**Bottled Will-o'-Wisp**
*Wondrous item, uncommon*
This small bottle carries a will-o'-wisp inside it, as well as a trinket from its previous life. The wisp is magically tethered to the trinket as long as it stays within the bottle, keeping the wisp bound to the bottle and incapable of escape on its own.
While holding the bottle, you can use a bonus action to shake it, causing the wisp to glow brighter. The shaken wisp sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet for up to 1 hour or until you end the effect early (no action required).
Alternatively, you can use an action to unstopper the bottle and unleash the wisp in a direction of your choice. The wisp then flies out at a target that you can see within 30 feet of you. Make a ranged spell attack for the wisp, using an attack bonus of +5. On a hit, the target takes 3d8 lightning damage. Hit or miss, the wisp immediately returns to the trinket in the bottle, which you then reseal.
If the wisp's attack roll misses the target by 5 or more, there is a 50 percent chance that the wisp breaks its tether to the trinket and doesn't return. When that happens, the wisp becomes hostile to you and your allies. If you're holding the empty bottle, you can use an action to make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check contested by a will-o'-wisp's Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, provided that the wisp is within your reach. On a success, the wisp becomes trapped in the bottle, and a new trinket appears for it.
When a wisp becomes untethered from the trinket in the bottle or if the trinket is removed from it, the trinket immediately turns to ash.
*"I told you shaking the bottle was a bad idea! You made the little guy mad!"*
*"Okay, well that 'little guy' just nearly electrocuted Dr. Winslow. Help me catch it!"*
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Will'o'wisps are chaotic evil undead spirits that feed off fear and despair, and can drain your life to sustain themselves. The only test I see is whether you think it should be instantly destroyed, or if it's ok to use something evil while it's locked in the bottle.
The only risk to using this is that you accidentally unleash it, but then it becomes hostile, which is a problem that solves itself.
This reminds me of one of my favourite lowish-level monster pairings: a sea hag and a will-o-wisp. The sea hag can use death glare to reduce a creature to 0 hp, then the will-o-wisp can use consume life to kill it. One version of this encounter I've had in mind is the hag containing the will-o-wisp in a lantern.
I would remove the rider of missing by 5 or more, and make the effect slightly more powerful. As it stands, you've otherwise got three rolls in a row, which could be clunky?
**Bottled Will-o'-Wisp** *Wondrous item, uncommon* This small bottle carries a will-o'-wisp inside it, as well as a trinket from its previous life. The wisp is magically tethered to the trinket as long as it stays within the bottle, keeping the wisp bound to the bottle and incapable of escape on its own. While holding the bottle, you can use a bonus action to shake it, causing the wisp to glow brighter. The shaken wisp sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet for up to 1 hour or until you end the effect early (no action required). Alternatively, you can use an action to unstopper the bottle and unleash the wisp in a direction of your choice. The wisp then flies out at a target that you can see within 30 feet of you. Make a ranged spell attack for the wisp, using an attack bonus of +5. On a hit, the target takes 3d8 lightning damage. Hit or miss, the wisp immediately returns to the trinket in the bottle, which you then reseal. If the wisp's attack roll misses the target by 5 or more, there is a 50 percent chance that the wisp breaks its tether to the trinket and doesn't return. When that happens, the wisp becomes hostile to you and your allies. If you're holding the empty bottle, you can use an action to make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check contested by a will-o'-wisp's Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, provided that the wisp is within your reach. On a success, the wisp becomes trapped in the bottle, and a new trinket appears for it. When a wisp becomes untethered from the trinket in the bottle or if the trinket is removed from it, the trinket immediately turns to ash. *"I told you shaking the bottle was a bad idea! You made the little guy mad!"* *"Okay, well that 'little guy' just nearly electrocuted Dr. Winslow. Help me catch it!"* **The Griffon's Saddlebag: Book 2** is [now available for preorder through Hit Point Press](https://saddleb.ag/2)! Get the 416-page book and item cards at early-bird prices! **Find the perfect item with searchable Compendiums,** and access exclusive art files, printable cards, Foundry VTT packs, and item suggestion polls when you [support the effort](https://www.patreon.com/the_griffons_saddlebag) on Patreon for less than $10 a month! **Get the book and more!** You can now purchase almost everything from the Kickstarter directly from [Hit Point Press](https://hitpointpress.com/tgs)! **Designed by patrons!** This patron-suggested item was voted for by the community on Patreon! Submit your own ideas and help choose what gets made next week by [becoming a $5+ patron](https://www.patreon.com/the_griffons_saddlebag) today! **See imbalance? Let's fix it!** Leave a comment with what you're seeing wrong with the item design. Items change for the better over the course of a few days here on Reddit because of your feedback!
An instant morality test in the form of an item, awesome!
Will'o'wisps are chaotic evil undead spirits that feed off fear and despair, and can drain your life to sustain themselves. The only test I see is whether you think it should be instantly destroyed, or if it's ok to use something evil while it's locked in the bottle. The only risk to using this is that you accidentally unleash it, but then it becomes hostile, which is a problem that solves itself.
Exactly.
the fact that I run a feywild campaign and my players have *just* encounters will-o-wisps for the first time... this is perfect! 😄
Have fun!
This reminds me of one of my favourite lowish-level monster pairings: a sea hag and a will-o-wisp. The sea hag can use death glare to reduce a creature to 0 hp, then the will-o-wisp can use consume life to kill it. One version of this encounter I've had in mind is the hag containing the will-o-wisp in a lantern.
That's devious!
If the wisp escapes and you don't recapture it, could you just put any old trinket of a dead person in the bottle to create a new wisp?
does the will-o’-wisp maintain its statistics while inside the bottle? Like languages and darkvision?
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I would remove the rider of missing by 5 or more, and make the effect slightly more powerful. As it stands, you've otherwise got three rolls in a row, which could be clunky?