Magic Item: Circlet of Grounding

I thought I’d start sharing some of the magic items that I make up, because I love doing it. And some of them have themes or lore that I build them around that doesn’t affect anything so I think it’s OK if a player reads this.

One that I particularly liked is the circlet of grounding, which came with its own introductory little encounter.

Circlet of Grounding

Fine wires of copper and zinc are woven together to form this circlet. While wearing it, you have resistance to lightning damage. When you suffer lightning damage, electric energy empowers you, arcing and sparking around the circlet. While empowered in this way, you can cast the spell shocking grasp (5th level version) as a bonus action. The energy fades after one minute or when you cast the spell.

When you use the circlet to cast the spell, use your spellcasting ability modifier to make the melee spell attack. If you do not have a spellcasting ability modifier, use your Intelligence modifier. You are considered proficient with this attack.

on D&DBeyond

I decided against requiring attunement, for now, because while it’s lightning resist, lightning is 1) not super common, and 2) often used in area-of-effect mechanics. So being a little niche and passing it around will probably be of limited utility.

The Encounter

The circlet is in an old, abandoned laboratory or workshop. The way I described it was like an old science classroom, with 6 tables arranged in a grid. The high-passive-perception monk was the first one in there, and spotted the glint of something metal on the farthest table.

There is one other thing in the room, on a nearby table: what looks like a nearly spherical ball of scrap metal, maybe 18 inches or 2 feet across.

The ball is a long-dormant Bronze Scout. It was left by whoever created this, wherever they went, in a passive defense mode, and it has just been sitting for however long. If anyone in the room makes a lot of noise (I think I set it as a DC 11 or 12 stealth check to avoid, it might have been the Scout’s passive perception at disadvantage) or touches the circlet (the quiet monk immediately picked it up and put it on their head), the scout activates.

The Bronze Scout has one big AOE blast: lightning. There’s a whole theme here.

Of course, the monk’s player is a wonderful agent of action and chaos. I didn’t expect anyone to immediately put it on. I think he thought the circlet might control the Scout. It didn’t, but it did mean he was resistant to its one big attack, so that was kind of amazing.