EYE AND HAND OF VECNA, DRAGON ORB – PREVIEW
http://media.wizards.com/2014/images/dnd/articles/Vecna_p1.jpg
http://media.wizards.com/2014/images/dnd/articles/Vecna_p2.jpg
Yeah, that's an artifact for you.
It seems kind of weird to me that one-of-a-kind artifacts would possess some number of random powers, but I guess you can chalk that up to faulty in-game lore.
I really like how they explicitly define a +3 weapon as being capable of sundering an artifact, even if it's only one particular type of artifact.
Saelorn wrote:
Apparently they forgot that a dragonorb became very fragile in the hands of a Kender.
arnwolf666 wrote:
Loving all the flavour they're putting into the items. D&D has such a rich history now that it would almost be criminal to neglect it. I think this will serve the brand well with new players learning all these tidbits about various settings and getting them interested in the lore. Hopefully this also means some love for older settings with some new setting books.
Not sure how I feel about getting Dragon Orbs instead of the Orbs of Dragonkind I fell in love with when I first started playing. 
Dig that they mention Takhisis being another name for Tiamat, so, back to the 1st/2nd Ed deal, where Krynn natives call Tiamat, Takhisis, and Avernus (the 1st layer of Hell), The Abyss, love it. And yes, these artefacts feel like actual powerful magical items again.
arnwolf666 wrote:
I'm starting to worry about an over use of the charges mechanic. It was really cool to see on a few items, but I've now seen it on almost every item they have previewed 
Jenks wrote:
Do they have a ring of freezing breath to go with the X ray vision? 
I agree with Timborama, there are all kinds of alternatives to charges. Pesonally, I think the phrase "Vecna eats a little bit of your soul" (5% per use for something that had a charge, gets restored on long rest, you become Vecna's sock puppet if he eat 100%) is a good one. I would tell the player that there aren't any charges, but there will be other consequences (mystery is good), and their PC can make a DC 30 knowledge check to find out what they are (or they can use it once and get a pretty good idea).
The_White_Sorcerer wrote:
So...can we expected a supplement telling us about the Head of Vecna?
Say...around April-ish? 
"There is a 5 percent chance that Vecna tears your soul from your body, devours it, and then takes control of your body like a puppet." The question is, do the players know this ahead of time? 
Azzy1974 wrote:
I'm curious as to why the Dragon Orb can't replicate the Dream spell a la Silvanesti. Perhaps that is one of the possible Major powers? It'd be almost criminal to have the one shining example of an orb gone wrong be relegated only to novels.
Chiisai_Usagi wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
Chiisai_Usagi wrote:
Lord_Markelhay wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
You don't HAVE to take the risk. You could simply keep the passive benifits.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
My players must accept a higher chance of risk than yours do - a 5% chance that something bad would happen? I don't know any gamer that would swear off some bonus spells from an item over that, even though the something bad is about the worst something bad possible.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Vecna's Sockpuppet is the name of my next band.
Orethalion wrote:
I look at this way, if the PC was drugged and woke up with the Eye or the Hand attached, I would say there is a legit question about too harsh penalties. If the PC does something so extreme (by their own will) as cutting off their hand to attune to a magical item, they must have some idea of the pros and cons, even if they don't know the specifics. These aren't just +1 swords.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
mellored wrote:
Everyone loves it! Where is Paraxis. He'll hate on it. So will FFSAA and maybe Polaris and Xun.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Mechagamera wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
Seems to be heavily based on the 2E version from the book of artifacts. Good job anyway with the artifacts.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Bloodscythe wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
In 3.x, if you had 30-ish health and figure you can go 1 more round before needing healing, and then the bad guy crits you and you figure out that it's a x3 weapon, you're gonna have a bad time...
(it multiplied dice, yes, but ALSO modifiers! That's usually where the real danger came from, in my opinion)
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
arnwolf666 wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
draegn wrote:
I don't see anywhere that the Dragon Orb gives you some measure of dragon control? Could be on the next page but I doubt it would be after the "destroying the Orb" part.
^ Yes a single roll for a critical hit has resulted in death for player characters. This has happened in our games numerous times. Call it luck of the dice if you will.
We had high level characters get "cocky" and suffer for it. You lose initiative, opponet rolls a natural 20 and it's a death result. (Insert colourful metaphor) happens. The reverse is also true, once there was a 1st level paladin who in defense of his lord went after the big baddie who just burst through the castle gates. He got lucky with a decapitation hit.
Combat should be extremely dangerous and deadly for everyone.
draegn wrote:
Anything can happen when you roll dice.
draegn wrote:
It is a valid thing to bring into the discussion, however, since the real topic at hand was acceptable risk of your character being removed from the game, and specifically my observation that people are often very inconsistent about what sort of chance to be taken out of the game is acceptable - such as saying a 5% chance that only comes up if you specifically choose a particular course of action is too much, but that the pretty much 5% chance (or even higher) that any particular attack might take you out of play in prior editions is not only acceptable, but so widely accepted that 5e managed to still have critical hit rules no matter how many times I said they were bad for the game, and people have and still do house-rule in even more likelihood of being removed from the game by way of critical hit tables with instant death results and critical fumble tables that can cause direct harm to the character.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote: