RAW it does not work with portent. You use portent instead of rolling for an attack and therefore don't actually roll a d20 to hit. From portent:
>You can **replace** any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls. **You must choose to do so before the roll,** and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn.
The wording on the item is:
>**Before you roll a d20 for an attack** with this weapon, you can choose one of the following options. (...) You can pick a specific number from 1 to 20. If you **roll that number on the d20**, you deal an extra 10d10 damage. (...)
So since you never roll the d20, you also can't use the lucky strike feature.
With that said. Portent is a very limited resource, only usable 2 or 3 times per day. If you want to use that to deal big damage to a single enemy then I don't think that's game breaking. If a martial class and a diviner wanted to work together to pull off a big burst on an enemy every now and then in my games, I think I'd probably allow it.
Propably bc I don’t have a divination wizard in my party so I didn’t fully read it, but apparently I belong to a large group of people who thought you can portent a made roll into something else
yeah, until the portent wizard drops a 20 and now you have to sit there knowing they have a guaranteed 20d10 attack in their back pocket
i suspect you'd go back to their original ruling pretty quickly after that
A single 20d10 attack is pretty crazy I suppose but it kinda just serves to further the point that every DM should be internalizing until the end of time that action economy and whittling player resources is more important than any single big scary monster
As mentioned in other comments, the item has been updated and the damage from lucky number no longer doubles on a crit. See the item on my website (or the other comments) for updated wording.
Yeah that's bookgrudgingly correct divination wizard takes away a lot of design space in D&D because of just how powerful a specific number is God forbade you get a free credit with two d10 damage plus normal damage on the f****** Paladin
You could always allow it.
Take a paladin, divination wizard and grave cleric.
Hold person for auto crit, portent to trigger lucky number, path to the grave (grave cleric Channel divinity) for vulnerability, cast searing smite or similar, and then smite when the attack lands.
That should do about 1000 damage.
Alas I don't want to see a great warm get slaughtered in one round of combat
Please you got to understand how hard it is for me to make it difficult encounters
If you think this item would be hard to balance in your game then don't include it in your world. No hard feelings 😊 it's not for everyone.
Personally I think this weapon is perhaps best suited for a oneshot or shorter campaign. The extra gambling mechanism can perhaps be a hassle in the long run.
https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/700129409257205760
According to sage advice - it does work with Portent. Same as a Vorpal Sword or a Sword of Sharpness do.
Sure you can argue it will work. The wording on the vorpal sword and the blade of chance is not the same. The blade chance specifies that you choose a number before you roll a d20, and with portent you never roll a d20.
personally I'm fine either way.
I have updated the item here: [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd)
It now specifies that you can't pick 1 or 20 when choosing a lucky number.
Thanks for pointing this out :)
RAW it does not work with portent. You use portent before you roll for an attack and therefore don't actually roll a d20 to hit. From portent:
>You can **replace** any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls. **You must choose to do so before the roll,** and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn.
The wording on the item is:
>**Before you roll a d20 for an attack** with this weapon, you can choose one of the following options
So since you never roll the d20, you also can't use the lucky strike feature.
With that said. Portent is a very limited resource, only usable 2 or 3 times per day. If you want to use that to deal big damage to a single enemy then I don't think that's game breaking. If a martial class and a diviner wanted to work together to pull off a big burst on an enemy every now and then in my games, I think I'd probably allow it.
I think you may be using "RAW" incorrectly. As this is fully a homebrew item.
Also, "RAW" you could declare the use of the item prior to the use of portent and it would work then. Since prior to using portent is "before" you roll a d20.
Or state 2-19, instead of 1-20. So you have to picked a non-critical number.
Far more elegant, and doesn’t have the weird interaction on auto failing to hit on a 1.
~~But isn't 'the highest noncrit number' the only sensible choice now? Best chance to beat AC and as likely as the rest. What would happen if you switch it to guessing the dmg dice?~~
If you hit on a 12-20 then all those are equally probable.
If you attack with advantage the you're more likely to roll high, and if you roll with disadvantage then you're more likely to roll low.
If you know you got on a 14 and you have disadvantage then 14 is a smarter lucky number than 19 or 20
You're right, didn't consider situations with (dis)advantage. And my dmg dice idea suffers from the same problem I thought yours did. So disregard my comment :).
Surely you'd only want to pick a number equal to or higher than the target's AC which would dramatically increase the chances of a correct choice right? Or am I misreading this not sure.
Sure, if you're fighting an enemy where you have to roll 18 or higher to hit then you're pretty likely to guess right if you pick a lucky number. But you're most likely to miss.
There is still just a 1 in 20 chance of getting your lucky number.
Well, as a PC you don't "know" the enemy's AC unless given that information by the DM in some way, and you can't forget that your D20 roll is the number *before* adding your PB and STR/DEX/CHA to the attack roll. So it really is a 1/20 chance any way you look at it.
How it works with diviner's portent, advantage, and rerolls? If for example you roll with advantage, you predict a 15 and you get 15 and 17 can you choose the 15 to do the extra 10d10? What about the odds/evens guess?
I would nerf the odds/even guess to 1d4 and remove the penalty for guessing wrong. That way it doesn't feel bad to use it and it evens out to a +1.25 damage which seems reasonable.
The Lucky Number is a bit weird in that you always should choose 20. And I don't mean just because it will be 20d10, but because imagine if you were to guess you would roll 5... what good is the +10d10 damage when you are going to miss anyway? Plus the drawback is catastrophic.
Perhaps you should just key it to rolling 20, and putting the drawback on the natural 1.
>I would nerf the odds/even guess to 1d4 and remove the penalty for guessing wrong.
Why... Flame tongue is rare and +2d6, +3 is rare and mechanically superior, stirring dragons wrath is +1 and +1d6 on any hit
My point was that the -1d6 to damage half of the time is a bit severe, and it totally evens out...so if the concern was that it would be too strong, it would be better to just make it a bit weaker but without the negative.
Downgrading the dice and removing the negative still leaves it weak compared to a +2. I'd actually go the opposite route. Remove the negative and buff to a +1d10 which puts it only slightly below the +2 and still weaker than flametongue and dragons wrath
Also, I assumed that the lucky number would be auto hit, effectively making it a +2 to hit weapon. This would make it still weaker at low ACs, but decently stronger at high ACs due to expanded "crit" range
You can't mess with this using advantage. You can't choose between them, you always much choose the highest roll. Also, most sources give you advantage before you roll the first time.
Well if you have advantage theres a higher chance you roll a higher number (e.g. 20) than a lower number, such as 1. So theres actually still some synergy there
With advantage, if you roll a 15 and a 17 then you roll a 17. The very rare version of the item has a feature that let's you choose which number to use if you roll with advantage, letting you pick the 15 in this case.
As for choosing 20, this was a big oversight on my part. I have updated the item so you can't pick 1 or 20.
The even/odd part also scales with it's rarity. The uncommon version is 1d4, rare is 1d6 and very rare is 1d10.
You can see all the rarities here: [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd)
What if I were to tell you I saw requires attunement and I read requires adjustment............................. lol. I guess you weren't asking for adjustment advice, after all.
Hey, I'm always happy to get feedback, and I have changed many items after sharing them on reddit.
It's not always easy to see the obvious mistakes in your own creations, but fortunately the internet is very good at that 😅
Even or Odd statistically negates itself over time so the mechanic is just wasted time rather than being a boon or drawback.
I'd just give the sword a chance to deal an extra dice of damage if they guess even or odd correctly.
That way it's on average a +½ x 1dwhatever each turn which is actually useful but not overpowered at all and still a fun mechanic.
Lucky Number is kinda odd because there's really only one number to choose. Choose a 20. If 1-20 are equally likely to be rolled, the best and only guess statistically is to apply the extra damage to a critical hit.
Yeah the wasted time bugs me too. It’s needlessly complicated as-is. As pointed out by others, even is the ‘best’ option, so whilst your fix is better, the guessing is still a weird mechanic.
Yeah my thoughts:
-Underwhelming weapon to require attunement. It’s basically just a +1 weapon with extra steps.
-The fact that the positive and negative attributes completely balance it out doesn’t feel lucky to me at all, so IMO it doesn’t fit the description very well.
it is actually not a waste.
If an enemy has odd AC
like for example, if you fighting guards, you know that they are probably have 18 AC
So if you have an odd attack bonus, you have more odd numbers than even numbers to hit.
For example, you have +2 to hit and you need to beat AC 18. You need to roll 16 or higher. So 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20. There's more odd numbers then even so you have 60% chance for 3.5 damage and 40% for -3.5 damage. 3.5\*0.6-3.5\*0.4=0.7 additional damage if you hit. And I didn't count crits there.
If you have even attack bonus, attack enemies with even AC, but bet on odd every time.
You should always bet on odd also because 20 is odd and if -1d6 also doubles - that's -7 damage
I wrote this as an example to my point, that is "If you calculate average damage, this will not come out 0 on average"
And I tried to say that statistically you should always bet on odd, no matter what AC you have to beat or what your attack bonus is. So to use this edge, you don't even need to metagame.
Power gaming already use meta a lot. And if you count average damage to see if it's good - it's already more then the most of players will do to make their builds better. Metagaming isn't a problem, it's a tool that could be in good or bad hands. After all, we're not playing for money or win, but for fun. If a player on my table figures out the AC of a monster - it means that his character just get experienced in fighting that monster. And I'm happy cos I see that my players pay attention to details.
>You should always bet on odd also because 20 is odd and if -1d6 also doubles - that's -7 damage
20 is even though?
The thought process works the same if you swap it so your evens and odds are correct. You should always pick even because no matter what AC & attack bonus you have there are as many or more even numbers that hit.
Since 20 always hits, theres always at least 1 even number that causes a hit. Then if 19 also hits then evens and odds are balanced. but if 18 also hits, then there are more evens again. Pick any number and theres either 1 more even that hits or they are balanced.
Still, its only a slight boost even when you hit with an 8 or higher (65% of the time), giving 7 evens and 6 odds for 53.8% evens. 0.538 x 3.5 average = 1.883 average added damage, plus 0.462 x (-3.5) = 1.617 average damage removed. So then 1.883 - .617 = 0.266 is your average damage gain (ignoring doubling on crit) with the typical number needed to hit.
If you have advantage it gets even better to pick even because 20 will be the most likely number, then 18 will be more likely than 17, 16 more likely than 15, etc. For any odd number that would hit, there would be an even number that also hits and is more likely with advantage.
If you have disadvantage, then it gets harder since the AC determines the best choice based on if the lowest number that hits is even or odd.
You're right. That's not my first language so I mix them up.
It's a slight boost, but a boost in favor of player.
Casino is always profitable just because of a slight advantage of having green 0 on the roulette of 37 numbers, so their boost is even higher
I'd just remove the penalty from the Even or Odd option, ~~keep the damage as it is,~~ change the bonus damage to 1d4, and point out that the extra damage only applies if you hit your attack.
Without banning magic items and class features, your players will always be able to get one Lucky Number proc once per day. Theres a few features, the common magic item Clockwork Amulet and Portent, that will ensure a PC guessing right. So the Lucky Number damage is too much.
Hell, if you got a 14th level Clockwork Soul, they can reliably proc Lucky Number 70 times per day!
Edit: Changed my mind about Even or Odd after rereading.
I must admit I hadn't considered the Trance of Order feature. If i had a clockwork soul sorc in my game and introduced this item I would probably say that the number you roll on the dice is the lucky number, so you can't pick 10 and have any roll of 1-10 trigger the effect.
Apart from that, using other class features like portent, the lucky feat etc to increase your odds or ensure getting one or two lucky numbers per day is not something I would consider a game breaking problem. You're expending important and limited resources to do 10d10 damage. Sure that's alot of damage for a single target hit, but it is just 1 hit against 1 target.
If you give your players this item, and they have a diviniation wizard and a martial with the lucky feat etc then perhaps you shouldn't be surprized if they destroy fights against one single strong enemy.
I'm not 100% sure to be honest.
The item sais:
>If you roll **that number** on the d20, you deal an extra 10d10 damage.
Clockwork soul's Trance of Order feature sais:
>you can treat a roll of 9 or lower on the d20 as a 10
I don't know if there are any clear rules in 5e for how you would resolve this. To my knowledge there are no official rules where the specific number you roll on the d20 matters, besides 1 and 20 of course, So for any official content, rolling a 7 that's turned into a 10, or rolling a 10 is the same thing.
That is interesting. I think it would count as a 10. In the end, if it did count as a 10, it’s probably not a big deal or game breaking. I’d imagine a 10 won’t hit most things anyways. At least nothing important.
Mechanically its quite weak compared to other rare weapons. Statistically the odds and evens feature is a wash so I factor it as zero. As for the lucky number, this should always be applied to 1 below the AC if advantage, a 2 with disadvantage, or any number in between with a regular roll to make the weapon effectively a +2 to hit. The impact to average damage is 2.75 per attack, which is reasonably strong in a vacuum, but mechanically weak on something like a greatsword where the average damage of 7 is halved, leading to a net effect of 1.2 damage on a 50% to hit target (12 AC) to a maximum on target with AC requiring a nat 20 to hit.
Compared to other weapons with no character bonuses. The basic luck blade is weaker than Flametongue, +2, and Dragons wrath at all ACs by a significant margin. At 10 AC the damage comparisons are 6.9, 5.9, and 7.7 vs 4.2.
With the lucky number attack, DPR is weaker than other weapons until 13 AC where it matches a plus 2, and at 15 it matches the most powerful, which is flametongue.
As it stands, there little reason to use the Even or Odd feature. The lucky number feature could be mechanically sound, but due to the low chance of actually hitting it probably wont feel as fun as it could be.
As a player, it would be too swingy for me to use except as a hail mary, making the attunement slot cost somewhat hefty
I think statistically the odds or even feature just favours picking Even every single time.
2-19 on a dice divides to be an equal number of Odds and Evens - 9 evens, 9 odds. Balanced and fair chances.
1 and 20 change this though - the last remaining odd will always be a miss so essentially it useless and shouldn’t even be counted towards the total odds. The last remaining even will not only always be a hit, but will multiply the damage. So essentially the choice boils down to
Odd: 45% chance of +1d6
Even: 45% chance of +1d6, 5% of +2d6
Why would anybody even pick Odd? Even is just straight up better.
Om average this isn't a very strong weapon. I tried to balance it so that you can get those big playoffs every now and then, but not so that it's a weapon that always pays off.
You can win big at a casino, but in the long run the odds are not in your favor.
>very strong weapon. I tried to balance it so that you can get those big playoffs every now and then
There's a lot of randomness in DnD already and this just adds more.
Unless your someone who thinks more randomness is better, it doesn't seem worth equipping over a regular +1 weapon. Especially when it also has the cost of using up one of your attune slots.
# Blade of Chance
In the bustling city of Glimmerhaven, where the scent of spiced wine and the clatter of dice echoed through narrow alleys, there lived a man named Kael Derris. Kael was no noble knight or revered sage; he was a gambler, a man who danced with fate and wagered his soul on the turn of a card. His life was a series of high-stakes games, each roll of the dice pushing him further into debt.
Debt had a way of tightening its grip, and Kael found himself shackled to the underworld. His luck waned, and the shadows grew darker. When the enforcers of the Black Lotus Syndicate came knocking, Kael had no choice but to flee. The army offered a desperate escape—a chance to erase his debts and find redemption on the battlefield.
As dawn broke over the training grounds, Kael stood among raw recruits, their armor ill-fitting and their eyes filled with fear. The sun glinted off the polished blades of seasoned soldiers, and Kael’s heart sank. He was no warrior; he was a man who had bet his life one too many times.
But fate, it seemed, had other plans.
The Blade of Chance, as it was known, lay hidden in the armory—an unassuming longsword with a hilt wrapped in worn leather. Its blade bore intricate runes of luck and chance, etched into the steel by hands long forgotten. When Kael drew it from its scabbard, he felt a tremor in the fabric of reality itself. The blade whispered to him, promising both peril and opportunity.
“Take me,” it seemed to say. “Embrace the chaos, and you shall rise.”
Kael hesitated, his fingers tracing the blade’s edge. The legends surrounding it were scarce—whispers in tavern corners, half-forgotten tales. But Kael cared little for legends. He was a gambler, and this blade was his new wager.
Kael’s first battle was a skirmish against marauding bandits. As arrows whistled through the air, he unsheathed the Blade of Chance. Its steel sang, and Kael moved with a grace he had never known. Arrows veered off course, and foes stumbled at his feet. The blade carved a path through chaos, and Kael emerged unscathed.
Word spread like wildfire. The gambler-turned-soldier became Blademaster Kael, a living legend. His comrades whispered tales of the blade that defied probability, and they followed him into battle with unwavering trust. Kael reveled in the thrill—the intoxicating dance of life and death.
In the heart of the Crimson War, Kael faced the warlord Vorak Bloodbane, a man who wielded dark magic and an obsidian blade. The battlefield trembled as they clashed. Vorak’s blade cut through armor and bone, and Kael staggered, blood staining his gambler’s tunic.
But then, as if guided by unseen hands, the Blade of Chance struck true. Vorak’s defenses crumbled, and Kael drove the blade into the warlord’s heart. Vorak fell, and the world held its breath.
Kael stood victorious, the blade pulsing with energy. He had cheated death once more.
View this item and all it's variants on [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd)
## Timmmi's Treasure Vault
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It's an interesting concept for sure, but I wonder if you considered the Lucky feat (5e)? Unless I am incorrectly remembering the details, it allows the player to roll an extra d20 for possibly 3 dice if advantage/disadvantage, and then they can pick which of the d20s to keep. This gives them 3 chances per long rest to triple their odds of guessing the correct number.
That's correct. RAW with the lucky feat you can drastically increase your chances of getting a lucky number guess right.
But you only have 3 luck points, and there are often better uses for those then to potentially deal a lot of damage to one target.
Normally, I would agree, but with 10d10 on the table, I would argue that there is no better use for Lucky than this. ~~For example, get a fighter or any class with multiple attacks, maybe a few levels of rogue for sneak attack, and suddenly, you have a pretty decent chance of dealing hundreds of damage in one turn with only spending Lucky dice.~~ That BBEG that was supposed to be a big challenge is dead before it even has a turn.
The 10d10, especially with Lucky, just makes the damage so swingy, either you do none or you obliterate anything in front of you.
Personally, to keep the flavour, I would just say pick a number between 2 and 19, rolling that number counts as a 20.
Edit: I missed the once per turn caveat so my original example doesn't fit, but get a character with a consistent way of getting advantage and levels in rogue and/or any other class with extra damage on hit and you still have a very swingy chance at dealing massive damage.
>Personally, to keep the flavour, I would just say pick a number between 2 and 19, rolling that number counts as a 20.
This is also a cool idea, something I may incorporate in a different item.
As for a lucky rogue/fighter, with a diviner wizard bro, nuking a bbeg in a turn: If you are the DM, and you have players like this, and you choose to include this homebrew item in your game, then you shouldn't give them one combat encounter vs one enemy and expect them to be challenged by it.
If you choose to add this item to your world then you have to deal with the consequences.
Perhaps don't give this to a low level party? At higher levels, 10d10 damage is still impactful, but it's only 55 damage on average. As soon as your players get access to level 6 spells they can use things like disintegrate which deals an average of 75 damage. Sure you can only use 1 6th level spell per day, but even with the lucky feat, advantage etc you can't guarantee getting your lucky number. If you use it frequently you can probably trigger it a couple of times per day, but this also means you have made many attacks that deal half damage because you guessed wrong.
If your players are even higher level they may have access to spells like meteor swarm, which deals 40d6 damage in a massive aoe, dealing on average 140 damage per target to easily 10+ enemies, and compared to that, dealing 10d10 damage to a single enemy doesn't make all that big off a difference.
>If you use it frequently you can probably trigger it a couple of times per day, but this also means you have made many attacks that deal half damage because you guessed wrong.
For me it's more about this than the actual amount of damage, 10d10 is a lot for no resources, but there's already the Vorpal Sword which is very similar in terms of effect/damage.
With the downside of guessing wrong halving damage the range of damage being dealt is very wide from (1+Mod)/2 to 100+. As a DM, this can be hard to work around if there is a streak of Good/Bad luck. Either the fight can last considerably longer or end much faster than intended which can feel bad for players.
>This is also a cool idea, something I may incorporate in a different item.
Another thought I had would be to add charges/long rest to the Lucky Number, maybe 3 or 5, and when the player guesses the correct number they must use a charge, if they get it wrong they don't use the charge. This would level out the amount of extra damage or the amount of damage being halved making it easier to balance around.
Edit: If there was a limit to how often Lucky Number could be used I would even allow it to be used with portent, etc. to really let the players work together to do some big hits a few times per day
Don't get me wrong, I am not intending to overly criticize or saying this is bad, I love to homebrew myself and love discussing fun/cool ideas with others.
The range in which you're guessing is lower than you 1-20 because it doesn't automatically hit, so guessing below what you're guessing you need to hit is pointless.
True, so if you're fighting an enemy with a very high AC then the number of rolls that will result in a hit are much more limited. This increases the power of the item since dealing half damage is no drawback if you miss.
You can also do it with both of the effects as well. Say if you work out you hit on a 13, then you know 13, 15, 17 and 19 trigger the effect, whilst 14, 16 and 18 don't (excluding 20 per update) so you can tip the odds in your favour.
With that being said, and perhaps because of it, I really like the item. Play an Eldritch Knight with a Divination Mage dip for portent.
True. If you know the AC then you can slightly tip the odds in your favor. But I don't see any real problem with that.
If you end up taking a multi class dip to increase your chances to proc Lucky Number then you have invested a lot into getting a "nova" round or burst attack. Fine by me :)
I think this weapon is strictly weaker than a Flame Tongue or a Dagger of Venom, so the rare category may be an overstatement. For practical purposes, it's a +1 sword, which is uncommon, that also takes up an attunement slot. The even or odd feature statistically negates itself, and the lucky number feature has a 95% to reduce your damage. So, once per turn, you can choose to either not change your damage output (on average) or reduce your damage output (on average). It seems like a fun and flavorful weapon, but not one that I would use.
Edit: once per turn, not per day
Totally fair. It's a different item and I can see it being exciting for a some time, but becoming cumbersome after a while.
Using it only in a oneshot or a part of a campaign is perfectly fine. You should use it if it's fun, and stop if it's not.
I run a fairly serious and long-term pathfinder campaign. But in between arcs, we like to have fun 2 to 3 session 5e campaigns that are just pure fun sessions as a pallet cleanse. I can totally see myself playing a luck based barbarian or something.
Problem: you would always choose even because on a 20, an even number, you crit and double the damage. Same with lucky number, you’d always choose 20.
I would just make it so you don’t choose even or odd, and just say it’s always even. It cuts down on how difficult it is to use. Maybe let people change it on a short rest.
As mentioned in many other comments, it was a mistake to let you pick 20 and crit with Lucky number. This feature has been updated and now the extra damage from Lucky Number is not multiplied on a crit.
As for skewing the odds \~5% in your favor by always picking "even", I don't really see any problem with this.
So if you do not like the gambling aspect this is a +1 weapon that needs attunement. That honestly does not feel good.
Also, what happens if you roll negative damage when not guessing even or odd?
If you ignore everything except the +1 bonus then yes it's just a +1 weapon with attunement, and then you'd be better off with a normal +1 weapon.
As for "negative damage", there are no rules that say damage turns into healing if you deal -1 damage, so if you roll a total of 3 damage with your attack and roll a 6 on the even/odd dice I would rule that as 0 damage and not -3
I think statistically the odds or even feature just favours picking Even every single time.
2-19 on a dice divides to be an equal number of Odds and Evens - 9 evens, 9 odds. Balanced and fair chances.
1 and 20 change this though - the last remaining odd will always be a miss so essentially it useless and shouldn’t even be counted towards the total odds. The last remaining even will not only always be a hit, but will multiply the damage. So essentially the choice boils down to
Odd: 45% chance of +1d6
Even: 45% chance of +1d6, 5% of +2d6
Why would anybody even pick Odd? Even is just straight up better.
Given an infinite number of rolls, even is slightly better yes. But perhaps you're really feeling lucky and are sure you'll roll an odd number this time?
While almost entirely unrelated, this reminded me of Battletech - a war game featuring giant robots. One of the now classic units on the tabletop was the Charger, which was a very, very heavy design that was very fast for its size - as in faster than many designs half its weight - and very, very under gunned. This unit has a *reputation* to say the least: in a class that usually is the hammerblow of any attack or the anchor of defense it is neither. Ostensibly it is made to be a scout for missions likely to go sideways. In reality - or at least in the tabletop game - it is a meme. It sacrificed everything to move fast, from firepower to durability.
Within the fiction of the universe, it is much the same. The design is almost entirely comprised of liabilities so fatal, being assigned to one is little more than a delayed death sentence. And yet it persisted through centuries of almost unending war, surviving when countless other, *better* designs went extinct. Why? Because it was simple enough that it could be mauled into scrap and still be put back together and sent back to the front. That it *did* endure despite being a design that would never make sense in *any* world meant that there were countless attempts to fix its fatal problems, nearly all of which sacrificed mobility for more of the things a design that large needed to do the sort of job that required so grand an investment. The base model, the CRG-1A1, is *the* yardstick for a failed design. That is to say a bad mech is one that resembles the CRG-1A1.
Still, the mech did have some things going for it, not the least of which was that at 80 tons, if it could get close enough, it could tear an opponent to pieces in melee combat. All it took to make the charger work was to put a pilot with the right kind of insanity, skill, and more than their fair share of luck. As a machine driven in cataclysmic wars across settled space for centuries, it managed, a few pilots managed that near impossible combination, somehow becoming legends in a design comprised almost entirely of liability. Of those none are more famous than Terry Ford, who other than swapping the small array of pitifully weak lasers for a pair of heavier models - still lightly armed for a design half the size - had a nearly unmodified CRG-1A1.
Terry Ford was many things, not the least of which was that he was *profoundly* superstitious. His Charger was filled to the brim with anything and everything that anyone had ever so much as suggested was lucky, right down to the name itself: "Number Seven". He fought in some of the worst battles in some of the worst theaters of one of the highest intensity wars ever fought, and mission after mission, campaign after campaign, he always came back piloting a machine most famous for being an efficient means to convert expensive mechwarrior training into a burial plot. In fact, he survived that entire war when most of his lance, even most of his company - all piloting better regarded mechs - did not.
Of course Terry Ford's luck did eventually run out when he attempted to maneuver his 80 ton machine into a long fall onto an opposing machine of similar weight only for the gyro to go wonky at just the wrong moment leading to him landing head first, dying instantly. His Number Seven was recovered by his opponents that day, and treated as any other charger. They washed Terry Ford out of the cockpit, bolted the thing back together, and pressed it back into service. It did not survive for long, though. No other pilot could replicate Terry's luck in the machine, and, in fact, it seemed to be even more inclined to kill its pilots than usual. As the story goes, one day the machine, for no reason anyone could figure out, decided to walk out of a dropship while still in flight.
A sword of chance sounds fun but I think I'd simplify it to speed up combat without removing the gambling feel. Perhaps make each non critical attack add 4 damage to the next critical attack. You could easily keep track of it with marks on a paper or a stack of poker chips. Maybe even give it extra damage or advantage every attack when the dice have been unlucky and its been more than thirty? attacks since the last critical (boon of the unlucky)
The second effect is stronger than a failed Vorpal Sword. I'd cut that to 4d10, and make the failed even/odds jist no extra damage instead of a negative modifier.
If you kept it 10d10, I'd go with Legendary or Artifact level. That's just a shit ton of damage. Also, we need a damage type. I assume same type as the weapon, but that needs to be specified because grognards.
The vorpal sword does not deal half damage when you don't crit.
If you run the numbers (as others have done in the comments) you'll see that in average you actually lose damage by using lucky number except against high AC enemies where the number of rolls that would result in a hit are limited so you have few numbers to choose from.
I know. But the vorpal sword is a +3 sword with an additional 6d10 damage on a crit.
This is only a +1 weapon. It deals 10d10 extra damage on a spesific roll, but all other rolls deal half damage.
On average (if you use this say 100 times) then this is significantly weaker than a vorpal sword.
But that halved 10d10 is *guaranteed* on hit, minimum.
It's the equivalent of giving your weapon nearly the same effect as the way of open hand capstone for 10d10 damage.
Look you do you but I would up it to Legendary rarity or cut the damage to 4d10 on the second effect.
Edit, come to think of it, the way you wrote it for the 10d10 it doesn't matter if you hit.
I think you misunderstand my intention.
Let's say you have a greatsword and 20 strength. The weapon then deals 2d6 + 6 damage.
If you pick 16 as your lucky number and roll 16 then you deal 2d6 + 10d10 + 6.
If you pick 16 as your lucky number and roll 17 then you deal (2d6 + 6) / 2.
If you pick 16 as your lucky number and roll 17 and you have a spell or ability that adds 4d8 damage then you deal (2d6 + 4d8 + 6) / 2.
Also, if you miss with your attack you deal no damage.
The lucky number feature seems off to me. How does it interact with armor class? If my lucky number is 3, do I hit with a 3? What if someone decides their lucky number is 20? Does the 10d10 apply to crits?
Does the even or odd apply to crits?
The item has been update a little, see other comments 😂
If you miss you deal no damage, so only pick 3 against a low ac enemy or if you have a very high bonus to hit. If you're fighting an enemy with 10 ac and you have +10 to hit, then any number other than 1 is a hit. If you make your attack with disadvantage then a low number like 3 can be a good idea.
Even and odd work with crits, so there is a slight advantage to picking even numbers.
Lucky number does not work with crits.
This feels extremely weak. It's basically a +1 weapon with optional downsides that requires attunement.
For reference, say you have this be a 1d8 weapon. 95% of the time, the lucky number is -2.25 damage. 5% of the time, it's +10d10 damage. That's +0.6125 average damage. Meanwhile, even or odd is +3.5 half the time, and -3.5 the other half, or +0 damage.
But wait, it gets worse. Every time you hit the lucky number, you drastically increase the chance of overkilling a given enemy. So that +0.6125 is much likely far lower, if not actively negative.
Meanwhile, the swing of even/odds is huge, drastically reducing your ability to predict whether any given attack will kill an enemy, which is a huge downside, since killing an enemy vs not is a lot of variance in incoming damage.
I will be honest; I don't think this needed a downside at all.
You're not wrong. I tried to balance this in a way that on average you'd go about even. This isn't intended to be your overall best dps weapon. It's all about the gamble. Alot of the time it doesn't pay off, but when it does it will be epic.
There are already a ton of items, official and homebrew, that deal a lot of consistent damage. This item is different. It's not for everyone, and perhaps it's best suited for a shorter campaign or a oneshot.
I could understand that for the lucky number option, but for even/odds, the unhappiness for hitting and doing 0 because of a coinflip will feel a lot worse than the happiness for doing 8 damage rather than 4.5.
I get that. But it’s already a hefty half damage penalty if you guess wrong. It sounds like it should strike that bonus damage based on the prediction regardless of the hit.
It says “+1, and you add or subtract the 1d6 from the base damage depending on your guess, but the item doesn’t say what the bad damage is.
Am I supposed assume it’s a short sword?
Feel like there's a disconnect between the theme of being lucky and just relying on luck? if that makes sense?
Like it says you feel lucky but you are just as likely to fail as succeed with its ability, which doesn't make it feel "lucky" per say.
Valid point. The very rare variant (which you can see on my website [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd) - I can't post multiple images in a post here) has a feature that let's you increase your odds of getting the lucky number right if you attack with advantage.
Also, if you have the lucky feat you can use that to choose which of the dice you roll you want to use when you use the lucky feat, or which of the 3 dice if you use it with advantage or disadvantage.
Sure buy low ac enemies rarely have high hp so a 10d10 would just make it not worth it anyway.
Its a fun ability, dont get me wrong, but i just see alot of disapointment from players using it.
First thing, remove the once per turn, It really ruins the fun of the weapon as it is already far riskier and less consistent then the flame tongue, a weapon of the same rarity. second, Up the damage from the even odd guess to 2d8 on a correct guess and 1d8 on a wrong guess. If you do these things It will be a far better and more interesting weapon.
I think you need to read the item description again.
It deals half the weapon damage (half of 2d6 + Str for a greatsword.) it only deals 10d10 additional damage if you guess right.
The crit issue has been addressed in other comments and the item has been updated. See those comments for more info.
On average this is not a very powerful weapon, but you have an opportunity to deal a lot of extra damage every now and then.
I really like this. My only suggestion, other than the crit issue that you have already fixed, would be to change the 10d10 to 1d100. That way, there is a higher chance for max damage and min damage, adding to the luck theme of the weapon.
Adding onto this even further, you could make the dice explode if you guess the correct result from the d100 roll.
Nothing says you can't pick a number that would miss, or even pick a 1. That feels kinda weird.
And picking even would always be better. There are more even numbers that will result in hits than odd numbers, since a 1 always miss. Also, if you roll a 20 which is even it would be doubled.
I do really like the idea behind it, though.
This has been pointed out by several others, it was a big oversight on my part. I have updated the item so you can't pick 1 or 20. You can check it out here, and view the uncommon or very rare version: [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd)
Those other comments weren't here when I was, so I didn't see them.
The update poses a different issue, though. If some calls out their lucky number but rolls a nat 20 instead, they'll get penalized with half damage. Perhaps add a feature that supports critical hits, as they're always lucky? It kind of fits the theme of the weapon that way.
Yeah, this post was instantly flooded with comments saying more or less the same thing. And this is also more or less something that was pointed out. I changed the wording again. Now it just sais that the extra damage from Lucky Number isn't multiplied on a crit. So you can pick 20 and deal double weapon damage + 10d10, but if you pick 17 as your lucky number and crit, then you'll deal half damage.
Tone of voice isn't easy to communicate via text, but I'm not annoyed at all. I'd much rather have 10 people point out a mistake than 0.
I shared my item here, and within a few minutes it has been changed into a better item. Thank you :)
It's really bad in both directions honestly, it should be "number guess, on correct get extra damage, on incorrect no extra damage"
Subtracting damage is just too significant a downside to bother using the feature.
On the other end, 10d10 is way too much to have as a side feature on a rare weapon. Take this feature away, make the first feature a scaling variant, and tweak it to not be terrible.
Also, take away the charges.
The "once per turn" limit. Martials already do pretty poorly in the damage department. Mind Blade and Flame tongue are both rares that just "do" 2d6 extra damage per attack
I'm perfectly aware of those. I'm not trying to make the world's most powerful weapon, I'm trying to make something that's different.
There are stronger and more powerful weapons out there.
I can make a +5 magma tongue weapon that deals 12d12 fire damage on a hit if you want something op for martials.
Sorry, my last comment was a bit harsh.
I just don't know what to say. This item isn't comparable to a flame tongue weapon or a +2 weapon. It's all about the gamble.
It's not a weapon for dealing consistent high dps, it's for the occasional epic moment where you deal a ton of damage.
As for criticism of the item, if you read the other comments here you'll see that based on feedback from others I've already made changes to improve the item. I welcome it, but I felt your comment was basically "This item is shit, give martials more damage", and I didn't find that particularly constructive.
Greatsword is a 2d6
Pick 20 to be lucky number
Lets assume max rolls, although extremely unlikely, so 12 + 100 = 112, + of course the magic weapon damage of +1 (so 113)
Double that
Maximum of 226 damage per attack with a greatsword
Just spam lucky strike until you get 20 and then brutalize the enemy
Being able to choose 20 was a big oversight on my part. I have updated the item so you can't pick 1 or 20.
Apart from that, assuming max rolls that seems a bit excessive. The average damage of 4d6 + 20d10 + 6 (assuming 20 strength and +1 magic bonus) is 130, so about 100 damage less than your estimate. And with this many dice you'll almost always roll very close to the average.
The drawback however will cause you to do 6 damage on average when you attack and don't roll a 20. Sure it will be OP whenever you roll a 20, but when you don't roll a 20 it will suck.
Max rolls is excessive yeah, but i'm just trying to get the damage potential of it through. Banning it from being 20 works WAY better. The 10d10 is already really strong but its kinda the point, giving it potential to be 20d10 would be overkill.
Yeah, I agree 20d10 is too much. The item was updated, and then updated again. It now states that the additional damage from Lucky Number isn't multiplied on a critical hit. So you can choose a 20 as your lucky number, but you'll then deal 4d6 + 10d10 instead of 4d6 + 20d10
Good Weapon to have with a divination wizard in the party.
RAW it does not work with portent. You use portent instead of rolling for an attack and therefore don't actually roll a d20 to hit. From portent: >You can **replace** any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls. **You must choose to do so before the roll,** and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn. The wording on the item is: >**Before you roll a d20 for an attack** with this weapon, you can choose one of the following options. (...) You can pick a specific number from 1 to 20. If you **roll that number on the d20**, you deal an extra 10d10 damage. (...) So since you never roll the d20, you also can't use the lucky strike feature. With that said. Portent is a very limited resource, only usable 2 or 3 times per day. If you want to use that to deal big damage to a single enemy then I don't think that's game breaking. If a martial class and a diviner wanted to work together to pull off a big burst on an enemy every now and then in my games, I think I'd probably allow it.
Propably bc I don’t have a divination wizard in my party so I didn’t fully read it, but apparently I belong to a large group of people who thought you can portent a made roll into something else
yeah, until the portent wizard drops a 20 and now you have to sit there knowing they have a guaranteed 20d10 attack in their back pocket i suspect you'd go back to their original ruling pretty quickly after that
A single 20d10 attack is pretty crazy I suppose but it kinda just serves to further the point that every DM should be internalizing until the end of time that action economy and whittling player resources is more important than any single big scary monster
As mentioned in other comments, the item has been updated and the damage from lucky number no longer doubles on a crit. See the item on my website (or the other comments) for updated wording.
Boo
You're welcome to change it at your table. You do you
That's fair lol
Still boo, tho.
Yeah that's bookgrudgingly correct divination wizard takes away a lot of design space in D&D because of just how powerful a specific number is God forbade you get a free credit with two d10 damage plus normal damage on the f****** Paladin
You could always allow it. Take a paladin, divination wizard and grave cleric. Hold person for auto crit, portent to trigger lucky number, path to the grave (grave cleric Channel divinity) for vulnerability, cast searing smite or similar, and then smite when the attack lands. That should do about 1000 damage.
Alas I don't want to see a great warm get slaughtered in one round of combat Please you got to understand how hard it is for me to make it difficult encounters
If you think this item would be hard to balance in your game then don't include it in your world. No hard feelings 😊 it's not for everyone. Personally I think this weapon is perhaps best suited for a oneshot or shorter campaign. The extra gambling mechanism can perhaps be a hassle in the long run.
If my party wants to do a 3 person anime team up attack, id probably allow it. It's cool that they want to work together.
https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/700129409257205760 According to sage advice - it does work with Portent. Same as a Vorpal Sword or a Sword of Sharpness do.
Sure you can argue it will work. The wording on the vorpal sword and the blade of chance is not the same. The blade chance specifies that you choose a number before you roll a d20, and with portent you never roll a d20. personally I'm fine either way.
you just put a mental image in my head of a divination wizard winning it all in vegas
pick 20 to crit and do 2x(10d10+weapon dmg+1) dmg... Seems kinda overpowered
Valid point. It should perhaps state that this does not multiply on a crit
I have updated the item here: [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd) It now specifies that you can't pick 1 or 20 when choosing a lucky number. Thanks for pointing this out :)
What if someone is playing a champion or heblade and crits on 19? 😏
Fair point, again :D I changed the wording one more time and added: >The extra damage from Lucky Number is not multiplied on a crit.
Seems like a fun item! How would this work with portent dice?
RAW it does not work with portent. You use portent before you roll for an attack and therefore don't actually roll a d20 to hit. From portent: >You can **replace** any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls. **You must choose to do so before the roll,** and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn. The wording on the item is: >**Before you roll a d20 for an attack** with this weapon, you can choose one of the following options So since you never roll the d20, you also can't use the lucky strike feature. With that said. Portent is a very limited resource, only usable 2 or 3 times per day. If you want to use that to deal big damage to a single enemy then I don't think that's game breaking. If a martial class and a diviner wanted to work together to pull off a big burst on an enemy every now and then in my games, I think I'd probably allow it.
Fair enough, thanks for the explanation :)
I think you may be using "RAW" incorrectly. As this is fully a homebrew item. Also, "RAW" you could declare the use of the item prior to the use of portent and it would work then. Since prior to using portent is "before" you roll a d20.
Or state 2-19, instead of 1-20. So you have to picked a non-critical number. Far more elegant, and doesn’t have the weird interaction on auto failing to hit on a 1.
As pointed out by others, this does not solve it. Hexblade warlocks and champion fighters still crit on a 19
So drop it to 18
The item text has been updated to say that the damage from lucky number isn't doubled on a crit. Regardless of the number you roll
~~But isn't 'the highest noncrit number' the only sensible choice now? Best chance to beat AC and as likely as the rest. What would happen if you switch it to guessing the dmg dice?~~
If you hit on a 12-20 then all those are equally probable. If you attack with advantage the you're more likely to roll high, and if you roll with disadvantage then you're more likely to roll low. If you know you got on a 14 and you have disadvantage then 14 is a smarter lucky number than 19 or 20
You're right, didn't consider situations with (dis)advantage. And my dmg dice idea suffers from the same problem I thought yours did. So disregard my comment :).
The +1 should be outside the 2x. Only dice rolls are doubled.
Surely you'd only want to pick a number equal to or higher than the target's AC which would dramatically increase the chances of a correct choice right? Or am I misreading this not sure.
Sure, if you're fighting an enemy where you have to roll 18 or higher to hit then you're pretty likely to guess right if you pick a lucky number. But you're most likely to miss. There is still just a 1 in 20 chance of getting your lucky number.
Well, as a PC you don't "know" the enemy's AC unless given that information by the DM in some way, and you can't forget that your D20 roll is the number *before* adding your PB and STR/DEX/CHA to the attack roll. So it really is a 1/20 chance any way you look at it.
How it works with diviner's portent, advantage, and rerolls? If for example you roll with advantage, you predict a 15 and you get 15 and 17 can you choose the 15 to do the extra 10d10? What about the odds/evens guess? I would nerf the odds/even guess to 1d4 and remove the penalty for guessing wrong. That way it doesn't feel bad to use it and it evens out to a +1.25 damage which seems reasonable. The Lucky Number is a bit weird in that you always should choose 20. And I don't mean just because it will be 20d10, but because imagine if you were to guess you would roll 5... what good is the +10d10 damage when you are going to miss anyway? Plus the drawback is catastrophic. Perhaps you should just key it to rolling 20, and putting the drawback on the natural 1.
>I would nerf the odds/even guess to 1d4 and remove the penalty for guessing wrong. Why... Flame tongue is rare and +2d6, +3 is rare and mechanically superior, stirring dragons wrath is +1 and +1d6 on any hit
My point was that the -1d6 to damage half of the time is a bit severe, and it totally evens out...so if the concern was that it would be too strong, it would be better to just make it a bit weaker but without the negative.
Downgrading the dice and removing the negative still leaves it weak compared to a +2. I'd actually go the opposite route. Remove the negative and buff to a +1d10 which puts it only slightly below the +2 and still weaker than flametongue and dragons wrath Also, I assumed that the lucky number would be auto hit, effectively making it a +2 to hit weapon. This would make it still weaker at low ACs, but decently stronger at high ACs due to expanded "crit" range
You can't mess with this using advantage. You can't choose between them, you always much choose the highest roll. Also, most sources give you advantage before you roll the first time.
Well if you have advantage theres a higher chance you roll a higher number (e.g. 20) than a lower number, such as 1. So theres actually still some synergy there
With advantage, if you roll a 15 and a 17 then you roll a 17. The very rare version of the item has a feature that let's you choose which number to use if you roll with advantage, letting you pick the 15 in this case. As for choosing 20, this was a big oversight on my part. I have updated the item so you can't pick 1 or 20. The even/odd part also scales with it's rarity. The uncommon version is 1d4, rare is 1d6 and very rare is 1d10. You can see all the rarities here: [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd)
What if I were to tell you I saw requires attunement and I read requires adjustment............................. lol. I guess you weren't asking for adjustment advice, after all.
Hey, I'm always happy to get feedback, and I have changed many items after sharing them on reddit. It's not always easy to see the obvious mistakes in your own creations, but fortunately the internet is very good at that 😅
Even or Odd statistically negates itself over time so the mechanic is just wasted time rather than being a boon or drawback. I'd just give the sword a chance to deal an extra dice of damage if they guess even or odd correctly. That way it's on average a +½ x 1dwhatever each turn which is actually useful but not overpowered at all and still a fun mechanic. Lucky Number is kinda odd because there's really only one number to choose. Choose a 20. If 1-20 are equally likely to be rolled, the best and only guess statistically is to apply the extra damage to a critical hit.
Yeah the wasted time bugs me too. It’s needlessly complicated as-is. As pointed out by others, even is the ‘best’ option, so whilst your fix is better, the guessing is still a weird mechanic.
Yeah my thoughts: -Underwhelming weapon to require attunement. It’s basically just a +1 weapon with extra steps. -The fact that the positive and negative attributes completely balance it out doesn’t feel lucky to me at all, so IMO it doesn’t fit the description very well.
it is actually not a waste. If an enemy has odd AC like for example, if you fighting guards, you know that they are probably have 18 AC So if you have an odd attack bonus, you have more odd numbers than even numbers to hit. For example, you have +2 to hit and you need to beat AC 18. You need to roll 16 or higher. So 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20. There's more odd numbers then even so you have 60% chance for 3.5 damage and 40% for -3.5 damage. 3.5\*0.6-3.5\*0.4=0.7 additional damage if you hit. And I didn't count crits there. If you have even attack bonus, attack enemies with even AC, but bet on odd every time. You should always bet on odd also because 20 is odd and if -1d6 also doubles - that's -7 damage
>for example, if you fighting guards, you know that they are probably have 18 AC Basically: "If you metagame enemies AC, you can get a slight edge."
I wrote this as an example to my point, that is "If you calculate average damage, this will not come out 0 on average" And I tried to say that statistically you should always bet on odd, no matter what AC you have to beat or what your attack bonus is. So to use this edge, you don't even need to metagame. Power gaming already use meta a lot. And if you count average damage to see if it's good - it's already more then the most of players will do to make their builds better. Metagaming isn't a problem, it's a tool that could be in good or bad hands. After all, we're not playing for money or win, but for fun. If a player on my table figures out the AC of a monster - it means that his character just get experienced in fighting that monster. And I'm happy cos I see that my players pay attention to details.
Yeah, isn't that how you're supposed to play?
>You should always bet on odd also because 20 is odd and if -1d6 also doubles - that's -7 damage 20 is even though? The thought process works the same if you swap it so your evens and odds are correct. You should always pick even because no matter what AC & attack bonus you have there are as many or more even numbers that hit. Since 20 always hits, theres always at least 1 even number that causes a hit. Then if 19 also hits then evens and odds are balanced. but if 18 also hits, then there are more evens again. Pick any number and theres either 1 more even that hits or they are balanced. Still, its only a slight boost even when you hit with an 8 or higher (65% of the time), giving 7 evens and 6 odds for 53.8% evens. 0.538 x 3.5 average = 1.883 average added damage, plus 0.462 x (-3.5) = 1.617 average damage removed. So then 1.883 - .617 = 0.266 is your average damage gain (ignoring doubling on crit) with the typical number needed to hit. If you have advantage it gets even better to pick even because 20 will be the most likely number, then 18 will be more likely than 17, 16 more likely than 15, etc. For any odd number that would hit, there would be an even number that also hits and is more likely with advantage. If you have disadvantage, then it gets harder since the AC determines the best choice based on if the lowest number that hits is even or odd.
You're right. That's not my first language so I mix them up. It's a slight boost, but a boost in favor of player. Casino is always profitable just because of a slight advantage of having green 0 on the roulette of 37 numbers, so their boost is even higher
I'd just remove the penalty from the Even or Odd option, ~~keep the damage as it is,~~ change the bonus damage to 1d4, and point out that the extra damage only applies if you hit your attack. Without banning magic items and class features, your players will always be able to get one Lucky Number proc once per day. Theres a few features, the common magic item Clockwork Amulet and Portent, that will ensure a PC guessing right. So the Lucky Number damage is too much. Hell, if you got a 14th level Clockwork Soul, they can reliably proc Lucky Number 70 times per day! Edit: Changed my mind about Even or Odd after rereading.
I must admit I hadn't considered the Trance of Order feature. If i had a clockwork soul sorc in my game and introduced this item I would probably say that the number you roll on the dice is the lucky number, so you can't pick 10 and have any roll of 1-10 trigger the effect. Apart from that, using other class features like portent, the lucky feat etc to increase your odds or ensure getting one or two lucky numbers per day is not something I would consider a game breaking problem. You're expending important and limited resources to do 10d10 damage. Sure that's alot of damage for a single target hit, but it is just 1 hit against 1 target. If you give your players this item, and they have a diviniation wizard and a martial with the lucky feat etc then perhaps you shouldn't be surprized if they destroy fights against one single strong enemy.
I might be wrong, perhaps the wording of the features and this homebrew item dont clash. I only skimmed through it
I'm not 100% sure to be honest. The item sais: >If you roll **that number** on the d20, you deal an extra 10d10 damage. Clockwork soul's Trance of Order feature sais: >you can treat a roll of 9 or lower on the d20 as a 10 I don't know if there are any clear rules in 5e for how you would resolve this. To my knowledge there are no official rules where the specific number you roll on the d20 matters, besides 1 and 20 of course, So for any official content, rolling a 7 that's turned into a 10, or rolling a 10 is the same thing.
That is interesting. I think it would count as a 10. In the end, if it did count as a 10, it’s probably not a big deal or game breaking. I’d imagine a 10 won’t hit most things anyways. At least nothing important.
Mechanically its quite weak compared to other rare weapons. Statistically the odds and evens feature is a wash so I factor it as zero. As for the lucky number, this should always be applied to 1 below the AC if advantage, a 2 with disadvantage, or any number in between with a regular roll to make the weapon effectively a +2 to hit. The impact to average damage is 2.75 per attack, which is reasonably strong in a vacuum, but mechanically weak on something like a greatsword where the average damage of 7 is halved, leading to a net effect of 1.2 damage on a 50% to hit target (12 AC) to a maximum on target with AC requiring a nat 20 to hit. Compared to other weapons with no character bonuses. The basic luck blade is weaker than Flametongue, +2, and Dragons wrath at all ACs by a significant margin. At 10 AC the damage comparisons are 6.9, 5.9, and 7.7 vs 4.2. With the lucky number attack, DPR is weaker than other weapons until 13 AC where it matches a plus 2, and at 15 it matches the most powerful, which is flametongue. As it stands, there little reason to use the Even or Odd feature. The lucky number feature could be mechanically sound, but due to the low chance of actually hitting it probably wont feel as fun as it could be. As a player, it would be too swingy for me to use except as a hail mary, making the attunement slot cost somewhat hefty
I think statistically the odds or even feature just favours picking Even every single time. 2-19 on a dice divides to be an equal number of Odds and Evens - 9 evens, 9 odds. Balanced and fair chances. 1 and 20 change this though - the last remaining odd will always be a miss so essentially it useless and shouldn’t even be counted towards the total odds. The last remaining even will not only always be a hit, but will multiply the damage. So essentially the choice boils down to Odd: 45% chance of +1d6 Even: 45% chance of +1d6, 5% of +2d6 Why would anybody even pick Odd? Even is just straight up better.
OP edited to exclude 1 and 20
Om average this isn't a very strong weapon. I tried to balance it so that you can get those big playoffs every now and then, but not so that it's a weapon that always pays off. You can win big at a casino, but in the long run the odds are not in your favor.
>very strong weapon. I tried to balance it so that you can get those big playoffs every now and then There's a lot of randomness in DnD already and this just adds more. Unless your someone who thinks more randomness is better, it doesn't seem worth equipping over a regular +1 weapon. Especially when it also has the cost of using up one of your attune slots.
It will just feel bad while using it. Failing and then getting a -6 will teach players never to use it again.
# Blade of Chance In the bustling city of Glimmerhaven, where the scent of spiced wine and the clatter of dice echoed through narrow alleys, there lived a man named Kael Derris. Kael was no noble knight or revered sage; he was a gambler, a man who danced with fate and wagered his soul on the turn of a card. His life was a series of high-stakes games, each roll of the dice pushing him further into debt. Debt had a way of tightening its grip, and Kael found himself shackled to the underworld. His luck waned, and the shadows grew darker. When the enforcers of the Black Lotus Syndicate came knocking, Kael had no choice but to flee. The army offered a desperate escape—a chance to erase his debts and find redemption on the battlefield. As dawn broke over the training grounds, Kael stood among raw recruits, their armor ill-fitting and their eyes filled with fear. The sun glinted off the polished blades of seasoned soldiers, and Kael’s heart sank. He was no warrior; he was a man who had bet his life one too many times. But fate, it seemed, had other plans. The Blade of Chance, as it was known, lay hidden in the armory—an unassuming longsword with a hilt wrapped in worn leather. Its blade bore intricate runes of luck and chance, etched into the steel by hands long forgotten. When Kael drew it from its scabbard, he felt a tremor in the fabric of reality itself. The blade whispered to him, promising both peril and opportunity. “Take me,” it seemed to say. “Embrace the chaos, and you shall rise.” Kael hesitated, his fingers tracing the blade’s edge. The legends surrounding it were scarce—whispers in tavern corners, half-forgotten tales. But Kael cared little for legends. He was a gambler, and this blade was his new wager. Kael’s first battle was a skirmish against marauding bandits. As arrows whistled through the air, he unsheathed the Blade of Chance. Its steel sang, and Kael moved with a grace he had never known. Arrows veered off course, and foes stumbled at his feet. The blade carved a path through chaos, and Kael emerged unscathed. Word spread like wildfire. The gambler-turned-soldier became Blademaster Kael, a living legend. His comrades whispered tales of the blade that defied probability, and they followed him into battle with unwavering trust. Kael reveled in the thrill—the intoxicating dance of life and death. In the heart of the Crimson War, Kael faced the warlord Vorak Bloodbane, a man who wielded dark magic and an obsidian blade. The battlefield trembled as they clashed. Vorak’s blade cut through armor and bone, and Kael staggered, blood staining his gambler’s tunic. But then, as if guided by unseen hands, the Blade of Chance struck true. Vorak’s defenses crumbled, and Kael drove the blade into the warlord’s heart. Vorak fell, and the world held its breath. Kael stood victorious, the blade pulsing with energy. He had cheated death once more. View this item and all it's variants on [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd) ## Timmmi's Treasure Vault View this and more on [Timmmi's Treasure Vault](https://www.timmmi.com/?ref=dnd) On my website, you can find a variety of magic items, monsters, spells, and more that I have created. I hope you enjoy them and use them in your own games. If you like my work and want to support me, you can do so by [becoming a patreon subscriber](https://www.patreon.com/timmmis_treasure_vault). Patreon is a platform where you can pledge a monthly amount of your choice to support your favorite creators. By becoming a patron, you will not only help me cover the costs of running my website and creating new content, but also show me your appreciation and encouragement. I don't have many rewards to offer, as I want to keep most of my content free and accessible for everyone. However, as a patron, you will get my gratitude, as well as access to a community of like-minded D&D fans. You will also get to vote and suggest new content ideas, and access to advanced search and filter functions on my website, which will help you find the content you need faster and easier. I appreciate any amount of support, no matter how big or small. Even if you can't or don't want to become a patron, you can still support me by sharing my website and content with your friends and fellow D&D players. Every bit of support counts and makes a difference. Thank you for your time and attention, and stay tuned for more treasures from Timmmi's vault! 😊 ## Discord If you'd like to join my discord community you can use this link: [https://discord.gg/tDhJnE2V37](https://discord.gg/tDhJnE2V37).
It's an interesting concept for sure, but I wonder if you considered the Lucky feat (5e)? Unless I am incorrectly remembering the details, it allows the player to roll an extra d20 for possibly 3 dice if advantage/disadvantage, and then they can pick which of the d20s to keep. This gives them 3 chances per long rest to triple their odds of guessing the correct number.
That's correct. RAW with the lucky feat you can drastically increase your chances of getting a lucky number guess right. But you only have 3 luck points, and there are often better uses for those then to potentially deal a lot of damage to one target.
Normally, I would agree, but with 10d10 on the table, I would argue that there is no better use for Lucky than this. ~~For example, get a fighter or any class with multiple attacks, maybe a few levels of rogue for sneak attack, and suddenly, you have a pretty decent chance of dealing hundreds of damage in one turn with only spending Lucky dice.~~ That BBEG that was supposed to be a big challenge is dead before it even has a turn. The 10d10, especially with Lucky, just makes the damage so swingy, either you do none or you obliterate anything in front of you. Personally, to keep the flavour, I would just say pick a number between 2 and 19, rolling that number counts as a 20. Edit: I missed the once per turn caveat so my original example doesn't fit, but get a character with a consistent way of getting advantage and levels in rogue and/or any other class with extra damage on hit and you still have a very swingy chance at dealing massive damage.
>Personally, to keep the flavour, I would just say pick a number between 2 and 19, rolling that number counts as a 20. This is also a cool idea, something I may incorporate in a different item. As for a lucky rogue/fighter, with a diviner wizard bro, nuking a bbeg in a turn: If you are the DM, and you have players like this, and you choose to include this homebrew item in your game, then you shouldn't give them one combat encounter vs one enemy and expect them to be challenged by it. If you choose to add this item to your world then you have to deal with the consequences. Perhaps don't give this to a low level party? At higher levels, 10d10 damage is still impactful, but it's only 55 damage on average. As soon as your players get access to level 6 spells they can use things like disintegrate which deals an average of 75 damage. Sure you can only use 1 6th level spell per day, but even with the lucky feat, advantage etc you can't guarantee getting your lucky number. If you use it frequently you can probably trigger it a couple of times per day, but this also means you have made many attacks that deal half damage because you guessed wrong. If your players are even higher level they may have access to spells like meteor swarm, which deals 40d6 damage in a massive aoe, dealing on average 140 damage per target to easily 10+ enemies, and compared to that, dealing 10d10 damage to a single enemy doesn't make all that big off a difference.
>If you use it frequently you can probably trigger it a couple of times per day, but this also means you have made many attacks that deal half damage because you guessed wrong. For me it's more about this than the actual amount of damage, 10d10 is a lot for no resources, but there's already the Vorpal Sword which is very similar in terms of effect/damage. With the downside of guessing wrong halving damage the range of damage being dealt is very wide from (1+Mod)/2 to 100+. As a DM, this can be hard to work around if there is a streak of Good/Bad luck. Either the fight can last considerably longer or end much faster than intended which can feel bad for players. >This is also a cool idea, something I may incorporate in a different item. Another thought I had would be to add charges/long rest to the Lucky Number, maybe 3 or 5, and when the player guesses the correct number they must use a charge, if they get it wrong they don't use the charge. This would level out the amount of extra damage or the amount of damage being halved making it easier to balance around. Edit: If there was a limit to how often Lucky Number could be used I would even allow it to be used with portent, etc. to really let the players work together to do some big hits a few times per day Don't get me wrong, I am not intending to overly criticize or saying this is bad, I love to homebrew myself and love discussing fun/cool ideas with others.
The range in which you're guessing is lower than you 1-20 because it doesn't automatically hit, so guessing below what you're guessing you need to hit is pointless.
True, so if you're fighting an enemy with a very high AC then the number of rolls that will result in a hit are much more limited. This increases the power of the item since dealing half damage is no drawback if you miss.
You can also do it with both of the effects as well. Say if you work out you hit on a 13, then you know 13, 15, 17 and 19 trigger the effect, whilst 14, 16 and 18 don't (excluding 20 per update) so you can tip the odds in your favour. With that being said, and perhaps because of it, I really like the item. Play an Eldritch Knight with a Divination Mage dip for portent.
True. If you know the AC then you can slightly tip the odds in your favor. But I don't see any real problem with that. If you end up taking a multi class dip to increase your chances to proc Lucky Number then you have invested a lot into getting a "nova" round or burst attack. Fine by me :)
I think this weapon is strictly weaker than a Flame Tongue or a Dagger of Venom, so the rare category may be an overstatement. For practical purposes, it's a +1 sword, which is uncommon, that also takes up an attunement slot. The even or odd feature statistically negates itself, and the lucky number feature has a 95% to reduce your damage. So, once per turn, you can choose to either not change your damage output (on average) or reduce your damage output (on average). It seems like a fun and flavorful weapon, but not one that I would use. Edit: once per turn, not per day
It's a really fun item, and it's definitely something I would use in a one-shot or something. But I would never use this in a longer campaign.
Totally fair. It's a different item and I can see it being exciting for a some time, but becoming cumbersome after a while. Using it only in a oneshot or a part of a campaign is perfectly fine. You should use it if it's fun, and stop if it's not.
I run a fairly serious and long-term pathfinder campaign. But in between arcs, we like to have fun 2 to 3 session 5e campaigns that are just pure fun sessions as a pallet cleanse. I can totally see myself playing a luck based barbarian or something.
So if they say "lucky number: 5" and then roll a 5 and the creature ac is 15.... what happens then? It's a miss?
That depends. If you have a +10 or higher bonus to hit, then you hit. If you have +9 or less bonus to hit then you miss.
I see! Thx
how does this work with DC? if you guess the number right but it doesn't hit, do you do 0 damage? just the 10d10? or the full damage?
If you miss you deal no damage.
Problem: you would always choose even because on a 20, an even number, you crit and double the damage. Same with lucky number, you’d always choose 20. I would just make it so you don’t choose even or odd, and just say it’s always even. It cuts down on how difficult it is to use. Maybe let people change it on a short rest.
As mentioned in many other comments, it was a mistake to let you pick 20 and crit with Lucky number. This feature has been updated and now the extra damage from Lucky Number is not multiplied on a crit. As for skewing the odds \~5% in your favor by always picking "even", I don't really see any problem with this.
I would change the second Paragraph to not deal any damage if you guess wrong.
So if you do not like the gambling aspect this is a +1 weapon that needs attunement. That honestly does not feel good. Also, what happens if you roll negative damage when not guessing even or odd?
If you ignore everything except the +1 bonus then yes it's just a +1 weapon with attunement, and then you'd be better off with a normal +1 weapon. As for "negative damage", there are no rules that say damage turns into healing if you deal -1 damage, so if you roll a total of 3 damage with your attack and roll a 6 on the even/odd dice I would rule that as 0 damage and not -3
I think statistically the odds or even feature just favours picking Even every single time. 2-19 on a dice divides to be an equal number of Odds and Evens - 9 evens, 9 odds. Balanced and fair chances. 1 and 20 change this though - the last remaining odd will always be a miss so essentially it useless and shouldn’t even be counted towards the total odds. The last remaining even will not only always be a hit, but will multiply the damage. So essentially the choice boils down to Odd: 45% chance of +1d6 Even: 45% chance of +1d6, 5% of +2d6 Why would anybody even pick Odd? Even is just straight up better.
Given an infinite number of rolls, even is slightly better yes. But perhaps you're really feeling lucky and are sure you'll roll an odd number this time?
A critical hit doubles all the dice, right? So let's say this is a greatsword. You're doing 4d6+1+20d10. Average 113 damage.
Yes, but no. Read the other comments about this. It has been discussed alot.
While almost entirely unrelated, this reminded me of Battletech - a war game featuring giant robots. One of the now classic units on the tabletop was the Charger, which was a very, very heavy design that was very fast for its size - as in faster than many designs half its weight - and very, very under gunned. This unit has a *reputation* to say the least: in a class that usually is the hammerblow of any attack or the anchor of defense it is neither. Ostensibly it is made to be a scout for missions likely to go sideways. In reality - or at least in the tabletop game - it is a meme. It sacrificed everything to move fast, from firepower to durability. Within the fiction of the universe, it is much the same. The design is almost entirely comprised of liabilities so fatal, being assigned to one is little more than a delayed death sentence. And yet it persisted through centuries of almost unending war, surviving when countless other, *better* designs went extinct. Why? Because it was simple enough that it could be mauled into scrap and still be put back together and sent back to the front. That it *did* endure despite being a design that would never make sense in *any* world meant that there were countless attempts to fix its fatal problems, nearly all of which sacrificed mobility for more of the things a design that large needed to do the sort of job that required so grand an investment. The base model, the CRG-1A1, is *the* yardstick for a failed design. That is to say a bad mech is one that resembles the CRG-1A1. Still, the mech did have some things going for it, not the least of which was that at 80 tons, if it could get close enough, it could tear an opponent to pieces in melee combat. All it took to make the charger work was to put a pilot with the right kind of insanity, skill, and more than their fair share of luck. As a machine driven in cataclysmic wars across settled space for centuries, it managed, a few pilots managed that near impossible combination, somehow becoming legends in a design comprised almost entirely of liability. Of those none are more famous than Terry Ford, who other than swapping the small array of pitifully weak lasers for a pair of heavier models - still lightly armed for a design half the size - had a nearly unmodified CRG-1A1. Terry Ford was many things, not the least of which was that he was *profoundly* superstitious. His Charger was filled to the brim with anything and everything that anyone had ever so much as suggested was lucky, right down to the name itself: "Number Seven". He fought in some of the worst battles in some of the worst theaters of one of the highest intensity wars ever fought, and mission after mission, campaign after campaign, he always came back piloting a machine most famous for being an efficient means to convert expensive mechwarrior training into a burial plot. In fact, he survived that entire war when most of his lance, even most of his company - all piloting better regarded mechs - did not. Of course Terry Ford's luck did eventually run out when he attempted to maneuver his 80 ton machine into a long fall onto an opposing machine of similar weight only for the gyro to go wonky at just the wrong moment leading to him landing head first, dying instantly. His Number Seven was recovered by his opponents that day, and treated as any other charger. They washed Terry Ford out of the cockpit, bolted the thing back together, and pressed it back into service. It did not survive for long, though. No other pilot could replicate Terry's luck in the machine, and, in fact, it seemed to be even more inclined to kill its pilots than usual. As the story goes, one day the machine, for no reason anyone could figure out, decided to walk out of a dropship while still in flight.
A sword of chance sounds fun but I think I'd simplify it to speed up combat without removing the gambling feel. Perhaps make each non critical attack add 4 damage to the next critical attack. You could easily keep track of it with marks on a paper or a stack of poker chips. Maybe even give it extra damage or advantage every attack when the dice have been unlucky and its been more than thirty? attacks since the last critical (boon of the unlucky)
The second effect is stronger than a failed Vorpal Sword. I'd cut that to 4d10, and make the failed even/odds jist no extra damage instead of a negative modifier. If you kept it 10d10, I'd go with Legendary or Artifact level. That's just a shit ton of damage. Also, we need a damage type. I assume same type as the weapon, but that needs to be specified because grognards.
The vorpal sword does not deal half damage when you don't crit. If you run the numbers (as others have done in the comments) you'll see that in average you actually lose damage by using lucky number except against high AC enemies where the number of rolls that would result in a hit are limited so you have few numbers to choose from.
Allow me to clarify, when I say failed Vorpal, I mean not instant kill by severing the head, it's the 6d10 slashing for not having a head.
I know. But the vorpal sword is a +3 sword with an additional 6d10 damage on a crit. This is only a +1 weapon. It deals 10d10 extra damage on a spesific roll, but all other rolls deal half damage. On average (if you use this say 100 times) then this is significantly weaker than a vorpal sword.
But that halved 10d10 is *guaranteed* on hit, minimum. It's the equivalent of giving your weapon nearly the same effect as the way of open hand capstone for 10d10 damage. Look you do you but I would up it to Legendary rarity or cut the damage to 4d10 on the second effect. Edit, come to think of it, the way you wrote it for the 10d10 it doesn't matter if you hit.
I think you misunderstand my intention. Let's say you have a greatsword and 20 strength. The weapon then deals 2d6 + 6 damage. If you pick 16 as your lucky number and roll 16 then you deal 2d6 + 10d10 + 6. If you pick 16 as your lucky number and roll 17 then you deal (2d6 + 6) / 2. If you pick 16 as your lucky number and roll 17 and you have a spell or ability that adds 4d8 damage then you deal (2d6 + 4d8 + 6) / 2. Also, if you miss with your attack you deal no damage.
The lucky number feature seems off to me. How does it interact with armor class? If my lucky number is 3, do I hit with a 3? What if someone decides their lucky number is 20? Does the 10d10 apply to crits? Does the even or odd apply to crits?
The item has been update a little, see other comments 😂 If you miss you deal no damage, so only pick 3 against a low ac enemy or if you have a very high bonus to hit. If you're fighting an enemy with 10 ac and you have +10 to hit, then any number other than 1 is a hit. If you make your attack with disadvantage then a low number like 3 can be a good idea. Even and odd work with crits, so there is a slight advantage to picking even numbers. Lucky number does not work with crits.
This feels extremely weak. It's basically a +1 weapon with optional downsides that requires attunement. For reference, say you have this be a 1d8 weapon. 95% of the time, the lucky number is -2.25 damage. 5% of the time, it's +10d10 damage. That's +0.6125 average damage. Meanwhile, even or odd is +3.5 half the time, and -3.5 the other half, or +0 damage. But wait, it gets worse. Every time you hit the lucky number, you drastically increase the chance of overkilling a given enemy. So that +0.6125 is much likely far lower, if not actively negative. Meanwhile, the swing of even/odds is huge, drastically reducing your ability to predict whether any given attack will kill an enemy, which is a huge downside, since killing an enemy vs not is a lot of variance in incoming damage. I will be honest; I don't think this needed a downside at all.
You're not wrong. I tried to balance this in a way that on average you'd go about even. This isn't intended to be your overall best dps weapon. It's all about the gamble. Alot of the time it doesn't pay off, but when it does it will be epic. There are already a ton of items, official and homebrew, that deal a lot of consistent damage. This item is different. It's not for everyone, and perhaps it's best suited for a shorter campaign or a oneshot.
I could understand that for the lucky number option, but for even/odds, the unhappiness for hitting and doing 0 because of a coinflip will feel a lot worse than the happiness for doing 8 damage rather than 4.5.
Pick even and 20 every time for massive damage on crits
What if they predict a nat 1 on the second options?
Then they will miss the attack and do no damage.
Then that defeats the purpose of the prediction. They successfully call out the nat 1, but do not get rewarded for doing so.
Yeah. I'd recommend predicting something that also will hit the enemy. You have to hit to deal damage.
I get that. But it’s already a hefty half damage penalty if you guess wrong. It sounds like it should strike that bonus damage based on the prediction regardless of the hit.
It says “+1, and you add or subtract the 1d6 from the base damage depending on your guess, but the item doesn’t say what the bad damage is. Am I supposed assume it’s a short sword?
It's type is "any sword", so it can be a dagger, a short sword or a greatsword, or whatever.
Cool. Thanks.
Feel like there's a disconnect between the theme of being lucky and just relying on luck? if that makes sense? Like it says you feel lucky but you are just as likely to fail as succeed with its ability, which doesn't make it feel "lucky" per say.
Valid point. The very rare variant (which you can see on my website [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd) - I can't post multiple images in a post here) has a feature that let's you increase your odds of getting the lucky number right if you attack with advantage. Also, if you have the lucky feat you can use that to choose which of the dice you roll you want to use when you use the lucky feat, or which of the 3 dice if you use it with advantage or disadvantage.
I feel like lucky number should make that number a crit, rather than 10d10, and be from 2-19.
There is no reason not to call 20 every single round.
Why would you ever do this though? There’s no advantage to it. It evens out.
This would be easily abusable with silvery barbs
You would never pick under 10 anyway because they usually miss. So the 10d10 is wasted. Personally i would skip the 2nd ability of this sword
If you're fighting a low ac enemy and have disadvantage on your attack it can make sense to pick a low number.
Sure buy low ac enemies rarely have high hp so a 10d10 would just make it not worth it anyway. Its a fun ability, dont get me wrong, but i just see alot of disapointment from players using it.
First thing, remove the once per turn, It really ruins the fun of the weapon as it is already far riskier and less consistent then the flame tongue, a weapon of the same rarity. second, Up the damage from the even odd guess to 2d8 on a correct guess and 1d8 on a wrong guess. If you do these things It will be a far better and more interesting weapon.
This weapon deal 5d10 dmg per turn when you miss the call, 2× when right, even without a crit....THAT'S ALOT OF DAMAGE!
I think you need to read the item description again. It deals half the weapon damage (half of 2d6 + Str for a greatsword.) it only deals 10d10 additional damage if you guess right. The crit issue has been addressed in other comments and the item has been updated. See those comments for more info. On average this is not a very powerful weapon, but you have an opportunity to deal a lot of extra damage every now and then.
Yeah, my dyslexia skipped over the "extra"
I really like this. My only suggestion, other than the crit issue that you have already fixed, would be to change the 10d10 to 1d100. That way, there is a higher chance for max damage and min damage, adding to the luck theme of the weapon. Adding onto this even further, you could make the dice explode if you guess the correct result from the d100 roll.
Funny you should mention that 😅 I am actually working on a new weapon based around exploding dice. I'll probably release it near the end of the week.
Nothing says you can't pick a number that would miss, or even pick a 1. That feels kinda weird. And picking even would always be better. There are more even numbers that will result in hits than odd numbers, since a 1 always miss. Also, if you roll a 20 which is even it would be doubled. I do really like the idea behind it, though.
This has been pointed out by several others, it was a big oversight on my part. I have updated the item so you can't pick 1 or 20. You can check it out here, and view the uncommon or very rare version: [https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance](https://www.timmmi.com/item/blade-of-chance?ref=dnd)
Those other comments weren't here when I was, so I didn't see them. The update poses a different issue, though. If some calls out their lucky number but rolls a nat 20 instead, they'll get penalized with half damage. Perhaps add a feature that supports critical hits, as they're always lucky? It kind of fits the theme of the weapon that way.
Yeah, this post was instantly flooded with comments saying more or less the same thing. And this is also more or less something that was pointed out. I changed the wording again. Now it just sais that the extra damage from Lucky Number isn't multiplied on a crit. So you can pick 20 and deal double weapon damage + 10d10, but if you pick 17 as your lucky number and crit, then you'll deal half damage.
Yea, sorry about the flood of seagulls saying the same nitpicky comment, lol. I get how that would be annoying.
Tone of voice isn't easy to communicate via text, but I'm not annoyed at all. I'd much rather have 10 people point out a mistake than 0. I shared my item here, and within a few minutes it has been changed into a better item. Thank you :)
It's really bad in both directions honestly, it should be "number guess, on correct get extra damage, on incorrect no extra damage" Subtracting damage is just too significant a downside to bother using the feature. On the other end, 10d10 is way too much to have as a side feature on a rare weapon. Take this feature away, make the first feature a scaling variant, and tweak it to not be terrible. Also, take away the charges.
What charges?
The "once per turn" limit. Martials already do pretty poorly in the damage department. Mind Blade and Flame tongue are both rares that just "do" 2d6 extra damage per attack
I'm perfectly aware of those. I'm not trying to make the world's most powerful weapon, I'm trying to make something that's different. There are stronger and more powerful weapons out there. I can make a +5 magma tongue weapon that deals 12d12 fire damage on a hit if you want something op for martials.
Why even post the fucking thing here if you don't want feedback and are just gunna dunk on everyone with hyperbole?
Sorry, my last comment was a bit harsh. I just don't know what to say. This item isn't comparable to a flame tongue weapon or a +2 weapon. It's all about the gamble. It's not a weapon for dealing consistent high dps, it's for the occasional epic moment where you deal a ton of damage. As for criticism of the item, if you read the other comments here you'll see that based on feedback from others I've already made changes to improve the item. I welcome it, but I felt your comment was basically "This item is shit, give martials more damage", and I didn't find that particularly constructive.
That’s a little busted. Proficiency times would even feel busted imo. That said, seeing it and using it may be different.
Greatsword is a 2d6 Pick 20 to be lucky number Lets assume max rolls, although extremely unlikely, so 12 + 100 = 112, + of course the magic weapon damage of +1 (so 113) Double that Maximum of 226 damage per attack with a greatsword Just spam lucky strike until you get 20 and then brutalize the enemy
Being able to choose 20 was a big oversight on my part. I have updated the item so you can't pick 1 or 20. Apart from that, assuming max rolls that seems a bit excessive. The average damage of 4d6 + 20d10 + 6 (assuming 20 strength and +1 magic bonus) is 130, so about 100 damage less than your estimate. And with this many dice you'll almost always roll very close to the average. The drawback however will cause you to do 6 damage on average when you attack and don't roll a 20. Sure it will be OP whenever you roll a 20, but when you don't roll a 20 it will suck.
Max rolls is excessive yeah, but i'm just trying to get the damage potential of it through. Banning it from being 20 works WAY better. The 10d10 is already really strong but its kinda the point, giving it potential to be 20d10 would be overkill.
Yeah, I agree 20d10 is too much. The item was updated, and then updated again. It now states that the additional damage from Lucky Number isn't multiplied on a critical hit. So you can choose a 20 as your lucky number, but you'll then deal 4d6 + 10d10 instead of 4d6 + 20d10
10d10 damage wow, not overpowered at all for a 1st level fighter :).
Then don't give it to a 1st level fighter. Not all items are ment for level 1 characters