D&D 5E Balance Issues With This Magic Item?

[Shadowdweller00]

Was thinking about introducing the following magic item in one of my games:

Item is hat or bag. Someone attuned to the item can reach into the container as an action and produce a tiny creature. The creature can understand and speak in any language known to the user; and obeys their commands to the best of its ability. The creature takes whatever general form the user desires but can be no larger than a guinea pig or medium-sized rabbit; it may possess a climb, swim, or flying speed of up to 30 feet. The creature has bonuses to stealth and perception equal to the user's highest stat bonus plus their proficiency bonus. It can bite or claw an enemy (once per round) with a bonus equal to the user's highest stat bonus plus their proficiency bonus; however its tiny attacks only deal one point of damage. There is no limit to the number of times the container may be used per day, but only up to three such creatures may exist at any one time. After 24 hours of life, or after taking 2 points of damage, or if the user commands it to do so, any creatures created by the bag disintegrate into puffs of colored smoke that smell of incense and quickly drift away..

(Base stat block to be provided for creatures)

Item is (I imagine obviously) intended for low-level characters. My main question is: Can anyone think of any balance considerations / abuses / exploits posed by such an item at CL < 3

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm sure someone could, based upon how they run their own game and the players at their table that would make use of it. So you'll receive any number of differing opinions on its balance / abuses / exploits. None of which will probably help you.

However, their tables aren't your table. So if you think this item is probably fine... introduce it into your game and then playtest it. The fact that you wrote it as you did with its current balance-point probably indicates what you think your players would most likely do with it. So have faith in your inference of your player's actions and your design aesthetic and just use it. If it works, it works. If it becomes untenable, then you find a way to remove it. Even if it becomes as simple as there having been a "maximum number of creatures" tally in the background that the players never knew about, and at some point if you want to remove the item from the game, you just say the bag just stops producing animals. At that point, maybe turn it into a Bag of Holding so at the least the item doesn't become completely useless to them.

 

[Lanefan]

This item gives the PCs potentially endless aerial scouting. Reach in, pull out a small bird (or, if dark, a bat), send it off to scout the area, and when it returns it can freely report what it saw as it has the built-in ability to speak the item-user's languages.

As a player, I could make (perhaps excessively) good use of that at any level.

 

[MarkB]

Seems like it's somewhere between a bag of tricks and a usage of Find Familiar. Either way, not much it can do that either of those options can't.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

This item gives the PCs potentially endless aerial scouting. Reach in, pull out a small bird (or, if dark, a bat), send it off to scout the area, and when it returns it can freely report what it saw as it has the built-in ability to speak the item-user's languages.

As a player, I could make (perhaps excessively) good use of that at any level.

This item is basically the Find Familiar spell, and yeah that spell is perhaps excessively good, at all levels.

My only concern with that magic item would be that you're basically giving away a core class feature to all classes. This is not necessarily a problem, just a concern to think about.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, this is a magic item that's meant for shenanigans, so that's fine. But as @DrJawaPhD says, it reduces the value of spellcaster familiars. If you don't have any in your play group, it's probably fine, just as knock and the rope of climbing are fine in groups without rogues, but step on their toes badly in groups where they're played.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Reminds of my favorite magic item:

Bag of Useful Halflings:

You can reach into the bag and pull out a (slightly confused) halfling* and command it to perform a single, simple task. The halfling will be compelled to do it and then will disappear.

The command must be something the halfling can do immediately and takes a, relatively, short amount of time.

Things we did with it:

• give me some money (I got 7 copper)
• here, take this money (I gave them 10 sp)
• cast mending on this broken wheel (dm rolled randomly after the command and we, luckily got a halfling cleric
• Go deliver this message (to a guy across the street and I was too lazy to cross the street)
• Jump up and down 3 times (we were experimenting with what it could do)

*They were confused because they had no idea how they got there. In our campaign world, the halflings were actually summoned from other locations in the world so you could, potentially, run into a halfling that you pulled out of the bag

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Reminds of my favorite magic item:

Bag of Useful Halflings:

You can reach into the bag and pull out a (slightly confused) halfling* and command it to perform a single, simple task. The halfling will be compelled to do it and then will disappear.

The command must be something the halfling can do immediately and takes a, relatively, short amount of time.

Things we did with it:

• give me some money (I got 7 copper)
• here, take this money (I gave them 10 sp)
• cast mending on this broken wheel (dm rolled randomly after the command and we, luckily got a halfling cleric
• Go deliver this message (it was a guy across the street and I was too lazy to cross the street)
• Jump up and down 3 times (we were experimenting with what it could do)

*They were confused because, they had no idea how they got there. In our campaign world, the halflings were actually summoned from other locations in the world so you could, potentially, run into a halfling that you pulled out of the bag

Were there any guardrails in place to stop this from getting X-rated?

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Were there any guardrails in place to stop this from getting X-rated?

Fortunately, not that kind of game. I imagine the DM took that into account. It was supposed to be a command that was relatively quick to perform....probably not enough time to get x-rated.

We got it from a magic item seller who sold unusual (and mostly useless) stuff:

The Dragon Staff - can only be used by dragons
The Cloak of Cold resistance - made you immune to the common cold

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Were there any guardrails in place to stop this from getting X-rated?

Maybe they could just be friendly and well-disposed to the user rather than magically compelled?

That sounds like an hilarious item.