Curious what folks think of the Guardian Emblem for an Ancients Paladin (level 9)?
(Requires Attunement) The emblem has 3 charges. When you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you suffers a critical hit while you're wearing the armor or wielding the shield that bears the emblem, you can use your reaction to expend 1 charge to turn the critical hit into a normal hit instead. The emblem regains all expended charges daily at dawn
On the one hand, it makes use of my reaction to reduce damage to any ally, which I like. On the other, that'd mean no OA, allowing enemies to move freely to attack a squishy potentially. Also, it only is useful when crits happen, which you don't control.
It's situational but useful as many adventuring days don't go by with 3+ Critical Hit on the party, especially if you have few attuned magic items available and no better Reaction at hand.
But it's often a waste of a Reaction against an attack's additional damage die resulting in a low roll and rarely is there rider effects occuring on a crit to negate and make it more worthwhile. Against monster's attacks with multiple damage dice, the net gain can be more significant though.
So once you have many magic items requiring attunement who compete for one of your 3 attunement slots, the Guardian Emblem rapidly fall out of favor but until then, while it's of limited use its always welcome by those who can benefit from it, even if little return as the lasting impression of avoiding a Critical Hit always feel good somehow.
Yeah, I'm feeling a bit of that vibe. At the moment though, My Paladin doesn't have much to do with their Bonus Action or Reaction (2014 rules) aside from threaten Opportunity Attacks, which is a thing.
My attunement items are: +1 Amulet of Devout, Shield that extends my auras to 20 ft., and a Ring that reduces cold dmg with a Reaction. The last one I've never used cuz we haven't encountered cold dmg yet. So Guardian Emblem would likely replace that, and I could hand that off to another party member.
Other more generally-useful attunement items aren't an option currently, like Cloak of Protection/Displacement, Winged Boots, etc.
My experience from the one game where I had this was that it was on the weaker side of magic items, but still clearly better than nothing. Also, if someone in your party can cast silvery barbs, then that makes guardian emblem much less useful.
My attunement items are: +1 Amulet of Devout, Shield that extends my auras to 20 ft., and a Ring that reduces cold dmg with a Reaction. The last one I've never used cuz we haven't encountered cold dmg yet. So Guardian Emblem would likely replace that, and I could hand that off to another party member.
My experience from the one game where I had this was that it was on the weaker side of magic items, but still clearly better than nothing. Also, if someone in your party can cast silvery barbs, then that makes guardian emblem much less useful.
Potentially true. Our DM throws a crap ton of saves at us though. I think there'd be enough things we'd want to counter, but fair consideration.
My attunement items are: +1 Amulet of Devout, Shield that extends my auras to 20 ft., and a Ring that reduces cold dmg with a Reaction. The last one I've never used cuz we haven't encountered cold dmg yet. So Guardian Emblem would likely replace that, and I could hand that off to another party member.
I'd also drop the ring if i was your Pal
Yeah, it was passed to me by another teammate who filled up their attunement slots. We're actually going into an underwater section, so it stands to be fairly useful now. So I could keep my cash for another time. Will have to get a sense of when that may be.
Also thinking about Adamantine Armor, but since I have +1 Splint Armor already, the only benefit would be crit negation. Guardian Emblem allows me to cover allies as well, but at the cost of my Reaction. Tough call.
Curious what folks think of the Guardian Emblem for an Ancients Paladin (level 9)?
(Requires Attunement) The emblem has 3 charges. When you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you suffers a critical hit while you're wearing the armor or wielding the shield that bears the emblem, you can use your reaction to expend 1 charge to turn the critical hit into a normal hit instead. The emblem regains all expended charges daily at dawn
On the one hand, it makes use of my reaction to reduce damage to any ally, which I like. On the other, that'd mean no OA, allowing enemies to move freely to attack a squishy potentially. Also, it only is useful when crits happen, which you don't control.
Thoughts?
It's situational but useful as many adventuring days don't go by with 3+ Critical Hit on the party, especially if you have few attuned magic items available and no better Reaction at hand.
But it's often a waste of a Reaction against an attack's additional damage die resulting in a low roll and rarely is there rider effects occuring on a crit to negate and make it more worthwhile. Against monster's attacks with multiple damage dice, the net gain can be more significant though.
So once you have many magic items requiring attunement who compete for one of your 3 attunement slots, the Guardian Emblem rapidly fall out of favor but until then, while it's of limited use its always welcome by those who can benefit from it, even if little return as the lasting impression of avoiding a Critical Hit always feel good somehow.
Yeah, I'm feeling a bit of that vibe. At the moment though, My Paladin doesn't have much to do with their Bonus Action or Reaction (2014 rules) aside from threaten Opportunity Attacks, which is a thing.
My attunement items are: +1 Amulet of Devout, Shield that extends my auras to 20 ft., and a Ring that reduces cold dmg with a Reaction. The last one I've never used cuz we haven't encountered cold dmg yet. So Guardian Emblem would likely replace that, and I could hand that off to another party member.
Other more generally-useful attunement items aren't an option currently, like Cloak of Protection/Displacement, Winged Boots, etc.
My experience from the one game where I had this was that it was on the weaker side of magic items, but still clearly better than nothing. Also, if someone in your party can cast silvery barbs, then that makes guardian emblem much less useful.
I'd also drop the ring if i was your Pal
Potentially true. Our DM throws a crap ton of saves at us though. I think there'd be enough things we'd want to counter, but fair consideration.
Yeah, it was passed to me by another teammate who filled up their attunement slots. We're actually going into an underwater section, so it stands to be fairly useful now. So I could keep my cash for another time. Will have to get a sense of when that may be.
Also thinking about Adamantine Armor, but since I have +1 Splint Armor already, the only benefit would be crit negation. Guardian Emblem allows me to cover allies as well, but at the cost of my Reaction. Tough call.
it beats a sharp stick in the eye. It's fine, better to reduce damage now instead of hope for an opp attack later that might not come.