House Rules: Challenge and Triumph Items - Setting a Challenge (D&D 5e)

Wilder and more mercenary adventurers may have little or no interest in demonstrating personal talent with crafts. Their interest in items of value often begins and ends with what they can buy or steal. The most common example of this is the orc barbarian, though rogues are often equally uninterested in “earning a living” rather than just taking what they want.

What these characters may want is to have a token by which they celebrate a successful conquest or represent an oath sworn and kept. While taking trophies or trading tokens is simple enough, there is a measure of power to be had in formality with these acts. In some ways setting and undertaking a challenge is the easier method; by having a specific goal in mind the benefit is gained in the doing. On the other hand, some grand deeds happen, demanded in the moment, so they take their prizes and must find ways to make proper talismans and trophies later.

The central part of creating such an item is the event to be done or celebrated. Regardless of whether the trophy is present before or after, it must represent an accomplishment worthy of the heroes or villains of legend. This event can be accomplished alone or as part of a group, though the achievements of groups must be correspondingly larger than challenges overcome alone. While high level characters overcoming lower CRs may seem trivial, remember that it is the sealing of an oath or celebration of their prowess as much as the deed itself that empowers the magic. The DM, as always, determines the whether a given event is appropriate.

Setting a Challenge

Rarity	Individual CR	Group CR
Common	5	6
Uncommon	7	9
Rare	9	12
Very Rare	13	16
Legendary	17	21

Swearing the Oath

However a task comes to be part of the character’s life, they must swear before at least one witness that they will undertake the mission. For a task to qualify as sufficient to empower a trophy taken it must be significant enough to form a part of the character’s legend. At its core, determining whether a particular event is worthy to seal this sort of magic requires a minimum CR be met. Other factors may be involved, however, at the DMs discretion.

When you swear this oath you should discuss with the DM what trophy you will take and what it will become in that moment of glory.

Preparing for the Deed

When a character finds a task against which to prove their skill the adventurer begins preparations. What form these take is deeply dependent on the nature of the character and the challenge they have set for themselves. A paladin may undertake a days long vigil, while a barbarian may set out on a bender of food, drink, and revelry lasting a similar length of time before setting off to slay their foes. A rogue may case a building for weeks, double-checking their plans while preparing themselves mentally and physically.

Rarity	Preparation Time
Common	4 days
Uncommon	20 days
Rare	200 days
Very Rare	2,000 days
Legendary	20,000 days

 Regardless, the character is assumed to spend at least 8 hours a day at this activity and gains no other benefit from that time. Further, each day spent at this activity costs 24 gold pieces spent on materials appropriate to the character’s methods.

 This time can be broken up, interrupted by other tasks including adventures which may or may not advance the character towards the ultimate goal of their sworn quest. For truly legendary deeds, requiring years of preparation and focus, such challenges can become the focus of an adventurer’s career, shaping the way they relate to their companions and the world around them. Others can join the process as well, so long as they dedicate a full day of work and the same 24 gold pieces worth of materials are consumed, they forward the process by a day.

Once this time is spent the challenge is empowered. The terms of their oath determine if they achieve victory. “I shall best the lord of Hammerhost in single combat” requires exactly that, while “I shall see him brought low” might be achieved by some combination of the party, henchmen, followers, and as many mercenaries and hirelings as you can find. Regardless of the terms, it must be your actions that result in this outcome. If another force brings your hated foe low and you only come face to face with them once they have been defeated then you have failed in your mission and all your preparation is for naught. Though, if you find an army seeking their downfall and join it, so long as you become a motivating force and directly contribute to the force’s grand victory, it may still count at the DM’s discretion.

Whenever the character succeeds at the quest their devotion, dedication, and legendary deeds comes to rest in an item and empower it. The gloves used by a thief to unlock a legendary vault might become Gloves of Thievery, while a warrior who has freed his people from the terror of a demon ravaging the area might rip away a horn which becomes imbued with the creature’s roar, making it a Horn of Blasting. This item is not considered part of the plunder discovered, so the DM should not include it in the treasure they generated. Similarly it is not a part of the treasure split by the party. It exists in the same way any magic item crafted by a wizard does; because they spent their portion of the party’s resources to wrest it from the universe by an act of will.

Overcome By Events

            A character who has completed at least one fourth of their preparation and finds themselves facing the goal of their challenge before their preparation is complete may continue the empowerment of their token as a Triumph. So long as they meet the terms of their oath they skip all considerations of whether they have achieved glory and move straight to Celebrating Victory. Days of preparation already completed count as days spent celebrating their triumph.

            If a task becomes impossible to complete, such as discovering that since swearing vengeance against the man who killed your father that villain has perished, may be transferred to a new goal if there is a logical way to transfer. For example, slaying the murderer may be beyond your grasp, but casting down the master they served may remain possible. In such a case, all preparation already completed transfers to this new goal. If no such related goal can be found then the preparation is lost. When shifting a goal in this manner the resulting trophy may change.

Part 2

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I talk about it in the intro, and have mentioned before, that producing magic items for the party shouldn't be solely the spellcaster role in the party. For one thing, it unevenly distributes desire for downtime, so a wizard wants downtime for their own things, plus the fighter wants the wizard to make him a magic sword (at least this request no longer comes with the inevitable "I'm not spending my xp to make you more powerful)... meanwhile the fighter has no purpose during downtime. Some of the new downtime actions help, but only if the character/player wants to place focus on the non-adventuring life of the character. If they really are the sort of rootless wanderers, for any of a number of reasons, most of these downtime actions are just filler.