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[Radiance] Weapon - Ruby Pointer
🕑 Added 2024-02-12 15:00:13 +0000 UTCThe core idea for this design was created one fateful day by a lonely feline-inclined master glassworker, later co-opted by the Luxwatch to assist with distant weapon targeting.
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Ruby Pointer
Weapon (javelin, pike, spear, or trident), uncommon (requires attunement)
You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon, which emits a thin beam of red light from its tip. You can speak a command word to suppress this light beam until you speak another to restore it (no action required for either command).
Target Painter. Whenever you take the Help action to aid an ally's attack against an enemy, you can choose a target within 60 feet of you rather than within 5 feet, pointing this weapon's light beam at that target. This action only grants advantage to your ally's attack if it is a ranged attack. The Help action's benefit ends early if the target breaks line of sight to you, or if you are blinded, incapacitated, or die.
Distracting Dot. As an action, you can point the weapon's light beam to distract a creature within 60 feet of you. If the target can see you, it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or it has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls until the end of its next turn. Feline creatures such as cats, tigers, and rakshasas have disadvantage on the saving throw.
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Rare Variant. The rare version of this weapon has these changes. Its bonus to attack and damage increases to +2, and the DC of the Distracting Dot property is 15.
Very Rare Variant. The very rare version of this weapon has these changes. Its bonus to attack and damage increases to +3, and the DC of the Distracting Dot property is 17. When you take the Help action to aid an attack using the Target Painter property, you can aid two allies of your choice instead of one.
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DESIGN COMMENTARY
In terms of power, the weapon sorta varies depending on the party. It's hard to make a fair comparison, since the mechanics are rather unique. Normally, uncommon items should have this many properties in one; I would normally cut Distracting Dot, but the idea was just too fun to leave out.
Target Painter is complicated to measure. On the one hand, the 60-foot range is massive. On the other hand, this benefit only applies to ranged attacks (prohibiting its use for certain melee procs like smites), can be ended early without much expenditure (by moving out of line of sight), and advantage is normally fairly easy to obtain in a 5e game. I rated this as slightly above net-neutral, since in most cases there's better things to do with your action. It could be compared to true strike, which is a well-known iffy cantrip
Distracting Dot would be fairly good if it didn't require an action, as once again there are usually better things to do with your action. Still, it's helpful in situational battles if a party needs to avoid one particularly deadly enemy. One could theoretically compare it to a poison effect, sort of like ray of sickness but without the damage. I also rated this as slightly above net-neutral.
Combined with the +1 weapon property, I felt this was above neutral enough to land in the uncommon rarity. It doesn't quite feel powerful enough for a rare item.
Very Rare allows the Help action to aid one extra character, which is 1 more advantage than normal, which places it on par with typical actions at that tier of play .
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