D&D 5E +1 Shield and Table p. 142-143 of the DMG

To begin with I have to admit that I really looove the table on the pages 142-143 of the 5E-DMG! That being said, a dwarven cleric in my game got a +1 shield and giving most of the "non-wondrous items magic items" of my campaign some special features, I have the following thought concerning this very +1 shield: Are these features a bit over the top?

Minor Property: Shadowbane. The bearer of this shield has necrotic damage resistance, while protecting oneself with it (shield bonus adding to AC).
Quirk: Truthspeaker. The bearer of this shield cannot lie (as if under the effect of the spell Zone of Truth), while protecting oneself with it (shield bonus adding to AC).

Any critique, help or comment appreciated! Thanks, Mhyr.

I suppose it depends on the level of the character, but I think its fine and a player should be excited to find it as their share of the loot.

I love the minor properties table, too. I make it a point (as much as possible) to give every magical item I give out a name, a history, and some minor properties. E.g. my players are much more attached to "Flauntiir, the ancient Enkidu Staff of Flame which gives +2 to initiative and enhances the wielder's covetous impulses" than they would be to a regular old Staff of Flame. In fact, I'll venture to say that the greediness of Flauntiir probably comes up in play significantly more often than the fact that you can use it to shoot Fireballs, probably because the player in question enjoys having something external to blame his hoarding tendencies on.

Those should be fine. Personally, I don't give out +1 shields, as they stack with +1 armor, and I don't want AC getting too out of control. I limit shields to other magical abilities. Though, it would be interesting to do it the other way around, and not give numerical bonuses to armor instead.

Those have become a couple of my favorite pages as well.

Oh, yeah! Here is my take on some of the items found in LMoP:

TALON (+1 longsword)
Creator: Dwarven. The dwarven Clan Goldhammer created this longsword for House Tresendar in the Spellforge of Wave Echo Cave.
History: Bane. The orcs of the Sword Mountains hated Claw and still tell stories of this longsword in their caves, passing its infamy to the younger generations.
Minor Property: Sentinel. When an orc is within 120 feet, Claw begins to glow in a silvery light.
Quirk: Loud. Whenever a critical hit is scored with Claw, the screech of a hawk is heard loud and clear.

HEW (+1 battleaxe)
Creator: Dwarven. The dwarven warrior Rorek Belgar created this battleaxe in the forges of Southkrypt.
History: Bane. The dryads of Kryptgarden Forest hated Hew and so the fey of the Swordcoast North still tell stories of this battleaxe in the twilight under the trees of their forest home.
Minor Property: Rusty. The axehead appears always rusty and unimpressive no matter how passionate the polish, but it deals maximum damage when the wielder hits a plant creature or an object made of wood.
Quirk: Disturbing. Whoever carries the axe feels uneasy whenever he or she travels through a forest.

SPIDER STAFF
Creator: Demons. The demonic inhabitants of the Demonweb Pits created these staffs for Lolth’s drow arcanists on Toril during her grab for the Weave.
History: Sinister. These staffs are linked to a deed of great evil: Lolth’s plan to replace the Weave with her own Demon Weave and becoming goddess of arcane magic. Arcanists venerating Mystra or even Shar and knowledgeable of this fact (Religion 20) treat the bearer with suspicion.
Minor Property: Language. The attuned bearer can communicate with spiders as if speaking their language.
Quirk: Wicked. When the bearer is presented with an opportunity to act in a selfish or malevolent way, the item heightens the bearer’s urge to do so. (When in doubt the DM may ask for a Wisdom save DC 10)

STAFF OF DEFENCE
Creator: Wizards. The wizard guild of Phalorn created this staff, but only few arcanists, sages or collectors would recognize this fact today.
History: Arcane. The people of the old realm named Phalorn considered diversity a virtue. In Phalorn lived humans, elves, halflings, dwarves and gnomes together in peace and harmony, respecting the mannerisms of the various other races. The wizards of the realm were just like their neighbors of human, elven, gnomen, halfling and even dwarven descent and agreed on the dragon as an ideal being combining the strongest traits of each race.
And therefore the wizards of Phalorn created various magic items in the form of miniature dragons or featured a draconic aspect in their design.
Minor Property: Strange Material. In this particular case the wizards of Phalorn used ancient Netherese formulars to make the glass as durable as oak wood.
Quirk: Confidence. The item’s bearer becomes confident and somewhat self-centered, just like the dragons its creators idolized.

Resistance can be a lot on a +1 shield.

Mhyr said:

Oh, yeah! Here is my take on some of the items found in LMoP:
...snip...

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I'm currently running the LMoP starter and the PCs so far have found Talon and and Staff of Defense.
What's amazing is that with just a few rolls, the items can be so completely different. For instance for Talon (which you named "Claw" above) I let my player roll for the Minor Property and she got that it can amplify her voice and make it carry out to 300 ft. I didn't let her know what the minor property was, but just after a battle with the Redbrands (who got desperate and attacked them in broad daylight) she held the sword high in triumph and yelled out "This is what will become of all Redbrands!" This then carried throughout pretty much the entire town. Needless to say the PCs (and players) where a bit confused but delighted with the conclusion of that scene.

It is fine, but I might allow the resistance to only operate in bright light or something else... but that'd be more about flair than balance, honestly.

Scorpio616 said:

Resistance can be a lot on a +1 shield.

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Yes, that's what I thought, too. I tried to counter this with the Truthspeaker Quirk. It developed from the background of the item. It was given to the dwarven cleric of moradin (on level 4) by his fellow member of the Order of the Gauntlet Daran Edermath. The half-elf adventured on the Dragon Coast AFAIK remember, so it was likely he had some treasure from that area. I came up with the Nightmasks and one thing led to another...

At the moment the whole item description looks like this:

? (+1 shield)
Creator: Human. The Eye of Justice, the sect of the Threefold God, created this shield to withstand the vampiric soldiers of darkness. It still shows the symbol of the sect prominently.
History: Religous. The Heresy of the Threefold God was a belief that Helm, Tyr, and Torm were the same god. The Eye of Justice was the only known organization that held this belief.
In 1384 DR, Gedrin Shadowbane had a vision in which Helm was slain by Tyr and Helm’s godhood merged with Tyr’s. Later, Gedrin had another vision in which Tyr was killed by Orcus after which Tyr’s essence merged with Torm’s, creating the Threefold God.
And this shield has been blessed by Gedrin Shadowbane and the power of the Threefold god himself, for it was created to fight the vampiric Night Masks of Westgate. Daran Edermath was awarded with it in his early years on the Dragon Coast after defeating a contingent of the infamous thieves’ guild in Teziir, before giving it to the dwarven cleric Rangrim.
Minor Property: Shadowbane. The bearer of this shield has necrotic damage resistance, while protecting oneself with it.
Quirk: Truthspeaker. The bearer of this shield cannot lie (as if under the effect of the spell Zone of Truth), while protecting oneself with it.

jgsugden said:

It is fine, but I might allow the resistance to only operate in bright light or something else... but that'd be more about flair than balance, honestly.

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Now this is a great idea! Although I would just turn it the other way around and make it only work in the night, as vampire hunting/fighting is likely to take place during this time. Great! Thanks a ton, jgsugden!! Would you make this true in addition to the Quirk or replace it?