My wife is playing a dwarf wizard in my Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign. She chose the dragon scholar optional background feature, and as part of her PC's background, she decided that her character's best friend is a silver dragon. Her PC also has the apocalyptic visions bond, and so before he departed for Greenest, his dragon friend gave him a special amulet made from one of its scales.
My wife says she'd like it to be magical and offer her some protection. She was thinking it would protect her from dragon attacks. I suppose maybe it could grant advantage on saves against the breath weapons of dragons (and maybe also half-dragons)?
I was thinking the most likely thing it would do is grant resistance to cold damage, since it's a scale from a silver dragon. I feel like it ought to allow for some kind of limited communication between the dwarf and the dragon as well - maybe it just lets them sense that the other is still alive or something?
I was also thinking it would be cool for it to grow in power as the PC does. So maybe it eventually lets the two communicate telepathically through the amulet. Or maybe it eventually grants the dwarf the ability to cast a spell or two. Maybe rather than being just resistant to cold, it could function like the absorb elements spell (which would work out well for the PC, since he is as likely to smack an enemy on the head with his warhammer as he is to cast a spell at it).
I'm also wondering if maybe the dwarf could use it as an arcane focus. I know the PHB has amulets down as holy symbols, and things like rods, crystals, orbs, wands, etc as arcane focuses, but it doesn't actually say you can't use something else like a weapon or an amulet as an arcane focus, right?
And yes, I am conscious of the fact that I could be seen to be playing favorites with my wife here, so I intend to come up with some cool items for the other PCs too. The fighter PC, for instance, has her family heirloom greataxe. Perhaps it has magical powers that she can unlock - or perhaps it becomes imbued with magic when she defeats a powerful enemy.
Any constructive advice or suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks!
Cheers,
Jonathan
- Unbeknownst to the PC, the amulet also transmits her apocalyptic visions to the silver dragon. He is trying to help her, not spy on her, by figuring out what her nightmares are all about.
- Resist (Cold) would be better than Resist (Dragonbreath) because there aren't that many Cold-using creatures; once in a blue moon she will get out of a jam because of her amulet. Be sure to describe something magical happening like "The swirls of freezing mist wrap around all of you and chill your very bones. Except you -point- where they swirl around your amulet and are absorbed. The amulet is cold to the touch but you feel fine. The rest of you look a little frosty around the edges."
- When the PCs come into some money, she can work the amulet into the arcane focus she buys per PH standard, for a little extra fee.
- Part of Tiamat involves negotiating with dragons. Near the presence of other dragons, the amulet allows her friend to converse with her allies as if he was personally there. (Acts like a cell phone.)
- There are several scenarios in HotDQ where Frightful Presence would be useful. (Such as the Overpowered Assassins?) 1/day, hold up the scale and get a hologram of his head plus a full-throated dragon roar out of it !
- The heirloom greataxe seems to be in need of more-than-basic maintenance. At Baldurs Gate a weaponsmith can fix it and then some - it becomes "Masterwork" (+1 atk/dmg) due to he recognizes its heritage and is inspired to do his best with it. Add an uncommon property from DMG to the axe when the group hits L5 (I asked for a Weapon of Warning but was turned down by my DM, sigh). For instance, give the axe some dragon-inspired trim and the ability to deliver +1d6 damage of a dragon breath type for 1 min / day.
BRJN wrote:
pukunui wrote:
re: things to do at Balder's Gate
If the group hurries, it will have a week before the treasure wagons are ready to leave town. Try running a stripped-down version of Murder at Baldur's Gate. My group was not able to disentangle the various threads in the original adventure before the Cult's timetable caught up to us. Pick one of the three main adversaries and concentrate on HIS plans. Or - I wish I could play this out - prevent the Duke's assassination in the first place and thereby totally mess with Bhaal's plan. 
By saving the city from chaos and mass mayhem, the PCs can earn the Gratitude of the City, and an equipment upgrade.
I've seen one other poster who stated his group bought some mercenaries and attacked the treasure caravan before it reached BG. I wish I'd joined the group in time to think of THAT.
BRJN wrote:
Anyone got any more ideas? I'm kinda leaning towards making it a spell focus and/or having it grant cold resistance.
If you're worried about the other players thinking you might be playing favorites, you could maybe manipulate a pre-existing item so it more or less fits within the usual power guidelines.
I don't have my DMG handy, but I believe there is a magic Dragonscale Armor item that grants resisgtance to a certain damage type as well as additional defense against a Dragon's Frightful presence and some other similar ability. If you striped the AC bonus off of that and just used it's inherent defenses and powers, it sounds very similar to what you are trying to craft, anyway.
I don't see anything wrong with allowing the player to use the Amulet as an Arcane Focus. It accomplishes the same task as any rod or orb, being held to channel power. I wouldn't even mind letting her use it as an arcane focus while wearing it (akin to a Cleric or Paladin), but that depends on whether or not your party feels cool with you using Holy Symbol rules for Arcane Foci. Really though, it's more a flavor thing and I can't see it breaking any balance unless she's planning on doing some weird, niche build where she's using her one free hand to do cross bow shenangians or shielde shenanigans or some other such nonsense.
RCNovak wrote: