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D&D 5E Alternate Magic Item charges
- Thread starter Blue
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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 This is an update of a post originally made on 1/9/2016.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
I used that system all the way through 3rd.
Might bring it back for 5e.
In base 5e, a staff of healing can be treated as:
1) A 10 charge Cure wound staff that gains 7.5 uses/day on average.
2) A 5 charge Lessor Restoration staff that gains 3.75 uses/day on average.
3) A 2 charge Mass Cure Wounds staff that gains 1.5 uses/day on average.
In your system, such items would have vastly different properties than the staff of healing would.
A 2 charge Mass Cure Wounds would probably roll 1d3 for its charge die, but it would never die from a single use.
In your system, it rolls 5d8 and has a great chance of fading from a single use.
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At some point, given how much more similar your items are to scrolls that you can sometimes use twice, you might not want to model your items after 5e items at all.
The connection to 5e items (the charge use = dice rolled) doesn't seem to yield any benefit. The balance points are way different, both between charged items and between charged items and non-charged items, that any rarity info 5e provides is dross. The use by characters is also extremely different.
This seems to be a system in need of a purpose.
If you want a ring of the ram in your system, just invent stats for it.
1) A 10 charge Cure wound staff that gains 7.5 uses/day on average.
2) A 5 charge Lessor Restoration staff that gains 3.75 uses/day on average.
3) A 2 charge Mass Cure Wounds staff that gains 1.5 uses/day on average.
In your system, such items would have vastly different properties than the staff of healing would.
A 2 charge Mass Cure Wounds would probably roll 1d3 for its charge die, but it would never die from a single use.
In your system, it rolls 5d8 and has a great chance of fading from a single use.
---
At some point, given how much more similar your items are to scrolls that you can sometimes use twice, you might not want to model your items after 5e items at all.
The connection to 5e items (the charge use = dice rolled) doesn't seem to yield any benefit. The balance points are way different, both between charged items and between charged items and non-charged items, that any rarity info 5e provides is dross. The use by characters is also extremely different.
This seems to be a system in need of a purpose.
If you want a ring of the ram in your system, just invent stats for it.
I've found that with wands and most staves, limiting charges is a worthwhile venture. Limiting charges on other items is problematic, however, as it can radically weaken the item past the point of usefulness. This idea with wands and staves is probably okay, but a bit overworked for me.
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