D&D 5E Magic Item design?

[fireinthedust]

Sunsword, a +1 longsword that glows in the brightness of the sun, gaining power as it does. As long as the Sunsword is exposed to sunlight for 1 hour it glows with the effect of the light spell for 8 hours or until its special ability is discharged or the wielder commands it to stop(can be restarted as an action). Additionally the Sunsword deals maximum weapon damage to any creature it hits that possesses darkvision. Special: 1/day as long as the Sunsword is glowing from its light ability, the wielder can release a blast of daylight as per the spell. After which the sword functions as just a +1 longsword until recharged in direct sunlight.

That is a sweet sword! Did you design that, or is it from a module?

I'd only change the Darkvision bit to "vulnerable to sunlight", otherwise it's effective against, say, Dwarven Clerics of Pelor.

 

[Astrosicebear]

That is a sweet sword! Did you design that, or is it from a module?

I'd only change the Darkvision bit to "vulnerable to sunlight", otherwise it's effective against, say, Dwarven Clerics of Pelor.

I'm sure there is a Sunsword somewhere, but I just created an example off the top of my head of the flavor direction that 5e magic is taking. But agree on the change

 

[drjones]

As it stands, if you wanted to make a wand for your campaign, it would probably be usable by everyone, have 7 charges, use 1 charge per spell slot used and only require attunement if it was using some higher level spells.

We are running an Age of Worms campaign converted to 5e. Off the top of my head, we so far have wands of magic missile, healing word (old cure light wounds), unseen servant, ray of enfeeblement and shatter.

Again an item that gives you 1d6+1 levels of spells a day forever seems super buff compared to the number of slots a Wizard gets. I like magic items that are rare and powerful but this seems more like common (though not 3/4E common perhaps) and powerful. Maybe once level 1 spells start to suck more as you level this will be more reasonable.. but a wand casting level 5 spells would have to have more points back a day I would assume?

 

[Astrosicebear]

Again an item that gives you 1d6+1 levels of spells a day forever seems super buff compared to the number of slots a Wizard gets. I like magic items that are rare and powerful but this seems more like common (though not 3/4E common perhaps) and powerful. Maybe once level 1 spells start to suck more as you level this will be more reasonable.. but a wand casting level 5 spells would have to have more points back a day I would assume?

Remember if you expend all charges, when the wand would recharge you roll a d20... on a 1 it crumbles to dust.

 

[keterys]

Remember if you expend all charges, when the wand would recharge you roll a d20... on a 1 it crumbles to dust.

Which is why you should just never do that.

Like a wand of magic missiles, just pretend it has 6 charges (never use the last one) and only use the 1d6+1 (max 6) magic missile castings it gives back per day.

 

[Astrosicebear]

Which is why you should just never do that.

Like a wand of magic missiles, just pretend it has 6 charges (never use the last one) and only use the 1d6+1 (max 6) magic missile castings it gives back per day.

Actually in my Lost Mines game, the party went up against the BIG GUY in Thundertree after everything else. The mage went down on the 2nd breath attack, as did the rogue. The cleric tried to heal but a full attack got him, and the fighter was prone and weaponless and on death's door. I allowed him to use his move to grab the wand from the wizard and he just blasted "as much as i can get out of it". That magic missle at 5th did the beast in... i had him roll the d20 before i announced the monsters defeat, and he rolled a 1, everyone thought he died. It was pretty epic.

 

[Tormyr]

Again an item that gives you 1d6+1 levels of spells a day forever seems super buff compared to the number of slots a Wizard gets. I like magic items that are rare and powerful but this seems more like common (though not 3/4E common perhaps) and powerful. Maybe once level 1 spells start to suck more as you level this will be more reasonable.. but a wand casting level 5 spells would have to have more points back a day I would assume?

We just finished chapter 2 of Age of Worms, and already the wands are not getting a whole lot of daily use. The wand of shatter is used more as a plot device than a weapon. I don't remember if they found the wand of Unseen Servant. Magic missile gets used sparingly, and I don't think they have ever used ray of enfeeblement. I set the wands of healing word up like the wand of magic missile (1 to 3 charges to cast at spell slot 1 to 3) and gave it an average +2 modifier (based off a healing potion, I wanted to keep it detached from character ability scores). If cast 7 times it can do a max of 7d4 +14 (38) healing. If cast using some 3 charge shots it only gets 7d4 + 6 (30) healing. The wand of healing word is mostly only used to make sure that unconscious characters don't die (like the playtest version of spare the dying.

Because of action economy (wands take an action), the players more often use their normal actions versus the wands. And Age of Worms mostly has encounters at the party's level or higher with rests sometimes few and far between. So for this particular campaign, I think it works out to bring over all the magic items as defined in the adventure path.

 

[drjones]

Which is why you should just never do that.

Like a wand of magic missiles, just pretend it has 6 charges (never use the last one) and only use the 1d6+1 (max 6) magic missile castings it gives back per day.

Yeah I'd like to make the charges invisible for that reason. Only revealing the current status if identify is cast. But then I have to track them all myself and make all the recharge rolls myself.

I am mostly thinking of the item that gives day long Mage Armor to 2-6 players a day. That is a spell that seems like it would be viably useful for many classes for a good long while.

I guess there is the 3 item limit as well. People are not going to carry wands of Magic Missile if it means not taking that new sword.

 

[Tormyr]

Yeah I'd like to make the charges invisible for that reason. Only revealing the current status if identify is cast. But then I have to track them all myself and make all the recharge rolls myself.

I am mostly thinking of the item that gives day long Mage Armor to 2-6 players a day. That is a spell that seems like it would be viably useful for many classes for a good long while.

I guess there is the 3 item limit as well. People are not going to carry wands of Magic Missile if it means not taking that new sword.

The 3 item limit is only for attuned items. The wand of magic missile does not require attunement.

I would recommend just letting the players keep track of the wand and staff charges. I don't think it is really worth the hassle of keeping track of all of that information yourself. What it really amounts to is the player gets to decide if the situation is worth wringing the last charge out of it.

 

[Agamon]

I think a cool variant for wands would be to give them, say, 10 charges, and then have each use of the wand use 1d3 charges. You could still stop at 4 or less charges to be sure it won't die, but then you might only get 2-3 uses if you're unlucky.