I've been playing through Baldur's Gate 3 for months now, and I'm loving it. In terms of a strictly D&D perspective, I can see it incorporating many mechanics which are only coming into use with the new 2024 Dungeons & Dragons ruleset, such as weapon-specific special attacks brought by weapon mastery. I've also appreciated the new mechanics such as reverberation, bleeding, and arcane synergy. I've very much enjoyed items such as the Armour of Moonbasking, which gives additional temporary hit points and armor class to a druid when she wild shapes, or the Gemini Gloves, which allows cantrips to target an additional creature once per day. It's these creative magic items that have inspired me most, and this has made me want to branch out with the types of items available in my own games.
Not long ago, I put together lists of
low-level magic items inspired by Baldur's Gate 3 and
mid-level magic items inspired by Baldur's Gate 3, and now I'd like to share a third list. These three items are significantly more powerful, and incorporate mechanics you don't normally see in tabletop Dungeons & Dragons.
The first of these is the
Plate of Reinforcement. This suit of magical platemail will reduce damage from each hit its wearer takes by two points, but this only works for bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. Still, since these are by far the most frequently used damage types, it should go a long way towards increasing the longevity of its wearer.
Dungeons and Dragons as a system doesn't do much damage reduction in its mechanics, so when I saw this mechanic being used in Baldur's Gate 3, I saw it as an opportunity to create some interesting new Homebrew content.
Armor like this could in theory get tricky when combined with any form of resistance. For instance, if your character has resistance to piercing damage through some other means, is the damage halved before or after the two points are removed? I'd say that since this is homebrew content, this should be left up to the DM.
The second item today is the
Shield of Force. This item encourages use of a lesser known rule:
The Shove. With this shield, a character can shove an opponent as a bonus action rather than taking a standard action as normal. Let's review the rules for shoving a creature:
Using the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack to shove a creature, either to knock it prone or push it away from you. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
The target must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Instead of making an attack roll, you make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). You succeed automatically if the target is incapacitated. If you succeed, you either knock the target prone or push it 5 feet away from you.
In this case, the athletics check to shove can be made as a bonus action. In addition, the Shield of Force allows its wielder to use a Shield spell once per day, and that's gold when it's usable by any martial character.
The last item, the Deadbane Crossbow, is excellent when fighting undead of any level. Crossbows have never seen much play at my table during higher level play, but when you have permanent advantage against a specific enemy type, that may change. Watch out vampires, liches, and death knights!
Additionally, rolling a crit will apply a slow effect, which can be a huge help.
I hope you've enjoyed this series, and that if nothing else, that these items have inspired you to use more non-conventional magic items in your own games.
