Hi, it's my first time posting here, but I was wondering if any of you would be able to help with a homebrew magic item I was making.
I came up with a general idea and a description of the physical item, but I'm having trouble making simple but fitting mechanics to go along with it. The few ideas I've tried have either strayed too far from my initial idea, have become too long-winded and complicated, or are completely unbalanced.
The concept was that I wanted to roughly convert the move Perish Song from Pokémon into a cursed magic item, or at least create one inspired by it. Here is the physical description I came up with:
"A long, ivory staff carved with 6 equidistant, parallel lines spanning the length of the staff to resemble a musical stave. It is divided into four equal sections by three carved lines perpendicular to the musical stave lines, acting as bar divisions. When in use, it seems to blur and hum near-imperceptibly, and shines with iridescent rainbow colours. When held for the first time, it is revealed to be cursed, and the holder both becomes unwilling to part with it and feels compelled to use it. Moving the staff through the air or impacting it against other things causes a haunting, melodic ringing to emanate from the stave and reverberate around the area, which increases in volume and complexity as it continues to be used."
Obviously the problem with the idea is that instant death does not really work well as a mechanic in D&D; players won't even consider using it if the chance of dying from it are too high, and causing instant death for opponents can ruin difficult encounters and potentially leave the other players feeling useless. I don't think instant death can really be used at all due to this, but if anyone finds a way to make it work I'll be impressed. Another problem is that it needs to have downsides that, while serious, may still be light enough for a player to consider using the item and potentially decide not to get the curse removed. I'd also like for Thunder damage and Psychic damage to be involved somehow.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'd be delighted to hear them. Thanks in advance!
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Hi, it's my first time posting here, but I was wondering if any of you would be able to help with a homebrew magic item I was making.
I came up with a general idea and a description of the physical item, but I'm having trouble making simple but fitting mechanics to go along with it. The few ideas I've tried have either strayed too far from my initial idea, have become too long-winded and complicated, or are completely unbalanced.
The concept was that I wanted to roughly convert the move Perish Song from Pokémon into a cursed magic item, or at least create one inspired by it. Here is the physical description I came up with:
"A long, ivory staff carved with 6 equidistant, parallel lines spanning the length of the staff to resemble a musical stave. It is divided into four equal sections by three carved lines perpendicular to the musical stave lines, acting as bar divisions. When in use, it seems to blur and hum near-imperceptibly, and shines with iridescent rainbow colours. When held for the first time, it is revealed to be cursed, and the holder both becomes unwilling to part with it and feels compelled to use it. Moving the staff through the air or impacting it against other things causes a haunting, melodic ringing to emanate from the stave and reverberate around the area, which increases in volume and complexity as it continues to be used."
Obviously the problem with the idea is that instant death does not really work well as a mechanic in D&D; players won't even consider using it if the chance of dying from it are too high, and causing instant death for opponents can ruin difficult encounters and potentially leave the other players feeling useless. I don't think instant death can really be used at all due to this, but if anyone finds a way to make it work I'll be impressed. Another problem is that it needs to have downsides that, while serious, may still be light enough for a player to consider using the item and potentially decide not to get the curse removed. I'd also like for Thunder damage and Psychic damage to be involved somehow.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'd be delighted to hear them. Thanks in advance!