Hey folks! You may have noticed that I’ve recently made several big changes to the magic item generator. One feature I added was the ability to select the power level of the magical effects that are generated. You may have also noticed that I chose not to use DnD 5e’s built-in categories for item rarity. Instead, I opted to use a custom power level categorization system that I think makes more sense for this particular tool. I am not suggesting that these power levels should replace the default DnD item rarity system in your own games (although that system could certainly use some improvements). I simply designed them as a way to express the relative power of items created using this magic item generator. It is not a perfect system, but I hope that it will at least be consistent. My goal is that when you select a specific power level, the resulting items are exactly what you’d expect them to be based on the descriptions provided below.
- Mundane: Purely cosmetic and/or provide no clear mechanical benefit to the user (change item’s color, item attracts insects, etc.).
- Low: Provides a small or situationally useful mechanical benefit to the user (change eye color, erase footprints, etc.).
- Medium: Provides a clearly useful mechanical benefit but is still relatively niche and/or has limited uses (walk on water, once-per-day advantage, etc.).
- High: Provides a broad, powerful mechanical benefit that is “always on” (permanent advantage on a skill check, damage resistance, etc.). These items may require attunement.
- Curse: Any effect that is clearly negative or detrimental to the user (plagued by nightmares, damage vulnerability, etc.).
Trying to categorize magic items based on power level is more of an art than a science, especially when it comes to homebrew. The DnD 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide gives us categories based on rarity (common, uncommon, rare, very rare, legendary) and tells us that an item’s rarity can also be used to determine its relative power. It also provides very rough guidelines on what level PCs should be at to receive items of each rarity as well as rough price estimates. There is no guidance on how to rank homebrewed items within this categorization scheme. Hell, there’s not even a rule of thumb to tell you whether or not an item should require attunement. The best method I’ve found is to simply compare your homebrew item to officially published items (which vary wildly, even within the same rarity) to try and identify its rarity. This lack of official guidance means that deciding the rarity of homebrew items is a highly subjective practice.
I’ve been making homebrew items for my games for years, and I like to think that I’ve gotten pretty good at guesstimating the rarity of my items. So, when I sat down to categorize the effects of this random item generator, it quickly became clear that the standard DnD rarity categorization was not going to work for this tool. The vast majority of these magic effects would likely be classified as either ‘common’ or ‘uncommon’ using that method. That wouldn’t make this a very useful feature if you could essentially only select from two rarities when generating an item. As a result, I decided to go with my own classification system which I’m calling ‘power levels’ (I also always hated that DnD 5e used the term rarity to refer to power when it comes to magic items, but that’s a rant for another day).
Power levels are divided into four categories (plus curses): mundane, low, medium, and high. A brief explanation on how I determine which category a magical effect fits into is included above, so I won’t repeat that here. As I mentioned before, most of the effects in this generator are relatively low power compared to many traditional DnD items. This is by design. I want the focus of this generator to be on simple magical items with descriptions that are only about 1-3 sentences, and that can stand on their own without needing to reference external spells or other sources. Most powerful magical items require a full paragraph or two to explain all the cool abilities they grant the user. Maybe one day in the future I’ll add more powerful, robust magic effects to this generator, but, until then, even the items in the ‘high’ power level are only roughly equivalent to ‘rare’ items in DnD’s standard categorization system.
Power levels are simply a way to express an item’s power relative to other items created using this generator. This system isn’t perfect, but I hope it at least allows you to narrow the focus of the items you generate so you get something in the realm of what you’re looking for. In the spirit of DnD 5e, I leave it up to you as the GM to determine the item’s final rarity. Afterall, each party/game/setting is different, and the same item that is underpowered for one GM’s situation could be overpowered for another. As always, if you have feedback on this system or any suggestions, feel free to reach out and share them with me. Happy looting!