[Divine] Artifact - Aubade Core
🕑 Added 2022-08-01 14:01:11 +0000 UTCThis flail is a fragment of Halean the Dawnbearer, bestowed upon a worthy champion chosen by the God of Sun and Life. The spiked head illuminates a simple path for Halean and his followers: repel the dark, attend the wounded, and cultivate the weak. The weapon judges not its wielder's true intentions as long as these tenets are followed.
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Aubade Core
Weapon (flail), artifact (requires attunement)
To attune to this flail, you must spend the duration of the attunement period basking in direct sunlight without interruption. If you are not a follower of Halean or his principles, you must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw to attune to the flail. On a failed save, you take 4d8 radiant damage.
Envoy. The flail grants the following benefits while you are Halean's Envoy:
- The flail sheds bright light out to 20 feet and dim light for an additional 20 feet. You can use a bonus action to suppress this property for 1 minute.
- The flail grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it, and deals an extra 1d8 radiant damage to creatures in an area of bright sunlight.
- When you hit a target with this flail, you can cause it to flare with blinding light (no action required). Each creature of your choice within 10 feet of the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be blinded until the end of your next turn. You can’t use this property again until the next noon.
Herald. The flail grants the following additional benefits while you are Halean's Herald:
- The flail's bonus to attack and damage rolls increase to +2.
- The saving throw DC for the flail’s blinding light increases to 15, and you can use this property twice instead of once before the next noon.
- While holding the flail, you have resistance to radiant damage.
Champion. The flail grants the following additional benefits while you are Halean's Champion:
- The flail's bonus to attack and damage rolls increase to +3.
- The saving throw DC for the flail’s blinding light increases to 17, and you can use this property three times instead of once before the next noon.
- You can use a bonus action to change the flail's light into sunlight for 1 minute. When you use this bonus action, each creature of your choice in the flail's bright light regains 2d8 + 5 hit points and stands up if prone. If the creature is poisoned or paralyzed, those conditions end for it. You can't use this property again until the next noon.
- While holding the flail, you can cast plant growth from it, choosing only the enrichment option. You can't use this property again until the next noon.
Destroying the Flail. To destroy Aubade Core, each piece of it must be sanded down by oathean sand, a material warped by the intense arcana of the lost city of Oathea. After a month of continual grinding, the flail finally succumbs and disintegrates into golden dust.
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DESIGN COMMENTARY
I just love floating pieces. I've done it for Chaos Blade which looked awesome. It's also something I hope to experiment more with as a subtle celestial design language. Black/Gold is also a super pleasing combination. Mechanically it's about as strong as other artifacts + their Major/Minor Beneficial Properties (artifacts have no power ceiling tbh).
This compendium is a small crossover for the Gods and is shaping up to form a somewhat connected supersetting. Halean was first mentioned by Xan Rockman as an off-hand flavor comment; the destroy requirement references bits from the Desert Compendium!