Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I am looking for help as well as any ideas for magic item attributes. I apologized in advance for the length of the post, I just want to make sure everyone grasps the idea and uses.
So, Im tweaking the campaign to make it a high magic campaign, tons of magic items all around but most of them are common or uncommon rarity that will really only be helpful to non combative situations therefore allowing me to create more puzzles and mind games for players to think in-depth about using there arsenal of items and having very few magic items of large magical powers across the realm.
With that being said, the quest guy they just met is giving them a ring that allows them to open a door to a secret pocket in space once a day. This pocket in space was created by a being (haven't decided the race or plane of existence he is from yet) who is obsessed with magic. He has spent centuries in the timeless pocket researching and playing with different forms of magic.
At this point he has almost exausted all of the components in his pocket, so he gives each party members a ring that will absorb random qualities and attributes from any creatures they defeat, as well as copy any magical properties from any items they are attuded with. The ring can only store 1 type of attribute at a time.
Once the players come back to him, he will take the power absorbed from the ring and use it to enchant any item or weapon the players wish.
The players can absorb multiple of the same attribute to increase the enchants.
The catch. Players will roll on a table to determine the power level of the enchant.
The higher the power level, the higher chance of the weapon becoming sentient.
If a player rolls a sentient item, they will then roll to determine the level of sentientience. Basically, does it see stuff around the area and alert the player type of sentientience, or does it have a full blown personality and it's own mind and goals.
Then Players will roll a personality for the sentient item. The higher the power level, the higher the chances of the sentientience being evil.
Also, there is a chance that if a weapon doesn't become sentient, that it will have a curse.
For example a dagger that has a vampire attribute (1d4 of damage to the target and heal the users for the same amount) It maybe cursed so if it doesn't feast on blood at least once every 24 hours it will begin feasting on the wielder or begin making the wielder roll for a con save to see if the blade causes him to go into a blodlust. Also had the idea that if the blade goes without feeding it gets hungry and begins slowly turning the user into a vampire until the user is completely transformed at which time the blade completely takes over the users body.
Another idea I had for a lower level attribute from a gaint or something maybe the weapon embues the strength of a giant, allowing the user to have +1 strength or when wielding he weapon it reduces to the weight of a rapier. Allowing a player to use a 2 handed as a 1 handed with a shield or to duel wield 2 handed weapons
I am building a list of magical attributes and printing them to make a custom DnD Deck of Magical Properties (also doing this for my cutom items) this way my players will have physical cards that show each of there items individual attributes instead of me trying to build and add custom weapons on the spot.
The plan is also for players to only be able to discern so much information from an item initially, and as they attune to the item they will learn and see more about the items. Meaning initially players will not know exactly what curse or sentient personality the object will hold.
With all of that lengthy information out there, I would like to get some opinions on how to help prevent items from being to over powering.
I have been debating having majority of attributes be situational (minor in combat relevance), have also tossed up the idea of setting daily charges or even only allowing most items to only have so many uses or charges before they lose their magical quality.
Also please if you have any ideas at all for attributes let me know.
Lastly, Shout Out to Stormknight as he is the original creator of the amazing card templates I personalized. Note these use Photoshop.
Matt Colville has an idea I like: imposing levels of exhaustion. They become very detrimental very fast. I personally don't like the idea of a curse (these are being made for them personally, after all), but letting the PCs use them only to risk a downside like exhaustion seems fairer. Or, to charge them, it need to absorb an attribute that created it. So if they had a Ring of Resurrection, it would only work if they killed something first (a life for a life).
Hello all,
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I am looking for help as well as any ideas for magic item attributes. I apologized in advance for the length of the post, I just want to make sure everyone grasps the idea and uses.
So, Im tweaking the campaign to make it a high magic campaign, tons of magic items all around but most of them are common or uncommon rarity that will really only be helpful to non combative situations therefore allowing me to create more puzzles and mind games for players to think in-depth about using there arsenal of items and having very few magic items of large magical powers across the realm.
With that being said, the quest guy they just met is giving them a ring that allows them to open a door to a secret pocket in space once a day. This pocket in space was created by a being (haven't decided the race or plane of existence he is from yet) who is obsessed with magic. He has spent centuries in the timeless pocket researching and playing with different forms of magic.
At this point he has almost exausted all of the components in his pocket, so he gives each party members a ring that will absorb random qualities and attributes from any creatures they defeat, as well as copy any magical properties from any items they are attuded with. The ring can only store 1 type of attribute at a time.
Once the players come back to him, he will take the power absorbed from the ring and use it to enchant any item or weapon the players wish.
The players can absorb multiple of the same attribute to increase the enchants.
The catch. Players will roll on a table to determine the power level of the enchant.
The higher the power level, the higher chance of the weapon becoming sentient.
If a player rolls a sentient item, they will then roll to determine the level of sentientience. Basically, does it see stuff around the area and alert the player type of sentientience, or does it have a full blown personality and it's own mind and goals.
Then Players will roll a personality for the sentient item. The higher the power level, the higher the chances of the sentientience being evil.
Also, there is a chance that if a weapon doesn't become sentient, that it will have a curse.
For example a dagger that has a vampire attribute (1d4 of damage to the target and heal the users for the same amount) It maybe cursed so if it doesn't feast on blood at least once every 24 hours it will begin feasting on the wielder or begin making the wielder roll for a con save to see if the blade causes him to go into a blodlust. Also had the idea that if the blade goes without feeding it gets hungry and begins slowly turning the user into a vampire until the user is completely transformed at which time the blade completely takes over the users body.
Another idea I had for a lower level attribute from a gaint or something maybe the weapon embues the strength of a giant, allowing the user to have +1 strength or when wielding he weapon it reduces to the weight of a rapier. Allowing a player to use a 2 handed as a 1 handed with a shield or to duel wield 2 handed weapons
I am building a list of magical attributes and printing them to make a custom DnD Deck of Magical Properties (also doing this for my cutom items) this way my players will have physical cards that show each of there items individual attributes instead of me trying to build and add custom weapons on the spot.
The plan is also for players to only be able to discern so much information from an item initially, and as they attune to the item they will learn and see more about the items. Meaning initially players will not know exactly what curse or sentient personality the object will hold.
With all of that lengthy information out there, I would like to get some opinions on how to help prevent items from being to over powering.
I have been debating having majority of attributes be situational (minor in combat relevance), have also tossed up the idea of setting daily charges or even only allowing most items to only have so many uses or charges before they lose their magical quality.
Also please if you have any ideas at all for attributes let me know.
Lastly, Shout Out to Stormknight as he is the original creator of the amazing card templates I personalized. Note these use Photoshop.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/arts-crafts/2187-dnd-item-cards
Thanks and sorry again for such a long post. PS I'm typing all this from my phone so please excuse any typos
Matt Colville has an idea I like: imposing levels of exhaustion. They become very detrimental very fast. I personally don't like the idea of a curse (these are being made for them personally, after all), but letting the PCs use them only to risk a downside like exhaustion seems fairer. Or, to charge them, it need to absorb an attribute that created it. So if they had a Ring of Resurrection, it would only work if they killed something first (a life for a life).