So I recently designed a magic item for my campaign. I don't know how powerful it should be, but I like the idea that top soldiers or generals in one of my empire's armies carry them around. Eventually, the party will get their hands on this item, and I don't know what level they should be for it to be balanced by then. I want the item to be viable for any class so if you have any input on how to, or if I should, do that I would appreciate it.
The Item in question is a pouch with 20 pieces of enchanted adamantine that when activated with a bonus action begin to circle around the user and grant a slew of benefits
-The first is a +1 AC boost which you gain from the spinning pieces.
-Whenever the user lands an attack (magical or weapon) against an enemy within 30ft of them, one piece hits them as well dealing 2d4+2 (piercing or radiant) dmg.
-On top of this, as a bonus action you can use the spinning pieces to make up to 3(or 4 maybe) ranged attacks (I don't know if this should be weapon or magic, and if magic what stat?) against up to 3(or 4) enemies within 90 ft, each piece dealing 2d4+2 (radiant or piercing) damage.
I want to use the 20 pieces as a sort of charges for each ability, every attack costs one piece. Every night 3d4+4 pieces return to the pouch to be used the next day.
Is it powerful enough/too powerful for its rarity? How should/should I tweak it to make it more balanced?
Since you're new to it, I will advise you what the DMG says to homebrew magic item: The best way to make it balanced is to use an actual magic item from oficial sources as a scretch. However, not always the oficial sources have something what matches well with what we want to homebrew and I think thats pretty much the case of yours.
First, I do not see that what you want is way unbalanced, but it have some issues that I would put more attention to avoid unbalanced uses of it:
1 - Why it needs a bonus action to be activated? There's a max time its pieces circle around the creature or if its activated the firt time in the morning it still up forever? If there's a charge limit, why should you put another limitation as activation and time?
2 - This bonus is permanent? It's up only when activated right? So, I would go back to the last question on it. +1 AC isn't that much to be fair, a uncommon rarity would grant it "permanently"
3 - Additional 2d4+2 aren't too much (almost a cantrip), but it becomes it when it can be used anytime and stack with the other benefits, so I would go back to the first question.
4 - 4 x 2d4+2 with 90ft. range to different targets is a bit more than a 17th level eldrich blast, but with a bonus action. I think thats a lot and the major rarity increaser on your item. Also, it stack with the rest of the benefits. It makes me go back to the first question.
5 - 20 charges is way too much more than any other oficial item we see, I would rethink over this matter.
Let's make some assumptions:
If a 5th level fighter use this item, it can spend only a bonus action to activate it, so it would have access to those benefits for a couple of rounds after that until the charges ends (or until other limitation if you think on adding it). The next round, the char have +1 AC (regardless of any cost - or after the uses of most the shards it would be lost?) and can use its extra attack to make two attacks with a longsword, dealing an avarage of 19 dmg in those two attacks (assuming it have just +2 strength) and additional 14 dmg from the shards.
Than, it use its bonus action to send more 4 shards dealing 2d4+2 dmg each, with an avarage of 28 dmg and now it have spent 6 shards from 20, which means it can repeat it more 2 rounds. The total additional dmg avarage is 140dmg and it can split it in large amounts of 6 charges per turn (and one more in a round if it have an opportunity attack).
If it spend all charges in a single encounter (which seems too much for me, since 6 charges are enough to grant a pretty solid advantage) it also can recharge an avarage of 9 shards per nigth, and go full shards in two nights.
I would evaluate the amount of charges and the activation mode to make it simplier to use and a bit less powerfull, cause I can't say if even a legendary magic item from official sources grants that amount of benefits.
Since it's the pieces moving by magic, I'd make the per-stone damage 2d4 without the +2. For the ranged thing, it would be a spell action instead of weapon, but instead of an attack (which you'd need to find an ability score for) give it a Dexterity save, where the target takes 8d4 damage on fail and half as much on save. Make the Dexterity Save DC of a reasonable number depending on the item rarity; 13 is typical for Uncommon or Rare.
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Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
2d4+2 damage is the equivalent of to darts from Magic Missile.
Being able to automatically tack on an additional 2d4+2 onto every hit is the statistical equivalent of 2d6, which puts this in Flame Tongue levels of damage. But that’s only on melee weapon attacks, and only attacks with that weapon. Your item automatically adds that to every successful attack (spell and weapon attacks) up to 30 feet away. That’s a lot.
Being able to make 3-4 attacks as a bonus action is ridonculous. A Fighter has to be 20th level to make 4 attacks as their Action. Being able to do another 3-4 attacks as a bonus action too is… well…. *woofta*
20 stones, each doing 2d4+2 damage = 40d4+40 total potential damage. At 4 of them per turn that’s ….
Getting up to 3d4+4 of those per day…. You may as well just decide that combat is irrelevant because whoever has one of these pouches basically wins.
How would I personally try to balance something like this if it were one of my projects? Pro’ly something like this:
This pouch contains a number of Adamantine Missiles determined by its rarity.*
While you are wearing this pouch you can use a bonus action to speak it’s command word, causing the adamantine missiles to fly from the pouch and begin circling around you, within your space. The missiles remain until you use a bonus action to speak the command word again or until the last Missile is used.
While 3 or more of the missiles are encircling you, you gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class.
While at least 1 of the missiles is encircling you, once per turn, you can choose to expend an Adamantine Missile and deal an extra 2d4 force damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack.
In addition, while at least 1 of the missiles is encircling you, you can attack with it as if it were a weapon whenever you take the Attack action, or you can make a single ranged spell attack with it as a bonus action. Make a Ranged Spell Attack against a creature or object you can see within 90 feet. On a hit, the target takes 2d4 force damage. You are proficient with the attack, and add either your Dexterity modifier, or your Spellcasting ability modifier to the attack and damage rolls (your choice). You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with these Adamantine Missiles. A missile vanishes the instant after it hits or misses a target.
The pouch regenerates a number of expended missiles depending on its rarity* daily at dawn. If you expend the last missile, from a Rare or Very Rare pouch, roll a d20. On a 1, the pouch ceases being magical, and becomes an ordinary pouch.
Thank you. I think this is a lot more reasonably powered than what I had in mind.
And it takes care of my rarity issue. :D
Keep in mind that was just a first draft off the top of my head with absolute no playtesting done whatsoever. It’s still most likely overtuned in terms of balance,, and definitely in terms of utility. Take it with all of the usual “Untested Prototype Warnings” you see in all those movies. I mean, it’s way less extra than your original concept Draught.* But that’s the nature of design. It’s not a task, it’s a process. This is just the second Draught, a “v.2.0” as it were. Who knows how many it might take to get it right? *(As it at least requires the PC to utilize their own Action economy, it has overall fewer uses, and if they are frivolous with it it could die on them.)
For instance, the Stones/Bag by rarity (10->15->20), those might need to go lower (maybe 7->12->18), or all of those d4s might do better as d3s instead. Or perhaps the Very Rare version should have the numbers from my Rare version (10/pouch and 1d4+1) and the, the Legendary version should have the entry for my Rare (15/bag @ 2d4+2 @ Dawn), and that should be the max it goes. Maybe it will be better to drop the damage from 2d4 to 1d6 instead. 🤷♂️
It’s (probably) in the right general(ish) ballpark at least, but the only way to know for sure is through playtesting. So do me a favor and keep the thread posted on how it’s working and what to you decide to change. Thanks.
So I recently designed a magic item for my campaign. I don't know how powerful it should be, but I like the idea that top soldiers or generals in one of my empire's armies carry them around. Eventually, the party will get their hands on this item, and I don't know what level they should be for it to be balanced by then. I want the item to be viable for any class so if you have any input on how to, or if I should, do that I would appreciate it.
The Item in question is a pouch with 20 pieces of enchanted adamantine that when activated with a bonus action begin to circle around the user and grant a slew of benefits
-The first is a +1 AC boost which you gain from the spinning pieces.
-Whenever the user lands an attack (magical or weapon) against an enemy within 30ft of them, one piece hits them as well dealing 2d4+2 (piercing or radiant) dmg.
-On top of this, as a bonus action you can use the spinning pieces to make up to 3(or 4 maybe) ranged attacks (I don't know if this should be weapon or magic, and if magic what stat?) against up to 3(or 4) enemies within 90 ft, each piece dealing 2d4+2 (radiant or piercing) damage.
I want to use the 20 pieces as a sort of charges for each ability, every attack costs one piece. Every night 3d4+4 pieces return to the pouch to be used the next day.
Is it powerful enough/too powerful for its rarity? How should/should I tweak it to make it more balanced?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Since you're new to it, I will advise you what the DMG says to homebrew magic item: The best way to make it balanced is to use an actual magic item from oficial sources as a scretch. However, not always the oficial sources have something what matches well with what we want to homebrew and I think thats pretty much the case of yours.
First, I do not see that what you want is way unbalanced, but it have some issues that I would put more attention to avoid unbalanced uses of it:
1 - Why it needs a bonus action to be activated? There's a max time its pieces circle around the creature or if its activated the firt time in the morning it still up forever? If there's a charge limit, why should you put another limitation as activation and time?
2 - This bonus is permanent? It's up only when activated right? So, I would go back to the last question on it. +1 AC isn't that much to be fair, a uncommon rarity would grant it "permanently"
3 - Additional 2d4+2 aren't too much (almost a cantrip), but it becomes it when it can be used anytime and stack with the other benefits, so I would go back to the first question.
4 - 4 x 2d4+2 with 90ft. range to different targets is a bit more than a 17th level eldrich blast, but with a bonus action. I think thats a lot and the major rarity increaser on your item. Also, it stack with the rest of the benefits. It makes me go back to the first question.
5 - 20 charges is way too much more than any other oficial item we see, I would rethink over this matter.
Let's make some assumptions:
If a 5th level fighter use this item, it can spend only a bonus action to activate it, so it would have access to those benefits for a couple of rounds after that until the charges ends (or until other limitation if you think on adding it). The next round, the char have +1 AC (regardless of any cost - or after the uses of most the shards it would be lost?) and can use its extra attack to make two attacks with a longsword, dealing an avarage of 19 dmg in those two attacks (assuming it have just +2 strength) and additional 14 dmg from the shards.
Than, it use its bonus action to send more 4 shards dealing 2d4+2 dmg each, with an avarage of 28 dmg and now it have spent 6 shards from 20, which means it can repeat it more 2 rounds. The total additional dmg avarage is 140dmg and it can split it in large amounts of 6 charges per turn (and one more in a round if it have an opportunity attack).
If it spend all charges in a single encounter (which seems too much for me, since 6 charges are enough to grant a pretty solid advantage) it also can recharge an avarage of 9 shards per nigth, and go full shards in two nights.
I would evaluate the amount of charges and the activation mode to make it simplier to use and a bit less powerfull, cause I can't say if even a legendary magic item from official sources grants that amount of benefits.
But I may be wrong
Since it's the pieces moving by magic, I'd make the per-stone damage 2d4 without the +2. For the ranged thing, it would be a spell action instead of weapon, but instead of an attack (which you'd need to find an ability score for) give it a Dexterity save, where the target takes 8d4 damage on fail and half as much on save. Make the Dexterity Save DC of a reasonable number depending on the item rarity; 13 is typical for Uncommon or Rare.
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
2d4+2 damage is the equivalent of to darts from Magic Missile.
Being able to automatically tack on an additional 2d4+2 onto every hit is the statistical equivalent of 2d6, which puts this in Flame Tongue levels of damage. But that’s only on melee weapon attacks, and only attacks with that weapon. Your item automatically adds that to every successful attack (spell and weapon attacks) up to 30 feet away. That’s a lot.
Being able to make 3-4 attacks as a bonus action is ridonculous. A Fighter has to be 20th level to make 4 attacks as their Action. Being able to do another 3-4 attacks as a bonus action too is… well…. *woofta*
20 stones, each doing 2d4+2 damage = 40d4+40 total potential damage. At 4 of them per turn that’s ….
Getting up to 3d4+4 of those per day…. You may as well just decide that combat is irrelevant because whoever has one of these pouches basically wins.
How would I personally try to balance something like this if it were one of my projects? Pro’ly something like this:
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Thank you. I think this is a lot more reasonably powered than what I had in mind.
And it takes care of my rarity issue. :D
The rarity for this item would be Legendary. It has multiple versatile uses, and deals damage effectively for free.
You’re probably right.
Keep in mind that was just a first draft off the top of my head with absolute no playtesting done whatsoever. It’s still most likely overtuned in terms of balance,, and definitely in terms of utility. Take it with all of the usual “Untested Prototype Warnings” you see in all those movies. I mean, it’s way less extra than your original concept Draught.* But that’s the nature of design. It’s not a task, it’s a process. This is just the second Draught, a “v.2.0” as it were. Who knows how many it might take to get it right?
*(As it at least requires the PC to utilize their own Action economy, it has overall fewer uses, and if they are frivolous with it it could die on them.)
For instance, the Stones/Bag by rarity (10->15->20), those might need to go lower (maybe 7->12->18), or all of those d4s might do better as d3s instead. Or perhaps the Very Rare version should have the numbers from my Rare version (10/pouch and 1d4+1) and the, the Legendary version should have the entry for my Rare (15/bag @ 2d4+2 @ Dawn), and that should be the max it goes. Maybe it will be better to drop the damage from 2d4 to 1d6 instead. 🤷♂️
It’s (probably) in the right general(ish) ballpark at least, but the only way to know for sure is through playtesting. So do me a favor and keep the thread posted on how it’s working and what to you decide to change. Thanks.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Certainly. I'll see how things turn out from here.