First homebrew item - crown for dwarven king

[KingWhipsy]

So I've just started worldbuilding and am having a great time. I've begun work on the dwarven king and decided to make his crown first. I'm wondering what rarity it should be and how balanced you guys think it is or what I should change as I'm completely new to this.

Crown of Mental Defense - (requires attunement)
-While wearing this crown you are immune to magic that allows other creatures to read your thoughts, determine whether you are lying, know your alignment, or know your creatures type. Creatures can telepathically communicate with you only if you allow it.

-While wearing this crown you are immune to being charmed or frightened.

-While wearing this crown you are immune to mind altering effects such as suggestion and command.

-If you die while wearing this crown your soul enters it, unless it already houses a soul. You can remain in the crown or depart for the afterlife. As long as your soul is in the crown, you can telepathically communicate with any creature wearing it. A wearer can't prevent this telepathic communication.

The idea behind the crown is to provide some form of Mental Defense for the king who is a paladin/fighter and thus weaker in the mental department. And if he does end up dying then he can communicate with his successor or murderer or what have you. Quite a bit is stolen from the ring of mind shielding which is an uncommon. This has extra bonuses though which makes me think its rare quality. Thoughts? Suggestions? Help me out! Also if you have any cool ideas for armor, shield, or mace for a dwarven king let me know!

[jqavins]

1. Good item, especially for a ruler. I like it.
2. Suggestion: change its name to The Crown of the Dwarven King. Since it's The Crown of the Dwarven King, it is unique almost by definition. If it is not powerful enough to merit a classification of unique, then add to its powers. You could use one or more of the following, and/or devise more powers yourself.
   
   • In addition to shielding the wearer from Know Alignment and Detect Lies, it allows the wearer to use those spells as spell-like abilities, perhaps thrice daily or perhaps at will.
   • When occupied by the soul of the deceased, its benefits are enjoyed by both the deceased and the wearer, except that the wearer gains no protection against actions by the deceased.
   • The deceased can use Suggestion once per day against the wearer, CL equal to the deceased's character level, and using Cha as the applied attribute unless the deceased has applicable caster levels. The wearer makes a will save. If he is successful, he resists the suggestion but is immediately subject to an attack on his sanity, and must make another will save. If this second save fails, the wearer loses a "sanity point"; the wearer's base sanity points are equal to his Int + Wis + Cha modifiers, each with a minimum of zero. As points are lost, the wearer's behavior becomes increasingly erratic; also, for each point lost the wearer takes a -1 penalty on the saves against both the Suggestion and the sanity attacks. If the wearer manages to hang onto the crown until all his sanity points are lost (or after the loss of one point should his initial total have been zero) he has been reduced to a drooling, blithering, delusional idiot.
   • The crown could provide bonuses to mental stats. These bonuses should persist for a time after the crown is removed, e.g. overnight while the king sleeps.
   
   
3. What happens if a dying wearer attempts to stay in the crown while a previous wearer is already in residence? For your consideration, I suggest that he makes an opposed check, with both parties using either their Cha mods or their (remaining) sanity points as their modifiers. The winner stays, and the loser moves on to the afterlife. This applies only if the two do not agree on who should stay; they do get a chance to do that, with a reasonable amount of discussion; such discussion takes only a second or less as perceived from the material world.

As you may have surmised, I have a purpose in mind for the additional powers above (except the attribute bonuses). By dwarven law and custom (in my mind) a recently deceased king waits around long enough to see who is crowned next.

• If the crown has gone to a legitimate heir whom the deceased judges capable of discharging the duties of the king, the deceased moves on to the afterlife promptly.
• If the crown has gone to a legitimate heir who is found wanting in ability, the deceased will linger in order to council and tutor the heir, and will leave when the heir has learned enough.
• If the heir is too young to take the crown, and the crown goes to a regent, the deceased will stay until the heir is crowned and capable. He may or may not guide the regent, or even use the crown's powers to rule through him or her. Provided the regent is legitimate and well intentioned, the deceased very rarely makes more than one sanity attack, and generally this does not come up at all.
• If the new wearer is not a legitimate heir or regent or is evil, or so on, the deceased will use the Suggestion/sanity attack power to either compel a confession or render the wearer incapable of ruling.

[brian 333]

Excellent concept.

Does this king have a ceremonial crown and a casual coronet? (Greater and Lesser)

[KingWhipsy]

Excellent concept.

Does this king have a ceremonial crown and a casual coronet? (Greater and Lesser)

Not as of now. Currently I had just planned on him having one crown that he wears all the time and only takes off to sleep.

[KingWhipsy]

1. Good item, especially for a ruler. I like it.
2. Suggestion: change its name to The Crown of the Dwarven King. Since it's The Crown of the Dwarven King, it is unique almost by definition. If it is not powerful enough to merit a classification of unique, then add to its powers. You could use one or more of the following, and/or devise more powers yourself.
   
   • In addition to shielding the wearer from Know Alignment and Detect Lies, it allows the wearer to use those spells as spell-like abilities, perhaps thrice daily or perhaps at will.
   • When occupied by the soul of the deceased, its benefits are enjoyed by both the deceased and the wearer, except that the wearer gains no protection against actions by the deceased.
   • The deceased can use Suggestion once per day against the wearer, CL equal to the deceased's character level, and using Cha as the applied attribute unless the deceased has applicable caster levels. The wearer makes a will save. If he is successful, he resists the suggestion but is immediately subject to an attack on his sanity, and must make another will save. If this second save fails, the wearer loses a "sanity point"; the wearer's base sanity points are equal to his Int + Wis + Cha modifiers, each with a minimum of zero. As points are lost, the wearer's behavior becomes increasingly erratic; also, for each point lost the wearer takes a -1 penalty on the saves against both the Suggestion and the sanity attacks. If the wearer manages to hang onto the crown until all his sanity points are lost (or after the loss of one point should his initial total have been zero) he has been reduced to a drooling, blithering, delusional idiot.
   • The crown could provide bonuses to mental stats. These bonuses should persist for a time after the crown is removed, e.g. overnight while the king sleeps.
   
   
3. What happens if a dying wearer attempts to stay in the crown while a previous wearer is already in residence? For your consideration, I suggest that he makes an opposed check, with both parties using either their Cha mods or their (remaining) sanity points as their modifiers. The winner stays, and the loser moves on to the afterlife. This applies only if the two do not agree on who should stay; they do get a chance to do that, with a reasonable amount of discussion; such discussion takes only a second or less as perceived from the material world.

As you may have surmised, I have a purpose in mind for the additional powers above (except the attribute bonuses). By dwarven law and custom (in my mind) a recently deceased king waits around long enough to see who is crowned next.

• If the crown has gone to a legitimate heir whom the deceased judges capable of discharging the duties of the king, the deceased moves on to the afterlife promptly.
• If the crown has gone to a legitimate heir who is found wanting in ability, the deceased will linger in order to council and tutor the heir, and will leave when the heir has learned enough.
• If the heir is too young to take the crown, and the crown goes to a regent, the deceased will stay until the heir is crowned and capable. He may or may not guide the regent, or even use the crown's powers to rule through him or her. Provided the regent is legitimate and well intentioned, the deceased very rarely makes more than one sanity attack, and generally this does not come up at all.
• If the new wearer is not a legitimate heir or regent or is evil, or so on, the deceased will use the Suggestion/sanity attack power to either compel a confession or render the wearer incapable of ruling.

1. Thank you! It's more difficult creating items than I thought!

2. I love the name change. The previous name was more of a placeholder anyways. I'm thinking about adding this, "In addition, you can use the crown to cast detect thoughts or command (4th level) up to a number of times equal to the wearers charisma modifier. The crown regains 1d4 charges each dawn." Thoughts?

3. As it is now, if the wearer dies while a soul already inhabits the crown then the wearers soul would just pass to the afterlife as the crown doesn't have room for a soul. Do you think having a contested check to see who gets to inhabit the crown is something I should change? Maybe add a caveat that the current soul can cede the crown to the wearer on time of death, but isn't forced to do so?

Also, what rarity do you think this item is? Very rare?

[jqavins]

1. Thank you! It's more difficult creating items than I thought!

It doesn't have to be. I saw the "stick around and communicate with the next king" feature and asked myself why. The rest followed. And it's a good item exactly as you first wrote without any of my added stuff.

2. I love the name change. The previous name was more of a placeholder anyways. I'm thinking about adding this, "In addition, you can use the crown to cast detect thoughts or command (4th level) up to a number of times equal to the wearers charisma modifier. The crown regains 1d4 charges each dawn." Thoughts?

Sounds fine.

3. As it is now, if the wearer dies while a soul already inhabits the crown then the wearers soul would just pass to the afterlife as the crown doesn't have room for a soul.

Ah, I see, it does say that. My bad.

Do you think having a contested check to see who gets to inhabit the crown is something I should change? Maybe add a caveat that the current soul can cede the crown to the wearer on time of death, but isn't forced to do so?

Well, it's your item, so I would not presume to say anything you "should" do. I like the idea of a contested check, but it's up to you. Vacating to make room for a newly dying king seems like a no brainer, and is already covered in your original description; the old and new kings are in telepathic contact, so the old king knows that the new one wants to stay, and the old one can move on to the afterlife anytime he wants to.

Also, what rarity do you think this item is? Very rare?

A little Googling shows me that the detailed Rarity rating is a 5e thing. I also see that its purpose is a bit vague. As far as I can tell, the rarer an item, the less often one comes across it (duh) and the more powerful it is and the more expensive it is, but I don't see any quantitative rules.

That said, I would make this unique, and if Unique isn't one of the available labels then Legendary. If it's not unique, then some other monarch(s) has one just like it, which in my mind makes it less cool.

[bc56]

As it stands at the top, the crown should probably be very rare.

1. Good item, especially for a ruler. I like it.
2. Suggestion: change its name to The Crown of the Dwarven King. Since it's The Crown of the Dwarven King, it is unique almost by definition. If it is not powerful enough to merit a classification of unique, then add to its powers. You could use one or more of the following, and/or devise more powers yourself.
   
   • In addition to shielding the wearer from Know Alignment and Detect Lies, it allows the wearer to use those spells as spell-like abilities, perhaps thrice daily or perhaps at will.
   • When occupied by the soul of the deceased, its benefits are enjoyed by both the deceased and the wearer, except that the wearer gains no protection against actions by the deceased.
   • The deceased can use Suggestion once per day against the wearer, CL equal to the deceased's character level, and using Cha as the applied attribute unless the deceased has applicable caster levels. The wearer makes a will save. If he is successful, he resists the suggestion but is immediately subject to an attack on his sanity, and must make another will save. If this second save fails, the wearer loses a "sanity point"; the wearer's base sanity points are equal to his Int + Wis + Cha modifiers, each with a minimum of zero. As points are lost, the wearer's behavior becomes increasingly erratic; also, for each point lost the wearer takes a -1 penalty on the saves against both the Suggestion and the sanity attacks. If the wearer manages to hang onto the crown until all his sanity points are lost (or after the loss of one point should his initial total have been zero) he has been reduced to a drooling, blithering, delusional idiot.
   • The crown could provide bonuses to mental stats. These bonuses should persist for a time after the crown is removed, e.g. overnight while the king sleeps.
   
   
3. What happens if a dying wearer attempts to stay in the crown while a previous wearer is already in residence? For your consideration, I suggest that he makes an opposed check, with both parties using either their Cha mods or their (remaining) sanity points as their modifiers. The winner stays, and the loser moves on to the afterlife. This applies only if the two do not agree on who should stay; they do get a chance to do that, with a reasonable amount of discussion; such discussion takes only a second or less as perceived from the material world.

As you may have surmised, I have a purpose in mind for the additional powers above (except the attribute bonuses). By dwarven law and custom (in my mind) a recently deceased king waits around long enough to see who is crowned next.

• If the crown has gone to a legitimate heir whom the deceased judges capable of discharging the duties of the king, the deceased moves on to the afterlife promptly.
• If the crown has gone to a legitimate heir who is found wanting in ability, the deceased will linger in order to council and tutor the heir, and will leave when the heir has learned enough.
• If the heir is too young to take the crown, and the crown goes to a regent, the deceased will stay until the heir is crowned and capable. He may or may not guide the regent, or even use the crown's powers to rule through him or her. Provided the regent is legitimate and well intentioned, the deceased very rarely makes more than one sanity attack, and generally this does not come up at all.
• If the new wearer is not a legitimate heir or regent or is evil, or so on, the deceased will use the Suggestion/sanity attack power to either compel a confession or render the wearer incapable of ruling.

Holy cow! That's extremely complicated (not to mention a giant wall of text). I think what the crown already has is good, maybe the mind control ability for the soul inside the crown would be good, but none of the complex SAN stuff. We want magic items to be easy to run, not something very hard to remember.

The name thing is a good point. Unless there's more than one dwarven king, it could be The Crown of the Dwarven King (or the dwarf-lord, or something like that).

[jqavins]

Yeah, it's a little complicated. But I doubt the dwaven king, past or present, will ever be a PC. The flavor could be used, if the OP wants to, without the details and numbers really mattering that much.

[KingWhipsy]

Here's what I think I decided upon.

Crown of the the Dwarven Gods:
Wondrous Item, Very Rare (requires attunement)

This regal crown is made of pure gold, hammered into a sturdy ring, and emblazoned with 7 runes corresponding to the gods: Moradin, Marthammor Duin, Dugmaren Brightmantle, Clangeddin Silverbeard, Vergadain, Laduguer, and Abbathor. Embedded above each rune is a corresponding gemstone: Emerald (Marthammor), Citrine (Dugmaren), Onyx (Clangeddin), Diamond (Vergadain), Amethyst (Laduguer), and Sapphire (Abbathor). At the front of the crown a Ruby larger than the rest sits above the rune to Moradin. The inside of each gemstone is marked with the symbol of it’s respected god.

You gain these benefits while wearing this crown:

-While wearing this crown you are immune to magic that allows other creatures to read your thoughts, determine whether you are lying, know your alignment, or know your creatures type. Creatures can telepathically communicate with you only if you allow it.

-While wearing this crown you are immune to being charmed or frightened.

-While wearing this crown you are immune to mind altering effects such as command and detect thoughts.

-In addition, this crown has 5 charges and regains a number of charges equal to the wearer’s charisma modifier each dawn. You can use an action to cast detect thoughts and command at a 4th level. The spell save is a DC19 WIS save.

[brian 333]

And now King Bhazhaar has a newcrown! Thanks.

Well, not a new crown, an old one, really. He was wearing it when the PCs came through, but it never came up in conversation.

[Deepbluediver]

The only thing I might suggest is letting the crown store more than 1 soul at a time. On the one hand, you have all the wisdom and knowledge of your predecessors. On the other hand, they all have a different idea for what you should be doing and how to go about doing it. Could make for some nice roleplay as characters try to balance the competing philosophies with their own objectives.


Edit: Maybe rename it Crown of the Dwarven KingS

Player: Which kings?
GM: *ominous tone* ALL of them.
GM: *extra ominous tone* The crown fits perfectly on your head, but seems surprisingly difficult to remove.

[brian 333]

The only thing I might suggest is letting the crown store more than 1 soul at a time. On the one hand, you have all the wisdom and knowledge of your predecessors. On the other hand, they all have a different idea for what you should be doing and how to go about doing it. Could make for some nice roleplay as characters try to balance the competing philosophies with their own objectives.


Edit: Maybe rename it Crown of the Dwarven KingS

Player: Which kings?
GM: *ominous tone* ALL of them.
GM: *extra ominous tone* The crown fits perfectly on your head, but seems surprisingly difficult to remove.

Good Gravy!

Did we learn nothing from the reign of Leto II?

Might I suggest the Aria solution? While all the kings are there and available to access memories, one king has the highest charisma and 'controls' the rest, preventing the voices in her head from driving her insane. This might create opportunities for dead guys to take over and possess the king, but it also allows groups of voices to protect the king, as was the case for Ghanima and for Leto II before the transformation.

[Deepbluediver]

Good Gravy!

Did we learn nothing from the reign of Leto II?

Where do you think I'm getting my inspiration?
:P

[Goaty14]

What happens if the wearer dies and the crown is already inhabited?
Uhhh
-Wearer goes to afterlife, Current one stays
-Current one gets a choice to leave, otherwise ^
-Wearer can evict current one in an opposed roll

I dunno what else, but yea