My game includes a Dwarven forge cleric of Moradin. I'm making a campaign arc finishing with him finding an artifact, the Hammer of Moradin. I have made a warhammer for this and would really appreciate any advice for it as this is my first time homebrewing an item like this. The intent is for it to be powerful but not gamebreaking.
Hammer of Moradin:
You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
Flame of Moradin. While attuned to the item you can use a bonus action to ignite the hammer. While ignited it sheds bright light for 30 feet and dim light for a further 30 feet. while ignited the weapon deals an additional 2d8 fire damage on a hit. When you make an attack roll with this weapon and roll a 20 the target is blinded until the end of their next turn.
Heart of Moradin. while attuned to this item you are immune to the frightened condition and your constitution increases by 2 to a maximum of 24.
Blessing of the Forge. While attuned to this item you can add and double your proficiency bonus to any check used tot craft an item with the hammer. Additionally a forge cleric can ignore the 100gp limit for the Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing ability.
I'd still give the crit blind effect be a save instead of an automatic. Yeah, it's a forge cleric. For them to sacrifice their precious action to get in someone's face to hit something instead of casting one of their powerful cleric spells is huge. Auto-Status effects are just silly though.
It's definitely an artifact though. I think the balancing is pretty decent otherwise. The fire damage on other weapons for like a fighter might be a bit much but Forge Clerics gets one attack. So 5d8 damage on one swing, 4d8 of it being one of the most highly resisted damage types in the game? It's fine.
Internally, for your table, I'd probably just have the discussion about how the Forge Cleric can't use their newfound power to make items to sell.
Thanks for the advice, any tips on how high to make the save DC? Unless im mistaken blinding is usually a CON save, and I would want it to be reasonably high.
Thanks for the advice, any tips on how high to make the save DC? Unless im mistaken blinding is usually a CON save, and I would want it to be reasonably high.
8 + Proficiency + Wisdom Modifier. That way it stays on par with the Clerics saves in general and scales with both them and the game in general. On this one, it’s an artifact man, it should be SOMEWHAT powerful.
It depends on your other players and the way you run the campaign for me to give any solid advice about whether it is game breaking. I have a couple observations though ...
+3 across the board for to-hit and damage sounds high to me. If it were +1 across the board but had an additional +1 or +2 under special circumstances then I would like it more.
While you do call it "Flame of Moradin", it sounds more like a light or radiant effect. I would change the damage to radiant instead of fire, and possibly rename the effect from Flame of ... to something else, maybe Moradin's Spirit Aura. As a plus, fewer critters have resistance or immunity to radiant damage when compared to fire damage.
Anything increasing a stat and raising the ceiling over 20 is a top-tier item so Artifact is the right category.
I don't have a problem with the item granting a boost to forging ability but I would not state or imply that a war hammer was being used as a forge hammer. I recognize than many players and DMs will think I am too particular on this point, but that is the way I feel. I would simply say that attunement to this item grants ... benefits to the character's abilities when forging.
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My game includes a Dwarven forge cleric of Moradin. I'm making a campaign arc finishing with him finding an artifact, the Hammer of Moradin. I have made a warhammer for this and would really appreciate any advice for it as this is my first time homebrewing an item like this. The intent is for it to be powerful but not gamebreaking.
Hammer of Moradin:
You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
Flame of Moradin. While attuned to the item you can use a bonus action to ignite the hammer. While ignited it sheds bright light for 30 feet and dim light for a further 30 feet. while ignited the weapon deals an additional 2d8 fire damage on a hit. When you make an attack roll with this weapon and roll a 20 the target is blinded until the end of their next turn.
Heart of Moradin. while attuned to this item you are immune to the frightened condition and your constitution increases by 2 to a maximum of 24.
Blessing of the Forge. While attuned to this item you can add and double your proficiency bonus to any check used tot craft an item with the hammer. Additionally a forge cleric can ignore the 100gp limit for the Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing ability.
Thanks for any help and advice.
For an artifact, it looks fine.
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I'd still give the crit blind effect be a save instead of an automatic. Yeah, it's a forge cleric. For them to sacrifice their precious action to get in someone's face to hit something instead of casting one of their powerful cleric spells is huge. Auto-Status effects are just silly though.
It's definitely an artifact though. I think the balancing is pretty decent otherwise. The fire damage on other weapons for like a fighter might be a bit much but Forge Clerics gets one attack. So 5d8 damage on one swing, 4d8 of it being one of the most highly resisted damage types in the game? It's fine.
Internally, for your table, I'd probably just have the discussion about how the Forge Cleric can't use their newfound power to make items to sell.
Thanks for the advice, any tips on how high to make the save DC? Unless im mistaken blinding is usually a CON save, and I would want it to be reasonably high.
On par with the new artifact Hammer in the Theros campaign.
8 + Proficiency + Wisdom Modifier. That way it stays on par with the Clerics saves in general and scales with both them and the game in general. On this one, it’s an artifact man, it should be SOMEWHAT powerful.
It depends on your other players and the way you run the campaign for me to give any solid advice about whether it is game breaking. I have a couple observations though ...
+3 across the board for to-hit and damage sounds high to me. If it were +1 across the board but had an additional +1 or +2 under special circumstances then I would like it more.
While you do call it "Flame of Moradin", it sounds more like a light or radiant effect. I would change the damage to radiant instead of fire, and possibly rename the effect from Flame of ... to something else, maybe Moradin's Spirit Aura. As a plus, fewer critters have resistance or immunity to radiant damage when compared to fire damage.
Anything increasing a stat and raising the ceiling over 20 is a top-tier item so Artifact is the right category.
I don't have a problem with the item granting a boost to forging ability but I would not state or imply that a war hammer was being used as a forge hammer. I recognize than many players and DMs will think I am too particular on this point, but that is the way I feel. I would simply say that attunement to this item grants ... benefits to the character's abilities when forging.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt