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

Part 1

Celebrating a Triumph

Achieving Glory

Rarity	XP Threshold
Common	600
Uncommon	1,100
Rare	2,000
Very Rare	3,200
Legendary	6,800

If a character has already achieved a great deed they wish to commemorate, they can take time to honor their victory. While recognition may be important to this process, the key thing is that it be a substantial personal victory; the character must have been a vital part of the encounter. Celebrating victory over a dragon by showing off a gem from its hoard may be able to benefit a rogue who peppered it with arrows, finding the niches and notches in its armored scales bleeding slowly of strength and vitality. But if the scoundrel simply purloined the jewel as the rest of the group fought there is no tale for him to tell that will empower anything but a tankard.

 Similarly, such accomplishments are judged on a sharper curve than those sworn in advance. While a challenge may be undertaken with any number of allies so long as the conditions of the oath are met, a triumph celebrated after the fact requires much more personal involvement. Further, an appropriate encounter should be one which is memorable for some reason, either the difficulty of the encounter or the ease with which a once-terrifying foe is dispatched.

Much as a challenge is driven by the challenge rating of an intended encounter, a trophy’s potential power is determined by an XP threshold for the encounter. Thus, the more characters there are in an encounter the more difficult the encounter must be to qualify. As a guideline; the DM should use the Modified Total XP value from page 82 of the DMG of the encounter (steps 3 and 4 in estimating an encounter difficulty). If that value divided by the number of friendly characters in the encounter is greater than the XP threshold for a certain rarity of magic item, a token of the encounter may be empowered.

Honoring Victory

While preparing for a challenge may or may not focus around an item they character possesses, in this case the process always centers on a trophy from the encounter. For example you might have the fangs of a black dragon strung into a necklace, or the sword which slew the beast. Much like preparation, the method of dedicating a trophy is deeply personal. A barbarian may swagger from bar to bar, drinking and regaling any in hearing with the tale of their might, holding their prize high as proof of their words. A monk, in contrast, might privately meditate with an object taken from their defeated foe.

Regardless, the character is again 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. This money is spent on materials appropriate to the character’s methods, beer, incense, or other accoutrements, all of which are consumed in the process. Once the character has spent the required amount of time considering their victory the item is empowered.

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

Unlike preparing for a challenge, the presence and assistance of others cannot speed this process. Either the process requires others’ presence or is indifferent to it. The time can be broken up and interrupted by other tasks, including adventures, which may produce other victories. Only one victory at a time can be celebrated in this manner, however.

Building a Legend

Key items used throughout a character’s career can be associated with many challenges and triumphs. If such an item has been started on a path with a clear progression of power (ie; weapons, armor, shields, a Rod of the Pact Keeper, Wand of the War Mage, etc) it can be empowered to higher levels through greater victories. When improving such an item to a higher level days spent empowering it count towards the new total. For example, a paladin with a +1 long sword (an uncommon magic item) needs 180 days to increase it to +2 (a rare magic item), either through preparation or honoring a victory.  Similarly, the paladin, late in his career, having sworn again and again upon the same sword to overcome mighty evil, might improve his +3 weapon (very rare) to a Holy Avenger (Legendary). Though, with the need for almost 50 years, preparing for an epic encounter rather than honoring those he has overcome is advisable unless he is ready to retire. Fortunately, an exemplar of such past deeds likely has entire orders of knights and clerics willing to sit vigil with them before they set forth on such a quest.

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Honestly if I could just do away with the "magic items in treasure hoards" and do this instead I'd be ecstatic. The magic sword you find is cool, the one enchanted through the awesomeness of what you did for it is, quite literally, the stuff of legend. In some ways this is easier than spellcaster enchantment, or even the mastercrafting rules I made, because there is no requirement for a formula. However, a DM always has to be involved in these rules (like pretty much everything that happens tat the game table) and can deny things that get too crazy. Meanwhile, there really didn't seem like a good "research" analogue that would fit with the theme this is intended to work for. It is still a two step process, though; the preparation/celebration and the deed itself.