So I'm creating some legacy items for my PCs. These are items that will level up at certain points as the PCs progress through levels. At roughly L18 or higher this is the full stat of one of the weapons. Not sure if this is too much even for a legendary item or not. This and the frying pan I created for the other PC are the ones I'm most worried about. Frying pan stats are pasted below the long bow.
Weapon (longbow), legendary
A longbow passed down from father to son for generations of your family.
Family legend says of the bow this:
The longbow was created by Bran Stormwind. Stormwind was a human ranger roaming the lands of Faerun during the time surrounding the only recorded Dracorage. As the dragons began to attack the lands, he retreated to the sacred forests and dedicated his time to crafting a weapon that could withstand a dragon’s foul breath, the might of a dragon’s taloned fist, and loose arrows that fly truer than a Beholder’s rays. While the Dracorage wore on, he finally perfected his weapon.
Made of wood from a sacred yew tree protected by an ancient magic, the bow is light and sturdy.
Family lore says that the bow is sentient and knows when it has been passed to the next generation. New generations wielding the weapon may find some of its abilities blocked until the weapon deems the wielder worthy.
You have a +3 to attack rolls made with this weapon.
The weapon is resistant to damage from piercing, bludgeoning, force, and slashing.
If you have fought any chromatic dragons, you may now add the damage of any of 4 dragon breath weapons to any arrow fired from this bow. You may use this ability 3 times per long rest. The ability does not stack with any other magic items attached to the bow. You may only gain a dragon breath weapon of a chromatic dragon which you have encountered since obtaining this bow.
The Save DC for any of these damage types is 8+your Constitution modifier+your Proficiency bonus.
Each damage type adds 4 d6 of that type to the normal damage roll for a longbow.
Chromatic Dragon Breath Weapons:
Black- Acid
Blue- Lightning
Green- Poison
Red- Fire
White- Cold
Proficiency with a longbow allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.
Wondrous Item, legendary
A heavy, cast iron frying pan passed down through the years the armies of the Forgotten Realms have been active. No army chef will divulge its secrets but they all swear the frying pan has a will of its own.
Legend has it that the frying pan knows when it’s been passed on to a new chef. Some of its abilities may be locked to you at this time, though you don’t know if you believe the legends.
Improvised weapon. Should you choose to use the pan as an improvised weapon, you will deal 9 d8 bludgeoning damage.
Purify Food. When the pan is used, you may choose to expend one of its charges to cast Purify Food and Drink on the food cooked in the pan.
Create Food. When the pan is used, you may choose to expend two of its charges to cast Create Food and Water.
Feast of Restoration. When the pan is used, you may choose to expend all 6 charges to cast Heroes' Feast.
The pan regains 1 d6 charges at dawn and has 6 total charges. If all charges are expended, roll a d20. On a 1, the pan begins to rust and eventually crumbles to nothing. If all charges are expended and the pan does not crumble, all charges are regained after 7 days.
Oh, I guess you really liked that legacy item idea. I like how you've got your creativity showing here, I hope your talking to your players for these. So let's start with the longbow.
The Longbow itself having resistance to damage is an interesting little buff. It helps prevent this treasured item from being so easily broke by a sunder attempt, but it also doesn't really increase the power of the bow itself. I like this as an additional starting property. Don't have any other properties yet. Have three family quests that tie into this character and their Longbow. After each one grant a permanent +1 bonus to Attack and Damage Rolls and 1 Charge to this Weapon. You already have a side-questline to allow him to gain the Dragon Breath Arrows, keep that as is.
For the Frying Pan, if this is supposed to be a legacy item, remove the self destruct part. Legacy items shouldn't have to worry about stuff like that. 9d8 Damage seems excessive for just a regular hit, even from a legacy item. I suggest significantly nerfing the damage and giving it an Aura, I'll get into the details. As with the previous example have three family or origin or whatever quests that tie into this character and their Frying Pan. Start at 1d4 Bludgeoning Damage and the Purify Food Ability, except that it doesn't need any Charges (it's low enough in power and probably won't come up enough, that it's okay), no Starting Charges. After each one increase the Bludgeoning Damage by 1d4 (so in other words: 1d4, 2d4, 3d4, 4d4), Grant 1 Charge, and Increase the Range of the Frying Pan's Aura by 5ft (10ft, 15ft, 20ft, 25ft). Make sure there's side-quests to gain the Create Food, requiring 1 Charge, and Feast of Restoration, requiring 3 Charges, Abilities. Once again, don't have that rust chance, it's a legacy item it should stay around. Now about that Aura how about something like this:
Aura of Satiation
All Friendly creatures within 10ft of the wielder of the [name of Frying Pan], that have eaten a meal prepared using it may add a d4 to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw. A creature may only do so Once per Round.
I really did like the idea of the legacy items. So thank you for that.
Yeah, the first iteration of the longbow is just a +1 and the damage resistances. I have several iterations of this weapon that will each replace the previous versions of it as the weapon levels up (which will happen at roughly 9, 13, 17, and 19 I think is the schedule I had as far as what player level would be appropriate to have a different type of item). I think I've got it set to change to +2 to hit at player level 13. The +3 would be the last upgrade alongside the 4th breath weapon. Does the part about not stacking with other magic items make sense? I put that in there because the player already got his hands on a blazing bowstring. I just wanted to make it clear that the breath weapon couldn't be used to add extra damage to already magicked damages.
I like the idea of the aura for the frying pan. (The one playing this character literally spends his free time in town looking for places to buy cooking supplies so I thought this would be a fun thing to do for him. He's also 13.) We have a paladin in the group who can cast bless so I may give the aura a different benefit but it's definitely a good idea. I'd gone with such high damage because it's a cast iron skillet so it's a little heftier but I can see how even at L18 that might be a bit much on the damage.
The starting iteration of the frying pan is 1 d8 bludgeoning damage, Purify Food and Drink, and is set to have 3 charges, regaining 1 d4. I was already debating the chance for the pan to break so I think I will remove that.
There will definitely be hooks in place to lead the PCs onto adventures tied to the legacies of the weapons. Starting with how in the world did these items get to this particular dungeon where they find the items.
What about this for the aura? (This will be added starting with the rare item iteration of the pan.)
Aura of Restoration. When Firewing's Frying Pan is used to cook food, all friendly creatures within 10 feet at the time regain the maximum number of hit points for each hit die they roll during their next short rest. The effect wears off after 24 hours or when hit die are rolled, whichever comes first.
I'm not sure I've worded it very well. Practical example will be my rogue. My hit die is d8 and I have 3. If I've eaten food from this pan and haven't taken a short rest since (or 24 hours haven't elapsed), if I do take a short rest and roll hit die, instead of rolling I would just take any of those available hit die and apply the max roll I could get (8 for one die, 16 for two, etc.) The rare and very rare iterations of the pan had it applying the effects of superior and supreme, respectively, potions of healing. So this is in lieu of that. The aura would power up and has the advantage of scaling with the players.
That's an acceptable power level, works with the theme, though I wouldn't really have it as an Aura. If your going with that effect you don't need the range to limit the effect, eating the food that was cooked should be enough of a limit other than the short rest. There is one potential power problem though, at higher levels this effect could easily have a character easily heal 100hp or more from a single short rest. You might want to limit either how many Hit Dice a creature can maximize, have a creature only be able to do so once per day, or have it instead allow a creature reroll any 1s on a Short Rest heal.
If your going to have a Bard in the party you might want a different effect since this a similar idea to the Song of Rest. It's still okay balance wise to have both, but the Bard player may be a little put off by it.
So I'm creating some legacy items for my PCs. These are items that will level up at certain points as the PCs progress through levels. At roughly L18 or higher this is the full stat of one of the weapons. Not sure if this is too much even for a legendary item or not. This and the frying pan I created for the other PC are the ones I'm most worried about. Frying pan stats are pasted below the long bow.
A longbow passed down from father to son for generations of your family.
Family legend says of the bow this:
The longbow was created by Bran Stormwind. Stormwind was a human ranger roaming the lands of Faerun during the time surrounding the only recorded Dracorage. As the dragons began to attack the lands, he retreated to the sacred forests and dedicated his time to crafting a weapon that could withstand a dragon’s foul breath, the might of a dragon’s taloned fist, and loose arrows that fly truer than a Beholder’s rays. While the Dracorage wore on, he finally perfected his weapon.
Made of wood from a sacred yew tree protected by an ancient magic, the bow is light and sturdy.
Family lore says that the bow is sentient and knows when it has been passed to the next generation. New generations wielding the weapon may find some of its abilities blocked until the weapon deems the wielder worthy.
You have a +3 to attack rolls made with this weapon.
The weapon is resistant to damage from piercing, bludgeoning, force, and slashing.
If you have fought any chromatic dragons, you may now add the damage of any of 4 dragon breath weapons to any arrow fired from this bow. You may use this ability 3 times per long rest. The ability does not stack with any other magic items attached to the bow. You may only gain a dragon breath weapon of a chromatic dragon which you have encountered since obtaining this bow.
The Save DC for any of these damage types is 8+your Constitution modifier+your Proficiency bonus.
Each damage type adds 4 d6 of that type to the normal damage roll for a longbow.
Chromatic Dragon Breath Weapons:
Proficiency with a longbow allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.
A heavy, cast iron frying pan passed down through the years the armies of the Forgotten Realms have been active. No army chef will divulge its secrets but they all swear the frying pan has a will of its own.
Legend has it that the frying pan knows when it’s been passed on to a new chef. Some of its abilities may be locked to you at this time, though you don’t know if you believe the legends.
Improvised weapon. Should you choose to use the pan as an improvised weapon, you will deal 9 d8 bludgeoning damage.
Purify Food. When the pan is used, you may choose to expend one of its charges to cast Purify Food and Drink on the food cooked in the pan.
Create Food. When the pan is used, you may choose to expend two of its charges to cast Create Food and Water.
Feast of Restoration. When the pan is used, you may choose to expend all 6 charges to cast Heroes' Feast.
The pan regains 1 d6 charges at dawn and has 6 total charges. If all charges are expended, roll a d20. On a 1, the pan begins to rust and eventually crumbles to nothing. If all charges are expended and the pan does not crumble, all charges are regained after 7 days.
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Oh, I guess you really liked that legacy item idea. I like how you've got your creativity showing here, I hope your talking to your players for these. So let's start with the longbow.
The Longbow itself having resistance to damage is an interesting little buff. It helps prevent this treasured item from being so easily broke by a sunder attempt, but it also doesn't really increase the power of the bow itself. I like this as an additional starting property. Don't have any other properties yet. Have three family quests that tie into this character and their Longbow. After each one grant a permanent +1 bonus to Attack and Damage Rolls and 1 Charge to this Weapon. You already have a side-questline to allow him to gain the Dragon Breath Arrows, keep that as is.
For the Frying Pan, if this is supposed to be a legacy item, remove the self destruct part. Legacy items shouldn't have to worry about stuff like that. 9d8 Damage seems excessive for just a regular hit, even from a legacy item. I suggest significantly nerfing the damage and giving it an Aura, I'll get into the details. As with the previous example have three family or origin or whatever quests that tie into this character and their Frying Pan. Start at 1d4 Bludgeoning Damage and the Purify Food Ability, except that it doesn't need any Charges (it's low enough in power and probably won't come up enough, that it's okay), no Starting Charges. After each one increase the Bludgeoning Damage by 1d4 (so in other words: 1d4, 2d4, 3d4, 4d4), Grant 1 Charge, and Increase the Range of the Frying Pan's Aura by 5ft (10ft, 15ft, 20ft, 25ft). Make sure there's side-quests to gain the Create Food, requiring 1 Charge, and Feast of Restoration, requiring 3 Charges, Abilities. Once again, don't have that rust chance, it's a legacy item it should stay around. Now about that Aura how about something like this:
Aura of Satiation
All Friendly creatures within 10ft of the wielder of the [name of Frying Pan], that have eaten a meal prepared using it may add a d4 to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw. A creature may only do so Once per Round.
I really did like the idea of the legacy items. So thank you for that.
Yeah, the first iteration of the longbow is just a +1 and the damage resistances. I have several iterations of this weapon that will each replace the previous versions of it as the weapon levels up (which will happen at roughly 9, 13, 17, and 19 I think is the schedule I had as far as what player level would be appropriate to have a different type of item). I think I've got it set to change to +2 to hit at player level 13. The +3 would be the last upgrade alongside the 4th breath weapon. Does the part about not stacking with other magic items make sense? I put that in there because the player already got his hands on a blazing bowstring. I just wanted to make it clear that the breath weapon couldn't be used to add extra damage to already magicked damages.
I like the idea of the aura for the frying pan. (The one playing this character literally spends his free time in town looking for places to buy cooking supplies so I thought this would be a fun thing to do for him. He's also 13.) We have a paladin in the group who can cast bless so I may give the aura a different benefit but it's definitely a good idea. I'd gone with such high damage because it's a cast iron skillet so it's a little heftier but I can see how even at L18 that might be a bit much on the damage.
The starting iteration of the frying pan is 1 d8 bludgeoning damage, Purify Food and Drink, and is set to have 3 charges, regaining 1 d4. I was already debating the chance for the pan to break so I think I will remove that.
There will definitely be hooks in place to lead the PCs onto adventures tied to the legacies of the weapons. Starting with how in the world did these items get to this particular dungeon where they find the items.
Thank you for the feedback!
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What about this for the aura? (This will be added starting with the rare item iteration of the pan.)
Aura of Restoration. When Firewing's Frying Pan is used to cook food, all friendly creatures within 10 feet at the time regain the maximum number of hit points for each hit die they roll during their next short rest. The effect wears off after 24 hours or when hit die are rolled, whichever comes first.
I'm not sure I've worded it very well. Practical example will be my rogue. My hit die is d8 and I have 3. If I've eaten food from this pan and haven't taken a short rest since (or 24 hours haven't elapsed), if I do take a short rest and roll hit die, instead of rolling I would just take any of those available hit die and apply the max roll I could get (8 for one die, 16 for two, etc.) The rare and very rare iterations of the pan had it applying the effects of superior and supreme, respectively, potions of healing. So this is in lieu of that. The aura would power up and has the advantage of scaling with the players.
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That's an acceptable power level, works with the theme, though I wouldn't really have it as an Aura. If your going with that effect you don't need the range to limit the effect, eating the food that was cooked should be enough of a limit other than the short rest. There is one potential power problem though, at higher levels this effect could easily have a character easily heal 100hp or more from a single short rest. You might want to limit either how many Hit Dice a creature can maximize, have a creature only be able to do so once per day, or have it instead allow a creature reroll any 1s on a Short Rest heal.
If your going to have a Bard in the party you might want a different effect since this a similar idea to the Song of Rest. It's still okay balance wise to have both, but the Bard player may be a little put off by it.
No bard. Just 2 rangers, a paladin, and a rogue. I'll keep playing with the wording and the features. Thanks again for all your great feedback!
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