Ring of Syphil’iscica (Very Rare): A thick platinum ring set with a deep green, drop cut emerald that is often worn with the emerald facing towards the palm. The ring grants immunity to all diseases. The bearer can touch the emerald of the ring to the skin or outer flesh of a living creature (aside from those with legendary actions and those that cannot be diseased) and inflict Syphil’iscica; a disease so potent, that only the wish spell can remove it, this ability can only be used once per 10 day, and if the bearer attempt to use the ring in less time than 10 days there is a 50% chance the emerald will shatter rendering the ring non magical and the bearer will instead be inflicted by Syphil’iscica. Syphil’iscica is a disease so potent that within a matter of an hour, the diseased will find their skin reddening and growing highly painful welts that will cover their body, if they do not die from the intense pain of their bubbling skin filling with puss until it explodes they will die in no more than 6 hours as the disease welts their internal organs, causing mass organ failure.
This is my first homebrew item, The purpose of the item in the campaign is for the adventurers to attempt to retrieve it and stop it from entering the wrong hands (original i know). The concept behind the ring was inspired by a family member answering "Syphilis" to my question of "whats a good name for a magic ring?" and so i attempted to work with it. My thoughts are that in the wrong hands, the ring would be used for an untraceable assassination so long as the assassin could simply shake hands with or touch the victims skin. Would appreciate all feedback, no matter how harsh!
Often magic items that grant the ability to inflict diseases are way too overpowered, but I think that, because you restricted it to non-legendary creatures, it is more balanced. It would be impossible to tap something like a Tarrasque with this ring and kill it. That said, depending on the level that your party is at and the type of creatures that they are encountering, they could end up killing a NPC, key enemy, or avoiding a major plot point. Then again, that is the risk associated with almost all magic items.
I agree, I was definitely worried about how it could potentially affect major NPC's. I tried to limit its use also with the 10 day. But I wasn't sure if it was enough or too much.
I have a question about this item. What are the mechanical aspects of how this works? You simply state that they die if they dont have a wish fix the disease within 6 hours. Story wise thats a good hook to have for a magic item (although way way way too strong for a Very Rare item). Is there a save DC that the character needs to make? How much damage does it do if they fail? Can they make the save every hour? How would this ring work against a lvl 18 Fighter that has several hundred HP vs a Dragon that has 400+ HP or a commoner with 1 HP? How would someone know they couldnt cure the disease without a wish spell? Say someone gets infected by this disease (non monk/paladin characters as those 2 are immune to this at certain levels) and goes to a cleric, they say, oh hey, you're diseased. Greater Restoration is cast and does nothing.... boom dead. Doesnt sound very fun to me.
I would recommend changing this to giving people a chance to save this, even if its very small. Say, give it a Con save with a DC of 20 to stop the effects. Every hour that the disease is not saved against the one afflicted with this disease takes something like 2d10 Necrotic damage and their HP's are lowered by that amount until a wish or greater restoration is used. Or if you want to make it only a wish then make it a legendary item thats cursed and maybe even give it a personality of some sort.
In my experience both as a player and a DM, players will always find a way to use an item thats provided in the way that most messes with your campaign at the most inopportune time. You give them an item that can kill anything without easy access to wish in 6 hours? They'll use it to kill a king, take over the kingdom and then find a way to derail the rest of the quest.
One way around this is to make the item exactly as you described above but make it so that its specifically attuned to one specific BBEG and the players need to take it off him. As soon as its removed from his/her/its finger and/or the BBEG dies, the ring falls to dust. Crisis averted, players dont get an overly powerful magic ring, and they've done what they set out to do.
I know as a player, I would HATE if my guy got touched by the BBEG with the ring, be out in the wilderness without someone having the wish spell, and I simply die in 6 hours without any other way to stop it. Waste of time playing that character without any warning or way to stop my death.
Hopefully this helps! I do like the idea, but I think both the item itself and its stats need to be looked into further and the consequences of how the ring works needs to be considered.
Thank you very much! I completely agree with you, It hadn't even crossed my mind to put in a Cons save, I think you're right about that.
Perhaps every hour make a cons saving throw, hours 1-2 on fail take 2d10, hours 3-4 on fail take 4d10, hour 5 take 6d10 and hour 6 on fail take 10d10 and every hour after that repeat saving throw at 10d10. perhaps every hour adds +1 to the DC. with a starting DC of 20? too complicated?
I also agree with being too powerful for very rare, i will update that to Legendary.
i definitely want the item to be powerful and id like the disease to be extremely difficult to overcome, the backstory on the ring is it's a one off ring created by Syphil god of disease (and as i write that out it screams Legendary item to me), currently the players are obtaining the item for the wizards mentor/teacher, so they at this point intend on giving it to him, but who knows what they'll do in the end.
and i feel as though a 9th level cleric shouldn't be able to cure it with greater restoration, but perhaps with the use of greater restoration the Cons save dc would be lowered by 5. I figured that id have the person infected not know that the disease couldn't be cured by anything other than the wish spell, but perhaps if i remove that and work it a little more i could keep the item at very rare?
i really appreciate your feedback, thank you very much, you have given me much to think about! and you have definitely helped me refine the item!
I like the change to put the damage at the different hour intervals and give them a save at each of them. Even the high damage is good as with a legendary item you're giving the player some agency along with the whole 10 day thing to prevent them from abusing it too much. Also, by the time they attune to it, find out what it does and decide to use it, they can use it on something that has legendary resistances (as was stated by Odin above) they can simply choose the save against it and not be affected. However, for lesser beings the RP consequences of using it on someone and having them die and having their spirit summoned by a local cleric to find out who diseased them, they can be hunted for their use of this item. It opens all sorts of doors for story and RP.
And I think rather than trying to prevent the use of Greater Restoration, you could say that a Wish or a Greater Restoration cast at 9th level, or by a Cleric who can cast 9th level spells, something like that. If thats the case, leave the item legendary or give the item a personality and make it an artifact (although id likely not do that 2nd one myself).
I do like the history behind it and the reason they're looking to get this item in the first place. Its a solid story hook and gives them a goal to work for. It could even have the effect that if the party keeps the ring and the mentor/teacher finds out they kept it, they now have an enemy instead of an ally going after them :) And to have made an enemy of a powerful wizard who knows what the ring can do and how to protect themselves is a strong motivator to give up the ring.
Id say you're on the right track to having a good item with some solid background and good effects on it!
I agree, im glad that the adjustments seem to fix it a bit! Oh yes, I hadn’t thought about the revival and creating a being hunted hook, I like that a lot, thank you.
I hadn’t thought of that, I’ll definitely add that in, greater restoration cast at a high enough level should be able to remove the disease!
oh yeah, I do like that, now I want my party to keep the ring and have the dilemma of the wizards mentor after them, will make for some interesting pc growth
thank you I really appreciate your feedback, it’s definitely helped me to refine the item and set it on a good path, I’ll try to refine it a little more, thank you.
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Ring of Syphil’iscica (Very Rare): A thick platinum ring set with a deep green, drop cut emerald that is often worn with the emerald facing towards the palm. The ring grants immunity to all diseases. The bearer can touch the emerald of the ring to the skin or outer flesh of a living creature (aside from those with legendary actions and those that cannot be diseased) and inflict Syphil’iscica; a disease so potent, that only the wish spell can remove it, this ability can only be used once per 10 day, and if the bearer attempt to use the ring in less time than 10 days there is a 50% chance the emerald will shatter rendering the ring non magical and the bearer will instead be inflicted by Syphil’iscica.
Syphil’iscica is a disease so potent that within a matter of an hour, the diseased will find their skin reddening and growing highly painful welts that will cover their body, if they do not die from the intense pain of their bubbling skin filling with puss until it explodes they will die in no more than 6 hours as the disease welts their internal organs, causing mass organ failure.
This is my first homebrew item, The purpose of the item in the campaign is for the adventurers to attempt to retrieve it and stop it from entering the wrong hands (original i know). The concept behind the ring was inspired by a family member answering "Syphilis" to my question of "whats a good name for a magic ring?" and so i attempted to work with it. My thoughts are that in the wrong hands, the ring would be used for an untraceable assassination so long as the assassin could simply shake hands with or touch the victims skin. Would appreciate all feedback, no matter how harsh!
Often magic items that grant the ability to inflict diseases are way too overpowered, but I think that, because you restricted it to non-legendary creatures, it is more balanced. It would be impossible to tap something like a Tarrasque with this ring and kill it. That said, depending on the level that your party is at and the type of creatures that they are encountering, they could end up killing a NPC, key enemy, or avoiding a major plot point. Then again, that is the risk associated with almost all magic items.
I agree, I was definitely worried about how it could potentially affect major NPC's. I tried to limit its use also with the 10 day. But I wasn't sure if it was enough or too much.
Thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it!
I have a question about this item. What are the mechanical aspects of how this works? You simply state that they die if they dont have a wish fix the disease within 6 hours. Story wise thats a good hook to have for a magic item (although way way way too strong for a Very Rare item). Is there a save DC that the character needs to make? How much damage does it do if they fail? Can they make the save every hour? How would this ring work against a lvl 18 Fighter that has several hundred HP vs a Dragon that has 400+ HP or a commoner with 1 HP? How would someone know they couldnt cure the disease without a wish spell? Say someone gets infected by this disease (non monk/paladin characters as those 2 are immune to this at certain levels) and goes to a cleric, they say, oh hey, you're diseased. Greater Restoration is cast and does nothing.... boom dead. Doesnt sound very fun to me.
I would recommend changing this to giving people a chance to save this, even if its very small. Say, give it a Con save with a DC of 20 to stop the effects. Every hour that the disease is not saved against the one afflicted with this disease takes something like 2d10 Necrotic damage and their HP's are lowered by that amount until a wish or greater restoration is used. Or if you want to make it only a wish then make it a legendary item thats cursed and maybe even give it a personality of some sort.
In my experience both as a player and a DM, players will always find a way to use an item thats provided in the way that most messes with your campaign at the most inopportune time. You give them an item that can kill anything without easy access to wish in 6 hours? They'll use it to kill a king, take over the kingdom and then find a way to derail the rest of the quest.
One way around this is to make the item exactly as you described above but make it so that its specifically attuned to one specific BBEG and the players need to take it off him. As soon as its removed from his/her/its finger and/or the BBEG dies, the ring falls to dust. Crisis averted, players dont get an overly powerful magic ring, and they've done what they set out to do.
I know as a player, I would HATE if my guy got touched by the BBEG with the ring, be out in the wilderness without someone having the wish spell, and I simply die in 6 hours without any other way to stop it. Waste of time playing that character without any warning or way to stop my death.
Hopefully this helps! I do like the idea, but I think both the item itself and its stats need to be looked into further and the consequences of how the ring works needs to be considered.
Thank you very much! I completely agree with you, It hadn't even crossed my mind to put in a Cons save, I think you're right about that.
Perhaps every hour make a cons saving throw, hours 1-2 on fail take 2d10, hours 3-4 on fail take 4d10, hour 5 take 6d10 and hour 6 on fail take 10d10 and every hour after that repeat saving throw at 10d10. perhaps every hour adds +1 to the DC. with a starting DC of 20? too complicated?
I also agree with being too powerful for very rare, i will update that to Legendary.
i definitely want the item to be powerful and id like the disease to be extremely difficult to overcome, the backstory on the ring is it's a one off ring created by Syphil god of disease (and as i write that out it screams Legendary item to me), currently the players are obtaining the item for the wizards mentor/teacher, so they at this point intend on giving it to him, but who knows what they'll do in the end.
and i feel as though a 9th level cleric shouldn't be able to cure it with greater restoration, but perhaps with the use of greater restoration the Cons save dc would be lowered by 5. I figured that id have the person infected not know that the disease couldn't be cured by anything other than the wish spell, but perhaps if i remove that and work it a little more i could keep the item at very rare?
i really appreciate your feedback, thank you very much, you have given me much to think about! and you have definitely helped me refine the item!
I like the change to put the damage at the different hour intervals and give them a save at each of them. Even the high damage is good as with a legendary item you're giving the player some agency along with the whole 10 day thing to prevent them from abusing it too much. Also, by the time they attune to it, find out what it does and decide to use it, they can use it on something that has legendary resistances (as was stated by Odin above) they can simply choose the save against it and not be affected. However, for lesser beings the RP consequences of using it on someone and having them die and having their spirit summoned by a local cleric to find out who diseased them, they can be hunted for their use of this item. It opens all sorts of doors for story and RP.
And I think rather than trying to prevent the use of Greater Restoration, you could say that a Wish or a Greater Restoration cast at 9th level, or by a Cleric who can cast 9th level spells, something like that. If thats the case, leave the item legendary or give the item a personality and make it an artifact (although id likely not do that 2nd one myself).
I do like the history behind it and the reason they're looking to get this item in the first place. Its a solid story hook and gives them a goal to work for. It could even have the effect that if the party keeps the ring and the mentor/teacher finds out they kept it, they now have an enemy instead of an ally going after them :) And to have made an enemy of a powerful wizard who knows what the ring can do and how to protect themselves is a strong motivator to give up the ring.
Id say you're on the right track to having a good item with some solid background and good effects on it!
I agree, im glad that the adjustments seem to fix it a bit!
Oh yes, I hadn’t thought about the revival and creating a being hunted hook, I like that a lot, thank you.
I hadn’t thought of that, I’ll definitely add that in, greater restoration cast at a high enough level should be able to remove the disease!
oh yeah, I do like that, now I want my party to keep the ring and have the dilemma of the wizards mentor after them, will make for some interesting pc growth
thank you I really appreciate your feedback, it’s definitely helped me to refine the item and set it on a good path, I’ll try to refine it a little more, thank you.