So as a rogue thief, I was able to acquire a Night Hag's Heartstone back around level 3 or so. I've been holding onto it until level 13 (I'm level 12 now) as at that point, I get the Use Magic Device Roguish Archetype Feature:
Heartstone. This lustrous black gem allows a night hag to become ethereal while it is in her possession. The touch of a heartstone also cures any disease. Crafting a heartstone takes 30 days.
Use Magic Device. (Thief Archetype Feature) By 13th level, you have learned enough about the workings of magic that you can improvise the use of items even when they are not intended for you. You ignore all class, race, and level requirements on the use of magic items.
Should the Use Magic Device feature get around the "allows a night hag" requirement to become ethereal? Would the heartstone require attunement? Does the "cures any disease" bit function as well (I assume this is basically the same as Lesser Restoration)? Even without the Use Magic Device feature (since it doesn't limit it to only Night Hags)? There's not a lot of info about heartstones since they are limited to being used by Night Hags for the most part, but since Use Magic Device gets around that limitation, I'm wondering what the best way to handle that is.
Any thoughts/advice? Has anyone handled this in a campaign in the past?
I will go ahead and share some general Sage Advice that simply says it's up to a DM if PCs can use a Heartstone, but it doesn't take into account the Use Magic Device level 13 feature.
Jeremy Crawford @JeremyECrawford:
A heartstone is meant to work only for a hag, but a DM can rule otherwise.
I'll echo the "Up to your DM" sentiment but I will add my own potential ruling:
I'd say that the Ethereal property of the stone becomes a "Once per Long Rest" ability, while the Cure Disease part will make it unscathed. I don't see Diseases being used too often, and the fact that it's that limited in scope, I'd have no problem leaving it alone.
Yeah, making it only usable once per long rest, or some other similar limitation, sounds much more acceptable.
While, as a player, I would love the thought of essentially Blinking to the ethereal plane on command any time I want, it just feels soooo OP that I hate the thought that it would most likely ruin the balance. So while I am very excited about that ability, I just think some sort of limitation is key.
I've seen other people say using the heartstone could slowly turn your PC evil, but the heartstone doesn't seem as inherently evil as say a Night Hag's Soul Bag (considering it is a bag made from the flesh of a sacrificed humanoid, and also contains a second humanoid's soul). Our PCs destroyed the bags once we realized what they were. The heartstone, however doesn't mention anything about how it was crafted, other than "it takes 30 days to craft." But it doesn't explicitly describe such nefarious means to craft one, as it does the soul bag. Still... it is crafted by a Night Hag, so I can easily imagine it being pretty dark...
I'll point out that the Night Hag has the Etherealness trait, which describes how it works and mentions it needs the hearthstone for it to work.
The hearthstone itself does not describe the trait.
As such, I personally would treat the hearthstone as a special kind of material component for the etherealness, rather than a magical item that grants etherealness and just requires a Night Hag to do it (which Use Magic Device could circumvent).
On the contrary, the stone mentions how it works on diseases pretty straightforwardly. It cures disease with a touch. Doesn't require attunement, doesn't have limitations, doesn't require a hag to do it, or anything else that might warrant the use of Use Magic Device.
Of course, if the DM thinks it's cool and interesting, I see no reason not to duplicate the Night Hag's trait, with some reasonable limitations (as mentioned above, although I'd make it 1/day to and 1/day from, to avoid having stranded characters away from the party).
Good point, I was mostly just reading the Heartstone description under the Night Hag's Items, which made it sound like it was the item itself that granted this power to Night Hags. However, Etherealness is an available Action for a Night Hag (who needs the Heartstone to do it), so it's not clearly stated it's exclusively a power provided by the item alone. I may just forget about this even being a feature I could use as a PC since it's not spelled out.
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So as a rogue thief, I was able to acquire a Night Hag's Heartstone back around level 3 or so. I've been holding onto it until level 13 (I'm level 12 now) as at that point, I get the Use Magic Device Roguish Archetype Feature:
Should the Use Magic Device feature get around the "allows a night hag" requirement to become ethereal? Would the heartstone require attunement? Does the "cures any disease" bit function as well (I assume this is basically the same as Lesser Restoration)? Even without the Use Magic Device feature (since it doesn't limit it to only Night Hags)? There's not a lot of info about heartstones since they are limited to being used by Night Hags for the most part, but since Use Magic Device gets around that limitation, I'm wondering what the best way to handle that is.
Any thoughts/advice? Has anyone handled this in a campaign in the past?
I will go ahead and share some general Sage Advice that simply says it's up to a DM if PCs can use a Heartstone,
but it doesn't take into account the Use Magic Device level 13 feature.
I'll echo the "Up to your DM" sentiment but I will add my own potential ruling:
I'd say that the Ethereal property of the stone becomes a "Once per Long Rest" ability, while the Cure Disease part will make it unscathed. I don't see Diseases being used too often, and the fact that it's that limited in scope, I'd have no problem leaving it alone.
Yeah, making it only usable once per long rest, or some other similar limitation, sounds much more acceptable.
While, as a player, I would love the thought of essentially Blinking to the ethereal plane on command any time I want, it just feels soooo OP that I hate the thought that it would most likely ruin the balance. So while I am very excited about that ability, I just think some sort of limitation is key.
I've seen other people say using the heartstone could slowly turn your PC evil, but the heartstone doesn't seem as inherently evil as say a Night Hag's Soul Bag (considering it is a bag made from the flesh of a sacrificed humanoid, and also contains a second humanoid's soul). Our PCs destroyed the bags once we realized what they were. The heartstone, however doesn't mention anything about how it was crafted, other than "it takes 30 days to craft." But it doesn't explicitly describe such nefarious means to craft one, as it does the soul bag. Still... it is crafted by a Night Hag, so I can easily imagine it being pretty dark...
I'll point out that the Night Hag has the Etherealness trait, which describes how it works and mentions it needs the hearthstone for it to work.
The hearthstone itself does not describe the trait.
As such, I personally would treat the hearthstone as a special kind of material component for the etherealness, rather than a magical item that grants etherealness and just requires a Night Hag to do it (which Use Magic Device could circumvent).
On the contrary, the stone mentions how it works on diseases pretty straightforwardly. It cures disease with a touch. Doesn't require attunement, doesn't have limitations, doesn't require a hag to do it, or anything else that might warrant the use of Use Magic Device.
Of course, if the DM thinks it's cool and interesting, I see no reason not to duplicate the Night Hag's trait, with some reasonable limitations (as mentioned above, although I'd make it 1/day to and 1/day from, to avoid having stranded characters away from the party).
Good point, I was mostly just reading the Heartstone description under the Night Hag's Items, which made it sound like it was the item itself that granted this power to Night Hags. However, Etherealness is an available Action for a Night Hag (who needs the Heartstone to do it), so it's not clearly stated it's exclusively a power provided by the item alone. I may just forget about this even being a feature I could use as a PC since it's not spelled out.