Armor of Magical Strength 5e
Item: A suit of armor (requires attunement)
This armor has 6 charges. The wearer can expend the armor's charges in the following ways:
When the wearer makes a Strength check or a Strength saving throw, it can expend 1 charge to add a bonus to the roll equal to its Intelligence modifier.
If the creature would be knocked prone, it can use its reaction to expend 1 charge to avoid being knocked prone.
The armor regains 1d6 expended charges daily at dawn.
Review by Prince Phantom
However you envision it, be it the hulk buster iron man suit, or the real life robotic enhancements used to help soldiers carry heavy loads over long distances, making a suit of armor to lift things we wouldn’t normally be able to is a very common trope, and this infusion actually manages to deliver on it. The big question however, is whether or not that fantasy is actually useful in 5e. Let’s break it down as this provides two benefits, each powered by 6 charges that refresh on a long rest (just un-infuse and re-infuse the armor every morning to get the max charges instead of rolling for it).
Expend one charge, gain a bump to Strength rolls equal to our Intelligence modifier.
Expend one charge and our reaction when we are knocked prone to not be knocked prone.
The first option is easily the meat of the infusion, as being knocked prone is a fairly rare occurrence, and not all that detrimental when it does happen. The big question then becomes if a bonus to strength checks and saving throws is worth an infusion, an attunement slot, and our armor slot. Strength checks are pretty rare, but if your DM is like me and uses athletics for a lot of stuff because I think strength is applicable for more things than the designers think, it could be worth it.
The big question is if you have a party member who can make those checks already without using a bunch of resources, like a friendly Barbarian, or even one of the many summon options with high strength scores. Something like shoving a crate or lifting a heavy object isn’t usually a circumstance where the party can’t wait for the ideal member to perform the task, so I’d avoid this infusion if your party has a strength based character. Strength saves are super uncommon and normally just save you from being pushed prone or forced movement, which can be bad but not nearly as bad as something like a wisdom save deleting us from combat.
You can combine this effect with Flash of Genius to add double your Intelligence to the roll, probably guaranteeing you’ll succeed. All together, in a party where you have no strength characters, your DM uses strength a lot in exploration and puzzle solving, and on a character who doesn’t want one of the other infusions that buff our armor, this might be a decent late game pick. By that metric, it’s not unusable, but you’ll struggle to find a character that you can fit this on.
Final Rating: 2/5
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