AnotQuiteSimpleSoul
Explorer
A lot depends on what you want to do here, are you trying to make a neat magic item for the campaign that the players will want to keep using even as they level up? Then including one or two features that scale with proficiency modifier/level and don't offer a lot of good alternatives when the time for treasure comes around, or make the item so bizarrely useful that they never get rid of it.
Hell sometimes this happens by accident... I never knew you could murder that many people with a decanter of endless soapy water. You never know when a player's brain will latch onto something and start breaking the universe with what was supposed to be a cursed, minor, or even joke item.
If you want the game to be directly about unlocking the secrets of a potent magic item then things are a bit more complicated, especially if you only have one item like this and it belongs to one of the PCs. Then you get into trouble because it can feel like you're focusing on them to the exclusion of other players. Some groups can of course handle or even ignore that aspect of things, but it's still something you want to be aware of. IN that case something a bit more structured is probably called for if only so you can make sure the other players are getting some roughly equivalent compensation, alternatively make the item something more support and/or party oriented so it's less about the magic item/the owner saving the day and more about the group saving the day with the item/the owner. Mechanically you have a few more options here, scaling powers is of course a thing you can do, or you can upgrade the item at story appropriate moments such as when the players find another missing piece of the artifact or when the mysterious sage has them go on a dream quest to attune themselves to it more strongly.
Hell sometimes this happens by accident... I never knew you could murder that many people with a decanter of endless soapy water. You never know when a player's brain will latch onto something and start breaking the universe with what was supposed to be a cursed, minor, or even joke item.
If you want the game to be directly about unlocking the secrets of a potent magic item then things are a bit more complicated, especially if you only have one item like this and it belongs to one of the PCs. Then you get into trouble because it can feel like you're focusing on them to the exclusion of other players. Some groups can of course handle or even ignore that aspect of things, but it's still something you want to be aware of. IN that case something a bit more structured is probably called for if only so you can make sure the other players are getting some roughly equivalent compensation, alternatively make the item something more support and/or party oriented so it's less about the magic item/the owner saving the day and more about the group saving the day with the item/the owner. Mechanically you have a few more options here, scaling powers is of course a thing you can do, or you can upgrade the item at story appropriate moments such as when the players find another missing piece of the artifact or when the mysterious sage has them go on a dream quest to attune themselves to it more strongly.
