Bacchanalian
2018-04-18, 10:38 AM
I'm trying to balance and stay "in character" for Van Richten/Rictavio.
In previous editions (2e is the one I'm most familiar with), Van Richten's guides were the primary source for information and details about the various flavors of undead present in Barovia. With this in mind, I wanted to create an item that he might have used to do his research, a legendary magic item that allows the attuned person to learn about creatures and provides general information.
I looked at the Instruments of the Bards after a suggestion in another thread where I was in the beginning stages of designing this item. They all come with the spells fly, invisibility, levitate, and protection from good and evil. In addition, they also get three other spells, the levels of which vary based on item rarity. The legendary, for instance, has a level 8, level 5 and level 1 I believe. Each spell can be cast once a day, after which it cannot be cast again until the next dawn.
For Van Richten's journal, I was trying to balance it and still grant the information gathering abilities. I want to drop levitate and protection from G&E, keep fly and invisibility, and then as its other spells, only grant it two. A homebrew spell that works similar to identify, but is specific to undead creatures and gives more information than identify. Basically as mentioned, it would give information on immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities. It would, like identify, be a touch spell, somewhat limiting its usefulness or at least requiring the wielder to put themselves in harm's way to use it (likely in conjunction with invisibility). The other spell it would include would be legend lore.
If it needs further limitations, the information might appear written in the journal rather than instantly springing to mind, requiring the wielder to then use an action to scan the text for information.
Is this incredibly OP, or does it seem balanced in the context of some of the other legendary magic items in the DMG?
In previous editions (2e is the one I'm most familiar with), Van Richten's guides were the primary source for information and details about the various flavors of undead present in Barovia. With this in mind, I wanted to create an item that he might have used to do his research, a legendary magic item that allows the attuned person to learn about creatures and provides general information.
I looked at the Instruments of the Bards after a suggestion in another thread where I was in the beginning stages of designing this item. They all come with the spells fly, invisibility, levitate, and protection from good and evil. In addition, they also get three other spells, the levels of which vary based on item rarity. The legendary, for instance, has a level 8, level 5 and level 1 I believe. Each spell can be cast once a day, after which it cannot be cast again until the next dawn.
For Van Richten's journal, I was trying to balance it and still grant the information gathering abilities. I want to drop levitate and protection from G&E, keep fly and invisibility, and then as its other spells, only grant it two. A homebrew spell that works similar to identify, but is specific to undead creatures and gives more information than identify. Basically as mentioned, it would give information on immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities. It would, like identify, be a touch spell, somewhat limiting its usefulness or at least requiring the wielder to put themselves in harm's way to use it (likely in conjunction with invisibility). The other spell it would include would be legend lore.
If it needs further limitations, the information might appear written in the journal rather than instantly springing to mind, requiring the wielder to then use an action to scan the text for information.
Is this incredibly OP, or does it seem balanced in the context of some of the other legendary magic items in the DMG?