Helmets, crowns, tiaras, masks, and the odd set of glasses… we may not have a lot of items for the head slot, but there’s quite a bit of variety in how they are implemented.
Helm of Fortification - Level 1+ Common Head
Lvl 1 (Heroic); Lvl 11 (Paragon); Lvl 21 (Epic)
Property: When an enemy scores a critical hit against you, roll a d20. On a roll of 16 or more, the attack becomes a normal hit.
Level 11: On a roll of 11 or more.
Level 21: You treat all critical hits against you as normal hits.
Helm of Tactics - Level 3+ Common Head
Lvl 3 (Heroic); Lvl 13 (Paragon); Lvl 23 (Epic)
Property: You can use a +4 modifier instead of your dexterity modifier for initiative rolls.
Level 13: +7 modifier.
Level 23: +10 modifier.
Tiara of Unshakeable Loyalties - Level 5+ Common Head
Lvl 5 (Heroic); Lvl 15 (Paragon); Lvl 25 (Epic)
Property: You gain a -2 penalty to attack rolls against your allies.
Level 15: -4 penalty.
Level 25: -5 penalty, and you can't score critical hits against your allies.
Horned Helm - Level 7+ Common Head
Lvl 7 (Heroic); Lvl 17 (Paragon); Lvl 27 (Epic)
Property: The first time you hit with a charge attack in an encounter, you deal an extra d6 damage.
Level 17: 2d6 damage.
Level 27: 3d6 damage.
Helm of Warning - Level 2+ Uncommon Head
Lvl 2 (Heroic); Lvl 12 (Paragon); Lvl 22 (Epic)
Power(Encounter). No action. Trigger: You roll initiative. Target: An ally you can see. Effect: The target can reroll the initiative roll.
Level 12: Targets you and an ally you can see.
Level 22: Targets you and any number of allies you can see.
Goggles of Vision - Level 4+ Uncommon Head
Lvl 4 (Heroic); Lvl 14 (Paragon); Lvl 24 (Epic)
Property: The blinded condition does not cause you to grant combat advantage, and you do not grant combat advantage to invisible enemies.
Power(Daily). Minor Action. Until the end of turn, you treat enemies with total concealment as though they had partial concealment, and ignore partial concealment on other enemies.
Level 14: You can use the power as an encounter power.
Level 24: Until the end of your next turn, you ignore partial concealment and total concealment.
Helm of Mental Resolve - Level 6+ Uncommon Head
Lvl 6 (Heroic); Lvl 16 (Paragon); Lvl 26 (Epic)
Property: The dazed condition does not cause you to grant combat advantage, and you gain a +2 item bonus to saving throws against effects that cause that condition.
Level 16: Dazed or stunned conditions.
Level 26: Dazed, stunned or dominated conditions.
Crown of Victory- Level 8+ Uncommon Head
Lvl 8 (Heroic); Lvl 18 (Paragon); Lvl 28 (Epic)
Property: You can use a +4 bonus instead of your Charisma modifier when making Diplomacy checks.
Level 18: +7 bonus.
Level 28: +10 bonus.
Power(Daily). Minor Action. Until the end of the encounter, you and any allies that can see you gain a +1 power bonus to damage rolls and saving throws.
Level 18: +2 power bonus.
Level 28: +3 power bonus.
Glasses of True sight - Level 2+ Rare Head
Lvl 2 (Heroic); Lvl 12 (Paragon); Lvl 22 (Epic)
Property: You can use a +4 bonus instead of your Wisdom modifier when making Perceptionchecks.
Level 12: +7 bonus.
Level 22: +10 bonus.
Property: You gain resist 5 against psychic damage, and treat enemies with total concealment as though they had partial concealment.
Level 12: Resist 10 psychic. You treat enemies with total concealment as though they had partial concealment, and ignore partial concealment on other enemies.
Level 22: Resist 15 psychic, ignore partial and total concealment.
Power(Encounter). Minor Action. Until the end of turn, you can see all creatures within 6 squares regardless of cover, concealment, hiding, or blocking terrain.
Level 12: 12 squares.
Level 22: Until the end of your next turn.
Mask of Terror - Level 7+ Rare Head
Lvl 7 (Heroic); Lvl 17 (Paragon); Lvl 27 (Epic)
Property: You can use a +4 bonus instead of your charisma modifier when making Intimidate checks.
Level 17: +7 bonus.
Level 27: +10 bonus.
Property: Enemies you hit take a -2 penalty to damage rolls until the end of your next turn. This is a fear effect.
Level 17: –4 penalty.
Level 27: –6 penalty.
Power(Encounter, fear) Close Blast 3. Target: Enemies in Blast. Attack: Primary ability +4 vs Will. Hit: You push the target 2 squares, and it grants combat advantage until the end of your next turn.
Level 17: Primary ability + 7 vs Will, push 4.
Level 27: Blast 5, primary ability + 9.
As usual, any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Posts
Excellent. I appreciate the nerf to Horned Helm, though that'd surely cause a lot of folks to cry.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure the Glasses of True Sight feel like all that huge an upgrade over the Glasses of Vision--the psychic resistance is nice, but it feels tacked-on. Does the current wording even let you see invisible creatures and objects the way by-the-glossary truesight does?
Maybe instead of/in addition to the psychic resistance, they could help you defeat Illusion effects somehow.
ReplyDeleteThe intent is that you can see invisible creatures. From the glossary, invisibility grants you total concealment, so unless I'm mistaken, it should work as written.
ReplyDeleteThese glasses are probably the least impressive of the rares I've designed (though, admittedly, they are also among the lowest level ones), and they overlap with the uncommon glasses a bit too much. That said, I find their encounter power (and particularly the part where it lets you see through walls) to be pretty cool, unique, and rare-worthy.
Adding some kind of additional illusion resistance would be flavorful, but not particularly useful (since illusion attacks are much less common than psychic ones). It's something I considered, but the item is already complex enough, even for a rare. I don't want to add more abilities to it, and illusion resistance (or even immunity!) is too niche to replace any of the existing ones.
Glasses of True sight: did you mean level 22, or is 25 intentional?
ReplyDeleteHelm of Tactics (and Elven Cloak, and Giant something belt): In heroic you are equal to or a bit weaker than an optimised charater. In epic you are clearly stronger than that. +10 is equal to starting with 20 in Dex pumping it every time, and going Demigod. Only a heavy optimiser can reach it at level 28.
I would go with 6/8/10 if you want the item to be consistently stronger than talent, or 4/6/8 if you want it balanced. I prefer the second.
The level 25 in Glasses of True Sight was a typo, it's fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the scaling of ability replacement items (like Helm of Tactics)... I like the current numbers, even if their relative value shows slight variance across tiers. I don't think a couple of points between heroic and epic are such a big deal when dealing with initiative or skills (compared to, say, attacks or defenses, which these items never affect). They are intended to be on the strong side, but within reachable values (even if the +10 at epic is pushing it a bit).
I guess the progressions that better represent the intended power level would have been either 5/7/9 or 5/7/10. However, I wanted item upgrades to be relevant, and starting off with a +5 bonus would mean that the hange from heroic to paragon wouldn't be particularly exciting. So shaving a point off the heroic version, and having a 3 point jump at each tier resulted in the most satisfying experience when upgrading gear.
Anyway, that's the thought process behind those numbers.
"Until the end of turn, you ignore partial concealment and treat total concealment as partial concealment."
ReplyDeleteSo I treat total concealment as partial concealment? And I ignore partial concealment, ergo I can ignore total concealment as well? Fantastic!
Oh, whoops. I had my Glasses of the Slippery Ruleslawyer still on.
What I liked about most of your items, that they are quite balanced in all the tiers. So the Helm of Tactics stood out, but your reasoning makes sense
ReplyDeleteGood point, Human. I was hopeful that the intent would be clear, but it is true that my initial wording for the glasses' abilities was far from lawyer-proof. I have rewritten it so as not to be as ambiguous:
ReplyDelete"You treat enemies with total concealment as though they had partial concealment, and ignore partial concealment on other enemies."
Typo in Crown of Victory. Both paragon and epic say +2 power bonus.
ReplyDeleteThanks, got it.
ReplyDelete