Hourglass of Judgement

Emblem of the Judge in Gold

An empty crystal clear hourglass, a holy symbol of utmost Order. Through sacrifice, eventually, golden sand will fill the artifiact and grant an audience with the Judge in Gold.

+1 Holy Symbol: You have a +1 bonus to your spellcasting DC while using the Hourglass of Judgement as a focus.

Condense Chaos: Reaction. When a creature within 30ft of you takes damage in combat from a single source, you can use your reaction to prevent all the damage the creature would take. When you do this, you take the same amount of damage prevented as psychic damage. The creature still suffers any other effect tied to the damage source, such as conditions or other magical effects. Furthermore, for each 10 points of damage taken this way from a single source, the Hourglass of Judgement gains 1 charge.

Summon the Judge in Gold: Action. You can consume 50 charges by turning the Hourglass of Judgement over and let the golden sand start running. This summons The Judge in Gold. The Judge is a gynosphinx with a black, silk-like mantle, brightened by golden wings, jewellery and piercing eyes.

The Judge in Gold is an impartial arbiter of Order. When summoned she will help to reestablish the status-quo of the given situation, allying with who is trying to bring balance or stopping destruction. She naturally opposes chaotic creatures, like beasts or elementals, and favors humanoid organizations and fellowships, but context and DM’s choice are needed.

In combat the Judge in Gold can fight for a side until the order is restored in the immediate situation. She could help clear a room full of demons, but she’s not going to linger with the party until the demon invasion is stopped.
Out of combat she can help or hinder the party for up to 1 hour, after which the sands run out and the Judge vanishes, going back to her realm. At any point the Judge can determine that the balance has been restored and vanish.

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Example: Kin, a 5th level rogue, gets hit by a critical high level Ray of Frost, taking 27 cold damage. Grimm, a 5th level fighter who holds the Hourglass of Judgement, uses his Reaction to prevent the damage from Kin, taking 27 psychic damage. The Hourglass gains 2 charges and Kin’s speed is still reduced by the spell, even if she took no damage from it.

An Audience with the Judge

The Hourglass of Judgement, like Star Blessed before it, is another item that gives the players something to look for. While with the holy sword the way of progressing was not really in control of the character, the Hourglass gives them a very cool ability they get to use almost every round.

Carrying your ally’s pain for them is the ultimate tank fantasy, a very strong power that the bulkiest classes don’t really have access to. There could be a little contradiction here with the passive bonus to spellcasting: who is this Hourglass exactly for? 

Wizards and Clerics love the bonus, but they maybe don’t have the amount of hp to sustain the reactive ability. Fighters and Barbarians can easily take the extra damage, but they’ll have very little use for the bonus, not to mention speaking with a planar judge. Lawful Paladins could be a nice fit, but I’ll tell you: at my table that wasn’t the case.

When I first used the Hourglass of Judgement, the self-sacrificing cleric was called to it. After some time and evolution the magic item gravitated towards the fighter and his hundreds of hit points. Maybe it wasn’t what I initially thought, but this is an Item for the entire party, not for a single character. Even with only one utilizer, the Hourglass is used in dangerous combats as a tool to share the load. You only have one reaction, shall you use it on this critical hit or wait for the boss’s turn? That hopefully sparks interesting strategy discussion that involves the whole group, and we want that, just make sure the one who holds the artifact makes the final call.

Out of combat the promise of the Judge in Gold is also a shared, campaign-wise matter. This is an item and an npc in one, it’s a way to give players a clear way to gain this npc help and some control on when is best to leverage on that relationship. A cool planar ally is always accepted but I like to leave space for free-form problem solving by having the Judge being someone who can also provide advice or precious information to the party. Even if you do not build your own Judge, the ability of the gynosphinx to cast Legend Lore could be the key to precious clues. Rest assured: you’ll see the charges going up and mature a better sense of the Judge in Gold place in your campaign as the time comes up.

Hooks

Presenting the Judge in Gold could be key to the item, giving players a tangible sense of what they are building up to. I wouldn’t tie the Judge to some specific key information, if they need to summon her to get on with the main plot, the party is just gonna go into reckless and meta-gamey behaviour to absorb more damage.

Is also useful, but not essential, that you have a sense of the cosmic scale in which the Judge is located. I think the Sphinx is going to shine best in settings and campaigns where the party isn’t obviously on the side of Order and Law, making for some juicy roleplaying. Remember: even the most Evil Empire is more Lawful than a Forest Elves Rebellion.

Here are some ways you could drop this item in your campaign:

Variations

With 500 points of damage to take it is probable that the Judge is gonna be summoned only once, and at a high enough level. You can tweak this by reducing the number of charges or halving the damage to be absorbed to 5, that way you can have the Judge in Gold as a recurring npc and someone the party can have a relationship with.

You can obviously replace the Judge in Gold for a different entity, someone (or something) that better fits your settings’ Order/Law plane, or maybe a completely different entity, vital to the campaign.

You can also strip the damage-absorbing ability from the summoning ability, having a cool attack or spell trigger by expending charges. Have fun with it!

Here are some ideas: