[Radiance] Item - Lumenguild Staff

These staves signify a position of leadership in Ellumara's lumenguilds, each passed down from one official to the next. Over time, many have been sought by mages or black market collectors. Each staff is said to pale in comparison to those held by the lumenguilds' original founders.

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Lumenguild Staff

Staff, very rare (requires attunement by a bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard)

This staff is associated with one of Ellumara's four lumenguilds: Corespark, Dawnstar, Emberheart, or Phosphora. It can be wielded as a magic quarterstaff that grants a +1 bonus to your spell save DC while you wield it. 

Illumination. This staff sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet. While you wield it, you can use an action to extinguish the light or light it again. 

Charges. The staff has 10 charges for the following properties, and regains 1d6+4 expended charges daily at dawn. If the last charge is expended, roll a d20. On a roll of 1, it harmlessly explodes, creating a 30-foot radius sphere of colored dim light centered on it. The light fades after 10 minutes.

Flash of Lumemancy. The staff’s light flares in the presence of your magic. While wielding staff, when you force at least one creature in the staff’s bright light to make a saving throw against your spell save DC, you can expend 1 charge from the staff to shine on one of those creatures (your choice; no action required). If that creature fails its saving throw, it is also blinded until the start of your next turn. You can use this property only once per turn.

Lumenguild Spells. This staff has 10 charges. While you wield it, you can cast a spell from it by expending the necessary charges, using your spell save DC. The staff's available spells corresponds to its associated lumenguild, and targets affected by its spells shed dim light in a 10-foot radius for the spell's duration. 

• Corespark. Haste (3 charges), scorching ray (2 charges; deals lightning instead of fire damage), thunderwave (1 charge).
• Dawnstar. Beacon of hope (3 charges), daylight (2 charges), guiding bolt (1 charge).
• Emberheart. Blur (2 charges), burning hands (1 charge), slow (3 charges).
• Phosphora. Color spray (1 charge), hypnotic pattern (3 charges), mirror image (2 charges).

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Rare Variant. The rare version of this staff grants no bonus to your spell save DC and lacks the Flash of Lumemancy property.

Legendary Variant. The legendary version of this staff grants a +2 bonus to your spell save DC instead of +1, and also grants you resistance to a damage type that corresponds to the staff's associated lumenguild while you wield it: fire (Emberheart), lightning (Corespark), psychic (Phosphora), or radiant (Dawnstar).

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This is the second of the two items dedicated to Ellumara's guilds and sort of this theme's "spell" item. It's also one of few objects that make sense in the hands of someone within a city where light and light-magic is common, and also has recognizable visibility (e.g. characters will see someone holding the staff for sure).

Staves are kind of weird in 5e's balancing because they (for some reason) tend to run higher on the power. It's probably because they're usually limited to spellcasters or have a provision that allows for their destruction, though in practice it shouldn't affect most games (GMs control magic item rewards and don't use the last charge, etc).

I kept the staff in line with the pre-established staves (10 charges, possibly destroy on a roll of 1). I kept the spell bonus and spell levels low. 3rd-level spells translate to ~3 spells per day maximum. The Flash property adds a new way for characters to drain charges faster.

• The spell bonus was important for this because players need a reason to keep using the staff (and taking up the attunement slot) even after all the spells and charges have been expended.
• The Flash of Lumemancy was also important because the staff needed to speak to the flavor of light magic (not a lot of light or blinding spells in 5e).

Shedding light; I don't really consider a boon, as any character should have ways to make light (magically or nonmagically).

For Legendary variant, 3rd level spells is pretty low for the tier of play (compared to available spells by then), but the DC bonus and resistance still makes it an attractive option. Also, the staff's spells still have one option relevant to that tier of play (haste, slow/blur, mirror image, beacon of hope).