I want to make a normal person (like 10 on each stat). However this person has lots of magic items and that's how her gets by. He can't use magic and maybe is proficient in one weapon. How would I go about make it this?
I’d go belt of giant strength (best you can find), then +3 plate armor and a +3 weapon and a +3 shield. Your hit points will be a little low without a con bonus, but you’ll do just fine. That’s a simple one anyway. I bet people will come up with some more elaborate options, particularly if you go artificer and get more attunment slots.
The Artificer class gains the ability to attune to multiple items. While they have spell slots they suggest you consider it to not actually be spells. To quote them:
"To observers, you don't appear to be casting spells in a conventional way; you look as if you're producing wonders using mundane items or outlandish inventions."...
"But describing your spellcasting creatively is a fun way to distinguish yourself from other spellcasters."
I would do that. You do not cast the faerie fire spell, but you do carry around some glowing glitter dust you like to throw at people. You do not cast Protection from Poison, you carry around activated charcoal and some antidotes.
You do not cast see invisibility, but you have a great set of strange lens.
Artificer is basically the key to doing this, although for the most part it's accomplished through Flavor rather than Mechanics. I think the big difference is that, although Artificers might flavor their spells as being equipment they use, there's no way for them to really lose that equipment as long as they have access to their spellcasting focus. Whereas with actual magic items, you have a collection of equipment you need to keep track of and which could, theoretically, could be stolen, sold, or given to your allies at some point, which I feel unbalances things quite a bit. It's one thing to flavor your Artificer as being kind of a dumb guy who happens to own a hat that buffs his INT, but it's another to very specifically have a Headband of Intellect, which takes up an attunement slot and can be swapped to other party members if, for example, you use all your ASI's to get your INT up naturally.
I feel like this concept works better as an NPC for the players to interact with. It makes it less of a hassle, since NPCs don't need to conform to character limitations... they don't necessarily need to be one of the primary classes and the DM can make up whatever excuse they want for how their magic items work.
I understand the claim that the flavor is a poor imitation (i.e. it is still spells because if you have spell slots you can still cast), I offer Batman as counter example.
Batman claims to not have super powers. Despite always having the right gadget and never running out. Funny how his grappling hook never runs out of power. That 'rebreather' he uses when swimming seems to work for ever. And he routinely has an extra one to give out to an ally. His batmobile may get destroyed but it turns out there was a motorcycle HIDDEN INSIDE IT! Or a plane. Or a boat. Honestly, if someone was to re-write batman as a Techno-wizard/ artificer, he would gain zero additional capabilities and it would make a lot more sense.
There is always an element of suspension of disbelief in this game. Yes, it is a bit higher when you re-flavor stuff as technology, but not that much.
"Just go with it". It's a game. It's cool. Do not overthink it.
Interesting. These are my pick for a character with Commoner stats with no magical abilities of his/her own. This character should be able to hold its own alongside any character with rolled or point-buy stats of comparable level.
For the three Attunement slots:
Belt of Storm Giant Strength: 29 Str
Amulet of Health: 19 Con
The Sword of Zariel: 20 Charisma, Truesight, 90ft fly speed, Resistance to Radiant and Necrotic Damage, advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks, 2 major and 2 minor beneficial artifact properties, and on a hit, you're dealing 3d8+9 damage per hit on a one-handed attack.
For non-Attunement worn Items:
+3 Plate Armor & a +3 Shield: = 26 AC
Cape of the Mountebank: 1/day Dimension Door for getting out of trouble (like being eaten by a dragon)
Boots of Elvenkind: cancel out that disadvantage on Stealth checks from the armor.
Cap of Water Breathing & Ring of Swimming: in case you have to venture under water, gaining waterbreathing and a 40ft swim speed.
Periapt of Health: immunity to Disease.
Periapt of Proof against Poison: Protection from poison.
Ring of Three Wishes: Having 3 wishes, to cast any spell needed of up to 8th level in an emergency.
Spellwrought Tatoos: For whatever L1-5 spells you want to have access to.
Items that Summon/Conjure allies:
Iron Horn of Valhalla: to summon allies (5d4+5 Berzerkers)
Bag of Tricks: 3 additional Beast allies every day
Figurines of Wandrous Power: there's legitimately good uses for all of them.
Utility Items:
Bag of Holding: For storing items you don't need in combat, or have already expended the use of, and need to wait for them to recharge.
Well of Many Worlds: For planar travel, though completely random.
A bag of Dispelling Stones: 30ft range to dispel any active spells in a 10ft radius of 5th level or lower
Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments: Create stuff by painting it.
Chime of Opening: for when you have to get through a locked door
Daern's Instant Fortress: The only way to make camp in a hurry.
The various Potions and elixirs that help a character maintain its health and capability.
Many of the stat-improving books (the Manuals of Bodiliy Health, Gainful Exercise, and of Quickness of Action, and the Tomes of Clear Thought, Leadership and Influence, and of Understanding): With enough of them, get your stats as high as you want, but this really bypasses your whole "10 in each stat" starting condition.
Interesting. These are my pick for a character with Commoner stats with no magical abilities of his/her own. This character should be able to hold its own alongside any character with rolled or point-buy stats of comparable level.
For the three Attunement slots:
Belt of Storm Giant Strength: 29 Str
Amulet of Health: 19 Con
The Sword of Zariel: 20 Charisma, Truesight, 90ft fly speed, Resistance to Radiant and Necrotic Damage, advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks, 2 major and 2 minor beneficial artifact properties, and on a hit, you're dealing 3d8+9 damage per hit on a one-handed attack.
For non-Attunement worn Items:
+3 Plate Armor & a +3 Shield: = 26 AC
Cape of the Mountebank: 1/day Dimension Door for getting out of trouble (like being eaten by a dragon)
Boots of Elvenkind: cancel out that disadvantage on Stealth checks from the armor.
Cap of Water Breathing & Ring of Swimming: in case you have to venture under water, gaining waterbreathing and a 40ft swim speed.
Periapt of Health: immunity to Disease.
Periapt of Proof against Poison: Protection from poison.
Ring of Three Wishes: Having 3 wishes, to cast any spell needed of up to 8th level in an emergency.
Spellwrought Tatoos: For whatever L1-5 spells you want to have access to.
Items that Summon/Conjure allies:
Iron Horn of Valhalla: to summon allies (5d4+5 Berzerkers)
Bag of Tricks: 3 additional Beast allies every day
Figurines of Wandrous Power: there's legitimately good uses for all of them.
Utility Items:
Bag of Holding: For storing items you don't need in combat, or have already expended the use of, and need to wait for them to recharge.
Well of Many Worlds: For planar travel, though completely random.
A bag of Dispelling Stones: 30ft range to dispel any active spells in a 10ft radius of 5th level or lower
Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments: Create stuff by painting it.
Chime of Opening: for when you have to get through a locked door
Daern's Instant Fortress: The only way to make camp in a hurry.
The various Potions and elixirs that help a character maintain its health and capability.
Many of the stat-improving books (the Manuals of Bodiliy Health, Gainful Exercise, and of Quickness of Action, and the Tomes of Clear Thought, Leadership and Influence, and of Understanding): With enough of them, get your stats as high as you want, but this really bypasses your whole "10 in each stat" starting condition.
That is quite a list. And if I was DM and this was a level 20 one shot I might let you have all of those. With equivalent lists for other PC’s. But any other game it probably wouldn’t happen. But it’s a nice thought exercise for a concept.
I think this list of items helps to illustrate how difficult of a concept this is... in order for it to work, the character basically needs multiple high-level adventures worth of extremely rare magic items to give them the rough equivalent of a level 10+ character.
I think this list of items helps to illustrate how difficult of a concept this is... in order for it to work, the character basically needs multiple high-level adventures worth of extremely rare magic items to give them the rough equivalent of a level 10+ character.
Sorry for necro-posting, but I actually really like this character concept for one scenario in particular:
A high-level PC dies--by which I mean irrevocably dies--and the player decides to replace him or her as "[So-and-So]'s sole living relative and heir...a random, mundane cousin who is way out of his depth, but needs the gold to get his family out of debt."
This would be a hilarious way of role-playing a high-level character's death, and I can just imagine the shenanigans that would ensue while Normie McNormalson tries to cope with going from being Generic Farmhand #5, to riding dragons alongside demigods and trying to slay demons because "I guess that's what adventurers do? Wait, what do you mean a hydra can regrow its heads? And ghosts are immune to WHAT?!"
Interesting. These are my pick for a character with Commoner stats with no magical abilities of his/her own. This character should be able to hold its own alongside any character with rolled or point-buy stats of comparable level.
For the three Attunement slots:
Belt of Storm Giant Strength: 29 Str
Amulet of Health: 19 Con
The Sword of Zariel: 20 Charisma, Truesight, 90ft fly speed, Resistance to Radiant and Necrotic Damage, advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks, 2 major and 2 minor beneficial artifact properties, and on a hit, you're dealing 3d8+9 damage per hit on a one-handed attack.
For non-Attunement worn Items:
+3 Plate Armor & a +3 Shield: = 26 AC
Cape of the Mountebank: 1/day Dimension Door for getting out of trouble (like being eaten by a dragon)
Boots of Elvenkind: cancel out that disadvantage on Stealth checks from the armor.
Cap of Water Breathing & Ring of Swimming: in case you have to venture under water, gaining waterbreathing and a 40ft swim speed.
Periapt of Health: immunity to Disease.
Periapt of Proof against Poison: Protection from poison.
Ring of Three Wishes: Having 3 wishes, to cast any spell needed of up to 8th level in an emergency.
Spellwrought Tatoos: For whatever L1-5 spells you want to have access to.
Items that Summon/Conjure allies:
Iron Horn of Valhalla: to summon allies (5d4+5 Berzerkers)
Bag of Tricks: 3 additional Beast allies every day
Figurines of Wandrous Power: there's legitimately good uses for all of them.
Utility Items:
Bag of Holding: For storing items you don't need in combat, or have already expended the use of, and need to wait for them to recharge.
Well of Many Worlds: For planar travel, though completely random.
A bag of Dispelling Stones: 30ft range to dispel any active spells in a 10ft radius of 5th level or lower
Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments: Create stuff by painting it.
Chime of Opening: for when you have to get through a locked door
Daern's Instant Fortress: The only way to make camp in a hurry.
The various Potions and elixirs that help a character maintain its health and capability.
Many of the stat-improving books (the Manuals of Bodiliy Health, Gainful Exercise, and of Quickness of Action, and the Tomes of Clear Thought, Leadership and Influence, and of Understanding): With enough of them, get your stats as high as you want, but this really bypasses your whole "10 in each stat" starting condition.
How much does this gear list cost? =)
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
How about he was a high level character who died and a god (maybe through a one shot artifact the character found) reincarnated him to try again....as a different race with average stats (10s or 11s) at the race's starting age. He still remembers his original languages (if they were racial like dwarven) and give him advantage on rolls to recall things he would have known after adventuring for 10 levels (monsters, history, racial knowledge, or arcana he might have known or come across). AND, he still has his equipment/magic items. And maybe there are things he needs to resolve from his past life (or maybe the party's magic items if he was the only one who survived). Let's make him interesting beyond just being average.
I'm going to be honest, D&D is not the game for this idea. Aside from the fact that you're really, really going to have to search for a GM who would actually let you start with a character who's packing a kingdom's worth of Legendary items and Artifacts, playing a character with all 10s and 11s is just not feasible. The saving throws are going to kill you if nothing else does, and you're one Suggestion (Give me all your magic items) away from your character literally losing all their abilities.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
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I want to make a normal person (like 10 on each stat). However this person has lots of magic items and that's how her gets by. He can't use magic and maybe is proficient in one weapon. How would I go about make it this?
I’d go belt of giant strength (best you can find), then +3 plate armor and a +3 weapon and a +3 shield. Your hit points will be a little low without a con bonus, but you’ll do just fine.
That’s a simple one anyway. I bet people will come up with some more elaborate options, particularly if you go artificer and get more attunment slots.
The Artificer class gains the ability to attune to multiple items. While they have spell slots they suggest you consider it to not actually be spells. To quote them:
I would do that. You do not cast the faerie fire spell, but you do carry around some glowing glitter dust you like to throw at people. You do not cast Protection from Poison, you carry around activated charcoal and some antidotes.
You do not cast see invisibility, but you have a great set of strange lens.
Artificer is basically the key to doing this, although for the most part it's accomplished through Flavor rather than Mechanics. I think the big difference is that, although Artificers might flavor their spells as being equipment they use, there's no way for them to really lose that equipment as long as they have access to their spellcasting focus. Whereas with actual magic items, you have a collection of equipment you need to keep track of and which could, theoretically, could be stolen, sold, or given to your allies at some point, which I feel unbalances things quite a bit. It's one thing to flavor your Artificer as being kind of a dumb guy who happens to own a hat that buffs his INT, but it's another to very specifically have a Headband of Intellect, which takes up an attunement slot and can be swapped to other party members if, for example, you use all your ASI's to get your INT up naturally.
I feel like this concept works better as an NPC for the players to interact with. It makes it less of a hassle, since NPCs don't need to conform to character limitations... they don't necessarily need to be one of the primary classes and the DM can make up whatever excuse they want for how their magic items work.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I understand the claim that the flavor is a poor imitation (i.e. it is still spells because if you have spell slots you can still cast), I offer Batman as counter example.
Batman claims to not have super powers. Despite always having the right gadget and never running out. Funny how his grappling hook never runs out of power. That 'rebreather' he uses when swimming seems to work for ever. And he routinely has an extra one to give out to an ally. His batmobile may get destroyed but it turns out there was a motorcycle HIDDEN INSIDE IT! Or a plane. Or a boat. Honestly, if someone was to re-write batman as a Techno-wizard/ artificer, he would gain zero additional capabilities and it would make a lot more sense.
There is always an element of suspension of disbelief in this game. Yes, it is a bit higher when you re-flavor stuff as technology, but not that much.
"Just go with it". It's a game. It's cool. Do not overthink it.
Interesting. These are my pick for a character with Commoner stats with no magical abilities of his/her own. This character should be able to hold its own alongside any character with rolled or point-buy stats of comparable level.
For the three Attunement slots:
Belt of Storm Giant Strength: 29 Str
Amulet of Health: 19 Con
The Sword of Zariel: 20 Charisma, Truesight, 90ft fly speed, Resistance to Radiant and Necrotic Damage, advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks, 2 major and 2 minor beneficial artifact properties, and on a hit, you're dealing 3d8+9 damage per hit on a one-handed attack.
For non-Attunement worn Items:
+3 Plate Armor & a +3 Shield: = 26 AC
Cape of the Mountebank: 1/day Dimension Door for getting out of trouble (like being eaten by a dragon)
Boots of Elvenkind: cancel out that disadvantage on Stealth checks from the armor.
Cap of Water Breathing & Ring of Swimming: in case you have to venture under water, gaining waterbreathing and a 40ft swim speed.
Periapt of Health: immunity to Disease.
Periapt of Proof against Poison: Protection from poison.
Ring of Three Wishes: Having 3 wishes, to cast any spell needed of up to 8th level in an emergency.
Spellwrought Tatoos: For whatever L1-5 spells you want to have access to.
Items that Summon/Conjure allies:
Iron Horn of Valhalla: to summon allies (5d4+5 Berzerkers)
Bag of Tricks: 3 additional Beast allies every day
Figurines of Wandrous Power: there's legitimately good uses for all of them.
Utility Items:
Bag of Holding: For storing items you don't need in combat, or have already expended the use of, and need to wait for them to recharge.
Well of Many Worlds: For planar travel, though completely random.
A bag of Dispelling Stones: 30ft range to dispel any active spells in a 10ft radius of 5th level or lower
Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments: Create stuff by painting it.
Immovable Rod: Awesome general-purpose utility tool.
Chime of Opening: for when you have to get through a locked door
Daern's Instant Fortress: The only way to make camp in a hurry.
The various Potions and elixirs that help a character maintain its health and capability.
Many of the stat-improving books (the Manuals of Bodiliy Health, Gainful Exercise, and of Quickness of Action, and the Tomes of Clear Thought, Leadership and Influence, and of Understanding): With enough of them, get your stats as high as you want, but this really bypasses your whole "10 in each stat" starting condition.
Wow this is just what I was looking for. Thank you!
That is quite a list. And if I was DM and this was a level 20 one shot I might let you have all of those. With equivalent lists for other PC’s. But any other game it probably wouldn’t happen. But it’s a nice thought exercise for a concept.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
I think this list of items helps to illustrate how difficult of a concept this is... in order for it to work, the character basically needs multiple high-level adventures worth of extremely rare magic items to give them the rough equivalent of a level 10+ character.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Sorry for necro-posting, but I actually really like this character concept for one scenario in particular:
A high-level PC dies--by which I mean irrevocably dies--and the player decides to replace him or her as "[So-and-So]'s sole living relative and heir...a random, mundane cousin who is way out of his depth, but needs the gold to get his family out of debt."
This would be a hilarious way of role-playing a high-level character's death, and I can just imagine the shenanigans that would ensue while Normie McNormalson tries to cope with going from being Generic Farmhand #5, to riding dragons alongside demigods and trying to slay demons because "I guess that's what adventurers do? Wait, what do you mean a hydra can regrow its heads? And ghosts are immune to WHAT?!"
How much does this gear list cost? =)
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Given that I count several artifacts in there, the value is pretty much incalculable.
How about he was a high level character who died and a god (maybe through a one shot artifact the character found) reincarnated him to try again....as a different race with average stats (10s or 11s) at the race's starting age. He still remembers his original languages (if they were racial like dwarven) and give him advantage on rolls to recall things he would have known after adventuring for 10 levels (monsters, history, racial knowledge, or arcana he might have known or come across). AND, he still has his equipment/magic items. And maybe there are things he needs to resolve from his past life (or maybe the party's magic items if he was the only one who survived). Let's make him interesting beyond just being average.
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
I'm going to be honest, D&D is not the game for this idea. Aside from the fact that you're really, really going to have to search for a GM who would actually let you start with a character who's packing a kingdom's worth of Legendary items and Artifacts, playing a character with all 10s and 11s is just not feasible. The saving throws are going to kill you if nothing else does, and you're one Suggestion (Give me all your magic items) away from your character literally losing all their abilities.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.