I am picturing a special magic item for one of my PCs, something to build up until they find it a few sessions from now. The item's relevance is mostly its lore, but because I would like it to be used, I'm trying to make it balanced and cool for a level 4-5 adventurer.
Quick context, the character is a mountain dwarf Archfey Warlock, who made a pact with one of her ancestors who was a Wild Magic Sorcerer, got into the Feywild and turned immortal and fey for plot reasons. The PC is built around standing in the middle of combat, using medium armor and a war hammer, and casting AoE spells centered on her when she feels like it. The campaign is roleplay-heavy, and has an intended average of about one fight per session.
The hammer would be either a weapon that her patron used centuries before, or her current non-magical warhammer being enchanted by her patron, I haven't decided yet.
Here's my concept :
Hammer of Wild Magic
Unique (requires attunement by a Warlock)
You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
Wild Swing
Whenever you land a critical attack on an enemy during combat, you must roll on the Wild Magic Surge table from the Wild Magic Sorcerer subclass and apply the effects. If you roll 99-00, replace the effect with the following :
99-00 : You are transported to your patron's location, no matter where in the multiverse, for 1 minute, after which time you return to the space you previously occupied or the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied.
What I would like to know :
- Is this a balanced item to give to a PC at around level 5 ?
- Are there some weird issues and interactions that I didn't notice ?
- Is the wording ok ?
Thanks a lot !
Best Answer
I don't see any issues with this, other than that wild magic can be highly disruptive -- but presumably you and the player both know that already and are okay with it. You might check with the other players to be sure they don't mind this kind of crazy happening in their game. While most players like or at least don't mind extreme random effects like Wild Magic or a Wand of Wonder in the game, some find it frustrating and annoying in the long term, so it might be good to make sure the group is on board, or at least have a plot-related exit strategy planned in case it becomes overly disruptive.
The rarity should probably be Rare rather than Unique. Rarity is a (vague and inaccurate) measure of power, not a statement of how hard it is to locate this item in a marketplace, and the options are Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, Legendary, and Artifact (for items that are truly one-of-a-kind and impossible to reproduce by any means, and carry a commensurate amount of power).
A +1 weapon is well within the range of item rarity you should be handing out at that level, and by 5th level the party should be past the point where the worst of the wild magic effects might kill a PC outright (that being the 07-08, detonating a fireball on yourself -- wild sorcerers are possibly the only class that can accidentally insta-kill themselves with massive damage at low levels).
Just as a word on wild magic in general: There are a few effects on the wild magic chart that are permanent and have no "undo" option, notably the age and height changes. They may not matter much to the player in question, but those do represent potentially undesirable changes to a player character that can't be fixed except by randomly rolling the opposite effect later. Personally, I got a little frustrated when my kobold wild sorcerer kept shrinking (by over a foot, eventually!). You might consider allowing those effects to be undone by a greater restoration spell, if the player is really irritated by them.