I wanted to make a special hand crossbow for one of my party members and I really wanted to push the bounds on power. But I also wanted to experiment with using Hit Dice as a resource.
Basically this crossbow draws on the users life energy to fuel it. What do people think of the power level and the hit dice mechanic, also perhaps the rules text could be better worded.
Ok, here is my constructive criticism, based on my personal opinion, something many people have, and I'm by no means an expert.
The exploding dice mechanic can seriously wreck the game... you have a .5% chance of doing a whopping 18 damage on a single hit you have a .5% chance of getting 18 + an additional d6 without any DEX or proficiency damage being factored in. In addition, if I read it correctly it is all radiant. and you have a 17% chance of getting a second die, and a 3% chance of getting a third. No other item in the game has this mechanic, thus on its face making it OP. Now imagine you crit!
Radiant Damage. It's way more powerful than anything else. I'd go poison to stick with the snake motif. Otherwise I'm not sure why it is doing radiant damage at all.
Not a fan of the hit die mechanic. The problem is now you're tracking yet another "thing" and if the point is to offset the damage with another negative losing a single HD isn't much of a problem once you have a few. Given that this is Legendary and intended for high end characters... don't think it matters much.
Also you're adding proficiency to the damage as well, which makes it even more unbalanced as it is guaranteed damage.
My personal fixes would be to:
Take a look at other Legendary items. See how much damage they can do, and make it equivalent-ish. If you really want a unique mechanic, maybe make it be a specific thing that is less swingy. So for example, if it did 3d6 poison, maybe any 6 counts as a 7 as it was blessed by a god or some such. Or maybe you make it 2d6 but if you roll two ones the first time, you get more dice... you know... "snake eyes"
Change #2 to another type of damage (poison).
Maybe you want to keep the exploding die mechanic, make it cost a HD to use... a HD for a 17% chance at exploding damage would make it get used but sparingly. Or you lose half your HD when you attune to it and they stay gone till you un-attune.
I'd just remove the latter.
Do with it what you will, whatever everyone has fun with. I tend toward more "realistic" so maybe that's just my bias speaking. If I were to use it I'd make them pay a HD but maybe only to activate on a hit
Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. I may have been trying to experiment too much with this one, because exploding property is something that I wanted to experiment with also in addition to the hit die resource mechanic. I will save exploding for a different item. Also the reason for it being radiant damage was lore reasons, the item was created by a powerful medusa, named Stheno, to fight a powerful vampire. As for the proficiency bonus to damage, that is kind of a hallmark of noteworthy items in all my games, generally by high levels every PC has an item that adds their prof bonus to damage. So while it may seem OP to baseline games it works out in my games.
But I have revised it based on your feedback.
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Hello everyone,
I wanted to make a special hand crossbow for one of my party members and I really wanted to push the bounds on power. But I also wanted to experiment with using Hit Dice as a resource.
Basically this crossbow draws on the users life energy to fuel it. What do people think of the power level and the hit dice mechanic, also perhaps the rules text could be better worded.
Revised: https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/362061-sthenos-revenge
Original: https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/360986-sthenos-revenge
Ok, here is my constructive criticism, based on my personal opinion, something many people have, and I'm by no means an expert.
.5% chance of doing a whopping 18 damage on a single hityou have a .5% chance of getting 18 + an additional d6 without any DEX or proficiency damage being factored in. In addition, if I read it correctly it is all radiant. and you have a 17% chance of getting a second die, and a 3% chance of getting a third. No other item in the game has this mechanic, thus on its face making it OP. Now imagine you crit!My personal fixes would be to:
Do with it what you will, whatever everyone has fun with. I tend toward more "realistic" so maybe that's just my bias speaking. If I were to use it I'd make them pay a HD but maybe only to activate on a hit
Playtesting Fugare Draconis, an epic tale of adventure, loss, and redemption
Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. I may have been trying to experiment too much with this one, because exploding property is something that I wanted to experiment with also in addition to the hit die resource mechanic. I will save exploding for a different item. Also the reason for it being radiant damage was lore reasons, the item was created by a powerful medusa, named Stheno, to fight a powerful vampire. As for the proficiency bonus to damage, that is kind of a hallmark of noteworthy items in all my games, generally by high levels every PC has an item that adds their prof bonus to damage. So while it may seem OP to baseline games it works out in my games.
But I have revised it based on your feedback.