I'm preparing to DM a heavily homebrewed version of Tomb of Annihilation, going from lv. 1 to 20. Because the final boss will most likely need some kind of Divine Intervention to defeat, I thought of giving the players a mystical artifact that allows them to contact a god should they need it. I'm using the Black Opal Crown as a basis, and connecting it to Shar (or her homebrewed equivalent) instead of Dendar. This is the first artifact I've made, and I'm not sure if it's powerful enough to truly feel like a proper artifact. Can you guys tell me if you think I should nerf or buff it?
Black Opal CrownWondrous Item, artifact (requires atunement)
Spells: The crown has three charges. Someone attuned to the crown can use one of the charges to cast Contact Other Plane. The target of the spell is always Shar. The crown regains all expended charges once a year at winter solstice.
1/day a creature attuned to the crown can cast Darkness.
Child of Night: Creatures attuned to the crown has Superior Darkvision (120 feet).
Sphere of Annihilation: An attuned creature can spend 10 minutes removing the opal from the crown and turn it into a Sphere of Annihilation. While the opal is removed, the crown becomes nonmagical. The sphere exists for 8 hours before turning back into an opal. Once this feature is used, the crown can't be used for this purpose in 1 year.
Holy Symbol: Clerics and paladins worshiping Shar or other deities of night and darkness can use the crown as a holy symbol.
Destroying the crown: The crown can only be destroyed by a cleric of Selûne using their Divine Intervention feature to destroy it while it is bathed in moonlight.
(I played around with the idea to have a the user gain Sunlight Sensitivity, but that trait is a ***** and a half, and would mean only kobolds and drow would be interested in using the crown)
Spells: this basically gives 3 lv5 spell, per year. It's not much, especially if it's aimed at very high level characters.
Child of Night: very cool... But much less so if you already have Darkvision. Note that having Darkvision can be achieved by an uncommon magic item, that doesn't require attunment.
Sphere of Annihilation: clearly THE feature of the artifact. The once per year limitation is rough (and might discourage PC from actively using it), but it takes you up to at least legendary status.
Holy Symbol: more for fluff than anything else, but it's cool.
Destroying the Crown: I know it's not a feature per se, but I just want to say that I love it. When making artifacts, creating fun and possible destruction conditions is something I struggle with, and I just love what you came up with.
As a whole though, I feel like this falls a bit short of artifact territory. I would look up the DMG p219 for the rules section on artifacts. They all seem to not necessarily be better, but to be more. And to have just a lot of stuff and versatility. The rules mention that:
An artifact can have as many as four minor beneficial properties and two major beneficial properties. It can have as many as four minor detrimental properties and two major detrimental properties .
I would use that as a basis to give the artifact just a few more properties. Proficiency in Arcana seems like a must, considering the way the Sphere of Annihilation works.
On a personal note, I would probably make the artifact give a +3 to spell attack and save DC.
Finally, as an artifact attuned to a specific, and evil, god, it seems weird to me that it has no interaction with the character's alignment. Maybe moving it to a neutral god, or offering a ritual of purification to allow a good (or at least neutral) character to equip it seems like it might be a good idea.
I'm preparing to DM a heavily homebrewed version of Tomb of Annihilation, going from lv. 1 to 20. Because the final boss will most likely need some kind of Divine Intervention to defeat, I thought of giving the players a mystical artifact that allows them to contact a god should they need it. I'm using the Black Opal Crown as a basis, and connecting it to Shar (or her homebrewed equivalent) instead of Dendar. This is the first artifact I've made, and I'm not sure if it's powerful enough to truly feel like a proper artifact. Can you guys tell me if you think I should nerf or buff it?
Black Opal Crown Wondrous Item, artifact (requires atunement)
Spells: The crown has three charges. Someone attuned to the crown can use one of the charges to cast Contact Other Plane. The target of the spell is always Shar. The crown regains all expended charges once a year at winter solstice.
1/day a creature attuned to the crown can cast Darkness.
Child of Night: Creatures attuned to the crown has Superior Darkvision (120 feet).
Sphere of Annihilation: An attuned creature can spend 10 minutes removing the opal from the crown and turn it into a Sphere of Annihilation. While the opal is removed, the crown becomes nonmagical. The sphere exists for 8 hours before turning back into an opal. Once this feature is used, the crown can't be used for this purpose in 1 year.
Holy Symbol: Clerics and paladins worshiping Shar or other deities of night and darkness can use the crown as a holy symbol.
Destroying the crown: The crown can only be destroyed by a cleric of Selûne using their Divine Intervention feature to destroy it while it is bathed in moonlight.
(I played around with the idea to have a the user gain Sunlight Sensitivity, but that trait is a ***** and a half, and would mean only kobolds and drow would be interested in using the crown)
So, my thoughts on it:
Spells: this basically gives 3 lv5 spell, per year. It's not much, especially if it's aimed at very high level characters.
Child of Night: very cool... But much less so if you already have Darkvision. Note that having Darkvision can be achieved by an uncommon magic item, that doesn't require attunment.
Sphere of Annihilation: clearly THE feature of the artifact. The once per year limitation is rough (and might discourage PC from actively using it), but it takes you up to at least legendary status.
Holy Symbol: more for fluff than anything else, but it's cool.
Destroying the Crown: I know it's not a feature per se, but I just want to say that I love it. When making artifacts, creating fun and possible destruction conditions is something I struggle with, and I just love what you came up with.
As a whole though, I feel like this falls a bit short of artifact territory. I would look up the DMG p219 for the rules section on artifacts. They all seem to not necessarily be better, but to be more. And to have just a lot of stuff and versatility. The rules mention that:
I would use that as a basis to give the artifact just a few more properties. Proficiency in Arcana seems like a must, considering the way the Sphere of Annihilation works.
On a personal note, I would probably make the artifact give a +3 to spell attack and save DC.
Finally, as an artifact attuned to a specific, and evil, god, it seems weird to me that it has no interaction with the character's alignment. Maybe moving it to a neutral god, or offering a ritual of purification to allow a good (or at least neutral) character to equip it seems like it might be a good idea.
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