Homebrew Magic Items, review requested

[Starsun]

I made a few sentient items, and I’m curious to hear feedback on them.

Backlash
Whip, scales from rare to legendary (requires attunement)
This whip is made of a strange silvery metal that seems to have a hint of a strange energy to it. It’s always visible in the metal, but what it actually is is unclear. It seems to be more visible when you attack with it, as it rushes up and down the length. The energy might be arcane in nature, and seems to pulse slightly even when not being used. You gain a + to attack rolls, which changes as you level, starting a +1, increasing to +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13.

Crackling Energy: Any attack with this whip deals 1d4 plus the wielder’s proficiency bonus in lightning damage as well as the usual damage.

Retaliate: Once per round, when its wielder takes damage, they can use their reaction to attack that person with Backlash, adding another 1d4 psychic damage to the attack. The person must be in melee range.

Sentience: Somehow, Backlash has recently developed sentience despite not originally being designed as a sentient weapon, likely due to the tinkering of a mage who possessed it. Its stats are 10 intelligence, 10 wisdom, and 10 charisma. The weapon can sense out to 60 feet, with dark vision. It can communicate telepathically by sharing its emotions, and its alignment is neutral good.

Purpose: The whip seeks to help people protect themselves.


Thorn
Handaxe, scales from rare to legendary (requires attunement)
The hilt of this axe is made from magically strengthened wood, and is engraved with vines which carry a faint glow to them, emitting 5 feet of dim light that changes colors, making it a beautiful green light when in nature and a pure white light when in civilization, as well as a golden light in other locations. The blade is steel that never needs care, and sometimes seems to have a faint green hue to it. You gain a + to hit that changes as you level, starting at +1, increasing to +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13

Sentience: The weapon is sentient, and has 18 wisdom, 10 intelligence, and 10 charisma. Thorn can sense out to 120 feet with both hearing, standard vision, plus tremorsense, and can speak common, undercommon, and sylvan. In addition, when talking to animals or plants, it can talk in emotions.

Purpose: This handaxe sees itself as a bridge between nature and civilization, and seeks to align the two. The weapon is true neutral, and can be very philosophical at times on what can be learned from nature’s adaptations to the urban environments. The axe is mostly patient with its wielder, but can get annoyed when its wielders don’t respect its desires.

Power Disabling: If its desires are not treated with any respect, the item will simply be a normal nonmagical handaxe until its demands are met.

Focus: While attuned, the wielder can use Thorn as a druidic focus, and is under the effects of the speak with animals spell.

Vines: Once per turn, as an action, the wielder can pick a target, who will fall under the effects of the entangle spell, unless they make a strength (athletics) check that beats either the wielder’s dc or a dc of 12 + the wielder’s proficiency bonus (8 + Thorn’s wisdom + wielder’s proficiency bonus). This can be done a number of times per long rest equal to the wielder’s proficiency bonus.

These next ones I’ve also asked about on a different forum, but didn’t get much feedback on:

Starlight
Longsword, scales from rare to legendary (requires attunement)
This sword is made of elegantly crafted steel, coated with silver. The blade and hilt are intricately carved, and seem to catch the light and shine as though polished. The carvings on the blade are subtly reminiscent of the night sky, as it appears in star charts. The pommel of the blade contains an opal. In the darkness, the weapon glows faintly, emitting 10 feet of bright light and 10 more feet of dim light. This light can be suppressed or restored as a free action should you choose. If not restored before you take a short or long rest, it will do so then. You gain a + 1 to attack rolls, which increases to +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13.

Sentience: The blade is sentient, neutral in alignment. It possesses 18 intelligence, 14 charisma, and 10 wisdom. This sword has a hatred for idiocy, and is often at odds with its wielder, voicing snarky comments and insults. It speaks Common and Undercommon, and communicates through telepathy, both words and emotions. Starlight also speaks the languages its wielder does. This sword has hearing and darkvision out to 120 feet.

Biting Sarcasm: It casts vicious mockery as a reaction on the first person within 60 feet who rolls a nat 1 on an attack roll or skill check, including the wielder. It is speaking aloud, unless it does not share a language, in which case it uses telepathy. Starlight’s DC for this is 12 + the wielder’s proficiency bonus. The damage scales with the level of its wielder, the same way normal vicious mockery works. It does this once each round, targeting the first person to roll a 1 that round each time it does so. It can only target one person per round, and does not distinguish between friend and foe when it does this.

Cutting Wit: At level 7, it adds 1d6 psychic damage to the base attack. At level 13, this scales to 2d6, and starts to add proficiency bonus to it.

Purpose: Starlight was created to defeat a particular foe, a warlord who had suppressed education and intellectual studies in his realm, but that warlord died of old age before it could be used against them. As such, the sword now seeks to destroy those who limit the spread of knowledge.

Bound Attunement: The sword cannot unattune itself, though the wielder can do so with ease.

Dawnseeker
Warhammer, scales from rare to legendary (requires attunement by a being of lawful alignment)
This warhammer appears golden along, and reflects the light like a prism along the hammer head. It glows brilliantly, emitting 25 feet of bright light and 25 feet of dim light. The light cannot be suppressed. You gain a + to attack and damage rolls, which changes as you level, starting a +1, increasing to +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13.

Sentience: Dawnseeker is sentient, with 18 charisma, 14 intelligence, and 10 wisdom. It is lawful neutral, but thinks itself lawful good. Dawnseeker speaks common, celestial, and all languages its wielder speaks, along with telepathy that allows it to express emotions. The weapon has hearing and standard vision out to 30 feet.

Purity Of Sacrifice: While attuned, you can choose once per turn to sacrifice 1d10 + the wielder’s proficiency bonus in hitpoints to add the same amount in radiant damage to a successful attack roll. This can kill the wielder, and has done so before. If the attack does not hit, neither the wielder nor target are affected. At level 13, the damage die for this increases to 2d10.

Purpose: This warhammer seeks to destroy evil, but it doesn’t quite understand that good and the law are not the same thing, and so it really seeks to destroy chaos. It has a friendly and social personality, gets attached to its wielders quickly, and does not remember past wielders while attuned. While unattuned, it mourns past wielders greatly, which is why it was crafted to forget them while attuned. Dawnseeker prefers to speak only to the wielder and the wielder’s friends and family, using emotional telepathy to communicate with all other beings.

Unattunement: Should the wielder’s alignment change to no longer be lawful, the item will unattune itself.



I’m curious to hear what you guys think. Sorry if it’s a little long, there are 4 items in there.

 

[aco175]

First, @Starsun welcome to the boards.

Initially, they all feel wordy and hard to read through. Not knowing your campaign and such it might make sense, but here I'm having a hard time.

This whip is made of a strange silvery metal that seems to have a hint of a strange energy to it. It’s always visible in the metal, but what it actually is is unclear. It seems to be more visible when you attack with it, as it rushes up and down the length. The energy might be arcane in nature, and seems to pulse slightly even when not being used.

Instead of this, but say: It is made of strange silvery metal and has hints of lightning that pulse within. You can even impose a disadvantage to Stealth/Hide checks if you want.

I'm also not keen on having them all just increase in power once you reach 7th and 13th level. They could be key weapons in the campaign or something not said, but just to have a weapon in general make little sense to me. I would also like to see a bigger power in something if you keep this. Once it become a +2 weapon it gains a cool power used 1/day. Maybe even another at +3 or make the 1/day into a 1/rest power.

The Retaliate power that you can use each round is powerful and slows things down by rolling more each round. Not sure why it is Psychic damage. This could be a 1/rest power but also deals more damage.

I like the flavor of them and they would be cool in certain campaigns.

 

[Clint_L]

They're more powerful than I would be comfortable with, but the concepts are cool. I also don't like that they automatically level up with the player. Legendary weapons should feel legendary, so their empowerment should be something that happens in the story and not as a side of effect of the mechanical leveling up process, IMO.

 

[Starsun]

So, if I adjust them to have the option to either scale automatically or when they upgrade to their next rarity, would that make it better? I’ll adjust the retaliate ability, maybe make it force or lightning instead of psychic.

 

[aco175]

So, if I adjust them to have the option to either scale automatically or when they upgrade to their next rarity, would that make it better?

A bit like what @Clint_L said above, if they are one-of-a-kind weapons tied to the story, then make the story the reason they bump in power. There might be a cool adventure that is made for 13th level Pcs who go to the temple of the PC's god and need to clean it of undead. As a reward, the PC places the weapon on the altar and suddenly lightning comes down from above and it boosts in power.

Just saying that you reach 13th level and now you understand how to unlock secrets you never known about it is not as cool.

 

[NotAYakk]

I made a few sentient items, and I’m curious to hear feedback on them.

Backlash
Whip, scales from rare to legendary (requires attunement)
This whip is made of a strange silvery metal that seems to have a hint of a strange energy to it. It’s always visible in the metal, but what it actually is is unclear. It seems to be more visible when you attack with it, as it rushes up and down the length. The energy might be arcane in nature, and seems to pulse slightly even when not being used. You gain a + to attack rolls, which changes as you level, starting a +1, increasing to +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13.

Crackling Energy: Any attack with this whip deals 1d4 plus the wielder’s proficiency bonus in lightning damage as well as the usual damage.

Retaliate: Once per round, when its wielder takes damage, they can use their reaction to attack that person with Backlash, adding another 1d4 psychic damage to the attack. The person must be in melee range.

Sentience: Somehow, Backlash has recently developed sentience despite not originally being designed as a sentient weapon, likely due to the tinkering of a mage who possessed it. Its stats are 10 intelligence, 10 wisdom, and 10 charisma. The weapon can sense out to 60 feet, with dark vision. It can communicate telepathically by sharing its emotions, and its alignment is neutral good.

Purpose: The whip seeks to help people protect themselves.

I'd remove the auto-leveling.

A sentient weapon should be akin to an NPC hanging around with the party. Rather than auto-leveling, I'd have some kind of unlocking process.

+1d4 lightning damage; I'd make the die not a 1d4. I like making the extra damage on a weapon not match the base dice of the weapon; this makes rolling damage a bit easier (esp on tabletop). So make it 1d6.

A +3 to hit, +1d4 lightning damage weapon is worse than a +3/+3 weapon. It never is legendary scale.

Retaliate doesn't need the once per round; ways to get more reactions aren't that common. Another 1d4 in damage makes tracking damage more annoying.

Retaliate: When you take damage, you can expend your reaction to make a melee weapon attack with Backlash on the source of the damage, assuming they are in range of the whip.

I'd drop the extra damage on Retaliate. It is easy to forget, annoying to add on an VTT (another attack macro), and doesn't have a huge impact on its quality as a weapon.

The purposes is sort of mundane.

The damage it does does nothing but deal damage. Nothing about it yells "lighting weapon" or the like.

Backlash
Whip, rare (requires attunement)
This whip is made from short silvery metal rods connected together with wire. It shimmers with a strange energy, and gives off dim light in a 5' radius (you can dim or activate this light as a bonus action). When you attack, the energy rushes down the whip and the crackling energy produces a flash of light that provides bright light within 10' and dim within 20'.

You gain +1 bonus to attack rolls with this whip, and have advantage when attacking a target wearing metal medium or heavy armor or who is significantly made of metal (such as an iron golem). This whip deals an extra 2d6 (7) lightning damage the first time it hits any specific creature on a turn.

Retaliate: When you or someone within 5' of you are hit by an attack, if the attacker is within your whip's reach, you can expend your reaction to attack them with Backlash. If you hit with this reaction, the attacker is grabbed by you (escape DC 15) until you attack a different target with Backlash or they are no longer within Backlash's reach.

Sentience: Backlash has recently developed sentience. It has 10 in all mental attributes, and has vision and Darkvision of 60 feet. It can communicate telepathically by sharing its emotions and is neutral good in alignment.

Purpose: The whip has fallen in love with a specific person and seeks to protect that person's family or clan.

This weapon can be awakened by fulfilling its wishes, usually involving the clan or family of the person Backlash is in love with. Backlash can only communicate emotionally, which makes this more difficult.

Advancement (Very Rare): Extra Lightning damage increases to 3d8 (13). Creatures hit by Backlash cannot take reactions until the end of your next turn, and creatures are restrained Retaliate grabs them. Escape DC of Retaliate increases to 16.

Advancement (Legendary): Extra Lightning damage increases to 4d10 (22). This weapon's reach increases to 15', and you can try to move a creature up to 10' when you hit them. They can refuse to move, taking 10 lightning damage if they do so. Once successfully moved you cannot try to move them again until your next turn. Escape DC of Retaliate increases to 17.

---

1. I grant +1 to hit and never any more.
2. I scale the damage bonus, and use a different die, with higher tiers.
3. The higher tiers require some action by the PC.
4. The whip has a goal that doesn't automatically align with the PC's.
5. The reaction grabs and restrains, which is very whip-flavored, instead of doing damage.
6. The legendary breaks base game assumptions with a 15' reach. This works well with other features. It also has a "whip them around" ability.
7. The extra damage is "per creature per turn". This means it doesn't scale crazy fast with multiple attacks, which in turn means I could have it ramp up faster. Creatures with multiple attacks can whip multiple targets to get repeats of the damage, however, and it applies to both the attack and the reaction. I wanted this to be a viable rogue weapon, not just a fighter weapon.
8. You can Retaliate on attacks on you or adjacent creatures. This makes it better at protecting people.

Thorn
Handaxe, scales from rare to legendary (requires attunement)
The hilt of this axe is made from magically strengthened wood, and is engraved with vines which carry a faint glow to them, emitting 5 feet of dim light that changes colors, making it a beautiful green light when in nature and a pure white light when in civilization, as well as a golden light in other locations. The blade is steel that never needs care, and sometimes seems to have a faint green hue to it. You gain a + to hit that changes as you level, starting at +1, increasing to +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13

Sentience: The weapon is sentient, and has 18 wisdom, 10 intelligence, and 10 charisma. Thorn can sense out to 120 feet with both hearing, standard vision, plus tremorsense, and can speak common, undercommon, and sylvan. In addition, when talking to animals or plants, it can talk in emotions.

Purpose: This handaxe sees itself as a bridge between nature and civilization, and seeks to align the two. The weapon is true neutral, and can be very philosophical at times on what can be learned from nature’s adaptations to the urban environments. The axe is mostly patient with its wielder, but can get annoyed when its wielders don’t respect its desires.

Power Disabling: If its desires are not treated with any respect, the item will simply be a normal nonmagical handaxe until its demands are met.

Focus: While attuned, the wielder can use Thorn as a druidic focus, and is under the effects of the speak with animals spell.

Vines: Once per turn, as an action, the wielder can pick a target, who will fall under the effects of the entangle spell, unless they make a strength (athletics) check that beats either the wielder’s dc or a dc of 12 + the wielder’s proficiency bonus (8 + Thorn’s wisdom + wielder’s proficiency bonus). This can be done a number of times per long rest equal to the wielder’s proficiency bonus.

These next ones I’ve also asked about on a different forum, but didn’t get much feedback on:

Vines on an axe make me think about throwing it with the vines attached. This weapon doesn't even return.

The purpose seems vague. Also, it doesn't seem like it would conflict that much with a PC quite often. Which is a bit of a waste.

+3 to hit and no damage is a bad legendary weapon. I also find scaling +X to hit/damage to be boring if extremely powerful; the amount of "power space" that not having it opens up is quite good.

The description eneds work. "in other locations".

I'd use a fixed DC on Vines, or scales with the tier of the weapon. Simpler.

As a focus it sucks.

It is called Thorn and ... doesn't have Thorns. I'd add ... poison damage maybe? And maybe have the thorns bite the wielder in some mechanic. The poisoned condition is also good, maybe on a critical hit.

Starlight
Longsword, scales from rare to legendary (requires attunement)
This sword is made of elegantly crafted steel, coated with silver. The blade and hilt are intricately carved, and seem to catch the light and shine as though polished. The carvings on the blade are subtly reminiscent of the night sky, as it appears in star charts. The pommel of the blade contains an opal. In the darkness, the weapon glows faintly, emitting 10 feet of bright light and 10 more feet of dim light. This light can be suppressed or restored as a free action should you choose. If not restored before you take a short or long rest, it will do so then. You gain a + 1 to attack rolls, which increases to +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13.

Sentience: The blade is sentient, neutral in alignment. It possesses 18 intelligence, 14 charisma, and 10 wisdom. This sword has a hatred for idiocy, and is often at odds with its wielder, voicing snarky comments and insults. It speaks Common and Undercommon, and communicates through telepathy, both words and emotions. Starlight also speaks the languages its wielder does. This sword has hearing and darkvision out to 120 feet.

Biting Sarcasm: It casts vicious mockery as a reaction on the first person within 60 feet who rolls a nat 1 on an attack roll or skill check, including the wielder. It is speaking aloud, unless it does not share a language, in which case it uses telepathy. Starlight’s DC for this is 12 + the wielder’s proficiency bonus. The damage scales with the level of its wielder, the same way normal vicious mockery works. It does this once each round, targeting the first person to roll a 1 that round each time it does so. It can only target one person per round, and does not distinguish between friend and foe when it does this.

Cutting Wit: At level 7, it adds 1d6 psychic damage to the base attack. At level 13, this scales to 2d6, and starts to add proficiency bonus to it.

Purpose: Starlight was created to defeat a particular foe, a warlord who had suppressed education and intellectual studies in his realm, but that warlord died of old age before it could be used against them. As such, the sword now seeks to destroy those who limit the spread of knowledge.

Bound Attunement: The sword cannot unattune itself, though the wielder can do so with ease.

I like Biting Sarcasm. Might be helpful to not use the word reaction, as it might confuse someone it costs their reaction.

I'd drop the proficiency bonus to damage. Static bonuses aren't as "fun" as they don't scale with crits and you are rolling anyhow. Might as well use fun clacky dice. At 13 you have a +5 prof, it only scales to +6 anyhow.

Purpose, again, not enough conflict with PC there? Giving it more drive, like trying to learn about great old ones, as well as being opposed to suppressing knowledge?

Almost no connection to its name (Starlight), which is a shame. Even its glow is brighter than starlight. I might be tempted to take inspiration from the Crown of Stars spell (not the spell itself, it is too strong), and have it gather motes of starlight (with the light emitted growing?), maybe from hitting/damaging or even killing foes? Dunno.

At the end of your turn, if you delt damage to a creature with Starlight on your turn, Starlight gains a mote. Motes (except the last one) last for 1 minute, and Starlight can have up to 3 motes; the last mote never fades with time. Starlight glows with a dim light for 5' per mote, and deals +1 radiant damage per mote.

As a bonus action you can make a +7 attack bonus ranged spell attack with the motes. On a hit the attack deals 1d12 radiant damge per mote expended. If the attack misses no motes are expended as they return to the blade.

I think that is a fun minigame. You can change the max motes to be based on unlocked levels of the blade, or the damage dice etc.

Dawnseeker
Warhammer, scales from rare to legendary (requires attunement by a being of lawful alignment)
This warhammer appears golden along, and reflects the light like a prism along the hammer head. It glows brilliantly, emitting 25 feet of bright light and 25 feet of dim light. The light cannot be suppressed. You gain a + to attack and damage rolls, which changes as you level, starting a +1, increasing to +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13.

Sentience: Dawnseeker is sentient, with 18 charisma, 14 intelligence, and 10 wisdom. It is lawful neutral, but thinks itself lawful good. Dawnseeker speaks common, celestial, and all languages its wielder speaks, along with telepathy that allows it to express emotions. The weapon has hearing and standard vision out to 30 feet.

Purity Of Sacrifice: While attuned, you can choose once per turn to sacrifice 1d10 + the wielder’s proficiency bonus in hitpoints to add the same amount in radiant damage to a successful attack roll. This can kill the wielder, and has done so before. If the attack does not hit, neither the wielder nor target are affected. At level 13, the damage die for this increases to 2d10.

Purpose: This warhammer seeks to destroy evil, but it doesn’t quite understand that good and the law are not the same thing, and so it really seeks to destroy chaos. It has a friendly and social personality, gets attached to its wielders quickly, and does not remember past wielders while attuned. While unattuned, it mourns past wielders greatly, which is why it was crafted to forget them while attuned. Dawnseeker prefers to speak only to the wielder and the wielder’s friends and family, using emotional telepathy to communicate with all other beings.

Unattunement: Should the wielder’s alignment change to no longer be lawful, the item will unattune itself.



I’m curious to hear what you guys think. Sorry if it’s a little long, there are 4 items in there.

Again adding proficiency bonus needlessly. Just throw another d10 at it. Less static numbers, more clicky-clack dice, more fun.

I'd be tempted to limit its language to Celestial only. Because that is a fun problem.

I'd also be tempted to give it some detect extra planar and undead abilities, sort of like a Paladin's divine sense, with limited uses; except, it always knows when it hits a creature, and when it does so it uses Purity of Sacrifice automatically. These abilities can all consume the HP of the weilder.

The hammer is all about destroying evil ... but it considers all undead and everything from another plane on the prime evil.

I usually strip away +X to attack and damage as well. Make it a flat +1 to hit, and have it deal a scaling extra die of damage (1d4, 1d8, 1d12) as it gets stronger. To make Purity of Sacrifice less "weapon damage", what if it was a beam of light AOE centered on the caster? The wielder loses 2d10 HP (increasing to 3/4 d10), and then every other creature within 15' must make a con save or take the same amount of radiant damage as the wielder took.

This isn't ally friendly to make it extra annoying, and triggers involunterially when you hit an undead, celestial, fiend, abbiration or fey. (any celestial attacked is presumed to be fallen, or why would the hammer be hitting them?)

 

[Clint_L]

Exactly. A character in my home game recently acquired a legendary weapon in its dormant state (+1, and a flavourful secondary effect). They are level 7. Getting it was a big deal involving tracking it down from an old shipwreck to its current location, defeating traps, guardian, etc. Last session his character had a dream hinting at the next step towards awaking it, which I figure will happen around level 10 or so, and ties to his backstory. I don't yet have a plan for getting it to the exaltded state (+3, abilities fully unlocked) because that will be a high level thing and complicated!