My party will be coming into quest-specific worn magic items. Each member will get one, and they are kind of the Mcguffin of the quest first act … tied up in quest lore, etc.

My idea is that the items respond/react to each player and imbue a feat that aligns to the character’s personality, increases their individual power to some extent, but also drives teamwork. The personality stuff is not relevant here, but it will be fun.

I have two martials (one ranged, one melee) and two casters (cloistered cleric and witch).

This post is about the martials.

The party is lvl 10 now, and will acquire these items after defeating a counter-party of “bosses”. They will get the items from looting the bosses and it will coincide with them reaching lvl 11.

This is my starting place … I’d love to hear ideas if I’m in balance, should go more or less on /-, or different approaches in general.

When donning the item, they will respond to some voice from the item asking them if they would cause their enemy to despair, stagger, or weaken … and they can choose which. Once they choose, that corresponds to an effect.

They choose a feat:

Despairing Onslaught -1 Will

Staggering Hit -1 Reflex

Overwhelming Assault -1 Fort

Take two actions and make a strike.

On a successful hit: The save debuff is in effect on the target until the end of the attacking character’s next turn. Fortune effect - the ferociousness of their attack is formidable. They roll damage twice and take the better of the two rolls. This only applies to base damage, not critical spec effects.

Hit or miss, the target is immune to the feat for an hour.

Take three actions and make a strike.

The save debuff is in effect for two turns of the attacking character. Fortune effect - spending more time to target their attack pays dividends … they roll attack twice and take the better of the two rolls.

As they advance in levels, the martials will be able to expand on these feats:

Lvl 14 * add another feat from this same family … targeting one of the other saves * OR * double down on a previous chosen feat in this family, making the save debuff -2 … 2/3 action versions are the same otherwise.

Lvl 17 * add another feat from this same family … targeting one of the other saves * OR * double down on a previous chosen feat in this family, making the save debuff -2 … 2/3 action versions are the same otherwise.
* OR * triple down on their first selected feat. The max save debuff is capped at minus 2, but now they can spend two actions and choose either attack or damage fortune effect, or spend three actions and get a fortune effect for attack and damage.

I know this is kind of nuanced and complex, but I’ll automate it in foundry, and I like the flavor

Thoughts?