I am currently running a home brew campaign. It's pretty high magic/high powered campaign with some plane hopping here are there.
Basically the way I'm doing it is on the surface world in the material plane, they can only really find uncommon/rare magic items. As they delve deeper into dungeons, or explore other planes they're finding very rare and higher.
WEAPONS / JEWELS : One thing I've done with weapons, is that if they find a +2 weapon, it comes with a 1 Gem Socket. A +3 weapon would have 2 Gem Sockets.
For each socket, they can insert a Gem - some gems have prerequisites for the types of weapons they can be put into, but regardless, it'll give the item a special ability and the weapon will now require attunement.
Here are some examples:
The Frost Gem Wondrous Item (requires attunement) The Frost Gem can be placed into any +2 weapon without a gem already. The weapon now requires attunement. The weapon does an additional 1d6 cold damage on a successful hit, and can be used to put out non-magical fires. If not in a weapon, the item still remains magical. Certain types of creatures or lifeforms will instinctively flee from the cold. Placing the gem in a warm beverage will lower its temperature to a crisp, refreshing 38 degrees F, but the Gem may become sticky afterwards.
The Light Jewel Wondrous Item (requires attunement) The Light Jewelcan be placed into any +2 weapon that has a flat, metallic surface anywhere on it, such a Broadsword or A GreatAxe (bows/crossbows/whips/flails/etc. will not work). The weapon gives you the following ability: When you are attacked by a single target spell that fires like a Ray or a Beam that makes you take a Dexterity save, if you make a successful save, you may use your Reaction. If you do, you take Zero Damage from the spell (and do not suffer any other effects from the spell), and the spell is Reflected back to the caster. They must make a save as normal and follow all the consequences of the effects. This ability can be used once per long rest.
When these items were introduced, they played a role in the dungeon they were found in. The Frost Gem was the key to get past a wall of vines. The Light Jewel was given out in prep for a beholder fight.
TOMES: I think it's widely accepted that intelligence is the least used/important stat. So, kind of riding off 3rd ed coattails where int effects Skills, I have it like this:
Each player can prepare a number of tomes equal to their intelligence modifier. It takes 8 hours to read a tome, so it does take preparation. The tome will give proficiency in a skill or tool (or expertise if they are already proficient).
This represents how an intelligent person can be better at things with prep time.
Some examples:
Libri ex Temporum ad Libitum Tome Libri ex Temporum ad Libitum is the Tome of the Timely Tongue. Follows Tome rules. You gain proficiency in Performance. If you are already Proficient, you gain expertise instead.
Libri Fero ad Aurem Tome Libri Fero ad Aurem is the Tome of the Iron to Gold. Follows Tome rules. You gain proficiency in Alchemy tools. If you are already Proficient, you gain expertise instead.
So, curious what my fellow DMs think! Let me know any criticisms/critiques. Thanks! Also, forgive my latin. It's not my native tongue.
The tomes seem interesting, although I'm not sure how balanced they would be in the long run.
I do like the gem concept a lot, though. I think it's a fun way to make a standard +2 weapon a little more interesting. They're always good to have, but they can feel a little boring at times, so being able to buff them seems fun and rewarding. I'm not sure if you need to introduce weapons with multiple slots in them... the effects of the gems you've shown are already good enough that i feel like it would be a bit overkill to let the gem types stack. Maybe the player has to declare which gem they're using with each attack? That way the additional slots reward the player with versatility rather than just pure power. The two gems you used as examples work well in that regard, since one is a simple boost to damage and some interesting environmental interaction, while the other is a powerful single-use defense.
Especially with the detail you mentioned of this being a high magic/high power campaign, these seem really fun!
Thanks for the feedback. I haven't given out any +3 weapons yet, so that situation hasn't come up yet. You're probably right in that having two straight damage boosts would get out of hand really quickly. Limiting it to one only would probably be the best/easiest option to make sure it the power creep doesn't get too excessive.
One of my thoughts on this was that some of my players have their 'signature weapon.' I've given out weapons that are stronger than the ones they were currently using, but they stuck to using the weaker one because it was what their character wanted to use. That's all fine and good, so instead of handing out new weapons, I figured, why not give the player the freedom to keep their weapon and upgrade it how they want.
As for tomes - i'll keep an eye on this one and if it gets out of hand, may tone it back a bit, either by not allowing the expertise or by only allowing like.... 1 at a time. Right now it hasn't been much of an issue because all my player's characters are a bunch of dopes. I think the highest intelligence in a 7 player group is.... 14.
One thing I should mention to, is that since I've started giving out this homebrew stuff, I put one big caveat on the items: If something seems to be way to overpowered, I may nerf it. They were all okay with that.
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I am currently running a home brew campaign. It's pretty high magic/high powered campaign with some plane hopping here are there.
Basically the way I'm doing it is on the surface world in the material plane, they can only really find uncommon/rare magic items. As they delve deeper into dungeons, or explore other planes they're finding very rare and higher.
WEAPONS / JEWELS :
One thing I've done with weapons, is that if they find a +2 weapon, it comes with a 1 Gem Socket. A +3 weapon would have 2 Gem Sockets.
For each socket, they can insert a Gem - some gems have prerequisites for the types of weapons they can be put into, but regardless, it'll give the item a special ability and the weapon will now require attunement.
Here are some examples:
The Frost Gem
Wondrous Item (requires attunement)
The Frost Gem can be placed into any +2 weapon without a gem already. The weapon now requires attunement. The weapon does an additional 1d6 cold damage on a successful hit, and can be used to put out non-magical fires. If not in a weapon, the item still remains magical.
Certain types of creatures or lifeforms will instinctively flee from the cold.
Placing the gem in a warm beverage will lower its temperature to a crisp, refreshing 38 degrees F, but the Gem may become sticky afterwards.
The Light Jewel
Wondrous Item (requires attunement)
The Light Jewel can be placed into any +2 weapon that has a flat, metallic surface anywhere on it, such a Broadsword or A GreatAxe (bows/crossbows/whips/flails/etc. will not work). The weapon gives you the following ability:
When you are attacked by a single target spell that fires like a Ray or a Beam that makes you take a Dexterity save, if you make a successful save, you may use your Reaction. If you do, you take Zero Damage from the spell (and do not suffer any other effects from the spell), and the spell is Reflected back to the caster. They must make a save as normal and follow all the consequences of the effects. This ability can be used once per long rest.
When these items were introduced, they played a role in the dungeon they were found in. The Frost Gem was the key to get past a wall of vines. The Light Jewel was given out in prep for a beholder fight.
TOMES:
I think it's widely accepted that intelligence is the least used/important stat. So, kind of riding off 3rd ed coattails where int effects Skills, I have it like this:
Each player can prepare a number of tomes equal to their intelligence modifier. It takes 8 hours to read a tome, so it does take preparation. The tome will give proficiency in a skill or tool (or expertise if they are already proficient).
This represents how an intelligent person can be better at things with prep time.
Some examples:
Libri ex Temporum ad Libitum
Tome
Libri ex Temporum ad Libitum is the Tome of the Timely Tongue. Follows Tome rules. You gain proficiency in Performance. If you are already Proficient, you gain expertise instead.
Libri Fero ad Aurem
Tome
Libri Fero ad Aurem is the Tome of the Iron to Gold. Follows Tome rules. You gain proficiency in Alchemy tools. If you are already Proficient, you gain expertise instead.
So, curious what my fellow DMs think! Let me know any criticisms/critiques. Thanks! Also, forgive my latin. It's not my native tongue.
The tomes seem interesting, although I'm not sure how balanced they would be in the long run.
I do like the gem concept a lot, though. I think it's a fun way to make a standard +2 weapon a little more interesting. They're always good to have, but they can feel a little boring at times, so being able to buff them seems fun and rewarding. I'm not sure if you need to introduce weapons with multiple slots in them... the effects of the gems you've shown are already good enough that i feel like it would be a bit overkill to let the gem types stack. Maybe the player has to declare which gem they're using with each attack? That way the additional slots reward the player with versatility rather than just pure power. The two gems you used as examples work well in that regard, since one is a simple boost to damage and some interesting environmental interaction, while the other is a powerful single-use defense.
Especially with the detail you mentioned of this being a high magic/high power campaign, these seem really fun!
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Thanks for the feedback. I haven't given out any +3 weapons yet, so that situation hasn't come up yet. You're probably right in that having two straight damage boosts would get out of hand really quickly. Limiting it to one only would probably be the best/easiest option to make sure it the power creep doesn't get too excessive.
One of my thoughts on this was that some of my players have their 'signature weapon.' I've given out weapons that are stronger than the ones they were currently using, but they stuck to using the weaker one because it was what their character wanted to use. That's all fine and good, so instead of handing out new weapons, I figured, why not give the player the freedom to keep their weapon and upgrade it how they want.
As for tomes - i'll keep an eye on this one and if it gets out of hand, may tone it back a bit, either by not allowing the expertise or by only allowing like.... 1 at a time. Right now it hasn't been much of an issue because all my player's characters are a bunch of dopes. I think the highest intelligence in a 7 player group is.... 14.
One thing I should mention to, is that since I've started giving out this homebrew stuff, I put one big caveat on the items: If something seems to be way to overpowered, I may nerf it. They were all okay with that.