Otherworldly Patron
Comments from the Knuckle: It struck me as odd that the ultimate edgelord class didn’t have a patron that hailed from the place of All Things Dark and Edgy. Borrowing some inspiration from both the Dishonored and Persona video game series, I set out to fix this. I had lots of fun making and playtesting this Otherworldly Patron, and I hope that you have just as much fun using it in your own games! 🙂
Also, a quick shout out to Steampunkette of Giant in the Playground for helping me balance this Otherworldly Patron! It was a lot of fun collaborating with her, she’s a really great and talented homebrewer, and she’s got a lot of fun ideas for the warlock class! ^_^
The Shadow
Your patron lurks in the darkness of the multiverse, snuffing out the light in mortals’ hearts. It is a Shadow that consumes all, a force hailing from the Shadowfell. Some Shadows will forge a pact with an individual because they see their own mysterious nature reflected within a mortal’s soul. Beings of this sort include Alseroth, the Vexing; Crenzj, the Absent; Faryendun, the Murderous Mist; Rydensi, the Twilit Flame; Sevaera, the Convict; and Yzerin, the Incomprehinsible; there are many other cryptic and shadowy beings that hail from the Shadowfell and beyond which can forge a pact with mortals.
Expanded Spell List
The Shadow lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.
Shadow Bonus Spells
Spell Level Spells
1st inflict wounds, sleep
2nd pass without trace, spiritual weapon
3rd blink, nondetection
4th black tentacles, greater invisibility
5th dominate person, seeming
Heart of Darkness
Starting at 1st level, you can unlock the darkness within your heart. Your body transmutes into living shadow for 1 minute. You can perform this transformation as a bonus action on your turn, and you gain the following benefits:
- You gain resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from weapons that aren’t silvered.
- Your melee attacks deal additional necrotic damage equal to your proficiency bonus.
- You can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. You take 1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside a creature or object, and you are shunted to the nearest unoccupied space. Your movement is stopped by 5 feet of wood, 1 foot or more of stone, 2 inches or more of most metals, and a thin sheet of lead.
You revert to your normal form early if your drop to 0 hit points or become incapacitated. You can end this transformation early (no action required by you).
Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Shadow Cat
Starting at 6th level, when you drop to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to shift into a spectral cat made of shadow. Your gear merges into your body and your statistics are replaced by the statistics of the cat, but you retain your alignment, personality, and mental ability scores. Your shadow cat form gains a bonus to hit points equal to your Charisma modifier. While you are in cat form you are under the effects of your Heart of Darkness ability.
If your shadow cat form is reduced to 0 hit points, you revert to your natural form and begin making death saving throws. If you regain hit points from healing magic, you revert to your normal form with that many hit points.
Once you have used this feature, you can’t use it again until you complete a long rest.
Agent of Twilight
Starting at 10th level, your ability to channel the Shadowfell has imbued you with innate defenses against the powers of its darkness. Your hit point maximum can’t be reduced by necrotic energies. You also have resistance to necrotic damage, and whenever a creature deals necrotic damage to you, that creature takes the same amount of damage that you do.
Dark Persona
Starting at 14th level, the darkness inside you has grown considerably, allowing you to harness the power of your patron with greater mastery than before. You can now use your Heart of Darkness feature an unlimited number of times.
New Invocations
These invocations are available to warlocks of The Shadow.
Shadow Walk
Prerequisite: 9th level
You can step from one shadow into another. When you are in dim light or darkness, you can use your bonus action to teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness.
Shard of Darkness
Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade feature
When you create your pact weapon as a shortsword, it manifests as a blade crafted from the shadows of the Darkforge at the heart of the Shadowfell. When you hit a creature with it, you can expend a warlock spell slot to deal an additional 2d8 necrotic damage to the target per spell level, and that creature cannot make opportunity attacks against you until the end of your next turn.
Servant of Darkness
Prerequisite: 12th level, Pact of the Chain or Pact of the Tome feature
You gain the ability to expend a warlock spell slot as an action to summon undead from the Shadowfell to your aid. Undead you summon appear in an unoccupied space within 60 feet of you. You choose one of the following options for what appears:
- One undead of challenge rating 2 or lower
- Two undead of challenge rating 1 or lower
- Four undead of challenge rating 1/2 or lower
- Eight undead of challenge rating 1/4 or lower
An undead summoned by this invocation disappears when it drops to 0 hit points, or when you lose concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell).
The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which has its own turns. They obey verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no action.
The DM has the creatures’ statistics.
Changelog:
4/24/17: Shadow Walk: bumped to 9th level
Shard of Darkness: No 1/turn limitation
4/27/17: Heart of Darkness: New restrictions on moving through creatures and objects.
Shadow Cat: You are under the effects of your Heart of Darkness ability
Servant of Darkness: Now for Pact of the Chain or Pact of the Tome
4/28/17: Shadow Cat: Clarified how death and dying works in cat form
