Made a rare Bow for my ranger, would love some feedback. He will probably be level 7/8 by the time he gets this. Does it seem appropriately balanced? I like throwing in 1hp minions so the AOE effect would wipe out lots at once, and I figured the +2d6 would be solid damage for higher CR monsters.
Radiant Arrow. Once on each of your turns when you take the Attack action, you can speak this bow's command word to summon a Radiant Arrow, causing the runes on the bow to glow with energy. When you fire the Radiant Arrow, you take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. On a hit with a Radiant Arrow, the target takes an additional 2d6 radiant damage.
Radiant Burst. When a hit with a Radiant Arrow causes a creature to drop to 0 hit points, a burst of radiant damage is released from the target, dealing 1d6 radiant damage to all creatures within 5 feet.
I like this a lot. Is the command word just flavor? If not, I believe its only purpose is to summon the arrow, which you're already limiting to once per turn.
Additionally, what's the reasoning behind the -5 to attack? I think a level 7/8 magic item could work with an extra 2d6 damage per turn. If you're worried about the damage being too high, I'd consider dropping the to hit penalty and reducing the extra damage to 1d6. As a player it feels far better to hit for less damage than to not hit at all.
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah the command word was just for flavor - just seemed fun.
The -5 to attack was mostly to add an interesting decision point for the player - "should I try to extra damage at a greater risk of missing, or just get a hit?" and I felt that also simulated the effect of wielding this powerful magic arrow. I also just personally don't like magic items that are just "this does extra damage per attack" and wanted to make it more interesting.
Yeah comparing it with something like Flame Tongue that does 2d6 for every attack, the -5 to do 2d6 once a turn seems a bit much. I might change it to a +2 bow for every attack, and then just keep the other benefits as is - you can just do one attack at +2d6 damage, but if it lands a kill you also get the +1d6 aoe buff.
This is also an item that they've heard rumors about and will be going out of their way to obtain it, so I'd much rather err on the side of it being a little more powerful than it being disappointing.
i'd say its fairly balanced - Radiant Arrow is basically an at-will Sharpshooter Feat...with a couple features removed (nerf) and the change to radiant damage (buff). Overall, I'd say its a bit stronger than the actual Feat (unless you play with a group that regularly addresses 1/2 cover and 3/4 cover), but its also sucking up your attunement slot so I guess that balances out as well.
Radiant Burst probably isn't near as useful as it sounds though, especially for a larger group where the odds of any one party member landing the killing blow are fairly low (plus the baddy needs to be next to other baddies).
I kind of imagined the Burst effect to be a way for the ranger to one shot a mob of 1hp skeleton minions (stolen from 4e) or something - maybe extending the range to 10ft radius for the Burst would work?
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Made a rare Bow for my ranger, would love some feedback. He will probably be level 7/8 by the time he gets this. Does it seem appropriately balanced? I like throwing in 1hp minions so the AOE effect would wipe out lots at once, and I figured the +2d6 would be solid damage for higher CR monsters.
Link to actual item: https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/1282520-bow-of-radiance
Radiant Arrow. Once on each of your turns when you take the Attack action, you can speak this bow's command word to summon a Radiant Arrow, causing the runes on the bow to glow with energy. When you fire the Radiant Arrow, you take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. On a hit with a Radiant Arrow, the target takes an additional 2d6 radiant damage.
Radiant Burst. When a hit with a Radiant Arrow causes a creature to drop to 0 hit points, a burst of radiant damage is released from the target, dealing 1d6 radiant damage to all creatures within 5 feet.
I like this a lot. Is the command word just flavor? If not, I believe its only purpose is to summon the arrow, which you're already limiting to once per turn.
Additionally, what's the reasoning behind the -5 to attack? I think a level 7/8 magic item could work with an extra 2d6 damage per turn. If you're worried about the damage being too high, I'd consider dropping the to hit penalty and reducing the extra damage to 1d6. As a player it feels far better to hit for less damage than to not hit at all.
Regardless, I like this weapon. Nice work.
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah the command word was just for flavor - just seemed fun.
The -5 to attack was mostly to add an interesting decision point for the player - "should I try to extra damage at a greater risk of missing, or just get a hit?" and I felt that also simulated the effect of wielding this powerful magic arrow. I also just personally don't like magic items that are just "this does extra damage per attack" and wanted to make it more interesting.
Yeah comparing it with something like Flame Tongue that does 2d6 for every attack, the -5 to do 2d6 once a turn seems a bit much. I might change it to a +2 bow for every attack, and then just keep the other benefits as is - you can just do one attack at +2d6 damage, but if it lands a kill you also get the +1d6 aoe buff.
This is also an item that they've heard rumors about and will be going out of their way to obtain it, so I'd much rather err on the side of it being a little more powerful than it being disappointing.
i'd say its fairly balanced - Radiant Arrow is basically an at-will Sharpshooter Feat...with a couple features removed (nerf) and the change to radiant damage (buff). Overall, I'd say its a bit stronger than the actual Feat (unless you play with a group that regularly addresses 1/2 cover and 3/4 cover), but its also sucking up your attunement slot so I guess that balances out as well.
Radiant Burst probably isn't near as useful as it sounds though, especially for a larger group where the odds of any one party member landing the killing blow are fairly low (plus the baddy needs to be next to other baddies).
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I kind of imagined the Burst effect to be a way for the ranger to one shot a mob of 1hp skeleton minions (stolen from 4e) or something - maybe extending the range to 10ft radius for the Burst would work?