[Necromancy] Item - Carrionette Bomb

Carefully cultivated by druids of the Aratharai conclave, these skulls carry remnants of carrionette spores, a fungus that reanimates its food to spread their kind. Sufficiently dangerous to sow chaos across the realm, the carrionette remains dutifully restrained by the druids. The spores are sometimes used as components in necromantic rituals.

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Carrionette Bomb
Wondrous item, rare

This item has no effect if you are not one of the following: a druid, a ranger, a Nature-themed character, a character proficient in Nature, or a character with a nature-related background.

As an action, you can throw this skull at a point within 60 feet of you, which bursts into a plume of spores upon shattering. Each humanoid within 10 feet of the point must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be subjected to the effects of a dominate person spell that lasts until the start of your next turn. The spores work through physical contact. A creature immune to the charmed condition is still affected as a normal creature would, but a creature automatically succeeds on the saving throw if it is immune to poison damage or the poisoned condition.

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Uncommon Variant. This uncommon version of the item only targets one humanoid within 60 feet of you rather than all targets in an area. The save DC is reduced to 13.

Very Rare Variant. This very rare version of the item produces the effects of dominate monster instead of a dominate person spell, targeting creatures instead of humanoids.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This final item is motivated by the carrionette, a fungus from the botany compendium that is necromantic but fills a unique plant-based niche. I also wanted to design more consumables because they don't occupy precious attunement slot or permanent brain space. This bomb basically reproduces a 5th-level spell scroll (a rare item); it's less powerful in that the spell lasts for a shorter time, but balanced by the fact the spell affects multiple targets instead.