D&D 5E Monsters and Magic items

[JediGamemaster]

SO I'm new here (I lukred a bit but wotc shutting there board brought me here...) so I'm now asking for some help in rules/campaign building

So I DM a two Fridays out of the month, I have 4 players most of the time, and they are about 10th level (just a few thou away to be honest.) and I have them going to a legion base full of Hobgoblins with a few bug bears and regular goblins hanging around. They already know that there are about 1,000 troops there and an artifact of immense power.

SO I'm using hoards of basic hobgoblins, and wanted to give them a few items to use...but I was unsure how big a swing it could cause...

If I can have a dozen archers, and I give them all 5 +2 arrows each, and half of them acid bows (add +1d6 acid to damage) how will that effect the CR?

What if I have 1 Captian and six regular hobgoblins, but each of the regulars have rings of protection and the captian has a wand of lightning bolt?

does anyone have suggestions on magic items (I'm not afraid of tressure the PCs are now aligned with a kingdom so they can totally equip an army if they want)

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Giving standard hobgoblins some of those magic arrows, I'd consider their CR 1 isntead of 1/2.

Giving them each a ring of protection, I'd do the same.

Giving a captain a wand of lightning bolt, I'd consider him CR 4 instead of 3.

My suggestions on magic items is to add literally any of them that you find interesting to the game, but make it so that it is rare/difficult to be able to buy the exact magic item(s) a player wants so they they either use what they get (limited by attunement, which keeps them within the realm of being able to devise challenges for them) or pass it off to someone else and maybe get some coin out of it that doesn't just turn into "better" items. It's worked great for me.

 

[JediGamemaster]

again I plan to not give any real items that the party would want, but that they can give to the allied king and army. I mean the wand they would most likely keep, but the weapons and rings are not much use for them but would help make the challenge more...

+1 items should be +1 cr sounds good too me too. I think I'll stat the leaders as a warlock and a paliden...

 

[discosoc]

Consider the magic economy of that place too. Is the fact that a hobgoblin army equipped with powerful magic weapons something worth turning heads, or is it normal? If it's not normal, I can't really see a kingdom simply "outfitting" their troops with such items. Maybe distributed among the nobles and elite as family trophies or something, but that's it.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

+1 items should be +1 cr sounds good too me too.

So long as you keep in mind that is only for the lower-end of the challenge ratings; giving an adult dragon, for example, a ring of protection wouldn't change the CR at all because it doesn't represent a significant change in such a potent creature's capabilities.

I think I'll stat the leaders as a warlock and a paliden...

Those changes could also affect the CR of the creatures, depending on how many features of those classes you add in.

 

[JediGamemaster]

Consider the magic economy of that place too. Is the fact that a hobgoblin army equipped with powerful magic weapons something worth turning heads, or is it normal? If it's not normal, I can't really see a kingdom simply "outfitting" their troops with such items. Maybe distributed among the nobles and elite as family trophies or something, but that's it.

oh, the whole thing is the artifact lets them make these items, they have been prepping for almost 3 years... the items are supposed to be what turned them from a minor issue to a major "get PCs in here now" issues...

So long as you keep in mind that is only for the lower-end of the challenge ratings; giving an adult dragon, for example, a ring of protection wouldn't change the CR at all because it doesn't represent a significant change in such a potent creature's capabilities.

Those changes could also affect the CR of the creatures, depending on how many features of those classes you add in.

yea I'll make the big bosses from scratch...


thanks

 

[discosoc]

oh, the whole thing is the artifact lets them make these items, they have been prepping for almost 3 years... the items are supposed to be what turned them from a minor issue to a major "get PCs in here now" issues...

Awesome. Since it's part of the story, that could be real interesting. Makes me wonder what the kingdom's leaders would do to get their hands on that artifact.

 

[ExploderWizard]

If these items give a decent bump to AC, to hit bonus or damage per round then they may change the CR. Each item has to be looked at individually and compared to who is using it to see if CR is affected.

Those +2 arrows will add a couple points to average damage which probably won't matter much. They are also +2 to hit which IS a major offensive CR factor. +2 attack bonus is enough to bump offensive CR up by one.

The acid damage is averaged and added to damage output. With the magic arrow, this would put average damage at 10.5 per round (not counting martial advantage). Because of the hit bonus jumping from +3 to +5, I would make these a CR 1.

In most cases a simple +1 to AC isn't worth a CR bump by itself. +2 would bump defensive CR by 1. Assuming you made the captain a spell caster that could use the wand the average damage would be 28. The captain can already do this much average damage with martial advantage, but the lightning bolt can target multiple opponents. The wand use is also very situational and may or may not be a huge factor depending on how the captain was encountered so I would call it a wash.

 

[the Jester]

I'd do a quick evaluation of them using the system for monster creation in the DMG. I don't know without looking, but my guess is that +2 arrows aren't going to significantly alter anything CR-wise.