Homebrew Eyelander Species Details

Weapon (Greatsword), Legendary (Requires Attunement by a Creature with at Least One Functioning Eye)

Eyelander is a dry-blood-coated, battle-worn claymore with the carvings of the Seed of Beheadal concealed beneath the cloth wrapped around its handle.

Upon attunement, the spell consumes half of the wielder’s eyes and plants itself within the emptied sockets, filling the wielder with an insatiable urge to decapitate creatures. Each head claimed with Eyelander strengthens the Seed and grants the wielder further enhancements.

Weapon Attack

Eyelander. Melee Weapon Attack: your Strength weapon attack modifier to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 2d8 + your Strength modifier Slashing damage.

Eyelander has the Heavy, Reach, and Two-Handed properties.

Seed of Beheadal

The carvings beneath Eyelander’s handle contain the Seed of Beheadal, one of the most unsavory spells that a wizard with a sufficiently sick mind could inscribe upon a sword.

The first time you grasp Eyelander’s handle while you have an available attunement slot, the sword immediately attunes to you. This attunement does not require a Short Rest.

Once attuned, you cannot voluntarily end your attunement to Eyelander.

An Eye for a Sword?

When Eyelander attunes to you, half of your functioning eyes, rounded up, melt away within their sockets and are permanently destroyed.

Until your sight is restored by the Something in the Eye enhancement or another effect, you have Disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight. If Eyelander destroys your final functioning eye, you have the Blinded condition.

The original eyes no longer exist. They cannot be preserved, recovered from Eyelander, retrieved by ending your attunement, or returned to your body. You can regain the missing eyes only through an effect capable of creating or regenerating replacement body parts.

Urge of Decapitation

While you are wielding Eyelander, the Seed of Beheadal fills you with an insatiable desire to decapitate creatures you can see.

For the purposes of this item, you are wielding Eyelander whenever at least one of your hands is in direct physical contact with its spell-carved handle.

Whenever you see a creature that has at least one head and whose urge you have not previously resisted, you must make a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw.

On a successful save, you permanently suppress the Urge of Decapitation toward that particular creature.

On a failed save, that creature becomes a source of your Urge of Decapitation. While you can see at least one source of the urge, you cannot willingly release, drop, stow, or otherwise cease wielding Eyelander.

The urge toward a creature becomes dormant while that creature is outside your sight. If it later reappears within your sight, you can repeat the saving throw. On a success, you permanently suppress the urge toward that creature.

The urge also ends if the creature dies or no longer possesses a head.

Deliberately closing or averting your eyes does not count as having your vision impaired for the purpose of releasing the sword. If you have the Blinded condition or are otherwise genuinely unable to see every source of the urge, you can release Eyelander normally.

You feel no Urge of Decapitation while you are not wielding the sword. Eyelander does not allow you to detect Invisible creatures, concealed creatures, or creatures you otherwise cannot see.

A creature whose head was severed at any point in its existence does not trigger this urge, even if the head was later reattached or the creature was restored to life.

HBB Note: You are strongly advised to resist the urge to decapitate your companions until you succeed. You know, for gameplay purposes.

Collecting Heads

Eyelander rewards those who blindly obey its desire for decapitation.

When you kill a creature with an attack made using Eyelander and sever one of its heads as part of the killing blow, you collect 1 Head, provided all the following conditions are met:

The creature was alive immediately before the attack and was neither a Construct nor an Undead.

The creature possessed at least one head.

The creature’s head had never previously been severed.

You had never previously collected a Head from that creature.

You must deal the final blow that kills the creature. Decapitating a corpse or attacking a creature that was already dead grants no Head.

You can collect only 1 Head from each unique creature. A creature with multiple heads still grants only 1 Head, as long as those heads belong to the same creature.

Resurrecting a creature does not allow it to grant another Head. The Seed of Beheadal remembers the bodily history of every creature it encounters and rejects any head whose integrity had already been violated.

Your collected Heads remain until your attunement to Eyelander ends. There is no limit to the number of Heads you can collect, though individual enhancements have their own limits.

Head Enhancements

The Seed of Beheadal grows stronger with each Head you collect, granting the following enhancements.

One Step A"HEAD"

While wielding Eyelander, your walking speed increases by 1 foot for each Head you have collected, to a maximum increase of 10 feet.

Heads of Longevity

When you finish a Long Rest while attuned to Eyelander, you gain a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to the number of Heads you have collected, to a maximum of 15 Temporary Hit Points.

These Temporary Hit Points last until they are depleted or replaced, or until you finish your next Long Rest.

Something in the Eye

When you collect your fifth Head, perpetual green flames emerge from the empty eye sockets created by Eyelander.

These flames produce no heat, deal no damage, and cannot be extinguished while you remain attuned to the sword.

The flames restore the sight you possessed before Eyelander destroyed your eyes. They do not restore the eyes themselves and do not grant Darkvision, Truesight, or another special sense you did not previously possess.

You also gain a +2 bonus to Intelligence (Arcana) checks made to identify or understand an object, spell, magical phenomenon, or magical effect you can see through the flames.

Unlike Eyelander’s other Head enhancements, Something in the Eye remains active while you are not wielding the sword.

Head Powered Engine

When you collect your tenth Head, your Strength modifier increases by 1 while you are wielding Eyelander, without changing your Strength score.

In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls made with Eyelander.

Dormant Enhancements

Except for Something in the Eye, the enhancements granted by your collected Heads function only while you remain in direct physical contact with Eyelander’s handle.

When you cease touching the handle, these enhancements become inactive. Their previous values return when you touch the handle again, but doing so does not restore Temporary Hit Points that were already expended.

While Heads of Longevity is inactive, record the number of Temporary Hit Points it had remaining. Those Temporary Hit Points provide no protection until you touch the handle again.

Your number of collected Heads is not reduced when the enhancements become inactive.

Ending the Attunement

Your attunement to Eyelander ends immediately when you die.

It also ends if you and Eyelander remain on different planes of existence for more than 10 consecutive minutes.

When the attunement ends, you lose every Head you collected and every enhancement granted by the sword. The green flames in your empty eye sockets are extinguished. The eyes Eyelander destroyed no longer exist and do not return.

Eyelander Traits

Eyelander consumes half your eyes, compels you to decapitate creatures, and rewards each unique head collected with greater speed, vitality, restored sight, and strength.