D&D 5E Frustrated with 5E magic items

[QuentinGeorge]

Sure. But why would they ever spend the time taking it, whne all there is to use is for are money sinks?

Fundamentally the GP cost for magic items is 3rd edition is effectively a money sink as well.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Fundamentally the GP cost for magic items is 3rd edition is effectively a money sink as well.

Disagree.

 

[NotAYakk]

Invisibility isnt anywhere near as broken now as it was in prior editions. Im not sure what makes this so crazy broken?

Like; Gloomstalker rangers are basically doing this vs all critters with darkvision from 3rd level, and that's breaking nothing.

Against creatures without "see invisible", it is disadvantage on all attacks on you, and advantage on all attacks you make, and immunity to all attacks of opportunity, and immunity to entire categories of spells.

The fact you can also hide and make the enemy lose track of you is a slight bonus. And there are easier ways to get invisibility that aren't as top-tier as the cloak.

I mean, there are better combat buffs. Haste, Tenser's, Holy Weapon, Swift Quiver, Foresight, Shadowblade, Wish(Simulacrum) all compete really well with Greater Invisibility.

Of those, all but Tenser's stacks perfectly with greater invisibility. And items that did any of those others would as a non-action also be top-tier legendary gear. (The closest item I can find is the Scimitar of Speed, which is ridiculously weaker than "item that casts haste for 2 hours/day as no action" analogue of the cloak of invisibility)

Gloomstalker gets invisibility against creatures with darkvision if there are no light sources. Given how darkvision works in 5e, underground races would still light things up (darkvision gives you sight with disadvantage in darkness; it would be like humans living where the light never gets brighter than a full moon). Having glowing fungus that generates a dim light within 20', for example, is perfect for underground races (they get full vision, surface dwellers get disadvantage on perception, and Gloomstalker's invisibility doesn't work).

 

[Flamestrike]

Against creatures without "see invisible", it is disadvantage on all attacks on you, and advantage on all attacks you make, and immunity to all attacks of opportunity, and immunity to entire categories of spells.

Including many beneficial spells. Bless, Healing word, Haste, Polymorph and tons of others. Your friendly Cleric cant choose to exclude you from Spirit guardians effect. There are heaps of helpful effects abilities and spells you cannot be targeted with when invisible in addition to hostile ones.

And dont fall to 0HP with the hood up either. That could cause some problems.

Dont get me wrong, its a fantastic magic item befitting of legendary tier. But I dont think it's as 'broken' as you claim it is.

Of those, all but Tenser's stacks perfectly with greater invisibility.

Against creatures without blindisght, truesight or similar. It gives you advantage and them disadvantage. Seeing as you already had advantage to hit anyway thanks to Tensers transformation, I'm not sure how this suddenly becomes broken?

 

[NotAYakk]

Against creatures without blindisght, truesight or similar. It gives you advantage and them disadvantage. Seeing as you already had advantage to hit anyway thanks to Tensers transformation, I'm not sure how this suddenly becomes broken?

I listed, in my opinion, the strongest combat buffs in 5e, and noted that greater invisibility stacks very well with many of them.

Foresight is better, but a 9th level slot. Tensers it stacks poorly with (you only get defensive benefits from Invis). Shadowblade "advantage in dim light" doesn't stack, but the dice from the weapon does. Haste, Holy Weapon, Swift Quiver and Wish(Simulacrum) stack perfectly with Greater Invis.

Normally stacking more than one of these requires extra-character support, because all but Wish(Simulacrum) is a concentration spell. This gives you another concentration-quality spell effect that stacks with many of the other top-tier buffs in the game.

Greater Invisibility's main weaknesses are that see invis/blindsight/truesight becomes commoner at high levels, its short duration (hence action requirement in-combat usually), and concentration requirement. The cloak gets rid of all but 1 of these downsides.

 

[Flamestrike]

I listed, in my opinion, the strongest combat buffs in 5e, and noted that greater invisibility stacks very well with many of them.

And I was pointing out that many of those strong combat buffs can only be cast on a 'target you can see' ruling out the invisible creature (or at the very least providing some difficulties in targeting) as well.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

RHoD in essence puts the PCs in front of BBEG's blitzkreig.
They have to warn The Authorities, delay the enemy's oncoming might, and contact potential allies to send aid. There are two possible climaxes: a defensive fight at the regional capital city, or taking the fight to BBEG personally in his lair - as he brings in reinforcements.
I recognized the parallels to Rise of Tiamat, which is basically a larger version of this scenario. (I was weird and discovered / read them in reverse order of publication.)

In case no one else has suggested it, let them hire hirelings to do downtime activities for them, and shorten how long those things take.

 

[Eltab]

In case no one else has suggested it, let them hire hirelings to do downtime activities for them, and shorten how long those things take.

I did, kinda, see my early-on post.

 

[Xeviat]

If that's what you want, why don't you just use those 3E DMG rules for wealth-by-level, magic item prices and city limits?

The strength of 5E rules is that they make no assumptions on these kind of things to make the game work, but it doesn't prevent you from adding your own.

I'm actually strongly considering that, and just dividing the magic item enhancement bonuses by 2 and rounding up. I appreciate the structure, and I find the presentation of the 5E magic items to be not helpful.

 

[NotAYakk]

I'm actually strongly considering that, and just dividing the magic item enhancement bonuses by 2 and rounding up. I appreciate the structure, and I find the presentation of the 5E magic items to be not helpful.

Round up for a plain item.
Round down for an item with a property.

Then adjust to taste.

So a +1 flaming sword becomes a +0 magical flaming sword.

A +5 sword is a +3 sword. A +5 holy avenger becomes a +2 holy avenger (which you might adjust, because +2 holy avenger seems a bit cheap, but you get the point).

You can even just drop the pluses entirely if the other feature seems awesome enough.