Or give them really lame stuff, that you think they couldn't use in the lower levels, and weep as you watch them use infinite lard jar to burn down a forest
Idk who thought giving the party a limitless supply of flammable substances was a wise decision, but they must have learned a very valuable lesson very quickly.
Or an anvil you can teleport outside of combat to other locations for convenience. Which I used to nuke a demon fortress with by teleporting it 60,000 meters over said location. (This only worked because my DM foolishly made a rule that all items complete their fall in one round just to screw my rogue so I couldn't throw knives as I fell past windows)
This is why i love my DM. She works with us privately to work out custom magic items that are balanced for our level, and can do the thing we want. As well as fitting with our character. And from there, she decides where and how we get it
I try to give "general" magic items, and then "custom" magic items that level up with you. In most recent memory, I gave the barbarian a talking Scottish greataxe that can cast Vicious Mockery. He's gonna love when it helps him make INT saves.
See this is why I like artifacts. Basically if you start with the equivalent of a common magic item but grows to epic level with the characters story being wrapped up in it it just feels more personal
I have made one like this. It is owned by the Dragonborn Sorceress player. She didn't have a bigger goal than just to find her long lost brother, so I made her something like a chosen one. She isn't more powerful than any of the other players and she needs to earn the power she has potential to get. She has to collect all 9 of the artifacts and undertake difficult trials to be able to wield the artificts property, discover new powers they have and stop the evil cults, lead by the evil Shade Dragon, Xarius. However, her most difficult trial will be the trial of redemption, not for her, but her brother Daron. You see, she isn't the only one who has the blood of the first Guardian of Nyxator, her brother does too. He has a significant head start and has been corrupted by the Shade Dragon. He wields a black sword with lines of dim red light. A corrupted yet powerful Nyxatorian artifact called *Starslicer*. So if she survives into the very end, she can either redeem her brother and fight the Shade Dragon with his aid or she'll have to face and kill her brother if she fails.
Naddpod did a great version of this with their dwarven King's Hammer. People rag on champion fighter but his champion fighter was a hell of a contender in fights.
In my most recent campaign, I have given each player a single magic item to start at level 1. Each one of these is balanced to improve when they achieve certain milestones and are customized to the character's backstory. So far, it looks like they're enjoying it.
My old DM used to make self scaling items that would “adapt to the wielder” where he would new write versions of it as the story went on for use at first, third, fifth, and eighth levels and then give everyone a magic item that evolved with them. He had an explanation for how it fit into the story and why we would all be getting these and it made it really really fun to not only start out with something kinda cool (though not super powerful) but to try and see where they evolved to through the campaign. It was especially effective because he would let us *help* design some of the changes to the upcoming level up (although he would balance them and put in his own flair) which made us feel almost as attached to them as our characters. They stayed our primary weapons throughout the entire campaign every time and were really really fun to play with
That sounds like a great DM! My players are part time employees for a hag (testing magic items for her before they are approved to be sold to the masses.) She makes magic items based on the nature of the items they bring back to her (the eye of a mimic, leg of an almiraj, a vial of god's blood...) The items always have a large benefit and a minor bane/curse for the party to identify. The curse can be removed by bringing back more ingredients and they can be customized/made more powerful in the same way. It's been a fun way to give custom magic items that feel earned and that grow in power with the players.
This is actually a pretty common practice. Usually it's a weapon or item that can be leveled up with the players through use and familiarity with the object
Or holy water. Shadows are one of like... two monsters in D&D that holy water absolutely obliterates. That 2d6 radiant damage kills a shadow in one hit 40% of the time. I think it's a pretty sound investment of 25 gold in the early game, assuming you know you're up against shadows beforehand.
@@kevingriffith6011 Fair, but that's an extremely niche situation to find yourself in to not only be facing one of those 2 monsters, but also to be aware of it prior to your encounter. _If_ you find yourself in that situation, sure, absolutely worth it. But if you're not, there's a 95% guarantee it's just going to be a waste of gold, sadly. Unless you talk with your DM about it first to ask if they can create more uses for it, in which case it'd actually be pretty cool if they're up for it.
@@scrapbotcommander That also depends on if your GM gives the players the opportunity to research before the encounter. If they know they're coming up against undead or demons at early levels it couldn't hurt to bring, if nothing else they can sell it when they get back to town if they don't use it.
Something to think of... +0 items. Their only advantage is that they are enchanted, and can hit things that require that, but otherwise have no bonuses.
Even in the DMG, where it gives general advice on giving out magic items, it says to feel free to ignore it! Giving something powerful out early as part of the campaign hook (like, say, a cursed ring of invisibility to a level one party containing a few halflings?) Can be a good storytelling method
My first campaign DM gave everyone a custom magic item that fit thier character and grew with them. I got a modified Oathbow being a ranger. It grew in power after story milestones were hit. This was back in 3.5 days before they printed Weapons of Legacy book. Very helpful book if you want to give items that level with the owner.
My players just ask for +3 weapons or a headband of intellect. I get why people like those kinds of items, but I always found them boring. I tend to figure out what is unique to a PC's build/what specific things they want to be good at and then homebrew an item that makes them more flexible or effective at that. I had a player who wanted to use fogcloud with his blind fighting to be more effective in melee. The entire party kept yelling at him because they couldn't see either, so I ended up giving them a pair of contacts (looted off of a notable bad guy they were quarreling with) that allowed the wearer to triple the distance of their blind sight and share it (as a bonus action) with someone they could see within 60ft. The player said, "OK I guess. I was hoping for a +2 weapon." Well excuse me, princess.
I like to have the enemies have the items so the party knows first hand on how powerful the item is, along with the accomplishment of defeating said powerful enemy.
I love to give my players a small homebrew feat or item that’s connected to their backstory right out the gate so the feel a bit more unique in the world we play in (sword coast) and they feel powerful. I obviously don’t play it out like a grimdark or low fantasy world as a result, but it’s super fun to get to see my players do things that only they can do and have fun while doing it.
I was running dnd club at my old school and we were on a time crunch to finish the campaign before the year ended so I had them do one last dungeon and gave them a bunch of magic items (there was 13 players) and sent them all of to the castle to kill the king.
"you and 3 other strangers wake up in a strange empty void. Before you sit 12 podiums illuminated in a shining light, you can feel the magical power emanating from them."
i wrote up a magic item the other day called “confused metal pipe” its a metal pipe that used to be part of a system of waterworks but isnt anymore but it thinks it still is so it magically fills with water every hour theres a little more to it like you use it as a mace and it can release the water on command but its mostly just a thing i made because i wanted to
Still to this day the magic item my group will always remember is one I found somewhere called the coin of all or nothing(but I changed it to be for every d20 roll for the session flip a coin, heads is a 20 and tails is a 1) they all started passing it around so each session someone else had it, without knowing if the bard was gonna be trying to talk the party out of trouble, etc.
For Magic Items, I started with consumables. Baby steps. However my group has been hoarding them. I gave them an item which lets them fly for 10 minutes, another one that lets them summon a demon, and another one which does some AOE damage with a fear effect.
Everyone who has ever played a JRPG can tell you that players will NEVER use up their last of anything. Doesn't matter how good it is, doesn't matter if it would instantly resolve the situation, if it's the last one and they know they can't easily get more of it, they're not going to use it. Give them like... 3 of it. They'll use one the next opportunity they get to figure out how it works, they'll use another in a genius way, and they will never ever use the third one. I promise.
In a campaign I’m in we came across a pair of Fae travelers with a carriage of holding (bag of holding but it’s a carriage) and they sold things and so I bought a magic item. Said magic item is the most crucial item that can be had in any situation or setting; a crab that moves but only when no one is observing it. It was so entirely worth it (and I totally haven’t forgotten about it for almost the entirety of the time I’ve had it)
I feel like giving magic items is a good way to encourage players to tackle greater challenges. Like stuff from the book and loot-tables is great to just regularly offer. Everytime they do a small quest, or even enter a general shop, roll on the loot-table and see what they either get or could potentially buy. Plus it also allows you as the DM to get more creative with challenges, knowing that players have more options than just what their class can typically do. Like we got ahold of magic ink that allows you to draw/create objects in one game, and the DM left us trapped on an island without any way to get back to our ship after someone stole our boat. So we drew up a rowboat and got back to our ship just as the hijacker was getting onboard. Or during a siege battle our Rogue did some looney-toons stuff like using his boots of spider-climb to walk underneath the ramps of several siege towers and he started using the ink to cut holes in the bottom of the platforms, sending the charging soldiers 100+ft down onto the rocks below. It also allowed our DM to even supe-up some of our encounters. During that same siege I encountered a enemy Wizard, and my own Wizard/Fighter was like "Yeah I can take him, I got 7th level spells now". Only to immediately get whomped because the enemy had Counterspell saved to his own ring of spell-storing, and could cast Fireball with his staff that had multiple charges. I BARELY survived fighting a Wizard who was technically weaker than myself, and I was rewarded with like 5 magic rings I pried off his dead fingers afterwards (I even rolled and got super lucky with a ring of wishes that still had 2 charges on it).
I *always* give the best and most interesting magic items after extremely important moments. Boss fights are the obvious ones, but also moments of great rp and character growth. My favorite example is The Whispering Frost. The Whispering Frost is a Great Ax shaped like an ancient White dragon that is actually really inhabited by the soul of a malevolent ancient white dragon. It deals extra cold damage for every enemy it had killed in the last 10 minutes (1d4•number of slain enemies) and allows the user to cast cone of cold once per day. The trade off was that no matter what the weilder does, they can't get rid of it, and trying to use any other weapons causes them to take 1d10 cold damage per round they are holding it. That damage ignores resistance. Then it also obviously speaks in the users head, whispering about killing and freezing everything in sight. Its completely sentient and can and will have full conversations with the user. It was a reward for a boss fight against an amped up wight that had been using it to slay entire nearby villages. My fighter picked it up instantly, and it became a whole thing for the rest of the campaign.
In my experience, taking what magical items players do or do not have into account when balancing combat encounters actually makes it less balanced especially if by doing so you are accounting for consumable magic items like oil of sharpness and also can at times end up punishing players for having magic items especially if you end up forcing them to use said magic items in order actually deal damage to monsters. For example I had a newish DM take the fact that the Fighter in the party had oils of sharpness into account when balancing an encounter. Said Fighter had a +1 greatsword and a 20 in strength. The monk fighter multiclass I was playing only had a 19 in Dex and an Eldritch claw tatto to grant a +1 to unarmed strikes. The Fact that the AC of the monsters in that encounter was set to take the bonus to hit from oil of sharpness into account meant I ended up hitting them maybe 2 times out of the 10 at most. Fortunately said DM has learned from that encounter not to take magic items into account when balancing encounters.
I've always wanted to try a thing where they start the adventure with some beefy magical items for combat, and then as they are just about to hit lvl 3, put them in a fight with a bunch of rust or acid monsters that eat the weapons. They then quickly obtain Stone based weapons to survive the fight. Using this whole thing to introduce them to elemental traits of materials, and dedicate a whole session to the party creating unique weapons out of odd materials, and a durability enchantment to make them work as good as a normal metal weapon. As the adventure progresses, they can use this knowledge to transfer or swap enchantments on to their weapons from other magic items or runes they find, or create new weapons from different materials as situations change. The whole point of this is to emphasize material interactions, and paying attention how a weapon is constructed to stem vulnerabilities. Combine that with elemental spells or enchantments, let them team up and get creative on how they dispense damage.
One of my dms told me he would pretty much only give every player 1 good magic item, but he does give us as many useless ones as we can grab sometimes. The fun comes from finding a super niche use for the stupid garbage he gives us like a staff that summons an illusion of a red sheep that is sometimes a real sheep. Every time we have used that staff it has saved our lives or immensely aided us in the situation we were in.
My group's next campaign (after the one we're currently playing where I'm DM) is starting at level 3 or 4 and I talked to the DM of that campaign to allow me to start with a magic sword in exchange for not having the starting ranged weapons. The magic item that I'm staying with is an armblade, which is specific to warforged (which I am) and fits into my character's backstory really well. It doesn't have a ton of magic properties (except that it can be extended or retracted from my arm as a bonus action and cannot be disarmed and is a concealable longsword and counts as a magic weapon for the sake of resistances), which that seems like a lot but it doesn't grant bonuses to attacks or damage or anything like that. I just appreciate the DM for allowing or this kind of exchange that makes the character cooler.
I’m not sure when, but I plan to give one of my players an enchantment on their weapon. The player in question uses a spear, and I’m planning on getting it enchanted so it can return to the player, instead of the player having to go a retrieve during or after battle.
I made a homebrew throwing dagger for one of my players that returns to the players hand at the end of their turn, and since it uses psychic energy to teleport back, it does an extra d6 of psychic damage to enemies with INT 4 and higher. Maybe that could help you come up with an idea? ^-^
Just play with me, I constantly forget I’ve been given magic items so every time I look at my sheet I get excited because “hey! A cool thing!” So everything always feels cool
When it comes to giving my players powerful magic items, I’m personally a fan of the “you gotta take it from them” approach. Best way to see the power of a magic item is to have to fight against someone using it on you. Makes it even better when you get to loot it from them and try the same or similar tactics against other enemies later. It’s best to mix this in with other delivery methods too (dungeon loot, extreme sums of gold after weeks of searching for someone that owns it and wants to sell it, robbing the noble instead of buying it, selling your soul to an archdevil, reward for quest completion, etc.) to keep it fresh for everyone tho
The campaign started with a prologue about a blade that was shattered into a dozen fragments. The story then went in a different direction for 20 sessions and we all largely forgot. Then we come across one of the big bads and his blade (successful religion check) IS ONE OF THE FRAGMENTS
Not me homebrewing magic items for my group's first campaign starting at level 1 lmao A lot of the items will level with the players, or unlock certain abilities later on once they meet certain criteria for their characters. They're backstory items, and they've got SO many ideas
I actually started a newbie campaign where the first magical items they got are duds/dysfunctional versions of real ones so they get a feel for using them without being super powerful at the start
I love to give my players a super powerful magic item right at the beginning, but in its weakened form. They need to find the other fragments of it or upgrade it somehow either with magic or by finding someone who can upgrade or repair it. That way they have a goal to guide them, even if hey aren’t interested in any of the quests you offer, and it gives them a sense of progression 😁 extra helpful in a sandbox world where where things aren’t always narratively tied together
I like to work with my players to create a custom magic item that grows and evolves with them. Early on, it might just be a longsword that can light on fire, but as they progress, it might let them cast a suite of cantrips like Light and Control Flames and Green Flame Blade, charges of a spell like Burning Hands or Fireball, bonuses to Intimidation checks, and so on. Instead of a shopping list of a bunch of magic items for a bunch of different cool things, I'll give them one item that does all the cool things, but with quests and challenges to upgrade their magic item.
I started my ongoing campaign off at level one with no special equipment by default. However, I told them that if they wrote a good, substantial backstory for their character. They could choose between a Feat, or a low power magic item. Either of which needed to be something that tied into their backstory well. This tactic works very well, incentivizing a good, thoughtful backstory that gives the DM a boatload to work with character wise and the players get something for it along with a much deeper character. However the only one who took any magic items in my game was the Arcane Trickster who decided she wanted a few spell scrolls to be able to do some magic stuff before she got her subclass.
Speaking of homebrew stuff, i had a one shot character who was based off of a game. Basically she was a battleship who lost all her main guns and along with it, her memory. If she managed to get her guns back, which only she could use and at level 5 or above, it allowed her to use a bonus action to do up to 1d6 damage at level 5 and 2d8 at level 10, never got to test it though since she was a one shot character i wanted to use in a kong campaign but couldnt because my account was deleted
One of the only items I feel like that’s reasonable to hand out at lower levels is a bag of holding. Maybe nerf the carrying capacity but it’s still a nice thing.
My party have their own blacksmith npc. She was pretty bad when they were lv 1 but for each adventure they can find coal and magical tools for her or books that make her better and better so she scales with power along with the party leveling up. That way she can make weapons and armor more suited after their play styles. Aswell as upgrade things they like rather than having to choose between two types
Tl DR; I once homebrewed a balanced but still rather overpowered set of armor for my first character. It got stronger as the owner killed more dragons. This reminds me of when my DM in my first regular D&D sessions, back when I first got a job was giving us rewards after an encounter. We had just killed a mind flare who had been sitting on top of A Wellspring of magic on a layline, we had just killed the squidface and purified the Nexus, when the spirit of the spring appeared before the party, and offering to give us anything that was within it's power to give us. The party ended up getting a bunch of Bags of Holding, And my own character, thorn anvil fallen, who just so happened to have a whole bunch of dragon materials that he had got from a young green dragon, He had recently slain with a different party, decided to ask for a unique set of armor that I had homebrewed on the spot. He gave the Spirit of the Nexus, about 10 gallons of the green dragons blood, all the scales he had, as well as the fangs and claws that he had harvested from the beast. The final product that the spirit returned to thorn after it was done working. Its Magic ended up being a full suit of armor that started off equivalent to scale mail armor that looks similar to one of the venom symbiotes from the Marvel universe. Being a slightly wet is lightly wet body suit made out of concealed dragon blood with an outer layer made of scales. And other hard pieces such as the claws. And that granted me immunity e to the damaged heights. Inflicted by any dragons that the armor had absorbed materials from. It's start off granting me immunity to acid and poison damage, as well as the poison and corroding status effects. The armor also gave my unarmed strikes that type of damage. So it started off dealing 3d6 acid and 3d6 poison damage, and as it was introduced to further draconic materials such as the blood of a red dragon, and later that same red dragon's scales, my armor granted me immunity to fire damage as well as granted my unarmed strikes 3d6 fire damage. And then my character and the party ended up meeting some ancient divine lightning dragon and the dragon granted me some of it's blood as well as it's feathers to bestow my armor with lightning immunity as well as unarmed lightning damage. So, by the end of the campaign, my character was outright immune to poison, acid, fire, lightning, and cold damage and his unarmed attacks ended up dealing 1d4 bludgeoning damage + 1d4 piercing damage + 3d6 each of fire, lightning, poison, acid, and cold damage. And after that campaign ended, I decided to give the armor a once a day breath attack that dealt 6d6 of any and all dragon breath attacks that the armor had absorbed. I decided to call it "The Armor of the Living Dragon God" or any other variation on that name.
I started a new round recently in my old homebrew world , and in the first hand second rounds I have them the options to buy common magic items with their gold from a trusted shopkeeper, giving them a nice feel for doing their own decisions and how to shop, but I am a very tricky dm , like chaotic neutral , so they will need to always think about all their options and how to use their items and such in interesting ways , and then later on they can get more uncommon items and my specialty , cursed items , always a good upside with some downsides that the players usually are made awear of , like a mix of cool powers and moral decisions
My dm made a magic necromancer crown that would drive everyone around the wearer insane, any dead around would be reanimated and anyone you kill would heal you. So obviously a double edged sword. My character at the time was a necromancy wizard who was very dedicated to his studies, which was that he wanted to give all casters the ability to resurrect the dead like only a cleric can. Obviously an impossible goal and it was driving him slowly mad. He wasn't all that stable to begin with mind you, but he never wanted to make people suffer good or evil. So when an npc who we later found to be an undead told him that the souls were trapped and being tormented every time he ressurected someone, he was obviously skeptical. But during our fight with the guy who had the crown we saw first hand that that was the case. So my character decided to take the crown and destroy it, now he is a different school of magic
My DM loves giving us magical items, almost always homebrew. My warlock (now turned 4-2 paladin-warlock) was bestowed a magical gauntlet after fusing some severed psionic claws with unicorn horns of my patron that deal psionic and fire damage. Then some unicorn and dragon scale armor that gave me medium armor with basic resistances (scale male) and a total ac of 17, but cannot be removed
we're level 4 and my DM gave us magic items after a horde of orcs and one boss fight later, we found a secret door and we found some really cool homebrew magic items he made and a bunch of gold. it was very satisfying and it felt like we earned it. i love my DM :]
We have a player that wants to dual wield shortswords for backstpry reasons. When it seemed like that's starting being ineffective, our DM said that caring for these swords that also have spiritual meaning to the character, he realized they seemed sharper and lighter now "they are now +1 magical shortswords"
One time asfter session all my players where telling me how cool the fight was to get their magic item. Basically they went to an Adamantium forage because dwarfs had hired them to deal with the fire elemental that escaped the forge. The looked around found burnt bodys and melted walls. There was a staff they needed to use on it so when they found the elemental it ran from the player with the staff and jumped in a metal suit. This started the boss fight. They had Basically a time limit to beat the elemental because as they fought the room got hotter and hotter. There was 6 pillars that had fire in the tops and each round the fire elemental summoned backup. They could use the large buckes of water hanging from the ceiling to put out the fires or stop the elemental from regenerating. It would melt the metal and repair the damage delt to it. They damaged the suit enough and it melted then beat the elemental. They had to get the final blow with the staff or else it wouldn't be sealed. This is something like the description i gave when they beat it. "You strike the elemental with the staff its arm beginning to be pulled into that top of the staff. The elemental screaches pulling away as it begins to be pulled into the staff. Fire blazes around you swirling around the tip of the weapon you feel your hands burning the skin on your singing your palms. You grit your teeth as you feel the flesh and hair on your arms burn. The elemental lets out a final scream as its sucked into the staff a blast of fire explodes from the tip. You fall to your knees the fire in the top of the staff rekindled with the elements essence." Thats how they got their staff of fire
My newest campaign everyone started at level 3. Some of the backstories were retired adventurers and others were new. So I decided that everyone was getting a pick of one uncommon and one common magic item. Probably the best start I have ever had to a campaign just because somehow everyone picked different items and so they instantly were all different. They all picked items that made sense for their character and it helped everyone else at the table understand the characters better.
Fully agree, nothing to add except I make custom magic items for my players specifically, but gate the good shit behind their own personal story. It's not *just* in some dungeon, but is the result of long term roleplay and pursuing their goals.
Growing items or, in my campaigns' case, mysterious items. You start knowing diddly squat of what it does, a minor effect here and there, unraveling the mystery, testing it, uncovering other effects. Maybe a strong effect but they don't know the conditions of it's activation to use it reliably and are revealed such at a later point. One amnesiac alien pc had a necklace that was essentially the bioprint-key for his spaceship, only he didn't know, nor that his strange pyramid-shaped stabber drained blood to activate his alien tech or his race's tech when found in wrecks/labs. (My tables are with real damage, no points, so deaths of pcs and npcs have importance and are far more likely)
If you want to control when you're players get more power items then you do it like the CR vestiges. If you want to give them something way over their level (legendary at lvl 1-5) a tomb or recently abandoned battlefield where they can pry it out of someone's dying hands or have it offered freely to continue their fight. There is also the Divine test cliche. You help the dying person/creature expecting nothing in return and you do get rewarded for it.
A little world idea: there are ruins scattered everywhere. Not the castle kind, but more the wood and stone hut kind. And a lot of them have some magic items. Mostly common, plenty of them cursed, some more cursed than others. And ideas for the lore of this world: either an ancient, forgotten society all about magic (kinda overdone), or maybe a massive event causing a magic wave to turn all of these things magic (also kinda overdone, but would be more unique if said event was pretty recent, so the farmer next door has a scythe that turns into 100% wood from 4AM to 6AM, and the village blacksmith has an anvil that can deal 1d4 slashing damage or something.)
I agree, I always start a campaign at lvl 3 because that's my lvl 1. You should have a decent understanding of your specialty as an adventurer. You should also have a magic item of choice for your immersion. Lastly, I will definitely apply that homebrew idea for a strong weapon in my one shot
Depends on what items. You can give them even at Level 0, if you play that way. A Hexblade can have one by default of the class. Just make sure that it feels earned. A Wand of Spell storing, Bags of Holding and the like can just be bought in a shop with gold, while something like Artefacts need to be at the end of a difficult task, be it slaying a dragon or stolen from Royalties trough a well planned heist.
A nightstone of weight. A small little shiny black stone that only be carried by the user who feeds it with his/her own blood. For everyone else it weights seriously way more than it looks like.
Gave my players some "dragon scale shields" at L1 after fighting some kobolds that had them. They were of shoddy craftsmanship only gave +1 AC and could break at any moment, but they did convey resistance. One was fire, the other acid. The Warlock and the wizard took them (no proficiency needed) The next time each character took a critical hit, the shield broke and took all the damage for them. This helped me not accidentally One-Shot my players early on, and it left them with some dragon scales for creative use later. (The wizard made a new fire and acid resistant spellbook with them)
(3.5) So I recently gave magic items to my players as they hit level three, but they were fairly simple for the most part. For context, they were searching through a city that, in that session, was completely destroyed by the inciting incident of the campaign coming to a head, and I had them roll Search checks to see how well they did. I gave the fighter a moontouched scimitar, that doesn't add to attack or damage rolls, but can hit intangible opponents. It's no stronger than his rapier, but it gives him the ability to be useful against, say, ghosts, air elementals, and other enemies that he otherwise would be able to do nothing against. The sorcorer, I gave an amulet that raised his AC slightly, because his was a 12. The druid rolled a nat 20 on his search, and I gave him an immovable rod because I love the batshit things people can do with an immovable rod.
I also think the best kind of DM can make even non-magical items extremely exciting to find or given. You wouldn’t believe how excited I was to get a custom sword forged for my fighter with materials I found. It may not have been a rare metal or something crazy cool like mithril, but it felt very rewarding and the dwarven industrial setting was very badass. Never got rid of that thing even after it eventually got outshined in higher levels
I am running a game right now where each player starts with the weapon they'll end with, I made a rule for having weapons "spontaneously level up" with a cumulative 3% chance to increase the magical bonus of the weapon at the end of every single encounter with a character level requirement for each bonus. Level 4 is +2, level 8 is +3, level 12 is +4 and level 16 is +5 with extra special stuff happening at level 20 with it becoming +6 and getting more magical bonuses
My DM does this thing where he gives us all a special magic item he makes specially for our character at level one and then, over time, he ‘levels it up’ based off of how we play and what we decide to do with our character Like with my character who started off as a Dex Fighter with the intention of using ranged combat to support our Barbarian, so he made me a gun. Along the way, I multiclassed into a monk and eventually became a Dragon ascendant Monk. After I got my subclass for monk, my DM did a dream segment for my character where she saw an older version of herself channel the elemental damage she could use for unarmed strikes into the gun. Then when my character woke us, she was able to do that
In my current game the party has a decent amount of magic items, but no boring +1 daggers, each player currently has a magic item tailored to their character The Rogue has a Sentient magic sword that can change it's shape into anything made of metal The Paladin has a Holy Sword gifted by the gods that sheds light buffs his spell attack and DC and can cast Faerie Fire The Bard has a magical Golden fiddle granted by a devil they formed a pact with The Pirate Ranger has a large colossally heavy Hammer that can bend the Storms to his will and in his hands feels as light as a feather The Chronurgy Wizard has a few items that combine together that they are slowly collecting, they currently have a Pocket Watch and a Rotor assembly, Using the rotor they can see a vision of their past or future(with the chance of Psychic damage when looking at the future) And the Pocket watch lets them teleport back to where they were standing at a previous point in time by turning the dial back and clicking the button.
Certain magic items are prizes at the fair (the setting of my murder mystery) and they change every day. If they see something they want, they spend their day collecting tickets, which distracts them so the bad guys can keep progressing. It's a balance that makes them judge if they need it or not.
My dm seems to Give one specific character a session a magic item that’s stupid op during certain conditions while the more op ones have drawbacks. Malmener, the first one given gave one of our party members a sword that can turn into any type of weapon, tho if fused with him prevents him from being prone for 30 hp without control, however the more he fuses with it, the less control he has over his actions. Our rogue got a bow that has infinite ammo in the dark (unfortunantely i can’t touch it and make it work as a shadow heartless in a nutshell) but she must attune to it by long resting
See, my favorite thing is to, rather early on - say within the first tier of play - give every player one custom bespoke item that *scales* with the campaign. A magic healer's kit you can spend spell slots into to cure increasingly strong ailments based on the slot you use, a magic weapon that gains bonuses and special abilities as you feed it treasure, an amulet that steals little bits of your essence (in the form of -1s to various checks and saves) as you level, but then lets you use potent new abilities at certain milestones... and so on
I remember a vampaign where a player was out when I was giving the group magic items. He had told the group that they should play it like he wasn't there. I asked if he was sure, and he was sure. So, when he came back, everyone had magic items but him. He was mad, I reminded him that I double checked with him. During that session, I kept trying to give him the item I had intended for him. He literally tripped over it. What did he do? He threw it away. What was it? Some type of magical staff that tapped into the wilderness that we were playing in. Pretty powerful, because I felt sorry for him for always being either the healer or tank. It allowed him to have a full rest on a half rest, he could heal for a successful CONS dc (dc11). I believe it was 1d4+CONS. What triggered the dc? Collecting 3 charges, gained on successful hit. Yep, he was able to tank because of magic stick. He was a druid that shifted into a bear. He FINALLY got the staff when an elder spirit in a tree kept beating him across the head with a branch. He had to figure out how to get out of that mess, while the tree gave him clues to what made it mad at him. Eventually, he cried and said he was sorry for throwing away the stick and got the stick. This time when he grabbed it, it fused with his soul so he couldn't throw it away, then I gave him a sheet showing his new weapon.
I gave my players magic items because the players killed a CR5 encounter at level 3. Because the pladin crit, because of course she did. And I took AGES custom picking the items. The Paladin got a +1 spear because she's got backstory stuff related to spears (it makes sense I promise), the Artificer got a bag of tricks because he's kinda like a summoner with his Steel Defender and it's very cool, the Cleric got a uncommon dragon vial so he could heal people more easily without using a spell slot, and the Sorcerer got a +1 wand of the war mage so she could electrocute people better. I know it sounds pretty basic, but there's flavor and backstory stuff that makes it make sense. Especially since they found them in an enemy stronghold along with a ton of valuable selling items, plus they got a free feat because of magic shenanigans, since theh just hit level 4 anyway and so had the option for a feat so I gave them level 1 feats free since 3/4 were going to take one on the list anyway, plus they got the king's favor and plot hooks so now they have a huge new quest. Plus they attracted the attention of said enemies, which is more plot hooks. Not to mention the Artificer doesn't realize he's actually working for the enemies, so he's about to be asked to kill his friends because they're dangerous. Basically, tldr, magic items are cool and can add a fun reward, but there are ways to give other rewards too.
I had a dm let me build a magic item by paying an enchantment shop to add fire damage to a pair of gloves that my open-hand monk had made. It started out a simple 1d4, which I then later brought back to upgrade to 1d6, then several levels and lots of platinum later, 2d6. When I tried to pay to upgrade them again, he warned that if I had them adjusted further, people who had heard of my gloves were going to start showing up to try to get them. Which was a pretty handy way to limit how much I put into it, since my character didn't want the power so much to jeopardize the party.
I need a name (and possibly some balancing) for a weapon idea. The concept is that when you crit with it, it will store that crit and you can choose to use it as it normally would, or save it for another opportunity. Have it store up to 3 charges, first charge just standard crit rules, and each charge after adds another weapon hit die. Kind of a way to not waste a crit on a lil gobby, but also let the player choose the cool moments a little more. Thoughts? I've also mulled it over rather or not it should be class locked to barbarians to call it the Axe of Patient Rage.
I have ideas on how I’d like to manage them as a DM but I feel like they’ve all been done before. In any case, I personally really like the idea of this eccentric-on-the-border-of-insanity traveling merchant that sells really weird and specific magic items at wildly fluctuating prices depending on factors such as how hungry he is, how tired he is, the phase of the moon, etc etc So he might charge you 5000 gold for the rock of blunt healing (deals 1d4 blunt damage but heals 1d4+1 damage when struck with it) or he might charge 5 silver for the rubber ducky of infinite bathing (when activated and tossed into a body of water, slowly turns that body of water into a steaming bubble bath) He just shows up every now and then, maybe once every few levels (always with a different, 8 part name, but the name always has the same acronym, like “W.I.N.G.D.I.N.G” or something) and offers these weird-ass magic items, with a discount if you trade him a different magic item (to help prevent player’s inventories from getting too bloated with dumb magic items) It’s dumb but every item has the chance to enable dumb shenanigans which are always fun
I think the exception for the homebrew stuff is if you have an artificer player and the homebrew items are very low level magic items that are things they worked with you on to be some things their character invented.
Here a "Rule of Thumb" - For each 3 Level, a Player gets a "Item Tier Point". Thoose are the ones they always get. - Every 6 Levels, they get another Point - thoose are the ones the Players have to show initiative for. - 2 further Points (overall) are Storybound and granted (seperatly) at 8 and 16. One Point resembles one Effect Level. A Flametounge Dagger (+1D4 Damage, +1 Enchantment) would be 2 Levels. A Weapon (+2D6Damage / +2 Enchantment / grants Light Cantrip) would be 5 Points. Especially Powerful Effects count double - like a special "Crossbow" granting Sharpshooter and Crossbow Expert because it technically has a Repeater for Loading and a Scope for Sniping, this counts as 4 Levels as well and also as "Enchantments" in terms of further Enchantments (because that is as the Weave works). Magic Items can be further Enchanted - it just ups their Tier and thus Value - what makes it harder to do and also takes longer to do so. If something works "scientifically", it is eaqually to Magic - as both effects arew represented in the Weave, and the complexity if interactions with it is the limiting thing in Enchanting - as in modifying via chraftsmanship. Limitations can lower that Items Level by 1 or 2. A "Light Cantrip can only be used once Per Day. Damage Bunus only apply when Cantrip is active" would lower the Level by 1, an additional "Can only be cast in Moonlight" ("Moonlight Sonata") (or "at Day" aka "Sunflare") would be another -1. Thoose Limitations can be removed later, upping that Items level - or just have it start at lower Level. Tier 1 is a simple Item - 500 GP (unommon) Tier 2 is a powerful Item. - 2500 GP (rare) Tier 3 is a mighty Item - 50 000 GP (very rare) Tier 4 is a Legendary Item.- 200 000 GP (Legendary) Tier 5 is a Unique Item - 500 000 GP+ (Artifact) Tier 6+ is God Tier - no price to that. No mortal Human can create that. No Money in the World can pay for it. (God-tier) Requiring Attunement (or the lack of it) upps or downs the Rarity by one. From Tier 3 on Attunement is always required and must be removed as its own "Effect". For the finetuning, use common sense.
you can still accomplish this in a power fantasy setting. im giving out unique magic items i wrote like candy each session, but for the special special ones, i might foreshadow and reference them far ahead of time, and tie a whole dungeon to. If you give your super items a strong narrative importance or some really sick origin, players will care and feel the power regardless if they have other magic items. it's all relative. you can either give no magic items to start with a few magic items to work toward, or you can give everyone magic items but have a super one that they have to work toward. either way, if you keep the same amount of buildup and story ratio between the two, you can accomplish the same goal as a storyteller. I find the main difference to be creativity. a well-fed party will have more tools at their disposal to come up with creative and interesting ideas. it's always a matter of relativeness, and balancing and establishing the power difference between items more than it is how many magic items you include overall. also, giving out a good amount of magic items can prevent players from feeling left behind. if one player has the super item, and i have two cool magic items, ill feel pretty good. but if one player has the only magic item, and i have none, its going to feel really bad. magic is cool. more magic more cool. just scale your special items to match and you're set.
1 simple m.i. per character and a group item(usually a b.o.h that has no limit untill they try to get screwey with it). I tend to have a m.i. shop in most cities and a tradesman in a town or settlement that can't offer much for variety but comes with a few specialty goods based on the location. The good stuff is protected or hidden and if a player makes/finds a item they want i will try to find an appropriate place to put it(DMs discretion on if the item will even make it to the game of course). Lastly mix in some good "useless" or "cursed" objects for some fun exploitation of the item(all hail the rock of gravity detection!)
Something my friend came up with: Bag of Bottomless Evil: Basically, a Cursed Bag of Holding that, whenever opened, you'd have to roll a d100, and if it lands on the wrong number, the Ancient Evil sealed within will escape. Was really fun trying to figure out what the d100 was for whenever someone opened it, plus the revelation hit hard and surprising because whenever it happened, we didn't expect anything to happen anymore.
Personally I love the idea of having magic item shops. They have lots of useful scrolls, good magic items, potions, and even books that can teach you a spell. But then they also have cursed items, and even a discount magic item bin! A bin of stuff that’s mostly useless. Like a wand that turns soft as soon as you try and cast a spell. Making the spell not hit where you wanted to. A ring of fireball! (It’s out of charges) a necklace of invisibility! (Only the necklace turns invisible) Stuff like that can make the game more interesting. Such as… a sword of wood cutting. It can effortlessly cut wood. But not anything else. How to use it? Cut down the wooden supports of a building and collapse the building on the enemies.
I'm in a group of 3 with my roommates, and I've been designated as DM, and it's all of our first time playing. I'm doing my best to balance Lost Mines for just 2 players, and we've been having a blast. I wanted to give them homebrew magic items that would make things a lot more interesting for the both of their playstyles and making them up and balancing them was a lot of fun. Can't wait to figure out more cool stuff they'll enjoy. :)
I like to run my games where the players can take almost anything I throw at them. Unless it's a very specific magic item related to the plot, the magic items they find are through the monsters they kill, defeat, steal from or befriend. They can pick up a dagger of venom from an assassin that failed to kill them or loot healing potions from the enemy wizard's bag. They can pick apart a beholder to use an eye stalk as a weapon, although adjustments would be made to the stats to suit the players' level. My players are the type that wants to loot anything they can so I think it would be fun to give them magic items this way. If they wanna run around with monster parts in their Bag of Holding, I'll let them.
I'm currently in a campaign, my character had to die and revive to obtain a greatsword called "Calibur" (the one from the Arthurian stories), this thing gives me Centinel on each and every hit (enemies gain a charge of "weight" and are unable to move unless they teleport due to the overwhelming weight on them) and twice a day gives me a shield that gives me and allies the effect of evasion (the trait from Rogues and Monks) and +2 AC until the start of my next turn, I love this sword, even with all the PTSD my pc had to go through to get it
Our DM gave us three magic items for the price of 2 stat points. I gave 2 points of my strength (I have athletics proficiency) I now have an attunement scimitar, that does 1d12 damage, but hinders me from equipping any other melee equipment. So essentially a Great-axe with the finesse property.
bloodkristal dagger has lifesteal and can add extra hp to the maximun by creating a christaline blood armor that its absorved to your body in order to have max hp
My DM gave us an amulet that can project A new character basically your pet. He later broke it, but the shards of the gem still do the same thing. He also gave us a skull that inside Has a crystal that makes people go insane When they touch it.
Saleron's Gambit, an extensive lvl.s 1-10 Neverwinter Nights campaign modules in 5 parts. Rewards and exp. were given out at a very slow pace, but it was an excellent story and game with fair combat. Didn't get a magic weapon until part 4 of the series, but it was worth it.
So, I have a tradition in my games of including a shop in completely random places called Grampies magic consumables. Basically, it's an old wizard who sells the party various consumable magic items including potions, scrolls, and many more limited use magic items to the party for a considerably low price. Whenever the players enter the shop they are greeted by a small child who is the adoptive gran daughter or gran son of the old wizard. Its a really nice and wholesome shop, and the party occasionally sees another adult who was one of the former children raised by the old wizard. The wizards shop is connected to a pocket dimension which he sets up in many places across the planes.
The first magic item I ever got was a Death Salad control stone. We were at the end of a small dungeon, low level, and it was the final "boss" of the dungeon. On an insight check I saw an alter with the stone in it, and made to grab it while my party fought the Slaad. Succeeded on the dex check, and my sorcerer got a pet.
We play at a heightened difficulty for our games. DM in return gives everyone something she calls a Legacy Item, which is basically a scaling magic item that is connected to your character in some way. It could be a book that occasionally inks secrets in its pages to you. It could be a ceremonial holy talisman whose image is sacred to your Cleric's faith. It could be a suit of armor, blackened by flame, that grants resistance to extreme temperatures. A blade that when slashing non-native planar creatures inflicts panic and fear. These items are but examples. But they are also items that will grow in power one way or another. The best way is to navigate the character's personality and backstory to create trials that will in time unlock other powers the item has within it.
I gotten an idea where i would give a common magic item to each player at the start of the campaign and tailor it to grow with the player so it fits their playstyle and character. (Lets say you have a barbarian with the dread mask that likes to intimidate i would have them intimidate enemies and npcs to grow the mask with it gaining ability to fear enemies as bonus action as its became uncommon and etc..)
I always make the players fight something wielding said powerful magic item, making that encounter super difficult and in the process making their respect for the item go way up.
Idea: Let players have their kinda own substories where they use their basic inherited magical items to create/retreat the cool special magical items. Like basic magic amulet actualy being a key in a crypt, or mage crystal being incorporated into op magic staff.
I am pretty sure I actually made Soul Edge and Soul Calibur in D&D. They’re really only to be used by a big villain or hero since it will make the user virtually a god. All the SoulCalibur photos in this reminded me of that.
It'd be cool to have a weighted spread sheet so homebrew items could be a combination of cool ideas you've got but don't know where that idea goes yet. Drafted idea**
Or give them really lame stuff, that you think they couldn't use in the lower levels, and weep as you watch them use infinite lard jar to burn down a forest
Now that is funny and disturbing at the same time
Idk who thought giving the party a limitless supply of flammable substances was a wise decision, but they must have learned a very valuable lesson very quickly.
Or an anvil you can teleport outside of combat to other locations for convenience.
Which I used to nuke a demon fortress with by teleporting it 60,000 meters over said location.
(This only worked because my DM foolishly made a rule that all items complete their fall in one round just to screw my rogue so I couldn't throw knives as I fell past windows)
Never give them anything infinite. INFINITY IS BIG!
ANYTHING that can infinitely generate ANY kind of matter is ridiculously overpowered in the right hands.
This DM be like:
Oh, you're a dungeon master alright! Just not a good one.
Oh yeah?! What's the difference?
...Presentation!
Maaan megamimd was super underated
@@theglassgamer2630100% agree.
Que acdc music
@theglassgamer2630 best thing DreamWorks ever did
I love that quote ^U^
As a player, I wanted my barbarian to have a sandwich bag that extruded an infinite ham hoagie. Nothing more, nothing less. Sad to say I never got it.
ok but think about all the evil thing you could do with unlimited ham hoagies
I game my party a magic item that made infinite ice cream sandwiches.
The party mother confiscated it.
@@SamHoward-l9q it's just one infinitely long hoagie. Not infinite hoagies 😭
@@HakeemWilsonEng Same thing so long as you own a knife.
As a DM, never gives an item that makes an "infinite" amount of anything. That's how you break the game, it's always ready to be exploited.
This is why i love my DM. She works with us privately to work out custom magic items that are balanced for our level, and can do the thing we want. As well as fitting with our character. And from there, she decides where and how we get it
I do this as well i like and i try to make it linked in with backstory and makes them standout
I try to give "general" magic items, and then "custom" magic items that level up with you.
In most recent memory, I gave the barbarian a talking Scottish greataxe that can cast Vicious Mockery. He's gonna love when it helps him make INT saves.
@@scarletbard6511 Outstanding. If only for the Vicious Mockery.
@@scarletbard6511Please tell me it sounds like the gargoyles from Fable 2.
@@Dragowolf_Rising
He might be made of stone, but at least he ain't stone blind.
See this is why I like artifacts. Basically if you start with the equivalent of a common magic item but grows to epic level with the characters story being wrapped up in it it just feels more personal
Growing items are definitely the coolest.
I have made one like this. It is owned by the Dragonborn Sorceress player. She didn't have a bigger goal than just to find her long lost brother, so I made her something like a chosen one. She isn't more powerful than any of the other players and she needs to earn the power she has potential to get. She has to collect all 9 of the artifacts and undertake difficult trials to be able to wield the artificts property, discover new powers they have and stop the evil cults, lead by the evil Shade Dragon, Xarius.
However, her most difficult trial will be the trial of redemption, not for her, but her brother Daron. You see, she isn't the only one who has the blood of the first Guardian of Nyxator, her brother does too. He has a significant head start and has been corrupted by the Shade Dragon. He wields a black sword with lines of dim red light. A corrupted yet powerful Nyxatorian artifact called *Starslicer*.
So if she survives into the very end, she can either redeem her brother and fight the Shade Dragon with his aid or she'll have to face and kill her brother if she fails.
@@OrangeDragon04that sounds dope as hell.
Naddpod did a great version of this with their dwarven King's Hammer. People rag on champion fighter but his champion fighter was a hell of a contender in fights.
In my most recent campaign, I have given each player a single magic item to start at level 1. Each one of these is balanced to improve when they achieve certain milestones and are customized to the character's backstory. So far, it looks like they're enjoying it.
My old DM used to make self scaling items that would “adapt to the wielder” where he would new write versions of it as the story went on for use at first, third, fifth, and eighth levels and then give everyone a magic item that evolved with them. He had an explanation for how it fit into the story and why we would all be getting these and it made it really really fun to not only start out with something kinda cool (though not super powerful) but to try and see where they evolved to through the campaign. It was especially effective because he would let us *help* design some of the changes to the upcoming level up (although he would balance them and put in his own flair) which made us feel almost as attached to them as our characters. They stayed our primary weapons throughout the entire campaign every time and were really really fun to play with
That sounds like a great DM! My players are part time employees for a hag (testing magic items for her before they are approved to be sold to the masses.) She makes magic items based on the nature of the items they bring back to her (the eye of a mimic, leg of an almiraj, a vial of god's blood...) The items always have a large benefit and a minor bane/curse for the party to identify. The curse can be removed by bringing back more ingredients and they can be customized/made more powerful in the same way. It's been a fun way to give custom magic items that feel earned and that grow in power with the players.
@@SeniorSunday you just gave me another campaign idea. I have 5 now.
This is actually a pretty common practice. Usually it's a weapon or item that can be leveled up with the players through use and familiarity with the object
I just realized that he cuts because he needs to blink.
Wait no....
No.
He cuts because he doesn't need to blink and is trying to cover it up to appear more human.
If you're throwing shadows at your party; give them magic weapons to hit them with.
Or holy water. Shadows are one of like... two monsters in D&D that holy water absolutely obliterates. That 2d6 radiant damage kills a shadow in one hit 40% of the time. I think it's a pretty sound investment of 25 gold in the early game, assuming you know you're up against shadows beforehand.
@@kevingriffith6011 Fair, but that's an extremely niche situation to find yourself in to not only be facing one of those 2 monsters, but also to be aware of it prior to your encounter.
_If_ you find yourself in that situation, sure, absolutely worth it. But if you're not, there's a 95% guarantee it's just going to be a waste of gold, sadly. Unless you talk with your DM about it first to ask if they can create more uses for it, in which case it'd actually be pretty cool if they're up for it.
@@scrapbotcommander That also depends on if your GM gives the players the opportunity to research before the encounter. If they know they're coming up against undead or demons at early levels it couldn't hurt to bring, if nothing else they can sell it when they get back to town if they don't use it.
@@kevingriffith6011one idea is quest givers or npcs near the location warning you before hand and offering something like holy water to deal with them
Something to think of... +0 items. Their only advantage is that they are enchanted, and can hit things that require that, but otherwise have no bonuses.
Even in the DMG, where it gives general advice on giving out magic items, it says to feel free to ignore it! Giving something powerful out early as part of the campaign hook (like, say, a cursed ring of invisibility to a level one party containing a few halflings?) Can be a good storytelling method
My first campaign DM gave everyone a custom magic item that fit thier character and grew with them. I got a modified Oathbow being a ranger. It grew in power after story milestones were hit. This was back in 3.5 days before they printed Weapons of Legacy book. Very helpful book if you want to give items that level with the owner.
Can't help but laugh as i watch the green screen trying to eat his hair and beard 😂
Ask your players what magic items they want at the beginning of the campaign. It'll help keep things meaning full
My players just ask for +3 weapons or a headband of intellect. I get why people like those kinds of items, but I always found them boring. I tend to figure out what is unique to a PC's build/what specific things they want to be good at and then homebrew an item that makes them more flexible or effective at that. I had a player who wanted to use fogcloud with his blind fighting to be more effective in melee. The entire party kept yelling at him because they couldn't see either, so I ended up giving them a pair of contacts (looted off of a notable bad guy they were quarreling with) that allowed the wearer to triple the distance of their blind sight and share it (as a bonus action) with someone they could see within 60ft. The player said, "OK I guess. I was hoping for a +2 weapon." Well excuse me, princess.
I like to have the enemies have the items so the party knows first hand on how powerful the item is, along with the accomplishment of defeating said powerful enemy.
I love to give my players a small homebrew feat or item that’s connected to their backstory right out the gate so the feel a bit more unique in the world we play in (sword coast) and they feel powerful. I obviously don’t play it out like a grimdark or low fantasy world as a result, but it’s super fun to get to see my players do things that only they can do and have fun while doing it.
I was running dnd club at my old school and we were on a time crunch to finish the campaign before the year ended so I had them do one last dungeon and gave them a bunch of magic items (there was 13 players) and sent them all of to the castle to kill the king.
The amulette of Hantei, an old very eastern god, that turns its user slowly into a wertentacle as long as he/she didnt find true love.
"you and 3 other strangers wake up in a strange empty void. Before you sit 12 podiums illuminated in a shining light, you can feel the magical power emanating from them."
The kingdom hearts opening
Favorite magic item I ever got was a bag filled with 30 yarn balls. The yarn balls would turn into rats that would do my bidding.
i wrote up a magic item the other day called “confused metal pipe”
its a metal pipe that used to be part of a system of waterworks but isnt anymore but it thinks it still is so it magically fills with water every hour
theres a little more to it like you use it as a mace and it can release the water on command but its mostly just a thing i made because i wanted to
Still to this day the magic item my group will always remember is one I found somewhere called the coin of all or nothing(but I changed it to be for every d20 roll for the session flip a coin, heads is a 20 and tails is a 1) they all started passing it around so each session someone else had it, without knowing if the bard was gonna be trying to talk the party out of trouble, etc.
For Magic Items, I started with consumables. Baby steps.
However my group has been hoarding them. I gave them an item which lets them fly for 10 minutes, another one that lets them summon a demon, and another one which does some AOE damage with a fear effect.
Just make encounters that are impossible to beat without consumables
@@shamusson or make them expire
Everyone who has ever played a JRPG can tell you that players will NEVER use up their last of anything. Doesn't matter how good it is, doesn't matter if it would instantly resolve the situation, if it's the last one and they know they can't easily get more of it, they're not going to use it. Give them like... 3 of it. They'll use one the next opportunity they get to figure out how it works, they'll use another in a genius way, and they will never ever use the third one. I promise.
@@EskChan19 very true
In a campaign I’m in we came across a pair of Fae travelers with a carriage of holding (bag of holding but it’s a carriage) and they sold things and so I bought a magic item. Said magic item is the most crucial item that can be had in any situation or setting; a crab that moves but only when no one is observing it. It was so entirely worth it (and I totally haven’t forgotten about it for almost the entirety of the time I’ve had it)
I feel like giving magic items is a good way to encourage players to tackle greater challenges. Like stuff from the book and loot-tables is great to just regularly offer. Everytime they do a small quest, or even enter a general shop, roll on the loot-table and see what they either get or could potentially buy.
Plus it also allows you as the DM to get more creative with challenges, knowing that players have more options than just what their class can typically do. Like we got ahold of magic ink that allows you to draw/create objects in one game, and the DM left us trapped on an island without any way to get back to our ship after someone stole our boat. So we drew up a rowboat and got back to our ship just as the hijacker was getting onboard. Or during a siege battle our Rogue did some looney-toons stuff like using his boots of spider-climb to walk underneath the ramps of several siege towers and he started using the ink to cut holes in the bottom of the platforms, sending the charging soldiers 100+ft down onto the rocks below.
It also allowed our DM to even supe-up some of our encounters. During that same siege I encountered a enemy Wizard, and my own Wizard/Fighter was like "Yeah I can take him, I got 7th level spells now". Only to immediately get whomped because the enemy had Counterspell saved to his own ring of spell-storing, and could cast Fireball with his staff that had multiple charges. I BARELY survived fighting a Wizard who was technically weaker than myself, and I was rewarded with like 5 magic rings I pried off his dead fingers afterwards (I even rolled and got super lucky with a ring of wishes that still had 2 charges on it).
I *always* give the best and most interesting magic items after extremely important moments. Boss fights are the obvious ones, but also moments of great rp and character growth.
My favorite example is The Whispering Frost. The Whispering Frost is a Great Ax shaped like an ancient White dragon that is actually really inhabited by the soul of a malevolent ancient white dragon. It deals extra cold damage for every enemy it had killed in the last 10 minutes (1d4•number of slain enemies) and allows the user to cast cone of cold once per day. The trade off was that no matter what the weilder does, they can't get rid of it, and trying to use any other weapons causes them to take 1d10 cold damage per round they are holding it. That damage ignores resistance. Then it also obviously speaks in the users head, whispering about killing and freezing everything in sight. Its completely sentient and can and will have full conversations with the user.
It was a reward for a boss fight against an amped up wight that had been using it to slay entire nearby villages. My fighter picked it up instantly, and it became a whole thing for the rest of the campaign.
I like to have the players fight against a bad guy with the magic item before they get it
In my experience, taking what magical items players do or do not have into account when balancing combat encounters actually makes it less balanced especially if by doing so you are accounting for consumable magic items like oil of sharpness and also can at times end up punishing players for having magic items especially if you end up forcing them to use said magic items in order actually deal damage to monsters. For example I had a newish DM take the fact that the Fighter in the party had oils of sharpness into account when balancing an encounter. Said Fighter had a +1 greatsword and a 20 in strength. The monk fighter multiclass I was playing only had a 19 in Dex and an Eldritch claw tatto to grant a +1 to unarmed strikes. The Fact that the AC of the monsters in that encounter was set to take the bonus to hit from oil of sharpness into account meant I ended up hitting them maybe 2 times out of the 10 at most. Fortunately said DM has learned from that encounter not to take magic items into account when balancing encounters.
I've always wanted to try a thing where they start the adventure with some beefy magical items for combat, and then as they are just about to hit lvl 3, put them in a fight with a bunch of rust or acid monsters that eat the weapons. They then quickly obtain Stone based weapons to survive the fight. Using this whole thing to introduce them to elemental traits of materials, and dedicate a whole session to the party creating unique weapons out of odd materials, and a durability enchantment to make them work as good as a normal metal weapon.
As the adventure progresses, they can use this knowledge to transfer or swap enchantments on to their weapons from other magic items or runes they find, or create new weapons from different materials as situations change.
The whole point of this is to emphasize material interactions, and paying attention how a weapon is constructed to stem vulnerabilities. Combine that with elemental spells or enchantments, let them team up and get creative on how they dispense damage.
One of my dms told me he would pretty much only give every player 1 good magic item, but he does give us as many useless ones as we can grab sometimes. The fun comes from finding a super niche use for the stupid garbage he gives us like a staff that summons an illusion of a red sheep that is sometimes a real sheep. Every time we have used that staff it has saved our lives or immensely aided us in the situation we were in.
My group's next campaign (after the one we're currently playing where I'm DM) is starting at level 3 or 4 and I talked to the DM of that campaign to allow me to start with a magic sword in exchange for not having the starting ranged weapons. The magic item that I'm staying with is an armblade, which is specific to warforged (which I am) and fits into my character's backstory really well. It doesn't have a ton of magic properties (except that it can be extended or retracted from my arm as a bonus action and cannot be disarmed and is a concealable longsword and counts as a magic weapon for the sake of resistances), which that seems like a lot but it doesn't grant bonuses to attacks or damage or anything like that. I just appreciate the DM for allowing or this kind of exchange that makes the character cooler.
I’m not sure when, but I plan to give one of my players an enchantment on their weapon. The player in question uses a spear, and I’m planning on getting it enchanted so it can return to the player, instead of the player having to go a retrieve during or after battle.
I made a homebrew throwing dagger for one of my players that returns to the players hand at the end of their turn, and since it uses psychic energy to teleport back, it does an extra d6 of psychic damage to enemies with INT 4 and higher. Maybe that could help you come up with an idea? ^-^
Just play with me, I constantly forget I’ve been given magic items so every time I look at my sheet I get excited because “hey! A cool thing!” So everything always feels cool
When it comes to giving my players powerful magic items, I’m personally a fan of the “you gotta take it from them” approach. Best way to see the power of a magic item is to have to fight against someone using it on you. Makes it even better when you get to loot it from them and try the same or similar tactics against other enemies later.
It’s best to mix this in with other delivery methods too (dungeon loot, extreme sums of gold after weeks of searching for someone that owns it and wants to sell it, robbing the noble instead of buying it, selling your soul to an archdevil, reward for quest completion, etc.) to keep it fresh for everyone tho
The campaign started with a prologue about a blade that was shattered into a dozen fragments. The story then went in a different direction for 20 sessions and we all largely forgot. Then we come across one of the big bads and his blade (successful religion check) IS ONE OF THE FRAGMENTS
Not me homebrewing magic items for my group's first campaign starting at level 1 lmao
A lot of the items will level with the players, or unlock certain abilities later on once they meet certain criteria for their characters. They're backstory items, and they've got SO many ideas
I actually started a newbie campaign where the first magical items they got are duds/dysfunctional versions of real ones so they get a feel for using them without being super powerful at the start
I love to give my players a super powerful magic item right at the beginning, but in its weakened form. They need to find the other fragments of it or upgrade it somehow either with magic or by finding someone who can upgrade or repair it. That way they have a goal to guide them, even if hey aren’t interested in any of the quests you offer, and it gives them a sense of progression 😁 extra helpful in a sandbox world where where things aren’t always narratively tied together
I like to work with my players to create a custom magic item that grows and evolves with them. Early on, it might just be a longsword that can light on fire, but as they progress, it might let them cast a suite of cantrips like Light and Control Flames and Green Flame Blade, charges of a spell like Burning Hands or Fireball, bonuses to Intimidation checks, and so on.
Instead of a shopping list of a bunch of magic items for a bunch of different cool things, I'll give them one item that does all the cool things, but with quests and challenges to upgrade their magic item.
I started my ongoing campaign off at level one with no special equipment by default. However, I told them that if they wrote a good, substantial backstory for their character. They could choose between a Feat, or a low power magic item. Either of which needed to be something that tied into their backstory well. This tactic works very well, incentivizing a good, thoughtful backstory that gives the DM a boatload to work with character wise and the players get something for it along with a much deeper character.
However the only one who took any magic items in my game was the Arcane Trickster who decided she wanted a few spell scrolls to be able to do some magic stuff before she got her subclass.
Speaking of homebrew stuff, i had a one shot character who was based off of a game. Basically she was a battleship who lost all her main guns and along with it, her memory. If she managed to get her guns back, which only she could use and at level 5 or above, it allowed her to use a bonus action to do up to 1d6 damage at level 5 and 2d8 at level 10, never got to test it though since she was a one shot character i wanted to use in a kong campaign but couldnt because my account was deleted
One of the only items I feel like that’s reasonable to hand out at lower levels is a bag of holding. Maybe nerf the carrying capacity but it’s still a nice thing.
My party have their own blacksmith npc. She was pretty bad when they were lv 1 but for each adventure they can find coal and magical tools for her or books that make her better and better so she scales with power along with the party leveling up. That way she can make weapons and armor more suited after their play styles. Aswell as upgrade things they like rather than having to choose between two types
Tl DR; I once homebrewed a balanced but still rather overpowered set of armor for my first character. It got stronger as the owner killed more dragons.
This reminds me of when my DM in my first regular D&D sessions, back when I first got a job was giving us rewards after an encounter.
We had just killed a mind flare who had been sitting on top of A Wellspring of magic on a layline, we had just killed the squidface and purified the Nexus, when the spirit of the spring appeared before the party, and offering to give us anything that was within it's power to give us. The party ended up getting a bunch of Bags of Holding, And my own character, thorn anvil fallen, who just so happened to have a whole bunch of dragon materials that he had got from a young green dragon, He had recently slain with a different party, decided to ask for a unique set of armor that I had homebrewed on the spot. He gave the Spirit of the Nexus, about 10 gallons of the green dragons blood, all the scales he had, as well as the fangs and claws that he had harvested from the beast. The final product that the spirit returned to thorn after it was done working. Its Magic ended up being a full suit of armor that started off equivalent to scale mail armor that looks similar to one of the venom symbiotes from the Marvel universe. Being a slightly wet is lightly wet body suit made out of concealed dragon blood with an outer layer made of scales. And other hard pieces such as the claws. And that granted me immunity e to the damaged heights. Inflicted by any dragons that the armor had absorbed materials from. It's start off granting me immunity to acid and poison damage, as well as the poison and corroding status effects. The armor also gave my unarmed strikes that type of damage. So it started off dealing 3d6 acid and 3d6 poison damage, and as it was introduced to further draconic materials such as the blood of a red dragon, and later that same red dragon's scales, my armor granted me immunity to fire damage as well as granted my unarmed strikes 3d6 fire damage. And then my character and the party ended up meeting some ancient divine lightning dragon and the dragon granted me some of it's blood as well as it's feathers to bestow my armor with lightning immunity as well as unarmed lightning damage. So, by the end of the campaign, my character was outright immune to poison, acid, fire, lightning, and cold damage and his unarmed attacks ended up dealing 1d4 bludgeoning damage + 1d4 piercing damage + 3d6 each of fire, lightning, poison, acid, and cold damage. And after that campaign ended, I decided to give the armor a once a day breath attack that dealt 6d6 of any and all dragon breath attacks that the armor had absorbed. I decided to call it "The Armor of the Living Dragon God" or any other variation on that name.
One idea to go with is the hoard style evolving magic items. Maybe they're common at first before taking on greater qualities as the character grows.
I started a new round recently in my old homebrew world , and in the first hand second rounds I have them the options to buy common magic items with their gold from a trusted shopkeeper, giving them a nice feel for doing their own decisions and how to shop, but I am a very tricky dm , like chaotic neutral , so they will need to always think about all their options and how to use their items and such in interesting ways , and then later on they can get more uncommon items and my specialty , cursed items , always a good upside with some downsides that the players usually are made awear of , like a mix of cool powers and moral decisions
So, I typically have NPCs hand out wizard spells as a sort of tutor.
My dm made a magic necromancer crown that would drive everyone around the wearer insane, any dead around would be reanimated and anyone you kill would heal you. So obviously a double edged sword. My character at the time was a necromancy wizard who was very dedicated to his studies, which was that he wanted to give all casters the ability to resurrect the dead like only a cleric can. Obviously an impossible goal and it was driving him slowly mad. He wasn't all that stable to begin with mind you, but he never wanted to make people suffer good or evil. So when an npc who we later found to be an undead told him that the souls were trapped and being tormented every time he ressurected someone, he was obviously skeptical. But during our fight with the guy who had the crown we saw first hand that that was the case. So my character decided to take the crown and destroy it, now he is a different school of magic
And remember its not just about having a crazy powerful item for combat you also need a bunch of cool lore implementations that go along with that.
My DM loves giving us magical items, almost always homebrew. My warlock (now turned 4-2 paladin-warlock) was bestowed a magical gauntlet after fusing some severed psionic claws with unicorn horns of my patron that deal psionic and fire damage. Then some unicorn and dragon scale armor that gave me medium armor with basic resistances (scale male) and a total ac of 17, but cannot be removed
we're level 4 and my DM gave us magic items after a horde of orcs and one boss fight later, we found a secret door and we found some really cool homebrew magic items he made and a bunch of gold. it was very satisfying and it felt like we earned it. i love my DM :]
We have a player that wants to dual wield shortswords for backstpry reasons. When it seemed like that's starting being ineffective, our DM said that caring for these swords that also have spiritual meaning to the character, he realized they seemed sharper and lighter now "they are now +1 magical shortswords"
One time asfter session all my players where telling me how cool the fight was to get their magic item. Basically they went to an Adamantium forage because dwarfs had hired them to deal with the fire elemental that escaped the forge. The looked around found burnt bodys and melted walls. There was a staff they needed to use on it so when they found the elemental it ran from the player with the staff and jumped in a metal suit. This started the boss fight. They had Basically a time limit to beat the elemental because as they fought the room got hotter and hotter. There was 6 pillars that had fire in the tops and each round the fire elemental summoned backup. They could use the large buckes of water hanging from the ceiling to put out the fires or stop the elemental from regenerating. It would melt the metal and repair the damage delt to it. They damaged the suit enough and it melted then beat the elemental. They had to get the final blow with the staff or else it wouldn't be sealed. This is something like the description i gave when they beat it.
"You strike the elemental with the staff its arm beginning to be pulled into that top of the staff. The elemental screaches pulling away as it begins to be pulled into the staff. Fire blazes around you swirling around the tip of the weapon you feel your hands burning the skin on your singing your palms. You grit your teeth as you feel the flesh and hair on your arms burn. The elemental lets out a final scream as its sucked into the staff a blast of fire explodes from the tip. You fall to your knees the fire in the top of the staff rekindled with the elements essence."
Thats how they got their staff of fire
My newest campaign everyone started at level 3. Some of the backstories were retired adventurers and others were new. So I decided that everyone was getting a pick of one uncommon and one common magic item. Probably the best start I have ever had to a campaign just because somehow everyone picked different items and so they instantly were all different. They all picked items that made sense for their character and it helped everyone else at the table understand the characters better.
Fully agree, nothing to add except I make custom magic items for my players specifically, but gate the good shit behind their own personal story. It's not *just* in some dungeon, but is the result of long term roleplay and pursuing their goals.
Growing items or, in my campaigns' case, mysterious items. You start knowing diddly squat of what it does, a minor effect here and there, unraveling the mystery, testing it, uncovering other effects. Maybe a strong effect but they don't know the conditions of it's activation to use it reliably and are revealed such at a later point. One amnesiac alien pc had a necklace that was essentially the bioprint-key for his spaceship, only he didn't know, nor that his strange pyramid-shaped stabber drained blood to activate his alien tech or his race's tech when found in wrecks/labs. (My tables are with real damage, no points, so deaths of pcs and npcs have importance and are far more likely)
If you want to control when you're players get more power items then you do it like the CR vestiges. If you want to give them something way over their level (legendary at lvl 1-5) a tomb or recently abandoned battlefield where they can pry it out of someone's dying hands or have it offered freely to continue their fight. There is also the Divine test cliche. You help the dying person/creature expecting nothing in return and you do get rewarded for it.
A little world idea: there are ruins scattered everywhere. Not the castle kind, but more the wood and stone hut kind. And a lot of them have some magic items. Mostly common, plenty of them cursed, some more cursed than others.
And ideas for the lore of this world: either an ancient, forgotten society all about magic (kinda overdone), or maybe a massive event causing a magic wave to turn all of these things magic (also kinda overdone, but would be more unique if said event was pretty recent, so the farmer next door has a scythe that turns into 100% wood from 4AM to 6AM, and the village blacksmith has an anvil that can deal 1d4 slashing damage or something.)
I agree, I always start a campaign at lvl 3 because that's my lvl 1. You should have a decent understanding of your specialty as an adventurer. You should also have a magic item of choice for your immersion. Lastly, I will definitely apply that homebrew idea for a strong weapon in my one shot
Depends on what items.
You can give them even at Level 0, if you play that way. A Hexblade can have one by default of the class.
Just make sure that it feels earned. A Wand of Spell storing, Bags of Holding and the like can just be bought in a shop with gold, while something like Artefacts need to be at the end of a difficult task, be it slaying a dragon or stolen from Royalties trough a well planned heist.
A nightstone of weight. A small little shiny black stone that only be carried by the user who feeds it with his/her own blood.
For everyone else it weights seriously way more than it looks like.
Gave my players some "dragon scale shields" at L1 after fighting some kobolds that had them.
They were of shoddy craftsmanship only gave +1 AC and could break at any moment, but they did convey resistance. One was fire, the other acid.
The Warlock and the wizard took them (no proficiency needed)
The next time each character took a critical hit, the shield broke and took all the damage for them.
This helped me not accidentally One-Shot my players early on, and it left them with some dragon scales for creative use later. (The wizard made a new fire and acid resistant spellbook with them)
(3.5) So I recently gave magic items to my players as they hit level three, but they were fairly simple for the most part. For context, they were searching through a city that, in that session, was completely destroyed by the inciting incident of the campaign coming to a head, and I had them roll Search checks to see how well they did.
I gave the fighter a moontouched scimitar, that doesn't add to attack or damage rolls, but can hit intangible opponents. It's no stronger than his rapier, but it gives him the ability to be useful against, say, ghosts, air elementals, and other enemies that he otherwise would be able to do nothing against.
The sorcorer, I gave an amulet that raised his AC slightly, because his was a 12.
The druid rolled a nat 20 on his search, and I gave him an immovable rod because I love the batshit things people can do with an immovable rod.
I also think the best kind of DM can make even non-magical items extremely exciting to find or given. You wouldn’t believe how excited I was to get a custom sword forged for my fighter with materials I found.
It may not have been a rare metal or something crazy cool like mithril, but it felt very rewarding and the dwarven industrial setting was very badass.
Never got rid of that thing even after it eventually got outshined in higher levels
Your doing gods work son *opens chest to bright magic light reflecting off face followed by meniacle laughter*
I am running a game right now where each player starts with the weapon they'll end with, I made a rule for having weapons "spontaneously level up" with a cumulative 3% chance to increase the magical bonus of the weapon at the end of every single encounter with a character level requirement for each bonus. Level 4 is +2, level 8 is +3, level 12 is +4 and level 16 is +5 with extra special stuff happening at level 20 with it becoming +6 and getting more magical bonuses
My DM does this thing where he gives us all a special magic item he makes specially for our character at level one and then, over time, he ‘levels it up’ based off of how we play and what we decide to do with our character
Like with my character who started off as a Dex Fighter with the intention of using ranged combat to support our Barbarian, so he made me a gun. Along the way, I multiclassed into a monk and eventually became a Dragon ascendant Monk. After I got my subclass for monk, my DM did a dream segment for my character where she saw an older version of herself channel the elemental damage she could use for unarmed strikes into the gun. Then when my character woke us, she was able to do that
In my current game the party has a decent amount of magic items, but no boring +1 daggers, each player currently has a magic item tailored to their character
The Rogue has a Sentient magic sword that can change it's shape into anything made of metal
The Paladin has a Holy Sword gifted by the gods that sheds light buffs his spell attack and DC and can cast Faerie Fire
The Bard has a magical Golden fiddle granted by a devil they formed a pact with
The Pirate Ranger has a large colossally heavy Hammer that can bend the Storms to his will and in his hands feels as light as a feather
The Chronurgy Wizard has a few items that combine together that they are slowly collecting, they currently have a Pocket Watch and a Rotor assembly, Using the rotor they can see a vision of their past or future(with the chance of Psychic damage when looking at the future)
And the Pocket watch lets them teleport back to where they were standing at a previous point in time by turning the dial back and clicking the button.
Certain magic items are prizes at the fair (the setting of my murder mystery) and they change every day. If they see something they want, they spend their day collecting tickets, which distracts them so the bad guys can keep progressing. It's a balance that makes them judge if they need it or not.
My dm seems to
Give one specific character a session a magic item that’s stupid op during certain conditions while the more op ones have drawbacks. Malmener, the first one given gave one of our party members a sword that can turn into any type of weapon, tho if fused with him prevents him from being prone for 30 hp without control, however the more he fuses with it, the less control he has over his actions. Our rogue got a bow that has infinite ammo in the dark (unfortunantely i can’t touch it and make it work as a shadow heartless in a nutshell) but she must attune to it by long resting
See, my favorite thing is to, rather early on - say within the first tier of play - give every player one custom bespoke item that *scales* with the campaign.
A magic healer's kit you can spend spell slots into to cure increasingly strong ailments based on the slot you use, a magic weapon that gains bonuses and special abilities as you feed it treasure, an amulet that steals little bits of your essence (in the form of -1s to various checks and saves) as you level, but then lets you use potent new abilities at certain milestones...
and so on
Playing curse of strahd and getting the sun sword for my paladin for the final was a badass moment
Early on I like odd magic items that don't have an obvious offensive use but may lead to real crazy role play If the players don't forget about them
I remember a vampaign where a player was out when I was giving the group magic items. He had told the group that they should play it like he wasn't there. I asked if he was sure, and he was sure.
So, when he came back, everyone had magic items but him. He was mad, I reminded him that I double checked with him.
During that session, I kept trying to give him the item I had intended for him. He literally tripped over it. What did he do? He threw it away.
What was it? Some type of magical staff that tapped into the wilderness that we were playing in. Pretty powerful, because I felt sorry for him for always being either the healer or tank. It allowed him to have a full rest on a half rest, he could heal for a successful CONS dc (dc11). I believe it was 1d4+CONS. What triggered the dc? Collecting 3 charges, gained on successful hit. Yep, he was able to tank because of magic stick. He was a druid that shifted into a bear.
He FINALLY got the staff when an elder spirit in a tree kept beating him across the head with a branch. He had to figure out how to get out of that mess, while the tree gave him clues to what made it mad at him. Eventually, he cried and said he was sorry for throwing away the stick and got the stick. This time when he grabbed it, it fused with his soul so he couldn't throw it away, then I gave him a sheet showing his new weapon.
I like how this song is showing up more after HSR did that kickass remix. It's an awesome song, remixed or not.
I gave my players magic items because the players killed a CR5 encounter at level 3. Because the pladin crit, because of course she did. And I took AGES custom picking the items. The Paladin got a +1 spear because she's got backstory stuff related to spears (it makes sense I promise), the Artificer got a bag of tricks because he's kinda like a summoner with his Steel Defender and it's very cool, the Cleric got a uncommon dragon vial so he could heal people more easily without using a spell slot, and the Sorcerer got a +1 wand of the war mage so she could electrocute people better. I know it sounds pretty basic, but there's flavor and backstory stuff that makes it make sense. Especially since they found them in an enemy stronghold along with a ton of valuable selling items, plus they got a free feat because of magic shenanigans, since theh just hit level 4 anyway and so had the option for a feat so I gave them level 1 feats free since 3/4 were going to take one on the list anyway, plus they got the king's favor and plot hooks so now they have a huge new quest. Plus they attracted the attention of said enemies, which is more plot hooks. Not to mention the Artificer doesn't realize he's actually working for the enemies, so he's about to be asked to kill his friends because they're dangerous. Basically, tldr, magic items are cool and can add a fun reward, but there are ways to give other rewards too.
I had a dm let me build a magic item by paying an enchantment shop to add fire damage to a pair of gloves that my open-hand monk had made. It started out a simple 1d4, which I then later brought back to upgrade to 1d6, then several levels and lots of platinum later, 2d6. When I tried to pay to upgrade them again, he warned that if I had them adjusted further, people who had heard of my gloves were going to start showing up to try to get them. Which was a pretty handy way to limit how much I put into it, since my character didn't want the power so much to jeopardize the party.
I need a name (and possibly some balancing) for a weapon idea. The concept is that when you crit with it, it will store that crit and you can choose to use it as it normally would, or save it for another opportunity. Have it store up to 3 charges, first charge just standard crit rules, and each charge after adds another weapon hit die. Kind of a way to not waste a crit on a lil gobby, but also let the player choose the cool moments a little more. Thoughts? I've also mulled it over rather or not it should be class locked to barbarians to call it the Axe of Patient Rage.
I have ideas on how I’d like to manage them as a DM but I feel like they’ve all been done before. In any case, I personally really like the idea of this eccentric-on-the-border-of-insanity traveling merchant that sells really weird and specific magic items at wildly fluctuating prices depending on factors such as how hungry he is, how tired he is, the phase of the moon, etc etc
So he might charge you 5000 gold for the rock of blunt healing (deals 1d4 blunt damage but heals 1d4+1 damage when struck with it) or he might charge 5 silver for the rubber ducky of infinite bathing (when activated and tossed into a body of water, slowly turns that body of water into a steaming bubble bath)
He just shows up every now and then, maybe once every few levels (always with a different, 8 part name, but the name always has the same acronym, like “W.I.N.G.D.I.N.G” or something) and offers these weird-ass magic items, with a discount if you trade him a different magic item (to help prevent player’s inventories from getting too bloated with dumb magic items)
It’s dumb but every item has the chance to enable dumb shenanigans which are always fun
I think the exception for the homebrew stuff is if you have an artificer player and the homebrew items are very low level magic items that are things they worked with you on to be some things their character invented.
Here a "Rule of Thumb"
- For each 3 Level, a Player gets a "Item Tier Point".
Thoose are the ones they always get.
- Every 6 Levels, they get another Point - thoose are the ones the Players have to show initiative for.
- 2 further Points (overall) are Storybound and granted (seperatly) at 8 and 16.
One Point resembles one Effect Level.
A Flametounge Dagger (+1D4 Damage, +1 Enchantment) would be 2 Levels.
A Weapon (+2D6Damage / +2 Enchantment / grants Light Cantrip) would be 5 Points.
Especially Powerful Effects count double - like a special "Crossbow" granting Sharpshooter and Crossbow Expert because it technically has a Repeater for Loading and a Scope for Sniping, this counts as 4 Levels as well and also as "Enchantments" in terms of further Enchantments (because that is as the Weave works).
Magic Items can be further Enchanted - it just ups their Tier and thus Value - what makes it harder to do and also takes longer to do so.
If something works "scientifically", it is eaqually to Magic - as both effects arew represented in the Weave, and the complexity if interactions with it is the limiting thing in Enchanting - as in modifying via chraftsmanship.
Limitations can lower that Items Level by 1 or 2.
A "Light Cantrip can only be used once Per Day. Damage Bunus only apply when Cantrip is active" would lower the Level by 1, an additional "Can only be cast in Moonlight" ("Moonlight Sonata") (or "at Day" aka "Sunflare") would be another -1.
Thoose Limitations can be removed later, upping that Items level - or just have it start at lower Level.
Tier 1 is a simple Item - 500 GP (unommon)
Tier 2 is a powerful Item. - 2500 GP (rare)
Tier 3 is a mighty Item - 50 000 GP (very rare)
Tier 4 is a Legendary Item.- 200 000 GP (Legendary)
Tier 5 is a Unique Item - 500 000 GP+ (Artifact)
Tier 6+ is God Tier - no price to that. No mortal Human can create that. No Money in the World can pay for it. (God-tier)
Requiring Attunement (or the lack of it) upps or downs the Rarity by one.
From Tier 3 on Attunement is always required and must be removed as its own "Effect".
For the finetuning, use common sense.
you can still accomplish this in a power fantasy setting. im giving out unique magic items i wrote like candy each session, but for the special special ones, i might foreshadow and reference them far ahead of time, and tie a whole dungeon to. If you give your super items a strong narrative importance or some really sick origin, players will care and feel the power regardless if they have other magic items. it's all relative. you can either give no magic items to start with a few magic items to work toward, or you can give everyone magic items but have a super one that they have to work toward. either way, if you keep the same amount of buildup and story ratio between the two, you can accomplish the same goal as a storyteller. I find the main difference to be creativity. a well-fed party will have more tools at their disposal to come up with creative and interesting ideas. it's always a matter of relativeness, and balancing and establishing the power difference between items more than it is how many magic items you include overall. also, giving out a good amount of magic items can prevent players from feeling left behind. if one player has the super item, and i have two cool magic items, ill feel pretty good. but if one player has the only magic item, and i have none, its going to feel really bad. magic is cool. more magic more cool. just scale your special items to match and you're set.
1 simple m.i. per character and a group item(usually a b.o.h that has no limit untill they try to get screwey with it). I tend to have a m.i. shop in most cities and a tradesman in a town or settlement that can't offer much for variety but comes with a few specialty goods based on the location. The good stuff is protected or hidden and if a player makes/finds a item they want i will try to find an appropriate place to put it(DMs discretion on if the item will even make it to the game of course). Lastly mix in some good "useless" or "cursed" objects for some fun exploitation of the item(all hail the rock of gravity detection!)
Something my friend came up with:
Bag of Bottomless Evil:
Basically, a Cursed Bag of Holding that, whenever opened, you'd have to roll a d100, and if it lands on the wrong number, the Ancient Evil sealed within will escape. Was really fun trying to figure out what the d100 was for whenever someone opened it, plus the revelation hit hard and surprising because whenever it happened, we didn't expect anything to happen anymore.
Personally I love the idea of having magic item shops. They have lots of useful scrolls, good magic items, potions, and even books that can teach you a spell. But then they also have cursed items, and even a discount magic item bin! A bin of stuff that’s mostly useless. Like a wand that turns soft as soon as you try and cast a spell. Making the spell not hit where you wanted to. A ring of fireball! (It’s out of charges) a necklace of invisibility! (Only the necklace turns invisible)
Stuff like that can make the game more interesting.
Such as… a sword of wood cutting. It can effortlessly cut wood. But not anything else. How to use it? Cut down the wooden supports of a building and collapse the building on the enemies.
I'm in a group of 3 with my roommates, and I've been designated as DM, and it's all of our first time playing. I'm doing my best to balance Lost Mines for just 2 players, and we've been having a blast.
I wanted to give them homebrew magic items that would make things a lot more interesting for the both of their playstyles and making them up and balancing them was a lot of fun. Can't wait to figure out more cool stuff they'll enjoy. :)
I like to run my games where the players can take almost anything I throw at them. Unless it's a very specific magic item related to the plot, the magic items they find are through the monsters they kill, defeat, steal from or befriend.
They can pick up a dagger of venom from an assassin that failed to kill them or loot healing potions from the enemy wizard's bag. They can pick apart a beholder to use an eye stalk as a weapon, although adjustments would be made to the stats to suit the players' level.
My players are the type that wants to loot anything they can so I think it would be fun to give them magic items this way. If they wanna run around with monster parts in their Bag of Holding, I'll let them.
I'm currently in a campaign, my character had to die and revive to obtain a greatsword called "Calibur" (the one from the Arthurian stories), this thing gives me Centinel on each and every hit (enemies gain a charge of "weight" and are unable to move unless they teleport due to the overwhelming weight on them) and twice a day gives me a shield that gives me and allies the effect of evasion (the trait from Rogues and Monks) and +2 AC until the start of my next turn, I love this sword, even with all the PTSD my pc had to go through to get it
Our DM gave us three magic items for the price of 2 stat points. I gave 2 points of my strength (I have athletics proficiency)
I now have an attunement scimitar, that does 1d12 damage, but hinders me from equipping any other melee equipment.
So essentially a Great-axe with the finesse property.
I agree. I'll hand out the common and uncommon stuff out like candy. Anything higher up takes work
bloodkristal dagger has lifesteal and can add extra hp to the maximun by creating a christaline blood armor that its absorved to your body in order to have max hp
One common magic item at the start is fun. Like it's a relic or something interesting to the character.
My DM gave us an amulet that can project A new character basically your pet. He later broke it, but the shards of the gem still do the same thing. He also gave us a skull that inside Has a crystal that makes people go insane When they touch it.
Saleron's Gambit, an extensive lvl.s 1-10 Neverwinter Nights campaign modules in 5 parts. Rewards and exp. were given out at a very slow pace, but it was an excellent story and game with fair combat. Didn't get a magic weapon until part 4 of the series, but it was worth it.
So, I have a tradition in my games of including a shop in completely random places called Grampies magic consumables. Basically, it's an old wizard who sells the party various consumable magic items including potions, scrolls, and many more limited use magic items to the party for a considerably low price. Whenever the players enter the shop they are greeted by a small child who is the adoptive gran daughter or gran son of the old wizard. Its a really nice and wholesome shop, and the party occasionally sees another adult who was one of the former children raised by the old wizard. The wizards shop is connected to a pocket dimension which he sets up in many places across the planes.
The first magic item I ever got was a Death Salad control stone. We were at the end of a small dungeon, low level, and it was the final "boss" of the dungeon. On an insight check I saw an alter with the stone in it, and made to grab it while my party fought the Slaad. Succeeded on the dex check, and my sorcerer got a pet.
We play at a heightened difficulty for our games. DM in return gives everyone something she calls a Legacy Item, which is basically a scaling magic item that is connected to your character in some way. It could be a book that occasionally inks secrets in its pages to you. It could be a ceremonial holy talisman whose image is sacred to your Cleric's faith. It could be a suit of armor, blackened by flame, that grants resistance to extreme temperatures. A blade that when slashing non-native planar creatures inflicts panic and fear.
These items are but examples. But they are also items that will grow in power one way or another. The best way is to navigate the character's personality and backstory to create trials that will in time unlock other powers the item has within it.
I gotten an idea where i would give a common magic item to each player at the start of the campaign and tailor it to grow with the player so it fits their playstyle and character. (Lets say you have a barbarian with the dread mask that likes to intimidate i would have them intimidate enemies and npcs to grow the mask with it gaining ability to fear enemies as bonus action as its became uncommon and etc..)
I always make the players fight something wielding said powerful magic item, making that encounter super difficult and in the process making their respect for the item go way up.
Idea: Let players have their kinda own substories where they use their basic inherited magical items to create/retreat the cool special magical items.
Like basic magic amulet actualy being a key in a crypt, or mage crystal being incorporated into op magic staff.
I am pretty sure I actually made Soul Edge and Soul Calibur in D&D. They’re really only to be used by a big villain or hero since it will make the user virtually a god. All the SoulCalibur photos in this reminded me of that.
It'd be cool to have a weighted spread sheet so homebrew items could be a combination of cool ideas you've got but don't know where that idea goes yet. Drafted idea**