The "Dungeon Dudes’ Treasure Trove" is a collection of 21 magic items for use in D&D 5e. Featuring the Armor of Power, the Cloak of One Million Ants, and the Portable Door, each unique item comes battle-tested from our campaigns and packed with full-colour illustrations. Find it on the Dungeon Master's Guild here: www.dmsguild.com/product/251780/Dungeon-Dudes-Treasure-Trove
what rarity would you make a dagger that when thrown you can speak a command word it turns into a great sword that deals 2d6 force damage (instead of the d4 or 2d6 slashing from a normal greatsword), has finesse and can blink back to you with a command word spoken as a bonus action.
I once created a necklace that either helped or failed charisma checks. Roll a 15 or higher = instant success, roll 5 or lower = critical failure. It was based off of another campaign where our rogue either nat20d or nat1 charisma checks
A potion that for 1 minute after consumption will return the character to 1hp if they go down. It has a 5% chance of returning them to 1/2 health (natural 20) and a 5% of failing 2 death saves (natural 1). I was thinking of throwing a "madness" or PTSD type element, to it after falling and coming back up 3 times for example. Any input?
I created a dagger that you can get from a mimic that has the mimics ability to mimic other items, and when you activate it by concentrating you can morph it into another item but it keeps its same weight. when you first wield it, it is cursed with the same adhesiveness as the mimic, giving you disadvantage on attack rolls with it until the curse is removed.
I intented the "red tape of flexing". It reduces by 1d100 percent of the duration of any ongoing bureucratic process that affects you. And... it even works underwater.
These are a few ideas I came up. Lightbringer: A +1 longbow that once per long rest can fire an arrow that when it strikes its target, casts a 2nd level cure wounds. This ability can only be used by a good-aligned character. Bloodcull Buckler. A shield that has jagged edges all around it, its weilder can use a bonus action to strike with the shield, dealing 1d6 slashing (no mods) damage. If the creature has blood, the shield drinks it, adding half the damage inflicted as temporary hitpoints. Girdle of Living Lightning: Once per day, the wearer of this belt can speak a command word and condense their form into a bolt of lightning, traveling up to 40ft. Any creature in the bolts path must make a dex 15 saving throw or suffer 4d6 lightning damage. Tablecloth of feasting. Once per day, unfolding this tablecloth will yield a buffet style banquet of upscale food and drink enough for up to 10 people. Portable stairs. A 3 foot plank of wood that, when the command word is spoken, transforms into a 15ft staircase. I have plenty more if anyone needs them.
Thank you gentlemen, yours were pretty spectacular as well. Love the trench idea, I don't feel enough attention gets paid to terrain manipulation in-game. Also for a laugh, enjoy my Amulet of the Hero: This amulet only has 5 charges and cannot be replenished. When using it, a Human, Lawful-Good Fighter with 65hp is conjured and obeys your commands, within reason (see alignment). This fighter can ONLY roll a natural 1 on all attacks, saves, and ability checks.
The two magic items that I created that were received the best, both ended up on a character played by my now ex-wife. We were playing a homebrew 1st edition based game. The first item was a modified sun blade. All I did was change the "swing around head to create light" to "drawing the sword created a 240' radius daylight effect," adjust the damage vs. evil a bit, and gave it a disruption effect vs undead vulnerable to sunlight. She was playing a paladin who worshipped the God of the Sun and became a badass vampire hunter. The second was a cloak I called Cloak of the Sandman. It allowed the character to turn themselves into sand and pour themself through small openings and turn themself into a small sandstorm. I made the item after watching the first Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser, so...
I created Natures Wrath Axe Handles for the lv 5 barbarian in my campaign. There are two of them and grant a +1 each to damage dealt while raging. It's dealt as fire, lightning, or cold which is chosen as the barbarian enters rage. It's lead to some amazing role-play because the barbarian will ask the Wizard or the Ranger "What type of angry do I get?" And if they're able to recall information about the specific enemy, they'll specify burny, shocky, or chilly before the barbarian rages.
@@Thiccyg XP to level 3 did something interesting for a house rule. I think every + in int can be a skill, tool, or language proficiency, and every +3 can instead be used for expertise. While having negative reduces how many you know. So having it low actually matters because you might have to give up a proficiency if you dump it.
@@OddMobileWatcher I like that a lot. Reminds me of how A D&D was, you got extra languages for higher Int, but there was an optional rule where you could trade extra languages for a skill.
A couple weeks ago we found a 'wand of magic missiles', but when the DM announced it he said, "You find a 'Pistol of Force Bolts'." So now my Fighter/Rogue has a wand in the shape of a pistol holstered on the back of his belt.
Friend of mine told me about the "Boots of Knocking" he got in his campaign. They are boots. Enchanted with the Knock spell. Why? So they can open chests like Link from The Legend of Zelda: By kicking them. I imagine it can make for some dramatic entrances too.
Simple item that can have really powerful effects: Ring of Respite: Once a day, this ring allows the wearer to regain the use of a single ability that would otherwise require a long rest to regain.
So you use an action or bonus action to regenerate a use for your one use per long rest ability, or a long rest ability is reduced to only needing a short rest?
I made an item called Helm of the Minotaur. Gives the player the wearing it the Minotaur’s charge attack and gore attack. The Paladin gnome in the party picked it up. Needless to say it’s been awesome!
I have a cute Item: I rated it Uncomon based of the 3rd lvl Catnap spell. Its a pillow made of griffon feathers, the favorite pet of a Bard character I had. Effect: "This pure silk white pillow has round edges and looks very soft and inviting" Once per day up to two creatures can take a short rest using this pillow, and plunder into a short, yet very deep sleep. After you have rested for 10 minutes, with this item you gain all the benefits from a short rest. But the next time you sleep without this pillow , you will need an extra hour of rest to gain either the short rest benefit or the long rest benefit. (for added flavor I added the minor flaw to it) I also had a version of it with a small curse: If two people sleep together using this pillow, each of those two have to make a saving throw as if they had taken a love potion. (we had a really funny moment with this)
We had a Blooddrinker dagger. It dealt extra 1d6 necrotic damage to a living creature (those that have blood) and had a special quirk in it. Whenever a character using the dagger rolled natural 20, the dagger would transfer the life essence from an attacked creature to the dagger owner. However, when a character using the dagger rolled a natural 1, the dagger would instead stab/wound the wielder. Later I asked the DM about the destiny of that dagger and he told me that he planned it to be growing/upgradable after a certain amount of different creatures' blood "tasted" essentially revealing the nature of it being the cursed item and attempting to consume the soul of its owner by driving him into unstoppable rage that expected to be the complete massacre on a failed wisdom saving throw but it never came up to that point as the dagger owner attempted to "upgrade" the dagger themselves by putting it into a pool that had "Wild Magic" effect on whatever touches it and the effect happened to be "If the creature affected by the Wild Magic draws a weapon before the next sunset, the weapon vanishes", so the weapon was lost.
I made a coin of luck, once created by the goddess Tymora herself, which has a golden and a silver side. If the owner throws it there´s a 95% chance (1D20 side) the thrower calls it right. Also it somehow finds it´s way back to the owner, if the coin is lost or stolen. Might not be that original but it´s amazing to see how creative the player uses this item. Plus: I gave the player a real coin, which had on side painted. It´s always neat to bring a "real" version of an artifact to the table :) Great video!
Also it says it somehow finds its way back to the owner. That's vague enough to use as a DM to have some interesting roleplay moments. Perhaps the player gives it to someone they want to meet again - and that person becomes a recurring NPC - because that coin is still on their person? Or you could slip it into an enemy's pockets to assist in tracking them. The item didn't specify it would be teleported back - just that it would find its way. There are some really creative ways to try and screw with fate in this item... I may need to introduce it to my campaign
You'd be amazed at how even a "Rock of Gravity Detection" can be received by players. It was just a rock that dropped in the direction of gravity. I was given one as a joke, but I made use of it several times.
Helpful one for wizards: “Ring of Forgetful Scholars” a ring that copies the Wizard’s Spellbook and acts as a replacement given the spellbook is lost. In the event the spellbook is not recovered the Wizard may not add new spells using the ring, but may use the information from the ring to fill the book’s other tasks. They can also use the ring create a fully functional replacement given appropriate time and resources.
Oh god... I have so much I want to "talk" about, but also I don't want to write a mini novella, so it's really, REALLY difficult figure out how to start xD. Oh well here I go. Creating magic items is probably one of my favorite things to do. I have created so many over the... I want to say 8-years of playing/GMing. If I am being honest, I do tend to make overly powerful items, but also I've only managed to implement few of the items I've created. I love making them, but also I do see problems they could bring (most of the time), so I have the clarity to leave them in the notes untill I figure them out. I want to share the few I have used in games (D&D 4e) with some lore attached. Crytal Lense of Magic - A clear, see through, green tinted lense, size of a monocle. Tiny magical runes are inscribed on the edge of the lense, all around the edge. By itself it does nothing, and gives faint magical aura. How ever if a caster focuses a spell through the lense (Bonus action or Attack action, as some spells are bonus actions to cast), that spells power is amplified, depending on the quality of the craftmanship and potency of the runes (from adding since dice to dmg or adding some duration, to damage multiplication and "group buffing"). Once spell is channeled through the lense, it will shatter to pieces and cannot be used again. The Lenses are crafted from specific type of crystal, only found deep underground. While crytal type itself is not rare to find, finding large enough piece without large imperfections does make it slightly rarer. Cost of a lense can get pricy due to uncommnality of the material, skilled craftsman needed to create the lense and the magical engravings. Players might find "amazing deals" on these lenses, however frauds are common, and even poorly made real lense can be dangerous. It is known, that if lense has flaws or does not focus properly, it can, and will cause backcast. Reported cases talk of part of the spell reflecting back to the caster causing harm, and violent explosions of the lenses on the casters face and everyone near him. There are also rumors of lenses of such quality and perfection, that can withstand spell channeling over and over again. But those are just rumors... "The White Spear" - A common design shortspear (from 4e days), that is pure white as freshly fallen snow. The spear exudes cold air, and anyone near it can sense the power it holds, but also the sense of dread that seems to be eminating from it. Once the spear is picked up, all those sensations greatly diminish, and after few moments disappear completely. Anyone identifying the spear magically can tell it's "just" shortspear of frost (1d6 magical frost damage as extra), but also it seems to be just the surface as there is immense power within. After some time, the holder of the spear can start hearing voice speak in his/her head. An innocent, child like female voice asking who the wielder is, where are we, and generally tries to learn more of the person wielding her. It comes apparent that the spear knows very little of itself or why it's there. Only things she can remember clearly are ice fields, and cold breeze, bight light and then darkness accompanied by a name. "Vimas". She is however unsure if that is her name or someone else. The spear would try to "bond" with the wielder, if she liked the person, or try to find another person to wield her if she did not like the person(resorting to "force" if needed) , or if the person is trying to stop her "bonding" without giving her a "good reason" why it's not acceptable. Once the spear has found someone to "bond" with, two things will happen. The spear gets slightly stronger (gaining power to radiate cold to small area once per day and unless "bonded" person is killed, it cannot be lost or abandoned, it always comes back) and pure white stripe appears on wielders hair (if bald, skin gets paler, eyes blue(er), any minor bodily change related to snow, cold, ice etc.). Over time as the wielder gets stronger, bonds with the spear more and spear slowly gains pieces of her memory back, it will become stronger (more frost damage and other skills related to frost/cold). - Bit of history that someone in the party might know as old legends - What comes in to your mind is an old legend, where Ancient White Dragon was terrorizing the continent, untill a people people banded together and tried to take her down, with poor end result. according to legend all would have been lost, without an unnamed shaman, that managed to bind and seal the soul of the dragon in to his weapon, with the cost of his own life. The dragon, furious of this, raged and bellowed, as her essence poured in to the weapon, slowly removing life from her body. As her final act, she promised to return, as nothing can stop her rage, even imprisonment of her soul. The spear was hidden by the survivors of the fierce battle, in hopes of keeping the promise of the dragon never becoming a reality. No one knows what happened to the spear in the end, or if the legend is even true. (sigh... I did it again. a small novella... Oh well, it's done.)
Sami Ollikainen That’s ultimately an artifact level item that should have a campaign arc built around it!! I’d make that knowledge learned over time, with a quest for the key part - that this may be THE weapon with the pissed off dragon trapped inside. Then another quest to find the descendants of that battle, who may have passed down how to either control the dragon or break the bond.
Plot twist when the party attempts to attack a certain npc with the wielder at level 10+ the spear tells the wielder not to and if the wielder goes through, the spear stops the strike
i have a ring ive given out once that "once per day you may cast a secondary concentration spell, however you have disadvantage on all concentration checks to maintain the spells, if you fail you lose both." and so far its been pretty balanced. also the ring of ricochet allowed casters and ranged fighters to bounce a spell or projectile off a wall so they could fire around corners.
The SCP Wiki has a TON of interesting artifacts to use in your campaign. Like 714: The Jade Ring, for example, gives you a mental shield; making you immune to memetic and mental influences, and gives you increased chemical tolerance. But, it makes you *super* sleepy.
How about an item that looks exactly like an immovable rod, except that when you press the button it creates a 30 foot flash of light and any tiny item that isn’t being carried instantly gains the effects of an immovable rod for a minute. You could scatter a bag of ball bearings into the air and then flash! Instant stairs, temporary wall, sudden difficult terrain, single-use bridge, the possibilities are endless! And the story behind it could be that a mage threw it out, thinking it was faulty and useless. Little did he know he made something incredibly useful.
So I have a cook player who wasn't happy with his damage output, so I decided to give him more utility. Name: Shell of the Magma Turtle Description: once a creature that used to swim in the hottest places on Earth, with a shell that's nearly indestructible. Looking like a giant Ruby, this shell was smithed by Moradin, to represent a giant wok, Wich heats itself. However, movement seems to have peculiar effects on this Ruby of the deep... Item: 2-handed shield Extremely heavy, and halves your movement speed. +2 AC When using the dash action, the user becomes engulfed in flames. Each creature the user passes while using the dash action has to make a dexterity spell save equal to the users spell save DC. Upon failing, the creature takes 2d6 fire damage. When a player reaches lvl 8 and has at least a strength of 14, the player can make 1 attack action, never 2, even if the player has the extra attack ability. On a hit, target creature receives 4d6 fire damage and 2d6 bludgeoning damage (Right now the player is lvl 6 and doesn't know about the upgrade at lvl 8)
@patrick henry Sorry, but that statement is just not true, not to be a dick but think about it a bit. First of all, DnD has level progression and if anything, its problems often lie in the things that do NOT scale or evolve. For one example, Warlocks having access to a ton of non-scalable spells. Making an ability or item scale or even EVOLVE like Matt Mercer's Vestiges of Divergence actually makes the magic feel organic and allows it to grow with the character. It's one of the best ways to address the problem of level progression being a huge factor in the game. You can create stuff that doesn't rely on stats and rolls, but that is still a much more limited pool of options than you would otherwise have.
@patrick henry I'm more of a fan of stat requirements personally, but I see nothing wrong with it. Think of it as your character getting more used to using the item over time. (If I make an item that unlocks an ability at a certain level, I don't say it was a level requirement, I'll just give the player the option after they reach the level. Sort of like a milestone system)
Third, follow the K.I.S.S. principle. If it has a power you have to stop the game to figure out how it works, throw it away. Dungeon Dudes said it best, a page of lore and a sentence of power works better.
I'm a new DM for a group of students at the high school where I teach, your videos have been an excellent resource. One of the students is playing a Monk and decided his own weapon whilst creating his character. He is armed with a steel fan, so I ran with the idea and allowed it as a weapon giving it 1d4dmg, and slashing or bludgeoning dmg depending on if it's open or closed. Already thinking of a magical version for later in the campaign.
I love this! Maybe it does additional force damage if hits *while* opening, or maybe it can be electrified to do lightning damage, or maybe it’s magnetic and gives a +2 to attack roles against a creature wearing metal armor?
The old oriental adventures source book from AD&D back in the day has some stats and I’ll have to look but there might be some magic item ideas in it if you can find a PDF copy somewhere for the fan.
I put the Wabbajak in my game. Here's the description that someone made for it. (requires a d100) Staff, legendary (requires attunement by a spellcaster) This staff has 7 charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend 1 of its charges and target a creature up to 60 feet away from you. Roll d100 and consult the following table to discover what happens. The staff regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the staff's last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the staff crumbles into dust and is destroyed. If no target is designated, the staff automatically targets the nearest available creature within 60 ft, or yourself if no other creature is available. If any creature dies as a result of using the Wabbajack and is not brought back to life by other means, it is restored to its original state after 1d4 weeks at the place where it died. Wabbajack Table % (d100) Result 1-8 You deal 6d6 nonlethal fire damage to yourself and catch on fire. 9-14 You transform the target creature into a wraith under the GM's control for 10 minutes. 15-17 You transform the target creature into a metal bucket for 1d4 hours. 18-23 You transform yourself into a chair for 1d4 days. 24-27 The target creature must succeed a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or take 1d20 necrotic damage. 28-33 The target creature must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be knocked unconscious for 1 minute. 34-42 All creatures within a 100-foot radius of the target take 1 radiant damage and the target takes necrotic damage equal to the number of creatures affected. 43-49 Make a DC 25 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you suffer 4d10 nonlethal damage. On a success, you gain 100 temporary hit points for 1 minute. 50 Roll 1d6-1. You may cast any one spell of this level once within the next 24 hours without expending a spell slot or material components. If the spell is not cast at the end of that period, it is wasted. 51-59 The target must make DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 2d10 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The target also catches on fire. If a creature succeeds on its saving throw, you take the remainder of the damage. 60-71 You cast the polymorph spell, transforming the target into a rat. 72-73 Make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you take 100 damage of a damage type of your choice. On a success, you take 10 damage of a damage type your choice. 74-80 The target creature must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be polymorphed into a flumph for 1d4 rounds. 81-86 Each creature within 5 feet of the target takes 2d10 radiant damage. Make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you also take 2d10 radiant damage. On a success, you deal an additional 4d10 necrotic damage to the same targets you affected before. 87-90 You transform the target creature into a magical +3 longsword you are automatically proficient in. The creature is completely aware of its surroundings and the happenings while it is the sword. This effect wears off after 24 hours. 91-99 Make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, you take 2d10 fire damage. On a successful save, you resist fire damage until you finish a long rest. 100 The target creature must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be polymorphed into a pile of 1000 platinum pieces for 24 hours. All of the platinum vanishes at the end of the duration and the creature reappears where the effect took place.
I came up with an idea for one of my Homebrew campaigns. It’s called the Traveler’s Backpack. It’s basically a reskinned Cape of Mountebank. It functions like a Heward’s Handy Haversack, but when the command phrase (Take me to the sky) is spoken, the wearer is suddenly sucked into the bag as it turns incorporeal. The bag then flys upwards until it reaches a height of 500 feet above ground, then rockets downwards to a space within 1000 feet of the original location that the wearer was targeting, spitting them out as it becomes corporeal again. I ruled that this journey took a full minute to complete and that despite being incorporeal during the journey, the bag was still fully visible. Another detail I snuck in there was that when it landed I always rolled a d20 in secret, on a 1 the bag would have failed to spit them out and they would have to wait until someone opens the bag to be let out or 24 hours if nobody opens it. (they could still breathe and had access to everything stored inside)
My paladin has a "boom stick" I gave him which allows him to channel divine energy freely to project a cone of sonic damage. He loves it and usually starts out every interaction with it. Shows how memorable and fun a low level homebrew magic item can be for the characters
I'm a player and a DM, I love home brewed magic items, my favourite ones are a great switchblade which is a +2 greatsword that as a bonus action can transform into a +2 shield but takes 2 full actions to change back, and a sentient compass that can point out the nearest hidden thing once per day, but also occasionally points to other stuff it finds interesting like a cat or a pretty view
Polearm that stays relevant at any tier: Ripsaw Glaive Through a combination mechanical and magical means, the serrations in the blade of this Glaive are set in motion at faster and faster speeds with every consecutive hit in a short period of time. Careful though, for if they go too fast they’ll overheat and cease to move for 8 hours. The mechanics are relatively simple. It’s a +1 Glaive that requires atunement for its full effect to function. Every consecutive, successful attack in a single round that is not made as a bonus action after the first deals an extra d6 slashing damage per previous successful hit. So, with a single attack, it’s your standard Glaive. Once you have multi attack or action surge, if you hit twice then you add 1d6 to the second hits damage. The damage resets after a miss and on the next turn. Drawback: after 6 consecutive hits (5d6 slashing extra damage) the mechanisms over heat, and the serrations will not move until after a long rest. It will do 1d4 Fire damage one every hit until then though, and is still a +1 Glaive
that's pretty cool, it reminds me of a sword i made that can reduce an enemies AC by your proficiency bonus for a minute, maybe i'll put that into the whole comment section
My personal favorite mechanical weapon is the dwarven made hammer i made (dont have a name open to suggestions) but it has an actual goblin soldified in gold and fashioned as a massive hammer by a particularly hateful dwarf and is similar to the Fallout 4 super sledge in design, and does 1d100 damage with a curse that does not allow you to carry other weapons and forces you to hit every goblin you can see with it.
@@8-bitsarda747 I've only ever used it once and ended up accidrntly causing a cave in by hitting an ogre in the underdark, critting, and having it fly into a massive stone pillar, which caused a cave in killing literally everyone in a 25 foot radius, including my minotaur barbarian. I also rolled a 1 on my dex save and took 84 bludgeoning damage, dieing instantly and crushing the hammer. ( I wanted a new character and wanted to try the hammer so this was a convienient end for my character)
What a about powering this with a cantrip each round. A cantrip allows its full power but as the cantrip scales so does the power. And since it only accepts one cantrip a round it falls back to balance and tier scaling. It's more powerful with higher levels.
I've been designing magic items for a while, and I'm starting to introduce them into my own campaign now. Some are a little gimmicky, some are pretty cool, and some are so powerful with such incredible drawbacks that I fear they'd derail my campaign... But it's really encouraging to know that my own DM decided to add two of mine to his own campaign. I'm really proud of wildfire (staff that enhances fire damage but causes wild surges) and the book of bedtime (storybook that allows you to put people to sleep).
I'm just getting into D&D and you guys have helped me so much with questions I have had. All of your videos are great, you explain rules in a way that is very to understand and doesn't make me feel dumb. I made this item yesterday and it is my first item I have made. A humanoid shaped skull, smaller in size to fit into the hand of most medium creatures. The eyes are two black diamonds, the skull is made from a white crystal. The skull vibrates with an evil force. A single blast is fired from the eyes. The skull allows the user to use the Eldritch Blast cantrip, it has a 1d6+1 charge. A single charge deals 1d10 force damage, two charges 2d10, three charges 3d10, and four charges 4d10. After a single charge is used a DC 13 Intelligence check is made to fight of a short-term madness effect as shown in short term madness table in the DM Guide page 259. An increase in number of charges adds 2 to the DC check. At the start of a new day 1d4-1 charges are replenished. If all charges are used a d20 is rolled on a 1 the skull melts and the holder takes 2d6+2 fire damage and the character becomes incapacitated and starts weeping, laughing, or screaming uncontrollably for 1d10 minutes.
I had a DM give my rogue a Dart of Unerring. Basically a dart with the Unerring Accuracy ability, so I could reroll the attack once if it missed, and also recall the dart back to my hand as a bonus action. I was playing a mastermind rogue, so sometimes it was tough to choose between using help as a bonus action or recalling the dart. It may have been a bit OP if I was an inquisitive rogue instead, but I think it was perfect for my mastermind rogue.
You guys have done such a great job with your content, it's almost criminal you don't have more subs. You're concise, effective, and don't waffle on about things.
Built a group of weapons for our current campaign at the request of the DM. After 3 sessions we had to remove them because they had too many if-then situations that actually caused us to argue and determine if we could use them in different situations. It has gotten better since then since we "traded" with a merchant for a set of non-weapon brewed items which helped us all feel more unique and powerful without breaking the game. Great video guys.
Handed out a modified Sunblade once - it was called "Eclipse", and was in an artificer's junk room. It worked as normal, except it turned itself off on a roll of 5 or 15. This has led to some amusing moments subsequently. :D
I totally agree that the lore aspect of a magical item really makes it. I was playing a nature cleric in a friend's campaign this week and I use Shillelagh on my club in combat. We had rescued some dwarves from mining for the bad guys and one cheeky guy threw his pickaxe at the boss and rolled a 20, which was fantastic. Next round my club broke from rolling a 1 (not the first one, I knew this break was coming) and afterwards I went and removed the pickaxe head and used the shaft as my new club. The DM decided to make this a magic item with some cool effect, but that random roll made the item special.
@@DungeonDudes My current paladin has a shoulder of lockpicking ;) (by which I mean if the rogue can't open the door he just shoulderbarges it like the Juggernaut from X-Men. If it's a chest he just reduces it to splinters- all fragile items (potions, blown glass sculptures,etc) are destroyed, but it's better than not getting anything because the thieves' tools check got bungled to the point the lock is jammed))
Now I am imagining a whole scene about what a character (and his/her companion that used the potion on them) goes through, thinks, says, and does, as they realize that they will not be able to find a healer within the one minute provided by your 'potion of undeath'. It could be such a powerful role-playing opportunity.
Maybe this just the edge lord in me but my mind went immediately to a torture device where you throw the cloak on a target and a million ants emerge from under the cloak and attack the target.
The Gelatinous Ring (CURSED!) Once per long rest you may summon a gelatinous cube within 30ft of the summoner. It'll fight the nearest creature; including you. The ring also gives fire vulnerability
I made a ring called Calamity's essence (based on Kalameet from dark souls) it gives you +10damage to fire attacks but makes you vulnerable to everything :)
If you're a fan of Dark Souls, have a look at the rings over here: mfov.magehandpress.com/2017/12/dark-souls-items-magic-rings.html They're free use, and near as I can tell, it covers most of the rings from Dark Souls that have a special ability that would make sense to try and bring into D&D. I'd probably wielders of the Calamity Ring to have reroll any number of damage die once per turn, if not per attack. Or just not use it at all, because that's a SERIOUS downside. And adding an effect that causes enemies hit by your attacks to be Vulnerable to that damage just turns it into a game of Rocket Tag that your character is likely going to lose, since most monsters where it would be useful to have possess a prodigious amount of HP, and usually hit like a truck even without you taking double damage from their strikes.
For players that have family members that they left at home, the "Quill of Sending" is an amazing way to allow your players to write home and give them an awesome roleplaying outlet.
Here's two that I just made today that I find pretty nifty. Potion of Treasure Seeking; this potion, when poured on blank parchment, creates a treasure map that always leads to something valuable. Jar of Wahtaah; this jar is seemingly filled with clear, unassuming water, but when opened uses Flurry of Blows with no attack modifiers and at 1d10 bludgeoning damage per strike.
This video helped me come up with my first magic item. The Jolly Dagger - A strawberry red curved dagger with a straight gilded metal hilt. Examination reveals the gold hilt to actually be fool's gold. Once a day, the first enemy struck with this dagger is affected by the spell Tasha's Hideous Laughter. This ability is renewed upon the next dawn after use.
my best magic item, the stick that always remains vertical, the flute that makes a guitar sound and the paint that detects lies (great for adding some fun or gameplay to a game)
Second, when in doubt, make it weak and sentient. Think of having one power for each of the 4 levels of power ranking characters go through. The huge advantage is you have 4-5 levels of play in your campaign to help decide what next should be added to an item. The sentient item can relay how to make it happen and you can now create side quests or incorporate into the main story line a whole new adventure.
Ring of Tranquil Rest (Wondrous Item) [Attuned: 1 lunar cycle] - Allows user to treat a short rest as if it were a long rest. Once this ability is used, the ring takes a full lunar cycle to recharge and cannot be recharged by any other means save the 'Wish' spell.
Idk, a full lunar cycle is like 20 something days. 20 something days for one short rest to become a long seems pretty... Useless... Especially if it takes attunment. Some of the items in the handbook usually don't go longer then 7-12 days.
A legendary sword that gains a d4 for every kill it gets up to 3d4, the buff ending after an hour from its last kill. The weapon was wieldes by an old vampire lord who loved his war. He was eventually defeated a century ago by a company of both high elves and drow.
A favorite homebrew magic bow I saw once was the unicorn hair bow, which doesn’t require ammunition and does force damage instead of piercing. And you could change this with logical jumps, like using giant hair instead, Storm, Fire, etc. Or hair from a different celestial for radiant. Sinew from a powerful undead for necrotic.
Huh, or you could give the player a selection of bow strings to choose from that they have to select at the start of the day, like wizards preparing spells.
@@witchBoi_Connor 10 minutes is entirely too long for the realistic implications of this. 2 turns would be plenty. To unstring a recurve bow to transition between storage and effective firing configuration takes all of maybe 5-10 seconds max for archers who are familiar and practiced with their weapon... so if you have a ranger/rogue/fighter that is over the level cap of a real world human being (I think possibly arguable up to no greater than 5) who is proficient and practiced with the weapon; unstringing would be an action and putting that string in their storage would be an interaction which would require the inverse properties select new string (interaction) and restring the bow as an action. That would effectively take the player 2 rounds in combat of foregone opportunity to contribute in conventional methods to the encounter which could possibly be devastating depending on level of play and intensity of encounters. But by the same token could also make the difference needed to gain any meaningful traction and headway if for instance say, the party is figting an incorporeal creature that requires a force damage blow to truly reduce hitpoints that don't regenerate partially each turn. With all this said, I absolutely love this! I think this is one of if not the best design for a magic bow in 5e I have seen to date. I also am completely infatuated with the monster hunter side quest possibilities this grants to seek out a full range of bowstring materials for this item. I may add this in as a possibility of the strings being destroyed by contacting eachother due to improper storage requiring refilling/tracking down and hunting again of 1d6 (1,2=both strings the one taken off and a random one it touched, 3,4 the one taken off only, 5,6= all items safe until after encounter is over and the player immediately fixes the error and spends time mending the equipment like 3-5 minutes twilling/waxing/shave stropping/guard nocking the effected strings again before they further decay. This could require the player to figure out a way to craft an item to properly store these prized bowstrings after they notice the problem and involve multiple party members to help find a solid feasible storage solution. Omg yo lol, I am so glad I read your post and I hope this doesn't find you bothered by the fact that this is going into one of my worlds now for future use.
@Jesse Hise I've not yet read all of your comment but I do appreciate the realism employed. I didn't actually know how long real world bow stringing takes to perform so that it can be reasonably done within two actions is actually nice to know.
I homebrewed a crystal that can be used as a dagger that can push enemies back 10ft. That wasn't the main use though. It was for a puzzle that the player had to draw on a black stone tablet. Drawing on the tablet will summon whatever was drawn but it is not always helpful. Drawing a key for a locked door would summon a key but it could be for a door halfway across the world. It also had 3 charges and need to be recharged at the certain pool. The player had to draw a spider which summoned a crystal spider which they had to kill to retrieve a small crystal ball to unlock a specific door.
I run a pirate campaign, and I made a really cool polearm for our fighter: Sharktooth. It i9s a +1 magic glaive that ignores the disadvantage caused by fighting underwater, and deals an extra 1d4 damage if a creature has less than all of their hit points, but only if it is underwater.
I'm currently working with a friend to create a Wabajack style staff. We are basing the mechanics off the Wild Magic Sorcerer, but creating all new (and often hilariously cheese based) effects.
Let me know what you think about this magic item I created for my home brew (they haven't gotten it yet): Irythdaen’s Baneful Scalpel Dagger, rare (requires attunement) It appears to be a normal scalpel. However, once wielded by someone, they soon discover it is much more sinister. The previous owner, a female elf nurse named Irythdaen, was subjected to horrendous pain and suffering as a slave of her mind flayer tormentors. Once freed from the terror of her oppressors, she had eyes set only on revenge. Seeping with angst and venomous intent, this former medical tool became imprinted with her rage and pain, and now thirsts for blood. Intelligent Weapon. The scalpel is an intelligent magical artifact with a CE female Elf personality which can speak to its wielder telepathically. Impart Agony. The scalpel has 10 charges. Whenever you use the scalpel to make a melee attack and succeed, you can choose to spend charges, up to a maximum of 3, to deal an extra 1d6 points of psychic damage per charge spent, causing the creature to writhe in agony. The scalpel regains 1d6+4 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the wielder’s alignment moves one degree towards the Evil spectrum. For example, a LG Warrior expends her last charge and rolls a 1 on the d20, becoming LN. If this happened again, her alignment would shift to LE. This has no effect on a creature that is already evil.
This is a great bit of lore tied into this weapon! Mechanically it's quite similar to the Staff of Striking, actually. The malign intelligence is quite neat.
Hail and well met, Dudes!! Having taken an extremely long break from the game (I used to play and DM back in AD&D 1st & 2nd edition), I recently started playing D&D 5e with my son and his friends (all in their 30's). The DM wants to take a break and be a player for awhile, and asked if I wanted to run a campaign. I have taken the opportunity during the recent social lockdown to start writing a gritty horror-based D&D campaign for them to run through (witches, werewolves, undead, death cults, etc. with a lich as the BBE), once we can all get together around a table again. But enough of that, let me get to the point. I am homebrewing some magic items, each a singular item customized for a particular player (I'm actually giving my rogue Veo's Grappleshot.....awesome item btw....well done), and I had a couple questions about one item in particular. Since paladins can't use cleric cantrips, I want to give the 3rd level paladin a holy shield (complete with holy symbol for spell focus) that can cast the Word of Radiance cleric cantrip. I'm pretty sure that I want it to be an action, as opposed to a bonus action, given everything else a paladin can do in a turn. My dilemma arises from the fact that since cantrips are basically "free magic", how should I limit its use in an uncommon magic item? Once per short rest? Thrice per long rest? Should I give it charges? Since the game mechanics in 5e are so much different from AD&D, I'm unsure how to go here. Any advice would be great, thanks.
I think I will put this in 3 posts yo break it down to bite size pieces, and each is separate thought. First, utility is more fun than power. Like the shovel you dig holes with is more unique than the sword that obliterates all in it's path on a roll on 18-20. The utility item rewards inventive play, and that's always a plus.
So I loved this video. It inspired me to communicate with my DM about imbuing a mask that my variant human divination wizard wears with the devil's site ability, using the eye of a Nothic I found along with casting darkness in succession. We'll begin crafting this Thursday, wish me luck!!!
Hey guys love the channel and reference yall all the time. My charictor is actualy in the process of makeing a great weapon right now. One of our players was killed by a minitar and then both were burned so all we had left were her bones. So I'm takeing her bones and useing them kinda like the Vikings did to smelt steel ( I'm a blacksmith in real life) and useing that to make a weapon for my charictor to use to honner his fallen friend. The DM loved the idea and I cant wait to see what comes of it. But I watched this video and was like " holy crap I'm trying to make my own magic weapon in a way"
“The Sword That Never Silences” its a +1 sword that has the soul of a child trapped inside and every time you swing the sword it makes sound effects, whoosh, swish, clang, etc. and when you kill an enemy with it, it makes a pun. looks like that goblin isn’t getting aHEAD in life. stupid but funny
@@Marrek940 No. Go on a quest to free the poor child's soul. The child can't possibly be doing the sword any favors so maybe it'll get more powerful for your good deed. It can become "The Sword that Silences" and it can more easily disrupt concentration or maybe even actually silence foes on a failed save of some kind. No more annoying screaming when you run someone through with a sword would be nice wouldn't it? Or maybe it just gets less annoying by becoming a regular +1. That would be a win too! Particularly if you are a sneaky rogue using it.
@@GrimoireOfTheSage Perhaps either silences or interrupts the concentration of (wielder's choice) the target and everyone in 20 feet on a failed save for one turn, with the radius decreasing with each use (20, 10, 5, target alone, then no effect) which doesn't come back till a short rest.
Not sure if you guys still reply to this video like it says in the end, but these are two weapons I gave to my relatively low level party The Defenders Axe ( Given to their big beefy tank Paladin ) This Axe is a gleaming silver, etched with holy symbols. It carries two charges. A charge can be used to cast the "heroism" spell, or to use your reaction to give another party member within 30 ft a +5 to their AC until the end of the current turn. The Dynamic Blade ( given to a rogue ) This longsword gleams with slight radiant energy. It is a +1 weapon, and deals an additional 1d4 radiant damage. You can take one hour during a long rest to change the sword into another one handed weapon that deals slashing or piercing damage. You chose the appearance and type but it retains the radiant glow
One of the more charming magic items was from a campaign where the group was living in a frontier town, long enough that we had put down roots. The druid character worked out with the DM to craft a shrub in his yard that created Goodberries. It created a random amount per week and they lasted longer than ones from the spell, so while it wasn't crazy useful we had a nice supply of them.
I also made a cloak of partying which is just a big purple cloak with a star on it that lets the wearer shoot a 5ft line of MAGICAL confetti out their sleeves.
We are running a nautical campaign. Our recent creations were an earing that restores 1hp per short rest. epaulettes of some famous sea captain that gives a +3 to charisma when dealing with sea creatures.
I have a guy doing a boxer style class utilizing claw brass knuckles as his weapon of choice. I was thinking about utilizing the flame tongue feature on a set. So splitting the damage so then when he activates them his fists light on fire that doesn’t hurt him, but would give a cool visual. If they seem too powerful I could have him do a save each time he uses them from flame damage to himself.
My coolest Magic Item is called Wembrel's Keep. It's an amulet that gives the wearer the power to summon a magic keep into existence anywhere in the overworld (outside of villages, dungeons, cities, etc). If your party needs a short rest, but are being tracked so they can't stop, the amulet holder can call the keep into existence, take the party inside, and then remove the amulet so the keep disappears. It can also be used to hold a bunch of extra loot and weapons, so the party can travel light, but still have intermittent access to their other belongings. I like to think of it as a small tent magically appearing, and when you open the flap and walk inside, you're in a much larger keep with a table and chairs, fire pit, and hay bedding. Very Mary Poppins/Narnia-esque.
I made a "invisible wand" - after Sam Riegel's Critical Role Intro hat those words in it. It is just a wand +1, but it is constantly invisible. I will give it out once one of my players throws a REALLY good investigation. (If that doesn't happen early enough I might make the wand stronger)
speaking of Rage Armor... I remember when Rage was a spell in like 3.5 and pathfinder. Granted 5e does NOT allow for a similar spell, but admittedly I'd think that a suit of armor that lets you just rage as a spell would be really useful.
Two sets of magic items creation I've used. 1- item augmentation, as a way of not having my players just convert gems to gold I ensured that the gems were of a purity level, when they head into certain town's they can get weapons and armor augmented with these gems and provide magical effects, but each gem only had so many uses before it cracks 2- six magical items that have immense power but came with powerful curses and major drawbacks. It was to test the player as to whether or not to use them. When they tried to sell them, shopkeepers refused to even look at them, prompting them to want to do research, if they discarded the item, it would somehow wind up making it's way back to the party. The real issue with these items.... They were a prison to a homebrewed goddess of temptation, when all six were brought together (within a certain proximity of one another) the goddess of temptation is released and she has games to play with the party
I don't really create homebrew magic items to often but normally when I do that are designed to enhance the idea my players have of their character, it gives abilities to help flesh out the character and evolves along side them.
The Tomodachi Nodachi (which i think is Japanese for friend sword aka the buddy blade) is something I'm working on. Powered by friendship you'll need all the friends you can get to lift this I-beam, I mean over sized sword. I now just have to work out the mechanical side of the item and it'll be great.
I’ve been struggling to fine tune an idea of mine and put it into actual mechanical terms. The basic idea came from the use of the Flaming Sphere spell, ramming this ball of fire into enemies, but turning it from a spell into a burning flail. This weapon is a ball and chain made out of fire, like how the Sun blade is made out of light, but also kind of like a Flame Tongue, where you activate it by using it’s once-per-day ability to cast Flaming Sphere on the flail’s head to give it bonus damage. I’ve given it reach, and consider the flail’s head a separate entity from the player, taking up its own 5ft square. I’m trying to make a difference between just attacking with it like a weapon and sending it careening around the room, slamming into enemies, but I don’t know how to make it better to swing around than to just attack a bunch of times if a fighter gets a hold of it. I also don’t know how to really easily explain how it works, so I have a very long-winded explanation for its abilities and I can’t really shorten it.
My favorite item I've made was the Blood Hammer. Had an enchantment to where anytime it struck a solid item it would cast Create Blood as a bonus to it's hit, causing every strike to spray blood everywhere. It didn't do any bonus damage, but it DID have a practical use: 15% chance to fear skeletons within sight of the strike. Can also be used as a Blacksmith Hammer, dying what it makes red
In a campaign I was in I felt like my wizard at low levels was underpowered compared to the other characters and I felt like I wasn't contributing to the success of beating the enemy, so the DM had me find a staff that added just a bit of power to one of my spells, and it wasn't even too powerful but just that minor boost helped me so much and I felt like I was contributing to the party and helped me enjoy the campaign that much more
One of my favorite examples of a really fun homebrew item that's not super changed but really different is Seth Skorkowski's item The Bonesaw, a sentient Vorpal longsword with some... shall we say unique mannerisms. Reminds me a lot of the sentient Flametongue weapon you mentioned lmap
I’ve been thinking about a meteor hammer tuned to a drunken monk, where the hammers are metal flasks filled with the monks brew. It would have 2 or 3 charges where when the monk hits an opponent they have to make a concentration save and if they fail will have disadvantage on all rolls if not attacking the monk. The idea is the monk jerky movement with the meteor hammer is mesmerizing to the creature.
This was a great video to watch guys, ty so much. I absolutely love home brewing and at the moment I’m compiling all of my home brew magical items into a book. But I just want to say that it was an honor to learn something new from this video. One if the best I’ve seen in a long time. 🤘🏻
I come back to this video every time I need to design a new magic item, great insight. But I'm curious, how would you feel about creating a powerful magic item made to specifically augment a character's strengths? An example I have been working on is a pair of gauntlets that gain charges when you spend Ki points and you can use those charges to gain free extra movement for my campaign's monk.
This video is awesome I am glad I found it! The item I created was a (Magical D100 of Major illusions). And created a unique list from 1-100 that has small to gargantuan creatures, multiple grouped up creatures, weather effects and all types of food and buffet style feasts it can cast. With a one hour cool down. It has made for some very interesting uses. The wizard used it while defending a keep before the enemy army got to close, he rolled the dice and summoned a major illusion of a gargantuan bronze dragon that halted the army lol
+1 shield in a shape of a devil face (sth like oni masks). You can use it unatuned, however You can atune to it by feading a 100+GP gem to the devil (gem is lost). Depending on what gem was fed to it (ruby for fire, saphire for cold, garnet for necrotic, etc.), shield gains elemental resistance (only one at the time). Then it can be fed another gem of the same kind worth at least 250GP for an immunity to that elemental damage. On command You can make the eyes of the devil glow in the color of last sacrificed stone. If so, it emits a dim, colored light It looses it's added properties when being unatuned. It can be reatuned to other element, at the cost of a new gem. It's an item that grows with character - at lower levels its a commitment when money is low, at higher levels it can become a money dump and there's always that hunt for gems :)
Just in the course of this episode I've been thinking of a pretty simple magic item where I take the sunblade and turn it into a whip and it already seems more interesting to me.
I always love creating items directly for the characters in the campaign. In a recent game, I made a set of bracers for the monk/druid and a polearm for the barbarian that grew with the player and a whole set of armour, sword and shield for the paladin. The monk/druid was an aasamar and the bracers were made from unicorn horn. The barbarian's Polearm was a enemy weapon made for a lieutenant of a devil cult but he had a personal quest to cleanse it into a holy weapon (they suffered a TPK before that happened). And the paladin's set was made from the original Primal Elemental Entities that shaped the world. The other two part members a sorcerer and rogue also had some cool stuff but I they didn't have a central theme.
As a player who ended up playing a ranger just to fill a void in the group setup, I really feel the need for magical bows. Love the sound of the lightning bow. Also: cloak of a million ants? Heck yeah!
Buddy and player of mine has a huge enjoyment with Batman. Made his grappling hook gun for his ranger. 100ft reach when "shot" out. Magically retracts pulling him towards whatever he hooked. It can be shot at enemies for a small amount of bludgeoning damage but makes a loud "clack" noise that can be heard when fired. Not very good for stealth use but makes his combat uses fun. Many... Many tree and rooftop movements.
My DM gave me one of his first home brewed items last week: the Swole Sword. It’s a +1 longsword that can use either Str or Con mod. The hilt is shaped like an extremely jacked man with flexing arms forming the guard, and when withdrawn from its sheath heroic music plays. The modifier flexibility isn’t that useful for me right now, but my paladin-bard LOVES the singing.
In one game i played my sorc ran into an imp that the DM really loved so we got an idea to have my character make an amulet with a drop of the imp blood and my characters blood and she got the find familiar spell to summon that specific imp. It was pretty fun.
I'm totally taking that shovel idea. I might tweak the design a bit, but I could see that being a useful item. I'm sending my players into a mine soon so it fits the area perfectly.
I know it's an old video, but my favorite has to be organizations that revolve around magic or religion granting weapons that allow you to trade an attack with the weapon for a cantrip. Notably, one of my sorcerers was once gifted a Thorncoil Staff (just a Staff of Thorn Whip) by a Druid as thanks for subduing a raging unicorn that had been cursed instead of killing it. My player was an elf and his homeland tended to and protected unicorns and so he chose not to kill it, so I rewarded that.
One of my own creations that I am fond of is the dragon staff. A staff with the shape of a dragon with its mouth open at the top. When you feed it a gem it will use a breath weapon of the same dragon that matches the color of them gem (same stats as a dragonborn would use their breath weapon).
A fun magic item idea I had for a melee oriented Bard in my game was: Insult to Injury - A reinforced musical instrument like a Lute, which deals 1d4 + Str in Bludgeoning damage, and has the ability to cast Cutting Words once per day.
I came up with an idea for my Rogue, and would love some feedback. "Windrunner" Magical +1 dagger Whenever the user successfully kills/knocks out an enemy, they may immediately make an attack roll (without proficiency) On an enemy within 5 feet. This can be repeated one additional time, with disadvantage being induced on the third attack in addition to no proficiency. The user returns to the square they were in on their first attack after they kill 3 targets/fail to kill their target; this does not trigger an attack of opportunity.
The "Dungeon Dudes’ Treasure Trove" is a collection of 21 magic items for use in D&D 5e. Featuring the Armor of Power, the Cloak of One Million Ants, and the Portable Door, each unique item comes battle-tested from our campaigns and packed with full-colour illustrations. Find it on the Dungeon Master's Guild here: www.dmsguild.com/product/251780/Dungeon-Dudes-Treasure-Trove
what rarity would you make a dagger that when thrown you can speak a command word it turns into a great sword that deals 2d6 force damage (instead of the d4 or 2d6 slashing from a normal greatsword), has finesse and can blink back to you with a command word spoken as a bonus action.
I once created a necklace that either helped or failed charisma checks. Roll a 15 or higher = instant success, roll 5 or lower = critical failure.
It was based off of another campaign where our rogue either nat20d or nat1 charisma checks
A potion that for 1 minute after consumption will return the character to 1hp if they go down. It has a 5% chance of returning them to 1/2 health (natural 20) and a 5% of failing 2 death saves (natural 1). I was thinking of throwing a "madness" or PTSD type element, to it after falling and coming back up 3 times for example. Any input?
I created a dagger that you can get from a mimic that has the mimics ability to mimic other items, and when you activate it by concentrating you can morph it into another item but it keeps its same weight. when you first wield it, it is cursed with the same adhesiveness as the mimic, giving you disadvantage on attack rolls with it until the curse is removed.
www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/399331-mask-of-awakening what do you think?
I really good magic item I created was the “Suit of Armor”. It was basically a dapper tuxedo but it raised the player’s armor rating
Polarity Reversed I like the idea of a warlock in a suit and tie with a top hat and a cane. That’s a really compelling visual to me for some reason
its gives me idea of clothes vampries wear in witchery mod from mc its pretty neat
Lol it could raise Charisma by +1 too
@@Hawk_Leigh or give advantage on persuasion checks on nobility
John Wick style I like it.
I'll make "The Tape of Flexing". A God tier item that allows you to fix anything you wish. And....it even works underwater!
Mending without the 1' restriction. 🤣
LOOK AT ALL THIIS DAMAGE
PHRASING
I might use it to fix animals
I invented a tank top of flexing. A god tier item that allows you to flex anywhere you wish. And ... It even works underwater!
I intented the "red tape of flexing". It reduces by 1d100 percent of the duration of any ongoing bureucratic process that affects you. And... it even works underwater.
These are a few ideas I came up.
Lightbringer: A +1 longbow that once per long rest can fire an arrow that when it strikes its target, casts a 2nd level cure wounds. This ability can only be used by a good-aligned character.
Bloodcull Buckler. A shield that has jagged edges all around it, its weilder can use a bonus action to strike with the shield, dealing 1d6 slashing (no mods) damage. If the creature has blood, the shield drinks it, adding half the damage inflicted as temporary hitpoints.
Girdle of Living Lightning: Once per day, the wearer of this belt can speak a command word and condense their form into a bolt of lightning, traveling up to 40ft. Any creature in the bolts path must make a dex 15 saving throw or suffer 4d6 lightning damage.
Tablecloth of feasting. Once per day, unfolding this tablecloth will yield a buffet style banquet of upscale food and drink enough for up to 10 people.
Portable stairs. A 3 foot plank of wood that, when the command word is spoken, transforms into a 15ft staircase.
I have plenty more if anyone needs them.
Love these!
Thank you gentlemen, yours were pretty spectacular as well. Love the trench idea, I don't feel enough attention gets paid to terrain manipulation in-game.
Also for a laugh, enjoy my Amulet of the Hero:
This amulet only has 5 charges and cannot be replenished. When using it, a Human, Lawful-Good Fighter with 65hp is conjured and obeys your commands, within reason (see alignment). This fighter can ONLY roll a natural 1 on all attacks, saves, and ability checks.
I Screenshot these. they're fantastic!
I’m gonna use the Living Bolt, I think it’s really cool and would like to use it in my campaign
The two magic items that I created that were received the best, both ended up on a character played by my now ex-wife. We were playing a homebrew 1st edition based game.
The first item was a modified sun blade. All I did was change the "swing around head to create light" to "drawing the sword created a 240' radius daylight effect," adjust the damage vs. evil a bit, and gave it a disruption effect vs undead vulnerable to sunlight. She was playing a paladin who worshipped the God of the Sun and became a badass vampire hunter.
The second was a cloak I called Cloak of the Sandman. It allowed the character to turn themselves into sand and pour themself through small openings and turn themself into a small sandstorm. I made the item after watching the first Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser, so...
I created Natures Wrath Axe Handles for the lv 5 barbarian in my campaign. There are two of them and grant a +1 each to damage dealt while raging. It's dealt as fire, lightning, or cold which is chosen as the barbarian enters rage. It's lead to some amazing role-play because the barbarian will ask the Wizard or the Ranger "What type of angry do I get?" And if they're able to recall information about the specific enemy, they'll specify burny, shocky, or chilly before the barbarian rages.
"What type of angry do i get?" This is gold
@@manufacturedfracture so tired of dumb [every character but wizard cos int is a crap stat] i wish it was more useful in most campaigns
@@Thiccyg XP to level 3 did something interesting for a house rule.
I think every + in int can be a skill, tool, or language proficiency, and every +3 can instead be used for expertise. While having negative reduces how many you know. So having it low actually matters because you might have to give up a proficiency if you dump it.
@@OddMobileWatcher I like that a lot. Reminds me of how A D&D was, you got extra languages for higher Int, but there was an optional rule where you could trade extra languages for a skill.
A couple weeks ago we found a 'wand of magic missiles', but when the DM announced it he said, "You find a 'Pistol of Force Bolts'." So now my Fighter/Rogue has a wand in the shape of a pistol holstered on the back of his belt.
I'm getting Indiana Jones vibes from this one lol
@@pretty_fly_for_a_jeskai He ended up more like Luke Skywalker, with the Pistol of Force Bolts and a Sword of Light (the sunsword, Dawnbringer).
Friend of mine told me about the "Boots of Knocking" he got in his campaign. They are boots. Enchanted with the Knock spell. Why? So they can open chests like Link from The Legend of Zelda: By kicking them.
I imagine it can make for some dramatic entrances too.
This is beautiful.
These boots were made for knocking
Simple item that can have really powerful effects: Ring of Respite: Once a day, this ring allows the wearer to regain the use of a single ability that would otherwise require a long rest to regain.
Love this! Very nice idea. It can also be nerfed by making it class-specific and/or for a short rest ability.
So you use an action or bonus action to regenerate a use for your one use per long rest ability, or a long rest ability is reduced to only needing a short rest?
@@talongreenlee7704 As written, the first. But the second would be a good idea for a magic item too!
plottwist, villain hears about it, kills the player and steals it to get extra legendary resistance.
I was thinking about having a potion that did the same thing, actually.
I made an item called Helm of the Minotaur. Gives the player the wearing it the Minotaur’s charge attack and gore attack. The Paladin gnome in the party picked it up. Needless to say it’s been awesome!
I have a cute Item: I rated it Uncomon based of the 3rd lvl Catnap spell. Its a pillow made of griffon feathers, the favorite pet of a Bard character I had. Effect:
"This pure silk white pillow has round edges and looks very soft and inviting"
Once per day up to two creatures can take a short rest using this pillow, and plunder into a short, yet very deep sleep. After you have rested for 10 minutes, with this item you gain all the benefits from a short rest. But the next time you sleep without this pillow , you will need an extra hour of rest to gain either the short rest benefit or the long rest benefit.
(for added flavor I added the minor flaw to it)
I also had a version of it with a small curse:
If two people sleep together using this pillow, each of those two have to make a saving throw as if they had taken a love potion.
(we had a really funny moment with this)
What happened?
amazing
Catnap is such an under appreciated spell.
Isn't that the Pillow of Power Napping?
We had a Blooddrinker dagger. It dealt extra 1d6 necrotic damage to a living creature (those that have blood) and had a special quirk in it.
Whenever a character using the dagger rolled natural 20, the dagger would transfer the life essence from an attacked creature to the dagger owner.
However, when a character using the dagger rolled a natural 1, the dagger would instead stab/wound the wielder.
Later I asked the DM about the destiny of that dagger and he told me that he planned it to be growing/upgradable after a certain amount of different creatures' blood "tasted" essentially revealing the nature of it being the cursed item and attempting to consume the soul of its owner by driving him into unstoppable rage that expected to be the complete massacre on a failed wisdom saving throw but it never came up to that point as the dagger owner attempted to "upgrade" the dagger themselves by putting it into a pool that had "Wild Magic" effect on whatever touches it and the effect happened to be "If the creature affected by the Wild Magic draws a weapon before the next sunset, the weapon vanishes", so the weapon was lost.
I
I made a coin of luck, once created by the goddess Tymora herself, which has a golden and a silver side. If the owner throws it there´s a 95% chance (1D20 side) the thrower calls it right. Also it somehow finds it´s way back to the owner, if the coin is lost or stolen. Might not be that original but it´s amazing to see how creative the player uses this item. Plus: I gave the player a real coin, which had on side painted. It´s always neat to bring a "real" version of an artifact to the table :)
Great video!
That's a great idea for an item!
ok but what does it do
Let's you cheat a gambling, so long as no one checks for magic...
Also it says it somehow finds its way back to the owner. That's vague enough to use as a DM to have some interesting roleplay moments. Perhaps the player gives it to someone they want to meet again - and that person becomes a recurring NPC - because that coin is still on their person? Or you could slip it into an enemy's pockets to assist in tracking them. The item didn't specify it would be teleported back - just that it would find its way. There are some really creative ways to try and screw with fate in this item... I may need to introduce it to my campaign
This just made me think about the gold coin from American Gods. A super lucky coin that can be used to bring someone back to life or make them undead.
You'd be amazed at how even a "Rock of Gravity Detection" can be received by players. It was just a rock that dropped in the direction of gravity. I was given one as a joke, but I made use of it several times.
Helpful one for wizards: “Ring of Forgetful Scholars” a ring that copies the Wizard’s Spellbook and acts as a replacement given the spellbook is lost.
In the event the spellbook is not recovered the Wizard may not add new spells using the ring, but may use the information from the ring to fill the book’s other tasks. They can also use the ring create a fully functional replacement given appropriate time and resources.
Oh god... I have so much I want to "talk" about, but also I don't want to write a mini novella, so it's really, REALLY difficult figure out how to start xD. Oh well here I go.
Creating magic items is probably one of my favorite things to do. I have created so many over the... I want to say 8-years of playing/GMing. If I am being honest, I do tend to make overly powerful items, but also I've only managed to implement few of the items I've created. I love making them, but also I do see problems they could bring (most of the time), so I have the clarity to leave them in the notes untill I figure them out. I want to share the few I have used in games (D&D 4e) with some lore attached.
Crytal Lense of Magic - A clear, see through, green tinted lense, size of a monocle. Tiny magical runes are inscribed on the edge of the lense, all around the edge. By itself it does nothing, and gives faint magical aura. How ever if a caster focuses a spell through the lense (Bonus action or Attack action, as some spells are bonus actions to cast), that spells power is amplified, depending on the quality of the craftmanship and potency of the runes (from adding since dice to dmg or adding some duration, to damage multiplication and "group buffing"). Once spell is channeled through the lense, it will shatter to pieces and cannot be used again. The Lenses are crafted from specific type of crystal, only found deep underground. While crytal type itself is not rare to find, finding large enough piece without large imperfections does make it slightly rarer. Cost of a lense can get pricy due to uncommnality of the material, skilled craftsman needed to create the lense and the magical engravings. Players might find "amazing deals" on these lenses, however frauds are common, and even poorly made real lense can be dangerous. It is known, that if lense has flaws or does not focus properly, it can, and will cause backcast. Reported cases talk of part of the spell reflecting back to the caster causing harm, and violent explosions of the lenses on the casters face and everyone near him. There are also rumors of lenses of such quality and perfection, that can withstand spell channeling over and over again. But those are just rumors...
"The White Spear" - A common design shortspear (from 4e days), that is pure white as freshly fallen snow. The spear exudes cold air, and anyone near it can sense the power it holds, but also the sense of dread that seems to be eminating from it. Once the spear is picked up, all those sensations greatly diminish, and after few moments disappear completely. Anyone identifying the spear magically can tell it's "just" shortspear of frost (1d6 magical frost damage as extra), but also it seems to be just the surface as there is immense power within. After some time, the holder of the spear can start hearing voice speak in his/her head. An innocent, child like female voice asking who the wielder is, where are we, and generally tries to learn more of the person wielding her. It comes apparent that the spear knows very little of itself or why it's there. Only things she can remember clearly are ice fields, and cold breeze, bight light and then darkness accompanied by a name. "Vimas". She is however unsure if that is her name or someone else. The spear would try to "bond" with the wielder, if she liked the person, or try to find another person to wield her if she did not like the person(resorting to "force" if needed) , or if the person is trying to stop her "bonding" without giving her a "good reason" why it's not acceptable. Once the spear has found someone to "bond" with, two things will happen. The spear gets slightly stronger (gaining power to radiate cold to small area once per day and unless "bonded" person is killed, it cannot be lost or abandoned, it always comes back) and pure white stripe appears on wielders hair (if bald, skin gets paler, eyes blue(er), any minor bodily change related to snow, cold, ice etc.). Over time as the wielder gets stronger, bonds with the spear more and spear slowly gains pieces of her memory back, it will become stronger (more frost damage and other skills related to frost/cold).
- Bit of history that someone in the party might know as old legends -
What comes in to your mind is an old legend, where Ancient White Dragon was terrorizing the continent, untill a people people banded together and tried to take her down, with poor end result. according to legend all would have been lost, without an unnamed shaman, that managed to bind and seal the soul of the dragon in to his weapon, with the cost of his own life. The dragon, furious of this, raged and bellowed, as her essence poured in to the weapon, slowly removing life from her body. As her final act, she promised to return, as nothing can stop her rage, even imprisonment of her soul. The spear was hidden by the survivors of the fierce battle, in hopes of keeping the promise of the dragon never becoming a reality. No one knows what happened to the spear in the end, or if the legend is even true.
(sigh... I did it again. a small novella... Oh well, it's done.)
Sami Ollikainen That’s ultimately an artifact level item that should have a campaign arc built around it!! I’d make that knowledge learned over time, with a quest for the key part - that this may be THE weapon with the pissed off dragon trapped inside. Then another quest to find the descendants of that battle, who may have passed down how to either control the dragon or break the bond.
Plot twist when the party attempts to attack a certain npc with the wielder at level 10+ the spear tells the wielder not to and if the wielder goes through, the spear stops the strike
i have a ring ive given out once that "once per day you may cast a secondary concentration spell, however you have disadvantage on all concentration checks to maintain the spells, if you fail you lose both." and so far its been pretty balanced. also the ring of ricochet allowed casters and ranged fighters to bounce a spell or projectile off a wall so they could fire around corners.
The SCP Wiki has a TON of interesting artifacts to use in your campaign. Like 714: The Jade Ring, for example, gives you a mental shield; making you immune to memetic and mental influences, and gives you increased chemical tolerance. But, it makes you *super* sleepy.
How about an item that looks exactly like an immovable rod, except that when you press the button it creates a 30 foot flash of light and any tiny item that isn’t being carried instantly gains the effects of an immovable rod for a minute.
You could scatter a bag of ball bearings into the air and then flash! Instant stairs, temporary wall, sudden difficult terrain, single-use bridge, the possibilities are endless!
And the story behind it could be that a mage threw it out, thinking it was faulty and useless. Little did he know he made something incredibly useful.
Sounds pretty op
Call it the Rod of Stasis, make it 1d4 turns per use, and maybe 6 - 10 uses that recharge at dawn
So I have a cook player who wasn't happy with his damage output, so I decided to give him more utility.
Name: Shell of the Magma Turtle
Description: once a creature that used to swim in the hottest places on Earth, with a shell that's nearly indestructible. Looking like a giant Ruby, this shell was smithed by Moradin, to represent a giant wok, Wich heats itself. However, movement seems to have peculiar effects on this Ruby of the deep...
Item: 2-handed shield
Extremely heavy, and halves your movement speed.
+2 AC
When using the dash action, the user becomes engulfed in flames.
Each creature the user passes while using the dash action has to make a dexterity spell save equal to the users spell save DC. Upon failing, the creature takes 2d6 fire damage.
When a player reaches lvl 8 and has at least a strength of 14, the player can make 1 attack action, never 2, even if the player has the extra attack ability.
On a hit, target creature receives 4d6 fire damage and 2d6 bludgeoning damage
(Right now the player is lvl 6 and doesn't know about the upgrade at lvl 8)
that's awesome
@patrick henry Sorry, but that statement is just not true, not to be a dick but think about it a bit. First of all, DnD has level progression and if anything, its problems often lie in the things that do NOT scale or evolve. For one example, Warlocks having access to a ton of non-scalable spells. Making an ability or item scale or even EVOLVE like Matt Mercer's Vestiges of Divergence actually makes the magic feel organic and allows it to grow with the character. It's one of the best ways to address the problem of level progression being a huge factor in the game. You can create stuff that doesn't rely on stats and rolls, but that is still a much more limited pool of options than you would otherwise have.
@patrick henry I'm more of a fan of stat requirements personally, but I see nothing wrong with it. Think of it as your character getting more used to using the item over time. (If I make an item that unlocks an ability at a certain level, I don't say it was a level requirement, I'll just give the player the option after they reach the level. Sort of like a milestone system)
Third, follow the K.I.S.S. principle. If it has a power you have to stop the game to figure out how it works, throw it away. Dungeon Dudes said it best, a page of lore and a sentence of power works better.
I'm a new DM for a group of students at the high school where I teach, your videos have been an excellent resource. One of the students is playing a Monk and decided his own weapon whilst creating his character. He is armed with a steel fan, so I ran with the idea and allowed it as a weapon giving it 1d4dmg, and slashing or bludgeoning dmg depending on if it's open or closed. Already thinking of a magical version for later in the campaign.
I love this! Maybe it does additional force damage if hits *while* opening, or maybe it can be electrified to do lightning damage, or maybe it’s magnetic and gives a +2 to attack roles against a creature wearing metal armor?
The old oriental adventures source book from AD&D back in the day has some stats and I’ll have to look but there might be some magic item ideas in it if you can find a PDF copy somewhere for the fan.
I put the Wabbajak in my game. Here's the description that someone made for it. (requires a d100)
Staff, legendary (requires attunement by a spellcaster)
This staff has 7 charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend 1 of its charges and target a creature up to 60 feet away from you. Roll d100 and consult the following table to discover what happens.
The staff regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the staff's last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the staff crumbles into dust and is destroyed.
If no target is designated, the staff automatically targets the nearest available creature within 60 ft, or yourself if no other creature is available.
If any creature dies as a result of using the Wabbajack and is not brought back to life by other means, it is restored to its original state after 1d4 weeks at the place where it died.
Wabbajack Table
% (d100) Result
1-8 You deal 6d6 nonlethal fire damage to yourself and catch on fire.
9-14 You transform the target creature into a wraith under the GM's control for 10 minutes.
15-17 You transform the target creature into a metal bucket for 1d4 hours.
18-23 You transform yourself into a chair for 1d4 days.
24-27 The target creature must succeed a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or take 1d20 necrotic damage.
28-33 The target creature must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be knocked unconscious for 1 minute.
34-42 All creatures within a 100-foot radius of the target take 1 radiant damage and the target takes necrotic damage equal to the number of creatures affected.
43-49 Make a DC 25 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you suffer 4d10 nonlethal damage. On a success, you gain 100 temporary hit points for 1 minute.
50 Roll 1d6-1. You may cast any one spell of this level once within the next 24 hours without expending a spell slot or material components. If the spell is not cast at the end of that period, it is wasted.
51-59 The target must make DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 2d10 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The target also catches on fire. If a creature succeeds on its saving throw, you take the remainder of the damage.
60-71 You cast the polymorph spell, transforming the target into a rat.
72-73 Make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you take 100 damage of a damage type of your choice. On a success, you take 10 damage of a damage type your choice.
74-80 The target creature must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be polymorphed into a flumph for 1d4 rounds.
81-86 Each creature within 5 feet of the target takes 2d10 radiant damage. Make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you also take 2d10 radiant damage. On a success, you deal an additional 4d10 necrotic damage to the same targets you affected before.
87-90 You transform the target creature into a magical +3 longsword you are automatically proficient in. The creature is completely aware of its surroundings and the happenings while it is the sword. This effect wears off after 24 hours.
91-99 Make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, you take 2d10 fire damage. On a successful save, you resist fire damage until you finish a long rest.
100 The target creature must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be polymorphed into a pile of 1000 platinum pieces for 24 hours. All of the platinum vanishes at the end of the duration and the creature reappears where the effect took place.
Commenting so i can show this to my dm
If this was in critical role and someone turned into a chair...
It already exists?
I came up with an idea for one of my Homebrew campaigns. It’s called the Traveler’s Backpack. It’s basically a reskinned Cape of Mountebank. It functions like a Heward’s Handy Haversack, but when the command phrase (Take me to the sky) is spoken, the wearer is suddenly sucked into the bag as it turns incorporeal. The bag then flys upwards until it reaches a height of 500 feet above ground, then rockets downwards to a space within 1000 feet of the original location that the wearer was targeting, spitting them out as it becomes corporeal again. I ruled that this journey took a full minute to complete and that despite being incorporeal during the journey, the bag was still fully visible. Another detail I snuck in there was that when it landed I always rolled a d20 in secret, on a 1 the bag would have failed to spit them out and they would have to wait until someone opens the bag to be let out or 24 hours if nobody opens it. (they could still breathe and had access to everything stored inside)
This is amazing. EDIT: would fit in Discworld very nicely
My paladin has a "boom stick" I gave him which allows him to channel divine energy freely to project a cone of sonic damage. He loves it and usually starts out every interaction with it. Shows how memorable and fun a low level homebrew magic item can be for the characters
Shop smart, shop k-mart
I'm a player and a DM, I love home brewed magic items, my favourite ones are a great switchblade which is a +2 greatsword that as a bonus action can transform into a +2 shield but takes 2 full actions to change back, and a sentient compass that can point out the nearest hidden thing once per day, but also occasionally points to other stuff it finds interesting like a cat or a pretty view
Polearm that stays relevant at any tier: Ripsaw Glaive
Through a combination mechanical and magical means, the serrations in the blade of this Glaive are set in motion at faster and faster speeds with every consecutive hit in a short period of time. Careful though, for if they go too fast they’ll overheat and cease to move for 8 hours.
The mechanics are relatively simple. It’s a +1 Glaive that requires atunement for its full effect to function. Every consecutive, successful attack in a single round that is not made as a bonus action after the first deals an extra d6 slashing damage per previous successful hit.
So, with a single attack, it’s your standard Glaive. Once you have multi attack or action surge, if you hit twice then you add 1d6 to the second hits damage. The damage resets after a miss and on the next turn.
Drawback: after 6 consecutive hits (5d6 slashing extra damage) the mechanisms over heat, and the serrations will not move until after a long rest. It will do 1d4 Fire damage one every hit until then though, and is still a +1 Glaive
that's pretty cool, it reminds me of a sword i made that can reduce an enemies AC by your proficiency bonus for a minute, maybe i'll put that into the whole comment section
My personal favorite mechanical weapon is the
dwarven made hammer i made (dont have a name open to suggestions) but it has an actual goblin soldified in gold and fashioned as a massive hammer by a particularly hateful dwarf and is similar to the Fallout 4 super sledge in design, and does 1d100 damage with a curse that does not allow you to carry other weapons and forces you to hit every goblin you can see with it.
@@patsutherland6853 that sounds awesome
@@8-bitsarda747 I've only ever used it once and ended up accidrntly causing a cave in by hitting an ogre in the underdark, critting, and having it fly into a massive stone pillar, which caused a cave in killing literally everyone in a 25 foot radius, including my minotaur barbarian. I also rolled a 1 on my dex save and took 84 bludgeoning damage, dieing instantly and crushing the hammer. ( I wanted a new character and wanted to try the hammer so this was a convienient end for my character)
What a about powering this with a cantrip each round. A cantrip allows its full power but as the cantrip scales so does the power. And since it only accepts one cantrip a round it falls back to balance and tier scaling. It's more powerful with higher levels.
I've been designing magic items for a while, and I'm starting to introduce them into my own campaign now. Some are a little gimmicky, some are pretty cool, and some are so powerful with such incredible drawbacks that I fear they'd derail my campaign... But it's really encouraging to know that my own DM decided to add two of mine to his own campaign. I'm really proud of wildfire (staff that enhances fire damage but causes wild surges) and the book of bedtime (storybook that allows you to put people to sleep).
I'm just getting into D&D and you guys have helped me so much with questions I have had. All of your videos are great, you explain rules in a way that is very to understand and doesn't make me feel dumb. I made this item yesterday and it is my first item I have made.
A humanoid shaped skull, smaller in size to fit into the hand of most medium creatures. The eyes are two black diamonds, the skull is made from a white crystal. The skull vibrates with an evil force. A single blast is fired from the eyes.
The skull allows the user to use the Eldritch Blast cantrip, it has a 1d6+1 charge. A single charge deals 1d10 force damage, two charges 2d10, three charges 3d10, and four charges 4d10.
After a single charge is used a DC 13 Intelligence check is made to fight of a short-term madness effect as shown in short term madness table in the DM Guide page 259. An increase in number of charges adds 2 to the DC check.
At the start of a new day 1d4-1 charges are replenished. If all charges are used a d20 is rolled on a 1 the skull melts and the holder takes 2d6+2 fire damage and the character becomes incapacitated and starts weeping, laughing, or screaming uncontrollably for 1d10 minutes.
That is a really cool Idea, I might have to borrow that
I had a DM give my rogue a Dart of Unerring. Basically a dart with the Unerring Accuracy ability, so I could reroll the attack once if it missed, and also recall the dart back to my hand as a bonus action. I was playing a mastermind rogue, so sometimes it was tough to choose between using help as a bonus action or recalling the dart. It may have been a bit OP if I was an inquisitive rogue instead, but I think it was perfect for my mastermind rogue.
You guys have done such a great job with your content, it's almost criminal you don't have more subs. You're concise, effective, and don't waffle on about things.
Agreed.
Built a group of weapons for our current campaign at the request of the DM. After 3 sessions we had to remove them because they had too many if-then situations that actually caused us to argue and determine if we could use them in different situations. It has gotten better since then since we "traded" with a merchant for a set of non-weapon brewed items which helped us all feel more unique and powerful without breaking the game.
Great video guys.
Handed out a modified Sunblade once - it was called "Eclipse", and was in an artificer's junk room. It worked as normal, except it turned itself off on a roll of 5 or 15. This has led to some amusing moments subsequently. :D
I've created a magic bow called the capturer. It was a +1 bow that shoots arrows and those arrows prevented enemies from running away or hiding.
I totally agree that the lore aspect of a magical item really makes it. I was playing a nature cleric in a friend's campaign this week and I use Shillelagh on my club in combat. We had rescued some dwarves from mining for the bad guys and one cheeky guy threw his pickaxe at the boss and rolled a 20, which was fantastic. Next round my club broke from rolling a 1 (not the first one, I knew this break was coming) and afterwards I went and removed the pickaxe head and used the shaft as my new club. The DM decided to make this a magic item with some cool effect, but that random roll made the item special.
I made a war hammer that that had the sieg weapon property, so it deals double damage to inanimate objects, fun usefull but not game breaking.
Dwarven Lockpick??
I once adventured with a dwarven warrior who named his maul "Disable Device"
Similar idea, we had a dwarf who nicknamed his shield "Find Traps".
@@DungeonDudes My current paladin has a shoulder of lockpicking ;)
(by which I mean if the rogue can't open the door he just shoulderbarges it like the Juggernaut from X-Men. If it's a chest he just reduces it to splinters- all fragile items (potions, blown glass sculptures,etc) are destroyed, but it's better than not getting anything because the thieves' tools check got bungled to the point the lock is jammed))
First edition Mattock of the Titans, only it required a strength of 18+(I think, it's been a long time.)
Now I am imagining a whole scene about what a character (and his/her companion that used the potion on them) goes through, thinks, says, and does, as they realize that they will not be able to find a healer within the one minute provided by your 'potion of undeath'. It could be such a powerful role-playing opportunity.
Did anybody else think that the cloak was made of a million ants, and then you could tell the ants to do things when the name was first mentioned?
Maybe this just the edge lord in me but my mind went immediately to a torture device where you throw the cloak on a target and a million ants emerge from under the cloak and attack the target.
I thought of Rick and Morty...
@@jaeg.3806 oh thats a million ants cloak from over here it seemed like a wiggly turd cloak
I thought it was a cloak knitted by my dad's one million sisters.
I am taking this
The Gelatinous Ring (CURSED!)
Once per long rest you may summon a gelatinous cube within 30ft of the summoner. It'll fight the nearest creature; including you. The ring also gives fire vulnerability
I made a ring called Calamity's essence (based on Kalameet from dark souls) it gives you +10damage to fire attacks but makes you vulnerable to everything :)
If you're a fan of Dark Souls, have a look at the rings over here:
mfov.magehandpress.com/2017/12/dark-souls-items-magic-rings.html
They're free use, and near as I can tell, it covers most of the rings from Dark Souls that have a special ability that would make sense to try and bring into D&D.
I'd probably wielders of the Calamity Ring to have reroll any number of damage die once per turn, if not per attack.
Or just not use it at all, because that's a SERIOUS downside. And adding an effect that causes enemies hit by your attacks to be Vulnerable to that damage just turns it into a game of Rocket Tag that your character is likely going to lose, since most monsters where it would be useful to have possess a prodigious amount of HP, and usually hit like a truck even without you taking double damage from their strikes.
For players that have family members that they left at home, the "Quill of Sending" is an amazing way to allow your players to write home and give them an awesome roleplaying outlet.
Here's two that I just made today that I find pretty nifty.
Potion of Treasure Seeking; this potion, when poured on blank parchment, creates a treasure map that always leads to something valuable.
Jar of Wahtaah; this jar is seemingly filled with clear, unassuming water, but when opened uses Flurry of Blows with no attack modifiers and at 1d10 bludgeoning damage per strike.
This video helped me come up with my first magic item. The Jolly Dagger - A strawberry red curved dagger with a straight gilded metal hilt. Examination reveals the gold hilt to actually be fool's gold. Once a day, the first enemy struck with this dagger is affected by the spell Tasha's Hideous Laughter. This ability is renewed upon the next dawn after use.
my best magic item, the stick that always remains vertical, the flute that makes a guitar sound and the paint that detects lies (great for adding some fun or gameplay to a game)
Second, when in doubt, make it weak and sentient. Think of having one power for each of the 4 levels of power ranking characters go through. The huge advantage is you have 4-5 levels of play in your campaign to help decide what next should be added to an item. The sentient item can relay how to make it happen and you can now create side quests or incorporate into the main story line a whole new adventure.
Ring of Tranquil Rest (Wondrous Item) [Attuned: 1 lunar cycle] - Allows user to treat a short rest as if it were a long rest. Once this ability is used, the ring takes a full lunar cycle to recharge and cannot be recharged by any other means save the 'Wish' spell.
Idk, a full lunar cycle is like 20 something days. 20 something days for one short rest to become a long seems pretty... Useless... Especially if it takes attunment. Some of the items in the handbook usually don't go longer then 7-12 days.
Rikku Takanashi a lunar cycle could be 7 days in a d&d world
What are the campaign's I listen to have a similar mechanic however it's literally arcane meth
@@waffleluver breaking bad, faerun edition
A legendary sword that gains a d4 for every kill it gets up to 3d4, the buff ending after an hour from its last kill. The weapon was wieldes by an old vampire lord who loved his war. He was eventually defeated a century ago by a company of both high elves and drow.
A favorite homebrew magic bow I saw once was the unicorn hair bow, which doesn’t require ammunition and does force damage instead of piercing. And you could change this with logical jumps, like using giant hair instead, Storm, Fire, etc. Or hair from a different celestial for radiant. Sinew from a powerful undead for necrotic.
Huh, or you could give the player a selection of bow strings to choose from that they have to select at the start of the day, like wizards preparing spells.
Un and re Stringing a bow could probably be done in 10 minutes, for a mix of realism and balance.
@@witchBoi_Connor 10 minutes is entirely too long for the realistic implications of this. 2 turns would be plenty. To unstring a recurve bow to transition between storage and effective firing configuration takes all of maybe 5-10 seconds max for archers who are familiar and practiced with their weapon... so if you have a ranger/rogue/fighter that is over the level cap of a real world human being (I think possibly arguable up to no greater than 5) who is proficient and practiced with the weapon; unstringing would be an action and putting that string in their storage would be an interaction which would require the inverse properties select new string (interaction) and restring the bow as an action. That would effectively take the player 2 rounds in combat of foregone opportunity to contribute in conventional methods to the encounter which could possibly be devastating depending on level of play and intensity of encounters. But by the same token could also make the difference needed to gain any meaningful traction and headway if for instance say, the party is figting an incorporeal creature that requires a force damage blow to truly reduce hitpoints that don't regenerate partially each turn. With all this said, I absolutely love this! I think this is one of if not the best design for a magic bow in 5e I have seen to date. I also am completely infatuated with the monster hunter side quest possibilities this grants to seek out a full range of bowstring materials for this item. I may add this in as a possibility of the strings being destroyed by contacting eachother due to improper storage requiring refilling/tracking down and hunting again of 1d6 (1,2=both strings the one taken off and a random one it touched, 3,4 the one taken off only, 5,6= all items safe until after encounter is over and the player immediately fixes the error and spends time mending the equipment like 3-5 minutes twilling/waxing/shave stropping/guard nocking the effected strings again before they further decay. This could require the player to figure out a way to craft an item to properly store these prized bowstrings after they notice the problem and involve multiple party members to help find a solid feasible storage solution. Omg yo lol, I am so glad I read your post and I hope this doesn't find you bothered by the fact that this is going into one of my worlds now for future use.
@Jesse Hise I've not yet read all of your comment but I do appreciate the realism employed. I didn't actually know how long real world bow stringing takes to perform so that it can be reasonably done within two actions is actually nice to know.
@@witchBoi_Connor glad I could possibly help
I homebrewed a crystal that can be used as a dagger that can push enemies back 10ft. That wasn't the main use though. It was for a puzzle that the player had to draw on a black stone tablet. Drawing on the tablet will summon whatever was drawn but it is not always helpful.
Drawing a key for a locked door would summon a key but it could be for a door halfway across the world. It also had 3 charges and need to be recharged at the certain pool.
The player had to draw a spider which summoned a crystal spider which they had to kill to retrieve a small crystal ball to unlock a specific door.
I’m so glad you guys did this! I love making magic items but always struggle with balancing and so many items I see online our wayyy overpowered.
I run a pirate campaign, and I made a really cool polearm for our fighter: Sharktooth. It i9s a +1 magic glaive that ignores the disadvantage caused by fighting underwater, and deals an extra 1d4 damage if a creature has less than all of their hit points, but only if it is underwater.
I'm currently working with a friend to create a Wabajack style staff. We are basing the mechanics off the Wild Magic Sorcerer, but creating all new (and often hilariously cheese based) effects.
Neat i have made one for my campaign as well.
My druid has a living staff that talks and a sword that can communicate telepathically and its amazing
Let me know what you think about this magic item I created for my home brew (they haven't gotten it yet):
Irythdaen’s Baneful Scalpel
Dagger, rare (requires attunement)
It appears to be a normal scalpel. However, once wielded by someone, they soon discover it is much more sinister. The previous owner, a female elf nurse named Irythdaen, was subjected to horrendous pain and suffering as a slave of her mind flayer tormentors. Once freed from the terror of her oppressors, she had eyes set only on revenge. Seeping with angst and venomous intent, this former medical tool became imprinted with her rage and pain, and now thirsts for blood.
Intelligent Weapon. The scalpel is an intelligent magical artifact with a CE female Elf personality which can speak to its wielder telepathically.
Impart Agony. The scalpel has 10 charges. Whenever you use the scalpel to make a melee attack and succeed, you can choose to spend charges, up to a maximum of 3, to deal an extra 1d6 points of psychic damage per charge spent, causing the creature to writhe in agony. The scalpel regains 1d6+4 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the wielder’s alignment moves one degree towards the Evil spectrum. For example, a LG Warrior expends her last charge and rolls a 1 on the d20, becoming LN. If this happened again, her alignment would shift to LE. This has no effect on a creature that is already evil.
This is a great bit of lore tied into this weapon! Mechanically it's quite similar to the Staff of Striking, actually. The malign intelligence is quite neat.
Hail and well met, Dudes!!
Having taken an extremely long break from the game (I used to play and DM back in AD&D 1st & 2nd edition), I recently started playing D&D 5e with my son and his friends (all in their 30's). The DM wants to take a break and be a player for awhile, and asked if I wanted to run a campaign. I have taken the opportunity during the recent social lockdown to start writing a gritty horror-based D&D campaign for them to run through (witches, werewolves, undead, death cults, etc. with a lich as the BBE), once we can all get together around a table again.
But enough of that, let me get to the point.
I am homebrewing some magic items, each a singular item customized for a particular player (I'm actually giving my rogue Veo's Grappleshot.....awesome item btw....well done), and I had a couple questions about one item in particular.
Since paladins can't use cleric cantrips, I want to give the 3rd level paladin a holy shield (complete with holy symbol for spell focus) that can cast the Word of Radiance cleric cantrip.
I'm pretty sure that I want it to be an action, as opposed to a bonus action, given everything else a paladin can do in a turn. My dilemma arises from the fact that since cantrips are basically "free magic", how should I limit its use in an uncommon magic item? Once per short rest? Thrice per long rest? Should I give it charges? Since the game mechanics in 5e are so much different from AD&D, I'm unsure how to go here. Any advice would be great, thanks.
14:10
"Ogres?! I've got a dagger that's +9 against Ogres!"
"You're in the tavern getting drunk!"
I think I will put this in 3 posts yo break it down to bite size pieces, and each is separate thought.
First, utility is more fun than power. Like the shovel you dig holes with is more unique than the sword that obliterates all in it's path on a roll on 18-20. The utility item rewards inventive play, and that's always a plus.
We agree. Players love getting straight up power boosts, but items with unique properties are often much more memorable.
So I loved this video. It inspired me to communicate with my DM about imbuing a mask that my variant human divination wizard wears with the devil's site ability, using the eye of a Nothic I found along with casting darkness in succession. We'll begin crafting this Thursday, wish me luck!!!
Hey guys love the channel and reference yall all the time. My charictor is actualy in the process of makeing a great weapon right now. One of our players was killed by a minitar and then both were burned so all we had left were her bones. So I'm takeing her bones and useing them kinda like the Vikings did to smelt steel ( I'm a blacksmith in real life) and useing that to make a weapon for my charictor to use to honner his fallen friend. The DM loved the idea and I cant wait to see what comes of it. But I watched this video and was like " holy crap I'm trying to make my own magic weapon in a way"
“The Sword That Never Silences” its a +1 sword that has the soul of a child trapped inside and every time you swing the sword it makes sound effects, whoosh, swish, clang, etc. and when you kill an enemy with it, it makes a pun. looks like that goblin isn’t getting aHEAD in life. stupid but funny
My party would throw that thing into a river VERY quickly lol
@@Marrek940 No. Go on a quest to free the poor child's soul. The child can't possibly be doing the sword any favors so maybe it'll get more powerful for your good deed. It can become "The Sword that Silences" and it can more easily disrupt concentration or maybe even actually silence foes on a failed save of some kind. No more annoying screaming when you run someone through with a sword would be nice wouldn't it? Or maybe it just gets less annoying by becoming a regular +1. That would be a win too! Particularly if you are a sneaky rogue using it.
That Sword sounds like it is out of Borderlands... I love it.
@@GrimoireOfTheSage Perhaps either silences or interrupts the concentration of (wielder's choice) the target and everyone in 20 feet on a failed save for one turn, with the radius decreasing with each use (20, 10, 5, target alone, then no effect) which doesn't come back till a short rest.
“I think that enemy got… THE POINT”
When you brought up the Shovel Polearm, I immediately thought of The Shoveler from Mystery Men
Not sure if you guys still reply to this video like it says in the end, but these are two weapons I gave to my relatively low level party
The Defenders Axe ( Given to their big beefy tank Paladin )
This Axe is a gleaming silver, etched with holy symbols. It carries two charges. A charge can be used to cast the "heroism" spell, or to use your reaction to give another party member within 30 ft a +5 to their AC until the end of the current turn.
The Dynamic Blade ( given to a rogue ) This longsword gleams with slight radiant energy. It is a +1 weapon, and deals an additional 1d4 radiant damage. You can take one hour during a long rest to change the sword into another one handed weapon that deals slashing or piercing damage. You chose the appearance and type but it retains the radiant glow
One of the more charming magic items was from a campaign where the group was living in a frontier town, long enough that we had put down roots. The druid character worked out with the DM to craft a shrub in his yard that created Goodberries. It created a random amount per week and they lasted longer than ones from the spell, so while it wasn't crazy useful we had a nice supply of them.
I also made a cloak of partying which is just a big purple cloak with a star on it that lets the wearer shoot a 5ft line of MAGICAL confetti out their sleeves.
We are running a nautical campaign.
Our recent creations were
an earing that restores 1hp per short rest.
epaulettes of some famous sea captain that gives a +3 to charisma when dealing with sea creatures.
I have a guy doing a boxer style class utilizing claw brass knuckles as his weapon of choice. I was thinking about utilizing the flame tongue feature on a set. So splitting the damage so then when he activates them his fists light on fire that doesn’t hurt him, but would give a cool visual. If they seem too powerful I could have him do a save each time he uses them from flame damage to himself.
I love the idea of a flaming sword just whispering to the player, "burn it down.... burn it down...."
My coolest Magic Item is called Wembrel's Keep. It's an amulet that gives the wearer the power to summon a magic keep into existence anywhere in the overworld (outside of villages, dungeons, cities, etc). If your party needs a short rest, but are being tracked so they can't stop, the amulet holder can call the keep into existence, take the party inside, and then remove the amulet so the keep disappears. It can also be used to hold a bunch of extra loot and weapons, so the party can travel light, but still have intermittent access to their other belongings. I like to think of it as a small tent magically appearing, and when you open the flap and walk inside, you're in a much larger keep with a table and chairs, fire pit, and hay bedding. Very Mary Poppins/Narnia-esque.
I made a "invisible wand" - after Sam Riegel's Critical Role Intro hat those words in it. It is just a wand +1, but it is constantly invisible. I will give it out once one of my players throws a REALLY good investigation. (If that doesn't happen early enough I might make the wand stronger)
My favorite magic item that I’ve home brewed was a rapier called “Pen the Mighty” that was essentially just Percy Jackson’s Riptide
I love that the hookshot was one of the first things I thought of when you said video game inspiration
I created the “Thinking Cap” that a Sorcerer in my campaign loves. It basically gives charges that can be used for free upcasts.
speaking of Rage Armor...
I remember when Rage was a spell in like 3.5 and pathfinder. Granted 5e does NOT allow for a similar spell, but admittedly I'd think that a suit of armor that lets you just rage as a spell would be really useful.
Two sets of magic items creation I've used.
1- item augmentation, as a way of not having my players just convert gems to gold I ensured that the gems were of a purity level, when they head into certain town's they can get weapons and armor augmented with these gems and provide magical effects, but each gem only had so many uses before it cracks
2- six magical items that have immense power but came with powerful curses and major drawbacks. It was to test the player as to whether or not to use them. When they tried to sell them, shopkeepers refused to even look at them, prompting them to want to do research, if they discarded the item, it would somehow wind up making it's way back to the party. The real issue with these items.... They were a prison to a homebrewed goddess of temptation, when all six were brought together (within a certain proximity of one another) the goddess of temptation is released and she has games to play with the party
I don't really create homebrew magic items to often but normally when I do that are designed to enhance the idea my players have of their character, it gives abilities to help flesh out the character and evolves along side them.
The Tomodachi Nodachi (which i think is Japanese for friend sword aka the buddy blade) is something I'm working on. Powered by friendship you'll need all the friends you can get to lift this I-beam, I mean over sized sword. I now just have to work out the mechanical side of the item and it'll be great.
I’ve been struggling to fine tune an idea of mine and put it into actual mechanical terms. The basic idea came from the use of the Flaming Sphere spell, ramming this ball of fire into enemies, but turning it from a spell into a burning flail. This weapon is a ball and chain made out of fire, like how the Sun blade is made out of light, but also kind of like a Flame Tongue, where you activate it by using it’s once-per-day ability to cast Flaming Sphere on the flail’s head to give it bonus damage. I’ve given it reach, and consider the flail’s head a separate entity from the player, taking up its own 5ft square. I’m trying to make a difference between just attacking with it like a weapon and sending it careening around the room, slamming into enemies, but I don’t know how to make it better to swing around than to just attack a bunch of times if a fighter gets a hold of it. I also don’t know how to really easily explain how it works, so I have a very long-winded explanation for its abilities and I can’t really shorten it.
My favorite item I've made was the Blood Hammer. Had an enchantment to where anytime it struck a solid item it would cast Create Blood as a bonus to it's hit, causing every strike to spray blood everywhere. It didn't do any bonus damage, but it DID have a practical use: 15% chance to fear skeletons within sight of the strike. Can also be used as a Blacksmith Hammer, dying what it makes red
In a campaign I was in I felt like my wizard at low levels was underpowered compared to the other characters and I felt like I wasn't contributing to the success of beating the enemy, so the DM had me find a staff that added just a bit of power to one of my spells, and it wasn't even too powerful but just that minor boost helped me so much and I felt like I was contributing to the party and helped me enjoy the campaign that much more
One of my favorite examples of a really fun homebrew item that's not super changed but really different is Seth Skorkowski's item The Bonesaw, a sentient Vorpal longsword with some... shall we say unique mannerisms. Reminds me a lot of the sentient Flametongue weapon you mentioned lmap
I’ve been thinking about a meteor hammer tuned to a drunken monk, where the hammers are metal flasks filled with the monks brew. It would have 2 or 3 charges where when the monk hits an opponent they have to make a concentration save and if they fail will have disadvantage on all rolls if not attacking the monk. The idea is the monk jerky movement with the meteor hammer is mesmerizing to the creature.
Why was this not in my notifications? Dangit youtube, I need to see this stuff within the hour! Great vid btw :)
This was a great video to watch guys, ty so much. I absolutely love home brewing and at the moment I’m compiling all of my home brew magical items into a book. But I just want to say that it was an honor to learn something new from this video. One if the best I’ve seen in a long time. 🤘🏻
I come back to this video every time I need to design a new magic item, great insight. But I'm curious, how would you feel about creating a powerful magic item made to specifically augment a character's strengths? An example I have been working on is a pair of gauntlets that gain charges when you spend Ki points and you can use those charges to gain free extra movement for my campaign's monk.
This video is awesome I am glad I found it! The item I created was a (Magical D100 of Major illusions). And created a unique list from 1-100 that has small to gargantuan creatures, multiple grouped up creatures, weather effects and all types of food and buffet style feasts it can cast. With a one hour cool down. It has made for some very interesting uses. The wizard used it while defending a keep before the enemy army got to close, he rolled the dice and summoned a major illusion of a gargantuan bronze dragon that halted the army lol
+1 shield in a shape of a devil face (sth like oni masks). You can use it unatuned, however You can atune to it by feading a 100+GP gem to the devil (gem is lost). Depending on what gem was fed to it (ruby for fire, saphire for cold, garnet for necrotic, etc.), shield gains elemental resistance (only one at the time).
Then it can be fed another gem of the same kind worth at least 250GP for an immunity to that elemental damage.
On command You can make the eyes of the devil glow in the color of last sacrificed stone. If so, it emits a dim, colored light
It looses it's added properties when being unatuned. It can be reatuned to other element, at the cost of a new gem.
It's an item that grows with character - at lower levels its a commitment when money is low, at higher levels it can become a money dump and there's always that hunt for gems :)
Just in the course of this episode I've been thinking of a pretty simple magic item where I take the sunblade and turn it into a whip and it already seems more interesting to me.
I always love creating items directly for the characters in the campaign.
In a recent game, I made a set of bracers for the monk/druid and a polearm for the barbarian that grew with the player and a whole set of armour, sword and shield for the paladin. The monk/druid was an aasamar and the bracers were made from unicorn horn. The barbarian's Polearm was a enemy weapon made for a lieutenant of a devil cult but he had a personal quest to cleanse it into a holy weapon (they suffered a TPK before that happened). And the paladin's set was made from the original Primal Elemental Entities that shaped the world.
The other two part members a sorcerer and rogue also had some cool stuff but I they didn't have a central theme.
I made a magic Greataxe +1 that grows a beard on a living target everytime it lands a hit. I called it The Barberian.
That's awesome
Perhaps "The Hairrowing"?
It's a possibility
As a player who ended up playing a ranger just to fill a void in the group setup, I really feel the need for magical bows. Love the sound of the lightning bow. Also: cloak of a million ants? Heck yeah!
Really great insight into homebrew magic items.
Buddy and player of mine has a huge enjoyment with Batman. Made his grappling hook gun for his ranger. 100ft reach when "shot" out. Magically retracts pulling him towards whatever he hooked. It can be shot at enemies for a small amount of bludgeoning damage but makes a loud "clack" noise that can be heard when fired. Not very good for stealth use but makes his combat uses fun. Many... Many tree and rooftop movements.
My DM gave me one of his first home brewed items last week: the Swole Sword.
It’s a +1 longsword that can use either Str or Con mod. The hilt is shaped like an extremely jacked man with flexing arms forming the guard, and when withdrawn from its sheath heroic music plays.
The modifier flexibility isn’t that useful for me right now, but my paladin-bard LOVES the singing.
In one game i played my sorc ran into an imp that the DM really loved so we got an idea to have my character make an amulet with a drop of the imp blood and my characters blood and she got the find familiar spell to summon that specific imp. It was pretty fun.
I'm totally taking that shovel idea. I might tweak the design a bit, but I could see that being a useful item. I'm sending my players into a mine soon so it fits the area perfectly.
I know it's an old video, but my favorite has to be organizations that revolve around magic or religion granting weapons that allow you to trade an attack with the weapon for a cantrip.
Notably, one of my sorcerers was once gifted a Thorncoil Staff (just a Staff of Thorn Whip) by a Druid as thanks for subduing a raging unicorn that had been cursed instead of killing it. My player was an elf and his homeland tended to and protected unicorns and so he chose not to kill it, so I rewarded that.
One of my own creations that I am fond of is the dragon staff. A staff with the shape of a dragon with its mouth open at the top. When you feed it a gem it will use a breath weapon of the same dragon that matches the color of them gem (same stats as a dragonborn would use their breath weapon).
Wanderlust ring: grants advantage on perception checks while on the open road. +5 to movement
A fun magic item idea I had for a melee oriented Bard in my game was: Insult to Injury - A reinforced musical instrument like a Lute, which deals 1d4 + Str in Bludgeoning damage, and has the ability to cast Cutting Words once per day.
I came up with an idea for my Rogue, and would love some feedback.
"Windrunner"
Magical +1 dagger
Whenever the user successfully kills/knocks out an enemy, they may immediately make an attack roll (without proficiency) On an enemy within 5 feet. This can be repeated one additional time, with disadvantage being induced on the third attack in addition to no proficiency. The user returns to the square they were in on their first attack after they kill 3 targets/fail to kill their target; this does not trigger an attack of opportunity.
"You have only 2 hands"
Man its like u never met a wizard...
Obviously they've never seen a thri-kreen monk...