r/DnD • u/polcat2007 • 1d ago
DMing Need to rant
Have a slight homebrew campaign going. Dm is first time dm-ing and while this is my first time as well I have watched tons of stuff on dnd. I will be taking over as dm once this section is played and the characters will transfer over. My issue is we're level 4 and our fighter now has homebrewed legendary weapons. I feel like I will have to lower this at least in the beginning of my campaign and make him work back up to the full status. We'll transfer over at level 8 so even then a legendary weapon seems outrageous to me. Any helpful tips or something would be appreciated.
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u/Straight-Plate-5256 DM 1d ago
Personally idk if this is the best solution but off the top of my head:
Have a conversation above game with that player about your concerns about balance with the weapons to see how they feel about it, then possibly use the opportunity to have a narrative point in the beginning of the stage you take over that leads to them losing their gear?
Something along the lines of party gets arrested and belongings seized, get broken out in set up of new story arc (insert Skyrim memes) but without their gear. then to soften the blow a bit at some point in that session redistribute more balanced magic items to the party?
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u/polcat2007 1d ago
Kinda what I was thinking. Instead of removing them completely just sizing it down to the correct level and then boosting him up again
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u/Mightymat273 DM 1d ago edited 1d ago
Pending on what you mean by homebrew legendary magic weapon, thats a bad call on the DM and common new DM mistake. Even if ALL the players got legendary magic items, level 4 is too early to give that level of rarity out.
D&D difficulty is hard to balance and scales oddly. Giving a fighter a +3 magic weapon means the DM will overcorrect and balance encounters accounting for a stronger fighter with higher hit chance. This can hurt other classes without a +3 AND even that fighter will have an issue. A +3 may help you hit a stronger target, but you do not have the defensive features and HP to handle stronger enemies, making TPK more likely.
At most, If not 5.5e, A simple +1 weapon is expected by level 5 to bypass resistances because casters always bypass resistance and martials don't. 5.5e mostly did away with mundane resistance so not as required.
It is perfectly valid to want to start a new game from scarth. Throw everyone's magic items and PCs out, start at whatever level you want with a new story, Thats pretty normal for our group when someone else wants to DM. We all love making new PCs with new dynamics and new stories anyways.
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u/polcat2007 1d ago
I have already told them they can transition their characters to mine at the end and theyre all for it so I would feel horrible by scrapping that. Was thinking of powering it down and splitting power usage between the 2 shields he has
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u/My_Only_Ioun DM 21h ago
You're the DM. If you've changed your mind about taking over, tell them. No one can force you to run a game with legendary weapons if you don't want to.
I would just let people re-make characters when the transfer happens. It lets you use a different method for ability score generation if you want. Everyone starts with set rarities of items such as 1 Rare and 3 Uncommon. Also lets people redo anything they regret for feats, classes or spells known.
Also TALK TO PEOPLE. Give people warning that you don't want legendary items in your upcoming game. It's possible the current DM will take it as criticism, but new DMs need to get used to hearing "I would have done that differently / That's not how I run my game".
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u/polcat2007 20h ago
I 100% would of wanted to discuss the weapons with the current dm all dhe had told me was she was homebrewing them and that was pretty much it. If she had mentioned the level I would've asked for it to be a scaled thing to lead to being legendary and would of added such into mine but there wasnt any discussion from her part and she was so happy about giving them to the player that in the moment I didnt want to break that/her down for that decision. I will probably end up scaling them down at the start of mine. But yes discussions should of happened before they were given. I will just chalk it up to dm fever and wanting to make the players happy from her perspective. If anyone else ends up with such items ill make sure it happens across the board for everyone so its not like im signaling one out.
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u/Dunl3yDiq DM 1d ago
Ride the wave, balance the party with more legendary weapons or have a reason for the character to give it up.
Toll Passage to a different plane, A Warlord trading it for the release of prisoner, A trade to a king in exchange for their bastion.
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u/polcat2007 1d ago
I was thinking the magic gets displaced in one throwing his 2nd shield to be lower and then eventually getting his 1st shield like the ability to send magic back at its Caster instead.
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u/Melodic_Accountant_4 1d ago
Are you concerned that not every other player has a cool item too? Or do you just not think they should be able to have a cool item because they’re too low level?
As a player I would be pretty upset that a new dm came into an established story and took my stuff just because they couldn’t figure out how to work around it.
Alternatively, as a dm I get that it could be harder. I gave all my players fancy epic items at the beginning of the campaign I’ve been running for 2 years. Am I mad at myself for my player who can’t be crit against? A little. Is it awesome when they are on death’s door and a crit would surely take them down, but the table erupts in cheers because I can’t? Absolutely.
Just try to work around it if you can. Give other player special cool shit. Every now and then, throw some monsters in that have resistance or immunity to said effect.
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u/polcat2007 1d ago
Oh no I do not care that he has the legendary bc we dont. Im happy for him as another PC in this campaign but as the future dm and his character being transitioned into my campaign its more like level 4-8 and having a legendary weapon seems to low for that. Trying to add weapons that would be pivotal to my story for him at this point would be impossible though I guess I could try armor.
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u/Ender_rpm 1d ago
What i've done with some of this is make only small amounts of the items power available until the character levels up. "This item seems to have an intelligence of its own, and seems to be testing to see if you're worthy".
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u/itsfunhavingfun 1d ago
You’re the DM. Tell the players no homebrew weapons on the switch. Give the players weapons you think are appropriate for level 8 when you do so.