2023 Advent Calendar Day 18: Five Golden Rings (Magic Item Monday)

Ring of the Hibernaculum

Ring, rare (requires attunement)

While attuned to this heavy golden ring emblazoned with a sleeping bear, you can bank surplus food for future use. Each day's worth of food you eat beyond your daily requirements adds one charge to the ring. You can spend a charge from the ring to forego eating for a day. On a day when you are not eating, you can not engage in strenuous activity (such as traveling or adventuring) for more than 4 hours; if you exceed this limit, you must eat a full day's nourishment or face starvation, as normal.

Additionally, you can expend one charge to cast sleep as a 5th-level spell.

If the ring has no charges remaining, you become irritable and aggressive until it is refilled.

Ring of Adaptation

Ring, uncommon (requires attunement)

This magic ring is made of light electrum and set with an uncut rock crystal. While wearing it, you treat temperatures as one category warmer for determining exposure. (supernatural cold > extreme cold > mild cold > comfortable > mild heat > extreme heat > supernatural heat)

Ring of Many Colors

Ring, very rare (requires attunement)

This dark golden ring is studded with seven brightly-colored gemstones evenly spaced around its band: a ruby, sapphire, emerald, amber, periwinkle, amethyst, and diamond, which glow brightly to indicate the number of charges remaining. The ring holds 7 charges, and regains 1d6+1 daily when the first star is visible at sundown. You can expend charges from the ring to cast the following spells: dancing lights (0 charges), color spray (1 charge), darkvision (1 charge), see invisibility (2 charges), hypnotic pattern (3 charges), crown of stars (7 charges), prismatic spray (7 charges). You can also expend all remaining charges in the ring to cast prismatic wall, but the ring has a 20% chance to be destroyed after doing so, plus 10% for each charge missing.

Ring of Snowballs

Ring, common

These little trinkets, designed for harmless winter fun at wizarding universities, achieved unexpected deadly success after the advent of firearms. When you make a ranged attack, you can choose to gain a +1 bonus to the attack roll in exchange for a -2 penalty to the damage roll. Additionally, your throwing distance is doubled, applying to the regular and maximum ranges of any weapon with the Thrown property. (Typical throwing range for other items is 20'/60'.)

Ring of First Bloom

Ring, legendary (requires attunement)

This ring is worn by the Great Chieftain of the Tribes of Spring, elected at their yearly Moot. It contains the power to banish winter and usher in the next stage in the worldly cycle. It is a wide band of rose gold, set with a ruby carved in the shape of a rose which buds, unfolds, and wilts with the seasons, and mixed with veins of jade in the shape of vines. A creature with resistance or immunity to cold damage who puts on the ring takes 6d10 piercing damage from the thorns, and 2d10 piercing damage per round until it is removed. To attune to the ring, you must brew a tea of pine needles harvested on the winter solstice, boiled in water from the last snowmelt of winter, over a fire from the last fallen leaves of the previous year, and share it in a ceremony with at least three other people. No other creature can then attune to it for at least nine months.

You are immune to cold damage while attuned to the ring. You can use an action to touch a creature and allow it to expend a hit die, regaining hit points equal to its Constitution score. You can cast banishment (DC 17) at will, targeting an elemental. A target with resistance or immunity to cold damage has disadvantage on the saving throw. You can also cast plant growth at will, and reincarnate once per day. When casting reincarnate, you can expend any number of hit dice and apply them as a bonus or penalty to the roll to determine the target's new species.

I've done some consumable potions and a pair of magic weapons, so I figured, how about a nice ring? And if it's worth doing one, it's worth doing five, for the memes. I always wondered, since rings of power come in odd-numbered sets, where the Five might've gone to - apparently Sauron is using them to spread his foul influence across the North Pole. One for the Grinch-Lord on his Grinch-throne, forged in the fires of Mount Crumpet. Is it any coincidence that Santa also has a team of nine flying creatures to do his bidding? I think not!

Magic items are fun and easy to make because there's basically no rules or balance. Item rarities are arbitrary and meaningless, and power levels are all over the map. If it were a player-facing system, it would be ripe for abuse and powergaming, but the DM gets to analyze and gatekeep whatever is appropriate for their game. That's a bunch of extra work for DMs, but it also leaves them wide open for creativity and weirdness.