is to awaken that dormant power, something which will take heroic means with which to complete. So they have to quest until they find the primary location needed to awaken the rings, something that can happen around level 3 since they'll get there relatively quick. From there, just come up with some other requirements that they'll need to finish awakening the rings, they need to find information that will help them figure out what to do next. Meet an old hag who tells of a story handed down generation to generation which could help, they find an old tome in a wizard's tower about artifact empowerment, a creature of the Fey and/or Abyss seeks them out when the rings reach a certain stage, things of that nature can really make the process interesting.
Simple idea for bonuses and their approximate level gate:
Level 3: minor skill bonus
Level 5: minor bonus to AC, to hit, spell DC, damage, or something similar. Level 3 bonus increases.
Level 10: New skill, ability, spell, effect, or similar. Level 3/5 bonus increases.
Level 15: Major attribute bonus. Level 3/5/10 bonus increases.
Fighting BBEG: ultimate ability tied to all the rings being used in unison.
Often found in sets of five, these ancient bands were historically seen as a mark of privilege and prestige among the sorcerer lords of the old empire. The wearer may attune to up to five such rings as though they were only attuning to one magical item, all of which confer the following powers:
Being attuned to one or more of these rings grants you the power to sense the general direction of other rings in the set.
Being attuned to two or more of these rings grants you the ability to cast misty step once per day.
Being attuned to three or more of these rings grants you the power to increase the damage of any attack you make by 1d6 of the damage's type once per turn.
Being attuned to four or more of these rings grants you the power to regain 1d6 hit points at the start of your turn if you have at least 1 hit point.
While attuned to five of these rings, you can use an action to cast one 5th-level wizard spell. After you cast the spell, roll a d6. On a roll of 1–5, this ability becomes dormant until the next dawn.
The way they are designed, the party can split the rings up among them or certain people can wear multiples for greater power over time.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
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Hello! I had posted recently about writing campaigns for the first time, and one of the topics that came up was that of magical artifacts. I had the idea for four rings that were very powerful, but I’m not exactly sure what they should do. My friend came up with the suggestion of a Ring of Life, Ring of Mind, Ring of Earth, and Ring of the Cosmos. They would respectively go to the druid, the bard, the ranger, and the paladin later on in the campaign to seal away one of the main antagonists. I was kind of thinking that each ring could have two or so attributes/abilities related to its theme that the players could use, but I’ve never played or DM’d a campaign before, so I’m not entirely sure what would be too powerful or too boring. Because I wanted them to be very powerful, and I love the theme of actions having consequences, I was brainstorming ways to cause problems with them. One idea is that they can’t be used too frequently while in close proximity to each other. Another idea was that they took damage if they failed a roll while trying to harness its power.
How do you judge? Is there a good rule for creating magical items to avoid breaking the game? Does anyone have an ideas for what these artifacts could do (or suggestions to replace the idea above)? Any advice at all would be appreciated!
Well the 2 things to weigh against the drawbacks of the effect is the power of the effect and the level of rhe characters. So what are the effects and character levels?
The effects of the artifacts are what I haven’t decided on yet. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with it because I don’t know how powerful spells or advantages tend to be during gameplay. As for the character levels, it’ll depend on how fast they can find them. The campaign hasn’t started yet, so a lot of it will be based on how the players handle the adventure. The characters will be starting out at level 3, but I don’t think they’ll actually get to use the rings until much later. Again, I don’t have much experience to make judgements based on, but maybe level....10 or so, is when they use one for the first time? That’s around when my vague outline for quest ideas starts to involve some bigger stakes.
One of the easiest way to make sure that the artifacts don't start off as too powerful, yet remain viable as they level up, is to gate their abilities by doing quests to unlock their power.
The players could obtain the rings immediately upon the game starting up with the knowledge that they are dormant artifacts. The rings were prophesied, handed down, or otherwise meant to fall into the hands of their respective owners. Their first goal is to awaken that dormant power, something which will take heroic means with which to complete. So they have to quest until they find the primary location needed to awaken the rings, something that can happen around level 3 since they'll get there relatively quick. From there, just come up with some other requirements that they'll need to finish awakening the rings, they need to find information that will help them figure out what to do next. Meet an old hag who tells of a story handed down generation to generation which could help, they find an old tome in a wizard's tower about artifact empowerment, a creature of the Fey and/or Abyss seeks them out when the rings reach a certain stage, things of that nature can really make the process interesting.
Simple idea for bonuses and their approximate level gate:
I made a set of rings for a homegame that I was running. Here's sort of what they look like.
The way they are designed, the party can split the rings up among them or certain people can wear multiples for greater power over time.