[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!