Custom Magic Items #1

This is the 1st in a series of posts revolving around the various magic items my group and I have managed to put together for play during the decade or so campaign we’ve been playing together. Some of these items where created before the release of the 5e 2024 edition and none of them are intended to be balanced. It’s also worth pointing out that there are spoilers for all published campaigns.

My personal rules for creating magic items with my players for their characters are pretty simple:

1. The more impactful the item, the more difficult it should be get. Some mighty items should be the subject of their own quest or foreshadowed before the player characters get the opportunity
2. These custom items take time and effort to create, they should be tailored for the specific player characters they’re intended for.
3. These items should emphasize some aspect of a player’s character, sharpen their advantages and/or smooth out some of their disadvantages. That’s not to say that they should eliminate the disadvantages of a player character’s particular build or background.
4. Powerful items should come at some cost, either in their acquisition or in their use. A risk/reward tradeoff promotes creative thinking and moves the players out of their comfort zone. Consistency can be dangerous for long term enjoyment.
5. Fun first, fairness second (particularly for NPCs)

I continue to maintain that I’ve been abnormally lucky with my D&D groups. It is extremely rare for me to need to worry about min-maxxers unbalancing our table’s experience. Never the less, in the past when I’ve had player characters that are more optimized for combat in the past you have three options. Bring the rest of the party up to parity (my general preference), provide some sort of nerf or disadvantage to problematic player character or a magical and secret third path. This is probably a whole different topic which I won’t go into detail here.

Tthe item images here have been badly composed by DALL-E2. No other use of Generative AI has been used in this post.

Narinav

See it in Homebrewery »>

This was intended for the Erun Player Character. He is a mid-level ranger that has an emphasis on mixing ranged combat with summoning distracting trash mobs. For a long time, the player character spent extensive time using Winged boots to avoid dangerous melee combatants. I wanted to promote the player’s favored play style while opening the player character up to more risky plays in combat by forcing them to stay on the ground. This, I hoped would result in more careful forward planning and scouting of possible combat encounters so that Erun could setup satisfying ambushes.

Part of the joy of creating this item with the player was our shared love of the Dark Souls games. We where both keen on creating something that had the kind of impact of those damnable Knight archers in Dark Souls 1 and 3. We went through a number of very interesting iteration options and many of the features of the final item came directly from the player. I cannot understate how great experience it is to create a satisfying custom item with player input.

I’m always looking for subtle ways to influence or nudge player characters in interesting ways. By making Narinav semi-sentient it allows me to have a direct 1-2-1 line to Erun’s mind. This not only gives me an opportunity to share quips or (often funny) alternative perspectives on events with the Player in question but also give a bit of additional conflict and subtly to the player character’s interactions with the other player characters, if they wish it. There’s a few hints for the players that there might be more to Narinav, a waiting plot hook opportunity. I think I have a problem, I’m addicted to plot hooks.

Acquisition

After getting the player characters to let me know if they wanted anything specific for their player characters (amongst other feedback), Erun’s player wanted some sort of custom longbow inspired by Darksouls 1 and 3. The idea of mundane items and weapons having elemental creatures bound to them intrigued me greatly, inspired by the very old 3.5E Eberron Feat geared around magic item crafting for players. Knowing that I wanted to have a Air Elemental bound to this item Feathergale Spire Dungeon seemed the ideal location for it and a lovely way to reward the party for clearing it out. As we’re not explicitly playing the Princes of Apocalypse campaign giving the player characters an excuse to intrude on the various cult’s plans seemed like a fun side quest. The fact that much of the Feathergale Society front for the Air Cultists who are occupying the tower is made up of Waterdavian Elites ties in extremely neatly to almost any stage of the Rise of Tyamat campaign we’re officially playing through.

Given the location, item and cultist’s interests in the region I foreshadowed it by delivering a report to the player characters from an ally detailing that refugees and travelers near the west of the Sumber Hills (those that are trying to avoid traveling the Long Road north or south due to increased banditry and animal attacks on the roads) being attacked at a great range with a mighty siege weapon.