Artifact Ideas (Vestiges)

[Hatox]

Hey everybody,

inspired by Critical Roles "Vestiges of Divergence" (for those who don´t know them they´re basically really powerful magic items that start good and slowly become legendary), I wanted my players to have a "personal" magic item, too. These are meant to be artifact level items, which really change the combat.

So I wanted to post my ideas for these Vestiges here and ask for your opinions about them.

For the first post I want to talk about the item I imagined for our Valor Bard: The Ring of Bards

A legendary item passed down by the most powerful of Bards to their most promising successors.

At the beginning its only power is that, while you are wearing it and are attuned to it, you can use a free action to summon any kind of musical instrument or +1 weapon or shield into your hands (to represent the "jack of all trades" part of bards, even with weapons). You can only have one such item at a time.
I thought about letting these weapons damage be partly/fully force damage, but this might be too strong.

If the ring advances to its next stage, the weapons/shields summoned by it become +2, and the Bard can use the ring to get help from the wisdom of its old owners. 1/long rest you can give yourself proficiency (or maybe expertise?) in a skill for one check.
Also if the force damage would be too strong at first, it could be introduced here.

When the ring reaches its full potential, the weapons summoned by it become +3, and the Bard can unleash the full power of the ring.
As an action (maybe bonus action) you can summon forth the spirits of the rings old wielders, which come forth to inspire your allies. Expend as many bardic inspirations as you wish. For the next minute at the start of your turn (or maybe when you use your bonus action to activate it) you can give bardic inspiration to a number of creatures equal to the amount of bardic inspirations you expended earlier.
How the bardic inspiration works (what it can be used for) is bound to what kind of bard the current wielder is.


Would be nice to read your thoughts about this

(Maybe I´ll post my other ideas in the future)

 

[Satyrn]

The inspiration bit at +3 is neat. I like that a lot.

But I find the bit that comes at +2 to be quite, er, uninspiring. It works out to just a bonus to a single check - but only if I don't have proficiency in the skill. You should make this so much bigger than you are. Maybe grant proficiency in a skill the bard doesn't have, or expertise if it's one he has.

And whether the summoned weapon deals force damage or not barely affects anything (@Dausuul recently did the work that proves this) so go right ahead and throw it in at +1.

 

[Hatox]

Yea I thought about making the second getting expertise in a skill for one check 1/day (or maybe 1/short rest), because proficiency isn´t really much considering jack-of-all-trades, but getting expertise in something youre usually not proficient in would be a +9 for one check at max proficiency which should be neat.

I forgot that of course the weapon is magical and there are nearly no creatures with resistance to magical bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage^^

 

[Satyrn]

Yea I thought about making the second getting expertise in a skill for one check 1/day (or maybe 1/short rest), because proficiency isn´t really much considering jack-of-all-trades, but getting expertise in something youre usually not proficient in would be a +9 for one check at max proficiency which should be neat.

I had a second thought about an alternative for this, to help give it some real oomph and interest.

How does this strike you: At the end of each long rest the character selects an Ability score. Until his next long rest he gains a +2 bonus to all skill checks with the chosen ability. The bonus increases to +3 when the magic weapon does.

I'm thinking of it like summoning forth the knowledge of one of the ring's previous bearers, connecting with different ones based on the ability score chosen.

 

[Hatox]

Sounds like a cool alternative

I have a few other items I´ll just post one after the other here too, so I don´t spam new threads^^

This item was born out of the fact that there is no benefit to one handing a weapon without a shield. (I have an arcane trickster in the group that wants to go meele-off-tank with mirror image, blur etc. but he doesnt really want to fight with a shield, and I thought using an offhand weapon would take most of the fun out of his 13th lvl ability to use his mage hand as a bonus action for advantage, so I made this weapon)

Grace:

Grace is a rapier that has been made for a legendary duelist, who was known for being nigh untouchable with devastating ripostes.

At the beginning it is just a +1 rapier, that adds +1 to AC if you have a free hand and allows you to use the dodge action as a bonus action 1/short rest.

Once it advances to its second stage it becomes a +2 weapon and the AC bonus goes to +2. It also infuses you with the reflexes to punish minor mistakes made by your enemies. If you are missed by an attack and you are in range to attack the attacker, you may immediately make a free weapon attack against him(might make this cost the reaction, but then its just too close to the barbarian skill), you can use this feature a number of times equal to your dexterity modifier and it recharges with a long rest.

If it reaches its full potential attack bonus and AC go up to +3, and you can channel the power of the master-duelist for a short time. 1/week as an action you can force every hostile creature that can see you (or knows of your exact location e.g. its blind but has tremor sense) in a 100 ft radius to use its next turn to make every possible effort to make an attack or spell which features an attack roll against you (if this is impossible the creature is immune). The attacks are made at disadvantage . Every attack that misses you may trigger a riposte counterattack, regardless of range, without consuming riposte uses.

 

[Satyrn]

That is neat. I like it a lot.

The only thing I wonder about is the very last sentence: "Every attack that misses you may trigger a riposte counterattack, regardless of range, without consuming riposte uses."

It reads like the character gets to make a rapier attack "regardless of range." but what does that look like against a foe 50 feet away?

 

[Hatox]

Yes that is correct, the usual riposte is only possible if the enemy is in striking distance, but with this skill you basically make an unbelievably fast lunging attack and immediately go back to your position.

 

[Hatox]

The next one I don´t know if I´m super convinced cause a lot of it´s abilities are just spells because the abilities I had in mind already existed as spells (in came out as spells in XGTE)

Rift:

Rift is an ethereal shortsword with the power to manipulate the space around his user.

In the beginning its a +1 shortsword that has the thrown property (range 20/60) and can teleport back into the hand of its user after being thrown, alternatively if the user hits an creature with it, he can instantly teleport into a space within 5ft of the creature.

Reaching its second stage, the bonus goes to +2, and you´re also allowed to teleport to the location of the shortsword immediately after hitting an object (like a wall or the ground) with it. Also you get the ability to cast steel wind strike with a spell attack bonus of +8 1/day.

Once it is fully awakened the bonus goes to +3 and you can teleport to the blade even if you throw it into the air as an attach action, you can avoid starting to fall at the end of your turn with a successful DC 10 athletics or acrobatics check (DC goes up by 5 for each consecutive check without touching the ground)
Also the sword gets the ability to bend time and space around you. 1/week you can cast timestop and while it is active you´re under the condition of the far step spell.
The attack bonus of steel wind strike goes to +12

The basic idea for this weapon came from Final Fantasy 15, while I wanted to steal the Witcher 3s special attack for Ciri which then was implemented as steel wind strike about as close as I imagined it. Just for its ultimate ability I didn´t have any especially good ideas that fit the "teleportation" part, but then I thought teleportation is just bending time and space, so I went for a slightly improved timestop.