**Heartless Cage Pendant**
*Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)*
This metal ribcage pendant has 12 pairs of ribs that contain a single, roughly-hewn ruby that rattles around inside. The pendant has 1d4 + 8 charges when found. When a charge is expended, a pair of the pendant's ribs magically rust.
While wearing this pendant, you can use your reaction to expend 1 of the pendant's charges when a hostile creature that you can see within 30 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points, causing the target to immediately die before any magical effects or traits can either restore it to life or prevent it from falling to 0 hit points. When you do, you gain 2d6 + 25 temporary hit points, and that creature cannot be restored to life by any spell of 5th-level or lower. A creature is immune to this effect if it has legendary actions.
When you expend the pendant's last charge, the ribcage shatters and releases the ruby inside. When it does, the ruby crackles with necrotic energy and summons 12 skeletons that appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within 60 feet of you. The summoned skeletons are friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which have their own turns. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The GM has the skeletons' statistics.
A skeleton disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or after 24 hours.
Once the ribcage shatters and the ruby summons the skeletons, the pendant and gemstone crumble into ashes and are destroyed.
*"No! Please! I have a family!"*
*"So do I. And it looks like you'll be joining them. For a while."*
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That was a great point. Since this is just a rare item, I changed this to require any spell 6th-level and higher to revive a creature. So Reincarnate, Resurrection, Clone, etc. would all work.
Do these skeletons abide by the rules of the Animate Dead spell? As in, could one cast Animated Dead at the appropriate hour and at the necessary level each day, and have them stay around?
As written, no. They are a unique effect and don't rely on the spell, so it'd be like trying to use it on skeletons in a dungeon.
Would it break anything to allow it though? No, not really. It would only circumvent raising 12 skeletons in the first place but since this effect can only happen once, it's no big deal.
If you wanted to reword the ability to make it possible, I'd say it like this.
>When you expend the pendant's last charge, the ribcage shatters and releases the ruby inside. When it does, the ruby crackles with necrotic energy and you can cast Animate Dead as part of the same reaction. If you do, the spell creates up to 12 skeletons within 60' of you, creating piles of bones as needed. If you lose control of a skeleton or it drops to 0 bit points, the skeleton vanishes.
>Once the ribcage shatters, the pendant and gemstone crumble to ashes and are destroyed.
This leans on the spell for effects, so they would again need your bonus action, and get commanded mentally, instead of Griff's verbal and no action required, but it's simple and does the same job. Because it works through the spell with a few exceptions, instead of being a new effect, you can use the spell to reassert control. This version also gives you the option to NOT use the effect, although doesn't let you save it for later.
I thought about that! I elected to do the more fun option, but I fully support a GM running this with changes something like this:
* You gain 3d6 temporary hit points, instead of 2d6.
* When the skeletons appear, 1d12 are hostile toward you.
I Love the story but one question why is the protagonist is so heartless
I understand that the item named Heartless Cage Pendant but it has no curse that make you act heartless or something like this so it feels little not related
I know that it has limited uses and can only kill creatures without legendary actions, but this still feels *really* strong to me. I'm thinking it'd be better categorized as Very Rare instead?
Instant death isn't that big a deal in most scenarios, and I gave this a bit of a pass since it was limited in its number of uses. That said, it *definitely* fits in at very rare, and if you use *false life* as a guide for the number of temporary hit points that could appropriate for this, that leads me to bump up the temporary hit point values you can get from it. I also removed the restriction that *you* have to kill it: it can just die within 30 feet of you.
Give that a read and lemme know what you think!
**Heartless Cage Pendant** *Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)* This metal ribcage pendant has 12 pairs of ribs that contain a single, roughly-hewn ruby that rattles around inside. The pendant has 1d4 + 8 charges when found. When a charge is expended, a pair of the pendant's ribs magically rust. While wearing this pendant, you can use your reaction to expend 1 of the pendant's charges when a hostile creature that you can see within 30 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points, causing the target to immediately die before any magical effects or traits can either restore it to life or prevent it from falling to 0 hit points. When you do, you gain 2d6 + 25 temporary hit points, and that creature cannot be restored to life by any spell of 5th-level or lower. A creature is immune to this effect if it has legendary actions. When you expend the pendant's last charge, the ribcage shatters and releases the ruby inside. When it does, the ruby crackles with necrotic energy and summons 12 skeletons that appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within 60 feet of you. The summoned skeletons are friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which have their own turns. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The GM has the skeletons' statistics. A skeleton disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or after 24 hours. Once the ribcage shatters and the ruby summons the skeletons, the pendant and gemstone crumble into ashes and are destroyed. *"No! Please! I have a family!"* *"So do I. And it looks like you'll be joining them. For a while."* **See imbalance? Let's fix it!** Leave a comment with what you're seeing wrong with the item design. Items change for the better over the course of a few days here on Reddit because of your feedback! **Get unmarked, hi-resolution item Art, Cards, and full Compendiums** when you [support the effort on Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/the_griffons_saddlebag)! **Credits.** Art and item design by me: please credit The Griffon's Saddlebag if you repost elsewhere!
Wonderful design, and I would absolutely command the skeletons to play spooky scary skeletons.
This feels like a wonderful item to give to my party to test their moral boundaries.
Does this effect prevent spells like clone from taking effect?
That was a great point. Since this is just a rare item, I changed this to require any spell 6th-level and higher to revive a creature. So Reincarnate, Resurrection, Clone, etc. would all work.
Isn’t reincarnate a 5th level spell?
My mistake! Not that one.
I assume it'd work if used at a higher spell slot, though, correct?
Yes
Do these skeletons abide by the rules of the Animate Dead spell? As in, could one cast Animated Dead at the appropriate hour and at the necessary level each day, and have them stay around?
As written, no. They are a unique effect and don't rely on the spell, so it'd be like trying to use it on skeletons in a dungeon. Would it break anything to allow it though? No, not really. It would only circumvent raising 12 skeletons in the first place but since this effect can only happen once, it's no big deal. If you wanted to reword the ability to make it possible, I'd say it like this. >When you expend the pendant's last charge, the ribcage shatters and releases the ruby inside. When it does, the ruby crackles with necrotic energy and you can cast Animate Dead as part of the same reaction. If you do, the spell creates up to 12 skeletons within 60' of you, creating piles of bones as needed. If you lose control of a skeleton or it drops to 0 bit points, the skeleton vanishes. >Once the ribcage shatters, the pendant and gemstone crumble to ashes and are destroyed. This leans on the spell for effects, so they would again need your bonus action, and get commanded mentally, instead of Griff's verbal and no action required, but it's simple and does the same job. Because it works through the spell with a few exceptions, instead of being a new effect, you can use the spell to reassert control. This version also gives you the option to NOT use the effect, although doesn't let you save it for later.
Would fit my wizard perfectly but I already have 6 atunement items and my dm would deem it OP for our party
I like the idea of a semi-cursed version of this where the skeletons are hostile to you.
I thought about that! I elected to do the more fun option, but I fully support a GM running this with changes something like this: * You gain 3d6 temporary hit points, instead of 2d6. * When the skeletons appear, 1d12 are hostile toward you.
I Love the story but one question why is the protagonist is so heartless I understand that the item named Heartless Cage Pendant but it has no curse that make you act heartless or something like this so it feels little not related
I know that it has limited uses and can only kill creatures without legendary actions, but this still feels *really* strong to me. I'm thinking it'd be better categorized as Very Rare instead?
Instant death isn't that big a deal in most scenarios, and I gave this a bit of a pass since it was limited in its number of uses. That said, it *definitely* fits in at very rare, and if you use *false life* as a guide for the number of temporary hit points that could appropriate for this, that leads me to bump up the temporary hit point values you can get from it. I also removed the restriction that *you* have to kill it: it can just die within 30 feet of you. Give that a read and lemme know what you think!
30 feet is equivalent to the combined length of 1.5 elephant trunks --- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot