Do You Want 400 New Magic Items For Your D&D 5E Game?

Vorpal Puppy said:

Haha, I think you misread me there. I just mean that the people in my group would inevitably find...certain uses for such an item. It actually sounds fantastic.

And I can see where a bit if imagination would come in handy.

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for some reasion I cant seem to give you exp for this post...

but it desurves ALL the exp....

dmnqwk said:

Yes it did.

With regards to the book, do you have a list of the items (name only) as a teaser to show people how varied the options are? As a lover of all things treasure I can definitely be coerced by well-named items.

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By the way... we are introducing a new mechanic for items... optional attunement
There are some items that have lesser benefits when the wielder is not attuned to the item, but reach their full potential once they do becomes attuned.

In addition we will be presenting our own optional attunement rules (attunement itself is not in the SRD) we feel that a short rest (1 hour) is not truly enough time to attune yourself to an item... At least not in Arcanis. But again, it’s an optional rule the GM can utilize if they wish.

FUNDED!

In just a bit over 72 hours, we funded the book, making Forged in Magic: REFORGED a reality!

Now we're on our way to our first Stretch Goal, increasing the page count of the book to a meaty 180 pages! The additional pages will include many new magic items as well as the aforementioned Rune system, new weapons and new Archetypes like the mystic Ehtzara.

Here's a short write up of the Ehtzara to whet your appetite:

The Ehtzara are the tribal sorcerers of the Hinterlands, gaining power and learning spells as well innate knowledge of the natural landscape and its denizens from summoned spirits. They are a mix of three ancient traditions; the original Yhing hir beliefs of ancestor worship, the pagan elemental practices of the indigenous Pengik tribe, and amalgamations of southern magic, superstitions and religious beliefs.

Like all sorcerers upon Arcanis, the Ehtzara suffer under the bias and superstition that they deal with demons and devils to grant them power and are blamed for every malicious act or freak occurrence around them for miles. Unlike other practitioners of the arcane arts, the Ehtzara embrace this preconception and use their frightful presence and ominous reputations to intimidate others and chase off would be attackers or angry mobs.

The training and discipline for the Ehtzara is as rigorous as a monk’s, and an initiate into this group must accept that they will no longer be treated as normal, and often not even as natural. However, they will command respect and fear from all they encounter, and are imbued with many useful and devastatingly effective capabilities in trade for normality and order.

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Thank you all again and please continue to spread the word so that we can make Forged in Magic: REFORGED even better with more material, more art and, what everyone wants, a Hardback edition at NO EXTRA COST!

Oh yah I backed it, magic goodness

I'm in two minds about backing this.

On the one hand, this is exactly the sort of project I'd love to see more of.

On the other, the items are deeply tied into the backstory of a setting I have not and will never use and most of the examples have issues that make using them difficult or inadvisable.

On the gripping hand, the creators have been engaging people well here, which is always a really good thing. So what the hell, I'll back it.

Some thoughts:

• Backstory is lovely, but when an item is tied so tightly into its setting that it just doesn't make sense anywhere else, it's effectively dead weight. Now, you've probably written most of these items already and deep setting ties are lovely for people who actually use the setting, but something like the Screaming Sword in one of the examples on the Kickstarter page would need a complete rewrite to fit into any other setting.
• The Troll's Lament - okay, you can't use fire bolt because it's not in the SRD. You know what cantrip is in the SRD and would be absolutely perfect for this item? produce flame. Sure, it's 1d8 rather than 1d10, but you can use it for light and (when you switch to using the cantrip) its damage will scale properly, so the fire damage will stay relevant for a lot longer (Especially since a party would be unlikely to find a very rare item until long after a 1d10 fire damage attack stopped being anything more than a ribbon ability).
• The Whip of Hussuma has, as one of its abilities, "Your reach increases by 10 feet (instead of the normal 5 feet) when wielding this whip". This is poorly worded; I believe the effect that you wanted to achieve is "This is a whip with a 15' reach (instead of the usual 10')". What you have actually said is "When you wield this, you have a 15' reach with any weapon". This might seem to be splitting hairs, but a magic item that lets you wield other weapons at a distance is entirely valid.
• On a more positive note, the art examples you've shown are good - I like that you appear to be keeping to the inclusive style that the 5e core books used, too. I really hope you're able to deliver on the potential shown

Here's hoping you make the stretch goals, and thank you for dealing with the criticism on this thread so well!

[MENTION=25437]dwayne[/MENTION] - Thank you for supporting the project! I appreciate it.
[MENTION=6695890]ccooke[/MENTION] - I hope you do choose to back us, if you haven't already. If you did - Thank you, as well.

Story is very important to us and we used Arcanis because, well it is our flagship setting as well as having won numerous awards, so it has a special place in our hearts. But you bring up the Screaming Sword's back story as dead weight, so let's look at that:

It's basically a sword that houses the soul of a dwarf in a gem affixed to the weapon. Ignoring the whole Arcanis dwarven curse backstory, the story can still track fairly well with just the portion that dwarven souls are being harvested to "power" the blade.

You can use these swords to cause emnity between humans and dwarves or just between dwarves and the wielder of the weapon (whether a PC or NPC).

Have a group of dwarven clerics and paladins as members of an Order that tracks down these swords and destroys them to release the souls.

I can even see a player with a dwarf PC use this as a background, with a long term goal to find the sword that entrapped his grandparent's soul and see it released.

There's huge potential for conflict and story here even when untethered to the Arcanis setting.

Any story, regardless of setting, is useful in some way, whether taken as a whole, modified or used as inspriration for something completely different. So I can't agree with you that it's dead weight.

As for the mechanics, I'll leave that for Pete to answer. I'm the story guy, so I tend to not inject myself into rules discussions.

Thank you for your comment.

PCIHenry said:

[MENTION=25437]dwayne[/MENTION] - Thank you for supporting the project! I appreciate it.
[MENTION=6695890]ccooke[/MENTION] - I hope you do choose to back us, if you haven't already. If you did - Thank you, as well.

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Backed for (hopefully) a hardback. I'm looking forward to it.

PCIHenry said:

Story is very important to us and we used Arcanis because, well it is our flagship setting as well as having won numerous awards, so it has a special place in our hearts. But you bring up the Screaming Sword's back story as dead weight, so let's look at that:

It's basically a sword that houses the soul of a dwarf in a gem affixed to the weapon. Ignoring the whole Arcanis dwarven curse backstory, the story can still track fairly well with just the portion that dwarven souls are being harvested to "power" the blade.

You can use these swords to cause emnity between humans and dwarves or just between dwarves and the wielder of the weapon (whether a PC or NPC).

Have a group of dwarven clerics and paladins as members of an Order that tracks down these swords and destroys them to release the souls.

I can even see a player with a dwarf PC use this as a background, with a long term goal to find the sword that entrapped his grandparent's soul and see it released.

There's huge potential for conflict and story here even when untethered to the Arcanis setting.

Any story, regardless of setting, is useful in some way, whether taken as a whole, modified or used as inspriration for something completely different. So I can't agree with you that it's dead weight.

As for the mechanics, I'll leave that for Pete to answer. I'm the story guy, so I tend to not inject myself into rules discussions.

Thank you for your comment.

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Honestly, 'dead weight' was far too strong a phrase to use and I should have edited it - sorry about that. I do think that item is much harder to use than is ideal - even changing the backstory as you did, you're left with an item that would probably be considered evil, for instance. Interesting as a possible story hook, but less useful as a general magic item - however, my point shouldn't have been that having items like this is a bad thing. I was just hoping that most of them items are not so deeply setting-intertwined. You've picked a setting, and you absolutely should celebrate it. I'm just suggesting that the majority of people who buy this book will probably not be using your setting and, while you might convince some of them to try the setting by having such meaningful history behind the contents, it will also drive some people away. Of the items I've seen in your examples, the sword I mentioned is the only one that would be a significant burden to use; if I saw two or three such items in that limited set, I probably wouldn't have backed you.

To me, your backstory is just a load of names without context that I will have to ignore - that's not saying it's bad, just that I run games with my own settings and I have never encountered yours before. The names and details mean nothing to me, which is a but of a turn-off. I don't think it's a great leap of imagination to see that there are probably more people who would buy a more generic product. Of course, a generic product is inherently less interesting... and you've already made the kickstarter funding minimum. So you should probably ignore me entirely.

(And to be very clear: What I've seen of the setting looks interesting; I'm sorry, I didn't mean to suggest anything to its detriment.)

[MENTION=6695890]ccooke[/MENTION] - not a problem. You want to get as much utility out of the book as you can and that's completely understandable. There are well over 400 items in the book, some with detailed backgrounds, others less so. I'm sure you'll get your money's worth, especially when (if?) we reach the hardback upgrade.

And don't forget that after the Hardback unlocks, we'll start unveiling the Lairs adventures - the first written by Rob Schwalb (writer/creator of Shadow of the Demon Lord, A Song of Fire and Ice and many more great products).

Digital= easy for the Dm to hand out magic item cards/info in game. I like that!
Make sure you add a table that lists the items by commonality..I use this to quickly scan my level appropriate options at the table.

ccooke said:

The Troll's Lament - okay, you can't use fire bolt because it's not in the SRD. You know what cantrip is in the SRD and would be absolutely perfect for this item? produce flame. Sure, it's 1d8 rather than 1d10, but you can use it for light and (when you switch to using the cantrip) its damage will scale properly, so the fire damage will stay relevant for a lot longer (Especially since a party would be unlikely to find a very rare item until long after a 1d10 fire damage attack stopped being anything more than a ribbon ability).

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Well that item has gone through a bit of an edit... in the newest version you the fire bolts are simple ranged attacks which deal 1d10 Fire Damage.. In other words, in the hands of a someone with multiple attacks, such as a fighter, someone can throw a bolt of fire with each attack...

Makes it a lot more useful, and it's worth it for the fighter to keep it on hand.. (pun intended)

ccooke said:

The Whip of Hussuma has, as one of its abilities, "Your reach increases by 10 feet (instead of the normal 5 feet) when wielding this whip". This is poorly worded; I believe the effect that you wanted to achieve is "This is a whip with a 15' reach (instead of the usual 10')". What you have actually said is "When you wield this, you have a 15' reach with any weapon". This might seem to be splitting hairs, but a magic item that lets you wield other weapons at a distance is entirely valid.

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you honesty have a solid point here... edited.. thank you

ccooke said:

On a more positive note, the art examples you've shown are good - I like that you appear to be keeping to the inclusive style that the 5e core books used, too. I really hope you're able to deliver on the potential shown

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If you like that art.. ohhhh you are going to love a lot of it..

BTW once we hit 9k community goals kick in... and we have something anyone that loved the art may find quite tempting.

ccooke said:

Here's hoping you make the stretch goals, and thank you for dealing with the criticism on this thread so well!

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Thank you! and thank you for supporting us!!!

as an aside... we plan on having an "Arcanis glossary" as an appendix that will give people unfamiliar with Arcanis a quick reference (for example Elorii = Elf, Cadic = God of Shadows, Assassins, Music, and Art)