[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.