I'm making a custom magic for one of the players in my party to get if they so desire. It is an orcish two-handed hammer, I'd love any feedback on it. It's supposed to be a one-of-a-kind artifact.
Stats:
+2 to hit. 1d10+5 dmg. The d10 is bludgeoning damage. The +5 is thunder dmg. The user would add their normal hit and damage bonuses to these bonuses.
Can commune with previous Orc leaders who wielded it. They can give advice or advantage in certain situations. DMs descresion. Once per day.
Reckless attack. If user has the feat, no disadvantage.
Ground pound. User can smash the hammer into the ground, causing the ground to shift and crack. 20ft radius on soft ground, 10ft on solid. DMs discretion on if surrounding ground is soft or solid. All creatures in radius, besides user, make dex saving throw, failed saved they are knocked prone.
I think the Reckless attack need limits or remove the part "If user has the feat, no disadvantage." as it give a Barbarian unlimited advantage to all attack. Barbarian 2/ fighter 11 will get 3 attacks (4 if bounse action) a round with advantage every round with no draw backs. Mix it action surge and your BBG will be hurt very very bad.
Ok, that makes sense to me. I forgot that reckless attack is not once a day but once a round. Good call.
I mean, you choose whether to use Reckless Attack when you make your first attack on your turn, but it applies to all of your attacks that turn. So it's not exactly "once a round" in that sense either.
I don't know. I would prefer to have more context like the player character levels, or how they're expected to acquire the item, or the setting if magical items are heavily prevalent.
The characters are all level 6, and are close to becoming level 7. They are acquiring the item through defeating an orc leader who has already obtained the item. They were each going for at the same time, and fell behind due to their own poor decisions, and the NPC got to the weapon first.
They now must face said NPC, who has the weapon, in order to retrieve the weapon. They don't have to get the weapon. It's not part of their overall campaign. But however they do want to kill the NPC that has it.
As far as magic prevalence in my world, magic isn't everywhere, but it's also not unheard of either. The average farmer might not see much magic in his life, but if you live in one of the large cities, you would at least see magic here and there and understand that it exists in the world.
Artifacts do have a a particular category in magic items when referring to your original post, but based on what you've told me the item drops might mostly be in that "uncommon" category specifically a +1 Weapon (+1 is to hit and damage), or Weapon of Warning.
At the moment the +5 thunder damage is like adding a 1d10 (5.5 average) to the damage, and it comes with +2 to hit. In practice you're giving your player a +2 Weapon with +1d6 (3.5 average) damage which might be too much, and especially if its not necessarily a part of the main campaign line. Additionally, Reckless Attack would be roughly adding +5 to hit without needing to be barbarian. Then on top of that you have special powers for the weapon. Finally this may be annoying to use on an npc if you intend to play exactly to the weapon's current mechanics while DMing.
You can keep the unique things such as communing that could allow the player to unlock more of the weapon's strength, or let it do what you were trying to do by granting advantage. I would leave off the ground and pound personally.
Recommended "Rare" item stats might be closer to the following:
You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon, and on a hit you inflict +1d6 thunder damage.
Once per day you can commune up to 10 minutes with previous Orc leaders who wielded it. They can give advice in certain situations at the DMs discretion, or grant you advantage on all attacks for one round of your choosing on the same day of communion.
Versatile.
This weapon can be used with one or two hands. A damage value in parentheses appears with the property—the damage when the weapon is used with two hands to make a melee attack.
I do not think the added Ground Pound ability is too much. You could think of having this ability trigger on a critical hit and/or later upscale it to have destructive wave's effect.
I like these suggestions. I think this weapon is going to come out pretty cool. I was also thinking about having it being something that a full blooded Orc would get the most benefit out of it, a half orc would also be able to wield it, but that it really wouldn't do much besides the a hammer for non-orc users.
The orc leaders who previously wielded it wouldn't offer there advice to non orcs. I also thought about having a strength requirement in order to wield it, as it is a large two-handed hammer. Similar to how heavy armor has a strength requirement to use. Is that too much though? I like the idea of it theatrically, but I don't want it to be unfair if one of my non orc players gets it.
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I'm making a custom magic for one of the players in my party to get if they so desire. It is an orcish two-handed hammer, I'd love any feedback on it. It's supposed to be a one-of-a-kind artifact.
Stats:
+2 to hit. 1d10+5 dmg. The d10 is bludgeoning damage. The +5 is thunder dmg. The user would add their normal hit and damage bonuses to these bonuses.
Can commune with previous Orc leaders who wielded it. They can give advice or advantage in certain situations. DMs descresion. Once per day.
Reckless attack. If user has the feat, no disadvantage.
Ground pound. User can smash the hammer into the ground, causing the ground to shift and crack. 20ft radius on soft ground, 10ft on solid. DMs discretion on if surrounding ground is soft or solid. All creatures in radius, besides user, make dex saving throw, failed saved they are knocked prone.
Thoughts?
I think the Reckless attack need limits or remove the part "If user has the feat, no disadvantage." as it give a Barbarian unlimited advantage to all attack. Barbarian 2/ fighter 11 will get 3 attacks (4 if bounse action) a round with advantage every round with no draw backs. Mix it action surge and your BBG will be hurt very very bad.
I spell Goodly.
Ok, that makes sense to me. I forgot that reckless attack is not once a day but once a round. Good call.
I mean, you choose whether to use Reckless Attack when you make your first attack on your turn, but it applies to all of your attacks that turn. So it's not exactly "once a round" in that sense either.
I don't know. I would prefer to have more context like the player character levels, or how they're expected to acquire the item, or the setting if magical items are heavily prevalent.
The characters are all level 6, and are close to becoming level 7. They are acquiring the item through defeating an orc leader who has already obtained the item. They were each going for at the same time, and fell behind due to their own poor decisions, and the NPC got to the weapon first.
They now must face said NPC, who has the weapon, in order to retrieve the weapon. They don't have to get the weapon. It's not part of their overall campaign. But however they do want to kill the NPC that has it.
As far as magic prevalence in my world, magic isn't everywhere, but it's also not unheard of either. The average farmer might not see much magic in his life, but if you live in one of the large cities, you would at least see magic here and there and understand that it exists in the world.
Artifacts do have a a particular category in magic items when referring to your original post, but based on what you've told me the item drops might mostly be in that "uncommon" category specifically a +1 Weapon (+1 is to hit and damage), or Weapon of Warning.
At the moment the +5 thunder damage is like adding a 1d10 (5.5 average) to the damage, and it comes with +2 to hit. In practice you're giving your player a +2 Weapon with +1d6 (3.5 average) damage which might be too much, and especially if its not necessarily a part of the main campaign line. Additionally, Reckless Attack would be roughly adding +5 to hit without needing to be barbarian. Then on top of that you have special powers for the weapon. Finally this may be annoying to use on an npc if you intend to play exactly to the weapon's current mechanics while DMing.
You can keep the unique things such as communing that could allow the player to unlock more of the weapon's strength, or let it do what you were trying to do by granting advantage. I would leave off the ground and pound personally.
Recommended "Rare" item stats might be closer to the following:
Orc Champion's Warhammer
Martial weapon, melee weapon
4000 gp, 2 lb. 1d8 bludgeoning - versatile (1d10)
You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon, and on a hit you inflict +1d6 thunder damage.
Once per day you can commune up to 10 minutes with previous Orc leaders who wielded it. They can give advice in certain situations at the DMs discretion, or grant you advantage on all attacks for one round of your choosing on the same day of communion.
This weapon can be used with one or two hands. A damage value in parentheses appears with the property—the damage when the weapon is used with two hands to make a melee attack.
Edit: Grammar spelling
I do not think the added Ground Pound ability is too much. You could think of having this ability trigger on a critical hit and/or later upscale it to have destructive wave's effect.
I like these suggestions. I think this weapon is going to come out pretty cool. I was also thinking about having it being something that a full blooded Orc would get the most benefit out of it, a half orc would also be able to wield it, but that it really wouldn't do much besides the a hammer for non-orc users.
The orc leaders who previously wielded it wouldn't offer there advice to non orcs. I also thought about having a strength requirement in order to wield it, as it is a large two-handed hammer. Similar to how heavy armor has a strength requirement to use. Is that too much though? I like the idea of it theatrically, but I don't want it to be unfair if one of my non orc players gets it.