I am making a homebrew dagger modeled after the 'Mage Masher' from Final Fantasy Tactics. It has a 25% chance to inflict the effect of Silence on its target in the game.
I looked at Silence, and it does not have an attack roll or saving throw, it just automatically lands. It also lasts for 10 minutes. I feel like this would be fairly overpowered in combat, but I'm not entirely sure. When writing the description for my Homebrew, I went with:
"This knife has been imbued with a modified Silence spell. The effect is as follows:
A target hit by this weapon must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or become Non-verbal for 1 minute. The target is unable to make any noise requiring the use of their vocal chords, rendering the verbal component of spellcasting impossible. This does not prevent a target from speaking with their mind, if they have the ability to do so."
I am wondering if a DC 14 is too high or low, and if 1 minute is too little. I want to make sure that it's balanced.
Silence is balanced by the fact that it doesn't affect a character, but instead a 20-foot-radius sphere. Casters can just leave the area. If you're going to remove the ability for casters to leave the area, you're right in assuming that you should put in another way of nullifying the effect. The Constitution saving throw is good, but I'd also add in that they can make a Constitution saving throw at the end of their turns to end the effect. Also, to prevent someone with a bunch of attacks from forcing a bunch of saving throws, I'd make it so that someone who succeeds on a Constitution saving throw to resist or end the effect is immune to the item for 24 hours (or at least 1).
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
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1 minute should be fine, most combats are shorter than that. And silence is a 2nd-level spell, so a DC of 13-14 is reasonable.
However, I would just have the target under the full effects of the spell, the thunder damage immunity, the deafened condition, all of it. That way you can just refer to the spell itself instead of having to come up with your own wording. That’d simplify things.
Also, I would put a restriction on it based on charges. That way you have to spend a charge on a hit to activate the feature, and only give the item maybe 3 charges with 1d3 charge reset each dawn. That should be okay for an Uncommon magic item.
Hello all,
I am making a homebrew dagger modeled after the 'Mage Masher' from Final Fantasy Tactics. It has a 25% chance to inflict the effect of Silence on its target in the game.
I looked at Silence, and it does not have an attack roll or saving throw, it just automatically lands. It also lasts for 10 minutes. I feel like this would be fairly overpowered in combat, but I'm not entirely sure. When writing the description for my Homebrew, I went with:
"This knife has been imbued with a modified Silence spell. The effect is as follows:
A target hit by this weapon must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or become Non-verbal for 1 minute. The target is unable to make any noise requiring the use of their vocal chords, rendering the verbal component of spellcasting impossible. This does not prevent a target from speaking with their mind, if they have the ability to do so."
I am wondering if a DC 14 is too high or low, and if 1 minute is too little. I want to make sure that it's balanced.
Silence is balanced by the fact that it doesn't affect a character, but instead a 20-foot-radius sphere. Casters can just leave the area. If you're going to remove the ability for casters to leave the area, you're right in assuming that you should put in another way of nullifying the effect. The Constitution saving throw is good, but I'd also add in that they can make a Constitution saving throw at the end of their turns to end the effect. Also, to prevent someone with a bunch of attacks from forcing a bunch of saving throws, I'd make it so that someone who succeeds on a Constitution saving throw to resist or end the effect is immune to the item for 24 hours (or at least 1).
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
1 minute should be fine, most combats are shorter than that. And silence is a 2nd-level spell, so a DC of 13-14 is reasonable.
However, I would just have the target under the full effects of the spell, the thunder damage immunity, the deafened condition, all of it. That way you can just refer to the spell itself instead of having to come up with your own wording. That’d simplify things.
Also, I would put a restriction on it based on charges. That way you have to spend a charge on a hit to activate the feature, and only give the item maybe 3 charges with 1d3 charge reset each dawn. That should be okay for an Uncommon magic item.
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