D&D 5E I'm thinking of giving the half-orc Barbarian an axe that powers up during battle.

[Saeviomagy]

It's effectively +2 to damage if your combats end on the 6th round. Seems fine to me. Personally I might have made it start at a d10, then not ramp down until the end of rage as kind of a tradeoff to be made. And probably curse it too.

 

[Flamestrike]

That d30 idea is intresting.

You effectively have a 2/3 chance of scoring an 11-20 (a 1/15 chance of scoring each of an 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20) and a 1/3 chance of scoring a 1-10 (1/30 chance of each number).

I kind of like it.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

More relevant perhaps, what are you giving everybody else to play with? Unless it's a solo adventurer, the other players are going to want their own ridiculously powerful toys, which exponentially increases the irrelevance of pretty much any threat of everyone has something broadly equivalent.

 

[spectacle]

It sounds like a cool item. Most 5E fights are short and the first rounds are the most important ones, so this item will only rarely reach its full power. It's strong but nowhere near overpowered.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Do the math to figure out what static bonus the d30 thing is approximately equal to, and just give that axe that bonus.

EDIT:

If you're curious, the result of your d30 method...where 21 to 30 is treated as 11 to 20...is the equivalent of a + 1.5 bonus.

Which means that if the conclusion above that the damage bonus is equal to +2 is correct, what you're really talking about is approximately a +2 axe, that also has a 50% higher chance to crit.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

A single lucky critical would turn that axe into a vastly overpowered item. If you really want to make that sort of axe, I'd use the rules for artifacts with it. But my vote would be against something like that, for what it's worth.

In past editions, there was a magic sword that cycled from +1 to +4 and back down through combat, increasing/decreasing one plus per round. Something like that would be less potentially game-breaking than increasing the damage die so greatly.

 

[Slit518]

More relevant perhaps, what are you giving everybody else to play with? Unless it's a solo adventurer, the other players are going to want their own ridiculously powerful toys, which exponentially increases the irrelevance of pretty much any threat of everyone has something broadly equivalent.

The Dwarven Barbarian has a Maul in which he crafted, it does 2d10 damage. He has a gauntlet of his god called "Throgren's Right Hand", which adds a +2 enchantment bonus to any weapon he wields using that hand, as well as +2 armor class, he can wield 2 handed melee weapons 1 handed with it, as well as add up to 6 gems into the hand, each one with an added damage bonus once a long rest if he chooses to expend it. He also has crated a helmet from a giant's skull, which grants him advantage on intimidation checks against giants, as well as has a fear effect on giants within 30 feet, Wis save DC 8 + prof mod + Str mod. He has also crafted a tooth necklace from his fallen enemies, it contains teeth from cultists, kobolds, goblins, and now orcs. The necklace is starting to become more of a tooth "chainshirt" with how many teeth it has, and has the same effects towards the cultists, kobolds, goblins, and orcs as the giant's helmet.

The Bard has an outfit which makes him proficient in every save/skill (not tool or vehicle or language), and he gets advantage on those things. It also adds +2 to all of his stats while he wears it. He also has a bastard sword which does 2d8. Both these items combined have use his 3 attunement slots, and give him a daily roulette power which I roll a 1d20 to determine the effects.

The Monk is a changeling, his character backstory is he isn't from this world, or at least he doesn't believe he is. His magical item is an alien alloy sphere which floated through the vast stretches of space and time in search of one worthy to command wear it. Essentially the suit makes a bond with it's bearer, covering them with a protective lair of it's malleable form. It basically turns the Monk into Ironman's Hulkbuster armor, but in all silver. The suit has power points equal to the current total max hit dice of the monk, and certain actions cost a power point. The suit also raises the unarmed strike up a die-grade, and give the monk a ki blast. The monk can expend points to shoot larger ki blasts, really large ki blasts, heal, self destruct, or fly. The suit grants resistance to several types of damage, and immunity to I believe 2 types. However, the monk's land speed is halved, they are vulnerable to electricity, and they can't cast spells or use spell like abilities while in the suit.

A single lucky critical would turn that axe into a vastly overpowered item. If you really want to make that sort of axe, I'd use the rules for artifacts with it. But my vote would be against something like that, for what it's worth.

What are the artifact rules?


For anyone else who is curious, the world we are playing in is a homebrew. The land we are playing on is extremely high magic. So magic items are semi common, and more powerful items can be made.

 

[spectacle]

The Dwarven Barbarian has a Maul in which he crafted, it does 2d10 damage. He has a gauntlet of his god called "Throgren's Right Hand", which adds a +2 enchantment bonus to any weapon he wields using that hand, as well as +2 armor class, he can wield 2 handed melee weapons 1 handed with it, as well as add up to 6 gems into the hand, each one with an added damage bonus once a long rest if he chooses to expend it. He also has crated a helmet from a giant's skull, which grants him advantage on intimidation checks against giants, as well as has a fear effect on giants within 30 feet, Wis save DC 8 + prof mod + Str mod. He has also crafted a tooth necklace from his fallen enemies, it contains teeth from cultists, kobolds, goblins, and now orcs. The necklace is starting to become more of a tooth "chainshirt" with how many teeth it has, and has the same effects towards the cultists, kobolds, goblins, and orcs as the giant's helmet.

The Bard has an outfit which makes him proficient in every save/skill (not tool or vehicle or language), and he gets advantage on those things. It also adds +2 to all of his stats while he wears it. He also has a bastard sword which does 2d8. Both these items combined have use his 3 attunement slots, and give him a daily roulette power which I roll a 1d20 to determine the effects.

The Monk is a changeling, his character backstory is he isn't from this world, or at least he doesn't believe he is. His magical item is an alien alloy sphere which floated through the vast stretches of space and time in search of one worthy to command wear it. Essentially the suit makes a bond with it's bearer, covering them with a protective lair of it's malleable form. It basically turns the Monk into Ironman's Hulkbuster armor, but in all silver. The suit has power points equal to the current total max hit dice of the monk, and certain actions cost a power point. The suit also raises the unarmed strike up a die-grade, and give the monk a ki blast. The monk can expend points to shoot larger ki blasts, really large ki blasts, heal, self destruct, or fly. The suit grants resistance to several types of damage, and immunity to I believe 2 types. However, the monk's land speed is halved, they are vulnerable to electricity, and they can't cast spells or use spell like abilities while in the suit.



What are the artifact rules?


For anyone else who is curious, the world we are playing in is a homebrew. The land we are playing on is extremely high magic. So magic items are semi common, and more powerful items can be made.

You're going to have to power up the axe, as described it is weaksauce compared to what these other characters have.

 

[Slit518]

You're going to have to power up the axe, as described it is weaksauce compared to what these other characters have.

Well the character who is getting the axe has a harness that allows him to roll a d30, where 21-29 count as another set of 11-19, while a 30 allows an extra critical die. He also had a dream that gave him some magical powers, so he has a couple spells (borrowed the idea from Baldur's Gate), he can cast Cure Wounds and Sleep at it's highest level each once a day.

The only other item I was thinking of giving him is a necklace that raises Str by 6, Con by 4, and Wis by 2. It has 3 shrunken heads on it, his father's who was patriarch of the Grimrock Clan, his brother's head, and the patriarch of the Irontusk Clan.

Debating if I want the axe to also do 1d6 piercing and 1d6 cold due to the environment it came from. The orc tribe he descended from lives inside of a mountain valley and some of the only plants that grows around in the hostile environments are brambles. It's also cold most of the year there. So, when he finally vanquishes his family's murderer, and reunites the clans together, he will be rewarded.

 

[KahlessNestor]

How does an axe dk piercing damage? And those are some huge stat boosts. Are you breaking the stat caps? This whole thing seems incredibly broken...

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