(Moved from the Homebrew section)

For context, my players are a Changeling Barbarian, a Drow Paladin/Barbarian, and a Goblin Scout. Right now they're 6th level, and as you can see, there isn't an arcane caster among them. This campaign will probably go to about 10th or 11th level.

As part of the story of our campaign, each of my players is going to receive a custom magic item from different powerful beings. The power level I'm aiming for is "rare." Nothing too crazy, but still useful!

Our Scout has just gotten his, as is getting attuned. The item in question is a cloak given to him by a witch. It's meant to help him sneak around and sort of drift in and out of reality and perception. In addition to him being a slippery rogue, the reality-stuff is intended to mirror his backstory--this character was cursed to be constantly reborn across different universes, which is the player's clever excuse for using him in multiple campaigns. Basically, his link to any given world is tenous, and I want to turn that into an advantage for him! The endgame of this item is that it could eventually be used to bring him back home, in a sort of epilogue. That's the thematic angle I'm going for, everything else is secondary.

Anyways, I have a few spells* in mind and I'm planning on adding more every couple level or so...I'm just not sure what kind of limits I should start with.

For sure I want him to start with Pass Without Trace (2). I also want to give him Invisibility (2) and Blink (3), but I'm not certain if I should give all three now, or spread them out a bit. I'm also not sure what kind of "per day" limit they should have on them...I was thinking maybe of a spell point system, but I wanted to get some feedback from DMs more experienced than I. 

How would you stat this item?

 *(Spells are probably easiest to balance, but I was also considering monster abilities like Amorphous, Shadow Stride, or Incorporeal Movement. I'm open to ideas.)

The item idea is interesting and could go into a lot of different ways. Spells are always good to help limit a magic item in ability, or to help create a simple item, but adding many spells feels a little disingenuous to making it a unique item. I like the idea of looking at monster abilities to help create a unique ability for a magic item. For example, you can be inspired by the incorporeal movement feature to create an effect such as "when a creature within 30 feet of you hits you with an attack, you gain resistance to the triggering attack, and all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage until the start of your next turn".

Another idea you can use is that the cloak allows the rogue to have a Tracer like ability, where "a creature who is attuned to this cloak can use their bonus action to appear in a space they can see, using as much movement as it would take to walk to that space, you cannot appear in a space out of your movement range.

Personally, the only spell I would say you need for thematic reasons is Plane Shift. You can give this spell at the later end of the campaign, as this is a powerful spell, but it could act as the rogues "go home button". The rest of the abilities can be supplemented off of monster inspired abilities, if you feel that the features you add conflict in how many times you can use it a day, then consider using a charge system to allow a way of filtering the amount of times the character can use each feature per long rest/day/dawn.

Most items like this have a certain number of maximum charges that regenerate a random number of charges daily at dawn. Each spell castable by the item requires a certain number of charges to cast and requires using an action to cast the spell.The recharge rate is usually sufficient to recharge it fully in one day with a good roll.

As an example, the text from staff of frost is below:

"You have Resistance to cold damage while you hold this staff.
The staff has 10 Charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend 1 or more of its Charges to cast one of the following Spells from it, using your spell save DC: Cone of Cold (5 charges), Fog Cloud (1 charge), Ice Storm (4 charges), or Wall of Ice (4 charges).
The staff regains 1d6 + 4 expended Charges daily at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1. the staff turns to water and is destroyed."

This is a very rare item casting spells up to 5th levels.

A Staff of healing is rare and has similar wording

"This staff has 10 charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend 1 or more of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using your spell save DC and spellcasting ability modifier: cure wounds (1 charge per spell level, up to 4th), lesser restoration (2 charges). or mass cure wounds (5 charges). The staff regains 1d6 + 4 expended charges daily at
dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1. the staff vanishes in a flash of light, lost forever."

Higher level spells cost more charges.

In your case, pass without trace (2 charges), invisibility (2 charges) and blink (5 charges) with a total of 10 charges and a recharge of 1d6+4 would be consistent with the spell level and charge requirements from the staff of healing.

 P.S. If you will add more capabilities as the character levels you could either increase total charges and recharge rate while keeping charge requirements the same or reduce charge requirements for each spell it can cast as the item improves. (The Staff of Frost for example has 5 charges for the 5th level spell while the Staff of healing has 5 charges for the 3rd level spell (along with other abilities) - the difference between rare and very rare)

Quote from VengData >>

The item idea is interesting and could go into a lot of different ways. Spells are always good to help limit a magic item in ability, or to help create a simple item, but adding many spells feels a little disingenuous to making it a unique item. I like the idea of looking at monster abilities to help create a unique ability for a magic item. For example, you can be inspired by the incorporeal movement feature to create an effect such as "when a creature within 30 feet of you hits you with an attack, you gain resistance to the triggering attack, and all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage until the start of your next turn".

Another idea you can use is that the cloak allows the rogue to have a Tracer like ability, where "a creature who is attuned to this cloak can use their bonus action to appear in a space they can see, using as much movement as it would take to walk to that space, you cannot appear in a space out of your movement range.

Personally, the only spell I would say you need for thematic reasons is Plane Shift. You can give this spell at the later end of the campaign, as this is a powerful spell, but it could act as the rogues "go home button". The rest of the abilities can be supplemented off of monster inspired abilities, if you feel that the features you add conflict in how many times you can use it a day, then consider using a charge system to allow a way of filtering the amount of times the character can use each feature per long rest/day/dawn.

I definitely like the idea of the tracer ability, which is just a flashy way of denying opportunity attacks and terrain difficulties. It's cool, but understated! In your mind, would this be an ability with a daily limit, or is the bonus action the only cost? Misty Step is a second level spell which is effectively identical save the movement speed thing. 

The resistance thing is cool, too, but seems like a feature my player would forget to use. I don't know how to explain it, it just does. XD

It depends on how much you want to flavour the characters unteatheredness from reality. I would suggest a few charges (whatever you feel comfortable with, maybe 3 to make it like Tracers, and they come back on a short rest).

An idea:

1/day: You can cast Pass Without Trace.

3/day: Incorporeal Movement. As a bonus action you can activate this effect. On your turn you can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain, excluding anything made of lead. Take 5 (1d10) force damage if you end your turn inside an object.

On his next level up, (7,) I'll add Invisibility to the list, then Blink after that. I might also toss in this Homebrew variant of Rope Trick.

Does this seem good for a 6th level Scout?

It seems very powerful as it is for a 6th level character. Once a day a +10 bonus to them and creatures they designate within 30 feet of them for an hour, along with being able to move through creatures and walls 3 times before a long rest is needed gives them a good amount of utility for a while.

The item is good as is. I would suggest the added invisibility comes in at level 8-9 since this already gives a good amount of ability uses. Your player will have fun abusing this any way they can.

Thanks for the help!

Maybe I'll make it so he can only target himself with Pass Without Trace, just to tone it down a bit. Hmm.