[Shadow] Item - Sporeheart Corona

The edict of the Sporeheart Macromesh is one of balance — one must give to take from the mycelium. Spore-touched sages understand this well, trading their mundane vision for an enlightened form of sight.

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Sporeheart Corona
Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)

To attune to this crown, you must wear it for the duration of the attunement period, during which the fungal colony burrows its mycelial network into your head. At the end of the attunement period, the crown permanently attaches to your skull and can't be removed. While attached the crown is attached to you, you are considered to be a Plant creature in addition to your existing creature type; effects that target Plants or affect them differently also include you.

The fungal colony also consumes your eyes, permanently blinding you. Only a wish spell or greater restoration spell cast at 9th-level can detach the crown and restore your sight.

Mycelial Symbiosis. While attuned, the crown bonds with your life force and grants you the following benefits:

• You have blindsight out to a range of 60 feet, which you can use to see. As normal, this blindsight does not reveal anything behind total cover.
• You can use an action to expend 1 unused hit die, agitating the spores on the crown. You cast the poison spray cantrip (spell save DC 17). The cantrip deals extra damage equal to one roll of the expended hit die.
• You can use a bonus action to expend 1 unused hit die, causing the crown to bolster your flesh with stiff mycelium. You gain temporary hit points equal to two rolls of the expended hit die + your Constitution modifier, which last for 10 minutes.

Ending Your Attunement. You can willingly end your attunement to the crown, though the crown remains attached to you (and you remain blind). While you are not attuned to the crown or while the crown’s properties are suppressed, the living fungi grant you a natural blindsight out to a range of 10 feet.

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Legendary Variant. The legendary version of this crown has these changes. The DC for its poison spray cantrip increases to 18, and you have resistance to poison damage while you are attuned to the crown.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This item was designed to go "all-in" with the blindness, a trait common to shadows and underground life. This is also an item to introduce the Sporeheart Macromesh, the fungal network beneath Azira's surface that keeps creatures alive without needing sunlight. It was a visual treat to design, combining aspects of a woodland crown, clicker fungal zombie growth, crown spires, and fairy rings. Unlike a crown, however, what I think sells this corona/crown is the mycelial network in the shape of eyes (consuming the eyes). I love that little detail.

Blindsight is a pretty strong trait, but surprisingly we have some way to gauge its effectiveness. For a start, the dagger of blindsight item is Rare, and grants blindsight out to 30 feet. Blindsight is strong, capable of revealing illusions and invisibility (but not hidden creatures). Blindsight out to 60 feet by itself is probably a Very Rare item based on this comparison.

With that established as a baseline, we can now look at the other properties. Permanent blindness beyond 60 feet is pretty bad, particularly for archers or spellcasters who need the range, though 60 feet is usually enough to cover a combat map. In reality, this blindness would severely limit one's ability to scout (distant enemies), navigate (no visible landmarks), read, experience color. That means this deficit should balance out the remaining properties.

Remaining properties: using hit dice as a resource is a drain on inter-battle potential healing — like regular charges if you don't spend hit dice, but equals losing health if you need them. The cantrip deals 3d12 + [d8-d12] damage at this level, which is about as much damage an average character at this level should deal anyway. Temporary hit points are not worth as much as actual healing for some minor reasons, so an extra roll of the hit die balances it out. All in all (at the very rare level), these are minor properties with a fairly minimal power output.

All in all, it doesn't seem strong enough to be Legendary, so Very Rare feels appropriate.