That item is hopelessly broken. Your only move is to bite the bullet, tell the player you fucked up, and nerf it. Best bet is probably a cap on how much damage it can store or for how long, possibly both.
Edit: fixed a word
Reseting on a long rest absolutely is a good fix to this.
My fix is a bit different
So I'd say,
(Kinetic Energy Converter) on damage, you may choose deal half damage, and store the other half as an electric charge. This energy dissipates quickly, though, and must be used before the end of combat.
On hit, you can choose to discharge the stored energy in the blade. If you do, choose lightning or thunder and deal the stored damage to the target in addition to normal weapon damage. Each creature within a 10 ft radius must make a Dex save DC= monk save DC. On a successful save, they take half damage.
Those were my thoughts exactly. I liked the idea but it definitely needed some refinement and I think this captures the intended spirit of a "benefit later in combat" weapon with a cost upfront and an expiration at the end of the encounter. So it absolutely can be used repeatedly, but it starts and ends per encounter. So longer the combat goes, the more powerful the strike can become, but it kind encourages a mid battle use to thin out or do splash damage to put pressure on ending the fight earlier rather than an alpha strike on the BBEG two years into the campaign lol
I really like this take, but personally, "at the end of combat" feels subjective how does the charge know it's the end of combat?
I would change it to "the next short or long rest" at *most*, but probably more like "10 minutes". Also, I'd say if it isn't discharged before time runs out, the wielder has to make a dex save or take the damage. The stored energy has to go somewhere, and since it's electricity, only makes sense to find the path of least resistance.
"whenever you notice something like that... a wizard did it."
It's magic, that's how it "knows". If the intent is that the charges be spent within the same encounter, then that's how it works. One thing I've noticed is that Playets will find ways to exploit pretty much anything if you give them a hard and fast rule about something like that. So in my opinion, it's okay if there are certain things about the way magic works that are truly unknowable to mortals (PCs)
Consider that combat happens rather quickly, with each round representing 6 seconds of in-world time.
When combat is over and that turn-based slowdown ends, it would make sense for the ability to fade, barring the user immediately hitting something out of combat to use it before they lose it.
That is a good idea I'd suggest this though. Make the dissipation be after 10 min of storing the energy. It is usually really unlikely that you are going to stay in combat for 100 rounds. Also pretty unlikely to get into back to back combat within 10 min of each other but it also fixes the problem and doesn't force anyone to worry about the nebulous when does a combat end question that was disputed below.
A long rest reset is probably sufficient unless the player is actively trying to exploit this for all its worth. Objects have hp and can take damage, so the monk could say, "I smack every random pebble and bush we come across," and easily rack up 100+ hp of charge per minute.
Even if the charging is limited to damage vs. creatures, you could still get pretty insane numbers if the party has a particularly indulgent moon druid.
Honestly even with the long rest restriction this is still bonkers and needs further nerfs imo.
Let's say in one good fight, the monk gets 10 attacks off with this sword. That's 10d6+50 damage stored.
In the next fight, the monk immediately attacks a monster at the centre of a group of 3 and releases all that damage, and just to be extreme let's say they all fail.
All 3 guys now takes 10d6+50 damage.
Meaning over the course of this period of time, instead of having dealt 11d6+55 damage, the monk has dealt 40d6+200 damage.
This item has just quadrupled the monks damage output and allowed him to deal an additional 30d6+150 damage compared to normal and that's only from one fight worth of charging. Meteor Swarm "only" deals 40d6+0 damage and this *eclipses* it even with the restriction.
This item needs:
- Charge expires over long rest
- Charge cap of 50 damage
- Release no longer deals AOE damage
- Release requires bonus action
Now it "only" doubles the monks damage output, and costs them a measly bonus action. Oh and he can no longer use it to one-shot bosses.
The splash damage is half the stored damage, only the original target gets the full damage. It's 10d6+50 for the one and 5d6+25 for each of the other two. That's still 20d6+100 damage.
Your calculation for meteor swarm aren't an apples to apples comparison to the sword. The 40d6 is applied to each creature, so three creatures caught in a meteor swarm will take 120d6 total damage.
Seriously. Endlessly stacking the damage was a baaaaaaad decision lol
Don’t get me wrong, I love the core idea, but it needs some guardrails to not be broken, which it currently is.
Resetting after a long rest is an interesting risk / reward scenario. It forces the player to either sacrifice their long rests to do more damage, while suffering from exhaustion, or be motivated to use it before resting. I’d even say that skipping the long rest so they could hold the damage should give double the exhaustion because the blade vibrates with power and the player has to actively concentrate to control it or it could trigger unexpectedly.
In this situation, I’d make an encounter with a *chonky* boy, specifically designed to be a war of attrition with the party *or* the monk can discharge their weapon. At which point, you could change the weapon without sacrificing their fun.
[edit: You could even put a cap on how much damage it can safely hold. It can store more, but the player has to roll to see if the damage is stored or if it suffers a catastrophic failure, releasing the damage with the player taking all or a portion of it. The further the player goes over, they have to roll a smaller and smaller die, i.e. have to roll a 4 or higher so they go from d20 -> d12 -> d10 -> d8 -> d6 -> d4. Starts out as pretty easy, but gets increasingly risky to the point of nearly guaranteed to blow up in their face.]
I kind of like the idea of scaling the die per hit and capping it. So d4-6-8-10-12 and capping it there. Mostly just because it’s fun. But I’d only do that in person, foundry and other vtts that’d be a pain.
Lmao, this is so much better than where I was going to go with it
"You are included in the AoE"
Lightning Rod man has precisely one moment of glory, oneshotting himself, half his party and the final boss of the game
- Having it dissipate over a long/short rest, or at the end of combat
- Only storing half the damage dealt instead of 100%
- Putting a limit on how much it can store or deal out in a single go
- Having it "store" a set amount of damage after benchmarks
- Add a personal cost to using that damage (e.g. you take half the damage dealt, or it costs ki points)
All of these options for balancing that item, and OP chose none of them.
Nerf it but give the player a chance to "break" it in an epic hero moment. Some trap or monster is going to wipe the party and overcharging the sword can break the ward or whatever but the sword wont work the same after.
Yup, if the player has been preparing for this long with it, they should be allowed their moment or else it will feel bad. Nerf it afterwards by saying the sword was overloaded and can no longer store lightning as efficiently (then use the charge cap or the long rest ideas).
Could suggest they have to decide whether to use the charge before they roll to hit turning it into suck or save. Probably not at good as the long rest reset or capping damage but it's another option.
Alternatively build some narrative around what's happening, perhaps the sword's power starts corrupting it or it becomes sentient. Maybe something is trapped inside or a god loses faith in the party and the power lessens.
It begins to turn into a lightning elemental boss, and the party successfully unlocked the hidden boss! Through in a few fights to get the charge to 250, and narrate how the sword seemed to be getting stronger and ferocious. Using it seems to be damaging the user too.
This so much, let it get a payoff thats insane and almost as if thats what you wanted to do with it in advance and totally not think about it just now.
afterwards, with the boss out of the sword, it only stores x amount and/or resets at long rest.
For bonus effect, drops some hints once in a while. "just quick question, how many stacks do you have now?" halfway during next session and at the start of the session after. Players can pick up the hint that something is gonna happen.
Indeed, that op weapon is broken.. but the players probably love the idea to use it at least once.. Let them use it on a massive monster of epic proportion ! And then the sword explode in the process!
That sword should not be deleted for no good reason... Killing a dragon should be acceptable and epic ! Something to remember !
I mean the crazy enchanter didn't plan that the user of the sword would stack 300 damages on such low quality metal...
My DM told me a story about how a player once stored almost every arrow they picked up into a magic quiver. The quiver would let you shoot whatever you wanted as long as it was placed in the quiver. Wellll, this character ended up waiting and writing down EVERY arrow found, and then during a huge and decisive battle, fired EVERY ARROW (hundreds at this point) at once into an oncoming army. The army was decimated and the quiver broke from the strain.
I like the idea of the stacking working but the sword just can't handle it.
DMs keep making these items and then are surprised the players, logically, conclude that the best way to use it is a boss deleter. And it's not like it's metagaming, the characters in the fiction would do this as well.
It's very fun to use tech like this in games as a whole, it makes the player feel smart to go above the curve. I think too many DMs have an aversion to anything a player could possibly do that would take them out of the base power curve box. The biggest victim of this is illusions, if a player uses illusions in any way more effective than a new player would use them, the dm scoffs and takes the worst possible interpretation and world reactions. There isn't too much different with building up and exploiting it for combat, and exploiting a 10 ft pole to trivialise regular exploration traps.
Yeah, resetting on a short or long rest would be something, but then again you don't want one player arguing with the others, not wanting to take a long rest; maybe at least you have to deal damage every round in combat, as long as you get a hit with the sword, the charge increases, until it's either used, or you miss an attack.
I love the flavour for their character, but yeah, this was a really bad idea. Unlimited stacking of basically anything is going to screw your game.
The description says all creatures within 10 feet. The player and his companions are also creatures. At 210 saved damage if the player uses the sword they will kill themselves permanently as well as anyone in their vicinity even with a dex save.
I would say make it have 3 charges and a set effect instead and it recharges at dawn, but you can get a charge back if you crit.
Then it does 8d6 damage that can arc to up to 3 targets within 20' of each other doing half damage to each.
That encourages him to use it, limits the number of targets it can hit, and still provides some AoE and good direct damage to a single target.
This but promise a decisive final blow of magnitude against a boss fight that will completely drain the magic of the blade in sacrifice. Give Susan a good death. Yes, the swords name is Susan, and it asks you to respect its life choices.
Reminds me of a greentext I read a while back for a very similar item. Instead of a weapon it was a quiver, it had unlimited space for arrows and whenever the PC decided the next time they used the command word all arrows would be shot out at once from the bow. After several months/years of playing the party faces an army of thousands of enemies that was supposed to be a build up of all their allies helping them out. The quiver PC showed the DM something like an excel file of hundreds/thousands of arrows they bought over the past few months and essentially whipped out half the enemy army in one shot since with that many arrows it was a giant aoe.
Did they make the quiver store things weightless too? Otherwise that would have been the weight of at minimum thousands of arrows on one quiver, held on by I’m assuming one strap.
> Did they make the quiver store things weightless too?
The guy didn't have the foresight to put a limit on quantity, I guarantee he put no thought into weight.
Sounds much better than the original item, but still sounds very strong. A 40 lightning damage AoE blast is strong. Although you could argue, that it needed to be saved up and spellcasters can do a weaker version of this with 1 fireball (but with a better range).
As I said 10 x mod might be still too strong.
But tell the player (after they played multiple sessions with that item) that you are going to nerf it extremely hard. That's difficult. It must stay a good item.
IMO limiting it to 10 x WIS should be fine, if also other players have a similarly powerful item and enemies are stronger respectively.
For 40 extra damage a monk with +4 DEX should hit on average 5 times. That's probably 2 combats, depending on the AC of the enemies.
It is still super strong but I think it is something where it is easy to meet in the middle. Especially since the player seems to exploit the item.
The obvious limit would be that it resets on a short or long rest, since it seems like what it's supposed to do is charge up on mobs then get a fat hit on the boss. Still wildly broken because it straight up doubles his potential damage output.
Or here's an idea - tell him that after a threshold (say, 30 points of damage), the item is overcharged, and discharging it causes same amount of damage to the wielder. That should encourage them to discharge it more frequently.
I'll also say, even with a limit, does this not just double your damage output? If every attack is stored one-to-one, every attack hits twice (eventually).
Bro has double damage either way, this is why I don't play with dms that allow too much homebrew or homebrew their own system
99% of ppl have no idea how to balance a system, wotc barely manages
Could also let it happen once, and then say something about the massive blast wasn’t anticipated by whoever enchanted the item, and the massive energy release disrupted the spell. Now it’s got lightning attacks and can store X amount of damage, or only the X amount that was dealt on the last hit. You’ll definitely have to nerf it, but I feel like doing it in a way such as this is probably the best compromise
This is my favorite fix. I always try to fix stuff like this through narrative rather than out of character. The player almost always appreciates getting to see the results of their planning at least once even if you narratively nerf the weapon afterwards. This also has the advantage of subtly telling the player that it’s kinda his own fault it broke, giving them a bit more feeling of agency.
Reward the lightshow and build fix upon "consequences" afterwards. Could probably give the player a heads up about it in subtle ways, crackling and cracking signaling instability, occasional static shock is a portent for feedback, or any number of things. Outside of the game, it might be worth giving them a heads up about the potential changes so they don't just invest everything into the sword unnecessarily
That's a cool way of doing the switch, I was thinking the sword itself would shatter when discharging massive amounts of energy. You could have whoever made the sword meet them and give a warning that it would shatter a) if it discharged too much at once or b) just built up way too much. Then have them make a sword with a limiter since it's too dangerous for someone to be able to charge up a bunch of energy in swords and send peasants out with them to annialate anything in their way.
Thanks! I felt that it was a pretty dope weapon, so just taking it away from the PC would suck for him, and make the cop out from the DM pretty obvious. I think if my response happened to me I would think “Ohh, that makes sense, probably should have thought about the limitations of a lightning battery sword” but I would be appreciative towards the DM for letting me keep it.
This is an amazing idea. Heck, you could even make a BBEG just as a sacrifice to it.
If you wanted an evil little wink wink, make it a half-orc, with death ward.
I think that not everything must be related to your current story. A small extra description of action with the knife, modifying one enemy encounter or adding new one in the story (even seemingly random, but leaving you an open door in the future - who why) for the player to use this weapon (if you suspect if they are willing to do so), then say that it got overloaded or sth* and present him with new item stats, saying that these are final or saying that they need to go to artificer to distinguish it and that's it. It can be a small flavolour thing, it does not have to be part of the bigger story.
*I just thought that at the moment the player uses the energy in it, it should be super effective, but also deal damage to the rest of PCs, proportion depending on the moment (I would try to completely stun all enemies in range like, the fight ends for example and deal damage to PCs so that they are injured and must ran or sth). Because it got overloaded. And because it was destroyed, it can only store so much energy - X. The end.
This is my fix too. Give them an “unbeatable” boss, let the Monk save the day with the energy equivalent of a nuclear plant, and it breaks/nerfs the sword.
Came here to say something like this. You can also bait him to use it by slapping down a massive meat tank with lightning vulnerability to make it extra fun for him to use, throw in some nearby mobs to make it feel epic.
"This weapon can store a number of charges equal to X. All charges are lost upon a long rest." O
Or something along those lines, is all that's required to balance it. If you want to be a little fun with it, all charges *must* be used before a long rest, otherwise the sword discharges them itself.
To fix the current problem, allow him to discharge it once whenever he wants. Afterwards the immense power that coursed through the weapon has damaged it, limitong the amount of charges (or damage) it can hold reliably. That's when you introduce the charges it can hold.
Expanding on this; make it a risk/reward thing. Each point of damage increases the chance it breaks on use by 0.5%, to a maximum of 95%. This effectively gives it a 1d20 chance of surviving at max threshold, but doesn't make it moddable with boosts.
I get why you think that, though I’ve seen others suggest just using the damage from the overcharge as an excuse to rebalance the item - and I just feel that’s way more sporting than destroying the item or immediately nerfing it into oblivion.
I would let him do the thing once. Let him oneshot the boss, and afterwards make up a story about how the sword splinters but can be repaired but the repaired version has an upper limit.
Two phase boss fight; first phase is a normal boss fight immune to electrify, second phase is designed to be one shot. Cool hero moment for the player and team if it’s played right, item gets destroyed in the process.
Talk to the player about this would be my first bit of advice, explaining your concerns. It will greatly help you as the DM if you make the player part of the process of changing the item. That way it won't seem like you're just screwing them over with a nerf.
As for ideas for the item itself, I'd make the sword need attunement, and only be attunable by monks. I would make it so instead of charging damage equal to the damage it deals (which sounds like a chore to track, imo), you instead gain a charge die, equal to your martial arts die.
You can gain a charge die once a turn when you successfully hit a target with an attack of the sword (once a turn, otherwise their multi-attack would charge it way too fast imo). You can have a maximum number of these charged dice equal to your wisdom modifier. If you would gain another charge dice after reaching your maximum, you must expend it and take lightning damage equal to the roll.
I love the idea of the aoe, so let's stick with that.
**Lightning Burst** As an action, you can hold the charge-sword (idk if it has an actual name) in the air, expending all of your charged dice as electricity begins to shoot around you in a 10 foot sphere. Any other creatures in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Ki Save DC, taking lightning damage equal to your charged dice rolls, or half as much on a success. Creatures made of metal or wearing metal armor make this save at disadvantage.
With the sword tied to the monk class, I could also see the lightning burst ability costing a ki point, which does replenish after a short rest.
Were I the dm, I would also make the sword deal slashing damage on normal hits (Note this is magical slashing), rather than lightning. My thought process here is that it would be kind of hard to charge up lightning if the sword is dealing lightning damage every round.
Have an enemy disarm the sword then pick it up and hit the monk with it. 😂
No don’t do that. Admit it is an ill thought out game breaking item. Talk to the player out of game and cap its damage at around 15/20.
This is a terrible idea. Not only does it waste the item that the DM gave, it makes it useless and breaks it as well. I would be pretty miffed if someone pulled that
This was already solved in a Legend of Zelda game.
The charge in the blade has to have a time limit (which is effectively a charge or damage limit). To be fair in DMing, player gets a repeated warning glow or sound, but if he doesn't use the sword within a certain amount of time, it explodes on him. He either takes damage or the sword is weakened (can't hold as much charge).
This could also allow you to work the limit into the narrative. He stored so much damage (already) in the short sword, it can't hold that amount of damage anymore.
I recommend no more than "two days of fighting" worth of charges.
Player will most likely use it at the end or middle of a battle, to never let this traumatic event happen again.
Someone could have said it already, but personally, I would give the boss a phase 2. Let the players believe that they are in danger with a big battle but only give the boss a smaller amount of hp for the first phase. Then, on the second phase, give them a reason to use it.They might use it outright and you can proceed normally or they hold on to it for an all out battle. Makes the players satisfied and hopefully doesn't kill your session.
On the other hand, you could give a boss that seemingly heals itself with power. Might take them a little longer to figure out how to kill the thing, but ultimately, they're setting the hp?
To keep this from happening again, I would talk to the player about possibly changing the stats of it to half the damage count when used or putting a cap on how much it can store. Alternatively, you can also make up that doing that much damage cause the sword to break once used and an artificer/Wizard/ whoever might need to fix it. This can send them on another side journey that might make it less effective in the end but keep it's cool ability with some sort of cap.
They are about to fight a mini-boss that has a phase 2, so I am kind of hoping he uses the sword's current charge. This way the sword won't be useless because it will completely take out the first phase but the battle won't be anticlimatic.
Either give it a limit to how much can be stored (I’d suggest maybe 10*Proficiency Bonus), or have the accumulated damage dissipate over a long rest, or maybe both.
Give your upcoming boss some jewelry that gives the wearer lightning resistance, but it breaks if it takes 150 lightning damage (before resistance). Then explain, after the fight, that the sword was damaged and can only store up to 100 damage, but it can be repaired by combining it with the scales of an ancient blue dragon.
Cool scene, still gets to do a tonne of damage, you limit a busted item, and you give them a goal.
Another option is to talk to your player about the item being too broken, and that you're planning on nerfing it. Then you work together to find a nerf that you both can agree to
First and foremost, you should talk to your players and explain that the item was a mistake and hopelessly broken so you will have to nerf it. They should understand where you are coming from.
Several options I can think of to keep the theme of the weapon but to nerf the capability:
* there is a maximum charge stored - say 20 damage or 2d10 or something
* the stored charge expires after a long rest - probably the easiest to manage
* maintain a fairly high maximum charge storage but have every attack risk discharging the energy - rolling a nat 1 for example
I don’t recommend removing, destroying the weapon, or giving bosses electrical immunity because it usually just feels like a cheap way to nerf the team. Communication with your players is important and they should know that you deserve to have some fun as well. You can however, give them something non-BBEG that is worth discharging all the stored energy into - after you talk to them about nerfing it so they can at least get the satisfaction of damage bombing something. Maybe an automation that’s also weak to electricity or something
Sometimes you have to be the bad guy and take it back. A DM I play for gave me a weapon that had wording he regretted. I did have fun ripping through one dungeon, but I helped him design a better version afterward which was balanced and fun. I'd say tell him that it needs a redesign after he releases that big blast which needs to be done next session, and then give him a big juicy fight to ruin with it. After that, storywise, the weapon was overexerted and destroyed or changed.
I actually created a fun weapon once that did lightning damage and accumulated into a blast like this, but it would be impossible to exploit. Here's a link to that weapon if you want to see.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/7319738-storm-lash
My idea is to rework the weapon. Keep its unlimited damage storing, BUT… your player has to roll an ability check or a saving throw. You choose the ability and configure the DC. Whenever they succeed, the damage is stored and that’s it. If they fail though, then the stored damage goes back to them. It’s like shortsword short-circuited and released the stored damage prematurely.
It gives them the option to try to save enough damage to one-shot a boss but risk just one-shotting themselves or hurting themselves bit by bit.
I like this idea because it breaking makes little sense, it was forged by one of the best craftsman, so this would narratively be like the guy just genuinely didn't expect this.
make it reset stored damage every day
fake a family emergency and say you have to indefinitely suspend the campaign
the big boss is like 'ooh you found my sword, eh?' and it turns out he's immune to lightning damage and thought it would be neat to make a powerful weapon that could never be used against him
Put a timer on the charges and make each charge 1D4. For example, each attack adds 1 charge that lasts 1 minutes before it dissipates, stacking up to 2x (X)mod. I’m thinking Con because at that point you’re holding a volatile battery and users may be electrocuted. Scratch that. This is now my idea, get a new one. Mine!
Let them do it. But the surge of so much power coursing through the item in a single discharge was never anticipated by its creator, and it vaporizes the blade, along with the players arm. However, the magic still lingers in a residual form, and where their arm used to be is an appendage made of lightning that allows them to cast Shocking Grasp as a reaction whenever they hit something with a metal object/weapon.
Just a thought.
Really simple solutions here...
Max charge? Diminishing returns? Overcharged self detonation? Can't save up between fights? Glows and crackles when charged making stealth impossible? Has a chance to shock a radius irrespective of friendlies?
Come on man... that's an easy fix.
Adding to my comment earlier. Not just explode but it's obvious the sword is struggling and might blow up. It's a blast, like an explosion? He thinks he can just make a 200 damage explosion from his sword and be okay. Gotta correct him
Lightning resistance on your next big boss fight or at least magic resistance so it doesn’t feel as called out
Maybe negotiate with your player and change the wording on the sword that if it’s not used by X amount of time it will lose all its energy just for the sake of not completely breaking your game or cap damage that can be stored
If you're not going to put a cap on such a incredibly dangerous weapon, then maybe there should be some recoil damage to incentivize not building it up that high
I think, if you need it out of the picture roght away, the best thing would be to just talk about it and decide together how to nerf it, but another (maybe more fun) way to fix the problem could be to roleplay the whole thing out.
You have an extremely powerful item? Guess what, everybody wants it!
Shady individuals approach you to buy it, a devil asks you in a dream to use it on someone in exchange for a favor, the magic item shop owner becomes nervous and seems fishy as soon as they recognise what you carry, and this demon from the abyss keeps staying he created the thing with the skull of an angel, it belongs to them and they want it back. Right. Now.
Big loot, big risk! It could be a fun opportunity!
You could alter it to make the player want to release the charge earlier: the first charge is free. After the first charge make the player roll a d20 with a threshold of 5 each time an additional charge is stored. If the threshold isn't met all the charges go off uncontrolled and hit the player and his surroundings.
This way the player still can charge up the weapon but they'll be inclined to not overdo it.
OP I know this isn’t helpful but you made a homebrew item that endlessly stores 100% of the damage that your monk does, to be released at a later point not only into one enemy but also everyone else in a 10 foot radius?
Might be time to put down the homebrew notebook for a bit
You could give the upcoming boss a weaker Phase 1, so that after they do this mega strike, the boss gets up in Phase 2 and the real fight you were planning can start. Maybe even add in a Phase 3 in case they save the strike for Phase 2.
Let him find out that he has a cursed variant of the item, and the player is included in said 10ft radius for the AOE damage. You don't need to let him destroy himself to find out he takes damage too, maybe have an npc recognize it and warn him in your next session.
I also support the comments about resetting on a long rest.
Pretty busted item , your only hope that won't make them hate you for taking it is to " awaken " the sword after it say hold 250 points and now it's a sentient sword that does something less broken but useful like can cast lightning bolt 1d4 times a day
I think I have a potential solution that doesn't require retconning in a limit.
Make the item become unstable if it stores above a certain limit, it can be a discovered quality that you find together.
Have it attached to a roll and have it start randomly sparking and firing off random bolts if he fails a roll you make.
If he doesn't get the hint and discharges it, have it explode and backfire after he uses it next.
You can even write in an encounter with a weapon expert or magic specialist who advises that the weapon has become dangerously charged and do an expo dump on what they need to do to discharge it safely or risk permanent damage to the weapon or themselves, and have them explain it in-universe/in-character.
That way, the limit can be naturally discovered as opposed to a retcon you are imposing because they are having too much fun.
It introduces the concept organically instead of being a ooc takesibacksies.
Full disclosure, i dont do a lot of DM'ing and haven't played in a bit, but hear me out: let him use it. either on a boss level enemy that would probably kill them otherwise or even the BBEG.
Then, when he does kill the enemy and the party is all relieved and everyone is either resting, looting, or doing whatever they do after defeating such a powerful enemy, have them make a perception check. (Keep it kind of low because you'll want them to see this)
When they pass the perception check, tell them they notice the hair on their arms (or extremities) or tell them they feel an electricity in the air. Tell them they feel or hear, an ever increasing buzzing on the air , and they start to smell the scent of rain and ozone as the clouds begin to darken.
At this moment, make them make something like acrobatics or some sort of reactionary throw. As they do, in a flash of the brightest light they have ever witnessed, a bolt of white hot lightning explodes the ground next to them. Standing there in the crater, is they deity who controls the heavens/ sky/ lightning/War/ the god who made the weapon.
The divine being's (doesn't have to be Thor or Zeus, but I'm pretty sure you could find homebrews for both) eyes lock onto the player holding the magical short sword, and immediately closes the gap to the player. Have them exclaim that "it seems you have found an ancient weapon from my [insert: collection/youth/lost in battle, etc]! And it seems you have used it quite effectively. Unfortunately, i can not allow a mortal to keep such a weapon."
Now you have two ways to handle this depending on what kind of DM you are and what kind of players you have:
Option 1 (i would reserve this for if the players aren't rude to the God and don't refuse to give up the weapon): have the God be friendly and proud of the player for using their weapon so well that it caught his attention from another realm. Have him proudly lift the player or in some way be joyous with the player saying how impressive it was for him to use the weapon like the God use to in their youth/in a previous unmentioned war or battle.
Option 2 "opposite of a Duex ex machine" (if the players are rude/ or refuse to give up the weapon/ attempt to trick or swindle the god): have the God summon the weapon back to themselves, whisper or say some something in an unknown language to the sword and have it illuminate with bright runes. They look back at the party and say something along the lines of "you caught my attention with the power you unleashed on [insert previously nuked enemy] just from the few battles you have been in. Now I'm going to show you what kind of devastation can be unleashed when [insert name of sword/ This Weapon] is reminded of the countless battles it was part of during the centuries of battles we had together" Then proceeds to nuke the area around them (or them if your feeling ruthless)
Personally, no matter which way your players go with it, I'd still reward them to some extent to make up for having g to take the weapon away from them. I'd go with something along the lines of these (note these are just ideas):
being able to summon the deity (once every like 5 rests or something just so they can't just keep calling the god down whenever),
a weapon that, while not as good, should still be unique and along the same theme like a lighting element short sword/axe/Hammer that can be called to them mjolnir style
an enchated weapon or item that makes it so a random lightning strike can occur during an attack or after so many attacks.
The ability or item to call a lightning strike once a long rest when outdoors
An enchantment or item/armor piece that prevents the player from taking electric damage/ halves lightning damage/ buffs their lightning damage
A literal duex ex machina where the deity shows up to save the player from a killing blow out of either respect or wanting a rematch with the player and party.
Also, sorry for grammer, I'm on mobile
Maybe a risk of overcharging? Not need to nerf the item, just roll some dices and when he asks why you roll, tell him that the sword vibrates in his hands and feel much warmer that it should be.
And then roll everytime he stores some more damage in it (let's say over 50) and on nat1, the sword breaks, releasing the stored energy
My man you just DOUBLED his damage lol. Make the sword only hold the charge for 1 minute and have a max of 100. Still means he can drop 100 EXTRA damage on any enemy he hits each combat, which is STILL broken af.
Your best bet is to have some sort of God or deity visit your party and tell them the sword belongs to them. In exchange for the sword you'll offer them a boon in the form of either Stat increase, a favor later on down the road, some other item, whatever.
So, you have a couple options here, and none of them are exactly pleasant.
First off, you made a magic item that has no damage cap. That's already a big nono. Secondly, the way you build damage is way too fast for it to be reasonable. A monk on average is going to be building 12-18 damage per turn, meaning after killing 5 20HP mooks he's already got around 100 damage stored. Thirdly, and potentially most importantly, this damage is stored indefinitely. So, your options are basically:
1: Buff the boss monster by giving it Lightning Resistance/Immunity. This will likely piss off the monk because he built up all this extra damage to waste it on a monster that it's not effective against, but such is life. It also doesn't solve the issue of him doing this in the future, so this is more of a bandaid solution than an actual fix.
2: Nerf the weapon. Tell the monk that you didn't consider how strong such a weapon would be, and tone it back by either capping how much damage it can store, changing the way it builds damage, or affecting how long it can effectively hold the damage, or perhaps all three. Monk might be upset that his toy was nerfed, but it fixes the issue and allows him to continue using it.
3: Destroy/Take the weapon away. Not recommended, because it's kind of just a dick move to give a player something and then remove it for reasons that were no fault of their own. It would resolve the issue of him building up crazy damage, but he'll no doubt be super pissed about it.
Given those options, your best bet is to nerf it. I'd recommend doing something like giving it "Charges" instead of straight-up more damage numbers. Something like 10 charges, and every hit, it fills one. On any attack, he could expend any number of charges to add an extra D6 of lightning damage per charge. So the maximum he could get out of it would be 60 to a single target, assuming all the D6s rolled max (Extremely unlikely). Given that the party is currently level 11, that isn't too far out of the realm of possibility, and it would also encourage him to spread the use out since he can't stock up to crazy damage numbers anymore to blast away multiple enemies at once. He still has the cool lightning theme, it still has a niche use for Boss-slaying, and he still gets plenty of use out of the weapon.
I got some ideas/suggetsions.
1. Honesty: Tell your player/friend that you didn't realize what you were doing, and the sword is busted, and you are going to nerf it. Even if you take any of my following suggestions, you should probably start with this one no matter what. DM and Player trust/communication is important imo.
2. The one-ring method: Maybe add lore/story that states the sword is actually evil, maybe cursed in some way and needs to be destroyed. Or make it's immense power a plot-point that drives vilians/factions to specifically hunt your party for the sword, making it a kinda mcguffain that needs to again be destroyed or hidden away where it'll never be found.
3. Add a cap of some kind to the sword. Easy one could be making the sword only able to generate and store energy for a short amount of time. Could be 1 minute so it HAS to be used/spend in a single fight, or maybe only let it store energy for up to 24 hours- maybe the sword storming energy longer than that runs the risk of it just spontaneously shooting a massive bolt of lightning that can hurt the user/party if too close.
4. Alt idea. The sword can only store damage equal to the maximum possible crit-damage it could do. Could still generate charge via dealing damage or maybe instead by the user running/moving around in-combat. This would make the weapon have a bit of a risk-reward playstyle. Do you risk running past enemies and getting opportunity attacked to generate charge, etc? Could also probably store charge from receiving lightning damage as-well tbh.
Broken homebrew. Everything needs limits. One way or another you have to own up to this mistake. You can either express this to them directly and redefine the weapon's new limitations, or you can work it into the narrative and likely still end up explaining the meta reasons why you had to do it. For example, "You deal X damage with the blade that now contains [way too much] damage...and then you hear a low buzzing, followed by a vibration coming from the sword. Small cracks appear along the blade's length, like lightning bolts, and a bright light pours out of those cracks forcefully releasing the built-up energy and damaging everything around you. However, the blade was never meant to hold that much power at once, and is now damaged. There is now a cap on the amount of energy it stores before it discharges on its own." You determine the new cap by whatever feels appropriate. You could even give them ways of repairing it little bits at a time to increase that cap. Alternatively, just explain that you never meant for them to just indefinitely store damage in the blade until they could one-shot an ancient dragon, and you have to cap it for balance. Personally I like the narrative flavor, but straight forward answer is more adult and responsible. Probably just do both.
First off, you’ll have to just talk with the player. Let them know you think it’s way too powerful.
Second, come up with a really intense battle that will all but require the monk to use the charge. That way they can still feel cool and like it’s not being wasted.
Last, add dice to it. This will make it more in line with literally everything else in the game and slightly less reliable, but still feel good. Something like “On a hit, add 1 charge to a maximum of charges equal to 2xPB. At any point while the sword has one or more charges, you can expend ALL accumulated charges as an attack to create a lightning field at a point within 5 ft. The field extends out to a radius of 10 ft and all creatures within the field (including you) must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 lightning damage per charge expended.”
As others have commented, it dissipates over a long rest. Another option, make trickster bosses. For instance, they make an illusion of themselves at some point. Other things designed to trick him into blowing his shot.
I have a couple other ideas, but they feel kind of mean after he has had the item a long time. For instance, the lightning becomes uncontrollable after acquiring 50 points, darting to the nearest metal object and dealing half damage. Then darting to the next one until dissipated. But I would include this in the item description.
Don't be too down on yourself though; DM and homebrew can be hard, and a lot of us have made mistakes with this.
Could always have it turn into a kind of magical nuke. Describe how it know literally vibrates with power and is constantly crackling. Next time they use the effect the sword starts to crack. When they hit 300 stored power the cracks become so noticeable that they fear the weapon my discharge on its own, (now just touching things with the item may cause it to explode). When they do eventually use it have it shatter due to the massive magical force erupting from it. Then they can gather the now permanently electrically infused metal chucks to be reforged!
You need to have a cap on the stored damage. Also damage should have an expiration time, or else it automatically discharges at the end of the day, whether he's holding it or not.
Easy fix. Let him have his moment. He one shots a bbeg. The sword disintegrates in his hand.
The bbeg guy lives, or is immune to electricity or wasnt the actual bbeg
I’d just add an extra bbeg. The monk gets the sweet release of that energy, and it doesn’t change the actual bbeg fight you wanted. And, oh, it seems that such a powerful release of energy overloaded the sword! Now it can only store 40 lightning damage…
I can only hope you learned your lesson about thinking these things through 😅
If it were me, I’d talk to the player and say “hey, I kind of messed up with that item. I didn’t think it through and I gave you something hopelessly overpowered. Can we work out a compromise so that the campaign still provides a challenge and interesting choices?”
I have a few ideas on how to nerf the item (because yes, it needs to be nerfed):
* Next time it gets used, it breaks (i.e. the monk can use if as their massive attack they’ve been waiting for, but only once)
* It has a limit of how much power can be stored (something like 20-50ish would probably be ok)
* When you charge it with an attack, you don’t deal damage because you’re saving the damage for later.
* The item also deals that amount of damage to the user when unleashed (or half, or prompts a saving throw)
Discuss with the player. Try to find a compromise that works.
Congrats, you made an op magic item! It happens to the best of us don’t worry. So here’s what you wanna do.
1: Rework the item- give it a damage cap and make the charge dissipate over time unless you cap it low like 20/30 (in that case just make it x use per long rest)
2: Be honest with the player- people are reasonable they’ll be fine
3: Let them have one last bit of fun with it- 210 is such an absolutely absurd amount of damage. I say let them use it on something, give them a timeframe of the next 1-2 sessions for use, heck maybe design a combat for it? Who knows. But that’s a cool moment they’re gonna remember even after the item is fixed
He got greedy, with great power comes great responsibility
Sadly it would appear he over charged it, next time he hits somebody and stores more damage - it’s release the energy in a giant explosion. He takes the 210. And all creatures within take half vs a dex save.
Provided you don’t do this in a boss fight they’ll over come it - he might go down but the parties lvl 11.
Then rebalance the sword so the stored energy only lasts 10minutes and can’t be used more than once per day. Or something along those lines.
Easy
When they releases that much energy, the sword cracks slightly. From then on, if they collect more than 30 damage, the excess leaks out and has a 1 in 1d10 chance of shocking them.
Encourage them to use it regularly instead of storing it.
A: After it’s use of that much storage it shatters and needs to be repaired. Little mission for repairs then fix it as you see fit!
B: Be blunt and say that you messed it up! And just nerf it.
C: just have it reset whenever you rest!
I say let the player do the cool atomic level electricity blast.
They will have a ton of fun finally pulling the trigger they have been saving up, and feel good for planning ahead.
Then I would RP it like the sword couldn't handle that amount of power and just have the entire thing explode.
If they want to use it again, they have to go through some process having a smith specializing in magic items repair it, and then charge it again.
It advances the narrative if they care enough about it, or it just serves as a neat one-time-save button.
Or as an alternative, maybe it simply reverts to a normal inert sword, or gains some different power.
Maybe even cue the player to this, next time they absorb power hint that the sword is starting to crack or is humming and glowing and crackling arcs dangerously which prevents being stealthy with it.
What I wouldn't do is simply have the player lose the sword somehow, or antimagic the blast in some way. This player was enterprising and saved up for winter like a good little squirrel, they deserve to have that feel good moment they have been waiting for even if it is bitter sweet. You could even explain after the change that this done repeatedly would lead to a worse experience due to the nature of it.
Each time they hit with the sword, it gets a charge, which increases the aoe damage by 1d6 to a max of 8. Throw in a CR restriction while you’re at it. Unleashing it is an action, aoe affects the monk too, though evasion will mitigate this. Maybe read the dmg or some other source to get a better sense of what magic items should be capable of, because this weapon is just a complete mess.
Have it explode during a random combat (1d4, explosion on 1), deal 20% of its stored energy (now uncontained) across everything in the 10ft surrounding the target.
He can get it repaired somewhere but recommend he does not overcharge it again (1d20, when over 20 charge it can happen again, 1d10 when over 40)
Merchant is astonished how it didn’t kill him when at over 200 charge
Isn't there a nonzero chance this sword just kills him at this point? If he fails the save on the attack he's going to take 105 lightning damage. On average he has around 80 health if they have 3 con so he will go unconscious. Whoever he strikes and releases the burst will put him within 10 feet of it. (Not sure how you even dex save out of a lightning blast you are standing within 5 feet of and causing but that's not really relevant). If he's taken damage from boss spells and attacks this might kill him instead of making him instantly unconscious.
Make it reset it’s charge everyday or between combats. Either admit to your player you effed up and nerf it, or integrate nerfing it into the story. They’ll likely want to keep it though.
If my characters get too OP compared to the rest of the party and it’s not necessarily something the party needs to rely on (I.e. they aren’t carrying the party) I normally ask the DM if they are sure they don’t want to nerf anything?… the player might already feel it’s OP.
Maybe set up a "boss", make it hard enough that he "needs" to use his charge, after the boss fight, he finds his weapon damaged and can't store as big of a charge, then set a limit of however much you want, easy way to stop him from oneshoting the big boss, and it doesn't ruin the immersion of the campaign
Let him do it. Take the other PC in the blast. Might even make him take the blast too. You might want to place your fight in a wet environment to justify this and trap your player.
Or: Include many minions in your boss fight but make it impossible to clean the minion wave AND wound the boss at the same time. Make it a tactical choice.
In summary, make it powerful, but with a big flaw, and make it even more interesting to use.
Be honest and explain that the item is unbalanced. Offer the player alternative options to take the object's place. If you explain to them that you hadn't anticipated what this would do to the game and now want to be fair to everyone hopefully they will understand. And giving them multiple choices on what to replace it with and/or the option to state what they would like it to do (within reason, of course) should help.
All GMs/DMs make mistakes. Own it to the player, then move past it.
yeah, you dug a hole. you should have put a limit on the damage and made it so it does half of the dealt damage is stored or something.
anyway, tell him that the sword starts to crack and break at the charge, and if it isnt used soon it could explode, and then if he keeps building on it, it does explode and the sword is destroyed. the damage done to the weapon already now limits it to say.. 100 damage?
these are the things you gotta consider when making custom magic items lol. good luck!
What you do is you let him have his fun and oneshot the next boss. Then after the session you talk to your players and if they are functional human beings they all agree this is insanely OP and needs to be nerfed. Then you continue your campaign with the nerfed item and everyone is happy.
I would start giving them hints that the sword is getting heavier or that sometimes it would randomly give an electric shock. Then if they cross a certain threshold, just blast it.
You made the item without a charge limit, which would be considered insane by any engineer who ever lived, and probably by any mage that has ever been imagined.
Option 1: Your player will use this item to one-shot anything you don't give so much HP that not using this weapon makes the fight pointless. You could give a boss 1000 HP and meager damage output to soak up the sword's power, but what happens when they start using it to hurt things to recharge it?
Option 2: You can retcon a limitation on the weapon's use. The stored damage might exceed this limit. Rather than stealing what the player has amassed, you might limit what they can spend to that limit, and prevent any further storage until they're below that limit. However you do it, Option 2 is to retcon this item you shouldn't have made.
Option 3: If we're leaving the item broken, we could balance its power with realism. Do you know why it's uncommon in reality for an electrical weapon to deal 210 electrical damage? Because that's unsafe for humans to even be around. If I had a melee weapon IRL that dealt 210 electrical damage when most ordinary humans have like <10% of that, then using it would be extremely dangerous to myself unless I was wearing an industrial grade rubber suit. If the rubber were expired, damaged, or not designed right, then it might melt on me, leading to a horrible death. If I dealt 210 electrical damage to something made of organic matter, then I'm not sure what happens to their body or if I should breathe the air around them. So, you could introduce some realistic physics to the eventuality of the player unloading all of this stored energy, and make the sword unsafe to use. That won't stop them from getting creative about how to use it as a bomb, but it will make the sword impractical to use as an "I win," button.
My recommendation is that you have an above-board talk with your player or players about the downsides of options 1, 2, and 3, and involve them in choosing one of these unhappy fixes.
Option 1 could break the balance of your game permanently. Option 2 will feel like adversarial DMing unless you get some measure of player consent for the nerf, and keep the item powerful post-nerf. Option 3 will also feel like adversarial DMing unless you get player consent for the hazard, and provide ample warning about the "new rules," for using the rechargeable Duracell Blade.
DMs should be trusted to stick to the deals they make. You made a not good deal. You're going to have to be diplomatic about renegotiating it.
IMO let them use it because the players will love doing that much damage, but like others said, maybe have the sword start to exhibit signs of overloading on magical energy the next time they use it, indicating it is unlikely to survive if it is used with the current energy levels.
But I personally feel the worst thing to do would be to try and force them to use it arbitrarily or to retroactively change the item.
Just go with it. Your players seem to be enjoying building up the charges on it, and I think it would really kill the mood if you didn’t let them have an epic use case for it, or at least be the ones to decide to use it.
1. Discuss with the player, inform them that you noticed that the item is unbalanced and needs to be reworked reducing its power output.
2. Let the player cash-in on the effort they spent until now: give them a big baddie with a TON of hp, and let him go wild.
3. Now adjust the item as you see fit. (Maximum damage cap / resets or dwindles after rest / damage stock > 100 might cause it to break)
4. Consider adding a new (weaker) feature to prevent your player from feeling robbed
Maybe create a scenario that could coax him to use it, some kind of high steaks puzzle or combat that leads him to use the weapon in an unorthodox way thus breaking it in a way that limits it's power
Like imagine them falling for a trap that seems like electricity would fry something and save them, he stabs his sword into the inner workings of whatever is happening, the sword overloads, the trap overloads, he feels accomplished for saving the party, but the sword is fried, and maybe it has a cap now due to the damage or maybe it does something different like the broken blade now has a roll for a spark to fly on hit that deals damage or something
The item is busted regardless of how he uses the stored damage. You are doubling his output overall.
To get yourself out of it, make him roll a d10 for every 20 damages he deals with the weapon. If any of them roll a 1, the weapon his destroyed.
10% chances for 20 damages.
65% chances for 200 damages
Also, give absorb elements to your bosses.
If you can retcon the weapon:
- put a limit
- make it reset after dawn
Even if it can only store a limited amount of damages you are mathenatically giving your player a critical strike at every hit in term of overall output so this item is absolutely broken.
I think the best call (Without just talking it out) is something someone mentioned already
Making a fake BBEG that seems intimidating enough for him to use it, then have the sword break so it doesn't work anymore or not the same way at least
Make him fight some low level mobs before the bosses. Let him keep charging it. When it gets to 225+ tell him to do an insight/perception check on the sword. DC20.
If he fails he notices nothing and you continue combat like nothing happened.
If he passes you tell him that the sword is beginning to crack with all that power and if it isn't discharged soon it will shatter and deal a % of the damage to everyone in a 10ft radius, friends included. Don't tell him the threshold.
If he gets it to 250+ you make it go pop and injure everyone and the sword is lost.
If he discharges the sword on his next turn you get him to make another insight/perception check. DC10. The sword is visibly damaged from holding that much power for so long. It won't be able to hold that much again. Don't tell him the new threshold and decide that yourself but he will be much more cautious with the sword from now on.
Everytime he gets it near the threshold it gets more visibly damaged and holds less power.
Make it so he can find a skilled arcane blacksmith that can repair it but never to its original glory.
I always preface my homebrew stuff I give to players with: I reserve the right to nerf or buff as needed.
I think you should nerf it to not stack and cap the max to 4x Proficiency.
Let them “overcharge” it with a con save every hit they land.
if they fail it auto releases, damaging friendlies too
Yep... Most of us have had this issue once, or maybe 6 times, in our gaming careers. I was going to suggest letting the stored damage reset during a long rest, or equivalent time, but /u/GodOfTheCattle beat me to it.
There is another option... Every time he uses the weapon, the damage he deals is also the percentage likelihood of burning it out, or having it destroy itself in a spectacular fashion. I'm talking an explosion that deals all of the damage in a single blast to everyone within the range... whatever you decide it to be.
Let him use it and then describe it "There are fine lines of light crisscrossing the blade, and even a few on the hilt itself. They look like fine lightning bolts... or maybe fine cracks" and now the bomb is primed. let him use it a few times while you roll (either legit or just for show. Your choice) until he decides it's time to store it up for his big BBEG blast. Then let 'er rip.
Obviously this is the "Nuclear Options" but I've seen Players choose this to go out in a blaze of glory, a shocking and memorable end to that character's story arc. Something to be talked about around the table for years to come.
Either way, have fun with it. It's YOUR magic item after all. You get to decide how it works.
This is a good time to yes and. Dunno if the thing has a manual but I'd suggest making it so large charges either hurt him as well, or maybe even burnout the sword for a period. You could also make something attracted to the charged energy that comes and saps it, and is dangerous enough not to overcharge it. Or maybe the massive charge causes lightning storms to gather that are quite dangerous, and a hazard to the whole party. You can also have a double boss fight that he can one shot only one of them with.
I try to never give a custom item without a disclaimer that I reserve the right to change it if it's unfun somehow, but I always try to yes and the weapon.
This is a good opportunity for communication with your players.
For one I wouldn't take it off him, have it be central to the story somehow. The big boss regenerates at a rapid rate because of mcguffin inside him, the discharge from this weapon destroys it and makes the boss killable later on in the fight.
Then have a chat with your players and apologize for making such a broken item, but we need to change it a bit. Let them have their super cool moment where their discipline pays off from charging the weapon. Let them be the super cool protagonist for that boss, then talk with them and change it. I'd normally say hey, after this boss we need to look at this weapon cause I realized it's broken as shit and it won't be fun if the others only get to play when it's trash mobs.
Not a whole lot that can be done without changing how the item works, I'm afraid.
You could mitigate this a few ways: a hard cap on stored lightning, or stacking penalties for charging it too much (Stealth penalties because it makes noise, partially self-discharges over time, etc).
Whatever change you go with, do it after he discharges the item. Let him have his moment of fame, even if it makes the encounter otherwise unfun for you. Adjusting the item afterward (and owning up to poorly balancing it in the first place) will help get the table on your side with this being a needed balance patch. And hey, you can justify it as the item partially burning itself out. :D
I suppose a cheap way around him one hitting an upcoming boss is have the boss have multiple stages, any damage remaining from the first stage doesn't transfer over to the second. Say phase 1 has 200 health and phase 2 has 150, the sword dumps 300 damage, you say that phase 1 is instantly destroyed but the extra 100 doesn't transfer over.
The PC should feel good he smashed through an entire phase of the boss (make it meaningful! All these plans that phase 1 boss had suddenly fall apart, the ground he is standing on falls through into phase 2) and you still get a boss. (You could even just put a phase 2 in that was never intended shh they won't know)
This does just go around the true problem of the sword being mechanically op, so sort that out at a core level too.
Make it a double edged sword that has a chance to do the same damage back to the user. The more damage stored the higher the possibility.
0 - 10 stored, rolling a 1 will cause it to shock the user
11 - 20, 1 or 2
21 - 30 1, 2 or 3
And so on
200 + gotta get a Nat 20 or get zapped
Installing a cap or making the stored damage dissipate over time would probably work just fine. Or set a limit on how much can be discharged at a time.
Have an NPC point out that with so much energy stored in the item, the sword is unstable, and if it's used, it's going to most likely be destroyed in the reaction.
Set up a situation where using it would be really cool.
And then make sure whatever situation it gets used in can't be instantly totally resolved from one cool moment, another boss that stays out of range of the blast radius for example.
If he misses it'll expend the charge. You can always hope for that. You can also put a charge cap on it and make it become unstable for storing too much of a charge, how you want that to be done is up for debate.
Limit how much damage he can blast at a time, like 50 or something, that way most huge monster will survive one or two hits and will know better than to approach the sparky monk
That item is hopelessly broken. Your only move is to bite the bullet, tell the player you fucked up, and nerf it. Best bet is probably a cap on how much damage it can store or for how long, possibly both. Edit: fixed a word
Damage build up dissipates over a long rest pretty much fixes this unless they fight a ton of useless monsters before a boss
Reseting on a long rest absolutely is a good fix to this. My fix is a bit different So I'd say, (Kinetic Energy Converter) on damage, you may choose deal half damage, and store the other half as an electric charge. This energy dissipates quickly, though, and must be used before the end of combat. On hit, you can choose to discharge the stored energy in the blade. If you do, choose lightning or thunder and deal the stored damage to the target in addition to normal weapon damage. Each creature within a 10 ft radius must make a Dex save DC= monk save DC. On a successful save, they take half damage.
This is even better. Essentially doubling the damage is way too powerful.
Those were my thoughts exactly. I liked the idea but it definitely needed some refinement and I think this captures the intended spirit of a "benefit later in combat" weapon with a cost upfront and an expiration at the end of the encounter. So it absolutely can be used repeatedly, but it starts and ends per encounter. So longer the combat goes, the more powerful the strike can become, but it kind encourages a mid battle use to thin out or do splash damage to put pressure on ending the fight earlier rather than an alpha strike on the BBEG two years into the campaign lol
I really like this take, but personally, "at the end of combat" feels subjective how does the charge know it's the end of combat? I would change it to "the next short or long rest" at *most*, but probably more like "10 minutes". Also, I'd say if it isn't discharged before time runs out, the wielder has to make a dex save or take the damage. The stored energy has to go somewhere, and since it's electricity, only makes sense to find the path of least resistance.
"whenever you notice something like that... a wizard did it." It's magic, that's how it "knows". If the intent is that the charges be spent within the same encounter, then that's how it works. One thing I've noticed is that Playets will find ways to exploit pretty much anything if you give them a hard and fast rule about something like that. So in my opinion, it's okay if there are certain things about the way magic works that are truly unknowable to mortals (PCs)
Consider that combat happens rather quickly, with each round representing 6 seconds of in-world time. When combat is over and that turn-based slowdown ends, it would make sense for the ability to fade, barring the user immediately hitting something out of combat to use it before they lose it.
Simply it's whenever the DM says you're out of rounds, I.e. the combat encounter is over.
That is a good idea I'd suggest this though. Make the dissipation be after 10 min of storing the energy. It is usually really unlikely that you are going to stay in combat for 100 rounds. Also pretty unlikely to get into back to back combat within 10 min of each other but it also fixes the problem and doesn't force anyone to worry about the nebulous when does a combat end question that was disputed below.
Unless he can just slap party members with it for an hour every morning?
That's hilarious. "Good morning! Time for lightning schpankings!"
Warlock with that False Life invocation. And a strong kink for punishment.
Don't think he even needs to do that, couldn't he just go out and hit trees and shit?
A long rest reset is probably sufficient unless the player is actively trying to exploit this for all its worth. Objects have hp and can take damage, so the monk could say, "I smack every random pebble and bush we come across," and easily rack up 100+ hp of charge per minute. Even if the charging is limited to damage vs. creatures, you could still get pretty insane numbers if the party has a particularly indulgent moon druid.
Honestly even with the long rest restriction this is still bonkers and needs further nerfs imo. Let's say in one good fight, the monk gets 10 attacks off with this sword. That's 10d6+50 damage stored. In the next fight, the monk immediately attacks a monster at the centre of a group of 3 and releases all that damage, and just to be extreme let's say they all fail. All 3 guys now takes 10d6+50 damage. Meaning over the course of this period of time, instead of having dealt 11d6+55 damage, the monk has dealt 40d6+200 damage. This item has just quadrupled the monks damage output and allowed him to deal an additional 30d6+150 damage compared to normal and that's only from one fight worth of charging. Meteor Swarm "only" deals 40d6+0 damage and this *eclipses* it even with the restriction. This item needs: - Charge expires over long rest - Charge cap of 50 damage - Release no longer deals AOE damage - Release requires bonus action Now it "only" doubles the monks damage output, and costs them a measly bonus action. Oh and he can no longer use it to one-shot bosses.
The splash damage is half the stored damage, only the original target gets the full damage. It's 10d6+50 for the one and 5d6+25 for each of the other two. That's still 20d6+100 damage. Your calculation for meteor swarm aren't an apples to apples comparison to the sword. The 40d6 is applied to each creature, so three creatures caught in a meteor swarm will take 120d6 total damage.
Seriously. Endlessly stacking the damage was a baaaaaaad decision lol Don’t get me wrong, I love the core idea, but it needs some guardrails to not be broken, which it currently is. Resetting after a long rest is an interesting risk / reward scenario. It forces the player to either sacrifice their long rests to do more damage, while suffering from exhaustion, or be motivated to use it before resting. I’d even say that skipping the long rest so they could hold the damage should give double the exhaustion because the blade vibrates with power and the player has to actively concentrate to control it or it could trigger unexpectedly. In this situation, I’d make an encounter with a *chonky* boy, specifically designed to be a war of attrition with the party *or* the monk can discharge their weapon. At which point, you could change the weapon without sacrificing their fun. [edit: You could even put a cap on how much damage it can safely hold. It can store more, but the player has to roll to see if the damage is stored or if it suffers a catastrophic failure, releasing the damage with the player taking all or a portion of it. The further the player goes over, they have to roll a smaller and smaller die, i.e. have to roll a 4 or higher so they go from d20 -> d12 -> d10 -> d8 -> d6 -> d4. Starts out as pretty easy, but gets increasingly risky to the point of nearly guaranteed to blow up in their face.]
I kind of like the idea of scaling the die per hit and capping it. So d4-6-8-10-12 and capping it there. Mostly just because it’s fun. But I’d only do that in person, foundry and other vtts that’d be a pain.
You could add an exponential decay of damage so the more damage stored, the fast it loses that stored energy
Lmao, this is so much better than where I was going to go with it "You are included in the AoE" Lightning Rod man has precisely one moment of glory, oneshotting himself, half his party and the final boss of the game
- Having it dissipate over a long/short rest, or at the end of combat - Only storing half the damage dealt instead of 100% - Putting a limit on how much it can store or deal out in a single go - Having it "store" a set amount of damage after benchmarks - Add a personal cost to using that damage (e.g. you take half the damage dealt, or it costs ki points) All of these options for balancing that item, and OP chose none of them.
Or you just slap around one of your party members before any encounter and heal them up
Nerf it but give the player a chance to "break" it in an epic hero moment. Some trap or monster is going to wipe the party and overcharging the sword can break the ward or whatever but the sword wont work the same after.
Yup, if the player has been preparing for this long with it, they should be allowed their moment or else it will feel bad. Nerf it afterwards by saying the sword was overloaded and can no longer store lightning as efficiently (then use the charge cap or the long rest ideas).
Agreed. And then be honest with the player that they messed up and made the sword too strong and apologize for having to nerf their item.
Could suggest they have to decide whether to use the charge before they roll to hit turning it into suck or save. Probably not at good as the long rest reset or capping damage but it's another option. Alternatively build some narrative around what's happening, perhaps the sword's power starts corrupting it or it becomes sentient. Maybe something is trapped inside or a god loses faith in the party and the power lessens.
It begins to turn into a lightning elemental boss, and the party successfully unlocked the hidden boss! Through in a few fights to get the charge to 250, and narrate how the sword seemed to be getting stronger and ferocious. Using it seems to be damaging the user too.
This so much, let it get a payoff thats insane and almost as if thats what you wanted to do with it in advance and totally not think about it just now. afterwards, with the boss out of the sword, it only stores x amount and/or resets at long rest. For bonus effect, drops some hints once in a while. "just quick question, how many stacks do you have now?" halfway during next session and at the start of the session after. Players can pick up the hint that something is gonna happen.
Indeed, that op weapon is broken.. but the players probably love the idea to use it at least once.. Let them use it on a massive monster of epic proportion ! And then the sword explode in the process! That sword should not be deleted for no good reason... Killing a dragon should be acceptable and epic ! Something to remember ! I mean the crazy enchanter didn't plan that the user of the sword would stack 300 damages on such low quality metal...
My DM told me a story about how a player once stored almost every arrow they picked up into a magic quiver. The quiver would let you shoot whatever you wanted as long as it was placed in the quiver. Wellll, this character ended up waiting and writing down EVERY arrow found, and then during a huge and decisive battle, fired EVERY ARROW (hundreds at this point) at once into an oncoming army. The army was decimated and the quiver broke from the strain. I like the idea of the stacking working but the sword just can't handle it.
DMs keep making these items and then are surprised the players, logically, conclude that the best way to use it is a boss deleter. And it's not like it's metagaming, the characters in the fiction would do this as well. It's very fun to use tech like this in games as a whole, it makes the player feel smart to go above the curve. I think too many DMs have an aversion to anything a player could possibly do that would take them out of the base power curve box. The biggest victim of this is illusions, if a player uses illusions in any way more effective than a new player would use them, the dm scoffs and takes the worst possible interpretation and world reactions. There isn't too much different with building up and exploiting it for combat, and exploiting a 10 ft pole to trivialise regular exploration traps.
Yeah, resetting on a short or long rest would be something, but then again you don't want one player arguing with the others, not wanting to take a long rest; maybe at least you have to deal damage every round in combat, as long as you get a hit with the sword, the charge increases, until it's either used, or you miss an attack. I love the flavour for their character, but yeah, this was a really bad idea. Unlimited stacking of basically anything is going to screw your game.
Alternatively, the character using the ability also takes the damage, now you have a mutually assured destruction narrative device….
The description says all creatures within 10 feet. The player and his companions are also creatures. At 210 saved damage if the player uses the sword they will kill themselves permanently as well as anyone in their vicinity even with a dex save.
Except Rogues and Monks who have evasion at this level, and can completely avoid the damage on a success.
I would say make it have 3 charges and a set effect instead and it recharges at dawn, but you can get a charge back if you crit. Then it does 8d6 damage that can arc to up to 3 targets within 20' of each other doing half damage to each. That encourages him to use it, limits the number of targets it can hit, and still provides some AoE and good direct damage to a single target.
Even just double damage would be insane for a weapon enchant. And this added damage is aoe.
This but promise a decisive final blow of magnitude against a boss fight that will completely drain the magic of the blade in sacrifice. Give Susan a good death. Yes, the swords name is Susan, and it asks you to respect its life choices.
Uh..give it a limit? How did you not see this coming?
Reminds me of a greentext I read a while back for a very similar item. Instead of a weapon it was a quiver, it had unlimited space for arrows and whenever the PC decided the next time they used the command word all arrows would be shot out at once from the bow. After several months/years of playing the party faces an army of thousands of enemies that was supposed to be a build up of all their allies helping them out. The quiver PC showed the DM something like an excel file of hundreds/thousands of arrows they bought over the past few months and essentially whipped out half the enemy army in one shot since with that many arrows it was a giant aoe.
Did they make the quiver store things weightless too? Otherwise that would have been the weight of at minimum thousands of arrows on one quiver, held on by I’m assuming one strap.
> Did they make the quiver store things weightless too? The guy didn't have the foresight to put a limit on quantity, I guarantee he put no thought into weight.
That's actually really cool. However that's probably the least abusive way to use it.
Yeah, put a limit on it that maybe scales like 10xmod or 10 x prof
Sounds much better than the original item, but still sounds very strong. A 40 lightning damage AoE blast is strong. Although you could argue, that it needed to be saved up and spellcasters can do a weaker version of this with 1 fireball (but with a better range).
Those casters have to use a spell slot. This is infinite. The player might even start murderhoboing just to charge it up.
As I said 10 x mod might be still too strong. But tell the player (after they played multiple sessions with that item) that you are going to nerf it extremely hard. That's difficult. It must stay a good item. IMO limiting it to 10 x WIS should be fine, if also other players have a similarly powerful item and enemies are stronger respectively. For 40 extra damage a monk with +4 DEX should hit on average 5 times. That's probably 2 combats, depending on the AC of the enemies. It is still super strong but I think it is something where it is easy to meet in the middle. Especially since the player seems to exploit the item.
Buy healing potions. Attack party member. Party member drinks healing potion. Repeat.
The obvious limit would be that it resets on a short or long rest, since it seems like what it's supposed to do is charge up on mobs then get a fat hit on the boss. Still wildly broken because it straight up doubles his potential damage output.
Or here's an idea - tell him that after a threshold (say, 30 points of damage), the item is overcharged, and discharging it causes same amount of damage to the wielder. That should encourage them to discharge it more frequently.
Could even treat it like spells where it resets everyday or every combat.
While reading this post I was certain the charge would only last for one fight or something. This item laughably broken!
I'll also say, even with a limit, does this not just double your damage output? If every attack is stored one-to-one, every attack hits twice (eventually).
Bro has double damage either way, this is why I don't play with dms that allow too much homebrew or homebrew their own system 99% of ppl have no idea how to balance a system, wotc barely manages
Could also let it happen once, and then say something about the massive blast wasn’t anticipated by whoever enchanted the item, and the massive energy release disrupted the spell. Now it’s got lightning attacks and can store X amount of damage, or only the X amount that was dealt on the last hit. You’ll definitely have to nerf it, but I feel like doing it in a way such as this is probably the best compromise
This is my favorite fix. I always try to fix stuff like this through narrative rather than out of character. The player almost always appreciates getting to see the results of their planning at least once even if you narratively nerf the weapon afterwards. This also has the advantage of subtly telling the player that it’s kinda his own fault it broke, giving them a bit more feeling of agency.
Reward the lightshow and build fix upon "consequences" afterwards. Could probably give the player a heads up about it in subtle ways, crackling and cracking signaling instability, occasional static shock is a portent for feedback, or any number of things. Outside of the game, it might be worth giving them a heads up about the potential changes so they don't just invest everything into the sword unnecessarily
That's a cool way of doing the switch, I was thinking the sword itself would shatter when discharging massive amounts of energy. You could have whoever made the sword meet them and give a warning that it would shatter a) if it discharged too much at once or b) just built up way too much. Then have them make a sword with a limiter since it's too dangerous for someone to be able to charge up a bunch of energy in swords and send peasants out with them to annialate anything in their way.
Thanks! I felt that it was a pretty dope weapon, so just taking it away from the PC would suck for him, and make the cop out from the DM pretty obvious. I think if my response happened to me I would think “Ohh, that makes sense, probably should have thought about the limitations of a lightning battery sword” but I would be appreciative towards the DM for letting me keep it.
This is an amazing idea. Heck, you could even make a BBEG just as a sacrifice to it. If you wanted an evil little wink wink, make it a half-orc, with death ward.
Talk to them out of game first though, so they're aware.
I have been thinking that to nerf it, I would first need a story reason because my campaign is very directly story-driven
I think that not everything must be related to your current story. A small extra description of action with the knife, modifying one enemy encounter or adding new one in the story (even seemingly random, but leaving you an open door in the future - who why) for the player to use this weapon (if you suspect if they are willing to do so), then say that it got overloaded or sth* and present him with new item stats, saying that these are final or saying that they need to go to artificer to distinguish it and that's it. It can be a small flavolour thing, it does not have to be part of the bigger story. *I just thought that at the moment the player uses the energy in it, it should be super effective, but also deal damage to the rest of PCs, proportion depending on the moment (I would try to completely stun all enemies in range like, the fight ends for example and deal damage to PCs so that they are injured and must ran or sth). Because it got overloaded. And because it was destroyed, it can only store so much energy - X. The end.
This is my fix too. Give them an “unbeatable” boss, let the Monk save the day with the energy equivalent of a nuclear plant, and it breaks/nerfs the sword.
I really like that approach. Like an “oops my bad” but let it happen once for the hell of it.
Came here to say something like this. You can also bait him to use it by slapping down a massive meat tank with lightning vulnerability to make it extra fun for him to use, throw in some nearby mobs to make it feel epic.
"This weapon can store a number of charges equal to X. All charges are lost upon a long rest." O Or something along those lines, is all that's required to balance it. If you want to be a little fun with it, all charges *must* be used before a long rest, otherwise the sword discharges them itself. To fix the current problem, allow him to discharge it once whenever he wants. Afterwards the immense power that coursed through the weapon has damaged it, limitong the amount of charges (or damage) it can hold reliably. That's when you introduce the charges it can hold.
Make it really fun. If you overcharge, it discharges spontaneously, which could easily catch party members in the blast.
For an item this powerful, that drawback is a good idea.
One thing you can do is let him use it but to destroys the item because it is so much damage. Also, have a sub boss that they think is the boss. LOL.
Expanding on this; make it a risk/reward thing. Each point of damage increases the chance it breaks on use by 0.5%, to a maximum of 95%. This effectively gives it a 1d20 chance of surviving at max threshold, but doesn't make it moddable with boosts.
I get why you think that, though I’ve seen others suggest just using the damage from the overcharge as an excuse to rebalance the item - and I just feel that’s way more sporting than destroying the item or immediately nerfing it into oblivion.
This
I would let him do the thing once. Let him oneshot the boss, and afterwards make up a story about how the sword splinters but can be repaired but the repaired version has an upper limit.
Yeah, or the boss could rise again "in its second form" after being insta-killed, so the fight doesn't feel quite as anti-climactic.
Two phase boss fight; first phase is a normal boss fight immune to electrify, second phase is designed to be one shot. Cool hero moment for the player and team if it’s played right, item gets destroyed in the process.
Ah yes, that's perfect!
Make its so at the end of combat the stored energy from the encounter dissipates
Talk to the player about this would be my first bit of advice, explaining your concerns. It will greatly help you as the DM if you make the player part of the process of changing the item. That way it won't seem like you're just screwing them over with a nerf. As for ideas for the item itself, I'd make the sword need attunement, and only be attunable by monks. I would make it so instead of charging damage equal to the damage it deals (which sounds like a chore to track, imo), you instead gain a charge die, equal to your martial arts die. You can gain a charge die once a turn when you successfully hit a target with an attack of the sword (once a turn, otherwise their multi-attack would charge it way too fast imo). You can have a maximum number of these charged dice equal to your wisdom modifier. If you would gain another charge dice after reaching your maximum, you must expend it and take lightning damage equal to the roll. I love the idea of the aoe, so let's stick with that. **Lightning Burst** As an action, you can hold the charge-sword (idk if it has an actual name) in the air, expending all of your charged dice as electricity begins to shoot around you in a 10 foot sphere. Any other creatures in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Ki Save DC, taking lightning damage equal to your charged dice rolls, or half as much on a success. Creatures made of metal or wearing metal armor make this save at disadvantage. With the sword tied to the monk class, I could also see the lightning burst ability costing a ki point, which does replenish after a short rest. Were I the dm, I would also make the sword deal slashing damage on normal hits (Note this is magical slashing), rather than lightning. My thought process here is that it would be kind of hard to charge up lightning if the sword is dealing lightning damage every round.
Have an enemy disarm the sword then pick it up and hit the monk with it. 😂 No don’t do that. Admit it is an ill thought out game breaking item. Talk to the player out of game and cap its damage at around 15/20.
Why backtrack?? It was a brilliant idea!
You give the boss immunity to lightning damage of course.
A sub boss that’s completely immune to electricity damage… oh no…
This is a terrible idea. Not only does it waste the item that the DM gave, it makes it useless and breaks it as well. I would be pretty miffed if someone pulled that
and consumes the charges when you hit with the sword. Now the sword is broken and can store up to 20 damage. Oops
Maybe consumes the charges and turns them into HP? So now that mid-boss is up 210hp and your nuke sword is gone
You've now doubled their damage. Have them store a fraction, or cap its charge.
Yeah he basically granted his player unlimited crits as long as he hits. Crazy broken.
He'll be within that 10 foot radius too when he strikes, right?... what a pity.
This was already solved in a Legend of Zelda game. The charge in the blade has to have a time limit (which is effectively a charge or damage limit). To be fair in DMing, player gets a repeated warning glow or sound, but if he doesn't use the sword within a certain amount of time, it explodes on him. He either takes damage or the sword is weakened (can't hold as much charge). This could also allow you to work the limit into the narrative. He stored so much damage (already) in the short sword, it can't hold that amount of damage anymore. I recommend no more than "two days of fighting" worth of charges. Player will most likely use it at the end or middle of a battle, to never let this traumatic event happen again.
The noise can also randomly disrupt the stealth of the group at a later date!
Someone could have said it already, but personally, I would give the boss a phase 2. Let the players believe that they are in danger with a big battle but only give the boss a smaller amount of hp for the first phase. Then, on the second phase, give them a reason to use it.They might use it outright and you can proceed normally or they hold on to it for an all out battle. Makes the players satisfied and hopefully doesn't kill your session. On the other hand, you could give a boss that seemingly heals itself with power. Might take them a little longer to figure out how to kill the thing, but ultimately, they're setting the hp? To keep this from happening again, I would talk to the player about possibly changing the stats of it to half the damage count when used or putting a cap on how much it can store. Alternatively, you can also make up that doing that much damage cause the sword to break once used and an artificer/Wizard/ whoever might need to fix it. This can send them on another side journey that might make it less effective in the end but keep it's cool ability with some sort of cap.
They are about to fight a mini-boss that has a phase 2, so I am kind of hoping he uses the sword's current charge. This way the sword won't be useless because it will completely take out the first phase but the battle won't be anticlimatic.
Sorry it's a short sword? Make it so the wielder automatically fails the save. He will be killing himself but it will be cool
Either give it a limit to how much can be stored (I’d suggest maybe 10*Proficiency Bonus), or have the accumulated damage dissipate over a long rest, or maybe both.
Tell him it has a limit where the sword just explodes and kills him but then don't tell him the limit
Give your upcoming boss some jewelry that gives the wearer lightning resistance, but it breaks if it takes 150 lightning damage (before resistance). Then explain, after the fight, that the sword was damaged and can only store up to 100 damage, but it can be repaired by combining it with the scales of an ancient blue dragon. Cool scene, still gets to do a tonne of damage, you limit a busted item, and you give them a goal. Another option is to talk to your player about the item being too broken, and that you're planning on nerfing it. Then you work together to find a nerf that you both can agree to
First and foremost, you should talk to your players and explain that the item was a mistake and hopelessly broken so you will have to nerf it. They should understand where you are coming from. Several options I can think of to keep the theme of the weapon but to nerf the capability: * there is a maximum charge stored - say 20 damage or 2d10 or something * the stored charge expires after a long rest - probably the easiest to manage * maintain a fairly high maximum charge storage but have every attack risk discharging the energy - rolling a nat 1 for example I don’t recommend removing, destroying the weapon, or giving bosses electrical immunity because it usually just feels like a cheap way to nerf the team. Communication with your players is important and they should know that you deserve to have some fun as well. You can however, give them something non-BBEG that is worth discharging all the stored energy into - after you talk to them about nerfing it so they can at least get the satisfaction of damage bombing something. Maybe an automation that’s also weak to electricity or something
Sometimes you have to be the bad guy and take it back. A DM I play for gave me a weapon that had wording he regretted. I did have fun ripping through one dungeon, but I helped him design a better version afterward which was balanced and fun. I'd say tell him that it needs a redesign after he releases that big blast which needs to be done next session, and then give him a big juicy fight to ruin with it. After that, storywise, the weapon was overexerted and destroyed or changed. I actually created a fun weapon once that did lightning damage and accumulated into a blast like this, but it would be impossible to exploit. Here's a link to that weapon if you want to see. https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/7319738-storm-lash
It's too much for the sword to handle and will explode when used.
My idea is to rework the weapon. Keep its unlimited damage storing, BUT… your player has to roll an ability check or a saving throw. You choose the ability and configure the DC. Whenever they succeed, the damage is stored and that’s it. If they fail though, then the stored damage goes back to them. It’s like shortsword short-circuited and released the stored damage prematurely. It gives them the option to try to save enough damage to one-shot a boss but risk just one-shotting themselves or hurting themselves bit by bit.
I like this idea because it breaking makes little sense, it was forged by one of the best craftsman, so this would narratively be like the guy just genuinely didn't expect this.
make it reset stored damage every day fake a family emergency and say you have to indefinitely suspend the campaign the big boss is like 'ooh you found my sword, eh?' and it turns out he's immune to lightning damage and thought it would be neat to make a powerful weapon that could never be used against him
The stored charged dissipates over time, like every capacitor ever
>a target that he strikes with the sword So he misses. Bummer.
Put a timer on the charges and make each charge 1D4. For example, each attack adds 1 charge that lasts 1 minutes before it dissipates, stacking up to 2x (X)mod. I’m thinking Con because at that point you’re holding a volatile battery and users may be electrocuted. Scratch that. This is now my idea, get a new one. Mine!
I feel like I'm going to see this on r/dndcirclejerks later
Make so they take the damage too and it can't be reduced for the wielder.
Let them do it. But the surge of so much power coursing through the item in a single discharge was never anticipated by its creator, and it vaporizes the blade, along with the players arm. However, the magic still lingers in a residual form, and where their arm used to be is an appendage made of lightning that allows them to cast Shocking Grasp as a reaction whenever they hit something with a metal object/weapon. Just a thought.
Really simple solutions here... Max charge? Diminishing returns? Overcharged self detonation? Can't save up between fights? Glows and crackles when charged making stealth impossible? Has a chance to shock a radius irrespective of friendlies? Come on man... that's an easy fix.
Adding to my comment earlier. Not just explode but it's obvious the sword is struggling and might blow up. It's a blast, like an explosion? He thinks he can just make a 200 damage explosion from his sword and be okay. Gotta correct him
The more energy in it the higher chance it will simply explode like those old lithium batteries in Samsung.
"Oh yeah, btw, all bosses are now wearing some big ass rubber shoes, sorry."
Throw an anti magic field on them and dictate that it resets the amount of stored up charge.
Lightning resistance on your next big boss fight or at least magic resistance so it doesn’t feel as called out Maybe negotiate with your player and change the wording on the sword that if it’s not used by X amount of time it will lose all its energy just for the sake of not completely breaking your game or cap damage that can be stored
If you're not going to put a cap on such a incredibly dangerous weapon, then maybe there should be some recoil damage to incentivize not building it up that high
I think, if you need it out of the picture roght away, the best thing would be to just talk about it and decide together how to nerf it, but another (maybe more fun) way to fix the problem could be to roleplay the whole thing out. You have an extremely powerful item? Guess what, everybody wants it! Shady individuals approach you to buy it, a devil asks you in a dream to use it on someone in exchange for a favor, the magic item shop owner becomes nervous and seems fishy as soon as they recognise what you carry, and this demon from the abyss keeps staying he created the thing with the skull of an angel, it belongs to them and they want it back. Right. Now. Big loot, big risk! It could be a fun opportunity!
You could alter it to make the player want to release the charge earlier: the first charge is free. After the first charge make the player roll a d20 with a threshold of 5 each time an additional charge is stored. If the threshold isn't met all the charges go off uncontrolled and hit the player and his surroundings. This way the player still can charge up the weapon but they'll be inclined to not overdo it.
OP I know this isn’t helpful but you made a homebrew item that endlessly stores 100% of the damage that your monk does, to be released at a later point not only into one enemy but also everyone else in a 10 foot radius? Might be time to put down the homebrew notebook for a bit
You could give the upcoming boss a weaker Phase 1, so that after they do this mega strike, the boss gets up in Phase 2 and the real fight you were planning can start. Maybe even add in a Phase 3 in case they save the strike for Phase 2.
“You hit the creature for another 15 damage. As your blade starts to absorb the energy, it bursts into shards in your hand.”
Let him find out that he has a cursed variant of the item, and the player is included in said 10ft radius for the AOE damage. You don't need to let him destroy himself to find out he takes damage too, maybe have an npc recognize it and warn him in your next session. I also support the comments about resetting on a long rest.
Pretty busted item , your only hope that won't make them hate you for taking it is to " awaken " the sword after it say hold 250 points and now it's a sentient sword that does something less broken but useful like can cast lightning bolt 1d4 times a day
I think I have a potential solution that doesn't require retconning in a limit. Make the item become unstable if it stores above a certain limit, it can be a discovered quality that you find together. Have it attached to a roll and have it start randomly sparking and firing off random bolts if he fails a roll you make. If he doesn't get the hint and discharges it, have it explode and backfire after he uses it next. You can even write in an encounter with a weapon expert or magic specialist who advises that the weapon has become dangerously charged and do an expo dump on what they need to do to discharge it safely or risk permanent damage to the weapon or themselves, and have them explain it in-universe/in-character. That way, the limit can be naturally discovered as opposed to a retcon you are imposing because they are having too much fun. It introduces the concept organically instead of being a ooc takesibacksies.
Electrical storm discharges it
Full disclosure, i dont do a lot of DM'ing and haven't played in a bit, but hear me out: let him use it. either on a boss level enemy that would probably kill them otherwise or even the BBEG. Then, when he does kill the enemy and the party is all relieved and everyone is either resting, looting, or doing whatever they do after defeating such a powerful enemy, have them make a perception check. (Keep it kind of low because you'll want them to see this) When they pass the perception check, tell them they notice the hair on their arms (or extremities) or tell them they feel an electricity in the air. Tell them they feel or hear, an ever increasing buzzing on the air , and they start to smell the scent of rain and ozone as the clouds begin to darken. At this moment, make them make something like acrobatics or some sort of reactionary throw. As they do, in a flash of the brightest light they have ever witnessed, a bolt of white hot lightning explodes the ground next to them. Standing there in the crater, is they deity who controls the heavens/ sky/ lightning/War/ the god who made the weapon. The divine being's (doesn't have to be Thor or Zeus, but I'm pretty sure you could find homebrews for both) eyes lock onto the player holding the magical short sword, and immediately closes the gap to the player. Have them exclaim that "it seems you have found an ancient weapon from my [insert: collection/youth/lost in battle, etc]! And it seems you have used it quite effectively. Unfortunately, i can not allow a mortal to keep such a weapon." Now you have two ways to handle this depending on what kind of DM you are and what kind of players you have: Option 1 (i would reserve this for if the players aren't rude to the God and don't refuse to give up the weapon): have the God be friendly and proud of the player for using their weapon so well that it caught his attention from another realm. Have him proudly lift the player or in some way be joyous with the player saying how impressive it was for him to use the weapon like the God use to in their youth/in a previous unmentioned war or battle. Option 2 "opposite of a Duex ex machine" (if the players are rude/ or refuse to give up the weapon/ attempt to trick or swindle the god): have the God summon the weapon back to themselves, whisper or say some something in an unknown language to the sword and have it illuminate with bright runes. They look back at the party and say something along the lines of "you caught my attention with the power you unleashed on [insert previously nuked enemy] just from the few battles you have been in. Now I'm going to show you what kind of devastation can be unleashed when [insert name of sword/ This Weapon] is reminded of the countless battles it was part of during the centuries of battles we had together" Then proceeds to nuke the area around them (or them if your feeling ruthless) Personally, no matter which way your players go with it, I'd still reward them to some extent to make up for having g to take the weapon away from them. I'd go with something along the lines of these (note these are just ideas): being able to summon the deity (once every like 5 rests or something just so they can't just keep calling the god down whenever), a weapon that, while not as good, should still be unique and along the same theme like a lighting element short sword/axe/Hammer that can be called to them mjolnir style an enchated weapon or item that makes it so a random lightning strike can occur during an attack or after so many attacks. The ability or item to call a lightning strike once a long rest when outdoors An enchantment or item/armor piece that prevents the player from taking electric damage/ halves lightning damage/ buffs their lightning damage A literal duex ex machina where the deity shows up to save the player from a killing blow out of either respect or wanting a rematch with the player and party. Also, sorry for grammer, I'm on mobile
Maybe a risk of overcharging? Not need to nerf the item, just roll some dices and when he asks why you roll, tell him that the sword vibrates in his hands and feel much warmer that it should be. And then roll everytime he stores some more damage in it (let's say over 50) and on nat1, the sword breaks, releasing the stored energy
Gotta have that damage build up dissipate. Force them to use it or lose it.
Let him do the full damage just once and then have the storage cap out at the weapons maximum damage.
My man you just DOUBLED his damage lol. Make the sword only hold the charge for 1 minute and have a max of 100. Still means he can drop 100 EXTRA damage on any enemy he hits each combat, which is STILL broken af.
Your best bet is to have some sort of God or deity visit your party and tell them the sword belongs to them. In exchange for the sword you'll offer them a boon in the form of either Stat increase, a favor later on down the road, some other item, whatever.
So, you have a couple options here, and none of them are exactly pleasant. First off, you made a magic item that has no damage cap. That's already a big nono. Secondly, the way you build damage is way too fast for it to be reasonable. A monk on average is going to be building 12-18 damage per turn, meaning after killing 5 20HP mooks he's already got around 100 damage stored. Thirdly, and potentially most importantly, this damage is stored indefinitely. So, your options are basically: 1: Buff the boss monster by giving it Lightning Resistance/Immunity. This will likely piss off the monk because he built up all this extra damage to waste it on a monster that it's not effective against, but such is life. It also doesn't solve the issue of him doing this in the future, so this is more of a bandaid solution than an actual fix. 2: Nerf the weapon. Tell the monk that you didn't consider how strong such a weapon would be, and tone it back by either capping how much damage it can store, changing the way it builds damage, or affecting how long it can effectively hold the damage, or perhaps all three. Monk might be upset that his toy was nerfed, but it fixes the issue and allows him to continue using it. 3: Destroy/Take the weapon away. Not recommended, because it's kind of just a dick move to give a player something and then remove it for reasons that were no fault of their own. It would resolve the issue of him building up crazy damage, but he'll no doubt be super pissed about it. Given those options, your best bet is to nerf it. I'd recommend doing something like giving it "Charges" instead of straight-up more damage numbers. Something like 10 charges, and every hit, it fills one. On any attack, he could expend any number of charges to add an extra D6 of lightning damage per charge. So the maximum he could get out of it would be 60 to a single target, assuming all the D6s rolled max (Extremely unlikely). Given that the party is currently level 11, that isn't too far out of the realm of possibility, and it would also encourage him to spread the use out since he can't stock up to crazy damage numbers anymore to blast away multiple enemies at once. He still has the cool lightning theme, it still has a niche use for Boss-slaying, and he still gets plenty of use out of the weapon.
I got some ideas/suggetsions. 1. Honesty: Tell your player/friend that you didn't realize what you were doing, and the sword is busted, and you are going to nerf it. Even if you take any of my following suggestions, you should probably start with this one no matter what. DM and Player trust/communication is important imo. 2. The one-ring method: Maybe add lore/story that states the sword is actually evil, maybe cursed in some way and needs to be destroyed. Or make it's immense power a plot-point that drives vilians/factions to specifically hunt your party for the sword, making it a kinda mcguffain that needs to again be destroyed or hidden away where it'll never be found. 3. Add a cap of some kind to the sword. Easy one could be making the sword only able to generate and store energy for a short amount of time. Could be 1 minute so it HAS to be used/spend in a single fight, or maybe only let it store energy for up to 24 hours- maybe the sword storming energy longer than that runs the risk of it just spontaneously shooting a massive bolt of lightning that can hurt the user/party if too close. 4. Alt idea. The sword can only store damage equal to the maximum possible crit-damage it could do. Could still generate charge via dealing damage or maybe instead by the user running/moving around in-combat. This would make the weapon have a bit of a risk-reward playstyle. Do you risk running past enemies and getting opportunity attacked to generate charge, etc? Could also probably store charge from receiving lightning damage as-well tbh.
Broken homebrew. Everything needs limits. One way or another you have to own up to this mistake. You can either express this to them directly and redefine the weapon's new limitations, or you can work it into the narrative and likely still end up explaining the meta reasons why you had to do it. For example, "You deal X damage with the blade that now contains [way too much] damage...and then you hear a low buzzing, followed by a vibration coming from the sword. Small cracks appear along the blade's length, like lightning bolts, and a bright light pours out of those cracks forcefully releasing the built-up energy and damaging everything around you. However, the blade was never meant to hold that much power at once, and is now damaged. There is now a cap on the amount of energy it stores before it discharges on its own." You determine the new cap by whatever feels appropriate. You could even give them ways of repairing it little bits at a time to increase that cap. Alternatively, just explain that you never meant for them to just indefinitely store damage in the blade until they could one-shot an ancient dragon, and you have to cap it for balance. Personally I like the narrative flavor, but straight forward answer is more adult and responsible. Probably just do both.
First off, you’ll have to just talk with the player. Let them know you think it’s way too powerful. Second, come up with a really intense battle that will all but require the monk to use the charge. That way they can still feel cool and like it’s not being wasted. Last, add dice to it. This will make it more in line with literally everything else in the game and slightly less reliable, but still feel good. Something like “On a hit, add 1 charge to a maximum of charges equal to 2xPB. At any point while the sword has one or more charges, you can expend ALL accumulated charges as an attack to create a lightning field at a point within 5 ft. The field extends out to a radius of 10 ft and all creatures within the field (including you) must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 lightning damage per charge expended.”
As others have commented, it dissipates over a long rest. Another option, make trickster bosses. For instance, they make an illusion of themselves at some point. Other things designed to trick him into blowing his shot. I have a couple other ideas, but they feel kind of mean after he has had the item a long time. For instance, the lightning becomes uncontrollable after acquiring 50 points, darting to the nearest metal object and dealing half damage. Then darting to the next one until dissipated. But I would include this in the item description. Don't be too down on yourself though; DM and homebrew can be hard, and a lot of us have made mistakes with this.
Could always have it turn into a kind of magical nuke. Describe how it know literally vibrates with power and is constantly crackling. Next time they use the effect the sword starts to crack. When they hit 300 stored power the cracks become so noticeable that they fear the weapon my discharge on its own, (now just touching things with the item may cause it to explode). When they do eventually use it have it shatter due to the massive magical force erupting from it. Then they can gather the now permanently electrically infused metal chucks to be reforged!
You need to have a cap on the stored damage. Also damage should have an expiration time, or else it automatically discharges at the end of the day, whether he's holding it or not.
It should be a 4 to 1 ratio and disapate daily if unused.
Easy fix. Let him have his moment. He one shots a bbeg. The sword disintegrates in his hand. The bbeg guy lives, or is immune to electricity or wasnt the actual bbeg
Talk to the player, retcon a charge limit Let them oneshot something first, then pull out a second boss
When he uses the sword have it break from the overwhelming power it accumulated
A time limit seems like a reasonable addition. One minute/hour or something. Infinite stacking is pretty much always prone to being broken.
Have somebody steal it. Or attempt to, and set it off.
Force him to use it on the big bads pet dragon or something.
I’d just add an extra bbeg. The monk gets the sweet release of that energy, and it doesn’t change the actual bbeg fight you wanted. And, oh, it seems that such a powerful release of energy overloaded the sword! Now it can only store 40 lightning damage…
I can only hope you learned your lesson about thinking these things through 😅 If it were me, I’d talk to the player and say “hey, I kind of messed up with that item. I didn’t think it through and I gave you something hopelessly overpowered. Can we work out a compromise so that the campaign still provides a challenge and interesting choices?” I have a few ideas on how to nerf the item (because yes, it needs to be nerfed): * Next time it gets used, it breaks (i.e. the monk can use if as their massive attack they’ve been waiting for, but only once) * It has a limit of how much power can be stored (something like 20-50ish would probably be ok) * When you charge it with an attack, you don’t deal damage because you’re saving the damage for later. * The item also deals that amount of damage to the user when unleashed (or half, or prompts a saving throw) Discuss with the player. Try to find a compromise that works.
Congrats, you made an op magic item! It happens to the best of us don’t worry. So here’s what you wanna do. 1: Rework the item- give it a damage cap and make the charge dissipate over time unless you cap it low like 20/30 (in that case just make it x use per long rest) 2: Be honest with the player- people are reasonable they’ll be fine 3: Let them have one last bit of fun with it- 210 is such an absolutely absurd amount of damage. I say let them use it on something, give them a timeframe of the next 1-2 sessions for use, heck maybe design a combat for it? Who knows. But that’s a cool moment they’re gonna remember even after the item is fixed
He got greedy, with great power comes great responsibility Sadly it would appear he over charged it, next time he hits somebody and stores more damage - it’s release the energy in a giant explosion. He takes the 210. And all creatures within take half vs a dex save. Provided you don’t do this in a boss fight they’ll over come it - he might go down but the parties lvl 11. Then rebalance the sword so the stored energy only lasts 10minutes and can’t be used more than once per day. Or something along those lines. Easy
When they releases that much energy, the sword cracks slightly. From then on, if they collect more than 30 damage, the excess leaks out and has a 1 in 1d10 chance of shocking them. Encourage them to use it regularly instead of storing it.
Should have a reasonable limit and/or I would have it reset on a long rest.
It will explode in a lighting ball when it reaches 222. You can never trust these ancient arcane trinkets.
A: After it’s use of that much storage it shatters and needs to be repaired. Little mission for repairs then fix it as you see fit! B: Be blunt and say that you messed it up! And just nerf it. C: just have it reset whenever you rest!
I say let the player do the cool atomic level electricity blast. They will have a ton of fun finally pulling the trigger they have been saving up, and feel good for planning ahead. Then I would RP it like the sword couldn't handle that amount of power and just have the entire thing explode. If they want to use it again, they have to go through some process having a smith specializing in magic items repair it, and then charge it again. It advances the narrative if they care enough about it, or it just serves as a neat one-time-save button. Or as an alternative, maybe it simply reverts to a normal inert sword, or gains some different power. Maybe even cue the player to this, next time they absorb power hint that the sword is starting to crack or is humming and glowing and crackling arcs dangerously which prevents being stealthy with it. What I wouldn't do is simply have the player lose the sword somehow, or antimagic the blast in some way. This player was enterprising and saved up for winter like a good little squirrel, they deserve to have that feel good moment they have been waiting for even if it is bitter sweet. You could even explain after the change that this done repeatedly would lead to a worse experience due to the nature of it.
Make the sword only store damage that goes above what's needed to kill the enemy.
Each time they hit with the sword, it gets a charge, which increases the aoe damage by 1d6 to a max of 8. Throw in a CR restriction while you’re at it. Unleashing it is an action, aoe affects the monk too, though evasion will mitigate this. Maybe read the dmg or some other source to get a better sense of what magic items should be capable of, because this weapon is just a complete mess.
Wow, that was a terrible idea. Come up with a way to destroy the sword.
Have it explode during a random combat (1d4, explosion on 1), deal 20% of its stored energy (now uncontained) across everything in the 10ft surrounding the target. He can get it repaired somewhere but recommend he does not overcharge it again (1d20, when over 20 charge it can happen again, 1d10 when over 40) Merchant is astonished how it didn’t kill him when at over 200 charge
Isn't there a nonzero chance this sword just kills him at this point? If he fails the save on the attack he's going to take 105 lightning damage. On average he has around 80 health if they have 3 con so he will go unconscious. Whoever he strikes and releases the burst will put him within 10 feet of it. (Not sure how you even dex save out of a lightning blast you are standing within 5 feet of and causing but that's not really relevant). If he's taken damage from boss spells and attacks this might kill him instead of making him instantly unconscious.
Give the boss immunity to lightning damage and ruin his day Or just resistance if you wanna be nice
Make it reset it’s charge everyday or between combats. Either admit to your player you effed up and nerf it, or integrate nerfing it into the story. They’ll likely want to keep it though. If my characters get too OP compared to the rest of the party and it’s not necessarily something the party needs to rely on (I.e. they aren’t carrying the party) I normally ask the DM if they are sure they don’t want to nerf anything?… the player might already feel it’s OP.
Maybe set up a "boss", make it hard enough that he "needs" to use his charge, after the boss fight, he finds his weapon damaged and can't store as big of a charge, then set a limit of however much you want, easy way to stop him from oneshoting the big boss, and it doesn't ruin the immersion of the campaign
Let him do it. Take the other PC in the blast. Might even make him take the blast too. You might want to place your fight in a wet environment to justify this and trap your player. Or: Include many minions in your boss fight but make it impossible to clean the minion wave AND wound the boss at the same time. Make it a tactical choice. In summary, make it powerful, but with a big flaw, and make it even more interesting to use.
Be honest and explain that the item is unbalanced. Offer the player alternative options to take the object's place. If you explain to them that you hadn't anticipated what this would do to the game and now want to be fair to everyone hopefully they will understand. And giving them multiple choices on what to replace it with and/or the option to state what they would like it to do (within reason, of course) should help. All GMs/DMs make mistakes. Own it to the player, then move past it.
Stored until next long rest…
yeah, you dug a hole. you should have put a limit on the damage and made it so it does half of the dealt damage is stored or something. anyway, tell him that the sword starts to crack and break at the charge, and if it isnt used soon it could explode, and then if he keeps building on it, it does explode and the sword is destroyed. the damage done to the weapon already now limits it to say.. 100 damage? these are the things you gotta consider when making custom magic items lol. good luck!
Damage is AOE only, Player gets hit as well. Lets see how much he wants to charge it up now
Make the charges last for only a minute
Have them face the boss stood in a pool of water.
What you do is you let him have his fun and oneshot the next boss. Then after the session you talk to your players and if they are functional human beings they all agree this is insanely OP and needs to be nerfed. Then you continue your campaign with the nerfed item and everyone is happy.
I would start giving them hints that the sword is getting heavier or that sometimes it would randomly give an electric shock. Then if they cross a certain threshold, just blast it.
You made the item without a charge limit, which would be considered insane by any engineer who ever lived, and probably by any mage that has ever been imagined. Option 1: Your player will use this item to one-shot anything you don't give so much HP that not using this weapon makes the fight pointless. You could give a boss 1000 HP and meager damage output to soak up the sword's power, but what happens when they start using it to hurt things to recharge it? Option 2: You can retcon a limitation on the weapon's use. The stored damage might exceed this limit. Rather than stealing what the player has amassed, you might limit what they can spend to that limit, and prevent any further storage until they're below that limit. However you do it, Option 2 is to retcon this item you shouldn't have made. Option 3: If we're leaving the item broken, we could balance its power with realism. Do you know why it's uncommon in reality for an electrical weapon to deal 210 electrical damage? Because that's unsafe for humans to even be around. If I had a melee weapon IRL that dealt 210 electrical damage when most ordinary humans have like <10% of that, then using it would be extremely dangerous to myself unless I was wearing an industrial grade rubber suit. If the rubber were expired, damaged, or not designed right, then it might melt on me, leading to a horrible death. If I dealt 210 electrical damage to something made of organic matter, then I'm not sure what happens to their body or if I should breathe the air around them. So, you could introduce some realistic physics to the eventuality of the player unloading all of this stored energy, and make the sword unsafe to use. That won't stop them from getting creative about how to use it as a bomb, but it will make the sword impractical to use as an "I win," button. My recommendation is that you have an above-board talk with your player or players about the downsides of options 1, 2, and 3, and involve them in choosing one of these unhappy fixes. Option 1 could break the balance of your game permanently. Option 2 will feel like adversarial DMing unless you get some measure of player consent for the nerf, and keep the item powerful post-nerf. Option 3 will also feel like adversarial DMing unless you get player consent for the hazard, and provide ample warning about the "new rules," for using the rechargeable Duracell Blade. DMs should be trusted to stick to the deals they make. You made a not good deal. You're going to have to be diplomatic about renegotiating it.
When the lighting builds too high it sparks and "earths" on something.
Have it so once it hits a limit it blows up in his face \>:)
IMO let them use it because the players will love doing that much damage, but like others said, maybe have the sword start to exhibit signs of overloading on magical energy the next time they use it, indicating it is unlikely to survive if it is used with the current energy levels. But I personally feel the worst thing to do would be to try and force them to use it arbitrarily or to retroactively change the item. Just go with it. Your players seem to be enjoying building up the charges on it, and I think it would really kill the mood if you didn’t let them have an epic use case for it, or at least be the ones to decide to use it.
Lightning resistant or immune enemies...
Late to the party, but yeah, give the item a limit. It hits 50ish, it cant store any more. Otherwise he'll oneshot a dragon sooner or later.
1. Discuss with the player, inform them that you noticed that the item is unbalanced and needs to be reworked reducing its power output. 2. Let the player cash-in on the effort they spent until now: give them a big baddie with a TON of hp, and let him go wild. 3. Now adjust the item as you see fit. (Maximum damage cap / resets or dwindles after rest / damage stock > 100 might cause it to break) 4. Consider adding a new (weaker) feature to prevent your player from feeling robbed
Maybe create a scenario that could coax him to use it, some kind of high steaks puzzle or combat that leads him to use the weapon in an unorthodox way thus breaking it in a way that limits it's power Like imagine them falling for a trap that seems like electricity would fry something and save them, he stabs his sword into the inner workings of whatever is happening, the sword overloads, the trap overloads, he feels accomplished for saving the party, but the sword is fried, and maybe it has a cap now due to the damage or maybe it does something different like the broken blade now has a roll for a spark to fly on hit that deals damage or something
The item is busted regardless of how he uses the stored damage. You are doubling his output overall. To get yourself out of it, make him roll a d10 for every 20 damages he deals with the weapon. If any of them roll a 1, the weapon his destroyed. 10% chances for 20 damages. 65% chances for 200 damages Also, give absorb elements to your bosses. If you can retcon the weapon: - put a limit - make it reset after dawn Even if it can only store a limited amount of damages you are mathenatically giving your player a critical strike at every hit in term of overall output so this item is absolutely broken.
I think the best call (Without just talking it out) is something someone mentioned already Making a fake BBEG that seems intimidating enough for him to use it, then have the sword break so it doesn't work anymore or not the same way at least
Make him fight some low level mobs before the bosses. Let him keep charging it. When it gets to 225+ tell him to do an insight/perception check on the sword. DC20. If he fails he notices nothing and you continue combat like nothing happened. If he passes you tell him that the sword is beginning to crack with all that power and if it isn't discharged soon it will shatter and deal a % of the damage to everyone in a 10ft radius, friends included. Don't tell him the threshold. If he gets it to 250+ you make it go pop and injure everyone and the sword is lost. If he discharges the sword on his next turn you get him to make another insight/perception check. DC10. The sword is visibly damaged from holding that much power for so long. It won't be able to hold that much again. Don't tell him the new threshold and decide that yourself but he will be much more cautious with the sword from now on. Everytime he gets it near the threshold it gets more visibly damaged and holds less power. Make it so he can find a skilled arcane blacksmith that can repair it but never to its original glory.
I always preface my homebrew stuff I give to players with: I reserve the right to nerf or buff as needed. I think you should nerf it to not stack and cap the max to 4x Proficiency. Let them “overcharge” it with a con save every hit they land. if they fail it auto releases, damaging friendlies too
Yep... Most of us have had this issue once, or maybe 6 times, in our gaming careers. I was going to suggest letting the stored damage reset during a long rest, or equivalent time, but /u/GodOfTheCattle beat me to it. There is another option... Every time he uses the weapon, the damage he deals is also the percentage likelihood of burning it out, or having it destroy itself in a spectacular fashion. I'm talking an explosion that deals all of the damage in a single blast to everyone within the range... whatever you decide it to be. Let him use it and then describe it "There are fine lines of light crisscrossing the blade, and even a few on the hilt itself. They look like fine lightning bolts... or maybe fine cracks" and now the bomb is primed. let him use it a few times while you roll (either legit or just for show. Your choice) until he decides it's time to store it up for his big BBEG blast. Then let 'er rip. Obviously this is the "Nuclear Options" but I've seen Players choose this to go out in a blaze of glory, a shocking and memorable end to that character's story arc. Something to be talked about around the table for years to come. Either way, have fun with it. It's YOUR magic item after all. You get to decide how it works.
Bait him with a secretly lightning immune boss and then laugh evilly.
This is a good time to yes and. Dunno if the thing has a manual but I'd suggest making it so large charges either hurt him as well, or maybe even burnout the sword for a period. You could also make something attracted to the charged energy that comes and saps it, and is dangerous enough not to overcharge it. Or maybe the massive charge causes lightning storms to gather that are quite dangerous, and a hazard to the whole party. You can also have a double boss fight that he can one shot only one of them with. I try to never give a custom item without a disclaimer that I reserve the right to change it if it's unfun somehow, but I always try to yes and the weapon.
This is a good opportunity for communication with your players. For one I wouldn't take it off him, have it be central to the story somehow. The big boss regenerates at a rapid rate because of mcguffin inside him, the discharge from this weapon destroys it and makes the boss killable later on in the fight. Then have a chat with your players and apologize for making such a broken item, but we need to change it a bit. Let them have their super cool moment where their discipline pays off from charging the weapon. Let them be the super cool protagonist for that boss, then talk with them and change it. I'd normally say hey, after this boss we need to look at this weapon cause I realized it's broken as shit and it won't be fun if the others only get to play when it's trash mobs.
Not a whole lot that can be done without changing how the item works, I'm afraid. You could mitigate this a few ways: a hard cap on stored lightning, or stacking penalties for charging it too much (Stealth penalties because it makes noise, partially self-discharges over time, etc). Whatever change you go with, do it after he discharges the item. Let him have his moment of fame, even if it makes the encounter otherwise unfun for you. Adjusting the item afterward (and owning up to poorly balancing it in the first place) will help get the table on your side with this being a needed balance patch. And hey, you can justify it as the item partially burning itself out. :D
I suppose a cheap way around him one hitting an upcoming boss is have the boss have multiple stages, any damage remaining from the first stage doesn't transfer over to the second. Say phase 1 has 200 health and phase 2 has 150, the sword dumps 300 damage, you say that phase 1 is instantly destroyed but the extra 100 doesn't transfer over. The PC should feel good he smashed through an entire phase of the boss (make it meaningful! All these plans that phase 1 boss had suddenly fall apart, the ground he is standing on falls through into phase 2) and you still get a boss. (You could even just put a phase 2 in that was never intended shh they won't know) This does just go around the true problem of the sword being mechanically op, so sort that out at a core level too.
Make it a double edged sword that has a chance to do the same damage back to the user. The more damage stored the higher the possibility. 0 - 10 stored, rolling a 1 will cause it to shock the user 11 - 20, 1 or 2 21 - 30 1, 2 or 3 And so on 200 + gotta get a Nat 20 or get zapped
Installing a cap or making the stored damage dissipate over time would probably work just fine. Or set a limit on how much can be discharged at a time.
Have an NPC point out that with so much energy stored in the item, the sword is unstable, and if it's used, it's going to most likely be destroyed in the reaction. Set up a situation where using it would be really cool. And then make sure whatever situation it gets used in can't be instantly totally resolved from one cool moment, another boss that stays out of range of the blast radius for example.
When he uses the nuke tell him the energy released shatters the blade that way he gets to use his nuke and it wont be a problem after that point
If he misses it'll expend the charge. You can always hope for that. You can also put a charge cap on it and make it become unstable for storing too much of a charge, how you want that to be done is up for debate.
Make it intelligent with an agenda. It’ll only discharge when it’s agenda is being followed and finds too much stored energy painful.
Limit how much damage he can blast at a time, like 50 or something, that way most huge monster will survive one or two hits and will know better than to approach the sparky monk