EDIT: Here's a more specific thread on this topic. Thank you everyone for all your cool suggestions! I definitely want to incorporate this item into a Holy Symbol, and tag a few extra spells onto it. Now it's just a matter of choosing and getting everything nice and balanced.
My players, if you're here by some miracle, don't read this!
.
.
.
Near the end of my campaign, around levels 8-10, my players are each going to each receive a powerful magic item to help them in the final arc. For my tempest cleric, I want her to be gifted a quill from the wing of an angel, sent by her God...both the Angel and the God looking like one of these guys:
...What kind of powers do you think this quill should grant? I was looking at the Necklace of Prayer beads, and a friend suggested something to control the wind, but I'm not quite set on either of these ideas. For context, another player will be getting a +2 weapon which will have a major advantage against the BBEG, akin to the Sunsword in Curse of Strahd.
My thief is another question altogether, but I'm thinking something relating to movement/shifting planes.
A simple but effective option would be to make the Quill an actual Holy Symbol and having it granting benefits to your cleric's spellcasting! Maybe it's something as simple as a bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, or increasing their spell save DC? Maybe it's got charges that can be expended to do extra fun abilities, like the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind does. If this should be something to greatly help with fighting the BBEG then powers that you think could aid a lot in that battle would be useful.
It could be effectively a "wand of [spell here]". Use the standard language for wands with charges, and make the spell it casts be one that your BBEG is weak to. That way it's both a generically useful item AND targeted at your boss. Bonus points if the spell is somehow wind or storm-related, double bonus points if there's a cool thematic way to tie it in to a quill.
Can you tell us a bit about their play style so we can give better suggestions,? Are they up in melee, hanging back and using spells? Doing the bulk of the healing? Do they do a lot of the social parts of encounters?
Or what do you think they’d appreciate getting a boost? Combat, utility?
finally, there’s a qualls feather token, but that doesn’t seem too exciting.
Can you tell us a bit about their play style so we can give better suggestions,? Are they up in melee, hanging back and using spells? Doing the bulk of the healing? Do they do a lot of the social parts of encounters?
Or what do you think they’d appreciate getting a boost? Combat, utility?
finally, there’s a qualls feather token, but that doesn’t seem too exciting.
She surprised me--when I asked, she said she prefers the RP side of D&D. I'm certain she could get deep and dramatic if given the opportunity, though so far she's mostly been a jokester misquoting her religion's bible and that sort of thing. The other two players are a lot more experienced and willing to do voices and such, so I think they just sort of overshadow her in rp by accident. Overall though I'd say she's competent at both combat and rp. This is only the second D&D campaign she's ever been in. That is not at all what you asked, whoops.
When it comes to combat style she said "I think for [cleric] I prefer to heal/buff my teammates. Make sure they're good to last the fight, But also get a few swings in when and if I can." that said I'm aware that support roles can get a bit boring at times, so I'm hesitant to give her something that just heals exclusively. I think some sort of spell booster or extra spells would be great, I'm just uncertain on the details.
Feather tokens are hilarious and wonderful, but in this context, not quite enough. (pathfinder has feather tokens for catapults and redwood trees that are super cheap. Can you imagine the possibilities??)
A simple but effective option would be to make the Quill an actual Holy Symbol and having it granting benefits to your cleric's spellcasting! Maybe it's something as simple as a bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, or increasing their spell save DC? Maybe it's got charges that can be expended to do extra fun abilities, like the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind does. If this should be something to greatly help with fighting the BBEG then powers that you think could aid a lot in that battle would be useful.
I was thinking of that as well! I was just worried that a +2 holy symbol might not be as useful or powerful as a +2 weapon, you know? Since not every spell has a save DC and they tend to run out... Tacking a few bonus spells on there would be pretty cool. I would definitely want to reflavour it, its just a matter of picking the right levels so I don't overpower her.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The beating sound is not my sympathetic heart, but a time bomb."
I immediately thought of items from Legend of Zelda. Roc's Feather, Roc's Cape, and Roc's Ring. They allowed Link to jump higher and gave him a glide ability, allowing the player to get over large gaps in pathways that would otherwise be impassable. So could she jab the quill into her shoulder once per long rest to get a flight speed equal to her walking speed for 1 hour? (Along the lines of the blessing of Pelor or the deathwalker's ward in critical role.) Or something like the boots of striding and springing but amped up to maybe grant a haste-like effect? Or combine it all and maybe also make it that she's able to do something like gain an extra channel divinity, or some sort of storm-flavored channel divinity or smite effect. Turn the feather into a weapon that is ranged and deals radiant damage equal to the cleric's level+spellcasting modifier on top of 1d4 piercing damage.
If you're going with a quill I too suggest going with something themed around writing. Have it function as a holy symbol, obviously, it comes pretty directly from their god.
The writing element could be (since they're at or near level 10) a way of channeling a Divine Intervention. Have the quill primed with a crackling ink, when they put the quill to parchment time seems to slow down. The quill can be used once ever to write a prayer to their god for aid. Treat this like an auto-success on Divine Intervention.
You could even make the prayer, once written, into a new relic of their god. Presumably it will have been used in a suitably epic circumstance... or maybe it will have been used to open a vault door.
You could let it summon a small creature to act kind of like a familiar. Something that can fly around the battlefield and act as her for the purpose of casting touch spells or let her center a burst like bless or mass heal on it. It could even look like a tiny version of the angel/god, for flavor purposes. Activate it with a bonus action. Let it last for something like 1 minute/2-3 times per long rest, or maybe not quite that much, depending on how many fights per day the party has. I'd think you want to make her have to think about whether or not to use it in any given fight, so give it fewer activations than you typically have fights. It would help her heal people in those hard to reach places. While it may not be as mechanically useful as a +2 sword on every attack, it's way more flavorful (imho).
As for tacking on spells, that could be a good idea. I know you said you didn't want to go pure healing with it, but if you give her a couple free casts of healing spells in the item, that frees up slots for her to cast other spells. Or you could use a couple of the level 1/2 domain spells in there. An extra thunderwave or shatter might not always be useful, but when the situation comes up, it really, really is.
If you're going with a quill I too suggest going with something themed around writing. Have it function as a holy symbol, obviously, it comes pretty directly from their god.
The writing element could be (since they're at or near level 10) a way of channeling a Divine Intervention. Have the quill primed with a crackling ink, when they put the quill to parchment time seems to slow down. The quill can be used once ever to write a prayer to their god for aid. Treat this like an auto-success on Divine Intervention.
You could even make the prayer, once written, into a new relic of their god. Presumably it will have been used in a suitably epic circumstance... or maybe it will have been used to open a vault door.
I was thinking the Feather would meld into the cleric's holy symbol, or directly into her skin, so its not an item she has to wield separately. :D
I'll be honest though, the only reason I'm calling it a "quill" is because it sounds a lot cooler and sharper than "feather" to my ear. ^^' Your idea does sounds really cool, but I'm always hesitant with one-time use items...in my experience they tend not to get used at all. Divine intervention is a very dangerous thing to be playing with, too.
On a totally separate note, I was thinking of another item called "Quill of the Covenant": If a creature signs a contract with this quill, it takes 5d10 psychic damage each time it acts in a manner directly counter to its instructions, but no more than once per day. Basically a Geas you agree to!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The beating sound is not my sympathetic heart, but a time bomb."
On a totally separate note, I was thinking of another item called "Quill of the Covenant": If a creature signs a contract with this quill, it takes 5d10 psychic damage each time it acts in a manner directly counter to its instructions, but no more than once per day. Basically a Geas you agree to!
I can see some fathers buying those for their daughters' wedding contracts.
If you're going with a feather (I always like enchanted staff for a cleric, druid, magic focused character), and as many have said Writing is the obvious direction for employing a quill as opposed to just a feather, what if the feather quill allowed you to write at a distance? I am thinking of spells that require you to scribe something on the ground or a wall that could be accomplished from a distance with this quill. You may even find it helpful to homebrew a few spells that work after the scribing of an enchanted circle or wall on the ground. Think of an elemental wall that could be summoned after your cleric inscribes a glyph on the ground, something like a celtic knot design found on the border of many ancient texts. From some distance away from the action, your cleric could be casting beneficial spells on the front-liners or in a quieter time summon an elemental that might have insight to share with the party. The magical quill could require a magic ink if you need to scale it back for balance. For the RP aspects, describing the shimmering sky blue drawings appearing on the ground around the player's feel could be very dramatic. And the fading away of the magical inscription as the battle wears on could be just as dramatic. Maybe the color of the inscription changes to a red, or yellow, or green, or purple, or whatever, depending on the circumstances. It sound like it could be great fun. Good luck.
A few days late on this, but let me know what you think
Quill of [X]
This item acts as a holy symbol for the Cleric.
While this item is equipped, the user is granted a fly speed of 10 feet. The user also ignores the first 10 feet of any falling damage they may take.
[Note that I'm not familiar enough with all the spells to know if something like this already exists] The user gains access to the "Saving Grace" spell and can use it a number of times equal to his or her Wisdom modifier (Minimum 1). This spell recharges on a long rest.
Saving Grace
Casting Time: 1 Reaction Range: 60 feet Components: V Duration: Instantaneous Classes: Cleric As a reaction, the Cleric may cast Saving Grace to immediately teleport a willing creature to a space of their choice within 5 feet of the Cleric. The target creature also heals 3D6 health after the teleportation has completed.
EDIT: Here's a more specific thread on this topic. Thank you everyone for all your cool suggestions! I definitely want to incorporate this item into a Holy Symbol, and tag a few extra spells onto it. Now it's just a matter of choosing and getting everything nice and balanced.
My players, if you're here by some miracle, don't read this!
.
.
.
Near the end of my campaign, around levels 8-10, my players are each going to each receive a powerful magic item to help them in the final arc. For my tempest cleric, I want her to be gifted a quill from the wing of an angel, sent by her God...both the Angel and the God looking like one of these guys:
...What kind of powers do you think this quill should grant? I was looking at the Necklace of Prayer beads, and a friend suggested something to control the wind, but I'm not quite set on either of these ideas. For context, another player will be getting a +2 weapon which will have a major advantage against the BBEG, akin to the Sunsword in Curse of Strahd.
My thief is another question altogether, but I'm thinking something relating to movement/shifting planes.
"The beating sound is not my sympathetic heart, but a time bomb."
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InsiderA simple but effective option would be to make the Quill an actual Holy Symbol and having it granting benefits to your cleric's spellcasting! Maybe it's something as simple as a bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, or increasing their spell save DC? Maybe it's got charges that can be expended to do extra fun abilities, like the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind does. If this should be something to greatly help with fighting the BBEG then powers that you think could aid a lot in that battle would be useful.
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A quill implies writing or drawing, at least it did to me. How about it grants various effects depending on how its used.
For example, the character could sketch out a pic of the ground with a crack, thereby casting an earthquake.
Or they could use the feather as a fan, casting a gust of wind.
It could be effectively a "wand of [spell here]". Use the standard language for wands with charges, and make the spell it casts be one that your BBEG is weak to. That way it's both a generically useful item AND targeted at your boss. Bonus points if the spell is somehow wind or storm-related, double bonus points if there's a cool thematic way to tie it in to a quill.
Can you tell us a bit about their play style so we can give better suggestions,? Are they up in melee, hanging back and using spells? Doing the bulk of the healing? Do they do a lot of the social parts of encounters?
Or what do you think they’d appreciate getting a boost? Combat, utility?
finally, there’s a qualls feather token, but that doesn’t seem too exciting.
She surprised me--when I asked, she said she prefers the RP side of D&D. I'm certain she could get deep and dramatic if given the opportunity, though so far she's mostly been a jokester misquoting her religion's bible and that sort of thing. The other two players are a lot more experienced and willing to do voices and such, so I think they just sort of overshadow her in rp by accident. Overall though I'd say she's competent at both combat and rp. This is only the second D&D campaign she's ever been in.That is not at all what you asked, whoops.When it comes to combat style she said "I think for [cleric] I prefer to heal/buff my teammates. Make sure they're good to last the fight, But also get a few swings in when and if I can." that said I'm aware that support roles can get a bit boring at times, so I'm hesitant to give her something that just heals exclusively. I think some sort of spell booster or extra spells would be great, I'm just uncertain on the details.
Feather tokens are hilarious and wonderful, but in this context, not quite enough. (pathfinder has feather tokens for catapults and redwood trees that are super cheap. Can you imagine the possibilities??)
"The beating sound is not my sympathetic heart, but a time bomb."
♦Character art commissions♦
I was thinking of that as well! I was just worried that a +2 holy symbol might not be as useful or powerful as a +2 weapon, you know? Since not every spell has a save DC and they tend to run out...
Tacking a few bonus spells on there would be pretty cool. I would definitely want to reflavour it, its just a matter of picking the right levels so I don't overpower her.
"The beating sound is not my sympathetic heart, but a time bomb."
♦Character art commissions♦
I immediately thought of items from Legend of Zelda. Roc's Feather, Roc's Cape, and Roc's Ring. They allowed Link to jump higher and gave him a glide ability, allowing the player to get over large gaps in pathways that would otherwise be impassable. So could she jab the quill into her shoulder once per long rest to get a flight speed equal to her walking speed for 1 hour? (Along the lines of the blessing of Pelor or the deathwalker's ward in critical role.) Or something like the boots of striding and springing but amped up to maybe grant a haste-like effect? Or combine it all and maybe also make it that she's able to do something like gain an extra channel divinity, or some sort of storm-flavored channel divinity or smite effect. Turn the feather into a weapon that is ranged and deals radiant damage equal to the cleric's level+spellcasting modifier on top of 1d4 piercing damage.
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If you're going with a quill I too suggest going with something themed around writing. Have it function as a holy symbol, obviously, it comes pretty directly from their god.
The writing element could be (since they're at or near level 10) a way of channeling a Divine Intervention. Have the quill primed with a crackling ink, when they put the quill to parchment time seems to slow down. The quill can be used once ever to write a prayer to their god for aid. Treat this like an auto-success on Divine Intervention.
You could even make the prayer, once written, into a new relic of their god. Presumably it will have been used in a suitably epic circumstance... or maybe it will have been used to open a vault door.
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You could let it summon a small creature to act kind of like a familiar. Something that can fly around the battlefield and act as her for the purpose of casting touch spells or let her center a burst like bless or mass heal on it. It could even look like a tiny version of the angel/god, for flavor purposes. Activate it with a bonus action. Let it last for something like 1 minute/2-3 times per long rest, or maybe not quite that much, depending on how many fights per day the party has. I'd think you want to make her have to think about whether or not to use it in any given fight, so give it fewer activations than you typically have fights. It would help her heal people in those hard to reach places. While it may not be as mechanically useful as a +2 sword on every attack, it's way more flavorful (imho).
As for tacking on spells, that could be a good idea. I know you said you didn't want to go pure healing with it, but if you give her a couple free casts of healing spells in the item, that frees up slots for her to cast other spells. Or you could use a couple of the level 1/2 domain spells in there. An extra thunderwave or shatter might not always be useful, but when the situation comes up, it really, really is.
I was thinking the Feather would meld into the cleric's holy symbol, or directly into her skin, so its not an item she has to wield separately. :D
I'll be honest though, the only reason I'm calling it a "quill" is because it sounds a lot cooler and sharper than "feather" to my ear. ^^' Your idea does sounds really cool, but I'm always hesitant with one-time use items...in my experience they tend not to get used at all. Divine intervention is a very dangerous thing to be playing with, too.
On a totally separate note, I was thinking of another item called "Quill of the Covenant": If a creature signs a contract with this quill, it takes 5d10 psychic damage each time it acts in a manner directly counter to its instructions, but no more than once per day. Basically a Geas you agree to!
"The beating sound is not my sympathetic heart, but a time bomb."
♦Character art commissions♦
I can see some fathers buying those for their daughters' wedding contracts.
If you're going with a feather (I always like enchanted staff for a cleric, druid, magic focused character), and as many have said Writing is the obvious direction for employing a quill as opposed to just a feather, what if the feather quill allowed you to write at a distance? I am thinking of spells that require you to scribe something on the ground or a wall that could be accomplished from a distance with this quill. You may even find it helpful to homebrew a few spells that work after the scribing of an enchanted circle or wall on the ground. Think of an elemental wall that could be summoned after your cleric inscribes a glyph on the ground, something like a celtic knot design found on the border of many ancient texts. From some distance away from the action, your cleric could be casting beneficial spells on the front-liners or in a quieter time summon an elemental that might have insight to share with the party. The magical quill could require a magic ink if you need to scale it back for balance. For the RP aspects, describing the shimmering sky blue drawings appearing on the ground around the player's feel could be very dramatic. And the fading away of the magical inscription as the battle wears on could be just as dramatic. Maybe the color of the inscription changes to a red, or yellow, or green, or purple, or whatever, depending on the circumstances. It sound like it could be great fun. Good luck.
A few days late on this, but let me know what you think
Quill of [X]
This item acts as a holy symbol for the Cleric.
While this item is equipped, the user is granted a fly speed of 10 feet. The user also ignores the first 10 feet of any falling damage they may take.
[Note that I'm not familiar enough with all the spells to know if something like this already exists] The user gains access to the "Saving Grace" spell and can use it a number of times equal to his or her Wisdom modifier (Minimum 1). This spell recharges on a long rest.
Saving Grace
Casting Time: 1 Reaction
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Cleric
As a reaction, the Cleric may cast Saving Grace to immediately teleport a willing creature to a space of their choice within 5 feet of the Cleric. The target creature also heals 3D6 health after the teleportation has completed.
Not late at all! I'm always coming back and checking on these threads.
I do really like the idea of giving her a flying speed and the falling immunity! I'm not so sure about the teleportation aspect though. Hmmm
"The beating sound is not my sympathetic heart, but a time bomb."
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