Lunar Essence in D&D
Have you ever played the popular Role Playing Game (RPG) Dungeons & Dragons? If not, then I highly recommend you do! It’s a fantastic fantasy game that allows players to explore dangerous worlds and collectively tell incredible stories. You can find more information about how to get your game started on the official website here.
If by chance you HAVE played D&D and you want to have a little bit of Benlunar added into your game, I’d like to draw your attention to a certain Reddit post created by Reddit user NotKaren a few weeks ago on the 25th of May 2020. It describes what Lunar essence might look like if it was a magic item in the world of D&D. Here is the original description and picture (click here to see the post).
Art by Lauren Rowlands. Commisions and information available here.
Once every one hundred years in a specific place at a specific time, unbeknownst to all except for a few ancient sages that study the moon and sky, lunar essence will drip from the moon. This essence can only be held in a crystal vial banded together with adamantine. It emits bright light to a range of 60ft and dim light for an additional 30ft. Lunar essence is said to be imbued with the power of all the gods and when it touches things it can render them to life for a short period. This only happens for the first hour after it has fallen from the moon and gives the effect of the animate object spell.A single standard vial of Lunar Essence has fifty charges and can be used for an array of different things. The main use of Lunar Essence is for defence, especially since most of its users are old and frail wizards or sages. As a bonus action, you can say a command word, open the vial and pull out a strand of Lunar Essence and form it into a longsword. You have proficiency with attacks made with the weapon and the weapon deals an extra 2d6 radiant damage. This expends on three charges. Another common use for Lunar Essence is to obscure things, you can use an action to say a different command word and unhinge the stopper, and mist will fly forth out from it and will make the terrain foggy in every direction for a mile. This expends one charge.I could go on but I would rather leave it up to you to come up with cool ideas for ways to use Lunar Essence. This is not an original idea, the idea for Lunar Essence comes from Benlunar a podcast which has begun its second series. It is my favourite podcast and a link for it is below. The art was found on Pinterest and made by the ArtStation.Another Reddit user (Kromso) then went ahead and added their own take to Lunar Essence as a magic item, including more details and spells that it could be used for:
A truly mysterious substance, celestial in nature, no one quite knows all its possible uses. It is said once every hundred years in a specific place at a specific time, unbeknownst to all except for a few ancient sages, lunar essence will drip down from the moon.
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This adamantine crystal vial holds enough lunar essence for 50 uses, each one using 1 drop. The liquid itself sheds a bright light within 30ft and a dim light for an additional 30ft. Some of the more well-known uses are listed here:
· Pouring a drop of this liquid on a mundane item applies the animate object spell at 5th level, the duration of this spell is 1 week.
· Rubbing a drop of this liquid into the skin causes you to de-age by 1d4 years, and you are immune to magical aging effects for the next 24 hours.
· When creating a potion, adding 1 drop of lunar essence, will enhance the effect of the potion by 3 times. E.g. when creating a regular potion of healing you instead create a Superior potion of healing.
· When casting a glyph of warding spell, adding a drop of lunar essence increases the DC of the spell by +3.
· When casting mage armor, adding a drop of lunar essence increases your AC to 16 + DEX for the duration of the spell.
· By directly consuming a drop of Lunar essence, you take 3d6 radiant damage, and you restore one of your highest level of spell slot. You can only gain the benefits of this feature once per 24 hours.
· When casting any spell that deals radiant damage, you can use a drop of lunar essence to give yourself +5 to the damage of the spell per spell slot level expended.
I absolutely LOVE things like this as it shows people are engaging with Benlunar in many different ways. If you play any games or have any ideas for how other Benlunar items or creatures could appear elsewhere, please let me know and I’ll feature it on a blogpost. For now, Thank you NotKaren and Kromso and happy gaming everyone!
- Simon