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I have made a Rare item based off advice from a previous post and the Defensive Duelist feat. Is this item balanced as a Rare, and if not how can it be balanced?

Cloak of Swirling water

This cloak is made of water that lazily swirls around its wearer in the shape of a Samue. Attacks made against the wearer pass through one side of the cloak and out the other as if the wearer was entirely made of water.

As a reaction to a attacker hitting you, you may spend 1 ki point. If you do, until the start of your next turn you add a bonus to your AC equal to your Wisdom Modifier. This AC bonus potentially causes the triggering attack to miss you. Additionally, you may pay 1 extra ki point when you activate this ability to regain your reaction.

Tortilladog
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  • Please incorporate the suggested changes at your table instead of changing them here in the item that you present for our review :) – Akixkisu Dec 10 '21 at 15:38
  • By understanding your intentions, we can help you address specific design concerns tailored to your situation instead of relying on educated guesses and assumptions in regards to your table, your vision, and the usage of the item. – Akixkisu Dec 10 '21 at 15:41

3 Answers3

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The item is slightly clunky, but with a few changes, it should work well.

The change to limit the uses without restricting the upside enables a monk to actively use this item to stack their AC bonus from the Unarmored Defense feature. If the monk has a way to access the Shield spell, they could use 2 Ki points to stack the bonus even further - that is strong but also costly.

It also grants immense flexibility in combination with other reaction abilities that monks may use and compares to the (third-party) Cobalt Soul's Mind of Mercury class feature that they gain at 11th level. But the restriction keeps it in check. You should adjust the item to follow the same restriction as it:

Once per turn, when you activate this ability, you may pay 1 extra ki point to regain your reaction.

This phrasing will prevent arguments at your table about whether you can use the feature a number of times restricted to your ki points or whether they don't stack etc. — it makes everything easier.

In your other posted you commented that you designed this item for your table only, but you should still either make clear that you intend the following line to be flavour — or that it describes the active use of the item:

Attacks made against the wearer pass through one side of the cloak and out the other as if the wearer was entirely made of water.

A literal reading of that would probably lead to a lot of excitement followed by disgruntled disappointment, so you should be upfront about that when the player receives the item or reword it slightly.

There is only one official magic item that interacts with ki points - the Dragonhide Belt, which doesn't enable you to spend ki points - instead, it lets you restore them and gives a bonus to the saving throw DCs of your ki features, so you are in new territory. I don't think it is an issue for your at-home use.

You don't mention that this item requires attunement, so I assume that it doesn't, and I think it is appropriate that it doesn't require attunement.

From a rarity perspective, it falls neatly into what one would expect to find in the Magic Item Table G, featuring rare items mostly and a few powerful uncommon items.

I would be excited to use the item when I play a monk that works as a striker in the party composition.

Akixkisu
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    This comment was extremely helpful, however I am confused by what you meant when you said "A literal reading of that would probably lead to a lot of excitement followed by disgruntled disappointment, so you should be upfront about that when the player receives the item or reword it slightly". Can you please explain what you meant by this? – Tortilladog Dec 10 '21 at 15:42
  • @Tortilladog Sure, The player might assume that they will be able to avoid all attacks because they actually go through them as if they are water every time without affecting them at all. – Akixkisu Dec 10 '21 at 15:45
  • You are right that this text was not clear enough, the original intention was that attacks that hit the cloak would pass through them, but attacks that hit parts of the wearer not covered by the cloak would still hit. Is there any way to phrase this better? – Tortilladog Dec 10 '21 at 16:01
  • @Tortilladog Would that change anything about the mechanical effect? As I read it this is the cool flavour part, but it doesn't actually change the mechanics in a fight (something that hits your ac is still a hit). – Akixkisu Dec 10 '21 at 16:17
  • You are right, this is just flavor text. I will make sure to separate the flavor text from the game mechanics. – Tortilladog Dec 10 '21 at 17:11
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It's weak

So, basically, you get something that, at best (20 Wisdom) is as good as the 1st level Shield Spell. That costs your Reaction and a spell slot, this costs a Reaction and a Ki point - I'm not going to delve into the relative value of spell slots and Ki points because its a bit apples and oranges but suffice it to say that Ki is to a monk what spell slots are to a caster.

And it only works for monks.

It's also a bit wonky

There are no official magic items that are powered by Ki. Just like there are none that are powered by spell slots. The item clearly needs to have a use limitation but the usual way of doing this is by charges or as an X times a day item.

By the same token, the use of your Reaction but not if you use a Ki point is weird. There's nothing like that in the game. Further, I will make the apples and oranges comparison - a Ki point is worth way more than a Reaction, you potentially have 14,400 of those a day, at best you have 60 Ki points. In addition, using your Reaction is a red-letter day for a Monk, using it twice in one turn? Basically, no sane player would ever swap a Ki point for a Reaction.

Dale M
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    Why wouldn't they be able to add their Wisdom modifier twice? – Thomas Markov Dec 10 '21 at 13:03
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    As I understand it, this is not a new formula for AC, it's a flat bonus. You would add this bonus, no matter what your chosen AC formula is, whether it already involves Wisdom or not. – DunBaloo Dec 10 '21 at 13:42
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    @DunBaloo I think you're right, and this is definitely the case if the creator of the homebrew item intends it to work that way. – Thomas Markov Dec 10 '21 at 14:58
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    Nothing in the item description requires the monk to be wearing armor. Otherwise, a good answer. I would up vote if that factual error was removed. – ValhallaGH Dec 10 '21 at 15:11
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    Please eliminate the claim that it only works for armored monks, since that was never the case and the wording has been updated to make it explicitly clear that wasn’t the case. – KRyan Dec 10 '21 at 16:36
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As as been mentioned, this items feels a bit weak, and a bit clunky.

Ki Point vs Reaction

The Monk only has 2 uses for its Reaction: Deflect Missiles and Slow Fall. It is rather unlikely that a Monk would need to use their Reaction to avoid an attack and in the same round also need their Reaction to again avoid an attack or use one of the above features.

On the other hand, the Monk has 20 Ki Points per Short Rest.

Allowing a player to spend a Ki Point to keep their Reaction feels like a trap, to me, if the only other use of the Reaction is Deflect Missiles or Slow Fall.

Ki Point for +Wis to AC

There are 2 things to compare this possibility to:

  1. Deflect Missiles: 1 Ki Point and the missile is deflected -- though potentially partially -- no matter how high the Attack Roll of the Attacker.
  2. Shield Spell: 1 1st-level Spell Slot and you gain +5 to AC.

1 KP for +Wis to AC is worse than either of those:

  • It's worse than Deflect Missiles because the attack may still connect, fully, and it doesn't give the opportunity to hit back.
  • It's worse than Shield because it only affects the one next attack, and who knows how many there could be, and because +Wis is at most 5 in the first place.

I suspect the latter was the whole intent behind spending another Ki Point to keep the Reaction available to continue dodging the next attacks, however it then becomes extremely expensive.

I would suggest, instead, taking a page from the Shield Spell, and just let the bonus stay on until the start of the next turn.

As a bonus, with a +Wis to AC, Deflect Missiles is much less necessary as a defense, so there's really no incentive whatsoever to try and "keep" the Reaction, which streamlines use.

Proposal

Cloak of Swirling water

This cloak is made of water that lazily swirls around its wearer in the shape of a Samue. Attacks made against the wearer pass through one side of the cloak and out the other as if the wearer was entirely made of water.

As a reaction to an attacker hitting you, you may spend 1 Ki Point to add a bonus to your AC equal to your Wisdom Modifier until the start of your next turn.

Note the subtle differences:

  • This is not adding the Wisdom Modifier to the AC, but a bonus equal to the Wisdom Modifier. This avoids having to specify that if the Wisdom Modifier was already added it can be added again, because it's a different bonus to start with.
  • Splitting the text between description and mechanical aspect makes it easier to refer to the mechanical aspect in play.

One caveat: it may be that the (now expanded) bonus should cost 2 Ki Points instead of 1. Play-testing should tell.

Matthieu M.
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    I like your formatting changes, however it already adds the wisdom bonus to AC until the start of your next turn; "When you activate this ability, your wisdom modifier is added to your AC until the start of your next turn". Additionally, there are many uses for a Reaction that are not Monk specific, as well as reaction based abilities like the Way of the Drunken Master's ability Redirect Attack. – Tortilladog Dec 10 '21 at 17:05
  • @Tortilladog: Sorry, misread the text I am afraid. I got confused because of "the next attack", and would suggest simplifying. Getting the wording closer to that of Shield helps, I think. I still find keeping the Reaction is bizarre... it's unprecedented, which is a bit worrying for power balance, even if it seems weak-ish here. – Matthieu M. Dec 10 '21 at 17:19
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    Opportunist, Deflect Energy, Extract Aspects, Tipsy Sway, Sun Shield and all regular reaction uses. A lot of these features are admittedly rather late into their respective subclass, but not mentioning them feels incorrect. – Akixkisu Dec 10 '21 at 18:37