D&D 5E Overpowered Items and GM Expectations

[Fauchard1520]

I see the deck in play once, 1 dead, 2 missing, the two remaining characters including mine got nice boost.
the dm admit it was a personal phantasm to run it since long ago.
it took long to recover but it was a nice firework.

I feel like the Deck is the One Ring of DMing. It wields a temptation too great and terrible to resist, even though you know it will only lead to ruin.

 

[Krachek]

I feel like the Deck is the One Ring of DMing. It wields a temptation too great and terrible to resist, even though you know it will only lead to ruin.

I don’t have answer to the OP. Some want to have weird stuff at their table but are they able to manage it? I can guess that if a table cannot manage rolled abilities, MC feat combo, material from Xanatar and Tasha, they won’t be able to manage out of scope magic items.

 

[Stalker0]

My recommendation would be to assume that the items will be temporary.

Go with a classic LOTR idea, the party is given the "one ring" (or equivalent), and has to get it to X place. Now maybe there is not the evil restriction on using the item, in fact they are encourage to use the item as much as they need to get the job done.

As a DM, this lets you get a feel for how the item works in your game. If they get to the place and you are going "I am so tired of this item", then the party has to get rid of it, quest complete, and you move on. But if they get there and you are still digging it, maybe the twist is they get to hold on to after all for "reasons".

But yeah I think its important to add this trap door in the game for yourself, this allows you a chance to try before you buy with such powerful items.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I feel like the Deck is the One Ring of DMing. It wields a temptation too great and terrible to resist, even though you know it will only lead to ruin.

Or, it might not really change much, in which case you'll likely be disappointed. Ruinous chaos is what you actually wanted when you brought the thing into play.

 

[Shiroiken]

Powerful, even artifact/relic level magic items don't have to ruin a campaign if you plan for them. The big issues are with unlimited usage, such as uncharged or quickly recharging items, or those with highly random effects. I've had lots of experience over the decades, so I've seen how they can be used well, and how they can be used badly. Here's a story of each, plus an humorous, albeit insane, story from my earliest campaign.

I ran an epic 5E campaign that ran from level 1 to 18, ending by facing Lolth, the Queen of the Demonweb Pits. The party found Doud's Wondrous Lanthorn at about level 10, which could replicate pretty much every light based spell, plus had other powers. However they needed the different lenses to work, as they only had the 4 crystal lenses not the 7 gem lenses needed to unlock all the abilities. With only a few abilities, it wasn't very powerful for that point in the campaign. As the campaign progressed, they recovered various lenses that unlocked more and more abilities as appropriate for that level. There was also the cost to fuel it (expensive gems), and the person attuned to it would die forever if the flame ever went out, so they didn't use its powers willy-nilly.

A friend of mine during 3E figured out that you could make a ring of infinite wishes (cast wish as action every round) using the rules in the DMG. It was insanely hard to do, but he was thinking about putting it in a campaign and wanted to justify its existence mechanically. I pointed out that he essentially created the One Ring, and best be ready for that level of impact. He wasn't, and the entire campaign was a fiasco, where the party killed each other to gain control of it.

WAYYY back in 1E, I inherited a campaign that was in the mid-20th level (1E and OD&D had unlimited progression). As they neared level 30, they had found a Deck of Many Things, which they'd experienced once before. For whatever reason, these morons decided to bet magic items on an insane game of "5 card draw" (it was actually stud, but we didn't know the difference). Each player would draw a card from the Deck, then each survivor could wager a magic item that would have to be matched in value or fold. In theory whoever had the best hand won, but in reality the only survivor won. One lost all his wealth and magic items, one had his soul stolen by Orcus, and another was Imprisoned within the astral plane. The two then departed to recover the two that were lost, after taking their loot of course!

 

[TheSword]

Just up the difficulty of monsters. Add character classes, improve armour, give them parry, give them spell like abilities, give them enchanted effects.

Im running my group through Kingmaker, adapted to take into consideration some of the elements from the computer game.

When you see the group of 6th level PCs face off against trolls with 2 levels of fighter, wearing half plate, and large great swords, who have a brand making them immune to fire it turns everything up a notch. That group has magic items above their level. Why not. It’s fun.

The more I run monsters in 5e the more I realize I don’t believe they’re meant to be ran straight. They’re the base level. Let your imagination (deviousness) run riot and pile on the extras.

 

[cmad1977]

You don't necessarily need magic items in 5e. Mearls famously explained that mess way back in 2012. But with the math behind the system assuming that you receive only the specific abilities and bonuses granted by your character class and race, any little boost in power goes a long way towards tipping the power balance. That's why you don't hand out +3 weapons like they're candy to starting-level PCs.

But suppose that you actually want to go ham with the magic items? You want to hand out uber-powerful world-shaking artifacts and give the party the chance to play with them. How do you calibrate your expectations as a GM? Is there anything beyond "expect the unexpected" or "see how they do and then recalibrate your encounter design?" Basically, I'm asking how to prepare for a party wielding an Orb of Dragonkind of a Deck of Many Things. Is it possible to run a reasonable game with these things in play? Or will they always upset game balance beyond repair?

(Comic for illustrative purposes.)

Just add more metal to your adventure design.

 

[Zsong]

You don't necessarily need magic items in 5e. Mearls famously explained that mess way back in 2012. But with the math behind the system assuming that you receive only the specific abilities and bonuses granted by your character class and race, any little boost in power goes a long way towards tipping the power balance. That's why you don't hand out +3 weapons like they're candy to starting-level PCs.

But suppose that you actually want to go ham with the magic items? You want to hand out uber-powerful world-shaking artifacts and give the party the chance to play with them. How do you calibrate your expectations as a GM? Is there anything beyond "expect the unexpected" or "see how they do and then recalibrate your encounter design?" Basically, I'm asking how to prepare for a party wielding an Orb of Dragonkind of a Deck of Many Things. Is it possible to run a reasonable game with these things in play? Or will they always upset game balance beyond repair?

(Comic for illustrative purposes.)

Trial and error. Figure it out. Learn how things work. Experiment. That’s not an insult or attempt to be condescending. That’s how I learned b/x and ad&d. And I think the game is better for it. I think may of the things aren’t really quantifiable on a universal level for everyone. It depends on how I chooses to run your game and encounters and interactions.

 

[Guest User]

My still active, inaugural 5e campaign is something I have wanted to try for 30 years,
it features the Swords of Power...as inspired by the works of Fred Saberhagen.

Trial and Error experimentation is needed. A weapon like Townsaver....a longsword that becomes a +5 Weapon and grants the wielder something like a Zealot Barbarian's Rage Beyond Death power isn't as difficult to balance, as one may think.

Now, Stonecutter, which as an action could either create a Passwall effect, or
Move Earth effect...was vastly more disruptive than Townsaver.

I personally believe artifacts should place a target on the wielder's back.

A fantasy world church, with a footprint In the campaign similar to the Catholic Church, might be heavily motivated to recover the death shroud of the earthly incarnation of the god they worship. If that artifact is in the hands of the PC, some complications will happen.

I love the Deck of Many things, and have included the artifact in almost every game I have ran. Eventually, someone is going to turn over a malignant card at the wrong time, probably more than once.

This usually leads the players to agree that the deck is too unpredictable to use safely.

 

[Zsong]

My still active, inaugural 5e campaign is something I have wanted to try for 30 years,
it features the Swords of Power...as inspired by the works of Fred Saberhagen.

Trial and Error experimentation is needed. A weapon like Townsaver....a longsword that becomes a +5 Weapon and grants the wielder something like a Zealot Barbarian's Rage Beyond Death power isn't as difficult to balance, as one may think.

Now, Stonecutter, which as an action could either create a Passwall effect, or
Move Earth effect...was vastly more disruptive than Townsaver.

I personally believe artifacts should place a target on the wielder's back.

A fantasy world church, with a footprint In the campaign similar to the Catholic Church, might be heavily motivated to recover the death shroud of the earthly incarnation of the god they worship. If that artifact is in the hands of the PC, some complications will happen.

I love the Deck of Many things, and have included the artifact in almost every game I have ran. Eventually, someone is going to turn over a malignant card at the wrong time, probably more than once.

This usually leads the players to agree that the deck is too unpredictable to use safely.

I love the deck of many things. I place in games just to see who will take the risk to see if their greed pays off.
I once had them do it with a red dragon that loved random games of chance. And they played it with the red dragon. The red dragon drawer the card that changes its alignment to lawful good. And the dragon became a reoccurring npc, more of a quest sender or source for lore and knowledge. And it was definitely not a planned character for my sandbox campaign.