H'rethi Soul Scepter (Patreon)

Rod, legendary (requires attunement by a spellcaster)

This golden scepter has an empty basin at its end that's always hot to the touch, as if it had had been left out in the sun. While attuned to the rod, you can walk normally on difficult terrain caused by sand and can withstand temperatures as hot as 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

The rod has 20 charges for the following properties. It regains 2d6 + 8 expended charges daily at dawn. If the rod is reduced to 0 charges, roll a d20. On a 1, the rod disappears in a burst of sand.

Sandblast. While holding the rod, you can use an action to expend 1 charge and send out a cascade of pressurized sand at a target you can see within 60 feet of you. Make a ranged attack roll using the scepter with an attack bonus of +10. On a hit, the sand deals 4d6 bludgeoning damage and disappears after the attack.

Sand Summon. While holding the rod, you can use an action to expend 3 charges to cause the ground in a 30-foot radius centered on a point you can see within 60 feet of you to turn to shifting sands for up to 1 minute. You can end the effect early as a bonus action. The area becomes sandy, difficult terrain for the duration.

Sandstorm. While holding the rod, you can use an action to expend 5 charges to cause a flurry of sand to whip up and swirl around you. The sand creates a blistering maelstrom that follows you in a 15-foot radius, 30-foot-high cylinder and makes the area heavily obscured for creatures other than you. It remains so long as you concentrate (as if concentrating on a spell), to a maximum of 1 hour. Arrows, bolts, and other ordinary projectiles fly upward and automatically miss when they enter the area. Any creature that moves into the sandstorm for the first time on their turn or starts their turn there must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 4d10 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. You are immune to this bludgeoning damage. The sand disappears once the storm subsides.

If you are standing on sandy ground while concentrating on a sandstorm, you can use a bonus action to teleport to another unoccupied space you can see within 60 feet of you that is also on sandy ground.

Soul of the H'rethi. While holding the rod, you can use an action to expend 3 charges to summon a sand elemental in an unoccupied space on the ground that you can see within 30 feet of you that's covered in sand. Use the statistics for an earth elemental for this elemental, with the following changes:

• The sand elemental can only move through areas of sandy terrain.
• The sand elemental has advantage on any check it makes to grapple a creature.

The elemental remains so long as you concentrate (as if concentrating on a spell), up to a maximum of 1 hour, and disappears early if it drops to 0 hit points. It is friendly to you and your companions for the duration. Roll initiative for the elemental, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to the elemental, it defends itself from hostile creatures but otherwise takes no actions.

The H'rethi desert is home to some of the world's most unforgiving land. Miles of sun-baked sand in any direction without a drop to drink. Unseen dangers underfoot over every dune. The nomads who live there subsist on meager rations and hardy livestock. The spirit of the desert is uncaring, and it yields to no one.