Role-playing Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for gamemasters and players of tabletop, paper-and-pencil role-playing games. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I'm looking to homebrew some custom artifacts for a D&D 5e campaign. I want something high risk/high reward that requires the player to make a skill check whenever they try to use it. I also want multiple 'levels' of fail to allow for bad outcomes without it being a binary 'save or suck'.
What I want to know is, are there any official guidelines or published examples for this type of custom item?
I'd suggest looking at the Mizzium Apparatus.
Not a particularly powerful item (it's only an Uncommon) but it lets a spellcaster attempt to cast any spell on their spell list. But it requires an ability check to get the spell cast, and on a failure, you'll cast a random other spell. The more powerful the spell you're trying to cast, the higher the DC and the more potent the random spell that happens if you fail it.
It's a binary check on any specific use, but has a lot of different fail-states depending on what you're trying to do.
You will want to look at artifacts, rather than normal magic items.
Most, if not all, official magic items have strictly beneficial effects, or ones that at worst miss/have no effect (like a normal attack or spell).
Artifacts, however, being more powerful, may have negative consequences. (This fits well with your example of the One Ring, which is almost certainly an artifact-rarity item, even if the characters mostly use it as a merely-legendary Ring of Invisibility)
From the Orb of Dragonkind in the DMG:
While attuned to an orb, you can use an action to peer into the orb's depths and speak its command word. You must then make a DC 15 Charisma check. On a successful check, you control the orb for as long as you remain attuned to it. On a failed check, you become charmed by the orb for as long as you remain attuned to it.
And the Hand of Vecna:
Each time you cast a spell from the hand, it casts the suggestion spell on you (save DC 18), demanding that you commit an evil act. The hand might have a specific act in mind or leave it up to you.
Even then, there aren't that many officially-published examples of this, and they are reserved for extremely powerful artifacts.
You make want to look at older editions such as pathfinder as well for inspiration (e.g. Codex of the Infinite Planes) Keep in mind the math for DCs is very different in 3.x systems.
