I like the concept of giving home-brew unique magic items. Which I'm currently designing, starting using some of the standard versions. The question is - how powerful are they (from experience as a player - magic items can seriously over power a party!)
What do you think of the following, all of which I'm considering as attuned rare items for a party of level 4 characters:
The Cranesbill (Kopis - short sword) - +1 to hit/damage and does 1D4 lightning damage. This one I know is fine, its barely better than a standard shortsword +1.
Claw of Yeennoghu (a somewhat sinister battleaxe) - critical hit on 19+20 and causes an additional 1d6 on critical (so that would be 1d8x2 plus 1d6x2). So that's doubling the chance of crit and bumping the damage of crits quite a bit. Too much?
The last one and this is what I'm really pondering to be honest:
Armour of Accupuncture (based on armour of vulnerability). +1 studded leather which provides resistance to piercing damage but cursed to give vulnerability to bludgeoning and slashing. I'm happy to let them remove the curse from the item if they gain appropriate spell or find somebody to do so etc. Removing the curse would give you a very strong item, great for a ranged light armour character (and we have two rangers!). But its risky in the mean time - if they are unlucky against the wrong enemy, vulnerabilty stands a fair chance of out right killing them (i.e doing max hit points on top of reducing to 0 hitpoints). Am I playing with fire (not in the business of trying to kill my players!)
Otherwise any suggestions for items to give for Druid (Artic) or a Bard (college of valor
The claw is essentially a vicious battleaxe with extra crit range, making it a very rare item at the least. Without the extra crit range it would be rare, but not particularly unique.
The Cranesbill is, like you said, less powerful than a +2 basic sword. It's good but nothing that should cause issues at the table, and otherwise would be the sort of weapon somebody'd be real happy to have. Throwing extra dice is more fun than straight +number, as is an elementally charged weapon.
The Claw is a powerful cruncher, especially if there's a barbarian in your party. When it crits it will tend to crit real damn hard, especially if Brutal Critical is involved. That said, it being a battleaxe instead of a greataxe helps reign that in a slight bit, as does the lack of to-hit and damage bonuses. When it doesn't crit, it's just a regular battleaxe that happens to pierce nonmagic attack resistance. If you have a barbarian in your party who can reckless crit fish, maybe be a little careful with the Claw, but if not then it should be fine.
The armor is a bit trickier. Like you said, resistance to piercing damage is pretty clutch for distance fighters - it'd give a ranger or crossbow fighter an absolutely crushing advantage in an archery duel, one potent enough that I could see a ballsy player putting up with the curse in order to gain arrow resistance. Barbarian rage resistance is basically the entire reason to play barbs, and this lets a skirmisher resist a good eighty percent of the physical attacks that threaten them without giving up spellcasting or having to constantly attack - not to mention the resistance always works, unlike rage.
The fact that it's +1 studded on top of that, and that Cunning Disengage is only ever two rogue levels away? I'd maybe require more than just a Remove Curse to rid the armor of its penalty (though Remove Curse would obviously allow the PC to break attunement and ditch the armor), given that +1 studded leather with arrow resistance (on top of resistance from most finesse weapons, which are commonly wielded by mooks, and a lot of common simple weapons such as spears) would absolutely qualify as endgame armor for a light-armor skirmisher. Whichever ranger in your party didn't get that armor would potentially be feeling a little out in the cold if he didn't end up with something equally baller at some point.
It's a cool idea, and if you've got a neat questline set up to improve the armor as a sideline that could be a fun addition to your game, but I'd recommend caution when offering basic weapon resistance to any character other than a barbarian. Especially if there's a barbarian in your party who'd be watching one third of his class-defining resistances be handed to the Elf Git in the back.
So, the armor is basically the Armor of Vulnerability in the basic rules, but studded leather instead of plate, and with some kind of mechanic (possibly complicated) available to permanently undo the curse? Sounds like no problem.
Thanks all for helpful response! I'll up the Claw to very rare but that's fine. Its possible they won't want to use it anyway, as it's clearly an evil item (it ties in with plot lines that neighbouring country has been controlling monsters, encouraging gnolls to raid etc in preparation for invasion).
I was planning to allow removal of the curse with 'remove curse' cast at 5th level (so players couldn't do that until level 9 min). Alternatively there are a few people around that could lift the curse at a price (probably 1500-2000g depending on who they ask, persuasion, favour in return etc) - which unless they spent all the parties gold isn't going to happen for a while. Or I'll work it into quest / plot line. The alternative might be to change for bludgeon resistance, which is less common as ranged and therefore they get less benefit unless they get close (when they'll be vulnerable to slashing etc).
Good point on the barbarian crossover - fortunately we don't have one and unlikely to see it as a multi-class.
Just to make your players feel like they've really earned it, whatever they do to remove the cursed aspects of the armor should have some chance of completely disenchanting the armor. It doesn't have to be a high chance, but just that little threat of total failure makes success feel all the sweeter.
Of all the basic weapon damage types, Piercing is largely the strongest choice to gain resistance from. Virtually all ranged martial weapons are piercing damage, exempting junk like hurled handaxes. If you spend all your time at longbow distance, the only weapons you're likely to face are piercing. In addition, for a lot of wild creatures that come with dangerous multiattacks, their most powerful option in that multiattack is their bite, and bites always deal at least some piercing damage. This is in addition to a significant number of normal melee weapons dealing piercing damage. A normal melee character couldn't deal with the vulnerability to bludgeoning and slashing, but a high-mobility skirmisher who can simply vacate and keep shooting? Well, as someone who's played that character before, I'd wear the armor and dance with the curse without issue. Having to fear deadly slashing or hammering attacks just makes it all the more wardance-y.
This isn't to say that I think it's a bad idea. On the contrary, I like it a lot. Offering a skirmisher the option to work towards resistance to piercing damage is a really cool power option beyond "MOAR DAMAJ", and it could make for some worthwhile questing. Heh, just wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential potency issues with giving a longbow guy access to always-on piercing resistance.
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Hi all,
I like the concept of giving home-brew unique magic items. Which I'm currently designing, starting using some of the standard versions. The question is - how powerful are they (from experience as a player - magic items can seriously over power a party!)
What do you think of the following, all of which I'm considering as attuned rare items for a party of level 4 characters:
The Cranesbill (Kopis - short sword) - +1 to hit/damage and does 1D4 lightning damage. This one I know is fine, its barely better than a standard shortsword +1.
Claw of Yeennoghu (a somewhat sinister battleaxe) - critical hit on 19+20 and causes an additional 1d6 on critical (so that would be 1d8x2 plus 1d6x2). So that's doubling the chance of crit and bumping the damage of crits quite a bit. Too much?
The last one and this is what I'm really pondering to be honest:
Armour of Accupuncture (based on armour of vulnerability). +1 studded leather which provides resistance to piercing damage but cursed to give vulnerability to bludgeoning and slashing. I'm happy to let them remove the curse from the item if they gain appropriate spell or find somebody to do so etc. Removing the curse would give you a very strong item, great for a ranged light armour character (and we have two rangers!). But its risky in the mean time - if they are unlucky against the wrong enemy, vulnerabilty stands a fair chance of out right killing them (i.e doing max hit points on top of reducing to 0 hitpoints). Am I playing with fire (not in the business of trying to kill my players!)
Otherwise any suggestions for items to give for Druid (Artic) or a Bard (college of valor
Nick
The claw is essentially a vicious battleaxe with extra crit range, making it a very rare item at the least. Without the extra crit range it would be rare, but not particularly unique.
The Cranesbill is, like you said, less powerful than a +2 basic sword. It's good but nothing that should cause issues at the table, and otherwise would be the sort of weapon somebody'd be real happy to have. Throwing extra dice is more fun than straight +number, as is an elementally charged weapon.
The Claw is a powerful cruncher, especially if there's a barbarian in your party. When it crits it will tend to crit real damn hard, especially if Brutal Critical is involved. That said, it being a battleaxe instead of a greataxe helps reign that in a slight bit, as does the lack of to-hit and damage bonuses. When it doesn't crit, it's just a regular battleaxe that happens to pierce nonmagic attack resistance. If you have a barbarian in your party who can reckless crit fish, maybe be a little careful with the Claw, but if not then it should be fine.
The armor is a bit trickier. Like you said, resistance to piercing damage is pretty clutch for distance fighters - it'd give a ranger or crossbow fighter an absolutely crushing advantage in an archery duel, one potent enough that I could see a ballsy player putting up with the curse in order to gain arrow resistance. Barbarian rage resistance is basically the entire reason to play barbs, and this lets a skirmisher resist a good eighty percent of the physical attacks that threaten them without giving up spellcasting or having to constantly attack - not to mention the resistance always works, unlike rage.
The fact that it's +1 studded on top of that, and that Cunning Disengage is only ever two rogue levels away? I'd maybe require more than just a Remove Curse to rid the armor of its penalty (though Remove Curse would obviously allow the PC to break attunement and ditch the armor), given that +1 studded leather with arrow resistance (on top of resistance from most finesse weapons, which are commonly wielded by mooks, and a lot of common simple weapons such as spears) would absolutely qualify as endgame armor for a light-armor skirmisher. Whichever ranger in your party didn't get that armor would potentially be feeling a little out in the cold if he didn't end up with something equally baller at some point.
It's a cool idea, and if you've got a neat questline set up to improve the armor as a sideline that could be a fun addition to your game, but I'd recommend caution when offering basic weapon resistance to any character other than a barbarian. Especially if there's a barbarian in your party who'd be watching one third of his class-defining resistances be handed to the Elf Git in the back.
Please do not contact or message me.
So, the armor is basically the Armor of Vulnerability in the basic rules, but studded leather instead of plate, and with some kind of mechanic (possibly complicated) available to permanently undo the curse? Sounds like no problem.
Thanks all for helpful response! I'll up the Claw to very rare but that's fine. Its possible they won't want to use it anyway, as it's clearly an evil item (it ties in with plot lines that neighbouring country has been controlling monsters, encouraging gnolls to raid etc in preparation for invasion).
I was planning to allow removal of the curse with 'remove curse' cast at 5th level (so players couldn't do that until level 9 min). Alternatively there are a few people around that could lift the curse at a price (probably 1500-2000g depending on who they ask, persuasion, favour in return etc) - which unless they spent all the parties gold isn't going to happen for a while. Or I'll work it into quest / plot line. The alternative might be to change for bludgeon resistance, which is less common as ranged and therefore they get less benefit unless they get close (when they'll be vulnerable to slashing etc).
Good point on the barbarian crossover - fortunately we don't have one and unlikely to see it as a multi-class.
Nick
Just to make your players feel like they've really earned it, whatever they do to remove the cursed aspects of the armor should have some chance of completely disenchanting the armor. It doesn't have to be a high chance, but just that little threat of total failure makes success feel all the sweeter.
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Of all the basic weapon damage types, Piercing is largely the strongest choice to gain resistance from. Virtually all ranged martial weapons are piercing damage, exempting junk like hurled handaxes. If you spend all your time at longbow distance, the only weapons you're likely to face are piercing. In addition, for a lot of wild creatures that come with dangerous multiattacks, their most powerful option in that multiattack is their bite, and bites always deal at least some piercing damage. This is in addition to a significant number of normal melee weapons dealing piercing damage. A normal melee character couldn't deal with the vulnerability to bludgeoning and slashing, but a high-mobility skirmisher who can simply vacate and keep shooting? Well, as someone who's played that character before, I'd wear the armor and dance with the curse without issue. Having to fear deadly slashing or hammering attacks just makes it all the more wardance-y.
This isn't to say that I think it's a bad idea. On the contrary, I like it a lot. Offering a skirmisher the option to work towards resistance to piercing damage is a really cool power option beyond "MOAR DAMAJ", and it could make for some worthwhile questing. Heh, just wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential potency issues with giving a longbow guy access to always-on piercing resistance.
Please do not contact or message me.