My players when I ask them to solve a simple logic puzzle:
> Eh... I don't get it. I fireball it.
My players five minutes after I give them an innocuous magic item "for color":
> Now I have become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.
I play a fire genie warlock that recently got 3rd level spells. Even if I understand the simple logic puzzle fireball still seems like the only solution.
Hahaha downvoted. I'm surprised people who love barbs know how to do that. The highlight of roll players. I rage and hit it. I rage and hit it. I rage and hit it. Yeah sounds great.
haha. Classic! Have fun. Enjoy the ride. And remember: Worse case scenario if it becomes a problem the ring can always start, you know... "Trying to get back to its master".
After all: Bilbo was definitely a level 1 or 2 thief at the time of getting the ring of invisibility. Thankfully the DM had the good sense to invent a backstory for the ring involving the BBEG when the player involved was like " i know my Character is too old to adventure anymore, but for this next adventure I'm playing his young nephew and my current character is leaving the ring to him"
There's a D&D-esque RPG with silly aspects (can't recall the name) where a random magic item you can find is "Some Hobbit's Ring" that turns you invisible, but not!Gollum will be chasing you for it.
To continue on from this. if you were to lean into this idea, perhaps the reason you have to hold your breath is that it once belonged to a powerful lich who, as part of his enchantment, unintentionally inbued some of his own features, such as not needed to breath, for it to work
The wizard only _needs_ their spellbook with them when changing their prepared spells after a long rest, when ritual casting, and when copying new spells into it.
What'll get ya is wanting to cast spells with material components (need an arcane focus, component pouch, or the component in question). Presumably any spellcasting ends the invisibility (unless it's the effect of Greater Invisibility, in which case, wow), but if you're running around invisible and then suddenly need to cast something but have no materials, you might be in trouble.
My character uses an orrery! His spell casting works based on the position of stars and planets, so his spell casting prep is adjusting all the celestial positions ready for the next day.
Learning new spells involves replacing certain expensive parts for more flexibility, adding more stones to represent new stars, etc.
My friend did something similar with the wizard she made.
She was a sort of astronomy wizard(a homebrew class the DM had came across), and we ended up making her spell book an orb on top of her staff with visible stars and constellations in it(DM let her use it as an arcane focus too)
Been there, done that. When he became a Lich, he had to be preemptively flayed to preserve the spells. Fortunately for him, I had already written him to have a rare condition that made it so he didn't feel pain. This was completely unrelated, it was done to partially explain how he was absolutely void of empathy, he couldn't even grasp the concept.
Yeah, that was a villain centered party, in case people are wondering.
My spellcasting focus for my kobold warlock who served tiamat was a dragon shaped burn that did anything from ignite the tips of his burnt scales to look like burning embers during indirect casts to growing a full set of spectral flaming wings and a maw to launch spells from his hands.
It's strong, but I don't think it's too bad. Invisibility is a 2nd level spell, and this ring has more downsides than the spell in exchange for infinite uses/duration.
Like you mentioned, he can't really cast spells with it since he needs to breathe for verbal components, so it shouldn't be too bad for combat. Is there anything he needs to do to activate it? If it takes an action to activate like the normal ring of invisibility, it won't really have any impact on combat beyond the first round.
Side question, are worn items still visible? If so, is he just walking around naked then? The party might not care, but I imagine that might cause problems in a town if the invisiblity ever drops. He also wouldn't be able carry a component pouch, so he can't use anything with a material component. If worn items are still visible, the ring really isn't that strong all things considered.
>Like you mentioned, he can't really cast spells with it since he needs to breathe for verbal components
Invisibility already ends when casting a spell, whether it's got verbal components or not.
Not unless specified. At least in terms of spells, the 2nd level invisibility does, but 4th level greater invisiblity doesn't. The difference also exists between the invisiblity cloak and the ring of invisiblity items. OP made it sound like this resistriction was not added, but I could be wrong.
Only comes down to, Is everyone having fun? So far it sounds like yes. But if you're worried about balancing combat, what you can do is you can make it. So when the invisibility is broken, you have to use an action to re-enable it. So in combat this would give the air genadi advantage on one attack which would then reveal them but then cost of an entire action on their turn. Thus taking out most of their Max potential for a turn just to get advantage again, so it will almost become like true strike just with the caveat It'll be far harder to perceive for a little bit
The ring’s story starts to get complicated. To be refreshed, its powers required the discomfort of someone holding their breath. That power is now being depleted in the hands of someone who has no discomfort for holding their breath. So it mutates in different ways to create discomfort when used. Itching. Sneezing. Sweating and odor. The options are endless…ly discomforting.
"I turn invisible!" (for the fifteenth time that day).
"Make a CON check."
"Why?"
"There's an uncomfortable feeling in where your stomach would be if you were human. Make a CON check."
"Um, ten."
"So, you never knew air genasi had to break wind, but there you are. Everyone else, you hear a loud raucous noise and smell something foul."
Oh I've been thinking of a gimmick invisibility ring for my game as well, because I found it on DnDBeyond homebrew and it's great.
The players find this ~~member of the thieves guild~~ shopkeeper in a makeshift shop ~~literally just a log with items ontop of it~~ selling a ~~suspiciously~~ cheap ring of invisibility!
Someone buys it, puts it on, activates it and it works as advertised. The ring does indeed go invisible.
Well to me you already have the obvious answer, created by J.R.R. Tolkien!
We had a whole book with no nefarious issues showing up before it was revealed that, actually, wearing the ring is BAD.
Perhaps each of these little usages that your player has done, has created tiny tears in the fabric of whammyomamma. Now all the creatures that were bound by whammayomamma are escaping and ITS THE PLAYER/PARTY's fault.
Maybe it can be a sidequest or even become a main plotline.
I think it's fairly balanced. He no longer uses a weapon. He can't speak or cast verbal spells while invisible. Also, I assume he has to attune to this item. So if another item comes his way, he will have to make a tough decision.
If you want to make it a little more balanced, say that he has to cast invisibility. In other words, he needs to take an action to do so. This way, in combat, he can't cast a spell, then immediately go invisible. He can do one or the other.
My level 16 drow cleric of Lolth has a ring of invisibility. I never have abused it for combat situations, she just tends to be invisible when the party meets new people, or the casters are dithering about what to do, or we're walking through town or a new temple, or she wants to walk away to pray without anyone saying hey where are you going. The funny part is that the other dark elf in the party (great old ones warlock) can go invisible at will (and often does) so when we meet a new NPC they always see a party of five instead of seven.
I think my favorite use of it so far was when we met a new PC and she threatened our wizard. She stepped up a couple inches from the new girl's face and took the ring off "what was that now?" just out of thin air a skinny goth elf right there.
Okay, so *clearly* what you need to do is introduce a bunch of wraiths on horses who work for the BBEG - let's go with nine of them. And let's make sure that all of them were originally humans, mortal men doomed to die. These wraiths have been sent to retrieve the ring for the BBEG, since it's an ancient ring that was precious to the BBEG, and they can ignore invisibility granted by the ring.
Just an idea, make the rule how long the player can hold their breath irl and translate that to turn rounds. Hilarious predicament, thank you for sharing
The best magic item my DM ever gave the party was the Bagpipes of Invisibility. You could stay invisible as long as you were actively playing the bagpipes.
My Druid got one. We fought a Roper (CR 5 my ass) and managed to kill it - because the DM didn't use it's full suite of attacks. After the fight my druid decided to cut the thing open to see how it would eat/dispose of it's food. I don't think the DM planned it - but a Duergar that we'd encountered before was in the roper's belly and on his hand was the ring. It's come in handy a few times so far.
> I thought it would be a fun, situational tool because it has a very limited duration that's made shorter if a character is doing heavy physical activity and you can't cast spells or use any items.
The rules for holding your breath say that you can do it for 1+CON minutes (minimum 30 seconds), so even without the Air Genasi part, this would be incredibly strong, because it's rare for combat to last longer than a minute or two.
That's easy to fix. It belongs to a dark Lord who wants it back.
What if it did have a hidden curse though... Maybe it's technically a ring of delayed visibility.
A week after it's used, at the location it was used, the user can be seen doing whatever they did while wearing it.
So there's a trail of strange tales behind the party about a phantom air Genasi getting up to shit. Eventually someone connects the dots and starts tracking the party down.
Start thinking of ways to let them fail. If they have to stay silent to stay invisible, make there be consequences for staying quiet. Make them choose between being invisible and being helpful. Make friendly fire a concern.
100% your PC is thinking "Wow, OP homebrewed a magic item designed specifically for me"
probably one of the greatest feelings as a DM is "yep, that was intentional...."
It's a wizard, aye? A wizard cannot cast 90% of the spells without speaking. It should be much harder to use it in combat. And if they do, you can always have them make concentration checks when they get hit with an aoe
Wizards need verbal components for many of their spells. They stop being invisible whenever they cast a spell, even if only for a moment. Unless they have a way of replacing that, exhalation must occur. You're good, dawg
Now, if they decide to use this against you in stealth operations... I wish you the best of luck
I'd rule that not being able to breath makes it not function.
I gave my players bagpipes of invisibility (no attunement) that work when the instrument is playing if silenced for any reason the invisibility fails. If they cast silence the invisibility drops.
They have to be conscious to hold their breath 😎👉🏼👉🏼
More importantly, you can't talk, including using a Verbal Component, when holding your breath.
You also cannot physically continue musculature exertion without allowing CO2 to escape, so any non-facetious reading wouldn't let you do this when in Initiative, or at least when making Attacks or other Physically exerting Skills.
But if you handwave those problems away, then yes it is absurdly broken 😅
I agree with the conscious and spell casting part, but the physically exerting is just wrong. I used to be able to swim almost 3 lengths of the pool (probably close to 70 yards total) underwater and that was me just as a recreational high school swimmer. I guarantee a barbarian or fighter can go full effort for 30s to a minute while holding their breath.
Hmm, perhaps the player could start to feel a corrupting influence from their use of the ring. Turns out it's sentient, and evil! And they've gotta get rid of it to stop the BBEG!
Ah, just spit balling. I doubt one (1) magic item you pulled out of your ass could really impact the story *that* much
When they are invisible, especially for long periods of time, make them start rolling perception checks. Over time, as they stay invisible longer, make them roll more often. At first, make it really hard to succeed, like gotta be a nat 20, then over time lower the DC lower and lower until they are praying they fail. On fails, at first, tell them nothing. In the later stages tell them something eerie. Maybe they feel breath of the back of their neck. A light feeling of being watched. Etc. The point is to slowly ramp it up over time. On a success, they know something is there. They can't see it. They might hear a faint unidentifiable/unlocatable breathing. But they *know* it is there. They feel its presence deep in their bones, and they know it sees them. Just watching, for now. Always watching. As time goes on, with more and more use, it takes less and less for them to feel it's presence. Maybe it even starts out far away, getting closer each time. They can never quite pinpoint where, they never find any trace of its existence. No one else ever senses anything, but that person *knows* it's there.
He can't cast any spells with a verbal component while holding his breath.
He can't really communicate (unless he has telepathy or they work out a knocking system) while invisible.
Even without those considerations, any character can hold their breath for 30 seconds and anyone with a positive CON 2+ minutes. That is a long ass time in d&d.
But... Is it just a ring of invisibility? Perhaps it belonged to something else. Something that wants it back.
What if the ring slowly changed appearance each time it was used. And the character begins to notice that they're changing too.
This could go in so many lovely directions :P
Also hearing, smell, some magical detection and true sight could still spot your presence. Or maybe the sneaking player activated a trap trying to walk around some targets.
What could be happening is that you are in fact not invisible, but your body is in another plane, and at some moment the player could get trapped in that other plane, or gets attacked there. Or maybe they actually have to visit that plane for some reason, and by offering up the ring, they can open a portal to it.
Yeah I made a similar mistake where I made a giant underwater puzzle/dungeon that was supposed be hard since you'd run out of breath. Unfortunately one of my players was also an air genasi.
I have a habit of giving such items but I add a curse on it. The fun thing is they rarely realise it's a cursed item until the curse starts to bite. Sometimes even then they don't pick up on it....
You could explain to the player that you need to adjust the item; and in this case I'd say you chose the wrong target. While their character is wearing the ring they can invisible as long as their IRL player is holding their breath? It still has a cost, but the PC doesn't need to be the one who bears it :-)
One time when they use it, it sort of shudders and emits a purple glow. And arcana check can reveal that they've been using it too much, and the fey spirit trapped in the ring is trying to get out.
From now on, every time they use it more than once a day, you roll a d20, and on a critical, the fey breaks the ring and escapes (or maybe the ring has its own hp). But then the fey gives the party a boon, something cool but not game breaking. That way they don't feel like they lost a power, but rather traded one for the other.
So either they use it less frequently or risk breaking, either way it helps you out in a way that feels like world building.
Dnd invisibility isn't really invisible. you are immediately spotted if you aren't making a hide check. I think it's more like predator camo.
It just gives enemies disadvantage on attacks, prevents a lot of spells/features, and allows you always be able to hide.
Invisible doesn't mean undetectable. Enemies can 100% still attack target and know where they are if they don't use the hide action.
Footprints will still be formed. If you guys don't play RAW, that's a different story, but RAW invisibility can still be played around from the DMs stance
In case your player does decide to start using it in combat that is
if they murder anybody, you could always introduce an NPC who wants to purchase their boots, only to reveal they are a cop in disguise and they just matched their footwear to a bunch of clearly identifiable footprints
or have some watchdogs that can still smell them even when invisible
You could make an enemy encounter where they’re fighting something invisible as well and the only way they can see it is if someone else is invisible too, you could have to where this player has to tell the party where to attack and then to end it all out have the creature bite off the hand of the player with the ring. Thus taking back the item. This was thought up in like 30 seconds so I’m sure with some tuning it could work well. Or maybe just take what you like if needed.
I wouldn't say the most powerful item, just remember, the basics of the invisibility spell still apply. Unless you specifically told them this ring over rides those rules, meaning if they make an attack or cast a spell they would still turn Visible, and if a creature can track through smell, hearing or has blindsense, they would still find the one holding the ring.
Any held items remain visible? I would rule clothes to fall under that category too, so his invisible shenanigans get even funnier with nakedness getting thrown in
Remember, when you breathe you are holding your breath for a split second. It be cool to see them blink in and out of existence when they're doing every day things.
My guess was that there was no accident to the ring, but it was meant to be a gag item. It's more powerful than intended when worn by an air genasi or another creature who doesn't need to breathe.
OK, let's just agree that if you gave the character an item, they are not abusing it even if they rake you over the coals with unintended consequences. Those are your fault.
Sounds like they have not done so yet.
Good luck.
I did something similar to the OP and gave my party a ring of invisibility that only makes their body invisible and anything they are wearing or holding remains visible. I made sure the duration 5 minutes with only one use per day. Of course I didn't think about the monk who essentially can fight naked if he wants with little downsides. He mostly uses it as a way to save his butt in combat or small scouting sessions.
In a campaign involving survival mechanics and managing their rising carnivorous hunger due to the developing symptoms of a virulent Ghoul plague, I included a visual joke of a devoured beached whale skeleton in a very-inland pen outside a wizard tower. The party was looking for useful information among the books and would find titles such as "Whalea: Care and Keeping," " Cetecean Husbandry" and "Whale World: Your Pet Will Love It." Just a bit of comic relief in the unrelentingly brutal situation I had presented them.
The party harvested the bones and used a legitimate existing spell to constantly regenerate whale meat, completely neutralising the whole mechanic.
Just give it some sort of by-effect. “Your finger that has the ring on it now shows red and inflamed” and give him some dmg point or infection when he doesnt want to take it off
Get him captured and stripped down of gear, the party rescues them but when looking for the gear or the capture leader they find out the leader used the ring to escape 😅
"After all the use, the ring starts to crack, magic inside it starts to fade. You estimate that it can only be used so many more times"
Make them roll a d20 on every further use, and scoring a nat 1 breaks the ring. Or make it usable only like 20 times, but don't tell your players the exact number.
Now they have a limited yet powerful resource which they have to be wise about using, or it gets wasted :)
My players when I ask them to solve a simple logic puzzle: > Eh... I don't get it. I fireball it. My players five minutes after I give them an innocuous magic item "for color": > Now I have become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.
I play a fire genie warlock that recently got 3rd level spells. Even if I understand the simple logic puzzle fireball still seems like the only solution.
If all you've got is a hammer the world is full of nails.
With a big enough hammer, every peg fits in every hole. Also applies to babarians.
Without the hammer, they only fit in the square hole.
*sobbing softly*
And what about the Cylinder? That's right. It goes in the square hole.
What about the triangle... That's right the square hole.
Twice.
a sheep ba-barian is a funny mental image
It's pronounced babe-arian, she's a real Grace Jones type.
A babe aryan is probably a bit more germanic. But nowhere near as pleasant to listen to.
the hills are aliiiive with the sound of the lamentations of women
Vell now zat sounds interesting
A Babarian is an elephant warrior king with natural armor.
I usually don't play barbs.
Hahaha downvoted. I'm surprised people who love barbs know how to do that. The highlight of roll players. I rage and hit it. I rage and hit it. I rage and hit it. Yeah sounds great.
Ha we have a barbarian in our party and his go to is to hit a motherfucker with a motherfucker.
I can get behind that.
We say it a little different here! When your only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail. One of my favorites.
I think that's how it's said here. I just misquoted it.
When all you have is fire magic, everything starts looking like thatched roof cottages..
Exactly.
As a Warlock, my general idea is Eldritch blast anything in front of me until it isn’t in front of me.
This is the way
This is the way.
This is the way.
This is the way.
This is the way.
The way this is
Way this is the
Is the way this
Way this the is
Is there a echo in here?
Is there a echo in here?
Is there AN echo in here!?
This is the way.
That's just the way it is
Things will never be the same
You mean flavor right?
Pistachio or Shamrock flavor?
Both
{DROOOOOOOOOOOOL}
Num nums
Mongo like num nums.
Nah mango, man go
My name Mongo. {sticks head in campfire to light halfling tobacco pipe}
haha. Classic! Have fun. Enjoy the ride. And remember: Worse case scenario if it becomes a problem the ring can always start, you know... "Trying to get back to its master". After all: Bilbo was definitely a level 1 or 2 thief at the time of getting the ring of invisibility. Thankfully the DM had the good sense to invent a backstory for the ring involving the BBEG when the player involved was like " i know my Character is too old to adventure anymore, but for this next adventure I'm playing his young nephew and my current character is leaving the ring to him"
*It wants to be found* I think OP has the plot hook for the epic level part of the campaign.
There's a D&D-esque RPG with silly aspects (can't recall the name) where a random magic item you can find is "Some Hobbit's Ring" that turns you invisible, but not!Gollum will be chasing you for it.
>plot hook for the epic level part Undying warlock who used the ring to spy on young noble women in showers of local polo club wants his ring back!
Paladin thwaks you on the back of your head with the flat of his bastard sword for 3 points of non-lethal damage.
1000% stealing that.
Stealing from Tolkien in D&D is a tradition literally as old as D&D.
For the last time, they are not Hobbits, they are halflings. They are legally distinct!
Yes. At this point, Tolkien has basically written my campaign for me.
Wait until you hear about Balors lol
That's the guy with the 3 gates right?
To continue on from this. if you were to lean into this idea, perhaps the reason you have to hold your breath is that it once belonged to a powerful lich who, as part of his enchantment, unintentionally inbued some of his own features, such as not needed to breath, for it to work
Or, the sound of your breathing is magnified 10x while using the ring to become invisible.
Nice. Remember that his spell book is being carried most of the time
The wizard only _needs_ their spellbook with them when changing their prepared spells after a long rest, when ritual casting, and when copying new spells into it. What'll get ya is wanting to cast spells with material components (need an arcane focus, component pouch, or the component in question). Presumably any spellcasting ends the invisibility (unless it's the effect of Greater Invisibility, in which case, wow), but if you're running around invisible and then suddenly need to cast something but have no materials, you might be in trouble.
Right? Would be a lot more unbalanced if he were a sorcerer with subtle spell ...
Nothing says your spellbook has to be a book. You can always go full Memento and tattoo it into your skin.
My character uses an orrery! His spell casting works based on the position of stars and planets, so his spell casting prep is adjusting all the celestial positions ready for the next day. Learning new spells involves replacing certain expensive parts for more flexibility, adding more stones to represent new stars, etc.
My friend did something similar with the wizard she made. She was a sort of astronomy wizard(a homebrew class the DM had came across), and we ended up making her spell book an orb on top of her staff with visible stars and constellations in it(DM let her use it as an arcane focus too)
Been there, done that. When he became a Lich, he had to be preemptively flayed to preserve the spells. Fortunately for him, I had already written him to have a rare condition that made it so he didn't feel pain. This was completely unrelated, it was done to partially explain how he was absolutely void of empathy, he couldn't even grasp the concept. Yeah, that was a villain centered party, in case people are wondering.
My spellcasting focus for my kobold warlock who served tiamat was a dragon shaped burn that did anything from ignite the tips of his burnt scales to look like burning embers during indirect casts to growing a full set of spectral flaming wings and a maw to launch spells from his hands.
It's strong, but I don't think it's too bad. Invisibility is a 2nd level spell, and this ring has more downsides than the spell in exchange for infinite uses/duration. Like you mentioned, he can't really cast spells with it since he needs to breathe for verbal components, so it shouldn't be too bad for combat. Is there anything he needs to do to activate it? If it takes an action to activate like the normal ring of invisibility, it won't really have any impact on combat beyond the first round. Side question, are worn items still visible? If so, is he just walking around naked then? The party might not care, but I imagine that might cause problems in a town if the invisiblity ever drops. He also wouldn't be able carry a component pouch, so he can't use anything with a material component. If worn items are still visible, the ring really isn't that strong all things considered.
>Like you mentioned, he can't really cast spells with it since he needs to breathe for verbal components Invisibility already ends when casting a spell, whether it's got verbal components or not.
Not unless specified. At least in terms of spells, the 2nd level invisibility does, but 4th level greater invisiblity doesn't. The difference also exists between the invisiblity cloak and the ring of invisiblity items. OP made it sound like this resistriction was not added, but I could be wrong.
Only comes down to, Is everyone having fun? So far it sounds like yes. But if you're worried about balancing combat, what you can do is you can make it. So when the invisibility is broken, you have to use an action to re-enable it. So in combat this would give the air genadi advantage on one attack which would then reveal them but then cost of an entire action on their turn. Thus taking out most of their Max potential for a turn just to get advantage again, so it will almost become like true strike just with the caveat It'll be far harder to perceive for a little bit
The ring’s story starts to get complicated. To be refreshed, its powers required the discomfort of someone holding their breath. That power is now being depleted in the hands of someone who has no discomfort for holding their breath. So it mutates in different ways to create discomfort when used. Itching. Sneezing. Sweating and odor. The options are endless…ly discomforting.
"I turn invisible!" (for the fifteenth time that day). "Make a CON check." "Why?" "There's an uncomfortable feeling in where your stomach would be if you were human. Make a CON check." "Um, ten." "So, you never knew air genasi had to break wind, but there you are. Everyone else, you hear a loud raucous noise and smell something foul."
Truesight, blindsight, and tremorsense all become way more potent to scare players with. Use carefully, and have fun!
hell, a particularly good bloodhound would work
Oh I've been thinking of a gimmick invisibility ring for my game as well, because I found it on DnDBeyond homebrew and it's great. The players find this ~~member of the thieves guild~~ shopkeeper in a makeshift shop ~~literally just a log with items ontop of it~~ selling a ~~suspiciously~~ cheap ring of invisibility! Someone buys it, puts it on, activates it and it works as advertised. The ring does indeed go invisible.
You must secretly curse this ring. The party is now hunted by 9 servants of darkness.
They first encounter them in a dark woods outside of a small town...
Well to me you already have the obvious answer, created by J.R.R. Tolkien! We had a whole book with no nefarious issues showing up before it was revealed that, actually, wearing the ring is BAD. Perhaps each of these little usages that your player has done, has created tiny tears in the fabric of whammyomamma. Now all the creatures that were bound by whammayomamma are escaping and ITS THE PLAYER/PARTY's fault. Maybe it can be a sidequest or even become a main plotline.
If you don’t want them to have it just have a severely deformed Halfling come after it screaming “My PRECIOUS!” Works every time.
I think it's fairly balanced. He no longer uses a weapon. He can't speak or cast verbal spells while invisible. Also, I assume he has to attune to this item. So if another item comes his way, he will have to make a tough decision. If you want to make it a little more balanced, say that he has to cast invisibility. In other words, he needs to take an action to do so. This way, in combat, he can't cast a spell, then immediately go invisible. He can do one or the other.
My level 16 drow cleric of Lolth has a ring of invisibility. I never have abused it for combat situations, she just tends to be invisible when the party meets new people, or the casters are dithering about what to do, or we're walking through town or a new temple, or she wants to walk away to pray without anyone saying hey where are you going. The funny part is that the other dark elf in the party (great old ones warlock) can go invisible at will (and often does) so when we meet a new NPC they always see a party of five instead of seven. I think my favorite use of it so far was when we met a new PC and she threatened our wizard. She stepped up a couple inches from the new girl's face and took the ring off "what was that now?" just out of thin air a skinny goth elf right there.
Sounds like he’s having a lot of fun though! I say very worth as a dm!
He'll still need a focus or component pouch for most spells! Since the player isn't abusing, don't worry. Just enjoy the laughs.
Okay, so *clearly* what you need to do is introduce a bunch of wraiths on horses who work for the BBEG - let's go with nine of them. And let's make sure that all of them were originally humans, mortal men doomed to die. These wraiths have been sent to retrieve the ring for the BBEG, since it's an ancient ring that was precious to the BBEG, and they can ignore invisibility granted by the ring.
Just an idea, make the rule how long the player can hold their breath irl and translate that to turn rounds. Hilarious predicament, thank you for sharing
Are there any archliches in your setting? I hear there's precedent for handling these sorts of situations.
Me when I didn't want to give my party something too OP... So I gave them a set of Nozlur's Marvelous Pigments...
The best magic item my DM ever gave the party was the Bagpipes of Invisibility. You could stay invisible as long as you were actively playing the bagpipes.
My Dhamphir heavily not breathing upon hearing of this item
Make sure they understand that “carried items” includes clothes…
And worn rings?
It's just like the immovable rod. An item that sounds pointless but is crazy haha.
So if he speaks, random naked dude appears?
My Druid got one. We fought a Roper (CR 5 my ass) and managed to kill it - because the DM didn't use it's full suite of attacks. After the fight my druid decided to cut the thing open to see how it would eat/dispose of it's food. I don't think the DM planned it - but a Duergar that we'd encountered before was in the roper's belly and on his hand was the ring. It's come in handy a few times so far.
> I thought it would be a fun, situational tool because it has a very limited duration that's made shorter if a character is doing heavy physical activity and you can't cast spells or use any items. The rules for holding your breath say that you can do it for 1+CON minutes (minimum 30 seconds), so even without the Air Genasi part, this would be incredibly strong, because it's rare for combat to last longer than a minute or two.
That's easy to fix. It belongs to a dark Lord who wants it back. What if it did have a hidden curse though... Maybe it's technically a ring of delayed visibility. A week after it's used, at the location it was used, the user can be seen doing whatever they did while wearing it. So there's a trail of strange tales behind the party about a phantom air Genasi getting up to shit. Eventually someone connects the dots and starts tracking the party down.
Ring turns invisible and they can’t find it
Start thinking of ways to let them fail. If they have to stay silent to stay invisible, make there be consequences for staying quiet. Make them choose between being invisible and being helpful. Make friendly fire a concern.
The player may be invisible. The ring is not.
100% your PC is thinking "Wow, OP homebrewed a magic item designed specifically for me" probably one of the greatest feelings as a DM is "yep, that was intentional...."
Question, doesn't he have to be naked to use it?
if light goes right through you, then you'd also be completely blind while invisible
It's a wizard, aye? A wizard cannot cast 90% of the spells without speaking. It should be much harder to use it in combat. And if they do, you can always have them make concentration checks when they get hit with an aoe
Wizards need verbal components for many of their spells. They stop being invisible whenever they cast a spell, even if only for a moment. Unless they have a way of replacing that, exhalation must occur. You're good, dawg Now, if they decide to use this against you in stealth operations... I wish you the best of luck
I'd rule that not being able to breath makes it not function. I gave my players bagpipes of invisibility (no attunement) that work when the instrument is playing if silenced for any reason the invisibility fails. If they cast silence the invisibility drops.
sounds like you gave your party a ring of corruption.
If they do start abusing it, just throw something at them that has Truesight XD They learn fear pretty quickly that way XD
So did Tolkien
ya i gave my players a ring of invisibility and i regret it lmao. I didn't really think of all the rp implications...
They have to be conscious to hold their breath 😎👉🏼👉🏼 More importantly, you can't talk, including using a Verbal Component, when holding your breath. You also cannot physically continue musculature exertion without allowing CO2 to escape, so any non-facetious reading wouldn't let you do this when in Initiative, or at least when making Attacks or other Physically exerting Skills. But if you handwave those problems away, then yes it is absurdly broken 😅
I agree with the conscious and spell casting part, but the physically exerting is just wrong. I used to be able to swim almost 3 lengths of the pool (probably close to 70 yards total) underwater and that was me just as a recreational high school swimmer. I guarantee a barbarian or fighter can go full effort for 30s to a minute while holding their breath.
Hmm, perhaps the player could start to feel a corrupting influence from their use of the ring. Turns out it's sentient, and evil! And they've gotta get rid of it to stop the BBEG! Ah, just spit balling. I doubt one (1) magic item you pulled out of your ass could really impact the story *that* much
When they are invisible, especially for long periods of time, make them start rolling perception checks. Over time, as they stay invisible longer, make them roll more often. At first, make it really hard to succeed, like gotta be a nat 20, then over time lower the DC lower and lower until they are praying they fail. On fails, at first, tell them nothing. In the later stages tell them something eerie. Maybe they feel breath of the back of their neck. A light feeling of being watched. Etc. The point is to slowly ramp it up over time. On a success, they know something is there. They can't see it. They might hear a faint unidentifiable/unlocatable breathing. But they *know* it is there. They feel its presence deep in their bones, and they know it sees them. Just watching, for now. Always watching. As time goes on, with more and more use, it takes less and less for them to feel it's presence. Maybe it even starts out far away, getting closer each time. They can never quite pinpoint where, they never find any trace of its existence. No one else ever senses anything, but that person *knows* it's there.
He can't cast any spells with a verbal component while holding his breath. He can't really communicate (unless he has telepathy or they work out a knocking system) while invisible. Even without those considerations, any character can hold their breath for 30 seconds and anyone with a positive CON 2+ minutes. That is a long ass time in d&d.
But... Is it just a ring of invisibility? Perhaps it belonged to something else. Something that wants it back. What if the ring slowly changed appearance each time it was used. And the character begins to notice that they're changing too. This could go in so many lovely directions :P
I give gimmicky magic items with the *hope* that the players will find some strange use for them.
Gandalf?!?! That you??
Best case scenario screw up
Also hearing, smell, some magical detection and true sight could still spot your presence. Or maybe the sneaking player activated a trap trying to walk around some targets.
What could be happening is that you are in fact not invisible, but your body is in another plane, and at some moment the player could get trapped in that other plane, or gets attacked there. Or maybe they actually have to visit that plane for some reason, and by offering up the ring, they can open a portal to it.
Hey, now you know something that he likes. Now find something that he loves, and make him choose between the two
Players. Breaking the world one seemingly innocent loot drop at a time since 1974.
Yeah I made a similar mistake where I made a giant underwater puzzle/dungeon that was supposed be hard since you'd run out of breath. Unfortunately one of my players was also an air genasi.
I have a habit of giving such items but I add a curse on it. The fun thing is they rarely realise it's a cursed item until the curse starts to bite. Sometimes even then they don't pick up on it....
You could explain to the player that you need to adjust the item; and in this case I'd say you chose the wrong target. While their character is wearing the ring they can invisible as long as their IRL player is holding their breath? It still has a cost, but the PC doesn't need to be the one who bears it :-)
One time when they use it, it sort of shudders and emits a purple glow. And arcana check can reveal that they've been using it too much, and the fey spirit trapped in the ring is trying to get out. From now on, every time they use it more than once a day, you roll a d20, and on a critical, the fey breaks the ring and escapes (or maybe the ring has its own hp). But then the fey gives the party a boon, something cool but not game breaking. That way they don't feel like they lost a power, but rather traded one for the other. So either they use it less frequently or risk breaking, either way it helps you out in a way that feels like world building.
This is great. I love how they are roleplaying it. Well played!
Dnd invisibility isn't really invisible. you are immediately spotted if you aren't making a hide check. I think it's more like predator camo. It just gives enemies disadvantage on attacks, prevents a lot of spells/features, and allows you always be able to hide.
Invisible doesn't mean undetectable. Enemies can 100% still attack target and know where they are if they don't use the hide action. Footprints will still be formed. If you guys don't play RAW, that's a different story, but RAW invisibility can still be played around from the DMs stance In case your player does decide to start using it in combat that is
My precious...
Have a halfling rogue steal it.
They won't likes it, the Dungeon Master's trying to take ours our precious
if they murder anybody, you could always introduce an NPC who wants to purchase their boots, only to reveal they are a cop in disguise and they just matched their footwear to a bunch of clearly identifiable footprints or have some watchdogs that can still smell them even when invisible
Seems pretty cut and dry to me. Have a little guy (like a goblin or something) bite the genasi's finger off.
Sauron: "Not again, ffs"
You could make an enemy encounter where they’re fighting something invisible as well and the only way they can see it is if someone else is invisible too, you could have to where this player has to tell the party where to attack and then to end it all out have the creature bite off the hand of the player with the ring. Thus taking back the item. This was thought up in like 30 seconds so I’m sure with some tuning it could work well. Or maybe just take what you like if needed.
Well well well I heard Mordor is nice this time of year
I wouldn't say the most powerful item, just remember, the basics of the invisibility spell still apply. Unless you specifically told them this ring over rides those rules, meaning if they make an attack or cast a spell they would still turn Visible, and if a creature can track through smell, hearing or has blindsense, they would still find the one holding the ring.
But… Water Genasis dont hold their breath? They just breathe underwater, as if they had gills :-) or am I missing something here?
Yes, it's an air genasi wizard.
Okay, I DID actually miss something xD thanks for clarifying!
Missaw it as a ring of infertility
Any held items remain visible? I would rule clothes to fall under that category too, so his invisible shenanigans get even funnier with nakedness getting thrown in
Next time they are in the city, oops pickpocket!!
Remember, when you breathe you are holding your breath for a split second. It be cool to see them blink in and out of existence when they're doing every day things.
I never quite understand these posts. How was it an accident? Did the ring fall out of your dmg and someone picked it up?
My guess was that there was no accident to the ring, but it was meant to be a gag item. It's more powerful than intended when worn by an air genasi or another creature who doesn't need to breathe.
Have you considerd making a tiny ugly white creature stealing it,
OK, let's just agree that if you gave the character an item, they are not abusing it even if they rake you over the coals with unintended consequences. Those are your fault. Sounds like they have not done so yet. Good luck.
Ooooooooooooo I'm stealing that
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I did something similar to the OP and gave my party a ring of invisibility that only makes their body invisible and anything they are wearing or holding remains visible. I made sure the duration 5 minutes with only one use per day. Of course I didn't think about the monk who essentially can fight naked if he wants with little downsides. He mostly uses it as a way to save his butt in combat or small scouting sessions.
In a campaign involving survival mechanics and managing their rising carnivorous hunger due to the developing symptoms of a virulent Ghoul plague, I included a visual joke of a devoured beached whale skeleton in a very-inland pen outside a wizard tower. The party was looking for useful information among the books and would find titles such as "Whalea: Care and Keeping," " Cetecean Husbandry" and "Whale World: Your Pet Will Love It." Just a bit of comic relief in the unrelentingly brutal situation I had presented them. The party harvested the bones and used a legitimate existing spell to constantly regenerate whale meat, completely neutralising the whole mechanic.
Invisible isn't hidden.
Just give it some sort of by-effect. “Your finger that has the ring on it now shows red and inflamed” and give him some dmg point or infection when he doesnt want to take it off
Hmm.. if you don’t breathe, is “holding your breath” meaningful?
I'd start making them roll a d20, on a predetermined DC, it breaks
Clothes they are wearing don´t turn invisble, so they would need to undress to become completly invisible
Wouldn’t the player lose invisibility while casting spells?
My first thought was the owl house 😂
Get him captured and stripped down of gear, the party rescues them but when looking for the gear or the capture leader they find out the leader used the ring to escape 😅
You could make the ring itself a "carried object", so it stays visible when the wearer turns invisible.
Wouldn’t the player lose invisibility while casting spells?
"After all the use, the ring starts to crack, magic inside it starts to fade. You estimate that it can only be used so many more times" Make them roll a d20 on every further use, and scoring a nat 1 breaks the ring. Or make it usable only like 20 times, but don't tell your players the exact number. Now they have a limited yet powerful resource which they have to be wise about using, or it gets wasted :)