So I am DMing a homebrew campaign and I have a question about crafting magic items with multiple effects. So one of my players wants to craft a few items that I'm not sure on what the rarity would be for said items. The first would be a wand that can cast 1 of 4 different 1st level spells per charge at their minimum value and at crafting the charges would be 1 + 2D12 and renews 1d4 charges each dawn being destroyed if all charges are spent. I'm not sure if this would be a rare or a very rare since the number of charges are unknown and it is capable of casting one of 4 possible spells user's choice.
Another item I would wonder about rarity value be is this player also wanted to have a sack that provided 1 days rations for one person and renews at dawn the next day, what would the rarity and requirements be for that? I mean there is the uncommon magic item known as the "Decanter of Endless Water" but no sack of continual rations or whatever you want to call it. And the only spell I know of that could cover the food aspect would be the third level conjuration spell "Create Food and Water" and that exceeds the requirement of enough food for one person per day. I'm not sure how to go about setting the requirements for this type of magic item.
Now I have a player who wanted to craft a "Robe of Useful Items" and he wanted to know if, since he's crafting it, he could automatically have it have the maximum number of patches and he picks the patches excluding the predetermined patches. For the sake of argument let's just say that he can, what would you recommend be the requirements for the materials for this robe? I mean a cobbler's tools is an obvious one and since the magic item is a robe one could argue that it would take about a week or less to craft the robe's patches and then to enchant it would take 20 days since the magic item value of an uncommon item is 500 gp and costs 25 gp per 8 hour day enchanting the item, but what would the requirements for the enchanted patches be? Generally speaking. I mean you can have a Horse with saddle bags, random spell scroll from 1st to 3rd level, a 12' long rowboat, a bag of 100 gp, a silver coffer, and a bunch of other stuff that, how do you set the requirements? Would you just say have all said items or spend the gold value on top of the uncommon item cost? Or would you have a different approach to this item in particular?
Crafting magic items is, by design, difficult, expensive and time consuming in this edition. Magic should be something you give out, not something players make when they want a new toy. Xanathar's guide gives rules for crafting mundane items and magic items that might help.
Generally, if you are a new DM (maybe you're not, sorry if that's the case), you might want to stick to RAW, published items instead of letting them craft custom items, just to make sure they don't make something too strong. For example, a wand that can cast multiple different spells is crazy strong, and imo, should not be allowed. Let me guess, the person who wants one is a sorcerer who wants to expand their spell selection. That said, the bag with rations doesn't seem like too big a deal. Its a pretty easy survival check to find rations in the wild.
For the robe. Cobbler's tools would be for shoes. You're thinking of weaver's tools for a robe. And the fabric itself would need to be special somehow. Maybe silk from a drider, or the skin of something? I'd give them the standard patches automatically, but I'd say the player needs to produce each patch of the 4d4 variety individually. If they want a ram, they need to provide one. a horse and saddle, they need to provide one, a bag of 100 gold, they need to provide it. and in the course of crafting, what they provide would be be transformed into a patch on the robe. I'm not sure how they provide a pit, maybe find a scroll of move earth?
I would say the wand would be rare. It kind of depends o what spells it has, but if it is only level 1 spells that can't be up casted, I don't see that being overpowered (there is a rare staff with 8 spells at multiple levels, so...).
The goody bag of daily snacks sounds like an uncommon.
For the robe, I'd go with weaver's tools (disguise kit optional if you feel like it). And double the cost since it is going to be a bit more than your average uncommon item at this point.
And like Xalthu mentioned, have these items require rare ingredient items they have to get first.
Yes I am a newish DM. The player that came up with the bag of rations idea also came up with other, I'm gonna say game breaking because they would make it so that his character could do a whole campaign by himself, magic items. Such as, a corset that allows the wearer to make an Arcana check, DC 10 + Spell level to cast the spell at, instead of spending a spell slot to cast a spell his character already knew and has no charges and is not consumed. His reasoning? Because the spellcasters in all editions are not able to cast enough spells. When I told him that what wands and spell scrolls are for he told me that it didn't make sense for a spell caster to only be able to cast at maximum (at level 20 i guess) only 22 spells per long rest (38 for wizard with arcane recovery) and have to lug around tons of spell scrolls or having to switch out wands for different spells and in combat spending a full turn just to find a spell and cast it the next turn when in all probability the enemy has already attacked the wizard and sent him to 0 HP.
Now this guy has said. "My one rule in playing any role playing game with others is. 'Let me play the character I want to play.'" and he never seems to make a character that fits the game. He prefers to play solo player games like Skyrim, Fallout, Civilization, ect. and mods the heck out of them if he can mod it. He also HATES MMO games. Given that the few times he played MMO games he kept meeting the stereotypical immature idiots that kept calling him "Newb" and made fun of the characters he chose I can understand why. HOWEVER! In his mind, crafting is a cheaper way of getting what you want if you are able to succeed the roll to craft it rather than trying to find a butt load of gold to purchase it. He thinks that if an uncommon magic item takes 500 gp to make and he has the gold he can spend the money and craft the item and now has the item. Yes it's 20 days to craft the item but this is 'Character Creation' not in game yet.
As long as I have known him every character he has built ends up pissing off the GM (for a few years it was his own wife who GMed our group) on how the GM can not seem to work with his character and make the campaign fun for him and the rest of the party. Like I didn't understand his logic on "I craft the robe of useful items and it has X number of patches and they all are the silver coffer patch or bag of gold patch or 10 gems worth 100 gp each." DURING CHARACTER CREATION!!! and say "I'm gonna tear those patches and get the gold value of those patches and now I have Z amount of gold to add to my purchasing of gear cause we're level 10 and I feel like we should have more magic items than what the book says we get." And crafts another robe of useful items and repeats and keeps doing this until he has millions of gold and purchases multiple "tomes of clear thought" to give himself an intelligence of 50 because the tome allows you to increase your attribute limit. And when game does start he has a wizard that has an Intelligence of 50+ when all other players are within normal game mechanics. And he claims that "Hey, it's in the rules that I can do this. You didn't say how long we had between adventures." GRRRRAAAAAA!!!!
sorry for the rant. I just can't seem to keep this particular power gamer in check when it comes to character creation and crafting magic items, especially when we are creating characters at higher level where they can craft magic items and he wants to have crafted magic items rather than purchasing them since you can't seem to know the price of most magic items and the GM has to pull a price tag out of their rear. And with how the rules for crafting the magic items are, I'm never sure on how to judge the rarity of some of the other decent magic item ideas that he's come up with.
Yeah. I’ve never had to deal with players like that, but I get it. They have the video game mentality and they’re trying to “win” D&D. So they look for exploits like there would be in a game. And they expect crafting rules because Skyrim has crafting rules, sort of thing. Has anyone tried an out of character talk with him? A very clear, blunt talk. No subtlety or beating around the bush. To tell him to reset his expectations about how this is a different sort of game. As far as crafting, it’s easy enough to not give him down time enough to do it. Or tell him no one was willing to sell him a book. Or the ingredients he needs to craft whatever he wants are impossible to find. Or just say no crafting. It’s an optional rule.
Just go "wow that is really strong. Here is your new character sheet." *swap sheets with him. "Now, the local lord has grown concerned about the arch wizard [character name] growing too powerful and has hired your party to travel to the neighboring kingdom to seek reinforcements..."
But seriously, you are the DM, you set the rules. Buying 1 Tome of clear thought would probably take around 52000gp and 20 weeks. And it wouldn't be unreasonable to double the time and increase the price each time. Some will be fake, etc. It would reasonably take around 620 weeks (11-12ish years) and 350000+up to get 4. Also, the ability cap is 30.
And it is in the rules that you can deny any attempt to make or buy magic items, those are completely optional.
Do you know the saying "you can't please all the people all of the time"? That's only a partial quote but, it seems to fit your situation. Either that, or you are trolling these forums hardcore. If you are a newish DM, let official items in game be your guide, it's not really that hard to find an existing item to compare to most items a player will want to have made IF the idea is remotely reasonable. If nothing is a good match, that's your clue that it might be a game breaking request. In Homebrew, I guess there aren't game breaking requests per se but, you need to adjust your world building ceiling when you allow players to create world changing mechanics.
I didn’t think I was trolling... but I do rant a bit and complain and some of my players. And I guess that gets in the way of my legitimate questions it seems. I apologize if it seems like I’m trolling...
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So I am DMing a homebrew campaign and I have a question about crafting magic items with multiple effects. So one of my players wants to craft a few items that I'm not sure on what the rarity would be for said items. The first would be a wand that can cast 1 of 4 different 1st level spells per charge at their minimum value and at crafting the charges would be 1 + 2D12 and renews 1d4 charges each dawn being destroyed if all charges are spent. I'm not sure if this would be a rare or a very rare since the number of charges are unknown and it is capable of casting one of 4 possible spells user's choice.
Another item I would wonder about rarity value be is this player also wanted to have a sack that provided 1 days rations for one person and renews at dawn the next day, what would the rarity and requirements be for that? I mean there is the uncommon magic item known as the "Decanter of Endless Water" but no sack of continual rations or whatever you want to call it. And the only spell I know of that could cover the food aspect would be the third level conjuration spell "Create Food and Water" and that exceeds the requirement of enough food for one person per day. I'm not sure how to go about setting the requirements for this type of magic item.
Now I have a player who wanted to craft a "Robe of Useful Items" and he wanted to know if, since he's crafting it, he could automatically have it have the maximum number of patches and he picks the patches excluding the predetermined patches. For the sake of argument let's just say that he can, what would you recommend be the requirements for the materials for this robe? I mean a cobbler's tools is an obvious one and since the magic item is a robe one could argue that it would take about a week or less to craft the robe's patches and then to enchant it would take 20 days since the magic item value of an uncommon item is 500 gp and costs 25 gp per 8 hour day enchanting the item, but what would the requirements for the enchanted patches be? Generally speaking. I mean you can have a Horse with saddle bags, random spell scroll from 1st to 3rd level, a 12' long rowboat, a bag of 100 gp, a silver coffer, and a bunch of other stuff that, how do you set the requirements? Would you just say have all said items or spend the gold value on top of the uncommon item cost? Or would you have a different approach to this item in particular?
Crafting magic items is, by design, difficult, expensive and time consuming in this edition. Magic should be something you give out, not something players make when they want a new toy. Xanathar's guide gives rules for crafting mundane items and magic items that might help.
Generally, if you are a new DM (maybe you're not, sorry if that's the case), you might want to stick to RAW, published items instead of letting them craft custom items, just to make sure they don't make something too strong. For example, a wand that can cast multiple different spells is crazy strong, and imo, should not be allowed. Let me guess, the person who wants one is a sorcerer who wants to expand their spell selection. That said, the bag with rations doesn't seem like too big a deal. Its a pretty easy survival check to find rations in the wild.
For the robe. Cobbler's tools would be for shoes. You're thinking of weaver's tools for a robe. And the fabric itself would need to be special somehow. Maybe silk from a drider, or the skin of something? I'd give them the standard patches automatically, but I'd say the player needs to produce each patch of the 4d4 variety individually. If they want a ram, they need to provide one. a horse and saddle, they need to provide one, a bag of 100 gold, they need to provide it. and in the course of crafting, what they provide would be be transformed into a patch on the robe. I'm not sure how they provide a pit, maybe find a scroll of move earth?
I would say the wand would be rare. It kind of depends o what spells it has, but if it is only level 1 spells that can't be up casted, I don't see that being overpowered (there is a rare staff with 8 spells at multiple levels, so...).
The goody bag of daily snacks sounds like an uncommon.
For the robe, I'd go with weaver's tools (disguise kit optional if you feel like it). And double the cost since it is going to be a bit more than your average uncommon item at this point.
And like Xalthu mentioned, have these items require rare ingredient items they have to get first.
Yes I am a newish DM. The player that came up with the bag of rations idea also came up with other, I'm gonna say game breaking because they would make it so that his character could do a whole campaign by himself, magic items. Such as, a corset that allows the wearer to make an Arcana check, DC 10 + Spell level to cast the spell at, instead of spending a spell slot to cast a spell his character already knew and has no charges and is not consumed. His reasoning? Because the spellcasters in all editions are not able to cast enough spells. When I told him that what wands and spell scrolls are for he told me that it didn't make sense for a spell caster to only be able to cast at maximum (at level 20 i guess) only 22 spells per long rest (38 for wizard with arcane recovery) and have to lug around tons of spell scrolls or having to switch out wands for different spells and in combat spending a full turn just to find a spell and cast it the next turn when in all probability the enemy has already attacked the wizard and sent him to 0 HP.
Now this guy has said. "My one rule in playing any role playing game with others is. 'Let me play the character I want to play.'" and he never seems to make a character that fits the game. He prefers to play solo player games like Skyrim, Fallout, Civilization, ect. and mods the heck out of them if he can mod it. He also HATES MMO games. Given that the few times he played MMO games he kept meeting the stereotypical immature idiots that kept calling him "Newb" and made fun of the characters he chose I can understand why. HOWEVER! In his mind, crafting is a cheaper way of getting what you want if you are able to succeed the roll to craft it rather than trying to find a butt load of gold to purchase it. He thinks that if an uncommon magic item takes 500 gp to make and he has the gold he can spend the money and craft the item and now has the item. Yes it's 20 days to craft the item but this is 'Character Creation' not in game yet.
As long as I have known him every character he has built ends up pissing off the GM (for a few years it was his own wife who GMed our group) on how the GM can not seem to work with his character and make the campaign fun for him and the rest of the party. Like I didn't understand his logic on "I craft the robe of useful items and it has X number of patches and they all are the silver coffer patch or bag of gold patch or 10 gems worth 100 gp each." DURING CHARACTER CREATION!!! and say "I'm gonna tear those patches and get the gold value of those patches and now I have Z amount of gold to add to my purchasing of gear cause we're level 10 and I feel like we should have more magic items than what the book says we get." And crafts another robe of useful items and repeats and keeps doing this until he has millions of gold and purchases multiple "tomes of clear thought" to give himself an intelligence of 50 because the tome allows you to increase your attribute limit. And when game does start he has a wizard that has an Intelligence of 50+ when all other players are within normal game mechanics. And he claims that "Hey, it's in the rules that I can do this. You didn't say how long we had between adventures." GRRRRAAAAAA!!!!
sorry for the rant. I just can't seem to keep this particular power gamer in check when it comes to character creation and crafting magic items, especially when we are creating characters at higher level where they can craft magic items and he wants to have crafted magic items rather than purchasing them since you can't seem to know the price of most magic items and the GM has to pull a price tag out of their rear. And with how the rules for crafting the magic items are, I'm never sure on how to judge the rarity of some of the other decent magic item ideas that he's come up with.
Yeah. I’ve never had to deal with players like that, but I get it. They have the video game mentality and they’re trying to “win” D&D. So they look for exploits like there would be in a game. And they expect crafting rules because Skyrim has crafting rules, sort of thing.
Has anyone tried an out of character talk with him? A very clear, blunt talk. No subtlety or beating around the bush. To tell him to reset his expectations about how this is a different sort of game.
As far as crafting, it’s easy enough to not give him down time enough to do it. Or tell him no one was willing to sell him a book. Or the ingredients he needs to craft whatever he wants are impossible to find. Or just say no crafting. It’s an optional rule.
Just go "wow that is really strong. Here is your new character sheet." *swap sheets with him. "Now, the local lord has grown concerned about the arch wizard [character name] growing too powerful and has hired your party to travel to the neighboring kingdom to seek reinforcements..."
But seriously, you are the DM, you set the rules. Buying 1 Tome of clear thought would probably take around 52000gp and 20 weeks. And it wouldn't be unreasonable to double the time and increase the price each time. Some will be fake, etc. It would reasonably take around 620 weeks (11-12ish years) and 350000+up to get 4. Also, the ability cap is 30.
And it is in the rules that you can deny any attempt to make or buy magic items, those are completely optional.
Do you know the saying "you can't please all the people all of the time"? That's only a partial quote but, it seems to fit your situation. Either that, or you are trolling these forums hardcore. If you are a newish DM, let official items in game be your guide, it's not really that hard to find an existing item to compare to most items a player will want to have made IF the idea is remotely reasonable. If nothing is a good match, that's your clue that it might be a game breaking request. In Homebrew, I guess there aren't game breaking requests per se but, you need to adjust your world building ceiling when you allow players to create world changing mechanics.
I didn’t think I was trolling... but I do rant a bit and complain and some of my players. And I guess that gets in the way of my legitimate questions it seems. I apologize if it seems like I’m trolling...