D&D 5E Alternate Magic Item charges

[Blue]

So, I am interested in changing the flavor of charged magic items for a campaign to be a less dependable and more likely to be expended, and also slow down the pace of recharge some to match specific campaign needs. (Don't worry, I do know that this will have an effect on the value of charged items, assume this will be balanced out in treasure acquisition - I plan on being able to give out more and at earlier levels.)

I was thinking that I would remove the number of charges, and replace it with a die (the size roughly dependent on the number of charges of the item). When charges are used, a number of dice equal to the number of charges are rolled. If a 1 comes up, the item is Enervated. If two or more 1s come up, the item is depleted and fails (as running out of charges and rolling a 1 on the d20). Max charges used for items with variable usage like the Wand of Magic Missiles is the original charge limit (often 7).

If an item is Enervated, it may only spend 1 charge at a time, and rolls a d4 for it. On another result of a 1, the item is depleted and fails.

An item recovers from Enervated state in various ways that will match the campaign theme, often via an active thematic task as opposed to just passage of time, but less often than the every day that charges regenerate at.

Example with a heavy charge item: Wand of Magic Missile
Using 7 of 7 charges from a fully charged Wand of Magic Missile in a single action was maximum damage output, once every couple of days, with a 5% chance of destruction. 6 of 7 charges was a way to maximize damage without chance of destruction.

With this, using 6 charges gives a 1/3 chance of no 1s, which means it can be used again just as hard the next round. It has a ~40% chance of being Enervated, be the equivalent of that 1 charge left, and a 27% chance of just failing.

So while the chance of failure is much higher, the chance that it's fine to use again the next round exceeds it, something the original doesn't have.

Example with a light charge item: Staff of Charming
The Staff of Charming has 10 charges, and nothing uses more than 1. Giving it a d8 instead of a d6 would mean that there is no chance to go from fine to failure, and we would expect a lot of uses before it gets Enervated.

Example with low charges: Ring of the Ram.
Has 3 charges normally, so only 2 uses before chance of failure with the normal item. Has two uses, each which uses 1-3 charges. With this system, using all 3 gives a 27/64 chance of being perfectly fine, an equal chance of being Enervated, and a 10/64 chance of failing.

Using only two charges gives a 9/16th that it's fine, 6/16 that it's Enervated, and a time 1/16 chance it fails. So, normally that wouldn't be a chance of failure, but also it's got a better than half chance it's just fine and can be used again.

Hmm, the more I look at my examples, I worry that this is actually making the items more powerful by allowing more potential for high usage in short timeframe - if you are pulling out consumable items, odds are being able to use them at full strength multiple actions in a row would be a significant boon.

Thoughts? Improvements? Pitfalls? (Please try to focus on the mechanic, not about the campaign thematic to be less reliable.)

 

[commandercrud]

Seems overly complicated. All I did was remove that items recharge at all.

 

[Monayuris]

The Black Hack rpg has a concept called the usage die.

The Black Hack drivethrurpg

it starts at a d6.Every time you use the wand you roll the die. If it comes up 1 or 2, reduce the die one step. Continue until the die is depleted wherein the normal event that happens on expending the last charge

I think the die chain is: d20 -> d12 -> d10-> d8 -> d6 -> d4 -> d3

You can increase the die size to increase charges. I think a d12 will yield around 20 uses on average.

 

[Blue]

Seems overly complicated. All I did was remove that items recharge at all.

The existing mechanic is "manage charges, is you get to zero, roll a die and if it's a 1 it fails, and handle every day charge regain".

The proposed mechanic is "manage 'Enverated' status. roll dice and act on 1s for failure". It has less moving parts than the original rule, so if this is too complex than the original rule is MUCH TOO COMPLEX and this is a welcome fix.

And if the original rule isn't overly complicated, then this simpler rule isn't either.

I don't accept a "new to me" as a failure.

 

[Blue]

The Black Hack rpg has a concept called the usage die.

The Black Hack drivethrurpg

it starts at a d6.Every time you use the wand you roll the die. If it comes up 1 or 2, reduce the die one step. Continue until the die is depleted wherein the normal event that happens on expending the last charge

I think the die chain is: d20 -> d12 -> d10-> d8 -> d6 -> d4 -> d3

You can increase the die size to increase charges. I think a d12 will yield around 20 uses on average.

I've seen things like that for arrow usage and such before. However, it didn't handle using multiple charges at once. Also, mathematically having the die step down won't mathematically work well for the small numbers of charges while still giving a "almost out" state, which is a desired place.

 

[commandercrud]

The existing mechanic is "manage charges, is you get to zero, roll a die and if it's a 1 it fails, and handle every day charge regain".

The proposed mechanic is "manage 'Enverated' status. roll dice and act on 1s for failure". It has less moving parts than the original rule, so if this is too complex than the original rule is MUCH TOO COMPLEX and this is a welcome fix.

And if the original rule isn't overly complicated, then this simpler rule isn't either.

I don't accept a "new to me" as a failure.

I think it has X charges and when it gets to 0 it's done is easier.

 

[Dausuul]

The proposed rule took me a little while to wrap my head around, partly because it continues to use the term "charges" for an item that no longer actually has charges. Here's a rewrite, replacing the term "charges" with "power dice":

• Some items have power dice. (The size and number of dice depend on the item.)
• When you activate such an item, you may be required to roll one or more of its power dice.
• If you roll a 1 on a power die, the item becomes enervated. Its power dice are reduced to a single d4.
• If you roll a 1 and the item was already enervated, or if you get two 1s on the same roll, the item is drained and loses all magic.
• An enervated item is restored to normal when [some event happens].

Applying this to a wand of magic missiles:

Wand of Magic Missiles
This wand has 7d8 power dice. While holding it, you can use an action and roll power dice to cast the magic missile spell from it. With 1 power die, you cast the 1st-level version of the spell. You can increase the spell slot level by 1 for each additional power die rolled.

 

[Blue]

The proposed rule took me a little while to wrap my head around, partly because it continues to use the term "charges" for an item that no longer actually has charges. Here's a rewrite, replacing the term "charges" with "power dice":

• Some items have power dice. (The size and number of dice depend on the item.)
• When you activate such an item, you may be required to roll one or more of its power dice.
• If you roll a 1 on a power die, the item becomes enervated. Its power dice are reduced to a single d4.
• If you roll a 1 and the item was already enervated, or if you get two 1s on the same roll, the item is drained and loses all magic.
• An enervated item is restored to normal when [some event happens].

Applying this to a wand of magic missiles:

Wand of Magic Missiles
This wand has 7d8 power dice. While holding it, you can use an action and roll power dice to cast the magic missile spell from it. With 1 power die, you cast the 1st-level version of the spell. You can increase the spell slot level by 1 for each additional power die rolled.

The items still list number of charges for various uses, some with different amounts for each. For example a Staff of Healing uses 1 charge for cure wounds (per spell level), 2 charges for lesser restoration, and 5 charges for mass cure wounds. So I was using that terminology.

I don't want to make people think about a Staff of Charming, which has 10 charges traditionally as having 10d8 - you can only spend one die at a time, you never ever have 10d8 to roll for it. You aren't spending the dice, you aren't reducing them. Even with a wand of magic missiles, sending 4 missiles will not change you can send 1-7 next time (unless you are Enervated). I was trying to show this with having an item like the Wand of MM where you can use lots of charges and the Staff of Charming where you can use a max of 1 each time.

Plus these rules aren't quite the same. Failure happens with two 1s - it could be first in normal leading to enervation, and then again, or it could happen both on the same roll without ever going to the enervation state if you are using a lot of charges - just with less likelyhood. This is important for items where you can use it all up in one even in traditional like the Wand of MM or the Ring of the Ram. Also once enervated you only can spend 1 charge at a time, not have Xd4s.

 

[Bupp]

I've been using a variant that I adapted from an old Dragon Magazine called Magic Focusing.

The TL: DR is that a spellcaster uses his own spell slots to power the item. Non spellcasters use hit dice.

Magic Focusing: Variant for Charged Magic Items

Like, Follow, Share, Support! This is an update of a post originally made on 1/9/2016. I’ve been reading through old issues of Dragon Magazine for things to convert to 5e. While I’ve fo…

jonbupp.wordpress.com

 

[Tonguez]

The proposed rule took me a little while to wrap my head around, partly because it continues to use the term "charges" for an item that no longer actually has charges. Here's a rewrite, replacing the term "charges" with "power dice":

• Some items have power dice. (The size and number of dice depend on the item.)
• When you activate such an item, you may be required to roll one or more of its power dice.
• If you roll a 1 on a power die, the item becomes enervated. Its power dice are reduced to a single d4.
• If you roll a 1 and the item was already enervated, or if you get two 1s on the same roll, the item is drained and loses all magic.
• An enervated item is restored to normal when [some event happens].

Applying this to a wand of magic missiles:

Wand of Magic Missiles
This wand has 7d8 power dice. While holding it, you can use an action and roll power dice to cast the magic missile spell from it. With 1 power die, you cast the 1st-level version of the spell. You can increase the spell slot level by 1 for each additional power die rolled.

nice fix, I like