I am making an item for a monk. Currently my group is hunting a criminal in Sharn (I'll spare you names and backstory). He has a unique item on his foot. It is a magical weapon shaped like a clawfoot talon. My idea is that it counts as a magical attack and adds an additional D4 slashing damage to unarmed attacks and if it targets a creature one size larger or more it deals an additional D6 slashing on top of that. I don't think that would be too powerful, but I also don't want it to be useless as they level more (Currently level 5). Is this good or does it need more? I look forward to your great ideas!
Custom items have a tendency of falling at one of two extremes: amazing and broken, or novel but useless.
When I do start to tinker with custom items I try to do it one of two ways to land, hopefully, somewhere in between those two extremes. One method is to look at what that character does (playstyle, typical actions in combat and out, etc) and create an item that accentuates those abilities the player favors. For a monk that uses Flurry of Blows all the time, perhaps this item adds +1 to hit and damage, but only on the flurry attacks? Or, if your monk rarely uses Ki and just hacks away with a monk weapon give the item an interesting quirk. For example, if they hit with both attacks granted by the Attack action the bonus unarmed strike is rolled with advantage that round?
My preferred method, however, is to look at items that exist and expand on them. For a monk I would look first at an item like the gloves of missile snaring, which are just a cheap Ki free knock off of a Monk feature. So let's expand on them to make them more interesting for a monk to use. Perhaps this item could allow spells to be snared? Using the same math and idea as missile deflection, this item could use a reaction and Ki to redirect direct spell attacks, like Ray of Frost. The end result would be either negating the spell or redirecting it back at the caster. I would build in a flaw or limitation, however, as such a feature would be very powerful unhindered. A simple limitation for less powerful items I commonly use is required attunement. Given players at level 5 won't (usually) be rolling in magical gear this limitation will come into player later on, forcing the player time make a choice. When looking at attunement it is important to see if the benefit of your proposed item is passive, active and unlimited, or active and limited. A +1 armor enchantment is passive, but not all that powerful so no attunement is usually okay because the bonus is small. Armor that grants resistance to a damage type, however, is a much stronger bonus and therefore those items require attunement.
I could continue on for paragraphs more, but ultimately it boils down to what is fun. If you make an item that you're super proud of, but isn't fun for the player to use, they won't use it. Keep that in mind when you're tinkering!
There are a lot of ways you can play this out, and ultimately the only limitation is your vision for how the party interacts with the world, or more precisely, are they Heroes or Gods in it.
An easy way to come up with an item os to really think about what has transpired in the campaign so far. Is there something the character has kinda struggled with? Something that maybe they shouldn't struggle with, perhaps, but do. For example, maybe they have a hard time sticking to an evasive target -- they can reach it, sure, but the target is able to simply walk away from them after. So consider an item that allows the PC a chance for reducing or negating the target's movement. Or perhaps the PC is getting blasted apart by AoE spells more than is healthy. Give them an item that can negate failed saves on such effects, consuming from a pool of charges to do so.
Alternatively, listen for when your player says things like "I really wish I could do [really cool thing]". Maybe you can give them an item that tweaks or expands on another effect to allow them to do the thing, or at least give them a chance to.
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I am making an item for a monk. Currently my group is hunting a criminal in Sharn (I'll spare you names and backstory). He has a unique item on his foot. It is a magical weapon shaped like a clawfoot talon. My idea is that it counts as a magical attack and adds an additional D4 slashing damage to unarmed attacks and if it targets a creature one size larger or more it deals an additional D6 slashing on top of that. I don't think that would be too powerful, but I also don't want it to be useless as they level more (Currently level 5). Is this good or does it need more? I look forward to your great ideas!
It does not need more since the monks unarmed attacks scale up with level anyway.
Custom items have a tendency of falling at one of two extremes: amazing and broken, or novel but useless.
When I do start to tinker with custom items I try to do it one of two ways to land, hopefully, somewhere in between those two extremes. One method is to look at what that character does (playstyle, typical actions in combat and out, etc) and create an item that accentuates those abilities the player favors. For a monk that uses Flurry of Blows all the time, perhaps this item adds +1 to hit and damage, but only on the flurry attacks? Or, if your monk rarely uses Ki and just hacks away with a monk weapon give the item an interesting quirk. For example, if they hit with both attacks granted by the Attack action the bonus unarmed strike is rolled with advantage that round?
My preferred method, however, is to look at items that exist and expand on them. For a monk I would look first at an item like the gloves of missile snaring, which are just a cheap Ki free knock off of a Monk feature. So let's expand on them to make them more interesting for a monk to use. Perhaps this item could allow spells to be snared? Using the same math and idea as missile deflection, this item could use a reaction and Ki to redirect direct spell attacks, like Ray of Frost. The end result would be either negating the spell or redirecting it back at the caster. I would build in a flaw or limitation, however, as such a feature would be very powerful unhindered. A simple limitation for less powerful items I commonly use is required attunement. Given players at level 5 won't (usually) be rolling in magical gear this limitation will come into player later on, forcing the player time make a choice. When looking at attunement it is important to see if the benefit of your proposed item is passive, active and unlimited, or active and limited. A +1 armor enchantment is passive, but not all that powerful so no attunement is usually okay because the bonus is small. Armor that grants resistance to a damage type, however, is a much stronger bonus and therefore those items require attunement.
I could continue on for paragraphs more, but ultimately it boils down to what is fun. If you make an item that you're super proud of, but isn't fun for the player to use, they won't use it. Keep that in mind when you're tinkering!
Happy hunting, fellow adventurers.
There are a lot of ways you can play this out, and ultimately the only limitation is your vision for how the party interacts with the world, or more precisely, are they Heroes or Gods in it.
An easy way to come up with an item os to really think about what has transpired in the campaign so far. Is there something the character has kinda struggled with? Something that maybe they shouldn't struggle with, perhaps, but do. For example, maybe they have a hard time sticking to an evasive target -- they can reach it, sure, but the target is able to simply walk away from them after. So consider an item that allows the PC a chance for reducing or negating the target's movement. Or perhaps the PC is getting blasted apart by AoE spells more than is healthy. Give them an item that can negate failed saves on such effects, consuming from a pool of charges to do so.
Alternatively, listen for when your player says things like "I really wish I could do [really cool thing]". Maybe you can give them an item that tweaks or expands on another effect to allow them to do the thing, or at least give them a chance to.