[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.