Grizl' Bjorn
2017-05-31, 02:56 AM
This is one third of a pay as you like DM's guild supplement that I'm whipping up. It's not the final draft, but I hope it's close to final. I've already got some great feedback, but it's definitely not too late for more. Thanks for feedback that was posted on a previous version of this document on GITP.
Drowned Warlock (Drowning sea patron)
As a drowned warlock you are one who should have died by drowning, but instead made a desperate pact with the sea- yet it was not life you received, but only cursed unlife. The sea chooses to offer this questionable ‘gift’ to all sorts, but many of those who receive it are vain- driven to make desperate offers by the horrid thought of sea worms and fish growing fat on what once had been their beautiful faces. Drowned warlocks retain the appearance they had in life, but with a few marks left by their new masters. Their hair seems perpetually slightly damp and your skin far more pale than it once was.
Inspirations for the drowned warlock (not all based in undeath) that may help you design a character include:
-Sirens from the Odyssey and Greek myth generally
-The Celtic myths of the Keplie and the Each Uisge
-The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge -Water dwelling undead from Slavic myth
-Legends of ghost ships such as the Mary Celeste
-Countless other myths, folktales and fictions exploring themes of strange charms and compulsions, undeath, accursedness and their connection with the oceans and other deep bodies of water.
Expanded spell list
Fog cloud, create/destroy water
Silence, Gust of Wind
Water breathing, Feign death
Control water, hallucinatory terrain
Conjure elementals (water only), mislead
Level 1. Ending and beginning
You are dead and this brings many advantages and disadvantages in equal measure. You no longer require food or drink. You do not need to breathe and gain a swim speed equal to your walking speed. You still sleep or trance as you did in life.
You have disadvantage on social rolls with people who have realised you are undead unless they are inclined to be sympathetic to the undead (for example: death domain clerics, necromancers, other intelligent undead) or you have known them for some time. Fortunately your undead nature is very difficult to discern, unless you tell others, only the use of magic or checking for a pulse is likely to reveal your undead nature for a certainty- although subtle clues like your body temperature, paleness and eldritch appearance might be noticed by an alert observer.
You gain dark-vision that is only effective if you are immersed in water. You have disadvantage on all ability checks and attack rolls when in direct sunlight.
The sea has a sense of irony, and so you also begin to manifest traits that would allow you to lure others into the same watery demise you experienced- should you choose. You may throw your voice up to three hundred feet. When you do so your voice takes on a sing-song quality quality. Many might find it alluring or intriguing, although it does not produce any strictly magical or mind altering effect on the listener.
Level 6. Gaze of the ancient mariner
Once per short or long rest you may gaze directly into the eyes of a creature. That creature must make a wisdom saving throw against your spell DC or become frightened or charmed by you for one minute (your choice). If you choose charmed the effect ends if the creature takes any damage.
Level 10. Icy depths
You gain resistance to cold damage and immunity to damage caused by the pressure of being deep underwater.
Level 14. Water, water everywhere
As your powers continue to develop you realise that while your pact bought you continued existence, it did not buy you an escape from the dark waters. In a very real sense you never left the waters in which you drowned. You may call upon this connection as an action to effectively relate to your surroundings as if you were underwater. When you do so you can ‘swim’ through air as if you were underwater, perception checks to notice you based on hearing are at disadvantage because you create only muffled sound, and you have resistance to fire damage. However you may not speak intelligibly (though you can still produce verbal components of spells) and you are incapable of hearing anything but very loud and/or near sounds.
Drowned Warlock (Drowning sea patron)
As a drowned warlock you are one who should have died by drowning, but instead made a desperate pact with the sea- yet it was not life you received, but only cursed unlife. The sea chooses to offer this questionable ‘gift’ to all sorts, but many of those who receive it are vain- driven to make desperate offers by the horrid thought of sea worms and fish growing fat on what once had been their beautiful faces. Drowned warlocks retain the appearance they had in life, but with a few marks left by their new masters. Their hair seems perpetually slightly damp and your skin far more pale than it once was.
Inspirations for the drowned warlock (not all based in undeath) that may help you design a character include:
-Sirens from the Odyssey and Greek myth generally
-The Celtic myths of the Keplie and the Each Uisge
-The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge -Water dwelling undead from Slavic myth
-Legends of ghost ships such as the Mary Celeste
-Countless other myths, folktales and fictions exploring themes of strange charms and compulsions, undeath, accursedness and their connection with the oceans and other deep bodies of water.
Expanded spell list
Fog cloud, create/destroy water
Silence, Gust of Wind
Water breathing, Feign death
Control water, hallucinatory terrain
Conjure elementals (water only), mislead
Level 1. Ending and beginning
You are dead and this brings many advantages and disadvantages in equal measure. You no longer require food or drink. You do not need to breathe and gain a swim speed equal to your walking speed. You still sleep or trance as you did in life.
You have disadvantage on social rolls with people who have realised you are undead unless they are inclined to be sympathetic to the undead (for example: death domain clerics, necromancers, other intelligent undead) or you have known them for some time. Fortunately your undead nature is very difficult to discern, unless you tell others, only the use of magic or checking for a pulse is likely to reveal your undead nature for a certainty- although subtle clues like your body temperature, paleness and eldritch appearance might be noticed by an alert observer.
You gain dark-vision that is only effective if you are immersed in water. You have disadvantage on all ability checks and attack rolls when in direct sunlight.
The sea has a sense of irony, and so you also begin to manifest traits that would allow you to lure others into the same watery demise you experienced- should you choose. You may throw your voice up to three hundred feet. When you do so your voice takes on a sing-song quality quality. Many might find it alluring or intriguing, although it does not produce any strictly magical or mind altering effect on the listener.
Level 6. Gaze of the ancient mariner
Once per short or long rest you may gaze directly into the eyes of a creature. That creature must make a wisdom saving throw against your spell DC or become frightened or charmed by you for one minute (your choice). If you choose charmed the effect ends if the creature takes any damage.
Level 10. Icy depths
You gain resistance to cold damage and immunity to damage caused by the pressure of being deep underwater.
Level 14. Water, water everywhere
As your powers continue to develop you realise that while your pact bought you continued existence, it did not buy you an escape from the dark waters. In a very real sense you never left the waters in which you drowned. You may call upon this connection as an action to effectively relate to your surroundings as if you were underwater. When you do so you can ‘swim’ through air as if you were underwater, perception checks to notice you based on hearing are at disadvantage because you create only muffled sound, and you have resistance to fire damage. However you may not speak intelligibly (though you can still produce verbal components of spells) and you are incapable of hearing anything but very loud and/or near sounds.