aripockily

[Cosmos] Item - Boot Loader

These booots, though useful, were originally created as part of a well-known bait-and-switch scam in the retailer shipping industry that frustrates thousands of I.T. specialists per cycle.

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Boot Loader
Wondrous item, technomancy, uncommon

You can rearm certain weapons by sliding them across specialized hooks and linear electromagnetic nodes on the side of these boots. While you wear these boots and aren't restrained, you ignore the Loading and Reload property of basic weapons with which you are proficient.

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Prosthesis Variant. This version of the item is a prosthesis instead of a wearable boot, which replaces a lost leg or foot. While you wear it, it functions identically to the lost body part. You can also attune to this prosthesis; if you do, it cannot be removed from you against your will and it grants access to an internal space that can store and conceal one basic weapon with the Loading or Reload property, which you can draw that weapon as part of an attack you make with it. This concealment can be discovered by a creature that uses an action to examine the prosthesis and succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

The name is a play on the computing term.

This item has less to do with conventional technomancy than the others, but still has the tag because it is 1) meant to be a "smart" item and 2) shouldn't be available in a basic store. It fulfills a pseudo-Terminator fantasy in which a character reloads a weapon by doing something cool; in this case you hook it to the boot and reload it (loudly, presumably).

Its usage is very simple and offers enough given it has no attunement cost. The Reload property of futuristic weapons already have little effect in conventional combat. However, Loading weapons (typically crossbows and railbows) get to remove their Loading property. Despite 5e's restrictions and the existence of Crossbow Expert, the lack of Loading property doesn't change much because 1) crossbows are not much different compared to their shortbow/longbow counterparts, and 2) those only proficient with crossbows only benefit from a lack of Loading if they have a means to make extra attacks , which usually means they already have martial proficiencies.

Either way, I'm sure there's a way to exploit it, so keeping it at uncommon rather than common is fine.

If your character wears it as a prosthesis, you also get to attune to it, granting additional (but ultimately minor) benefits.

[Cosmos] Item - Random Access Mindlink

Renowned researcher Alastair Toorin once said that artificial intellects would become indistinguishable from humans when they can finally concentrate on spells, and the Cosmos shall suffer for it. Figma Tech. says they can absolutely do that for you, and they come in a variety of fashionable styles.

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Random Access Mindlink
Wondrous item, technomancy, very rare (requires attunement by a spellcaster)

A minor artificial intellect loaded into this head-worn device can handle complex computations for you. While wearing this mindlink, you gain proficiency with Arcana, History, Religion, or Nature (you choose when you first attune to this), and you can make Intelligence saving throws in place of Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration on spells.

RAM Upgrade. This mindlink's onboard artificial intellect can share some of the concentration burden for you. While you are wearing this mindlink and concentrating on a spell, you can cast a second spell that requires concentration and maintain concentration on both. You make separate saving throws to maintain concentration on each spell; if you remove the mindlink, you end one of these spells of your choice. The mindlink can’t confer this benefit again until the next dawn.

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Rare Variant. The rare version of this item lacks the RAM Upgrade property.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This item is a play on RAM, and is styled after the classical "circlets of intellect" in sword-and-fantasy settings. As always, these technomancy items are all meant to be usable in any setting, so this can be easily reflavored as a magic wizard crown.

The circlet grants two persistent benefits: proficiency in one Intelligence skill and replacing Constitution with Intelligence for concentration. This alone is worth the rare price tag (hence the rare variant), since swapping from low +0 Constitution to +5 Intelligence is a 20%-25% increase for a typical caster character to maintain concentration. In this instance, we can assume the equivalent of War Caster, or more since it stacks with War Caster. For comparison, this item competes with Mantle of Spell Resistance, Ring of Spell Storing, Cloak of Displacement, etc.

The RAM Upgrade property allows you to concentrate on two spells at once, which by itself is sufficiently powerful to get it to the Very Rare level.

Overall, the exploit and use cases of such a item is so strong it needs to be at the Very Rare level. It should not see play until much later in the game tier, where enemies are already very dangerous.

I think there's a legendary version of this item out there somewhere that could theoretically save your consciousness into itself if you die. But that's outside the scope of this item at the moment.

[Cosmos] Item - Technoweaver's Holocloak

The original holocloak concept was a scrappy code-loaded jacket developed by anonymous technoweavers, technomagically enchanted to evade the megacorps' omnisensors. Ironically, or perhaps inevitably, Figma Technologies has since produced upscale holocloaks marketed as stylish cyberwear.

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Technoweaver's Holocloak
Wondrous item, technomancy, very rare (requires attunement)

This cloak functions as a holopad and a set of hacker's tools for you.

AccessNet.cmd. While wearing this cloak, you have advantage on ability checks you make to search the holonet for information.

CameraShy.exe. While wearing this cloak, you always have the benefits of a sensor cloak* spell.

CatFish.scr. While wearing this cloak, you can cast the disguise self spell, assuming the form of a Humanoid you have touched within the past 24 hours. For the duration, you have advantage on ability checks you make to impersonate that creature. Once used, this property of the cloak can't be used again until the next dawn.

Run Program. This cloak has 5 charges and regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. While wearing the cloak, you can cast the jolting spark* cantrip and read disk* spells from it at will, and you can expend the required charges to cast one of the following spells from it (save DC 17): arcane firewall* (2 charges), charging current* (1 charge), Gridspace relay* (1 charge), silence (2 charges), or tracking program* (1 charge).

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Uncommon Variant. The rare version of the cloak lacks the CameraShy.exe property and has a DC of 13 instead of 17. It has 3 charges instead of 5, regaining 1d3 charges daily at dawn.

Rare Variant. The rare version of the cloak lacks the CameraShy.exe property and has a DC of 15 instead of 17.

*See Cosmos 3 - Spells.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

Another item for the technomancer/hacker aesthetic that this theme is more about. Unlike the power glove, which is all about active hacking/intrusion, the cloak is all about protection and hiding, remaining anonymous.

The cloak functions as a basic device and hacker tools, which are just regular items. No real feature here.

AccessNet.cmd grants persistent advantage. Searching the holonet is typically an Investigation check, so it'll be used about half the time an Investigation check is normally used, especially less if in a location without net access. Depending on the GM, it may not even matter if the holonet is considered an advantage granter. Overall, somewhat minor feature.

CameraShy.exe grants a persistent 3rd-level spell, which functions like nondetection but for sensors. The power-level is halved (more or less) because it only covers one creature, but redoubled and more because it's permanent. We'll say ~1.5x a daily cast of sensor cloak.

Catfish.scr grants disguise self once, but you must touch a target. That situation can usually be engineered, so we'll say a normal 1st-level spell.

Run Program grants a cantrip and a (ritual) spell, plus 5 charges for spells. That's a total of 2 second-level spells and 1 first-level spell.

Overall, the cloak has these properties: 2 second-levels, 2 first-levels, a cantrip, a ~1.5x third-level spell, and a generally situational advantage. Very Rare staves in D&D offer 10-12 charges for a similar complement of spells (as well as other features).

[Cosmos] Item - Powerjack

Nodes on the fingertips allow for extremely fine real-time control of the technomantic weave. Such gloves are a requirement for circumventing the most sophisticated cybersecurity.

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POWERJACK
Wondrous item, technomancy, very rare (requires attunement)

This glove functions as a holopad and a set of hacker's tools. While wearing it, you have proficiency with hacker's tools if you don't already have it, and you can remotely interface with technomantic terminals up to 30 feet away even if they would normally require a physical connection.

Discharge Current. While wearing this glove, you can cast the jolting spark* cantrip from it at will. You can also cast the lightning bolt spell from it (spell save DC 17) once, regaining the ability to cast it at next dawn.

Inject Executable. If you gain system access to a device or holoscreen you can also inject malicious commands into it using this glove. For the duration of your access, you can manipulate it in one of the following ways, if applicable.

• Hijack Image (Holoscreen Only). You can use an action to display another image of your design on the screen. A creature that uses its action to examine the image can determine it has been hijacked with a successful DC 15 Intelligence check using Arcana, Investigation, or hacker's tools.

• Overcharge (Any Device or Holoscreen That Sheds Light). You can use an action to overload the device or screen, which flashes brilliant bright light out to a radius based on the target's size: 5 feet (Tiny), 10 feet (Small), 20 feet (Medium or Large), or 40 feet (Huge or larger). Each creature in the bright light must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be blinded until the start of your next turn.

• Switch (Any Device or Holoscreen). You can use an action to turn the device or screen on or off.

Root Override. You can use an action to cast the command spell on a Construct with the Technomancy tag (spell save DC 17). If the Construct succeeds on the save or when the spell ends, that Construct is immune to this property for the next 24 hours.

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Legendary Variant. The legendary version of this glove has these changes. Its spell save DC for the Discharge Current and Root Override properties are 18 insead of 17. While wearing it, you can also cast channel technovirus* from it once (save DC 18), regaining the ability to cast it at next dawn.

Prosthesis Variant. This version of the item is a prosthesis instead of a glove, which replaces a lost arm. While attuned to it, it functions identically to an arm and cannot be removed from you against your will.

*See Cosmos 3 - Spells.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

The first of a couple hacking-related items - the Powerjack is of course, a riff on the incredible aesthetic of a hacker with a keyboard mounted on its glove. It's the Power Glove but (hopefully) much cooler.

As the best hacking item in the book, it grants proficiency with hacker's tools (minoir), with the ability to interface remotely. I treat this like a mage hand cantrip, with arcane trickster perks. The full rules will be fleshed out later in the book, but for now just note that hacking physical things always requires wired connections (as you would lockpick a door).

Discharge Current grants a cantrip and a single 3rd-level spell.

Inject Executable grants 2 roleplay options (that any character can sort of already do). The stand-out is Overcharge, which can briefly blind enemies at will; a good player can basically make it happen every turn. Though it seems powerful, characters at this level of play are already equally effective just making attacks (3d8 cantrips!), so this feature's power level is overall considered minor.

Root Override is a sort-of ribbon ability, in that it's situational, but the specific targets do show up more often in the setting. Technomancy Constructs are drones and security mechs (but not cyborgs). I estimate it'll see use maybe 3 times per day at most.

All-in-all, this item is ~3 cantrips, (mage hand, jolting spark, minor illusion), three 1st-level spells, one 3rd-level spell, one proficiency, and one persistently helpful effect. It's definitely stronger than rare, but given the limited effectiveness of its abilities, does not rival other legendary items. The Powerjack sits well within Very Rare.

[Cosmos] Spells

This collection of spells are found across the cosmos. This isn't necessarily the final version, but have been published here for convenience.

Those familiar with the v2 version of Cosmos spells will notice some new additions:

• Channel Technovirus (Take unauthorized control of your enemies)

• Gridspace Relay (the Holonet "Grid" demiplane — full rules coming later)

• Summon Mech (summon a mech to fight — or reanimate one!)

• Vortex Leash (Use gravity to keep distant foes close to you)

You'll also see updates and changes to old spells — a bunch of fixes with all the new experience I've had. A full list of errata and summaries will be released later along with the book :)

Download the PDF below to check out the cool new spells!

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[Cosmos] Armor - Etlas Photon Armor

The best in lightweight defense from Etlas Industries, this reactive photon armor has saved lives in more than 32 percent of unexpected fatal situations.

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Etlas Photon Armor
Armor (any), technomancy, rare (requires attunement)

Whenever you take damage from an external effect, such as an attack, a magical explosion, a dragon’s breath weapon, or a trap, you can activate this armor to reduce the damage taken by up to 10 (no action required). Once used, this property of the armor can’t be used again for the next 10 minutes while it recharges.

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Photon Armor Mk. 2 (Very Rare Variant). The very rare version of this armor also grants a +1 bonus to AC.

Photon Armor Mk. X (Legendary Variant). The legendary version of this armor also grants a +1 bonus to AC, and can reduce damage taken by up to 15 instead of 10.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This armor is a reprint (and revision) of an unillustrated item from the Cosmos Theme 2. The armor originally deflected slightly more damage and scaled by damage deflected as its rarity increased, and its recharge time was 1 minute instead of 10. Now, the armor deflects 10 damage every 10 minutes.

Its utility will completely depends on how your game is run. At the rare level, you should be facing monsters that can deal more than 10 damage in one hit, so you'll get the maximum utility out of it. If the armor only deflects damage in combat, you'll see ~30-50 less damage per adventuring day assuming ~3-5 combats. (Reminder that 10 damage is ~2d10 or 3d6).

If your games sees damage from traps and environment, you'll also get some extra use out of it, maybe 1-2 uses.

On average, this armor will deflect ~55 damage per day, which is about 2x the healing you'd get from a Rare consumable (potion of superior healing). This seems about right.

For the Very Rare and Legendary versions, instead of increasing the damage mitigated, I went with added AC because that provides a more noticeable, persistent benefit without incurring too many opportunity costs.

While drawing the armor, I ended up doing 3 deflector shield designs (because I wasn't sure what looked best), so I guess now there is one version of each art for each rarity variant.

[Cosmos] Weapon - Shockwave-ExM9

Developed by Empyrean Enterprises as special arms against the batfolk of Ch'k'aku-Beta, the Shockwave series focuses its destructive vibrations into variable shapes.

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Shockwave-ExM9
Weapon (coilgun), technomancy, uncommon (optional attunement)

Sonic Weapon. This weapon deals thunder damage instead of piercing damage. When you score a critical hit against a target with this weapon, the target is deafened until the start of your next turn.

Thunderbeat. This weapon has 2 charges and regains all expended charges daily at dawn. While wielding this weapon, you can use an action expend 1 charge to cast thunderwave from it (save DC 13). When you cast this spell, you can modify it so that it produces thunderous force in a 5-foot-wide, 30-foot-long line instead of a 15-foot cube.

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Optional Attunement. If you choose to attune to this weapon, you can magically recharge the arcane battery that powers it. Whenever you reload this weapon, you can expend a spell slot of any level to reload it instead of physically replacing the battery. The weapon also regains a number of charges equal to the level of the spell slot expended, up to its maximum.

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Shockwave-ExM90 (Rare Variant). The rare version of this weapon has a DC of 15 instead of 13, and also grants a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls.

Shockwave-ExM9X (Very Rare Variant). The very rare version of this weapon has a DC of 17 instead of 13, and also grants a +2 bonus to its attack and damage rolls. When casting thunderwave from it, its effect fills your choice of a 30-foot cube or 50-foot-line instead.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

It'd be wrong to not have a sonic weapon in a futuristic cosmos theme, so here it is! It's got that bulky funky look to it to make it stand out more against the sleeker guns. Current sonic weapons are weird, too - they can sometimes just look like big flat plates.

Using the same guidelines established in the Kiloton item (an uncommon non-attunement item = ~2 casts of thunderwave), we can evaluate this as follows. This one just adds a little more pizzazz to it, a minor change comparable.

[Cosmos] Weapon - Arkus-5 Quasar

An older model of energy weapon from the Blue Arc Corporation, these rifles once saw use in military ground deployments. They are still used in backwater or distant planets despite their propensity for overheating.

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Arkus-5 Quasar
Weapon (coil rifle), technomancy, uncommon (optional attunement)

Energy Weapon. This weapon deals radiant damage instead of piercing damage.

Photon Beam. While you wield this weapon, you can use an action to divert its stored energy and shoot a blistering beam of energy in a 5-foot-wide line up to 30 feet long. A creature that starts its turn in the line or moves into it for the first time on a turn must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 2d8 radiant damage on a failed save or half as much on a success. This beam requires concentration to maintain (as if concentrating on a spell).

At the start of each of your subsequent turns, you can use an action to prolong the beam by making a successful on an Intelligence check to stabilize the heat. The DC begins at 10 and increases by 5 each time you successfully prolong the beam. As part of this action, you can also re-orient the beam's line. If you don't take this action, if you fail the check, or are disarmed, the beam ends. When the beam ends, the Intelligence check DC resets to 10 and the weapon can't produce a beam again for 1d6 + 2 hours while it cools down.

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Optional Attunement. If you choose to attune to this weapon, you can magically recharge the arcane battery that powers it. Whenever you reload this weapon, you can expend a spell slot of any level to reload it instead of physically replacing the battery.

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Arkus-7 (Rare Variant). The rare version of this weapon has these changes. Its save DC is 15 instead of 13; and each time you prolong its beam, the beam's radiant damage increases by 1d8 until the beam ends.

Arkus-9 (Very Rare Variant). The very rare version of this weapon has these changes. It has a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls; its save DC is 17 instead of 13; and each time you prolong its beam, the beam's radiant damage increases by 1d8 until the beam ends.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This one is a rework of the Arkus Quasar Pistol in Cosmos v2, which has been renamed to a rifle (because it's a coil rifle). It's got an added property to bring it in line with the rest of the uncommon items — the classic BZZZZT energy beam that any good sci-fi setting should have. Funny enough I'm pretty sure quasars are pulsing stars, but mega corps aren't known for their proper product names anyway.

This one is a little trickier to grade than normal. Being a coil rifle/longbow, it's generally a martial weapon, so it makes more sense to grade against that. The issue here is that each action use of the beam, the 2d8, sort of equals a thunderwave; there's a couple things working against that though, namely concentration and the increasing Intelligence checks. In the hands of a martial class, this weapon sort of doing as much damage as two attacks would, so it's a weird balance where it's slightly stronger than thunderwave but nerfing it would make it unattractive in the hands of its intended user.

Anyway, with a recharge of 1d6 + 2 hours, you should be using it 2-3 times a day, and expected to make the beam last for 1.5 rounds on average, for a total of ... 7.5d8 bonus damage per day? It kinda depends on a lot of factors!

Theme Poll #5

Wow we are back with another installment of the Cosmos. I've played a couple home games in this setting and they've been a lot of fun. I've wanted to return for a while, so this is a great opportunity. It's also another opportunity for me to return to something designed 2 years ago and revise some of it based on what I have learned! The new compendium will be a merged version of all three Cosmos themes for one gigantic cool book, this time with a slightly better SEO name.

Thank you as always for your generous support! It's so amazing do this at all; you are all wonderful patrons.

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Let's take a look at the options for the next theme. The poll concludes 2 weeks before the release of the most recent compendium (around mid-May). If you have any requests or ideas, feel free to leave a comment below.

• Dungeon Eternal: The Shifting Labyrinth. Descend into the maze-like dungeons of a forgotten city, walls magically built by a mad trap-obsessed, dungeon-loving magoarchitect. Does it guard forbidden secrets? Or do they simply enjoy dungeons? Includes (tentatively) modular dungeons, traps, rooms, encounters, treasures, and dungeon-themed items.

• In Footsteps of Giants. Encounter the societies of giants including new types of giants such as sand and gloom giants, as well as the colossal god they worship that may one day reclaim the world for giantkind.

• Songs of Power.  Peekinto the secret files from the desk of the Ivory League, an inter-disciplinary network of bardic colleges whose artistry transcends political boundaries. Let's give our bards some love! New bard subclasses, bard items, special spells, encounters, sticky situations, and maybe even some inter-bard games!

• Tiny Adventures. You may be the size of mice but adventure never ends. Use makeshift weapons made from everyday objects like the needle rapier, and fight small beasts now the size of dragons! A conversion template transforms existing stat block into their relatively giant counterparts.

[Cosmos] Weapon - Dead Lock

Though the “Dead Lock” designation actually refers to the proprietary firmware inside an auto-weapon, rim runners commonly call the weapon itself by that name. Some famous voidfaring pirates are known for carrying hundreds of collapsible Dead Lock weapons, turning engagements into terrifying storms of whirling blade and metal.

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Dead Lock
Weapon (any auto-weapon), technomancy, uncommon (optional attunement)

Return Protocol. After you hit or miss a target with this weapon, it flies back into your hand if you allow it.

Target Lock. This weapon has 2 charges and regains all expended charges daily at dawn. When you make a thrown attack with this weapon, you can expend 1 charge to grant the attack a benefit of your choice from the options below. If this attack hits, it deals an extra 1d6 weapon damage.

Deadshot. You can roll 1d8 and add it to this attack roll. A target being prone doesn't impose disadvantage on this attack.

Ricoshot. Whether this attack hits or misses, the weapon deflects toward another target within 20 feet of it that is within the normal range of this weapon. Make another attack roll against the new target. You don't deal the extra damage for this second attack.

Seekershot. Blindness, obstacles, and long range cannot impose disadvantage on this attack, as long as the weapon can fly to the target uninterrupted.

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Optional Attunement. If you choose to attune to this weapon, you can magically recharge the arcane battery that powers it. While wielding this weapon, you can use a bonus action to expend a spell slot of any level and cause the weapon to regain 2 expended charges for each level of the spell slot expended, up to its maximum.

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Rare Variant. The rare version of this weapon also grants a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls. It has 4 charges instead of 3.

Very Rare Variant. The very rare version of this weapon also grants a +2 bonus to its attack and damage rolls. It has 5 charges instead of 3.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

Moving to the Auto- family of weapons (the Cosmos-themed version of any Thrown weapon), this device transforms any mundane Thrown weapon into a more special one. I went back-and-forth for a while between weapon version and a device version that gives thrown weapons those properties. I eventually settled for a weapon because 1) Thrown weapon fighting is not really supported by 5e rules, and the device version was really long and clunky just to make it work. A version of this device has been reworked into the list of common rarity futuristic weapons.

Using the same guidelines established in the Kiloton item (an uncommon non-attunement item = ~2 casts of thunderwave), we can evaluate this as follows.

Over a day's use of the 3 charges, you'll deal 3d6 damage + some equivalent bonus effects (pseudo-6d6). Since a thunderwave's two uses equal 8d8 expected damage overall plus added effects, this is okay. The returning property (which I think every thrown magic item should have anyway) makes up the difference.

More importantly, each recharge of the weapon equates 1 level for 2 charges, that means each charge use should equal half a thunderwave. It does, since it deals 1d8 damage plus an effect that is roughly equivalent, making up the other d8 of thunderwave's damage.

[Technomancy] Item - Cards

Quick Download Links:

• PDF Card Files

• JPEG Card Files (A-C)

• JPEG Card Files (D-P)

• JPEG Card Files (R-V)

• 8.5x11 Print & Play

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Item Cards:

• Adrena-Shot

• Aethos Photon Barrier

• Anti-Current Rod

• Arkus-5 Quasar

• Asteroid Belt

• Atomic Edge

• Auto-Scanner

• Black Sun Amulet

• Boot Loader

• Bravos Compact Drone Plating

• Bravos Personal Drone

• Chainwreck

• Dead Lock Imprint

• Etlas Personal Photon Armor

• F-32 “Falcon" Wingblade

• Flight Jets

• Gamma Pinnacle X-2

• Heat Shield

• Helix Thunder

• Horoscope

• Hyperion Rail-7

• Jar of Biomass

• Jar of Stardust

• Kiloton

• Mask of Many Phases

• Mini-Meteor

• Moon Shard

• Nebula Shroud

• Neutron Starhammer

• Orb of Atelia

• Orbital Ring

• Powerjack

• Random Access Mindlink

• Shockwave-ExM9

• Spell Disk

• Spell Driver

• Spell Projector

• Splinterhead K02-A

• Starburst Cannon

• Starfall

• Sun Shard

• Sun Slayer

• Techno-Prosthetic Limb

• Technomage's Eye

• Technoweaver's Holocloak

• Vita-Shot

• Void Grenade

• Void Shard

Note: If an item has variant rarities, it's printed on separate cards.

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CARD KEY

Some information on cards have been simplified to save space. Here's a short key on how it works:

Card Icons. There are several icons located on the lower-right of each card front to assist in quickly identifying their type. If there's no special icon, that means it doesn't apply (e.g. nonmagical items will not have an attunement or rarity icon)

Key Properties. Certain properties have been condensed. You might see some of the following:

• "Attacks" for static bonuses to attack, damage

• "Defenses" for static bonuses to AC, etc.

• "Special" for modifications to standard objects

• "Spells" for shortened spell lists.

Key Words. Immediately after property names, you might see in italics words that simplify the property. Key words like Action; 1/dusk implies the property requires an action to activate, and can only be done once between dusks. DCs as a property references any saving throws the property forces. Others like 3 charges; regains 1d6+3 at dawn describes the charges.

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PRINTING CARDS

The cards are all sized for standard tarot-sized cards (70mm x 120mm) with a 3mm bleed (the area around the edge that is cut off by a printer). There are two ways to print these cards:

• Professional Services. Any standard printing service will let you upload the cards' JPEG files and send them to print. Nowadays, this should be a simple process. You will have to print on both sides.

• Self-Printing. You can also print the Print & Play PDF on 8.5" x 11" or similar-sized paper. After printing, follow the instructions to fold and cut out the cards yourself.

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[Cosmos] Weapon - Splinterhead K02-A

This weapon best embodies the Empyrean Enterprises motto of "Envision, Experiment, Expand." Essentially a modified scatter rail, this weapon's signature tactic siphons excess energy to pulverize ammunition into concussive shrapnel.

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Splinterhead K02-A
Weapon (light railbow), technomancy, uncommon (optional attunement)

Scattershot. The weapon's normal and long ranges are halved.

Kinetic Rounds. When you use this weapon to hit a Large or smaller creature within 5 feet of you with a ranged attack, you can choose to push it 5 feet away from you or knock it prone.

Splinter Blast. This weapon has 2 charges and regains all expended charges daily at dawn. While you wield this weapon, you can use an action to expend 1 charge and spray ammunition from it in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in the cone must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 2d10 piercing damage and is pushed up to 10 feet away from you. On a success, a creature takes half as much damage and isn't pushed. Objects in the cone automatically take this double this damage and are similarly pushed.

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Optional Attunement. If you choose to attune to this weapon, you can magically recharge the arcane battery that powers it. Whenever you reload this weapon, you can expend a spell slot of any level to reload it instead of physically replacing the battery. The weapon also regains a number of charges equal to the level of the spell slot expended, up to its maximum.

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Splinterhead K02-B (Rare Variant). The rare version of this weapon also grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it, and its DC is 15 instead of 13.

Splinterhead K02-X (Very Rare Variant). The very rare version of this weapon also grants a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it, and its DC is 17 instead of 13. It has 3 charges instead of 2.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

The Splinterhead is party of the "shotgun" variant of a light railbow (crossbow), which halves its range in exchange for Kinetic Rounds (the compendium will have a common version that is just the Scatterrail).

Scattershot and Kinetic Rounds basically cancel each other out as a benefit vs drawback (also Kinetic Rounds is a close-ranged ranged shot, so it's disadvantage unless you got some feature that helps you with it).

Splinter Blast basically works like a single thunderwave spell with a slightly worse damage type (2d8 vs 2d10), but good damage to objects. I explained how a non-attunement uncommon weapon sorta equates to two casts of a 1st-level spell in the Kiloton weapon.

Overall, the balance works. BUT, as always, GMs just make sure to not throw a bunch of these at your players, as their limited x/day uses can technically add up (though it's sorta ok since each use is only a weakish 1st-level spell).

[Cosmos] Weapon - Kiloton

The heaviest assault model from PressTech Industries, weapons from this product line incorporates a small nuclear engine into its business end.

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Kiloton
Weapon (any power-weapon), technomancy, uncommon (optional attunement)

Atomic Smash. This weapon has 2 charges and regains all expended charges daily at dawn. While you wield this weapon, you can use an action to expend any number of charges to produce an explosive blast in a 20-foot radius sphere centered on you. Each creature in the area except you must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 1d8 radiant damage and 1d8 necrotic damage for each charge expended. On a success, a creature only takes half as much damage. Deadly radioactive energy lingers in the sphere's area until the start of your next turn — for the duration, any creature in the area (including you) is poisoned until it exits the area.

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Optional Attunement. If you choose to attune to this weapon, you can magically recharge its integrated arcane battery. While you wield the weapon, you can use an action to expend a spell slot of any level, causing the weapon to regain a number of charges equal to the level of the spell slot expended, up to its maximum.

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Megaton (Rare Variant). The rare version of this weapon has 4 charges instead of 2, and its DC is 15 instead of 13.

Gigaton (Very Rare Variant). The rare version of this weapon also grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it. It has 5 charges instead of 2, and its DC is 17 instead of 13.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This weapon is part of several that aims to expand on and give some of the Cosmos futuristic weapons added use and flavor. This one is the power-weapon, which uses a propelled head and replaces most bludgeoning melee weapons. For this one, the thought of literally smacking a nuke was really exciting.

Being a non-attuned weapon its power measurement is fairly straightforward. A +1 weapon (uncommon) with its persistent attack/damage bonus is similar to ~2 casts of a 1st-level spell per day — each thunderwave deals ~18 damage (2d8 times two targets) and a +1 weapon hits ~30-40 times per day for about that much bonus damage.

Each use of Kiloton's Atomic Smash, I compare to a 1st-level spell - same damage as a thunderwave, plus a temporary poisoned condition that can easily be avoided with movement cost (plus it can also affect you and allies). Ultimately at this level, two uses of this property makes sense as for an Uncommon, no-attunement item.

If attuned, each replenishment of Atomic Smash grants 1 charge per spell level. A bit more situational since each charge of Atomic Smash is slightly less powerful than a 1st-level spell. Mostly flavor.

All in all, pretty sick.

[Glimmerreach] Item Cards

Quick Download Links:

• PDF Card Files

• JPEG Card Files

• 8.5x11 Print & Play

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Item Cards:

• Aeon Fragment

• Chaos Blade

• Cloak of Blossoms

• Cracked Scorcher

• Crown of the Archfey

• Dawnsinger

• Duskchant

• Fervent Dagger

• Glimmer Lens

• Glimmering Finblade

• Maquillage of Glamour

• Nightwhisper

• Nooncaller

• Pike Prismatika

• Shield of Twilight

• Spellfist

• Thistlespire

Note: If an item has variant rarities, it's printed on separate cards.

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CARD KEY

Some information on cards have been simplified to save space. Here's a short key on how it works:

Card Icons. There are several icons located on the lower-right of each card front to assist in quickly identifying their type. If there's no special icon, that means it doesn't apply (e.g. nonmagical items will not have an attunement or rarity icon)

Key Properties. Certain properties have been condensed. You might see some of the following:

• "Attacks" for static bonuses to attack, damage

• "Defenses" for static bonuses to AC, etc.

• "Special" for modifications to standard objects

• "Spells" for shortened spell lists.

Key Words. Immediately after property names, you might see in italics words that simplify the property. Key words like Action; 1/dusk implies the property requires an action to activate, and can only be done once between dusks. DCs as a property references any saving throws the property forces. Others like 3 charges; regains 1d6+3 at dawn describes the charges.

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PRINTING CARDS

The cards are all sized for standard tarot-sized cards (70mm x 120mm) with a 3mm bleed (the area around the edge that is cut off by a printer). There are two ways to print these cards:

• Professional Services. Any standard printing service will let you upload the cards' JPEG files and send them to print. Nowadays, this should be a simple process. You will have to print on both sides.

• Self-Printing. You can also print the Print & Play PDF on 8.5" x 11" or similar-sized paper. After printing, follow the instructions to fold and cut out the cards yourself.

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[Cosmos] Weapon - Chainwreck

Mass-produced by Empyrean Enterprises, these weapons are standard-issue personal melee weapons for exoplantery assault forces. Soldiers know them by their nickname "Chainwreck," rather than their official designations of Drive-Chain Blade Series Resolute-1 through 4.

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Chainwreck
Weapon (any chain blade weapon), technomancy, uncommon (optional attunement)

Jagged Edge. When you attack with this weapon and miss a target's AC by 1, the target takes 1d4 slashing damage.

Drive Saw. While you wield this weapon, you can use a bonus action to activate a switch and power up its cutting chain. For the next minute, you have a +1 bonus to attack rolls made with this weapon and if you damage a target with this weapon's blade, including through the Jagged Edge property, you deal an extra 1d6 slashing damage. Once used, this property can't be used again until the battery recharges at dawn.

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Optional Attunement. If you choose to attune to this weapon, you can magically recharge its integrated arcane battery. While you wield the weapon, you can use an action to expend a spell slot of any level to charge it, regaining an expended use of the Drive Saw property.

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Rare Variant. For the rare version of this weapon, its Drive Saw property can be used three times instead of once, regaining expended uses daily at dawn. If you attune to it and expend a spell slot to charge its battery, you regain a number of expended uses of the Drive Saw property equal to the spell slot level, regaining up to three uses.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

Edit: Revised extra damage to d6. I can't believe I thought thunderwave dealt 3d8 damage for so long — it's 2d8! It's burning hands that deals three dice (3d6) of damage. The max number of uses have also been limited to prevent players from "storing" spells in the weapon.

Hello and welcome all to the newest theme! We're going to be diving into the technomancy world partially hinted/established in the previous Cosmos compendiums, with new items, new subclasses, a couple spells, and a Gridspace location. As part of this theme, I'll also be incorporating it into the Cosmos compendium and update it to v3, which includes a variety of extra fixes and improvements.

The Chainwreck is a chainsaw blade weapon, one of several intended to make use of the reflavored futuristic weapons introduced in the Cosmos compendium. Jagged Edge is a ribbon that provides an extra 2.5 damage every 1/20 attacks, flavored as "grazing" your enemies with the saw teeth. Making 30-50 attacks per day, you'll deal an average of 5 extra damage — hence the ribbon.

The Drive Saw property is much more useful, briefly transforming this into a rare-level weapon. Given you can only use it once, this places the final item at Uncommon (including the fact that you don't need to attune to it). This is comparable to a +1 weapon, instead concentrating all its benefits into one battle rather than the whole day.

The optional attunement grants an extra ability to use Drive Saw more often. This mainly offers an alternative for spell consumption, best utilized by eldritch knights or multiclassers. Assuming a 1st-level spell slot, we can compare Drive Saw to thunderwave. Thunderwave deals 2d8 damage across multiple targets (let's assume 2). Drive Saw deals slightly more (1d6 extra damage for 3-5 rounds of combat), so we can consider it a minor improvement for attunement.

[Radiance] Feats - Ellumaran Feats

This is the isolated page for the feats found in the Reign of Radiance compendium, so that you can print them if you wish.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

The feats here can be divided into three groups, which fulfill 3 purposes during character creation:

• Combat-Oriented. The Radiant Warrior feat empowers your fighting style with light-based features. Excellent for any martial class with a light-magic background.

• Magic-Oriented. The Lumemancer Initiate & Adept feats gives you access to lumemancy spells. Excellent for any class - martials can benefit from the utility; casters can augment their spell lists with them.

• Roleplay/Background-Oriented. The five lumenguild feats (the lumenguilds are the big four guilds in the city) gives you a (implied) connection to the guild as well as some minor advances in lumemancy. My favorites are the modified light cantrips!

[Radiance] Monster - Glow Wyrm

Here's the independent page for the Glow Wyrm. The glow wyrms are monsters unique to Ellumara. No one's quite sure if they're natural or experiments, but they're there all the same.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

Of course, these are a play on "glow worms." I'm sure there's some fun moments here when players are sent to kill some glow worms but they then realize they're glow wyrms.

The goal here was designing some special monsters more bespoke to the setting. They also fill in a weird lack of non-intelligent Dragon creatures that currently only have wyverns, drakes, and some other ones. It would be nice to be able to quest and slay Dragons without wondering about whether you killed some intelligent being who's got friends or some repercussion, etc.

All in all, the notable feature is the Luminescent Spray, which is like a typical breath weapon except it has added faerie fire effects. It makes fights a little more strategic because now you'd want to definitely avoid the spray rather than tank the damage, especially if the adult wyrms are accompanied by groups of hatchlings (mentioned in flavor text) who will take great advantage of the free advantage to whittle down health.

[Radiance] Monster - Glowforged Guardian

This is the individual page for the Glowforged Guardian, the mysterious huge constructs that were left behind by Ellumara's founder. Don't mess with them because they will cleave you in half. They are perhaps clues to the founder's disappearance...

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

These constructs are CR 19 - deliberately dangerous so that no one should want to mess with them. They're as standard as constructs come; they've got all the features they need, which is a lot, so to avoid excess, the only notable feature they have is Divine Interfusion, which grants them additional protection against evils, which in-universe makes sense (they're meant to be used as soldiers against the shadow aberrations).

Their melee attacks with their light swords have a built-in blind mechanic. What's fun about this is that they can make their melee attacks have a reach of 30 feet for a round, which makes kiting them tricky. This distant light-beam-slash deals less damage but still has the same blinding potential. Very deadly.

[Compendium] - Reign of Radiance

Download the pdf to check out the Lumemancer Archetype — a unique mechanic that allows you to swap in new subclass features — as well as a lumemancer spell list, 8 radiant feats, 6 light spells, 72 adventure hooks & discoveries, 32 radiant items, and 10 radiant foes, including swap-in stat blocks for the shadow aberrations of the Black-Beyond. Within the book, you'll also discover 18 pages of lore about the Radiant City of Ellumara and the mysteries and legacy left behind by the sudden vanishing of its founder.

When I wrote this compendium I really thought I wasn't going to hit over 30 pages, but the page-count caught up to me. I often repeat this but I'm still aiming only for ~20 pages  for the next compendium.

Here's a couple independent snippets of the book so you can print them out easier:

• Glowforged Guardian - huge glowing constructs that are dormant around the city, for some unknown reason

• Glow Wyrms - glowing draconic wyrms you can slay! Just avoid their luminescent acid

• Ellumaran Feats - a collection of light-magic-based feats for your Ellumaran character

Thank you patrons old and new for your spectacular support. Please enjoy the little pocket of world here and make something special in your games!

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

I seemed to have gotten carried away with the page count again, though not as far as Shadow of the Blighted Sun. The content all feels right and necessary within the scope of what felt exciting to explore. The introduction of lumemancy and its implementation necessitated inclusion of certain spells, monsters, and backgrounds. I feel what's presented is a fairly brief top-down slice view and there's definitely more depth and potential implied.

Overall, if you've got a character or city you want to create/use in a game that's themed around light in all its forms (heat, radiance, guidance, protection, destruction, etc), this is the book for you.

Here's a quick overview of what you can find in Reign of Radiance:

• New Setting. A new city with just enough vagueness and limitation so that you can drop it wholly in your world or pull parts of it that get you excited. Ellumara is a (relatively) magical location, has four big guilds that run it, has a "new" type of light magic, and includes several mysterious features to draw players in. For example, 33 massive dormant glowing constructs scattered around the city wait for unknown reasons ... perhaps for their mysterious creator's return? Hmm...

• Adventure Hooks & Mysteries. Ellumara's founder, an eccentric genius, fought a war against shadow aberrations, created lumemancy, created the glowforged constructs, and more. One day he vanished and left behind all kinds of clues and mysteries. Instead of a single explanation for the mysteries, there are tables of ideas that offer solutions, reasons, and examples of clues to follow if you're running a treasure-hunt style game. Pick the one you best vibe with!

• New Magic Type. Light magic, or "lumemancy" (from "lume") is presented as modifications to existing rules. You'll learn what makes spells "light magic", modify existing spells to make them lumemancy. This is designed to be open-ended so that you can add spells not found in the SRD (the legal public rules document this compendium is constrained by) to the lumemancer spell list.

• New Rule Type: the Archetype! Because lumemancy is so broad, there's no single subclass or feat. Instead, the Lumemancer Archetype presents a bunch of features that you can swap/replace subclasses that you would normally get. For example, because light magic broadly includes evocation, conjuration, and illusion, you could play an Illusion Wizard and swap out the 2nd-level features for something more in-flavor with light magic. Really fun idea worth exploring for the future.

• New Spells. There are some reprints. Standouts: lash of light is a lovely weapon-based spell for gishes (like flaming sword but different). Shining shackle is a unique auto-success spell that plays with areas of bright light and darkness - flavorful to cast; fun to throw at players.

• New Feats. A bunch of new feats for that lumemancy/light magic flavor. One for the fighters, several Magic Initiate style feats for lumemancy, and some extras for those who have a background with one of Ellumara's four guilds. The guild feats are my favorites because they let you learn a cantrip, and have limited-use modifications for those cantrips that are flavorful for their guild.

• New Items. A lot of light/radiance related items. Includes one shadow-based artifact to sort of contrast with the light-based artifact in Shadow of the Blighted Sun. Self-explanatory!

• New Monsters. As usual there's the basic ones like lumemancers and light-based city guards. The ones that stand out are the glowforged guardians (the big constructs the city founder left behind) and a modification template for the unnamable eldritch shadow aberrations that the city's always at war with. There's a fun table filled with the aberrations' reference names (like "King-Who-Enthralls") and the statblock they modify (aboleth).

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[Preview] - Reign of Radiance

This is a preview for May's Reign of Radiance compendium! This 57-page compendium presents a Lumemancer Archetype — a unique mechanic that allows you to swap in new subclass features — as well as a lumemancer spell list, 8 radiant feats, 6 light spells, 72 adventure hooks & discoveries, 32 radiant items, and 10 radiant foes, including swap-in stat blocks for the shadow aberrations of the Black-Beyond.

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Want to see more? Purchase it now either through Patreon's Shop or via DriveThruRPG!

[Collab] Bonus Adventure - The Collector

Here's some bonus collaboration content organized by the awesome Kelfecil's Tales! They are a prolific adventure/content writer for whom I was able to contribute artwork for. You'll recognize the artwork for the Orb of the All or the Nothing and Eulogy, but with entirely new, different stats.

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The Collector

A curious “collector” has been gathering all sorts of items and creatures so that he may store and exhibit them in his mansion. However, a few very valuable exhibits have been stolen from his collection and now he is offering a handsome reward to anyone who can retrieve them for him.

In The Collector the adventurers will have to take on the Night's Blade drow gang who have stolen some very valuable exhibits from the Collector. The thieves must be dealt with and the exhibits are to be returned intact. The reward would attract any kind of adventurer to this kind of task.

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Collaborators

The Collector is a collaboration organized by Kelfecil's Tales! We bring you a pack full of stuff that you can take straight to your table (or your favorite VTT) and enjoy an epic TTRPG adventure with your friends!

• Collaboration Organization, Narrative Design, PDF Design, Writing: Kelfecil's Tales

• Map Artwork: Ori the Cartographer

• Token Artwork: Dr.Mapzo

[Radiance] Weapon - Gleam

This magical relic was once the personal weapon of Elmond Brighthammer, the once grand archmage, High Beacon, and luminous founder of Ellumara the Radiant City. Legends speak of the sword's deadly efficiency in battle, cutting through magical darkness with ease. Though the sword disappeared along with Elmond after the Vanishing, archivists speculate it still remains within Ellumara's borders — perhaps hidden within the Lumineyre or guarded by a dormant glowforged.

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Gleam
Weapon (rapier), legendary (requires attunement)

This weapon appears to be a rapier hilt. While you wield the hilt, you can use a bonus action to summon a 60-foot-long light beam from the hilt or dismiss it. While the beam persists, the hilt sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet, while the beam sheds dim light out to 5 feet around it.

Lightforged Blade. While the beam persists, the first 15-foot section of it is powerful enough for use as a weapon. While you wield it, it is considered a rapier with a reach of 15 feet. You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it. Instead of piercing damage, it deals 1d8 radiant damage to targets that are within 5 feet of you, 1d6 radiant damage to targets that are greater than 5 feet but within 10 feet of you, and 1d4 radiant damage to targets that are greater than 10 feet away from you.

Radiant Eminence. This hilt is a spellcasting focus. When you cast a spell through it that deals fire or lightning damage, you can change its damage type to radiant. Additionally, while you grasp the hilt, you can cast the daylight and guiding bolt spells from it (+10 to hit). Once either spell has been cast, that spell can't be cast from the hilt again until the next dawn.

Gleaming Slash. While you wield this hilt, you can use an action to briefly flare its deadly light and make a single straight slice in the air. The beam cuts through a 90-degree arc. Each creature within 60 feet of you inside this arc and not behind total must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, taking 6d8 radiant damage on a failed save or half as much on a successful one. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn.

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Very Rare Variant. The very rare version of this weapon lacks the Gleaming Slash property.

Artifact Variant. The artifact version of this weapon has these changes. Its Gleaming Slash property can be used twice instead of once, regaining expended uses at dawn; its Radiant Eminence property allows you to cast dispel magic from it at will, targeting only spells that produce magical darkness. At GM's discretion, control of this weapon also has further consequences, such as granting control of a glowforged guardian or access to an Ellumaran secret.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This weapon was designed on a whim pretty late in the game. I normally shoot for a broad range of items for every theme - a balanced number of item types, offense vs defense, character types, magic vs physical effects, etc. Unfortunately that's not algorithm friendly since weapons tend to do better than other types. While writing the book, I also noticed while many items related to radiance, few items actually had much to do with a reign or simple light itself. The idea of a sword belonging to Ellumara's most iconic figure quickly appeared after that.

This weapon has the base properties of a sun blade, but with some additional changes that brings it up to Legendary. The first change is the light it sheds, which is longer and more orientated, but light is pretty inconsequential at this tier of play. Also I imagine comparing light beam sizes is ... one way to determine a reign.

The Lightforged Blade's extra reach I value at around half the utility of a +1 weapon. For the most part, it's just a weaker Reach weapon. Reach isn't as valuable at this level since many monsters have some reach, plus you might as well move in close for the full damage. Characters without proficiency with Reach weapons can benefit, but those characters typically have better ranged options anyway, or in the case of a rogue, already have options available to them that reproduce the benefits of Reach (namely bonus action Disengage, or perhaps a whip). Where this weapon excels is covering a MUCH larger opportunity attack area (a whopping 15 feet), but 1d4-1d6 damage is pretty minor - assuming enemies even move at all. Note that this weapon doesn't interact with Polearm Master feat; and that 15 feet offers too much leeway to benefit from Sentinel feat (as foes can move 15 feet away past your reach before you can immobilize them).

Radiant Eminence grants some utility and damage spells (a good guiding bolt plus a rarely useful daylight). Swapping damage types is nice, but usually situational.

Gleaming Slash rounds out the final property with 2/day big damage. A 60-foot arc (basically a flat version of a 60-foot cone) is large, but not as dangerous as one might expect, since combat is usually messy and makes it hard to get more than say 2-3 enemies in a cone without either hitting an obstacle or your ally.

Overall the final calculation place squarely inside Legendary range, though with an optimistically low estimate. Still, it won't break much, and Legendary items should feel like it's powerful anyway.

The Artifact version of the item introduces extra properties as well as a GM-fiat property relating to the item's place in the fantasy world of Ellumara. Can't wait to share that all with you!

[Radiance] Item - That-Which-Hungers-For-Light

Is this thing a cloak? A portal to another plane of existence? An open maw poised to consume? All answers shall be revealed once the cloak is donned...

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That-Which-Hungers-For-Light
Wondrous item, artifact (requires attunement)

Sentience. An unknowable eldritch being from the darkness before light speaks through this weapon. The End of Radiance is a sentient neutral evil item with an Intelligence of 18, a Wisdom of 15, and a Charisma of 16. It has darkvision out to 120 feet, and magical darkness does not impede its darkvision. It can communicate telepathically with its wielder. The eldritch being has lofty goals of returning the planes to the darkness of void, but is patient with its machinations. It seeks out other evil creatures and trades forbidden knowledge for assistance bringing its physical form into the mortal realm.

Eye of Void. While you wear this cloak, you have darkvision out to 120 feet. Magical darkness does not impede this darkvision.

Devourer of Light. While wearing this cloak, you can cast the dispel magic spell from it at will, targeting only spells that create light. The spell uses your spellcasting ability. If you are not a spellcaster, your spellcasting ability modifier is +0. When you dispel a spell this way, you gain temporary hit points equal to five times the level of the spell.

Hungry Shadows. The cloak's shadows expand your reach like a hungry void. While wearing this cloak in an area of dim light or darkness, you are always aware of the vague presence of creatures within a radius of you that have an Intelligence score of 4 or higher. This radius is 10 feet if you are in dim light, 15 feet if you are in darkness, or 20 feet if you are in magical darkness. While aware of such creatures, you always know their surface thoughts — what is most on its mind in that moment. Additionally, when a creature you are aware of in this way ends its turn within this radius, you can choose to deal 1d6 necrotic damage to it (no action required).

Spellcasting. The cloak has 5 charges and regains 1d4+1 charges daily at midnight. While you wear the cloak, you can cast one of the following spells from it by expending the necessary charges (save DC 19): black tentacles (4 charges), darkness (2 charges), fear (3 charges), fog cloud (1 charge).

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Legendary Variant. The legendary version of this cloak has these changes. The Hungry Shadows property does not inform you of creatures' surface thoughts, and its necrotic damage is 1d4 instead of 1d6. The cloak has 3 charges instead of 5, regaining 1d3 expended charges daily at midnight, and lacks the black tentacles spell. The spell save DC is 18 instead of 19.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

Like how Shadows of the Blighted Sun had a light-based artifact that would destroyed the friendly shadows, I figured this theme should have a similar artifact that destroys light.

The base ability to see through magical darkness is very powerful, especially when coupled with the cloak's darkness spell and the Hungry Shadows property (the radiance expands in magical darkness). If there's a strong magical light in the way, Devourer of Light helps even the field.

• The magical darkvision would already be a Rare item due to how it combos well with darkness spells.

• Devourer of Light brings it halfway to Very Rare. It is generally situational (how many enemies even cast spells?) and only grants 5 temporary HP per spell level (so it's not worth the spell usage for generating the temp HP). Dispelling pure magical light, while useful for your own shadow tactics, still requires an action. The cost of this action is high since the dispel doesn't really benefit your allies (who would normally be unaffected by said light anyways, e.g. light or daylight). Other spells that create light, such as moonbeam or flaming sphere, are dispellable and more common, but once again fairly rare in normal play.

• Hungry Shadows is the meat of the item, bringing it directly to Legendary level. The "rogue blindsense" helps you detect most invisible or Hidden creatures within a small radius of shadows, as well as learn surface thoughts for roleplay encounters. Not that many enemies use invisibility or Hiding tactics, so it's not the most broken of abilities (Hiders often use ranged attacks anyways, from outside the range). The bonus damage is nice too, and combos well with casting darkness.

• The cloak's spells bring the item to the Artifact level, particularly when its darkness spell is used well. I intentionally limit that to twice a day for non-invested characters, though any appropriate mage can still make great use of it. Remember that the magical darkness only generates within a radius (so enemies can just stay out of it) and can impede allies (so they either get focused on by enemies if they're outside or they bumble around blind if they're inside).

On paper it all seems to be within the Artifact limit, and I nerfed it several times just to be sure it won't break most games.

The Legendary version removes the constant detect thoughts spell (which is worth a lot) and nerfs the damage and spells. Only 1 darkness per day is a good nerf to get it to level.

[Radiance] Shield - Magnified Aegis

Originally designed to augment and manipulate lumemancy, this ancient invention has since been enchanted to work with any form of magical energy. Specialized Luxwatch teams typically employ at least one member with such a shield.

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Magnified Aegis
Shield, rare (requires attunement)

While you wield this shield, you have advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks you make to examine minute objects or fine details. Over an appropriate length of time, you can also use it to ignite flammable objects, provided you have a source of strong light.

Arcanvex Lens. You can use this shield's convex lens to concentrate energy into powerful streams. Whenever you produce a magical or energy-based effect in a cone that originates from you, you can transform the area of effect into a 5-foot-wide line of a length equal to the cone's size. If the effect deals damage, you can re-roll up to two of its damage dice but must use the new results. If the effect forces creatures to make a saving throw but does not result in damage dealt, you impose disadvantage on the first saving throw made by the target closest to you.

Additionally, if a willing ally within 5 feet of you produces an applicable cone-shaped effect, you can use your reaction to alter the effect as described by this property.

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Uncommon Variant. The uncommon version of this shield has this change. When you use its Arcanvex Lens property, you can re-roll one die instead of two, and you can't grant this property's benefits to an ally.

Very Rare Variant. The very rare version of this shield also grants a +1 bonus to your AC.

Legendary Variant. The legendary version of this shield also grants a +2 bonus to your AC. Additionally, when a creature within 5 feet of you takes radiant damage from a ranged attack or spell, you can use your reaction to magnify the damage. For each radiant damage die rolled, the target takes 2 fire damage.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

No light-based theme would be complete without a magnifying glass or lens. The concept is pretty simple — focus light (or in this case, magical energy) into a stronger effect. When measuring areas of effect, we typically assume a shape affects 2 enemies; for this we'll assume changing the effect shape doesn't affect the number of targets. What is relevant to the power calculation is instead the direct benefit involved:

• Re-rolling 1 die is a ~1.5 extra damage increase

• Re-rolling 2 separate dice would be ~3 extra damage per target per spell (I'm sure it's a bit more complicated but for the sake of time)

• Assuming the character (or ally) has spell slots to cast some kind of cone spell every round (or a conical breath weapon), and assuming ~15 rounds of combat per day (5 combats, ~3 rounds each)

• If two targets are affected by each effect, that's 6*15=90 extra damage per day, which would be comparable to, say, a +2 weapon's damage over the course of a day (after adjusted for attunement & the attack bonus).

Unsurprisingly, few cone-shaped spells or effects that don't deal damage exist, but a single disadvantage per effect carries about as much weight as what is outlined above.

Finally, of course, you can use the shield like a typical magnifying lens. The text simply codifies it; most GMs would probably allow the same use of a regular magnifying lens. This would be a ribbon ability, with little effect on the item's power level.

[Nightmares] Item Cards

Quick Download Links:

• PDF Card Files

• JPEG Card Files

• 8.5x11 Print & Play

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Item Cards:

• Dream Eater

• Dream Snatcher

• Dreamscape Decanter

• Eyestitch Remnant

• Hazebearer

• Lantern of Tranquility

• Moonstrike

• Night-Night Hammer

• Nightweaver's Needles

• Phantom Sand

• Psychosis

• Riftseeker

• Shadowcast Candle

• Sleepwalker's Mantle

Note: If an item has variant rarities, it's printed on separate cards.

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CARD KEY

Some information on cards have been simplified to save space. Here's a short key on how it works:

Card Icons. There are several icons located on the lower-right of each card front to assist in quickly identifying their type. If there's no special icon, that means it doesn't apply (e.g. nonmagical items will not have an attunement or rarity icon)

Key Properties. Certain properties have been condensed. You might see some of the following:

• "Attacks" for static bonuses to attack, damage

• "Defenses" for static bonuses to AC, etc.

• "Special" for modifications to standard objects

• "Spells" for shortened spell lists.

Key Words. Immediately after property names, you might see in italics words that simplify the property. Key words like Action; 1/dusk implies the property requires an action to activate, and can only be done once between dusks. DCs as a property references any saving throws the property forces. Others like 3 charges; regains 1d6+3 at dawn describes the charges.

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PRINTING CARDS

The cards are all sized for standard tarot-sized cards (70mm x 120mm) with a 3mm bleed (the area around the edge that is cut off by a printer). There are two ways to print these cards:

• Professional Services. Any standard printing service will let you upload the cards' JPEG files and send them to print. Nowadays, this should be a simple process. You will have to print on both sides.

• Self-Printing. You can also print the Print & Play PDF on 8.5" x 11" or similar-sized paper. After printing, follow the instructions to fold and cut out the cards yourself.

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[Radiance] Item - Hololight Prism

The precursor to arcane holographic devices, these carefully-crafted prisms refract arcane photon energy to produce magical illusory images. Some artificers can encode imperceptible imperfections into the crystal to produce custom illusions.

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Hololight Prism
Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement by a spellcaster)

This refracting prism can be used as a spellcasting focus. When you cast a spell through this prism and roll for damage, you can re-roll one die of your choice from each pair of matching damage dice results, if any. You must use the new results. Groups of three or more matching results do not count as a pair. If the spell rolls separate pools of dice for damage, such as each ray of the scorching ray spell, pairs are selected from all damage dice rolled for that spell, collectively.

Lumemancy Refraction. When you use this prism to cast a spell that produces light, you can choose to refract the light produce magical images instead. Your spell's effect is replaced by that of a different spell described below. The effect is determined by the level of the original spell.

• Cantrip. If you refract a light-producing cantrip, such as light or dancing lights, your spell instead produces the effect of a minor illusion cantrip.

• 1st-level or 2nd-level Spell. If you refract a light-producing 1st-level or 2nd-level spell, such as color spray or faerie fire, your spell instead produces the effect of a silent image spell.

• 3rd-level or Higher Spell. If you refract a light-producing spell of 3rd-level or higher, such as daylight, your spell instead produces the effect of a major image spell.

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Imprinted Message Variant. Master glassworkers or transmutation mages can produce special prisms encoded with messages that can only be revealed by passing magical light through it. When you refract a spell using the prism’s Lumemancy Manipulation property, the prism’s new spell effect instead displays an illusion pre-programmed by the prism’s maker, as if the maker had cast that illusory spell. Thus, a single prism can be encoded with up to three messages this way, each revealed by spells of different levels.

Over the course of a short or long rest, a character proficient in both Arcana and glassblower's tools can expend 15 gp worth of materials and a spell slot of an appropriate level to modify any encoded message of choice from a hololight prism. The level of the expended spell slot must equal the spell level associated with the message you modify.

Additionally, a small picture or a short written message no longer than 25 words can also be encoded into the prism, designed to be revealed by nonmagical light such as candlelight. Because it is nonmagical, modifying this short message does not require expending spell slots.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

A light/radiance-based theme would be incomplete without an item that explores prisms and splitting light. The raybreaker item from Unearthed Gems fits this perfectly, but I also had a different idea in mind.

The hololight prism incorporates a fun mechanic that allows you to "split" pairs of dice rolls. It's not mechanically significant, since if you roll many dice you're more likely to receive triples, and you wouldn't re-roll high-result pairs (occurs half the time). It's most effective for mid-level spells, elevating their damage. It's best paired with spells that roll 2-4 dice, such as cantrips past 5th-level, a 2nd-level scorching ray, or an appropriate magic missile. Overall, the average damage increase is maybe only 10-40 extra damage per day, truly dependent on the spell choice.

The prism's other feature basically expands your spell list. You still expend your spell slots as normal. It's a rather minor benefit overall.

The imprinted message variant is primarily a roleplay and exploration variant. It is less of an item for players and more for NPCs who are sending secret messages to players. The modification requirements (glassblowers tools and Arcana) makes it generally unlikely player characters will be able to modify it. This item would be well-suited to secret organizations such as a rogues guild or the assassin-artisan guild Master Artisans from the Tools of the Trade compendium.

[Radiance] Armor - Coppercoil Plating

The individual plates of this armor are held together by charged copper wiring and the magnetic lightning of Corespark technology. When charged, the plates crackle with arcing energy, powerful enough to illuminate an entire room.

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Coppercoil Plating
Armor (breastplate, scale mail, or splint), very rare (requires attunement)

While you wear this armor, you have a +1 bonus to your AC. This armor has 5 charges for the following properties and regains all expended charges daily at dawn.

Illumination. While this armor has at least 1 charge, it sheds dim light in a radius equal to 5 times the number of charges it has.

Live Plating. You have resistance to lightning damage while you wear this armor. When a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee weapon attack, you can use your reaction to deal lightning damage to it equal to the number of charges the armor has.

Electrify Surface. As a bonus action, you can touch a surface and expend up to 3 charges to siphon energy into it. For the next minute, the surface in a circular area centered on that point becomes electrified. The circle has a radius of 5 times the number of charges expended, and the radius is doubled if the surface either mostly metal or a conductive liquid. For the circle's duration, when a creature other than you starts its turn in the area or enters it for the first time on a turn, it takes 1d8 lightning damage. The area also sheds dim light out to 10 feet.

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Rare Variant. The rare version of this item lacks the bonus to your AC, and has 4 charges instead of 5.

Legendary Variant. The legendary version of this item grants a +2 bonus to your AC instead of +1 and has 6 charges instead of 5.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

Like the other Corespark guild item (Thunderstrike), this armor is designed with a reciprocal choice — the more charges you have the more you can damage your attackers, but depleting your charges also lets you damage or zone out your attackers. Notably, most wearers of the armor should be able to exit the circle once it's been created (15 or 30 ft maximum radius), but riskier melee players can choose to stay in the circle to draw in opponents (the armor's lightning resistance helps).

In terms of power factor, it's rather appropriate for Very Rare. The +1 bonus to AC and resistance are both things normally found in rare armors, but are typically considered underpowered for their rarity level (a +1 shield is uncommon). Taken together, they're halfway between rare and very rare (for an attuned item). The charges make up the difference — maximum 5 damage means about 5 damage per round consuming a reaction (which isn't significant at this level of play considering how prevalent multiattacks are, and that half the time your reaction is better served for other things like counterspells or more damage opportunity attacks). The electrified surface is equally not as signficant (since it requires spending charges) and most creatures should be able to just avoid it in a typical combat.

[Radiance] Weapon - Thunderstrike

Early aspects of railbow technology can be traced back to this innovative Corespark assault tool. The pro: an unstable energy-inefficient power core in the weapon launches projectiles from this crossbow at deadly speeds. The con: there's an unstable energy-inefficient power core in the weapon.

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Thunderstrike
Weapon (heavy crossbow), rare (requires attunement)

You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon.

Chargelight Rail. This weapon can hold a maximum of 3 charges. While the weapon has at least 1 charge, it sheds dim light in a radius equal to 5 times the number of charges it has. Additionally, ammunition launched from it glow with dim light during flight and deal extra lightning damage to targets they hit. The extra damage equals the number of charges the weapon has.

Unstable Core. The weapon gains 1 charge each time you miss an attack made with it, its energy crackling unexpended. Whenever this weapon would gain a charge while it already has maximum possible charges, the energy immediately overflows. Roll a d6 and consult the Lightning Discharge table to determine what happens; then roll a d4 and consult the Charge Depletion table to determine how charges are expended. You can use an action to crank a release valve on the weapon to deplete all of its charges.

Lightning Discharge
d6 / Effect

• 6 - A blast of energy erupts from the weapon, producing the effects of a lightning bolt spell as if you had cast it (save DC 15). Instead of its normal damage, this effect deals 2d6 lightning damage for each charge the weapon has. The spaces that this effect's line passes through sparkle with residual energy and are filled with dim light for 1 minute.
• 5 - Excess energy vents from the weapon into your ammunition. The first attack roll you make with this weapon before the end of your next turn deals an extra 1d10 lightning damage.
• 3-4 - Sparks burst forth from the weapon in a 10-foot radius sphere centered on it. The sphere is filled with dim light for the next 1 minute, and creatures in this dim light cannot benefit from invisibility.
• 1-2 - An explosive shock erupts from the weapon. The weapon produces the effect of a thunderwave spell whose area is centered on itself (save DC 15). Instead of its normal damage, this effect deals 1d8 thunder damage for each charge the weapon has. You are also subjected to the spell’s effect. The effect’s area glows with dim light until the start of your next turn.

Charge Depletion
d4 / Effect

• 4 - The weapon loses 1 charge.
• 3 - The weapon loses all of its charges.
• 2 - The weapon overheats. It loses all of its charges and can't gain charges for the next 10 minutes.
• 1 - The weapon undergoes a contained meltdown. It loses all of its charges and can't gain charges for the next 1d4 hours.

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Uncommon Variant. The uncommon version of the weapon does not grant a static bonus to attack and damage made with it (it still benefits from the extra damage detailed in its Chargelight Rail property). The DC of its Lightning Discharge effects are 13.

Very Rare Variant. The very rare version of the weapon grants a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it, and has a maximum of 4 charges instead of 3. The DC of its Lightning Discharge effects are 17.

Legendary Variant. The legendary version of the weapon grants a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it, and has a maximum of 4 charges instead of 3. The DC of its Lightning Discharge effects are 18.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

One of my favorites for sure, but a pain to balance. The weapon's conceit is pushing it toward more powerful, while also taking on risks when it reaches a certain threshold.

The weapon grants a basic +1 bonus to attack and damage to encourage its continued use. Each time you miss it starts to deal more damage, making it stronger while you use it. When the charges overflow, something (mostly bad) happens: a 1/6 chance of dealing great damage, 1/6 chance of dealing ~5 extra damage, a 2/3 of producing a mainly neutral effect, and a 1/3 chance of dealing damage to yourself. Granted the last option could be utilized to deal damage in a radius around you, but it's not particularly synergistic on a ranged weapon wielded by someone who would want to maintain distance. After losing charges, there's a 1/4 chance of starting from scratch entirely, and a 1/2 chance of losing the charges for the rest of the fight (or more).

So that means while you might maximize the weapon's charges out of combat to enter battle with +3 damage, that places you on the brink of the deadly downsides, potentially ending the weapon's benefits for the rest of combat.

This was rather difficult to adjust because the numbers are so swingy. A smart character should be able to maximize its utility, either by remaining under the charge maximum or ensuring they can deal damage with the explosive shock by running into range at the last second.

Visually, the Corespark lumenguild is all about tinkering, using brass, cogs, wires, and blue energy for its design language. There's a slightly throughline from this weapon to the railbows of the Cosmos future, essentially removing the strings but keeping the arms, storing energy in cylindrical/disk shapes, and storing batteries in the buttstock (like the Helix Thunder). Tinker stuff is super complicated and takes forever to render, but looks good when complete. Metal was really difficult to render this time around because there were so many light sources, so this was a good exercise in the end.

The hand crank releases the charges' built-up energy; the three pairs of pylons simulate the "magnetic" "launch" rail of a future railbow, which also allows the lightning string to function like a regular crossbow string when launching objects (by striking each pylon in succession). The front lightning charges the bolts as they are launched, etc.

[Winter] Item Cards

Quick Download Links:

• PDF Card Files

• JPEG Card Files

• 8.5x11 Print & Play

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Item Cards:

• Bands of the Crystallate

• Blizzard Coat

• Candy Shiv

• Cloudburst

• Crossnow

• Frost Grenade

• Frostmaw

• Gift-Wrap of the Drake

• Glacierite Ammunition

• Hailstone Flail

• Instant Snow Fort

• Long Winter

• Scarves of Resolve

• Shiver Ring

• Snowball Auto-Launcher

• Snowflakram

• Snowgun

• Wand of Roasting

• Winter Crown

• Winter's Hearth

• Xanta Claws

Note: If an item has variant rarities, it's printed on separate cards.

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CARD KEY

Some information on cards have been simplified to save space. Here's a short key on how it works:

Card Icons. There are several icons located on the lower-right of each card front to assist in quickly identifying their type. If there's no special icon, that means it doesn't apply (e.g. nonmagical items will not have an attunement or rarity icon)

Key Properties. Certain properties have been condensed. You might see some of the following:

• "Attacks" for static bonuses to attack, damage

• "Defenses" for static bonuses to AC, etc.

• "Special" for modifications to standard objects

• "Spells" for shortened spell lists.

Key Words. Immediately after property names, you might see in italics words that simplify the property. Key words like Action; 1/dusk implies the property requires an action to activate, and can only be done once between dusks. DCs as a property references any saving throws the property forces. Others like 3 charges; regains 1d6+3 at dawn describes the charges.

---

PRINTING CARDS

The cards are all sized for standard tarot-sized cards (70mm x 120mm) with a 3mm bleed (the area around the edge that is cut off by a printer). There are two ways to print these cards:

• Professional Services. Any standard printing service will let you upload the cards' JPEG files and send them to print. Nowadays, this should be a simple process. You will have to print on both sides.

• Self-Printing. You can also print the Print & Play PDF on 8.5" x 11" or similar-sized paper. After printing, follow the instructions to fold and cut out the cards yourself.

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[Radiance] Weapon - Plasmalyte Ring

Harmless versions of these discuses are used by athletes in Ellumara's undercity. Their unpredictable flight patterns allow them to blindside unsuspecting athletes when they return to their throwers' hand.

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Plasmalyte Ring
Weapon (chakram), exotic, uncommon (requires attunement)

Exotic. You are only proficient with this weapon if you have the appropriate background or training (at GM's discretion).

Chakram. This basic ring-shaped weapon is a martial weapon used only by those familiar with their design. It has the Light, Finesse, and Thrown properties with a range of (30/120), and deals 1d6 slashing damage on a hit.

Illuminating Streak. This weapon sheds dim light in a 5-foot radius. Immediately after you hit or miss with a ranged attack with this weapon, it flies back into your hand. As it flies, it leaves behind an intangible noblelight trail that lasts until the start of your next turn and ends early if it overlaps an area of magical darkness. Each space the trail passes through is filled with dim light that suppresses the effects of difficult terrain within it for you and your allies.

Ricochet Flight. Once per turn, if you miss a creature with a ranged weapon attack using this weapon, the weapon ricochets for a second swipe. Make a new ranged attack roll. If this attack hits, the weapon deals 1d4 slashing damage, but you don't add your ability modifier to it unless it is negative.

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Rare Variant. The rare version of this weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it.

Very Rare Variant. The very rare version of this weapon grants a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

The other TRON-inspired weapon from the Phosphora lumenguild (last one, I promise). The weapon is fairly straightforward: it sheds light, and offers a situational benefit in suppressing difficult terrain to aid your allies.

The meat behind the weapon is the Ricochet Flight (all identity disks ricochet, of course). It essentially allows you to hit better, dealing less damage on a miss. Its ability accounts for maybe 60% of a typical Uncommon item's power level, but has the benefit of comboing well with certain effects that requires you to hit with the weapon, such as smite spells.

Design-wise, I did my best to distance it from the iconic TRON disk, adding a central grabbing handle and using a rotational symmetry design instead of axial symmetry. I hadn't rendered black glass for so long I forgot how to do it, and nearly rendered the black disk material as some sort of soft, dimpled rubber. Fortunately, I came to my senses.