Howdy everybody. I was hoping to get some feedback on an item I've created for an upcoming campaign, which will be the first campaign I'm DMing. I've been playing 5e for a little over a year now, in addition to watching D&D game streams, so I'm not super inexperienced or anything. Since all the friends I have that play D&D are going to be in the party, I can't exactly ask them for opinions. That being said, if you are going to be in the MYSTYMAR campaign, don't read the rest of this post :] you know who you are.
Anyways, this item is a sword called "Mylthar", and is incredibly historically significant to the setting (which is also homebrew). The blade belongs to one of the main antagonists, however, there is also the possibility of the party getting a hold of this sword and using it for their own purposes. Something that happens in video games a lot is when you kill the boss, and they drop their sick weapon, it's usually nerfed to hell. I didn't want to do that with Mylthar. The party will have worked super hard to get it, I want it to feel as powerful and terrifying as when the bad guy had it, without it being unbalanced, of course.
Mylthar is a long sword that does 2d8 slashing damage (2d8 +1d6 if wielded with both hands), and it requires attunement of course. Here's the real meat of the item:
Vampiric Hunger. On a successful attack roll, the wielder can choose to heal for half of the amount of hit points they dealt in damage. This property can only be used once every three turns.
Weeping souls. When the wielder is at full hit points, the blade will weep blood. The wielder has advantage on intimidation checks during this effect.
Last stand. If the wielder is below 20 hit points, they can attempt to cast power word kill on a single entity. If the wielder can already cast power word kill, the spell functions as normal, except the hit point cap is 150 and it does not expend a spell slot. If the wielder does not know power word kill, they must make a constitution saving throw with a DC of 15. For every level below 20th the wielder is, they must add a -1 modifier to their save (Example: a lvl 3 wielder will have to subtract 17 from their save). On a failed save, both the wielder and the chosen entity immediately drop to 0 hit points, and the wielder takes an automatic failure for their first death save. This property can only be used once every day, the entity chosen must have been hit with the blade at least once, and if the entity has more than 150 hit points, it's an automatic failure.
Corruption. Mylthar is an evil blade of immense power, and immense power corrupts very easily. Each time the wielder uses a property of the blade, they take 1 point of corruption, up to 15 total points. Every three points of corruption, the wielder's charisma and constitution decreases by 1 point, affecting charisma and constitution determined stats accordingly. At 20 points, the wielder is no longer themselves and becomes a DM controlled character. To cleanse themselves of corruption, the wielder must do one of two things:
The wielder can get rid of all points of corruption at once by having dispel magic cast on them at 9th level, or lower with a spell casting ability check with a DC of 25.
The wielder takes a long rest outside of a 60ft radius of the blade. For each long rest that meets this criteria, remove 1 point of corruption.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how to improve this item, or if you think it needs to be restructured entirely. Thank you for reading! :]
Howdy everybody. I was hoping to get some feedback on an item I've created for an upcoming campaign, which will be the first campaign I'm DMing. I've been playing 5e for a little over a year now, in addition to watching D&D game streams, so I'm not super inexperienced or anything. Since all the friends I have that play D&D are going to be in the party, I can't exactly ask them for opinions. That being said, if you are going to be in the MYSTYMAR campaign, don't read the rest of this post :] you know who you are.
Anyways, this item is a sword called "Mylthar", and is incredibly historically significant to the setting (which is also homebrew). The blade belongs to one of the main antagonists, however, there is also the possibility of the party getting a hold of this sword and using it for their own purposes. Something that happens in video games a lot is when you kill the boss, and they drop their sick weapon, it's usually nerfed to hell. I didn't want to do that with Mylthar. The party will have worked super hard to get it, I want it to feel as powerful and terrifying as when the bad guy had it, without it being unbalanced, of course.
Mylthar is a long sword that does 2d8 slashing damage (2d8 +1d6 if wielded with both hands), and it requires attunement of course. Here's the real meat of the item:
Vampiric Hunger. On a successful attack roll, the wielder can choose to heal for half of the amount of hit points they dealt in damage. This property can only be used once every three turns.
Weeping souls. When the wielder is at full hit points, the blade will weep blood. The wielder has advantage on intimidation checks during this effect.
Last stand. If the wielder is below 20 hit points, they can attempt to cast power word kill on a single entity. If the wielder can already cast power word kill, the spell functions as normal, except the hit point cap is 150 and it does not expend a spell slot. If the wielder does not know power word kill, they must make a constitution saving throw with a DC of 15. For every level below 20th the wielder is, they must add a -1 modifier to their save (Example: a lvl 3 wielder will have to subtract 17 from their save). On a failed save, both the wielder and the chosen entity immediately drop to 0 hit points, and the wielder takes an automatic failure for their first death save. This property can only be used once every day, the entity chosen must have been hit with the blade at least once, and if the entity has more than 150 hit points, it's an automatic failure.
Corruption. Mylthar is an evil blade of immense power, and immense power corrupts very easily. Each time the wielder uses a property of the blade, they take 1 point of corruption, up to 15 total points. Every three points of corruption, the wielder's charisma and constitution decreases by 1 point, affecting charisma and constitution determined stats accordingly. At 20 points, the wielder is no longer themselves and becomes a DM controlled character. To cleanse themselves of corruption, the wielder must do one of two things:
Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how to improve this item, or if you think it needs to be restructured entirely. Thank you for reading! :]
Reading this from my phone, the Last Stand feature feels like a lot of text. It could be worth simplifying it down a wee bit.
Other than that, I would suggest replacing "once every three turns" with [Recharge 5-6] in line with monster abilities.
Corruption says "up to 15", then talks about 20.
I'd also swap "Dispel Magic" with "Greater Restoration or Wish".