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Oh yeah and Splicer posted:D&D relies on teamwork, even more than other RPGs, sp keep in mind the cardinal rule that "it's what my character would do" is not an excuse for annoying all the other players.
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Mar 6, 2021 12:06
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Not gonna be too specific but my current D&D guy is betraying the absolute poo poo out of the party in a couple of sessions. Knowing it's coming without knowing any details has got people very excited.
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Mar 6, 2021 12:29
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Gentleman Baller posted:Got a small campaign coming up and I really want to play as a John Edwards style cold reader who thinks he's actually communicating with the dead. So far I've got custom lineage for +2 wisdom with skill expert for insight which should give me +8 at level 1. Is that the best I can do? Campaign will end at level 5, so I'm hoping to be able to pull it off until my character is eventually forced to cast Speak with Dead and find out he's actually been full of poo poo the entire time. Yes, thank you!
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Mar 6, 2021 14:37
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It’s okay to lie to characters as long as you tell the truth to the players and they’re okay with it. Occasionally it’s okay to do things in secret with the DM as some kind of plot thing. I remember one time the DM pulled us each one at a time to the next room because one of us was being mind controlled but he wouldn’t say which one. When it was my turn he just said in a whisper to wait around a bit so the others get suspicious and we talked about non game stuff for a bit.
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Mar 6, 2021 15:07
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Gentleman Baller posted:Got a small campaign coming up and I really want to play as a John Edwards style cold reader who thinks he's actually communicating with the dead. So far I've got custom lineage for +2 wisdom with skill expert for insight which should give me +8 at level 1. Is that the best I can do? Campaign will end at level 5, so I'm hoping to be able to pull it off until my character is eventually forced to cast Speak with Dead and find out he's actually been full of poo poo the entire time. Is there another John Edwards besides the famous shitlord politician one
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Mar 6, 2021 16:34
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I want to make a Warlock (Jonas Krinn) whose backstory is that they were an ordinary person, a kind of "Old West" themed bounty hunter without any notable magical talent (Cowboy Hat, duster). They want to try and pass off their spellcasting as using magical devices. They are not actually using magical devices, just pretending they are. They didn't exactly choose to become a Warlock. (Jonas was in trouble and near death and called out for anyone to help him, and to his surprise an Archfey appeared and offered to help Jonas in exchange for working for the Archfey.) So, casting Faerie Fire would be tossing a capsule to where you want to cast the spell. The spell would go off at the intended location, even if the capsule doesn't land in the proper place, which could somewhat give the trick away. The Eldritch Sight invocation would be cast by slipping on a pair of glasses. Eldritch Blast would seem to be cast from a hand crossbow or a pistol (possibly non-functional), depending on the technology setting. Would it be reasonable for the Warlock to be able to get away with this if they are proficient in Deception and Sleight of Hand? (Sleight of Hand would be the bonus proficiency from being a Variant Human.) I picked Archfey for the spell list. What I'm not sure about is the Pact to choose. I only have a PHB so the only ones I know of are Chain, Blade and Tome. Chain is right out because having a familiar gives up the ruse. Pact of the Blade would only really be useful for the summoning and dismissing of the weapon, and using it only for that part seems like a waste of a class feature. That leaves Pact of the Tome, but that also runs up against the concept of a character trying to conceal their magic power. Are there other pacts from different sourcebooks which might fit better? My class skill proficiencies from the Warlock list would be Intimidation and Investigation (because of my Bounty Hunter backstory). My background would be Outlander (Bounty Hunter), which gives proficiencies in Survival and Athletics - except I would swap Stealth in place of Athletics, because Bounty Hunter. If the setting allows firearms, I'd also be tempted to swap out the Musical Instrument tool proficiency for Tinkerer's Kit proficiency. My idea for the required arcane focus would be a ring made of stone from the Feywild. A couple other questions about building a Warlock. 1. They don't get much in the way of spell slots, so is it best to take a bunch of support spells? (I was thinking of taking Faerie Fire and Charm Person as 1st-level spells, but I suppose I should drop Charm Person and take Hex like a Warlock is supposed to do.) I'd take Eldritch Blast as a cantrip of course, and probably Minor Illusion as the other one. 2. For Eldritch Invocations, I was going to take Agonizing Blast as my first one of course. I also want to take Eldritch Sight, Devil's Sight, and Repelling Blast, because those seem like they would be quite useful. Beguiling Influence gives proficiency in Deception and Persuasion. But you only get so many Invocations, so is Beguiling Influence worthwhile to spend one of those on for the proficencies? Other than that, nothing else is on my list of must-haves.
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Mar 6, 2021 17:50
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Gentleman Baller posted:Got a small campaign coming up and I really want to play as a John Edwards style cold reader who thinks he's actually communicating with the dead. So far I've got custom lineage for +2 wisdom with skill expert for insight which should give me +8 at level 1. Is that the best I can do? Campaign will end at level 5, so I'm hoping to be able to pull it off until my character is eventually forced to cast Speak with Dead and find out he's actually been full of poo poo the entire time. short of wisdom boosting items or rolling for stats and getting lucky, +8 is the best you can do at level 1 (but maximum would be +9 barring something that would let you add an additional stat to insight that i’m forgetting about) +8 (and presumably +10/11 at level 5) is ridiculous for low level gameplay though so you’ll be fine Nissin Cup Nudist posted:Is there another John Edwards besides the famous shitlord politician one https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t1juNLJ97i0
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Mar 6, 2021 17:59
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I want to make a Warlock (Jonas Krinn) whose backstory is that they were an ordinary person, a kind of "Old West" themed bounty hunter without any notable magical talent (Cowboy Hat, duster). They want to try and pass off their spellcasting as using magical devices. They are not actually using magical devices, just pretending they are. They didn't exactly choose to become a Warlock. (Jonas was in trouble and near death and called out for anyone to help him, and to his surprise an Archfey appeared and offered to help Jonas in exchange for working for the Archfey.) Check out the Pact of the Talisman, it might be a good fit for that character. It also will open up some new invocation options if you're interested in them. Here's a good class guide if you want some thoughts on ability selection: https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/warlock/
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Mar 6, 2021 18:00
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Declan MacManus posted:short of wisdom boosting items or rolling for stats and getting lucky, +8 is the best you can do at level 1 (but maximum would be +9 barring something that would let you add an additional stat to insight that i’m forgetting about) +8 on insight is enough that on passive insight you can solve any check. there is a real and present danger however that the DM will want to make rolls challenging for you and thus increase the DC such that every person you talk to is some secret agent and DC 20 is the base level or something absurd like this, as new DMs tend to see players minmaxing skills as "whoof gotta do something to balance this in line" so just make sure your DM doesnt do that kind of thing
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Mar 6, 2021 18:06
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pog boyfriend posted:there is a real and present danger however that the DM will want to make rolls challenging for you and thus increase the DC such that every person you talk to is some secret agent and DC 20 is the base level or something absurd like this, as new DMs tend to see players minmaxing skills as "whoof gotta do something to balance this in line" so just make sure your DM doesnt do that kind of thing You will have a much better chance of avoiding this problem if you let your DM know you’re doing this ahead of time so you don’t blindside them.
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Mar 6, 2021 18:21
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Yeah I'll have a chat with them. I really don't care about passing every insight check ever or whatever, just want to mechanically mostly pull off the dumb gimmick. Thanks everyone.
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Mar 7, 2021 01:08
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I want to make a Warlock (Jonas Krinn) ... Beguiling Influence is a pretty poor invocation - you'd be better off finding any key proficiencies through racial or background skills. Pact of the Chain may still be on the table given that many of the special familiars have permanent invisibility and/or shapechange, which might play into the 'things are not as they seem' angle.
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Mar 7, 2021 01:18
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Arivia posted:Try the Wyvern's Spur then, a 2e FR novel. It's technically part of a trilogy, but largely stands alone - if you read the full trilogy, it's also where Dragonbait is introduced. I second this. And it's not just good for halfling content, it's one of the most charming and enjoyable novels in the entire FR canon. Yusin posted:Could you not still use Valindra as the villain. She's there already there and you could say she is copying Acererak's style, or doing the death curse stuff on behalf of Szass Tam or whatever. Or even have her planning on going independent, and is secretly the one behind stuff, but Tam did not know that when he sent her. I certainly could. I was mainly just struck by the book pulling the same schtick twice.
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Mar 7, 2021 01:46
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Real UK Grime posted:Beguiling Influence is a pretty poor invocation - you'd be better off finding any key proficiencies through racial or background skills. Hmmm, I was worried that proficiencies would be a poor choice for one of the Invocations. If I drop Beguiling Influence, I'd probably swap in Eldritch Sight, because at will Detect Magic would be extremely helpful for any number of times when there's no time to sit around for 11 minutes to cast it as a ritual. I'm not TOO particular about the proficiencies, but I do kinda want to stick close to ones which fit my character's backstory. The ones I originally penciled in were:
I could drop Investigation for Deception and perhaps drop Slight of Hand for Persuasion. The other Warlock proficiencies (Arcana, History, Nature, Religion) don't fit a poorly educated lawman like Jonas, and he has a +0 INT mod. In terms of racial proficiencies, I'm not sure I can do much there other than Variant Human (or Lightfoot Halfling). Halfling would require dropping one of Persuasion, Stealth, or Survival. Every other race except Elf/Half-Elf doesn't have the right ability score makeup, and this character can't be an Elf or Half-Elf, because one part of their backstory is that they spent 15 days recuperating from near-death in the Feywild, then experienced a time warp when their patron returned them from the Feywild back to the material plane and ended up 15 years in the future. (Yes, I am aware that an Archfey can control whether or not that happens, but my character does not know that.) Real UK Grime posted:Pact of the Chain may still be on the table given that many of the special familiars have permanent invisibility and/or shapechange, which might play into the 'things are not as they seem' angle. I'm not really feeling Pact of the Chain as a fit for this character, permanent invisibility or not. The Pact of the Talisman Kaal suggested seems like a much better fit. The Talisman could be passed off as a "good luck charm" or an heirloom. pog boyfriend posted:+8 on insight is enough that on passive insight you can solve any check. there is a real and present danger however that the DM will want to make rolls challenging for you and thus increase the DC such that every person you talk to is some secret agent and DC 20 is the base level or something absurd like this, as new DMs tend to see players minmaxing skills as "whoof gotta do something to balance this in line" so just make sure your DM doesnt do that kind of thing That talk of maxing out starting skills possibly pissing off the DM and making him break the game for other characters makes me think of another character concept I have - a former City Watch Investigator turned Rogue. If I made them a Variant Human (STR 8/DEX 15 +1/CON 13 +1/INT 14/WIS 12/CHA 10) and take Observant as the level 1 feat with Expertise in Insight and Perception, they would have a passive Insight of 15, a passive Investigation of 19 and a passive Perception of 20 at level 1. (And at level 6 I would take Expertise in Thieves Tools and Investigation.) The big downside is that they wouldn't have super-high Stealth scores. I guess I should reconsider that concept. I suppose a Half-Elf would work just as well without the big bonus from the level 1 feat. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Mar 7, 2021 |
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Mar 7, 2021 02:18
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My group is interested in starting a Ravnica set game next month since most of us have played MtG. Are there any good actual play podcasts or videos so I can get some idea of how to run a game set in that plane?
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Mar 7, 2021 15:00
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radlum posted:My group is interested in starting a Ravnica set game next month since most of us have played MtG. Are there any good actual play podcasts or videos so I can get some idea of how to run a game set in that plane? Don't know any videos, but assuming you haven't got the Ravnica book yet it's honestly really solid in this regard. I'd recommend reading through that first. Otherwise the main advice I'd give is figure out what guilds your players are wanting to be, discuss what kind of campaign your players are wanting, and then figure out an opposing guild to act as the main antagonist. If you're players are wanting more of a mystery-focused campaign can't go wrong with BBEG Dimir, alternatively BBEG Gruul perfectly fits a combat-heavy campaign. Edit: When I ran a Ravnica campaign, I broke down the campaign into multiple chapters with each chapter having a different antagonistic guild and allowing the players to roll new characters so that could try out different Guilds. Blooming Brilliant fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Mar 7, 2021 |
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Mar 7, 2021 15:22
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radlum posted:My group is interested in starting a Ravnica set game next month since most of us have played MtG. Are there any good actual play podcasts or videos so I can get some idea of how to run a game set in that plane? There's one that I enjoyed, but it comes with a huge Caveat. Adam Koebel was the GM, I think it was a really really great game, but the GM would later go on to do some vile poo poo, and then try and brush it off as nothing serious. The Rest of the Cast loving owns tho. if you want to look it up it's "Jace Beleren Must Die"
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Mar 7, 2021 17:48
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Dexo posted:There's one that I enjoyed, but it comes with a huge Caveat. Oh yikes, just looked it up and this dude sucks
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Mar 7, 2021 17:57
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change my name posted:Oh yikes, just looked it up and this dude sucks yeaaaaah it's real bad.
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Mar 7, 2021 18:01
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My level 5 players are about to have an underwater encounter, but I've been kind of disappointed with the stock aquatic monsters. A Giant Octopus is only CR1, but a Roper is a good challenge and has almost all the mechanics I'd care about in an octopus fight. Seems like an easy reskin, but I'll probably cut it's reach a bit and let the tentacles do damage when they hit. Any advice on changing a stock monster without making it too powerful?
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Mar 7, 2021 19:44
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Nemo posted:My level 5 players are about to have an underwater encounter, but I've been kind of disappointed with the stock aquatic monsters. A Giant Octopus is only CR1, but a Roper is a good challenge and has almost all the mechanics I'd care about in an octopus fight. Seems like an easy reskin, but I'll probably cut it's reach a bit and let the tentacles do damage when they hit. Giffyglyph has a great system for making new monsters and encounters. It's not quite the same as adapting a pre-existing monster, but it should let you see the general range of damage, HP, AC, etc. that your party can handle.
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Mar 7, 2021 20:38
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radlum posted:My group is interested in starting a Ravnica set game next month since most of us have played MtG. Are there any good actual play podcasts or videos so I can get some idea of how to run a game set in that plane? I just finished the Encounter Party podcast and rather enjoyed it, mostly. Good use of Ravnica as a setting IMO.
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Mar 7, 2021 21:02
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How to make a new monster: 1.) Use a Bear as a base 2.) Finished Extra: *.) Go through the 4e Monster Manual and steal any of the abilities that is even kinda close. You can add or subtract a few points in HP, AC, etc. to taste for any flavor reasons (bigger, faster, more of them, whatever) Your octopus monster: AC 11 HP 34 +5 to hit 1d8+4 dmg, multiattack x2 (or use Dire Bear or Giant Bear or whatever) Pick a few things here  (this is the first thing I grabbed, but you could probably look up other tentacle creatures) Make it easy on yourself. Bears. Matt Colville has a YT video about using 4e abilities. It's really good. Firstborn fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Mar 7, 2021 |
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Mar 7, 2021 21:09
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Current Tomb of Annihilation trip report in two sentences: "Wait guys, what if we toggle this and then explore the first floor to see if something changed?" "Right, so we cast Give the DM a Headache. What happens?"
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Mar 9, 2021 03:41
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Bruceski posted:Current Tomb of Annihilation trip report in two sentences: Sounds to me like they roll a group Investigation check.
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Mar 9, 2021 04:37
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Speaking of giving the DM a headache, our DM gave us an Instant Fortress...but he made the mistake of having us encounter it when it was already "deployed" and sealed, so basically we had this adamantine tower we couldn't get into (with a couple of weak enemies inside, just to keep things interesting). He expected this to be a really simple encounter, but it took us two hours and increasingly more pointed hints before we realized we could cast Identify on it. Nobody in the group had considered that the Identify spell can be used on any enchanted thing, not just man-portable equipment.
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Mar 9, 2021 05:20
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My DM has a homebrew setting composed of "spirit touched" Humans, basically like animal people based on the zodiac but has let me roll characters not specifically on it, like my current owl girl character. I have a backup character concept that's an artificer and I had the idea that she should be a "raven touched" something like a humanoid kenku where instead of a desire for shiny things its a desire to take apart and study machinery, technology and magic items. Are there any feats or homebrew like custom feats that might fit this concept? For an artificer that's less about inventing things but more about reverse engineering things, either stolen tech from rival civilizations or from long dead ancient precursor civilizations etc?
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Mar 9, 2021 21:03
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That sounds to me more like a flavor thing than something that really needs mechanical support. You can work with your DM to say "okay, at next level I want to make X, can we make sure that we find some broken something or other that she can disassemble to help her make X?" And then you just do the regular artificer thing, but it's grounded in the setting and your character's adventures.
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Mar 9, 2021 21:52
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So I got two kids I work with interested in playing DnD. We did two sessions so far, the first 1 on 1 and the second a short one with both of them that was basically introducing their characters to each other and having them fight a bear because we only had a little more than an hour, but it was a huge success and they're both super excited, so we're going to make it a campaign. The stakes aren't super high. They're both entirely new to the game but they're clever kids and will pick up on it quickly, and I do want to make it memorable and fun for them and hopefully 1 or 2 other kids I work with will get interested eventually and join the game so we can really make a regular thing of it. I asked one of them what kind of campaign he wants to play, giving him a couple of ideas (classic fantasy a la LotR, spacefaring stuff a la spelljammer, something akin to Harry Potter, just battling big monsters, etc) and he's up for a bit of horror and thinks the other kid will be up for that as well. So my question is, is Curse of Strahd doable? Is it appropriate for (fairly mature) 14/15 year olds and manageable with a party of 3 if I introduce an NPC to steer things in the right direction if they get stuck? I've been dying to run CoS for a while now and this seems like the perfect opportunity. Also, they're playing a ranged rogue and trickery cleric, so I'm kinda brainstorming what kind of NPC would complement that. I'm thinking something with a bit of arcane stuff because that's what they're lacking and a bard would be perfect, except I don't want the NPC to be the face of the party. Maybe artificer? Or some kind of wizard multiclass? We're probably playing the next session in two days and my idea is to introduce the mist, transport them to Barovia and have them have an encounter there before getting to the village of Barovia proper. I'll level them up to level 2 after the encounter so they're not too squishy before Death House. I have to railroad them a bit at first just because they're so new to the game, so skipping Death House would be a bad idea. Besides, I think it'll be a great way to set the tone. Any (big) things I should keep in mind running CoS? I haven't read through the entire thing yet so if there's any 'before I play' kind of hints and tips I should know that'd be awesome.
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Mar 9, 2021 23:11
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I've heard the new CoS release addresses some of the difficulty issues, just go in being aware there's some meat grinder encounters that you'll have to tune down for two PC's and a NPC. Maybe go with an Arcane Knight NPC? That way you get a bit of Arcana, plus the Rogue will have a tank to help proc Sneak Attacks. Maybe flavour them as a monster hunter.
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Mar 9, 2021 23:17
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Perhaps the bard's method of performance is writing travelogues or historical books and his charisma is only evident through the written word
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Mar 9, 2021 23:22
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For some reason I completely spaced about the new release, thanks for reminding me! Tuning encounters has never really been an issue for me. I seem to be pretty good at judging how difficult it'll be beforehand and adjusting accordingly, and if I still get it wrong adjusting during the encounter in a natural way. "You hit the enemy hard enough to shatter the shield he's holding/cut off one of it's tentacles/leaving him momentarily dazed/whatever" to make things easier or "He drinks a potion that seems to heal him/strengthen him/whatever" or just plainly having reinforcements arrive to make things harder. The latter can be often flavored in a way that feels good for the players. They're just so dang powerful that the enemy panics and calls for reinforcements while trying to retreat, or whatever. Also sometimes you just fudge a role at an opportune time to make the players feel good, if needed.
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Mar 9, 2021 23:28
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CoS spoilers: Steer them away from the Windmill or omit it entirely when they leave the first town. They will be way underleveled for it and especially as new players will probably assume they’re supposed to check it out. I don’t think there is any content that a young teenager would be too frightened by. Maybe the corpse bride? But then again the film Corpse Bride is not rated R. I had 3 brand new to D&D PCs when I ran it, with a 4th joining in Valaki, and it wasn’t that difficult for them. I fudged a few crit rolls in the death house but then again I always have to for the first couple levels of any campaign. For the card reading you will want to do some amount of cheating to get the items into good spots. You can still randomize it but at least read through the locations and nix the ones that are real bummers.
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Mar 9, 2021 23:31
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I can't imagine anything in modern CoS could be worse than the campaigns I played in when I was 15, back in the ancient times of the mid-90s 
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Mar 9, 2021 23:38
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Taeke posted:So I got two kids I work with interested in playing DnD. We did two sessions so far, the first 1 on 1 and the second a short one with both of them that was basically introducing their characters to each other and having them fight a bear because we only had a little more than an hour, but it was a huge success and they're both super excited, so we're going to make it a campaign. here are some tips for running i have come up with 1) strahd must be present but have his interest sunk into the party before the campaign. the module assumes strahd brought you here -- tying backstories to strahd and why he thinks the party is interesting is a great way to build engagement. strahd has a cognitive dissonance, he wants someone to replace him, but refuses to believe anyone is worthy of taking his role. he adds people to take his place but deep down has no intention of giving up control. in reality, he is just playing with them. 2) the tarokka cards are fun but can absolutely gently caress you over and make the game really bullshit hard to find the cool stuff. fudging these to make the items and npcs good is totally fine if you have no intention of running multiple times. 3) as written there are a lot of encounters that will just instantly soup your party, and death house is very aptly named. be prepared to just make poo poo up to replace these unless you want to really make things hopeless. on the other hand, death house is cool if you sand down the edges? 4) play up humour wherever you can. tone is important to horror games and moments of levity are what make horror palatable, 4 hours a session of nonstop misery, failure, and scares will burn people out and make them not care what happens to the party. do not go overboard but be careful with it and brief comedic moments will pay you off 5) maybe make the vistani not just a giant list of racist stereotypes also,
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Mar 9, 2021 23:47
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Thanks all, great tips there! Yeah, I'm definitely sanding down the edges and fudging rolls and stuff to make it easier, and doing a lot of levity so it's not too dark. I'll also cheat with the card readings, but do leave some randomness for the fun of it. I found a guide that suggests the same thing so I'll go with that. Also yeah, the vistani being stereotypes is something I'm well aware off, and I'll definitely be mindful of that. Luceo posted:I can't imagine anything in modern CoS could be worse than the campaigns I played in when I was 15, back in the ancient times of the mid-90s The problem is that I work with these kids within the foster system, so they've got a history I have to be very mindful of. The kids I'll be running this campaign with don't have a history of violence or abuse, so it'll be probably fine. (It's mostly neglect and parental incompetence due to drug use that resulted in them being in the system.) I think D&D can be a super healthy and helpful for them dealing with these issues and a darker campaign such as CoS could provide more opportunities of personal development than a more standard campaign would. They're really good kids at heart too, both of them have a lot of empathy and social skills that just need a bit of direction, so I think they can handle it. There's a ton of kids I work with where I wouldn't even consider playing DnD with, let alone CoS, but for these two it would definitely be a plus all things considered. Street Horrrsing posted:Perhaps the bard's method of performance is writing travelogues or historical books and his charisma is only evident through the written word Oh poo poo, this is a great idea! I had the idea of a beat-poet or writer bard in the past, and that could really work! Thanks!
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Mar 10, 2021 00:10
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Taeke posted:The problem is that I work with these kids within the foster system, so they've got a history I have to be very mindful of. The kids I'll be running this campaign with don't have a history of violence or abuse, so it'll be probably fine. (It's mostly neglect and parental incompetence due to drug use that resulted in them being in the system.) I think D&D can be a super healthy and helpful for them dealing with these issues and a darker campaign such as CoS could provide more opportunities of personal development than a more standard campaign would. They're really good kids at heart too, both of them have a lot of empathy and social skills that just need a bit of direction, so I think they can handle it. There's a ton of kids I work with where I wouldn't even consider playing DnD with, let alone CoS, but for these two it would definitely be a plus all things considered. You are doing good work. 
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Mar 10, 2021 00:19
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Regarding CoS's deadliness, you might also consider using the death rules from the Adventurer's League season that accompanied it.quote:Death in Ravenloft
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Mar 10, 2021 00:56
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Taeke posted:
In that case you might want to use an alternative opening to the Death House, just because some of the content in that one bumps up little bit against child neglect themes. In an unrelated matter: Would the thread be able to help me out with a quick magic item balance assessment: It's coming back up on my turn to GM for a rotating systems group and I'm picking up with the characters at 6th level (Info spoilered because I use the same screen name for my group and I don't want my players accidentally looking in on my plans): So the adventure is going to pick up with the party meeting up with a dubiously trustworthy NPC who has a connection with an NPC from one of the player's backstory. As the quest giver is openly shady as gently caress, and as a treat for the players, I'm going to have him gift them a fairly rare/powerful magic item each that is tailored to their characters. My concern is making sure that the magic items I give out are all roughly on the same power level, and are impressive but not so much that they would potentially invalidate standard encounters for a party of that level. One of the players has been using a monk that was thematically based on Zenyatta from Overwatch, so I've done a quick and dirty homebrew of an "Orb of Harmony" magic item that orbits the user like an Ioun stone and can be used x times per day to basically cast a reskinned version of Healing Spirit focused on a single character (So that character recovers 1d6 points every turn for a minute). I'm vacillating a little bit on how many uses per day to give this thing as 10d6 HP of healing over a minute is a pretty good chunk, but I also have a tendency to air too much on the side of caution. The paladin's been pretty mindful of the 1/2-handed distinction when using a longsword, so I figured Animated shield would be a pretty nifty thing since it would let him use two-handed attacks in combat without giving up the bonus to AC The party wizard proves the hardest to come up with a magic item for because most of the magic items targeted at wizards seem way more powerful than most other magic items of their rarity. I've been debating on either giving her a more limited version of a rod of absorption (You can use it to absorb/negate the effects of 1 spell that only targets the wielder of up to 3rd level, then use the stored energy to cast a spell of equivalent level. It has unlimited uses but can only hold one spell at once) or a +1 Arcane Grimoire from Tasha's, though I'm worried that one is still more powerful than what I'm giving the other two I should have one more player, but she's a new addition to the 5e game and I don't know what she's planning on playing yet. What do folks think? I'm most concerned with maintaining balance between the individual party members.
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Mar 10, 2021 02:37
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 20:18 |
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I would limit the first one to 5 uses instead of having it last for a minute. That's about on par with what an actual spellcaster would get from that spell. Maybe let them spend a ki point to make it 2d6 instead of 1d6? For the third character, consider a L3 spell gem. It's maybe not terribly flashy, but I guarantee they'll use it.
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Mar 10, 2021 02:53
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