Hey all, just got a Ring of Shooting Stars at level 7, excited to use it for, duh, another free aoe buff on top of free Bless, so I can feel better about using my pact slots.
Somebody suggested I give it to a front-tline martial character, because it has some good non-spell ranged damage abilities that a melee pc would be really thankful for.
Still fairly sure it's better I use it, for the slot reason, and it fits my role. Am I wrong? cheers
Not at all. As a warlock you need the ring to compensate for your loss of spell slots. The martial doesn't need that ring and you earned it. You are best using it.
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"Anyone can smith at the cosmic anvil, yet only I can forge a weapon as good as thee."
I don't know your campaign and can't speak to specifics on characters or plot, but here would be my breakdown mechanically.
For either character if they don't have dark vision the ability to cast light is extremely useful, and probably should give that character priority.
Warlock - provides faerie fire as a spell slot (it will eat concentration), faerie fire is a great spell and generally worth concentrating on even at higher levels but you will have more powerful uses for your concentration at 7th level. Dancing lights, and light are really only circumstantial bonuses here unless you don't have darkvision. Ball lightning is an interesting option as well although I think faerie fire is the better use. In general this would boost your ability after you have spent your spell slots. Each round you will probably find more value using your action on EB+AB than Faerie Fire, and your concentration is better spent on your warlock concentration spells. Still a good upgrade.
Martial - There are two parts here. Concentration and ranged attacks. Barbarian - this is really not that good since concentration fights with rage. You are really looking at 1 round uses of ball lightning. Not that valuable compared to what the Warlock gets. Ranger - So for a strength based Ranger this offers some nice ranged damage at 120 ft. As a half caster they have few spells/slots so faerie fire is great to add to the mix and gives them something to do while they close. Hunter's Mark is probably better since their save DC is not that great. A dex based ranger can do their own ranged damage with archery, so really its just adding Faerie Fire to their mix. Overall, depending on build this might be better than the Warlock's upgrade. Monk - No spells, and no use of concentration, and limited ranged attacks unless spec'd into. This is a very large upgrade for a monk and more useful than the warlock. Paladin - Similar to the str Ranger there is a limited use outside of bless to the Paladin's concentration. They have few slots at this level and like to smite with them. This may be a very good choice for a paladin and probably stronger than what the warlock gains since now they can smite more. Fighter - Str based fighter is like Monk a massive upgrade, they have poor ranged attacks, and no use for the concentration (and with con prof are good at concentration). The only real issue is what their casting stat would be for faerie fire (the DC is based on caster stat for that, while the ball lightning is DC15). If they have a Int/Wis/Cha greater than 12 or 14 this would be great and better than what the warlock gets. A dex based fighter has archery and while the faerie fire might be good on them their archery is generally better.
In general I would conclude that it is more valuable to most melee martials than it would be for the Warlock. Particularly str based martials, the ability to have something of value to do at 60 and 120 ft range is really a big deal, and for some it might be their only use of their concentration.
Another way to look at it is peak vs sustained usefulness. For a warlock adding the ring of shooting stars makes little difference in their peak usefulness. They have generally better things to do with their turn. It does improve them marginally on the sustained front.
On a melee martial it specifically upgrades ranged turns which improves peak and since they don't have things to do at range it also should improve sustained usefulness since 6 uses of faerie fire is a ton for a day. Since they want to close this becomes their first round action while they close. This can also help fix the issue of the melee martial running into battle leaving the rest of the party behind since they actually have something they can do.
Some of this is going to depend on campaign. In a dungeon crawl where there aren't a lot of large rooms the melee martial will not really use the ring and just get to hack and slash. In a naval campaign where ship to ship is big he might have nothing to do most turns without it.
ah, great, that's all super helpful thank you so so much.
the campaign is combat-light, and the locations aren't super crawly.
we have a grung monk, no darkvision, their concentration is free, and my tomelock has light already, so that makes a ton of sense to give them the ring. our other two are a barb and a trickster.
i am getting a bit chagrined coz it's been over a year, 7 levels, my warlock concept is mercantile arcane knowledge guy, and the only magic items we've found that make sense for me to keep (he's a pragmatist, not greedy) are a conjure elemental gem and a speak with plants scroll, both one use... everyone else has cool tools and duds. the trickster found a wand of web and specifically decided they did not think to bring it up. but it makes sense for the pc so nbd, just aw shucks. i don't even want that i just want to tell them to use it before i cast sickening radiance. thanks again!
Ugghh that is frustrating to be the last guy at the end of the magic item line. It also can be frustrating to the DM who sometimes places magic items for specific players only to have the players decide something different.
yeeeeah but i guess in a martial heavy party, when irl i do complain that martials lack abilities, it's better that those players get magic stuff so they can have more fun.
also my pc just, that's what he would do, try to fill gaps in the party.
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Hey all, just got a Ring of Shooting Stars at level 7, excited to use it for, duh, another free aoe buff on top of free Bless, so I can feel better about using my pact slots.
Somebody suggested I give it to a front-tline martial character, because it has some good non-spell ranged damage abilities that a melee pc would be really thankful for.
Still fairly sure it's better I use it, for the slot reason, and it fits my role. Am I wrong? cheers
Not at all. As a warlock you need the ring to compensate for your loss of spell slots. The martial doesn't need that ring and you earned it. You are best using it.
"Anyone can smith at the cosmic anvil, yet only I can forge a weapon as good as thee."
My Homebrew Please click it, they have my family.
I don't know your campaign and can't speak to specifics on characters or plot, but here would be my breakdown mechanically.
For either character if they don't have dark vision the ability to cast light is extremely useful, and probably should give that character priority.
Warlock - provides faerie fire as a spell slot (it will eat concentration), faerie fire is a great spell and generally worth concentrating on even at higher levels but you will have more powerful uses for your concentration at 7th level. Dancing lights, and light are really only circumstantial bonuses here unless you don't have darkvision. Ball lightning is an interesting option as well although I think faerie fire is the better use. In general this would boost your ability after you have spent your spell slots. Each round you will probably find more value using your action on EB+AB than Faerie Fire, and your concentration is better spent on your warlock concentration spells. Still a good upgrade.
Martial - There are two parts here. Concentration and ranged attacks.
Barbarian - this is really not that good since concentration fights with rage. You are really looking at 1 round uses of ball lightning. Not that valuable compared to what the Warlock gets.
Ranger - So for a strength based Ranger this offers some nice ranged damage at 120 ft. As a half caster they have few spells/slots so faerie fire is great to add to the mix and gives them something to do while they close. Hunter's Mark is probably better since their save DC is not that great. A dex based ranger can do their own ranged damage with archery, so really its just adding Faerie Fire to their mix. Overall, depending on build this might be better than the Warlock's upgrade.
Monk - No spells, and no use of concentration, and limited ranged attacks unless spec'd into. This is a very large upgrade for a monk and more useful than the warlock.
Paladin - Similar to the str Ranger there is a limited use outside of bless to the Paladin's concentration. They have few slots at this level and like to smite with them. This may be a very good choice for a paladin and probably stronger than what the warlock gains since now they can smite more.
Fighter - Str based fighter is like Monk a massive upgrade, they have poor ranged attacks, and no use for the concentration (and with con prof are good at concentration). The only real issue is what their casting stat would be for faerie fire (the DC is based on caster stat for that, while the ball lightning is DC15). If they have a Int/Wis/Cha greater than 12 or 14 this would be great and better than what the warlock gets. A dex based fighter has archery and while the faerie fire might be good on them their archery is generally better.
In general I would conclude that it is more valuable to most melee martials than it would be for the Warlock. Particularly str based martials, the ability to have something of value to do at 60 and 120 ft range is really a big deal, and for some it might be their only use of their concentration.
Another way to look at it is peak vs sustained usefulness. For a warlock adding the ring of shooting stars makes little difference in their peak usefulness. They have generally better things to do with their turn. It does improve them marginally on the sustained front.
On a melee martial it specifically upgrades ranged turns which improves peak and since they don't have things to do at range it also should improve sustained usefulness since 6 uses of faerie fire is a ton for a day. Since they want to close this becomes their first round action while they close. This can also help fix the issue of the melee martial running into battle leaving the rest of the party behind since they actually have something they can do.
Some of this is going to depend on campaign. In a dungeon crawl where there aren't a lot of large rooms the melee martial will not really use the ring and just get to hack and slash. In a naval campaign where ship to ship is big he might have nothing to do most turns without it.
ah, great, that's all super helpful thank you so so much.
the campaign is combat-light, and the locations aren't super crawly.
we have a grung monk, no darkvision, their concentration is free, and my tomelock has light already, so that makes a ton of sense to give them the ring. our other two are a barb and a trickster.
i am getting a bit chagrined coz it's been over a year, 7 levels, my warlock concept is mercantile arcane knowledge guy, and the only magic items we've found that make sense for me to keep (he's a pragmatist, not greedy) are a conjure elemental gem and a speak with plants scroll, both one use... everyone else has cool tools and duds. the trickster found a wand of web and specifically decided they did not think to bring it up. but it makes sense for the pc so nbd, just aw shucks. i don't even want that i just want to tell them to use it before i cast sickening radiance. thanks again!
Ugghh that is frustrating to be the last guy at the end of the magic item line. It also can be frustrating to the DM who sometimes places magic items for specific players only to have the players decide something different.
yeeeeah but i guess in a martial heavy party, when irl i do complain that martials lack abilities, it's better that those players get magic stuff so they can have more fun.
also my pc just, that's what he would do, try to fill gaps in the party.