Cube of Force 5e
Wondrous Item, rare (requires attunement)
This cube is about an inch across. Each face has a distinct marking on it that can be pressed. The cube starts with 36 charges, and it regains 1d20 expended charges daily at dawn.
You can use an action to press one of the cube's faces, expending a number of charges based on the chosen face, as shown in the Cube of Force Faces table. Each face has a different effect. If the cube has insufficient charges remaining, nothing happens. Otherwise, a barrier of invisible force springs into existence, forming a cube 15 feet on a side. The barrier is centered on you, moves with you, and lasts for 1 minute, until you use an action to press the cube's sixth face, or the cube runs out of charges. You can change the barrier's effect by pressing a different face of the cube and expending the requisite number of charges, resetting the duration.
If your movement causes the barrier to come into contact with a solid object that can't pass through the cube, you can't move any closer to that object as long as the barrier remains.
The cube loses charges when the barrier is targeted by certain spells or comes into contact with certain spell or magic item effects, as shown in the table below.
Cube of Force Effects
| Face | Charges | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Gasses, wind, and fog can't pass through the barrier. |
| 2 | 2 | Nonliving matter can't pass through the barrier. Walls, floors, and ceilings can pass through at your discretion. |
| 3 | 3 | Living matter can't pass through the barrier. |
| 4 | 4 | Spell effects can't pass through the barrier. |
| 5 | 5 | Nothing can pass through the barrier. Walls, floors, and ceilings can pass through at your discretion. |
| 6 | 0 | The barrier deactivates. |
Spell and Item Effects on a Cube of Force
| Spell or Item | Charges Lost |
|---|---|
| Disintegrate | 1d12 |
| Horn of Blasting | 1d10 |
| Passwall | 1d6 |
| Prismatic Spray | 1d20 |
| Wall of Fire | 1d4 |
Commentary by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
What a wacky little item! The Cube of Force sure has a lot of words for a Resilient Sphere with a lot of extra steps. If you want a giant defensive cube to keep pesky enemies away, this will do the trick, so long as you’re not in particularly confined spaces.
36 charges is a ton of charges for a cube that lasts a full minute. Even if you only get 10 back daily, that’s two uses of the best mode of this per day.
At most, you’re spending five for a minute-long barrier that prevents anything through it outside of walls, floors, and ceilings.
You can opt to let this be affected by walls, floors, and ceilings, turning it into a giant cube that you can roll around inside spaces.
Most of the time, you’re looking to keep enemies and their projectiles out. That’s typically going to cost 5 points, but if you only need to stop creatures, spells, or arrows, you have cheaper modes to mitigate those.
The spells that break this seem entirely random to me, but hey, Wall of Fire gets another use I suppose! Nifty!
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