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  1. - Top - End - #1
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    Default My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    So, my party of 5 level 4 players killed a level 20 npc with epic boons last night. He was in the dungeon as a teaser for future combats, plus he revealed plot and the players characters have personal reasons to hate him and his people because of it. His biggest asset were these artifact level lances he could dual wield. These things made him terrifying. Anyways, I know my players, I figured theyd try to fight him, so I decided had give them a round of combat without attacking and then laugh at them and leave telling them that his (high cr level) minions could kill them.
    That didn't happen. The Kobold Dragoon, who this guy has made it His life's goal to hurt, wants to kill him. The warlock wants to kill him because he just found out this guy killed his village, and the others are fine to go murder hobo on a famous adventurer now that they know he's evil.
    Too make a long story short, the warlock casts hex on the guy, breaks his 21 ac, and gives him strength check and save disadvantage. Not to bad except the Kobold swoops in and steals both the guys super lances.
    They aren't able to attune to them, but after they start to take great chunks out of his hp, the warlock makes a use device(homebrew skill) check to opperate the lances anyways l. The wizard is a diviner and uses portany to give him the NAT 20 he rolled that morning. He auto successes the DC 50 check, hits with both lances and gets to cast a killer enhanced witch bolt at the same time.
    The level 20 dies. Now he had a contigency spell with true resurrect, so not an issue, but he didn't fancy continuing the fight and escaped.
    So here I am. I'm letting them jump to level 6 (they were supposed to level up here anyways but now I think one more is due). But I think everyone deserves a special item, mostly because the cleric got some killer +2 heavy plate of speed that's legendary from the corpse.
    So here's my thing, the warlock can't use the lances, he's not the right class to attune. So I'm giving him and the other players each there own legendary weapon. I need some help though
    Here's the characters:
    A teifling who made a celestial warlock pact, he is now glowing white. He killed the level 20. His hellish rebuke blinds and deals radiant damage and is called celestial reprimand.
    Kobold fighter with lost notes dragoon subclass. He rides a boar and reincarnates when he dies as a new class and race. He just found a flintlock only he can use (only fun I'm putting in game) so maybe something with that.
    A halfling wizard with divination subclass, he's playing the luckiest man alive. Only thing is he thinks he's just a really good adventurer, when he's only magically lucky. Custom luck powers.
    And a blind rogue assasin who uses a rudimentary form of echolocation to "see".

    So that's the people getting items (dwarf cleric already has his) any suggestions?

  2. - Top - End - #2
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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Not suggestions, but unless you have houseruled it a natural 20 on a skill check doesn't guarentee success on skill check in 5e.

    That auto success is only for attacks. Just for future knowledge. I will think on items to see what i can come up with.
    Last edited by nickl_2000; 2019-05-18 at 04:12 PM.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by nickl_2000 View Post
    Not suggestions, but unless you have houseruled it a natural 20 on a skill check doesn't guarentee success on skill check in 5e.

    That auto success is only for attacks. Just for future knowledge. I will think on items to see what i can come up with.
    We have always played auto success. It keeps the dm, me in this situation, on their toes, we'll sometimes have to say "even a nat 20 does nothing" but that happens very rarely.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by nickl_2000 View Post
    Not suggestions, but unless you have houseruled it a natural 20 on a skill check doesn't guarentee success on skill check in 5e.

    That auto success is only for attacks. Just for future knowledge. I will think on items to see what i can come up with.
    I tend to agree with this... but then again, keeping the DM on their toes does shake things up a bit. There were a couple of things that I thought could be done differently, but that is me as a DM.

    I tend to think that having high powered weapons, or artifacts, or legendaries (for that matter), be person bound until the point of death, or extenuating circumstances.

    Now that my critique is out of the way... And that this is 5e... I would take a couple ideas from the weapons of legacy book from 3.5. Having the rules shifted over to 5e shouldn't be too hard, or you can take the concepts, and build your own Legacy Weapons. Food for thought.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    I actually do the 3.5e item thing a lot. I'll look into it. But I want these to be specifically fitting for them.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Can you tell us more about the person they defeated?


    Also, depending on the campaign, rather than giving them straight up weaponry, I'd be tempted to give them weirder/more interesting items instead.

    Such things as....
    A rope that does what its told (and can levitate/fly a certain number of times per day).

    A lead key. Any door you open with it automatically leads to a lair/dungeon (possibly filled with monsters?) The lair has a number of doors leading out to a number of interesting towns/ caves/ruined castles.


    Some sort of contract/ pact made with a powerfull extra planar being, compelling them to owe you a favor.


    "THE HAMMER OF BANISHING" - when used to smack something, that thing will be banished to far of places for at least 1 week of time. Unfortuantely the hammer goes WITH them.
    [Basically, this item is meant as a "get out of jail free" kind of safety valve incase your players ever get in over their heads. It'll save them. Once.]


    The phylactory of an 11 year of lich.
    They are new to this. But still evil.



    In terms of player specific things...
    boots of spider climb to the rouge.

    A holy/unholy relic that must be destroyed/returned for the holy warlock teifling.
    Or possibly something that summons an extraplanar ally.

    For the Kobold.... Some sort of upgrade for his boar. Maybe a magic item that gives pigs wings. Maybe something that makes the boar extra devastating/powerful.

    For the lucky halfing.... some sort of deck of many things variant (perhaps made slightly saner, I hear the original is crazy)... but rigged so that when halfing is using it, you draw two and take the more useful card.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by nineGardens View Post
    Can you tell us more about the person they defeated?


    Also, depending on the campaign, rather than giving them straight up weaponry, I'd be tempted to give them weirder/more interesting items instead.

    Such things as....
    A rope that does what its told (and can levitate/fly a certain number of times per day).

    A lead key. Any door you open with it automatically leads to a lair/dungeon (possibly filled with monsters?) The lair has a number of doors leading out to a number of interesting towns/ caves/ruined castles.


    Some sort of contract/ pact made with a powerfull extra planar being, compelling them to owe you a favor.


    "THE HAMMER OF BANISHING" - when used to smack something, that thing will be banished to far of places for at least 1 week of time. Unfortuantely the hammer goes WITH them.
    [Basically, this item is meant as a "get out of jail free" kind of safety valve incase your players ever get in over their heads. It'll save them. Once.]


    The phylactory of an 11 year of lich.
    They are new to this. But still evil.



    In terms of player specific things...
    boots of spider climb to the rouge.

    A holy/unholy relic that must be destroyed/returned for the holy warlock teifling.
    Or possibly something that summons an extraplanar ally.

    For the Kobold.... Some sort of upgrade for his boar. Maybe a magic item that gives pigs wings. Maybe something that makes the boar extra devastating/powerful.

    For the lucky halfing.... some sort of deck of many things variant (perhaps made slightly saner, I hear the original is crazy)... but rigged so that when halfing is using it, you draw two and take the more useful card.
    I'm mostly planning on making fun items for the yeah. As for the guy they killed, he's a reincarnating cleric of merridean my goddess of magic and luck. His resurrection world just like the kobolds, and they've been killing each other for centuries. But the kobold never realised that all the people who killed him were the same till now. The cleric leads a group of heavily min maxed fighters as the hero's of the world.
    Also the magic items weren't found on the cleric. I'm having a deity grant divine inspiration to the teams npc artificer so that the customness of the items makes sense.
    Also, I kinda want custom items for all of them, and all of legendary quality.

    I'm in agreement about something for the kobolds boar, maybe something that increases it's speed and makes it a more viable aid in combat, maybe add some extra a.c. boosts as well for it.

    The teiflings a little strange, so I don't know if in character hed hate having extraplanar help or abuse it to no end. He has no armor or a.c. boosting invocations though. Although that might change now that they've leveled up. Holy relics good though.

    The deck idea might be good normally, but my players hate the deck of many things. I'm not too fond of it myself. If they got one of those they would burn it. But maybe a deck of many things that you can attack others with. Also, wizard has a love of bags of holding. So maybe a portable base of some kind in a bag of holding.

    As for rogue, her player has made it obvious he wants special shortswords. He keeps pestering me about it and I'm this close to not giving him any because of how much he said it in one hour. He also passionately states that his character likes being blind and will not accept a fix. So that's out. I don't know what to give them though, so I need the most help here.
    Last edited by moonfly7; 2019-05-19 at 12:34 PM.

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    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by nineGardens View Post
    Can you tell us more about the person they defeated?


    Also, depending on the campaign, rather than giving them straight up weaponry, I'd be tempted to give them weirder/more interesting items instead.

    Such things as....
    A rope that does what its told (and can levitate/fly a certain number of times per day).

    A lead key. Any door you open with it automatically leads to a lair/dungeon (possibly filled with monsters?) The lair has a number of doors leading out to a number of interesting towns/ caves/ruined castles.


    Some sort of contract/ pact made with a powerfull extra planar being, compelling them to owe you a favor.


    "THE HAMMER OF BANISHING" - when used to smack something, that thing will be banished to far of places for at least 1 week of time. Unfortuantely the hammer goes WITH them.
    [Basically, this item is meant as a "get out of jail free" kind of safety valve incase your players ever get in over their heads. It'll save them. Once.]


    The phylactory of an 11 year of lich.
    They are new to this. But still evil.



    In terms of player specific things...
    boots of spider climb to the rouge.

    A holy/unholy relic that must be destroyed/returned for the holy warlock teifling.
    Or possibly something that summons an extraplanar ally.

    For the Kobold.... Some sort of upgrade for his boar. Maybe a magic item that gives pigs wings. Maybe something that makes the boar extra devastating/powerful.

    For the lucky halfing.... some sort of deck of many things variant (perhaps made slightly saner, I hear the original is crazy)... but rigged so that when halfing is using it, you draw two and take the more useful card.
    Step 1: have the party halfing(or gnome: there is barely any difference between the two: they are all very strong) carry the entire team in his backpack(polymorph can help with that)
    Step 2: party halfing hits itself with hammer.
    Step 3: have an adventure that is guaranteed to last at least one week to return and also keep the hammer too.
    Last edited by noob; 2019-05-19 at 01:17 PM.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    For the rogue, a morning star/cencer that casts his choice of solid fog, poison cloud, or darkness depending on what he's burning in it, and which grants him immunity to the effects (save visual, which he doesn't care about).

    For the reincarnating, class-and-race-changing kobold, a strange, short rod or wand with a buzzing, glowing half-sphere at one end which grants him advantage on any roll which could benefit from any sort of tool proficiency. Also grants him proficiency with that kind of tool, or Expertise if he has proficiency natively. If he already has Expertise, he can use it once per day to automatically succeed on such a skill check. Doesn't work on any skill check made involving wooden items.

    For the lucky halfling diviner, a Crystal Ball w/ Telepathy that explicitly allows him to use Portent and Luck on the saving throws those he tries to scry through it make to resist scrying. Alternatively, a rod of wonder that pretends to be a rod of lordly might and does its random effects out of his sight.

    Sadly, I don't have any cool ideas for the tiefling warlock.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Ok, I've given the halfling a modified luck blade that adds uses his int mod for attacks. And I made special magic armor for the kobolds boar. Now I just need the warlock and rogue.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Also, the rogue kinda forced his echolocation into the game via whining and complaints, and it really bothers the other players who were first in the game when he joined. So I don't want too give him anything that faciltates the echolocation, as it kinda bothers literally everyone else. But he won't listen to us, so were stuck with the character. Which is fine, I'll work with it. But I would prefer nothing that relies on his echolocation.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Warlock:
    Some kind of item that gives resistance (or immunity) to radiant and necrotic damage?
    Something that makes his spell DC stronger by 1?
    Something that grants +1 cantrips known?
    Something that allows them to use healing light as radiant damage against fiends/evil outsiders?
    All spells that deal fire damage, can be considered radiant damage if the monster is resistant (or immune) to fire?

    Rogue:
    Some kind of potion that generates a rare poison of your choice once per day?
    Boots of spider climb and striding?
    Ring of phasing (# of time per day, become ethereal for up to one minute?)
    Bracelet of expertise (+10 to all dexterity based skill checks? rogues are skill monkeys...)

    Given their offensive capabilities, I feel more utility/defense would be better here. It also allows for more dynamic/aggressive battles (don't have to worry about accidentally one shotting someone?) or incentives less direct combat approaches.
    Last edited by Jonagel; 2019-05-21 at 09:30 AM.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by moonfly7 View Post
    Also, the rogue kinda forced his echolocation into the game via whining and complaints, and it really bothers the other players who were first in the game when he joined. So I don't want too give him anything that faciltates the echolocation, as it kinda bothers literally everyone else. But he won't listen to us, so were stuck with the character. Which is fine, I'll work with it. But I would prefer nothing that relies on his echolocation.
    Why does it annoy everyone else? And why'd you give it to him for "whining?" This sounds like a problem that you probably should address with your group.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Rogue Assassin using echo-location to move....does sound super stupid, and whining to get it sounds so much worse.

    "I'm gonna sneak up on these people...and kill them..." SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE "Found you!"

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    This was a high level enemy. Assuming we're talking about 5e, you want to avoid giving anything super powered to the players, or you'll risk creating a massive bump in power levels that they'll get used to. You'll create a system where you need to 1-up your upgrades every few levels, just to keep up with a bad decision in the past. It happens a lot, especially back in 3.5 days.

    My recommendation is creating an item that scales in power based on the difficulty. Some kind of ratio benefit, or something that uses your proficiency. Avoid static numbers. Good examples are things that provide proficiency, things that apply your proficiency bonus to something (like damage), things that add resistances or immunities, or things that provide some kind of utility effect.

    For example, a ring that turns you invisible once per day is usable at every level. Not only would that be something a high level hero would have, but that's also something a level 1 character couldn't really use to break the game.
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2019-05-21 at 02:44 PM.
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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Jonagel View Post
    Rogue Assassin using echo-location to move....does sound super stupid, and whining to get it sounds so much worse.

    "I'm gonna sneak up on these people...and kill them..." SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE "Found you!"
    Hey hey, let's not be too hasty here. Let him have his blindguy...just be sure to throw in some sonic-aspect enemies from time to time...
    Sometimes, I have strong opinions on seemingly inconsequential matters.
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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    Why does it annoy everyone else? And why'd you give it to him for "whining?" This sounds like a problem that you probably should address with your group.
    Yeah, thing is you know how everyone else had special things? Well he'd already had the idea before wanting to join the game, so he wanted that as his thing. I told him no, said if he wanted to be blind that was fine, but he'd be blind. He then spent an entire week texting scientific reasons why tit was possible, and wouldn't listen to no. I was sick the whole week he did this. Finally, after I said no again, he accused me of being, and I quote, "Prejudice against the blind" and said that if I actually liked disabled people in dnd I should act like it. After that, I took a deep breath and asked myself if keeping a friend was more important to dnd, it is to me. So I curbed most of the overpoweredness of his ideas, and now he's the blind rogue. I feel terrible about it but luckily the others don't blame me. We love the guy who did this, but he's done this before, so they understand what happened and have actually been supportive to me during this. But your right, this is a mistake but I really don't know how to fix it.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jonagel View Post
    Rogue Assassin using echo-location to move....does sound super stupid, and whining to get it sounds so much worse.
    "I'm gonna sneak up on these people...and kill them..."
    SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE "Found you!"
    Whats even worse is that at the beginning when he said blind assassin rogue, I thought it would be cool. But then he said echolocation sight and I found out he wants to be blind, but see better than a normal creature.

    Quote Originally Posted by Phhase View Post
    Hey hey, let's not be too hasty here. Let him have his blindguy...just be sure to throw in some sonic-aspect enemies from time to time...
    The vengeful mean spirited part of me wants to take away his hearing every battle if I can. But I try to subscribe to the "If everyone has fun then the game is a success" attitude and refuse to take petty revenge. That being said, everyone else is not having fun, and his character just showed up last session.
    If anyone has advice I'd like some.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Why does it annoy the others?

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    Why does it annoy the others?
    They feel like it's over powered and a bit much. As one player described it "I love the idea of a blind character, but that requires you to actually be blind. That means having disadvantages. What he wants is the benefits of blindness, but also with sight" another player said "he's just playing toph from avatar. And toph wouldn't be fair in dnd for a low level pc"

    That and his characters need to hide her blindness. Several times he's said he wants to make deception checks against them knowing, and when I was asked if his eyes wouldn't give it away, he interrupted and said not all naturally blind people have milky eyes. I decided avoiding an argument was best and the subject was dropped. Now I know this reason might not make sense, but everyone else has been really open, even our warlock, who does have secrets in game. The difference is that The rogues player gets super intense when someone does anything remotely pertaining to the blind, normally on accident, and has gotten annoyed at the fighter when he shot his flintlock and unknowingly blinded the rogue. The fighter simply said out if game that He had no way of knowing that it would do anything, as the rogues character had hidden that she was blind. This caused a tension for a bit, followed by a request for deception to hide blindness from the rogue.
    So yeah. Don't know if these reasons are ok, looking over this I feel like I've screwed up, as this is basically my first time dming (I've played for a year or two and ran a one shot once). So now you know. Although I basically have the items done for them now. So I'm basically good. I hope somehow knowing about this helps come up with ideas though.

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    Default Re: My players just killed a level 20 npc, need legendary item ideas

    This sounds like a problem with the player. He shouldn’t be playing something that is this hot button for him. Bad things happen to characters. Bad things will happen to his character. I suggest talking to him about these issues. The game is for fun, not for demanding others cater to your preferences.

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