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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Homebrewed magic items for my lvl 5 party



Kettl
2018-03-01, 10:59 AM
Hi guys, im fairly new to dm-ing and thought that after a while of play i could start handing out some magic items for my players, that are a bit less generic and help each of them out playing their part in the group. they are currently lvl 5 and i plan to hand out the following items over the course of the next few months of play. I'll give some background to all the players and their respective items to put them in context.

First up i have a high-elf Wizard of the school of conjuration and other than scorching ray and firebolt his attack options are currently quite limited(not judging, he's a great roleplayer) so i thought i'd give him a wand with a spell that deals aoe damage other than fire... not sure about the +1 yet however...
Wand of the shattering War Caster(+1)
Wonderous item, rare(requires attunement by a spellcaster)
Using it gives the caster +1 to spellattackrolls cast from it. The wielder also ignores halfcover when making a spellattack.
This wand also has 5 charges. You can expand one of these charges to cast the shatter spell as 2nd level from it. You may increase the level of the spell for one additional charge per spelllevel gained this way.
It regains 1d4+1 charges daily at dawn. If you expend the last charge of the wand, roll a d20. On a 1 the wand turns to ashes and is destroyed.


Next up we have a forest-gnome beastmaster ranger with a pet panther. he focuses a lot on the fact that his hme village was full of druids and there in tune with the sirits of nature so here i thought i could really use this nicely... again the plus one is a placeholder...
Bow of bestial spirits(+1)
Weaon(any bow), rare(requires attunement by ranger or druid)
This magical bow is infused with the spirits of nature. It has 5 charges which it regains 1d4-1 daily at dawn. When you fire an arrow from this bow you may expend one of its charges and declare a spirit shot. Roll 1d8 and reference the spirit table below for the respective effect.
On a hit the target takes the usual damage of the bow plus the determined beast effect.


1-2
1d4 fire damage
3-4
1d4 frost damage


5-6
1d4 lightning damage
7
1d4 poison damage + conSave(dc12)->poisoned


88
1d4 necrotic damage + conSave(dc12) ->maxHP-necrodamage til long rest




...basically a spirit animal would encompass the arrow and deal its respective damage

3rd on our list is a Tabaxi Monk of the open hand who so far seems to fall behind a bit... I thought of giving him some brass-knuckles or something but this idea just had to be done imo...
Sash of the Windweaver:
(wonderous item, rare (requires attunement by a monk)
While wearing this magic sash around your waste, you can spend 2 ki-points as a bonus action to gain the following features until the start of your next turn in combat:
- Activate your flurry of blows feature(no additional effects)
- All unarmed strikes and attacks made with monk weapons are considered magical and deal bludgeoning damage instead of the usual damage type of the weapon
- Your melee range becomes 5ft + 5ft x WisdomModifier
- You can add half of your WisdomModifier/2(rounded up to the attack and damage rolls)
After using this feature it can’t be used again until you finish a (short or) long rest.
... yes this is very tailored to him specifically but i think its neat

next i have 2 items for my solo healer paladin of the oath of devotion. He couldn't really shine as a healer or protector so far and thus i made a him the following:
Ring of the gracious martyr
Requires attunement by good aligned Cleric, Druid, Bard or Paladin
While attuned to this magic item and wearing it, whenever you restore hitpoints to a creature other than yourself with means other than magic potion, you may heal yourself for 1d4+2 for every 10hp you restore.
For example: if you are a level 5 Paladin and restore 20 hitpoints to a party member using your lay on hands feature, you heal for 2d4+4 hitpoints.
... this ring is not neccasarily for him but basically for the healer in the group(he had to use lay on hands on himself a lot so i thought why not)
the second one was inspired by rheinhardts shield from overwatch and i'm not gonna try and hide it...
Shield of Protection:
The Shield of Protection can be used as an ordinary shield +1.
Activate this magic shield, by using a bonus action to speak it’s command word, to create a magical barrier 15ft wide and 10ft tall in front of you. Creatures within 5ft behind and/or next to you get ¾ cover whilst you have full cover but are still fully visible to creatures beyond the barrier. If an enemy tries to enter the shield’s space he has to make a Constitution saving throw against a DC of 10+WisMod of the wielder. On a success he passes through the shield. On a failure he’s thrust back 5ft and loses the rest of his movement.
The shield has a total of 50hp and an AC of 10.
A ranged attack targeted at a creature behind the barrier that benefits of the shields cover hits the shield instead if the attackroll misses the target but hits the barriers AC. When destroyed while active it reverts into its inactive state and can’t be used in this way until you finish a long rest. You can choose to dismiss the barrier which causes the shield to revert keeping its current hp. It regenerates 2d8 + 4 hp during a short rest and fully recovers after a long rest.
After dismissing the barrier you must wait at least one turn before you can activate it again.
While active, the wielders speed is reduced by 20ft.
... it may need some playtesting to find out the propper way of playing this but i envisioned it as kinda cool to have this transparent barrier at a moments notice if neccasary


Last but not least i have the arcane trickster rogue and sibling to the wizard. She's a bit let down by the limited amount of spells she got now but otherwise content with the rougue class... inspired by the 4e magic item "phase Weapon" i made the following:
Amulet of phasing Ammunition
Wonderous item, rare(requires attunement)
While attuned to this magical Pin you may focus it’s magic on up to 3 pieces of ammunition on your person. When then fired from a ranged weapon the piece of ammunition can phase in and out of space in a short burst making for more surprising and effective shots. You may choose to have advantage on the corresponding attack role against a creature that has no cover and that you can see, or make an attack roll against a creature that has cover (even full cover) if the creature is no farther than 10ft behind the cover and you have seen it at least once since your last turn. If you choose the second option the following rules apply:
- A target that has partial cover does not benefit from the bonus to AC
- A target that has full cover counts as having ½ cover when within 5ft, and ¾ cover when within 10ft of the cover
- For the purposes of the sneak attack feature of a rogue, the target is surprised by the attack if it can’t see the attacker beyond the cover
...i thought of this amulet that she carried along with her as a magic syphon that would over time pick up magical energy and "attune" to it, so the proximity to the teleporting wizard would give it such aspects aswell

I'm sorry for the long post but if you read a few of these and liked or disliked them i'd like to see yout thougths on them...
P.S.: sorry for bad english...

Thralak
2018-03-02, 11:18 AM
The only thing I see that I thought was a little off was the increased melee range for the monk's sash. With a wis of +3, which I'm assuming is the lowest it'd be for a level 5 monk, that's a 20ft melee range. At that point, it's not about a magic item, nobody arms are that long, he'd have to be stretch armstrong. Maybe just change it to reach? 10'? I feel it's a bit immersion break to be punching people 20 to 30 feet away. Everything else looks workable though.

nickl_2000
2018-03-02, 11:59 AM
The only thing I see that I thought was a little off was the increased melee range for the monk's sash. With a wis of +3, which I'm assuming is the lowest it'd be for a level 5 monk, that's a 20ft melee range. At that point, it's not about a magic item, nobody arms are that long, he'd have to be stretch armstrong. Maybe just change it to reach? 10'? I feel it's a bit immersion break to be punching people 20 to 30 feet away. Everything else looks workable though.

It could also be re-fluffed to be different. Instead of punching you can say something like

"You learn to project you Ki to make a melee attack at a distance. When you make a make a melee attack your ki manifests into shadowy copy of your fist, which strikes your opponent at a distance".

Kettl
2018-03-02, 08:44 PM
The only thing I see that I thought was a little off was the increased melee range for the monk's sash. With a wis of +3, which I'm assuming is the lowest it'd be for a level 5 monk, that's a 20ft melee range. At that point, it's not about a magic item, nobody arms are that long, he'd have to be stretch armstrong. Maybe just change it to reach? 10'? I feel it's a bit immersion break to be punching people 20 to 30 feet away. Everything else looks workable though.
First of, thank you for the feedback. I should have added that in the description maybe but i imagined it, befitting to the name, that his punches and swordstrikes would be transferred by the air/wind. Somewhat like airbending in the avatar series but not as extensively as the elemental monestary. About the +3minimum wisdom... He's got 13 wis and which is his second highest stat next to dex 19 so...yeah.. I thought about wis boosting items but that felt like handing him a bit much for now...

The Nth Doctor
2018-03-03, 05:50 PM
Judging homebrew magic items is a little difficult because world context is important to understand where the fit in, but overall they look cool and thematic. You may want to find someway to test them out first though, because other people are good at finding ways to use magic items in ways you can't think of. My usual method is to give my item cards to a friend and have them get as creative as possible with them to work out bugs.

My one small concern that I would bring up is that sash is the only item that forces the player to use class abilities to activate, when all the others act on charges or abilities from the weapon itself. Maybe make it once per short rest or something like that to better sync with monk abilities.

Kettl
2018-03-04, 06:54 AM
Judging homebrew magic items is a little difficult because world context is important to understand where the fit in, but overall they look cool and thematic. You may want to find someway to test them out first though, because other people are good at finding ways to use magic items in ways you can't think of. My usual method is to give my item cards to a friend and have them get as creative as possible with them to work out bugs.

My one small concern that I would bring up is that sash is the only item that forces the player to use class abilities to activate, when all the others act on charges or abilities from the weapon itself. Maybe make it once per short rest or something like that to better sync with monk abilities.

Thanks again for the feedback. I thought about testing them a little already but couldn't find anyone as of yet(hence i'm here)As for the ki-activation. I didn't even care look at that a second time as it seems to be a remnant of an earlier iteration i had where he could spend more for longer reach and higher damage boost but that felt overpowering on one side and limmiting on the other since he only has few points anyway... I think i'll change it to once every short rest seeing as thats when ki regeneration takes place anyway