D&D 5E Wand of the War Mage, Rod of the Pact Keeper, and Saving Throw DCs

[Fanaelialae]

Can you elaborate? In addition to Rod of the Pact Keeper, there are a number of other items that also add to save DCs.

I think what he means is that because caster DCs rise with proficiency and stat, and monster saves typically don't, caster DCs don't generally need any help.

IME, it's not that bad with warlocks because they can't cast many spells (unless your party short rests after EVERY encounter).

As for other DC boosting items, I could be mistaken but I believe they are all high in rarity. Meaning that they won't even see introduction to the campaign until high levels in most cases.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Can you elaborate? In addition to Rod of the Pact Keeper, there are a number of other items that also add to save DCs.

I'd have any item that added to save DCs or to save DCs & attack rolls add only to attacks. Attack rolls tend to just do damage, and ACs can be plenty high, a caster's likely to be able to choose between two or three saves to target, so can often target a poorer save, 'just better' magic item bonuses on top of that may be a bit much. (Alternately, I might consider letting a bonus apply to both attacks & save DCs, but only for cantrips.)

Also, it's just habit because such things were very rare back in the day (AD&D) - and not rare at all, and DCs were very broken, in 3e.

 

[Gwarok]

The magic item rarity categories are pretty broad, so not every item is supposed to be perfectly equal to other items of the same rarity. You can have one rare that stretches toward legendary status, and another that barely rises above being uncommon. In which case, you can buff the latter item a little bit and it will still only be rare.

That part in bold for sure. I always laugh when I think about "Staff of Fire" vs. "Staff of Power". Both are Very Rare, yet the staff of power can do everything the fire one can, plus a zillion other awesome things, including adding +2(!) to AC, spell attack rolls, and Saving throws while having twice as many charges. I made Stave of Fire do what they do now, but also have a +2 bonus that adds not just to hit, DC, but also increases any fire spell cast through it by 2 levels. Obviously there are +1 and +3 versions as well. But balancing is not exactly a science.